Last Plain Consonants

Korean Alphabet 1

Course 1 · Chapter 5 · Last Plain Consonants

ㅅ ㅈ ㅎ — The Rest of the Plain Consonants

With ㅅ ㅈ ㅎ you complete the ten plain consonants: ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅎ. After this chapter you know 15 of the 24 letters, and the remaining nine are variations: stronger "aspirated" consonants and the vowels that begin with a "y" sound.

Your Next Three Letters — ㅅ ㅈ ㅎ

ㅅ
s
like the "s" in sun
Memory hook: a tooth or a little tent: the airflow squeezing between the teeth. Wikipedia lists it as one of the five consonants drawn from a speech organ (the tooth).
ㅈ
j
like the "j" in jam, but softer, made with the tongue flat against the roof of the mouth
Memory hook: ㅅ with a lid on top, a tent with a flat flag: "J" for the j-sound.
ㅎ
h
like the "h" in hat
Memory hook: the silent throat circle ㅇ wearing a hat. "H" for hat.
A Note on the Values Wikipedia's table lists ㅅ as /s/ (romanised s), ㅈ as the affricate /t͡ɕ/ (romanised j) and ㅎ as /h/ (romanised h). The page does not give any variation, so those are the values this course uses. Native speakers hear ㅅ a little differently before the vowel ㅣ (see the Not Yet Verified box), but nothing in this chapter depends on that.

The Block Grid

ㅏ aㅣ iㅗ oㅜ uㅡ eu
ㅅ s사 sa시 si소 so수 su스 seu
ㅈ j자 ja지 ji조 jo주 ju즈 jeu
ㅎ h하 ha히 hi호 ho후 hu흐 heu

You can now build 15 more blocks, making 50 in all with every consonant you have learned.

Look-Alike Warnings

  • ㅅ and ㅈ. ㅈ is ㅅ with a line across the top. 사 is "sa", 자 is "ja".
  • ㅎ and ㅇ. ㅎ is ㅇ with a hat (two short lines on top). 아 is "a" (silent ㅇ), 하 is "ha".
  • ㅈ and ㅎ both have a line across the top, but ㅈ has a tent below the line and ㅎ has a circle below it.

Read It — More Words

Fifteen letters give you a large part of the vocabulary of beginner Korean. Say each block, then the whole word.

#WordRomanisationEnglishNote
1sihour (o'clock)one block; a beginner word list gives it as "si"
2sa-jalionsee the Not Yet Verified box
3ji-domapsee the box
4ha-naonethe native Korean number; see the box
5so-risound, voicesee the box
6ho-sulakesee the box
Not Yet Verified The values for ㅅ ㅈ ㅎ (/s/, /t͡ɕ/, /h/ and romanised s, j, h) are from Wikipedia's Hangul page (the first 100,000 of 212,572 characters), through a summary. The page says nothing about how ㅅ sounds before ㅣ, nor about ㅎ being weak between vowels. My remark that ㅅ is heard a little differently before ㅣ (often like "sh") is from my own knowledge and is unchecked. A web search confirmed only that a beginner list gives 시 as "si", meaning "hour"; it did not find 사자, 지도, 하나, 소리 or 호수, so those meanings are from my own knowledge and are unchecked. The comparison words in the letter cards and the memory hooks are mine. The page also listed the final value of ㅅ and ㅈ as t (and probably ㅎ too, though the summary could not confirm the final value of ㅎ); Chapter 9 returns to that.
Sources for This Chapter Wikipedia, "Hangul"; a web search on beginner Korean words (learning sites and flashcard lists).

Try It Yourself — 연습

Say each answer out loud first, then click to check.

1. Read these blocks aloud: · · · · ·

Show answer

so · ji · hu · seu · ha · jo

2. How do you tell ㅅ from ㅈ, and ㅎ from ㅇ?

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ㅈ is ㅅ with a line across the top. ㅎ is ㅇ with a "hat" (short lines) on top.

3. Read these words: · · ·

Show answer

sa-ja (lion) · ji-do (map) · ha-na (one) · ho-su (lake)

4. Write in Hangul: so-ri · sa-ja · ha-na

Show answer

· ·

5. List the ten plain consonants from this chapter's first paragraph.

Show answer

ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅎ

6. Which of ㅅ, ㅈ and ㅎ is one of the five letters drawn from a speech organ, and which organ?

Show answer

ㅅ, which Wikipedia lists with ㄱ ㄴ ㅁ ㅇ as one of the five organ-based consonants (it depicts a tooth). The page does not say how ㅈ and ㅎ were built.

Coming Up in Chapter 6 Back to vowels: ㅓ ㅑ ㅕ, which include the first of the "y" vowels. They will give you many new blocks from the consonants you already know.