Building Syllable Blocks

Every Korean syllable is written as one square block, never left-to-right like the Latin alphabet. A block needs at least an initial consonant and a medial vowel. If the vowel is vertical (ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅣ), the consonant goes to its LEFT (e.g. 가 = ㄱ|ㅏ). If the vowel is horizontal (ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅡ), the consonant goes ON TOP (e.g. 고 = ㄱ over ㅗ). When a syllable starts with a vowel sound, the silent placeholder ㅇ fills the initial slot (e.g. 이 = ㅇ+ㅣ).

A syllable block may add a third part: a final consonant called 받침 (batchim), written at the BOTTOM of the block. This turns a CV block into CVC, e.g. 사 (sa) + ㄴ → 산 (san). A few syllables even take a double final consonant (겹받침) like ㄺ or ㄼ, but only one of the two is actually pronounced (닭 is read [dak], not [dalg]). Final consonants are also 'unreleased': 책 ends in a held [k̚], and ㅅ/ㅈ/ㅊ/ㅌ in final position are all pronounced as [t] (꽃 → [kkot]).