Korean Letter Names Flashcards: 19 Cards with Audio and Notes

Korean Letter Names Flashcards: Study the 19 Cards

Each card shows a letter name on the front and the letter it names in the Meaning column. Learn the sounds of the letters first, because the names are used mostly when you spell a word aloud. The lesson behind the deck is Korean consonant names.

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 19-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 19 cards, a first-time learner should split the deck over two days, using the default limit of 10 new cards a day.

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 the 19 consonant names, from 기역 (ㄱ) to 쌍지읒 (ㅉ). Vowels are called by their sound with a silent ㅇ, so ㅏ is 아 and ㅗ is 오, and they have no separate names to drill.

What Is Left out of This Deck?

The letters themselves and their sounds are in the Korean alphabet flashcards and the consonant decks. Syllable blocks, final consonants and whole words have their own decks, starting with the Korean syllable flashcards.

All 19 Cards in One Table

All 19 names appear below in deck order. The table is plain HTML and works without the deck.

How Do I Read the Table?

Hangul is the name of the letter. Revised Romanization (RR) is a learning aid. The Meaning column gives the letter that the name stands for. The Note column says whether the name is regular, irregular or a double name, and shows the spoken form in square brackets where the sound of the final letter changes. The last column lists the audio assetId, with a second ID for any slow clip.

Usage Notes for These Cards

Each regular consonant name follows one pattern. The letter plus 이 makes the first syllable, and 으 plus the letter makes the second syllable. So ㄴ becomes 니 and 은, giving 니은, which begins and ends with ㄴ. 미음, 비읍, 지읒, 치읓, 키읔, 티읕, 피읖 and 히읗 follow the same pattern.

Three names are irregular: 기역 (ㄱ), 디귿 (ㄷ) and 시옷 (ㅅ). They follow older conventions, and the 1527 reference book Hunmong Jahoe by Choe Sejin is the early source usually cited for them. Each still begins and ends with its letter, but the second syllable is 역, 귿 or 옷 instead of the expected 윽, 읃 or 읏. The usual explanation is that Choe Sejin wrote the names with Chinese characters, and no character was read 윽, 읃 or 읏, so he used near substitutes. Learn these three individually.

The five tense letters are named with 쌍 (ssang, "pair") plus the base letter name, so ㄲ is 쌍기역 and ㅆ is 쌍시옷.

In spoken Korean you hear the names mainly when someone spells a word aloud, for example when giving a name over the phone. The names also give free batchim practice, because every name ends with a final consonant.

Which Sounds Do Not Match the Spelling?

The final letters of the names follow batchim rules. 읍 is read eup with a final p, 키읔 (kieuk) ends in a k sound, and 지읒, 치읓, 티읕 and 히읗 all end in a t sound. So 지읒 is said [지읃], not with a separate ㅈ at the end.

Read 디귿 as digeut and not "dikeut". The final ㄷ is a plain t, and the ㄷ at the start of the name is d. 시옷 is said [시옫]: the final ㅅ is also a t-like sound.

North Korea names three letters differently: 기윽, 디읃 and 시읏. South Korean names are used in this deck.

What Mistakes Do Learners Make with Korean Letter Names?

• Mixing up 시옷 (ㅅ) and 이응 (ㅇ). Check the first syllable: 시 for ㅅ and 이 for ㅇ.
• Dropping the final ng of 이응 and saying "ee-eu". The name ends with a real ng sound.
• Saying 지읒 or 치읓 with a final j or ch. The final sound of these names is t.
• Using names when sounds are needed. Spell-by-name is for spelling aloud, not for reading words.

Use listening mode with the approved audio, because the final sounds of the names are easy to mishear.

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 19 cards is introduced over two 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 is called 한글 (Hangeul) in South Korea, and the national holiday Hangul Day on 9 October commemorates the proclamation of the alphabet in 1446. The letter names you drill here are the same ones used in South Korean classrooms and dictionaries.

Limits of This Deck

The deck teaches names, not the sounds of the letters, so it works best as a second deck after the sound decks. The attribution of the irregular names to Choe Sejin and the 1527 Hunmong Jahoe was checked by Min-ji Park; the bracketed final sounds follow the standard pronunciation rules (표준발음법). 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 Letter Names Flashcards

After this deck, continue with the Korean syllable flashcards to see letters combine into blocks. Revisit the Korean alphabet flashcards if a letter shape is hard to match to a name. Explore shapes in the interactive hangul alphabet, and see every deck in the Hangul flashcards list or the Korean flashcards hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Koreans Use Letter Names Every Day?

Not for reading. Koreans read by sound, so the names matter mainly when spelling a word aloud, such as an unusual name over the phone, or when talking about the alphabet in a classroom. Learners need the names for textbooks and dictionaries, but sounds come first.

Why Are Three Consonant Names Irregular?

The names 기역 (ㄱ), 디귿 (ㄷ) and 시옷 (ㅅ) break the 이 + 으 pattern, because their second syllables are 역, 귿 and 옷 instead of 윽, 읃 and 읏. They trace back to the 1527 book Hunmong Jahoe, and South Korean spelling rules kept them. Learn them as exceptions.

How Do I Say ㅇ?

The name of ㅇ is 이응 (ieung). At the start of a syllable the letter itself is silent, but the name has a sound: i, then eung with a final ng. Say it as two short syllables, and listen to the audio to hear the final ng at the end.

Do Vowels Have Names?

Vowels are called by their sound with a silent ㅇ in front, so ㅏ is 아, ㅗ is 오 and ㅣ is 이. They have no separate names like the consonants do. That is why this deck covers only the 19 consonants, and the vowel decks cover vowel sounds.

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.