Korean keyboard layout
If you have been wondering how to input Hangul into your computer, phone or tablet here is a simple guide for typing Korean letters. First we will give you all the steps you need to properly set up your device to type Korean alphabet and then explain how to type Hangul. The good news is, you don’t really need to buy Hangul keyboard, every suggestion here is a free Korean keyboard.
Check out others in series of articles about typing Korean:
- Windows 10: How to change keyboard language to Korean
- Korean alphabet keyboard stickers
- Touch typing Korean with all ten fingers
- MoAKey the Android touchscreen Korean keyboard
As you already know Hangul is Korean alphabet, but instead of being written sequentially (in a horizontal line one after the other) like Latin letters, Hangul letters are grouped into blocks. How these blocks are formed can be confusing for the person attempting to type in Korean it for the first time. Don’t worry, it is all automatic and easier than you think.
Contents:
- Windows
- How to enable Korean keyboard in Windows
- Typing
- Android
- How to enable Korean keyboard on Android device
- Typing
- iPhone
- How to enable Korean keyboard on iPhone
- Typing
- Virtual Keyboards for typing Korean
- Type Korean using Romanization
1. Windows
How to enable Korean keyboard in Windows
Find the icon on the right side of your taskbar that shows which language you have enabled at the moment. Right click it and choose Settings.
(If you are unable to find it, go to Control Panel -> Region and Language, on the Keyboards and Languages tab, click Change keyboards.)
Click the Add… button on the right side.
Scroll down to find Korean and check the box for Microsoft IME. Click OK.
Now Korean keyboard has been added to your list.
Click OK again.
You can toggle between multiple keyboards by pressing Alt+Shift at the same time. You will see the two letters change to indicate which keyboard is active at the moment. If you press AltGr (right Alt) you will toggle between using Latin alphabet marked by A
or Hangul marked by 가.
You are ready to type Hangul and impress everyone with your knowledge of Korean!
Typing Hangul using computer keyboard
Let’s say you want to type 사랑해요. Assuming you have keyboard with Latin alphabet you are going to press T -> K -> F
and on your screen 살 will show up. You might think: “But I wantㄹ in the second syllable, not first!”. No worries. As soon as you press K
this is going to happen 사라. The “ㄹ” is automatically moved to the next syllable. Computer knows that the combination 살ㅏ is impossible in Korean language so it knows to move the “ㄹ” into the next syllable. Neat, right?
Now just continue D -> G -> O -> D -> Y
And you have 사랑해요!
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To get double consonants like ㅉ press SHIFT+ㅈ.
Here is a Korean keyboard layout, click on it to see it full size.
you can save this picture on your computer and use it, or buy cute Korean alphabet keyboard stickers like the ones I got from Korea, and put them on your keyboard so you know where each letter is.
2. Android
How to enable Korean keyboard on Android device
Visit Android Market on your device. Search for “Korean keyboard”. I use Korean Hangul Keyboard (Beta) but you can choose any you like. Note that all the keyboards I came across are not apps but have to be enabled through Settings.
Click Settings, then choose Language & input, then Configure input methods. Select keyboards you installed.
Typing Korean on Android tablet or Android phone
Different keyboards have different input methods but you can find explanations how to use them in the app description. There are usually two main types, those that come with full keyboard like this one:
Full keyboard for Android.
After pressing shift letters like ㅉ,ㄸ,ㄲ,… become available.
which is convenient for bigger devices like tablets, and those that are more compact like this one:
You can find this keyboard by searching ‘Moakey’ on Android Market.
and thus convenient for phones. This particular Android touchscreen keyboard is called Moakey. It has a neat trick to use them. You might notice the vowels are missing on this one. You simply choose the consonant you wish to start the syllable with, and then swipe your finger in different directions to get different consonants. Here is a schematic for getting syllables that start with consonant ㅇ. You put your finger on the key you want and then without lifting your finger move it in the direction of the arrows to get the desired syllable. Click on the link above to see the video tutorial and further instructions.
3. iPhone
How to enable Korean keyboard on iPhone
Choose Settings, then General
Click Keyboard.
