Hangul · consonant · 14 of 40
ㅎ 히읗
- Name
- 히읗 hieut
- Sound
- h, as in 하
- How it sounds
- An h at the start of a word. Between vowels, or after ㄴ, ㄹ, ㅁ and ㅇ, it weakens and often disappears, and next to ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ or ㅈ it turns them into their breathy partners.
- Memory hook
- ㅎ is the throat circle ㅇ with strokes added on top: the open throat plus the breath pushed through it.
- Watch for
- Sounding every ㅎ in full, when in 좋아요 (joayo) it is not said at all.
Words that use ㅎ
Romanisation help
하나
hana
one
허리
heori
waist
휴지
hyuji
tissue
How to write ㅎ
Stroke order · 3 strokes
1
2
3
- 1. A short dash down at the top centre.
- 2. Across below the dash, from left to right.
- 3. Start at the top of the circle and draw it anticlockwise.
General rules
- Top to bottom, left to right.
- Horizontal strokes are written left to right, vertical ones top to bottom.
- Many corners are turned without lifting the pen, so ㄱ and ㄴ are each a single stroke.
- ㅇ is drawn anticlockwise, starting from the top.
- Vowels follow the same order: ㅏ and ㅜ start with the long line, while ㅓ and ㅗ start with the short stroke.
- In a block, write the consonant first, then the vowel, then any final consonant.
Practise it with a tracing guide and a from-memory pass on the writing practice page.
ㅎ is taught on day 3 of the Hangul course, alongside ㅂ ㅅ ㅈ, with a memory hook, words to read and two writing passes.