Korean Alphabet Flashcards: 40 Cards with Audio and Notes

Korean Alphabet Flashcards: Study the 40 Cards

This is the whole-alphabet deck. Because the deck mixes consonants and vowels when you shuffle, you meet letters out of order, which is how they appear in real words. Learn the letters in the smaller decks first if you are new, and use this deck as the review that joins them. The lesson behind the deck is the Korean alphabet hub.

How Do I Use These Flashcards?

Use the deck above in four steps. It works with tap, click or keyboard, and nothing plays until you press an audio button.

1. Choose a mode. Start with recognition (Hangul to meaning). Switch to recall (meaning to Hangul) or listening (audio to meaning) once recognition feels easy.
2. Show the answer. Think of the answer first, then press Show answer (or Space). Turn on the romanization toggle only if you need it; the 40-card table below always shows it.
3. Grade yourself. Press Got it if you answered correctly without help, or Not yet if you hesitated or guessed.
4. Finish the session. A session holds up to 20 cards (you can set 10, 20 or 40). With 40 cards, spread the deck over four days at the default of 10 new cards a day instead of learning all 40 at once.

What Do the Three Modes Do?

Recognition shows the Hangul and asks for the meaning, which trains reading. Recall shows the meaning and asks for the Hangul, which trains remembering; you may type the answer with your Hangul keyboard or just recall it in your head. Listening plays a clip and hides the letters, which trains the ear. Listening mode only uses a card once its audio is approved, and cards without approved audio are skipped in that mode with a note.

What Do Got It and Not yet Do?

Got it moves the card up one Leitner box, so it returns later. Not yet sends the card back to box 1, so it returns in the same session or within 10 minutes. The grades are your own judgement; the deck does not score you or claim fluency.

Deck Scope: What Is and Is Not Covered

The deck covers all 40 letters, called jamo (자모): 19 consonants and 21 vowels. The 40 count includes the five tense consonants and the 11 compound vowels. Some courses call the 24 basic letters (14 consonants and 10 vowels) "the alphabet", so you may see 24 elsewhere.

What Is Left out of This Deck?

Syllable blocks, final consonants and whole words have their own decks, starting with the Korean syllable flashcards. Each consonant also has a name, such as 기역, which is drilled in the Korean letter names flashcards. Smaller group decks split the same letters for shorter sessions.

All 40 Cards in One Table

All 40 cards appear below in deck order, consonants first. The table is plain HTML, so you can read, search or print it without the deck.

How Do I Read the Table?

Hangul is the letter. Revised Romanization (RR) is a learning aid: when two forms are shown, the first is the sound before a vowel and the second is the sound at the end of a syllable. The Meaning column gives a name or sound hint, the Note column gives an example word, and the last column lists the audio assetId. A second ID marks a slow clip.

Usage Notes for These Cards

The 40 letters combine into syllable blocks with a fixed order: an initial consonant, then a vowel, then an optional final consonant. 가 is ㄱ plus ㅏ, and 감 is ㄱ plus ㅏ plus ㅁ. Recognising each letter out of order is the first skill reading needs.

Several letters belong to shape families, and seeing the family helps memory. ㄱ ㅋ ㄲ share a base shape, as do ㄷ ㅌ ㄸ, ㅈ ㅊ ㅉ, ㅂ ㅃ and ㅅ ㅆ. ㅍ belongs to the ㅂ family in the original design, but its shape is new, so learn it on its own. On the vowel side, ㅏ ㅑ ㅐ ㅒ form one family and ㅓ ㅕ ㅔ ㅖ form another.

A letter can sound different by position. ㄱ is g or k, ㅂ is b or p, ㄷ is d or t, and ㄹ is r or l. ㅇ is silent at the start of a block and ng at the end. Revised Romanization shows only the first form in some places, so use the audio.

Hangul is an alphabet, not a syllabary. Letters sit in blocks that look like Chinese characters, but every block is spelled with letters you can learn in a few days.

Which Sounds Do Not Match the Spelling?