Click International Keyboards.
Click Add New Keyboard, and then choose Korean. This is what you keyboard will look like:
Typing Korean on iPhone
All letters are available on this keyboard, press SHIFT (arrow up) for double consonants and globe icon for switching between keyboards. Other than that the typing is the same as if you were using a physical computer keyboard. See the above.
4. Virtual Korean keyboards
Korean virtual keyboard is any online keyboards which you can use with only the help of your web browser. They are convenient if you don’t want to go trough trouble of setting up the keyboard on your device, or you need the keyboard rarely. You simply click with your mouse on the letters you need, one by one. Here are links to some of them:
5. Type Korean using Romanization
If you want to input Korean by only typing Romanization, for example by typing h a n g eu l to get 한글 you can use this website
Check the radio button that says “Revised Romanization” and type away. When you’re finished, copy paste the Hangul text and you’re done.
Even though this way you don’t need to memorize Korean keyboard layout, we still strongly suggest you take your time to do so. It is faster, more proper, and you can type directly without bothering to copy-paste. However, typing Korean using Romanization can be faster in the beginning and can also help you to learn how to properly romanize Korean language.
We hope this will be helpful to you. In case you prefer traditional methods rather than all this technological stuff, check out introduction to Korean calligraphy. If you have any questions or if you would like to recommend a Korean Hangul keyboard that you like to use, feel free write in the comments bellow.
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| How to learn Hangul | How to learn Korean | Free Korean apps for texting and calling |
Loving Korean | Boyfriend in Korea 
i enabled it, but where exactly will the characters show up…..because i am typing this email in the KO setting, and as u can see it’s in english! LoL
At the end of “How to enable Korean keyboard in Windows” paragraph you can see two little screenshots, one says KO and next to it A, the other KO and next to it 가. Like the post says, if you press AltGr (right Alt) you will toggle between using Latin alphabet marked by A, or Hangul marked by 가. Does that help? If not, I will gladly look further into it.
i toggled it…but it didnt work…my laptop sucks! lol
Are you using Windows?
Is it that even though you’re trying to toggle it the sign doesn’t change between A and 가,
or the sign changes to 가 but still the English letters come out?
I struggled a lot when trying to figure out how to use Korean keyboard in Windows. The trick for me to realize was that I need to have the Microsoft IME not just the Korean keyboard. It is using the IME with the Korean keyboard that made the language bar show up with the Hangul/English toggle A/가 and I made sure it was set to display the soft keyboard so I could use my mouse to select the Hangul letters I wanted.
I am still working on learning the Korean letters so I can type on my keyboard. I know, I know, it will make life easier when I finally sit myself down to learn this. Baby steps. At least I can now type Hangul.
You are totally right. For me, IME is always added by defeault, unless I uncheck it.
Baby steps are all it takes to reach the finish line :)
Q=ㅂ shift Q=ㅃ
W=ㅈ shift W=ㅉ
eE= ㄷ ㄸ
Q W E R T Y U I. O P
ㅂㅈㄱ쇼ㅕㅑ ㅕㅑㅐㅔ
A. S. D. F. G. H J. K L
ㅁ ㄴ ㅇㄹ. 호 ㅗ ㅓㅏㅣ
Z. X. C. V. B. N. M
ㅋ ㅌ ㅊ ㅍ ㅠ ㅜ ㅡ
ㅘ = HK
ㅙ = HO
ㅚ = HL
ㅝ = NJ
ㅞ = NL
ㅢ = ML
Double consonants by pressing shift+QWERT and ㅒ&ㅖ vowels pressing shift + O & P.
