Practice · writing
Write it out by hand.
Reading a letter and being able to produce it are different skills, and the second one is what makes the first one stick. Trace it once with the guide, then write it from memory and compare. The comparison is the part that teaches. All 40 letters, consonants first.
The Hangul letters
- 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.
Prefer paper? Printable practice sheets with squared boxes and faded models. Ready for whole words? Vocabulary writing.
Why two passes
Tracing alone teaches your hand the shape but lets your eye do the work, so it feels productive and transfers badly. Writing from memory without checking teaches you to make the same mistake confidently. Doing both, in that order, with the model laid over your own strokes at the end, is what turns recognition into recall.
Hangul strokes follow two rules almost everywhere: top to bottom, and left to right. A corner is turned without lifting the pen, so ㄱ and ㄴ are one stroke each, and ㅇ is drawn anticlockwise from the top.