Korean Double Consonants Stroke Order: ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ

What you'll learn (about 20 minutes)

• Write ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ and ㅉ with correct order and even halves.
• Write the 11 compound vowels from their parts.
• Place a two-letter final such as ㄺ under a vowel without crowding.

Before you start: you should already know the single consonants and vowels. See Korean vowel stroke order if you need a refresher, and use a grid of 10 mm squares.

What Are Double Letters in Hangul?

Double letters in Hangul are letters made by writing one letter twice, or by joining two letters into one shape. Korean has two kinds. Double consonants (쌍자음, ssangjaeum) are the five tense consonants ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ and ㅉ. Compound vowels are vowel letters made of two parts, such as ㅘ. Learner materials often call them 이중모음 (ijungmoeum, "double vowels"), although in Korean phonetics that term strictly means a diphthong, and ㅐ and ㅔ are said as single vowels.

A third group appears at the bottom of syllable blocks: cluster finals (겹받침, gyeop-batchim), which put two consonants in the final position, as in 닭 (chicken). A cluster final is not a new letter. It is two ordinary letters sharing the final slot.

The sounds of the tense consonants are taught in the lessons on double consonants. Here we focus only on the hand. The rules are the same as for single letters, as described in the stroke order rules, with one extra skill: sharing space.

Korean Double Consonants Stroke Order

The method is the same for all five double consonants: write the first copy of the basic letter in the left half, then the second copy in the right half, with each copy about half as wide as normal. The only thing that changes is how many strokes each copy needs.

The counts come from the single letters (ㄱ 1, ㄷ 2, ㅂ 4, ㅅ 2, ㅈ 2), doubled. This site follows the Korean school handwriting count of two strokes for ㅈ. Some print-style charts count ㅈ as three strokes, which would make ㅉ six. Follow your own book.

An easy way to remember the width: draw a vertical centre line on your grid square, put the first letter on the left of it and the second on the right. If the two halves touch the line and not each other, the spacing will look even.

How Do You Write ㄲ?

ㄲ takes two strokes, one per ㄱ. First write the left ㄱ: across to the right, then down. Then write the second ㄱ beside it in the same way. Both halves should have the same height and the same width, with a small gap between them.

Is ㄲ written as two ㄱ strokes or one? It is always two separate strokes, because each ㄱ is a corner shape drawn on its own. In many printed fonts the two halves are drawn very close together, and in handwriting some people add a little space. The shape is a pair, never a single loop.

In many fonts the left ㄱ is also drawn slightly narrower, with a shorter, straighter down stroke, so the right ㄱ has room for its full corner. A common slip is writing the first ㄱ at full width. That pushes the second half off the edge of the square, and the block ends up with a wide, unbalanced left side. Keep each half narrow and the pair will fit the width of one square.

ㄸ and ㅃ: Shared or Separate Lines?

ㄸ and ㅃ are written as two complete copies, and each copy is written in full before the next one begins. ㄸ is the top bar and corner of ㄷ, then a second ㄷ. ㅃ is the two verticals and two bars of ㅂ, then a second ㅂ.

Why mention "shared or separate"? Because in print the two halves of ㄸ and ㅃ can look as if they share a line. In many typefaces the bars of the second half align with those of the first, so the whole letter looks like one wide shape. When you write by hand, treat them as two copies so that the stroke count stays clear: 4 for ㄸ and 8 for ㅃ. Some typefaces may join the bars; that is a design choice and not a change in the order.

ㅃ has the most strokes of any Korean consonant, so it is the one that most often goes wrong. Write the two verticals of each half first, and then the bars. This is the same order as in the single ㅂ, as taught in Korean consonants stroke order.

ㅆ and ㅉ

ㅆ is two ㅅ shapes side by side. Write the left ㅅ (left diagonal, then right diagonal), then the right ㅅ. The tips of the two shapes should sit on the same top line, and the feet on the same bottom line. Four strokes in total.

ㅉ is two ㅈ shapes side by side. For each half, draw the top bar and turn straight into the left leg, then add the right leg. That is four strokes in the two-stroke convention used on this site, or six if your chart counts ㅈ as three. The letter ㅉ is the widest of the five, so keep the bars short and let the two top bars come close to each other, with a small gap between them.

The letter ㅆ also appears in the past-tense marker, as in 했어요 (I did), and as a final in 있다 (to exist). Its sound and use are taught in the letter ㅆ. For writing, the key point is that ㅆ can sit in the final slot, and when it does, it should be flat and about half the height of the first consonant.

Compound Vowels Stroke Order

Compound vowels are written part by part, in the order you would say their parts. A compound vowel needs no new strokes, only the order of the two parts: the part that sits higher or further to the left comes first.