Q=ㅂ shift Q=ㅃ
W=ㅈ shift W=ㅉ
eE= ㄷ ㄸ
Q W E R T Y U I. O P
ㅂㅈㄱ쇼ㅕㅑ ㅕㅑㅐㅔ
A. S. D. F. G. H J. K L
ㅁ ㄴ ㅇㄹ. 호 ㅗ ㅓㅏㅣ
Z. X. C. V. B. N. M
ㅋ ㅌ ㅊ ㅍ ㅠ ㅜ ㅡ
ㅘ = HK
ㅙ = HO
ㅚ = HL
ㅝ = NJ
ㅞ = NL
ㅢ = ML
Double consonants by pressing shift+QWERT and ㅒ&ㅖ vowels pressing shift + O & P. Dictionary order:
ㄱ,ㄲ,ㄴ,ㄷ,ㄸ,ㄹ,ㅁ,ㅂ,ㅃ,ㅅ,ㅆ,ㅇ,ㅈ,ㅉ,ㅊ,ㅋ,ㅌ,ㅍ,ㅎ.
for;
rRseEfaqQtTdwWczxvg
And vowels start at consonant (ㅇ):
dk, do, di, dO, dj, dp, du, dP, dh, dhk, dho, dhL, dy, dnj, dnp, dnL, db, dm, dml, dK.
On windows 10 ime layout.
Look for an ‘A’ at the bottom right above the task bar. It may show ‘ENG’ instead. Either…click it. It should turn into ‘가’. Your keyboard should be switched to hangul then. Hit ‘ALT’+SHIFT, or ‘Windows-key’+SpaceBar to toggle selection of language keyboard.
Thank you for being such a pleasant reader :)
wow! thanks for the post! and by the way~ where did you get the keyboard stickers that are so cute! i tried looking from artbox which doesn’t have. and g market has only the square ones that are quite ugly~ ㅠㅠㅠ
I got them by searching “한글 스티카” on GMarket :)
I bought mㅛ Hangul stickers for the keyboard from Amazon. It seems a shockingly large amount to pay for a tiny sheet of stickers. I am putting them on one letter a week, so Hangul can sneak into my life without my brain noticing. 하하 6 of my letters covered with Hangul so far.
Kyoto Bookstore in Koreatown, NYC has the cute Hangul stickers. Wish I had bought them! Next trip to NYC, I will for sure.
I used to cheat a bit by buying Hangul stickers meant for diaries and scrapbooking instead of keyboards. But I’m much more satisfied now that I got the proper Korean keyboard stickers (although they are markedly less cute)
소무ㅏ ㅛㅐㅕ.. ㅗㅁ퍄ㅜㅎ 내 ㅡㅕ초 려ㅜ ㅕ냐ㅜㅎ ㅑㅅ.. ㅣㅐㅍㄷ ㅑㅅ!
남구보다
Deciphered: “thank you..having so much fun using it.. love it!”
You’re welcome. Thank you for commenting ;)
oh thank you so much!!
사랑해요 yey i did it! but how can i say hello or hi in korean?
안녕하세요
d + k + s + s + u + d + g + k + t + p + d + y
Thank you for your information\
But I have some problem with it. Even though I had toggle it, it never changes to to 가 . Only change KO (A) –> EN –> KO (A) over and over again. Could you help me?
And yeah, btw, I’m Cytta from Indonesia :)
Hello cytta from Indonesia :)
Which keys are you pressing to toggle?
I found A would only toggle to 가 if I selected the system tray by clicking on it, then pushing alt. Which defeats the purpose so now I just click on it.
I got a problem. You explained that the computer knows the impossible combinations but it doesn’t work for me. All I get is (following your example) 살ㅏㅇ해. How I can set up my laptop to recognize the right combinations so I don’t have to worry I write completely wrong.
but even human doesn’t know 살ㅏㅇ해. Computer can only fix something like not write 사 ㄹ cause that’s impossible but write 살. maybe you mean auto-correct like Microsoft Word has?
hi!!
i didn’t find korean in my computer (é_é) so what can i do now? can you help me?
and thank you so much
Which OS do you have?
thaankyou~ 너무 고마워요~ i wrote it in korean by my computer~~~!!!!
It’s so cool once you can do that, isn’t it! I was so happy :)
감사함니다! this was really helpful. i thought i had to download something to get my laptop to type Hangul. :)
Nope, Microsoft took care of everything :)
thanks . this really works on my laptop. been wanting dis 4 eva. 감사함니다!
I’m glad the instructions were clear :)
Cool post! 고맙습니다.
thankyou so much