Hangul syllable ssem

It writes a Korean syllable; the word supplies its meaning.

쎔 is a precomposed Hangul block formed from three Korean letters: ㅆ, ㅔ, and ㅁ. The block gives the sound of one syllable; the surrounding word supplies its meaning.

Hangul, the Korean writing system, was developed at King Sejong's court and completed in 1443. The explanatory text Hunminjeongeum appeared in 1446. Before Hangul, Korean writing used Chinese characters and systems that adapted them for Korean, including idu, gugyeol, and hyangchal. Hangul later appeared in religious, educational, legal, and everyday writing; it became Korea's official national writing system in 1894.

How do I type 쎔?

Enter its three Korean letters in order.

On the standard Korean two-set layout, hold Shift while pressing the ㅅ key to produce ㅆ, then enter ㅔ and ㅁ. The Korean input method joins these letters into 쎔.

Some text may instead use the equivalent sequence of conjoining jamo ᄊ ᅦ ᆷ. A font or app determines how those letters join and space; this is a different representation of the same syllable.

Why does 쎔 sound like 셈?

In 속셈, 셈 is the spelling even though it is pronounced 쎔.

The Korean Basic Dictionary lists 속셈 for “hidden intention” and “mental arithmetic,” and gives its pronunciation as [속ː쎔]. The second syllable has the tense initial sound represented by 쎔, while the written form remains 셈.

Follow the word's spelling when writing Korean. In 속셈, write 셈; 쎔 is the spelling only when that syllable itself is 쎔.