Do double vowels have more strokes than double consonants? Not usually. Double consonants run from 2 to 8 strokes, while compound vowels run from 2 to 5. The reason is that a vowel part is a single line plus a tick, while a consonant such as ㅂ needs four strokes before it is doubled.

For a full account of the sounds and where each compound vowel is used, see the lesson on compound vowels. The one writing rule to add is this: in ㅘ, ㅝ, ㅙ and ㅞ the first part is small and sits at the lower left, under the initial consonant, and the second part gets the right-hand side. Do not draw the first part at full size, or the second part will not fit.

Writing Cluster Batchim Like 닭 and 않다

A cluster final is written as two small consonants side by side in the bottom third of the block, left one first. Korean calls the final consonant 받침 (batchim, "support"). A cluster batchim has two letters, but only one slot, so each letter is written at about half the width of a normal final.

Three common examples:

For 닭, the order is the initial ㄷ, then the vowel ㅏ, then the cluster: ㄹ (three strokes) and then ㄱ (one stroke). Both sit under ㅏ, with the ㄹ on the left and the ㄱ on the right. Write ㄹ small and flat so the pair is no taller than a normal final.

Only one of the two final letters is usually pronounced, which is why 닭 sounds like [닥]. You still write both. Placement of clusters in blocks is covered in cluster batchim in blocks.

Worked Example: Writing 빵 and 있다

Writing 빵 (ppang, bread) takes 11 strokes and writing 있다 (itda, to exist) takes 10. Both use a double consonant, and 있다 also uses ㅆ as a final.

빵, step by step:

1. Strokes 1 to 4: the left ㅂ of ㅃ (two verticals, then the middle bar and the bottom bar), in the left half of the upper space.
2. Strokes 5 to 8: the right ㅂ of ㅃ, in the same way.
3. Strokes 9 and 10: the long line and the tick of ㅏ, on the right side.
4. Stroke 11: the final ㅇ, a small circle under both, started at the top and turned counter-clockwise.

있다, step by step:

1. Stroke 1: the circle ㅇ at the top left of the first block.
2. Stroke 2: the vertical line of ㅣ at the right.
3. Strokes 3 to 6: the final ㅆ, two ㅅ shapes side by side, under both.
4. Strokes 7 and 8: ㄷ (top bar, then the corner) of the second block.
5. Strokes 9 and 10: ㅏ (the long line, then the tick).

Check the result. In 빵 the two halves of ㅃ together should take up no more width than a single consonant would. In 있다 the final ㅆ should be flat, not taller than the circle. The word 있다 is pronounced [읻따] under the standard pronunciation rules of the 국립국어원 (National Institute of Korean Language), so the spelling and the sound differ.

Where Do Double Letters Appear in Real Words?

Double letters appear at the start of many everyday words, so writing them well pays off quickly. Each example below starts with a tense consonant, and each is worth copying once as a whole block.

Count carefully when you copy them: the last column is for the first block only, and a final consonant adds its own strokes, as the final ㄹ does in 딸.

Why Do Double Letters Look Uneven?

Double letters look uneven because each half is being written at the wrong width. Three mistakes cover most cases.

An expert tip: write double letters at the size you would write a normal consonant, then narrow each half. Hand muscles remember "narrow" better than "half of a big letter".

Common misconception: many learners believe ㄸ, ㅃ and ㅉ can also appear at the end of a word, because ㄲ and ㅆ can. They cannot. Standard Korean spelling allows ㄲ and ㅆ as finals, as in 밖 (outside) and 있다, but the finals ㄸ, ㅃ and ㅉ do not occur.

Limit of this page: the stroke counts and orders shown follow the usual school convention. Some books split or join strokes differently, and print fonts may join the bars of ㄸ and ㅃ. The aim of this page is a consistent order, not one correct count for every book.

Practice Rows

Copy each row twice on a grid, then say the stroke count aloud. Cover the tables while you write.

Row 1. Double consonants. ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ.

Row 2. Compound vowels. ㅐ ㅔ ㅒ ㅖ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅢ.

Row 3. Blocks. 까 따 빠 싸 짜. Then 밖, 빵, 있다, 닭.

Quiz. How many strokes?

1. ㅃ
2. ㅆ
3. ㅙ
4. ㄲ
5. ㅉ

Answers to the Practice

1. ㅃ: 8 strokes.
2. ㅆ: 4 strokes.
3. ㅙ: 5 strokes.
4. ㄲ: 2 strokes.
5. ㅉ: 4 strokes in the two-stroke convention (6 if ㅈ is counted as three).

For more rows to print, use the double-letter worksheets and trace each row ten times.

What to Learn Next

After the double letters, learn how to put every letter into a neat block. Continue with writing whole syllable blocks, which shows the proportions for each layout, including blocks with a final consonant.

The rule to keep: in Korean double consonants stroke order, write the basic letter twice, left one first, and keep each half half as wide.

Frequently Asked Questions