How Many Letters Are in the Korean Alphabet? 40 or 24

October 30, 2026 · KoryoTalk · 5 min read

Short answer: it depends on the norm. The North Korean count is 40 letters: 19 consonants (닿소리) and 21 vowels (모음). South Korean textbooks name 24 basic letters: 14 consonants and 10 vowels, with the rest treated as derived. Both answers describe the same alphabet — the difference is not in the letters but in the counting rule: the Northern norm counts the tense consonants ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ and the compound vowels ㅐ ㅔ ㅘ … as independent letters, the South does not.

Why the internet gives two answers

The question “how many letters are in the Korean alphabet” gets both “24” and “40”, and neither source is lying. The Korean alphabet lives under two normative traditions. In the DPRK the “조선말규범집” (Rules of the Korean language, 1987 edition) opens by listing 40 signs in one row, each with its own name and place. South Korean school tradition isolates 24 “basic” letters and treats tense and compound signs as combinations of the basics. Whether derived signs count as letters is a matter of norm, not fact — so the number depends on whose textbook is open.

The Northern count: 19 + 21 = 40

The Northern norm splits the alphabet 조선글 into two classes, each with plain and elaborated signs:

The logic of the Northern count: a different sound means a different letter. The tense ㄲ is pronounced tighter and without aspiration compared to ㄱ — not a shade but an independent sound that distinguishes words: 쌀 “husked rice” and 살 “life; skin” are written and pronounced differently. Hence 14 + 5 and 10 + 11 give the full 40.

The Southern count: 24 basic letters

The Southern tradition takes the same 14 plain consonants and 10 basic vowels and declares them the basic set of 24. The tense consonants ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ are described as doublings of the basic ㄱ ㄷ ㅂ ㅅ ㅈ, and compound vowels like ㅘ ㅟ ㅢ as fusions of the basic ㅗ+ㅐ, ㅜ+ㅔ, ㅡ+ㅣ. Doubling and fusion, in this approach, are a way of writing, not separate letters. The Southern set also has its own consonant names: 기역, 디귿, 시옷 instead of the Northern 기윽, 디읃, 시읏 — one of the fastest ways to tell which norm a text follows.

Why the exact count matters

The number 40 is not trivia but a working tool. The order of the forty letters from the first article of the “조선말규범집” is the order in which Northern dictionaries sort entries: you can find a word only if you know that ㄲ stands not next to ㄱ but at the end of the consonant row. The same order governs name lists and tables of contents. For a learner the 19 + 21 split gives a realistic plan: first the 24 signs shared with the Southern basic set, then the 16 “Northern additions” — 5 tense consonants and 11 compound vowels.

Mnemonic: 14+5 and 10+11

Remember it as: consonants are 14 + 5 (fourteen plain and five tense), vowels are 10 + 11 (ten basic and eleven compound). Check by addition: 19 consonants and 21 vowels make 40. If you meet the figure 24, that is the Southern basic set without the “derived” signs; 40 is the full Northern row of 조선글.

What to learn next

The order and names of all forty letters under the Northern norm — in the series hub “Korean Alphabet 조선글: 40 Letters by DPRK Rules”. How the letters sound — in the pronunciation breakdown; Russian-style transcription and the final-consonant rule 받침 — in “Korean Alphabet with Russian Translation”; card-style overview of every sign — in the letters review. To translate and hear a Northern word, try the KoryoTalk bot: a 2.2M-entry Korean–Russian dictionary base plus a separately collected layer of Northern correspondences.