How to use the Hangul consonant and vowel counter
A Hangul syllable looks like one square, but inside it holds up to three slots: an initial consonant, a medial vowel and an optional final consonant. This tool takes each syllable apart into those slots, counts the consonant and vowel letters, and ranks which jamo appear most. It is handy for font work, for teaching material, and for anyone studying letter frequency in Korean.
The decomposition uses the official Unicode formula rather than guesswork. Subtract the start of the precomposed Hangul block from the code point, then divide by 588 and by 28, and the three slot numbers fall out. Syllables that look similar are therefore separated by what they actually contain.
The counting rules are stated up front. Every syllable carries exactly one initial and one medial, so those totals equal the syllable count. Finals are counted only where one exists. A double final counts as one by default; switch the option on and ㄳ is split into ㄱ and ㅅ for a count of two. Whichever rule applied is always printed above the table. Vowels written from two vowels, such as ㅘ and ㅢ, count as one and are reported separately.
Standalone letters typed on their own, like ㄱ or ㅏ, live in a different Unicode block from the pieces inside a syllable, so they are never decomposed. They are counted apart and labelled as standalone in the table. Latin letters, digits, symbols and whitespace are excluded, with only their total reported. Archaic Hangul outside the precomposed block is skipped the same way.
Frequently asked questions
One by default. Turning the option on splits it into its two consonants for a count of two, and the rule in force is always shown above the result.
The standalone ㄱ is a different Unicode character from the initial ㄱ inside a syllable. They look alike but hold different values, so they are counted apart.
It adds the initial count, the final consonant count and the standalone consonant count. Turning on the double final option raises the final part accordingly.