Writing Order, Spacing, and Punctuation

What You Will Learn in This Unit

You will learn how to write Hangul letters by following the direction of strokes and the order of initial consonants, vowels, and final consonants. You will also learn the principle of writing words with spaces between them and attaching particles to the preceding word. Finally, you will distinguish the uses of the period, question mark, exclamation mark, and comma, so that you can use the correct mark where a sentence ends and where words are listed.

Principle of Stroke Direction

The basic principle for writing Hangul strokes is to write from top to bottom and from left to right. Within a single letter, write the consonants and vowels placed at the top and left first, and those placed at the bottom and right later. This principle also applies when several letters are written side by side, so a line of text begins at the left end and continues to the right. After writing a letter, checking that the strokes flow from top to bottom helps the letter's shape come out evenly.

Order of Writing Initial Consonants, Vowels, and Final Consonants

A syllable is written in the order of initial consonant, vowel, and final consonant. A syllable without a final consonant is written with only the consonant and vowel, and a syllable with a final consonant has the final consonant written last. This order follows the structure of the syllable, and the final consonant is placed in the bottom position of the syllable. When a word has several syllables, write the first syllable and then write the next syllable to its right in turn. The following table shows three representative structures.

Syllable|Final Consonant Present|Writing Order

가|No|ㄱ → ㅏ

밥 (rice)|Yes|ㅂ → ㅏ → ㅂ

글 (writing)|Yes|ㄱ → ㅡ → ㄹ

Although the final consonant is written last, it becomes the final sound of the syllable when pronounced. Therefore, the order of writing and the order of pronunciation may not be the same. This difference will be reviewed later.

Principle of Spacing

Words are separated by spaces, and particles are attached to the preceding word. A particle cannot stand alone as a sentence element and is used by relying on the word before it, so it is written as one unit with that word. The following table summarizes this.

Category|How to Write|Example

Between words|Spaced|학생 가방 (student bag)

Word and particle|Attached|학교에 (at school)

Word with particle and the next word|Spaced|사과와 배 (apple and pear)

In '사과와 배 (apple and pear)', the particle '와 (and)' attaches to the preceding word '사과 (apple)', and the following word '배 (pear)' is written separately with a space. Writing a space before the particle, as in '사과 와 배', or joining words together, as in '사과와배', is incorrect in both cases.