2. Stroke Orders
Korean alphabets are made up of strokes, and there are 8 types of them. Note that all of them must be
written from 1) top to bottom; 2) left to right.
The Horizontal Stroke- Written from left to right.
The Vertical Stroke- Written from top to bottom.
The Left Diagonal Stroke- Written from top to bottom.
The Right Diagonal Stroke- Written from top to bottom, and left to right.
The Upside Down ‘L’- Written from top to bottom, left to right – in a single stroke.
The Upright ‘L’- Written from top to bottom, left to right – in a single stroke.
The Short Dash- Written from left to right. It’s often written as a ‘dot’ in traditional calligraphy.
The Circle- Drawn from top to bottom, anti-clockwise (left to right)
3. For each alphabet, there is a specific order for the strokes to be written in, but contrary to what you might have heard,
you do not need to memorise them one by one. It adheres to the same rules – top to bottom, left to right – and an
additional one: outside in.
For the purpose of illustration, I’ll be using a calligraphy-style font, because it’s easier to see where one stroke ends
and where another begins with this font type.
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19. Structure of Written Syllables
Korean syllable always starts with a consonant. The second one always is a vowel. And the third one – can
be empty or consonant.
These syllables can contain only 3 or 2 character spots. No more or no less.
In that one spot can be single character (i.e. ㄱ) or double character (i.e. ㄲ).
Here is an example:
