Hangul Syllable Meu

므 is m followed by the Korean vowel ㅡ. Hangul groups an initial consonant and vowel into one block: ㅁ supplies m, and ㅡ is made with the tongue high and lips unrounded. English has no exact match for that vowel. On the standard Korean 2-set keyboard, press A then M: A enters ㅁ and M enters ㅡ, which the input method joins as 므. In the Korean dish name 오므라이스 (“omelet rice”), 므 is one syllable inside a longer word.

Hangul was created in 1443 to write Korean more directly: Chinese-character writing did not fit Korean speech well and was harder for many people to learn. The 1446 Hunminjeongeum, a guide to the new script, explains how consonants and vowels form syllable blocks; its design account links ㅁ to the mouth and ㅡ to the flat earth. A 2024 study traces older Korean verb stems written ᄆᆞ/므; ᄆᆞ contains an older vowel sign. One old form, 시므다, was reshaped into modern 심다 (“to plant”). A verb stem is the part that remains as endings change; this is word history, not a separate meaning for 므.

Why does 므 look different from 므?

므 and 므 are two Unicode forms of the same syllable. 므 is one precomposed block; 므 is a sequence of two conjoining jamo, the separate Unicode pieces used to build Hangul syllables. Software may compose the sequence into one block, and font or text handling can affect whether the pieces appear joined. The reading stays the same.