Hangul Syllable Geom

By itself, 검 means “sword.” The standalone Korean word is written 劍 in Hanja, Chinese characters used to write Korean.

검토 (檢討) means “review” or “examination”; its 검 is written 檢. The same Hangul block can belong to words with different Hanja and meanings.

Why is Hangul written in blocks?

Hangul groups letters into syllable blocks.

King Sejong created Hangul in 1443 and published its guide, 훈민정음, in 1446. The writing system was designed to make Korean easier to learn and write than adapting Chinese characters; each block joins a starting consonant, a vowel, and sometimes a final consonant. Hangul appeared in Buddhist texts, then Confucian and practical writing. Chinese characters dominated official records until Hangul became Korea’s official writing system in 1894.