This is where Korean gets beautiful. Every syllable is a BLOCK made of 2-3 letters stacked together. Think of it like building with Lego — consonant on top, vowel next, optional consonant at bottom.
Block structure
가 = ㄱ + ㅏga = g + a (consonant + vowel)
나 = ㄴ + ㅏna = n + a
한 = ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴhan = h + a + n (consonant + vowel + final consonant)
글 = ㄱ + ㅡ + ㄹgeul = g + eu + l
한글 = 한 + 글han-geul = han + geul (= Korean alphabet!)
Every Korean syllable follows this formula: (Consonant) + Vowel + (optional final Consonant). The silent ㅇ acts as placeholder when there's no starting consonant: 아 = ㅇ(silent) + ㅏ(a) = 'a'.
Practice reading — common words
Notice 커피 (coffee) and 치킨 (chicken) — Korean absorbed tons of English words and wrote them in Hangul. Once you can read Hangul, you'll discover you already 'know' hundreds of Korean words. 버스 (bus), 택시 (taxi), 아이스크림 (ice cream), 인터넷 (internet)...
Quick Quiz