The Korean alphabet, like the English alphabet, consists of consonants and vowels.

In the box at the left you see a Korean consonant in lonely splendor. This consonant has the sound of the
n in the word
name.

Man does not live by consonants alone; a language needs vowels to function. In the box at the left is the Korean vowel that sounds like
ah.

+

=
n + a = naWhen we put consonants and vowels together, we get syllables. The concept of syllables is the key to the Korean alphabet.