Final consonants lose their puff and often change. ㄱ ㅋ ㄲ at the end of a syllable all sound like an unreleased k, as in 책 (chaek, book) and 부엌 (bueok, kitchen). This neutralization has its own deck.

ㅐ and ㅔ now sound the same for most Seoul speakers, and ㅚ ㅙ ㅞ are often all heard as "we". Treat these as general observations and rely on spelling.

ㅅ sounds like "sh" before ㅣ, so 시 is closer to "shee" than to "see". ㅎ is often weak between vowels, and a final ㅎ before a vowel drops out, as in 좋아요 [조아요].

What Mistakes Do Learners Make with the Korean Alphabet?

• Memorising romanization instead of shapes, and then being unable to read Hangul without it.
• Trying to learn all 40 letters at once. Spread them across four or five short sessions.
• Treating ㅋ and ㄱ as one sound, or ㅓ and ㅗ as one sound.
• Reading ㅇ as ng everywhere. At the start of a block it is silent.

A mixed 40-card set exposes these mistakes quickly, which is the reason to keep shuffle on after the first week.

How Does the Review Schedule Work?

The deck uses a simplified Leitner system with five boxes. A new card starts in box 1. Each Got it moves it up one box, and each Not yet returns it to box 1. The box sets how long the card waits before it is due again.

Each session shows due cards first, oldest due first, and then up to 10 new cards a day by default. A deck of 40 cards is introduced over four days at the default of 10 new cards a day, and the later boxes bring each card back at longer gaps. Progress is saved only in this browser, so clearing site data deletes it. Use the export button to save a small JSON file with card IDs, boxes and due dates, and import it on another device. No account is needed.

Cultural and Practical Context

Hangul was designed for ordinary people to learn quickly. The Hunminjeongeum Haerye (1446) was written to explain the system, and the alphabet is a featural design: its letter shapes reflect how sounds are made. The typical estimate on this site for recognising the letters is roughly 3 to 10 study hours, and the time varies by person.

Limits of This Deck

The deck teaches recognition of single letters and a first sound for each. It does not cover blocks, final consonants or sound-change rules. Whether the site counts 40 letters or 24 basic letters as the alphabet is a naming choice, and both counts are stated here. All Korean text is generated, and Min-ji Park reviewed and signed off the text and audio on 15 October 2026.

Next Steps after the Korean Alphabet Flashcards

After this deck, continue with the Korean letter names flashcards and then the syllable deck. If vowels feel shaky, revisit the Korean compound vowels flashcards. Print a letter sheet with the Hangul practice sheets, test yourself with the Hangul alphabet quiz, explore shapes in the interactive hangul alphabet, and see every deck in the Hangul flashcards list or the Korean flashcards hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Korean Alphabet Hard to Learn?

No. Hangul has only 40 letters, they follow regular rules, and spelling matches sound far more closely than English does. Most of the difficulty is a handful of unfamiliar sounds, such as ㅓ, ㅡ and the plain, tense and aspirated consonants. Short daily sessions with audio handle most of it.

How Long Does It Take to Learn Hangul?

The typical estimate on this site for recognising the letters is roughly 3 to 10 study hours spread over a few days. The time varies by person, and fluent reading takes longer. This deck is built for spread-out sessions of 10 new cards a day, so the 40 cards take about four days to meet.

Do I Need the Letter Names?

Not at first. Reading needs sounds, and the names such as 기역 (giyeok) matter when you spell words aloud or follow a textbook. Learn the sounds with this deck, then use the letter names deck once you can read short words.

What Order Should I Learn the Letters In?

Start with the basic consonants and basic vowels, then add the aspirated consonants, the tense consonants and the compound vowels. The smaller decks follow that order. Once the groups feel familiar, use this mixed deck so you recognise letters in any order, as they appear in words.

Is My Progress Saved If I Close the Page?

Yes, in the same browser on the same device. Card boxes and due dates are stored locally and nothing is sent to a server. Clearing site data, using a private window or switching browsers removes them, so use the export button to keep a backup file that you can import later. No account is needed.