Hangul jamo are the individual consonant and vowel letters of the Korean alphabet that combine into syllable blocks. Modern Hangul has 24 basic jamo, and every Korean word is written by grouping them into blocks such as 한.
What Are Hangul Jamo?
Hangul jamo are the smallest written units of Korean: each one stands for one consonant or one vowel sound. They are letters, in the same sense as A, B and C in English. The word 자모 is written 字母 in Hanja, literally "letter-mother". Its two syllables happen to match the first syllables of 자음 (jaeum, consonant) and 모음 (moeum, vowel), which makes a handy memory aid, but 자모 is not a shortening of them: 자음 is written 子音, with a different 자. The two halves of the word are defined under jaeum and moeum.
Learn the Korean consonants and Korean vowels one by one, then combine them.
How Jamo Combine into Syllable Blocks
Jamo combine by sitting together in a fixed square, and one square is one syllable. A block always has an initial consonant and a vowel, and it may have a final consonant. For example, the block 한 splits into three jamo: ㅎ (h) on the top left, ㅏ (a) on the right, and ㄴ (n) at the bottom. Read in order, they give "han".
A cluster jamo shows the same idea with a final that is two letters. The block 닭 (dak, "chicken") splits into ㄷ, ㅏ and the cluster ㄺ, which is two consonants written together at the bottom. A group of jamo written together is a syllable block.
How Many Jamo Are There?
There are 24 basic jamo, and the total depends on what you count. The table shows three conventions.
| Count | What it includes | Example additions |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | 14 basic consonants + 10 basic vowels | ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ, ㅏ ㅓ ㅗ |
| 40 | the 24 plus 5 double consonants and 11 compound vowels | ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ, ㅐ ㅔ ㅘ |
| 51 | the 40 plus 11 two-letter final clusters | ㄳ ㄵ ㄺ ㅄ |
Korean school books usually use 24 and 40. The 51 figure is one counting convention used in computing, not an official number. For the full count debate, see how many letters Hangul has.
Why Do Jamo Matter for Learners?
Jamo matter because they are the unit you memorise, while blocks are the unit you read. Learning 24 letters lets you read thousands of blocks, whereas memorising blocks one by one would take far longer. On a Korean keyboard each key types one jamo, so a phone shows ㅎ, then ㅏ, then ㄴ before the finished 한 appears.
Jamo vs Syllable Blocks
A jamo is a letter, and a syllable block is a group of letters. The two are often confused because Hangul letters are written in squares.
| Feature | Jamo | Syllable block |
|---|---|---|
| Unit | one letter | one syllable |
| Count | 24 basic, 40 total | 11,172 precomposed in Unicode |
| Example | ㅎ, ㅏ, ㄴ | 한 |
| What you learn | the letter shapes and sounds | how to place and read letters |
Examples of Jamo in Real Words
- 한글 : two blocks, 한 = ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ and 글 = ㄱ + ㅡ + ㄹ. Six jamo in all.
- 사랑 ("love"): 사 = ㅅ + ㅏ, and 랑 = ㄹ + ㅏ + ㅇ. The final ㅇ sounds "ng".
- 닭 ("chicken"): one block of ㄷ + ㅏ + ㄺ, with a two-letter final.
What Do Learners Get Wrong about Jamo?
- Jamo are not syllables. A jamo is one letter. 한 is one syllable with three jamo.
- Double letters are not two letters. ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ and ㅉ are single jamo, each with one sound.
- ㅇ is not always silent. At the start of a block it is silent, as in 아, but at the end it sounds "ng", as in 랑.
Jamo are also different from Hanja. Hanja are Chinese characters, each of which stands for a word or syllable of meaning. Jamo only stand for sounds. Some old letters are also gone: the 1446 text had 28 jamo, and four (ㆍ ㅿ ㆆ ㆁ) are no longer used.
Related Hangul Terms
For related definitions, browse the Hangul terms glossary. When you want the skill rather than the definition, learn how jamo build syllable blocks. Computers store jamo separately from blocks, as Hangul in Unicode explains. In short, Hangul jamo are the 24 letters from which the whole Korean writing system is assembled.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ㄲ one jamo or two? ㄲ is one jamo. It is drawn with two ㄱ shapes, but it stands for a single tense consonant sound. Korean schools call it a double consonant (쌍자음), and it is counted among the five double consonants that raise the total from 24 to 40 letters. The same applies to ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ and ㅉ.
Do Koreans use the word jamo? Yes. 자모 appears in school grammar books, dictionaries and computer terms, for example when a keyboard types one letter at a time. In everyday conversation people usually say 자음 (consonant) and 모음 (vowel), or simply 글자 (letter or character), and use 자모 when they need the technical term.
Can a jamo stand alone as a word? Rarely. A jamo is a letter, not a word, and a proper block needs at least a consonant and a vowel. In casual text messages, however, people type single jamo as sound effects, such as ㅋㅋ for laughter and ㅎㅎ for a soft chuckle. These are informal and do not appear in standard writing.
What are conjoining jamo? Conjoining jamo are the Unicode characters, in the range U+1100 to U+11FF, that are designed to join into a block. They come in initial, vowel and final forms. Compatibility jamo, such as the standalone ㄱ at U+3131, are the ordinary separate letters used in dictionaries and on keyboards.
