Korean Alphabet

How to Write Hangul in Windows 10

As you learn Korean language, make Korean friends, or simply interested in Korean writing systems or hangeul (한글), have you ever been wondering how do you write hangeul on your computer? If you visit this blog because you were googling this, then I take it as a “yes”.

You may have know already that Korean writing system doesn’t use latin alphabet, but hangeul (한글). If you buy a keyboard from Korea, the keyboard tuts contain both English and Korean letters, plus an additional key beside the space bar to switch between the two writing modes.

A sample of Korean keyboard. (source)

What if all you have is a standard QWERTY keyboard and you don’t want to spend another 50 bucks to buy a new keyboard while you still have perfectly working keyboard. Fortunately, you could write hangeul on Windows 10 with the keyboard you have now! Follow these steps to enable writing in hangeul mode.

1. Enable Korean keyboard layout

Go to Settings by clicking Start then Settings. On this Settings window, go to Time & language menu.

Now choose Region & language on the sidebar and click Add a language on the right panel. Find 한국어 Korean from the list to add Korean language.

After you select Korean, you will be brought back to the Region & Language menu. Under Languages section, click 한국어 then Options. You may need to wait a while for Windows to download additional features for writing.

On Options window, check out the Keyboards section. Make sure that Microsoft IME is there. If you don’t see one, click Add a Keyboard and choose Microsoft IME.

2. Change keyboard method to “Korean (Microsoft IME)”

Now let’s try typing some Korean words! Open any text editor, Notepad or Microsoft Word for example. If Korean language has been installed, you would be able to see input menu “ENG” on the bottom right corner of the taskbar. Click it and you now can choose different options. Select [한] Korean (Microsoft IME). With this input method activated, you can switch between latin and hangeul by pressing Alt key located on the right side of your keyboard’s space bar. (On taskbar you could identify which mode is active, marked as A or 한). Now try typing hangeul! Still getting latin letters? Press Right Alt one more time.

3. Remembering Korean alphabets on keyboard

Good job! Now you are able to type in hangeul!

…perhaps not yet if you haven’t remembered the placements of each letter on the keyboard. See the table below to find out where each letter is located at.

 ~ 
`
 ! 
1
 @ 
2
 # 
3
$
4
%
5
^
6
&
7
*
8
(
9
)
0
 _ 
-
 + 
=
 
TAB
Q ㅃ
  ㅂ
W ㅉ
  ㅈ
E ㄸ
  ㄷ
R ㄲ
  ㄱ
T ㅆ
  ㅅ
Y ㅛ
   
U ㅕ
   
I ㅑ
   
O ㅒ
  ㅐ
P ㅖ
  ㅔ
 { 
[
 } 
]
|  
\ ₩
 
CAPS
A ㅁ
   
S ㄴ
   
D ㅇ
   
F ㄹ
   
G ㅎ
   
H ㅗ
   
J ㅓ
   
K ㅏ
   
L ㅣ
   
 : 
;
 " 
'
⏎    
ENTER
 
SHIFT
Z ㅋ
   
X ㅌ
   
C ㅊ
   
V ㅍ
   
B ㅠ
   
N ㅜ
   
M ㅡ
   
 < 
,
 > 
.
 ? 
/
 
SHIFT
 
CTRL
⊞  
WIN
 
ALT
    
SPACE
A/한
ALT
⊞  
WIN
≣   
MENU
 
CTRL

 

Alright, let’s try typing “안녕하세요?” (Hello.). First, open up Notepad or Microsoft Word, or you may try it on the comments section below :). Switch your keyboard mode to [한] Korean (Microsoft IME), and change the mode to hangeul (A/한).

Write the sentence 안녕하세요? by pressing these keys in order:

d k s s u d g k t p d y ?

If you type it correctly, these letters are what actually entered to the computer:

ㅇ ㅏ ㄴ ㄴ ㅕ ㅇ ㅎ ㅏ ㅅ ㅔ ㅇ ㅛ ?

Windows will automatically group the syllable while you type, so what gets written would be:

안녕하세요?

Okay, now try another sentence.

너 때문에 난 하루하루 행복해져
Because of you, day by day I am happy

(source)

To write double consonants such as ㄸ, press SHIFT+E. Try it!

s j (space) E o a n s p (space) s k s (space) g k f n g k f n (space) g o d q h r g o w u

How was that? Good luck and happy writing hangeul!