Hangul syllable Kals

It is a syllable block, not a word by itself. Hangul letters, called jamo, fit into syllable blocks. Here, ㅋ is the starting consonant, ㅏ the vowel, and ㄽ the final consonant cluster. Its meaning comes from a Korean word containing that syllable.

Hangul was designed to group starting consonants, vowels, and final consonants into syllable blocks. The document introducing the script, Hunminjeongeum, dates to 1443, and its explanatory book to 1446. The script was intended to give ordinary Korean speakers a writing system they could learn more easily, since Chinese characters used in formal writing did not directly match spoken Korean. Those dates belong to Hangul’s history, not to 캀 individually.

Why does ㄽ split before a vowel?

The final cluster splits across the syllable boundary. The compound final consonant ㄽ contains ㄹ and ㅅ. When a vowel-initial grammatical ending follows, ㄹ stays at the end of this syllable and ㅅ begins the next, pronounced as a tense, tightened s sound.

At a word edge, ㄽ is pronounced with ㄹ alone, but the spelling preserves both consonants; the ㅅ becomes audible when a vowel follows.

What should I assume if someone sends me 캀 alone?

As of 2026, no standalone word meaning or fixed chat reading is established for this exact block. Treat a message containing only 캀 as a character sample or input check, and ask for the surrounding Korean before translating it.