Korean Romanization Chart: Every Letter in Latin Letters

What you'll learn (about 30 minutes, after you know the basic letters)

• Romanize any Hangul word letter by letter under Revised Romanization.
• Explain why a letter such as ㄱ has two spellings, g and k.
• Predict how sound changes appear in romanization, for example 신라 → Silla.
• Match a Revised Romanization letter to its McCune–Reischauer form.

Korean Romanization Chart (Revised Romanization)

The Korean romanization chart below lists every letter once. Revised Romanization (RR) is the official Latin spelling system published in 2000 by South Korea's Ministry of Culture and Tourism (문화관광부), and it replaced an older system based on McCune–Reischauer (MR). RR is the system used on road signs, in subway maps and in most modern books. Romanization is a learning aid. It shows an approximation of the sound, not a replacement for reading Hangul.

Consonants (19)

Vowels (21)

The audio for the examples is generated and awaits review by a Korean specialist.

Now that you have the chart, here is how to read it.

How Do You Read the Romanization Chart?

Read the chart left to right: Hangul letter, RR at the start, RR at the end, MR, example. Use the start column when the letter opens a syllable and a vowel follows. Use the end column when the letter closes a syllable as a batchim (받침), the consonant written under a block. Letters with only one value, such as ㅁ and ㄴ, are the same in both positions.

Follow these steps to romanize a word:

1. Split the word into blocks, for example 한글 into 한 and 글.
2. Split each block into letters: ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ and ㄱ + ㅡ + ㄹ.
3. Write each letter's RR value: h + a + n and g + eu + l.
4. Check the sound changes between blocks (see the sound-change section below).
5. Join and add capital letters only for names: Hangeul.

You will know it worked when your spelling matches the sound of the word as spoken, not just the spelling of the Hangul. The common slip is writing the familiar "Hangul". RR writes ㅡ as eu, so the word is Hangeul. "Hangul" is an older or informal spelling.

The next question is why some letters have two spellings.

Why Do Some Letters Have Two Spellings?

Some letters have two spellings because RR follows the sound, and these letters change sound by position. The letter ㄱ is [g] at the start of a syllable and [k] at the end. The same is true for ㄷ (d/t), ㅂ (b/p) and ㄹ (r/l). Hangul keeps one letter. Latin letters record the two sounds.

Several other letters, including ㅅ, ㅈ and ㅊ, all become [t] at the end, so they all use "t" in that position: 옷 ot, 낮 nat, 꽃 kkot. This means different Hangul letters can share one romanization at the end. That is why you cannot always recover the Hangul spelling from romanization. For the rule behind this, see the lesson on the seven final sounds.

Aspirated and tense letters keep their romanization at the start but lose it at the end: 꽃 is "kkot", not "kkoch". The detailed rules are in Korean romanization rules.

The two-spelling idea leads to the next question: what happens when sounds change between blocks?

How Are Sound Changes Romanized?

Revised Romanization writes the sound as spoken, so most sound changes appear in the spelling. The chart rule is simple: write what you hear, not what the Hangul shows. The table lists the main changes with examples.

Tensification is the one major exception. It makes a letter tense, as in [압꾸정], but RR does not write it. So 압구정 is Apgujeong, not "Apkkujeong". The same is true for 낙성대 (Nakseongdae). The rule is stated in the Revised Romanization of Korean, chapter 3, as a note to its first article.

Does Revised Romanization Follow Spelling or Sound?

Revised Romanization follows sound, with the tensification exception above. This is different from a transliteration system, which would map letter to letter. A transliteration of 신라 would be "Sinla", but the sound is [실라], so RR writes Silla. A learner who reads only the romanization is reading the sound, and a learner who reads only the Hangul is reading the spelling. Both are useful, and they are not always the same.

Two more conventions help you read official spellings:

• Hyphen: a hyphen may separate syllables when the boundary would be unclear, as in 중앙 Jung-ang, 해운대 Hae-undae.
• Capital letters: proper nouns start with a capital letter: Busan, Sejong, Seoul.

These conventions come from the same official rules. The older system, McCune–Reischauer, behaves differently, as the next section shows.

Revised Romanization vs McCune–Reischauer Column

McCune–Reischauer (MR) is the older Korean romanization system, developed by two American scholars and published in 1939, and it uses special marks. RR drops the marks and uses plain letters. The MR column in the chart helps you decode older books, maps and websites.

MR remains common in older Western scholarship and library catalogues, where the marks carry more detail. RR is better for signs, search and typing because every symbol is on a normal keyboard. For a fuller comparison, see RR vs McCune–Reischauer and the glossary page on Revised Romanization.

The comparison is clear. The next section practises it on real words.

Worked Example: 신라, 종로 and 한글

The way to romanize a word is to split it, convert each letter, and then adjust for sound. This example uses three words whose romanizations are not obvious from the letters alone.

Word 1: 신라 (Silla, an ancient kingdom).

1. Split: 신 + 라, which is ㅅ + ㅣ + ㄴ and ㄹ + ㅏ.
2. Letter by letter: s + i + n and r + a, giving "Sinra".
3. Adjust for sound: ㄴ before ㄹ becomes l, so the word is spoken [실라].
4. Write the sound: Silla.

Word 2: 종로 (Jongno, a district in Seoul).

1. Split: 종 + 로, which is ㅈ + ㅗ + ㅇ and ㄹ + ㅗ.
2. Letter by letter: j + o + ng and r + o, giving "Jongro".
3. Adjust for sound: ㄹ after ㅇ becomes n, so the word is spoken [종노].
4. Write the sound: Jongno.

Word 3: 한글 (the Korean alphabet).

1. Split: 한 + 글, which is ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ and ㄱ + ㅡ + ㄹ.
2. Letter by letter: h + a + n and g + eu + l.
3. No sound change applies.
4. Join: Hangeul.

You will know it worked when your romanization matches the spoken form, not the letter-by-letter form. Two more checks: 같이 is "gachi" (not "gatchi") and 압구정 is "Apgujeong".

You can check any word with the korean romanization converter, which converts whole words and sentences, while this page is for looking up letters.

The example shows the method. The next section applies it to place and personal names.

How Are Place Names and Personal Names Romanized?

Place names follow RR strictly, and personal names allow personal choice. The table shows well-known place names written under Revised Romanization, with the Hangul and the reason for any surprise.

Place names show why the vowel spellings eo and eu exist. Without a breve, RR needs two letters to separate ㅓ from ㅗ (o) and ㅡ from ㅜ (u). English readers often say "eo" as two sounds, but it is one vowel. For personal names, the official rules ask for the family name first, then the given name, but they allow personal spelling choices, so Lee, Park and Kim are common.

The place names are a good test of the chart. Next, avoid the traps.

Common Mistakes with the Korean Romanization Chart

Learners most often make six mistakes. Each has a fix.

Common misconception: Learners often assume that romanization is a letter-for-letter code. Actually, it is a sound-based spelling, so it loses information. Several Hangul letters, among them ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ and ㅌ, become "t" at the end of a syllable, and only a dictionary tells you which one was written.

Limitation: romanization is a learning aid, and it cannot show the full sound of Korean. It gives no information about aspiration strength, vowel length or the tight-throat tension of tense consonants. For real pronunciation, use the audio and the lessons on Hangul, and move to reading Hangul directly as soon as you can.

Personal names are another trap: people can choose their own spelling, which is why you see Lee, Park and Kim instead of the strict RR forms I, Bak and Gim. These are legal spellings and not mistakes.

Practice with the Chart

Do these exercises with the chart open, then close it and repeat.

Exercise 1: Letter by letter. Write the RR for 나무, 바다 and 오리.

Exercise 2: Start and end. Write the RR for 책, 밥 and 낮.

Exercise 3: Sound change. Write the RR for 같이, 종로 and 신라.

Exercise 4: Compare. Write the MR for 어머니 (mother) and 으뜸 (best).

Exercise 5: Decode. Which Hangul letters can the final "t" come from in "ot", "nat" and "kkot"?

Answers to the Practice

1. namu, bada, ori.
2. chaek, bap, nat.
3. gachi, Jongno, Silla.
4. 어머니 is ŏmŏni in MR (RR: eomeoni); 으뜸 is ŭttŭm in MR (RR: eutteum).
5. 옷 (ㅅ), 낮 (ㅈ) and 꽃 (ㅊ).

For more practice, use the Hangul worksheets.

What to Learn Next

After the romanization chart, learn the rules behind it and then stop relying on it. The best next step is Korean romanization rules, which covers names, hyphens and capital letters in full. The wider topic is on the Korean romanization hub, and the IPA view is on the Korean IPA chart. For all charts together, see all Hangul charts.

Scope of this page: the chart covers letter values, the main sound changes and the MR comparison. It does not cover every exception in the official rules or name romanization in detail.

The Korean romanization chart is a lookup tool: 40 letters, two positions, one official system and a column for the older one.

Frequently Asked Questions

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