50 Most Common Korean Words and Phrases You Should Learn First

Nowadays, learning basic Korean words and phrases is simple. It is one of the most widely spoken languages in Southeast Asia. Numerous Korean books, plays, films, Korean music, and even Korean cuisine all illustrate how popular Korean culture is. Many individuals are interested in learning the Korean language so that they might broaden their vocabulary and learn the language spoken by their prejudices and favorite performers. Whatever the reason, it is evident that the Korean language has advanced significantly in terms of global recognition beyond Asia.

Korean Food Words:

You will undoubtedly want to be familiar with some fundamental Korean culinary terminology if you intend to study the language. Since there are so many delectable choices and a wide selection, youโ€™ll be pleased you did! Learning these basic Korean terms can benefit you as you investigate Korean and South Korean culture. By mastering these basic Korean terms, it will be easier to discuss cuisine in South Korea. The basic South Korean language terms for food are listed below:

Korean Word Meaning in English Example Sentence
 mul (๋ฌผ ) WATER  ํ•˜๋ฃจ์— ๋ฌผ ์„ธ ์ž” ๋งˆ์…”์š”.
Every day, I drink three glasses of water.
(harue mul se jan masyeoyo.)
bap ( ๋ฐฅ ) RICE ๋‚ด์ผ ๋ฐฅ ๊ฐ™์ด ๋จน์„๋ž˜์š”?
Shall we eat together tomorrow?
(naeil bap gachi meogeullaeyo?)
yachae ( ์•ผ์ฑ„ ) VEGETABLES ์‹œ์žฅ์—์„œ ์•ผ์ฑ„๋ฅผ ์ƒ€์–ด์š”.
I bought vegetables at the market.
(sijangeseo yachaereul sasseoyo.)
gwail ( ๊ณผ์ผ ) FRUIT  ์–ด๋–ค ๊ณผ์ผ ์ข‹์•„ํ•˜์„ธ์š”?
What kind of fruit do you like?
(eotteon gwail joahaseyo?)
 gogi ( ๊ณ ๊ธฐ) MEAT  ์–ด์ œ ์ €๋…์— ๊ณ ๊ธฐ๋ฅผ ๊ตฌ์›Œ ๋จน์—ˆ์–ด์š”.
Last night I ate grilled meat.
ppang ( ๋นต ) BREAD ๋นต ๋จน์„๋•Œ ๋ฒ„ํ„ฐ๋ž‘ ์žผ์ด๋ž‘ ๊ฐ™์ด ๋จน์–ด์š”.
I consume butter and jam on my toast.
(ppang meogeulttae beoteorang jaemirang gachi meogeoyo.)
saengseon ( ์ƒ์„  ) FISH ์ƒ์„ ์„ ์—ด ๋งˆ๋ฆฌ๋‚˜ ์žก์•˜์–ด์š”!
I caught ten fish!
(saengseoneul yeol marina jabasseoyo!)
keopi ( ์ปคํ”ผ ) COFFEE ์—ฌ์ž์นœ๊ตฌ์™€ ์œ ๋ช…ํ•œ ์นดํŽ˜์— ๊ฐ”์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค.
I went out with my girlfriend to a well-known cafe.
(yeojachinguwa yumyeonghan kapee gatseumnida.)
maekju ( ๋งฅ์ฃผ) BEER  ๋‚ด ๋‚จ์ž์นœ๊ตฌ๋Š” ๋งฅ์ฃผ ํ•œ ๋ณ‘๋„ ๋ชป ๋งˆ์…”์š”.
Even one beer bottle is beyond the reach of my guy.
(nae namjachinguneun maekju han byeongdo mot masyeoyo.)
 soju ( ์†Œ์ฃผ) SOJUf ๋‚˜๋ž‘ ์นœ๊ตฌ๋Š” ์†Œ์ฃผ๋ฅผ ์ข‹์•„ํ•ด์š”.
With my companion, I enjoy consuming soju
(narang chinguneun sojureul joahaeyo).

Simple Korean Words:

These words are easy to memorize and master. You may hear these expressions in Korean dramas, movies, variety shows, or live performances by K-pop celebrities. Here are some simple Korean words you may learn:
 

Korean Word Meaning
์˜ˆ (ye) yes
์•„๋‹ˆ์š” (aniyo) no
 ์šฐ๋ฆฌ (uri) we
์˜ค๋Š˜ (oneul) today
์–ด์ œ (eoje) yesterday
๋‚ด์ผ (naeil) tomorrow
 ๋ฐค (bam) night/evening
์•„์นจ (achim) morning
์™œ (wae) why
 ์–ธ์ œ (eonje) when

Basic Korean Words:

Since they are often used during Korean dramas, films, and other forms of entertainment, Korean words for beginners like you may be readily learned. They are accommodating since they are frequently employed in everyday speech. The following is a list of essential Korean words:

Korean Meaning
์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š” (annyeonghaseyo) Hello
๊ฐ์‚ฌํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๋‹ค (kamsahamnida Thank you
์ฒœ๋งŒ์—์š” (cheonmaneyo) Youโ€™re welcome
 ์ž ์‹œ๋งŒ์š” (jamsimanyo) Excuse me
๊ดœ์ฐฎ์•„์š” (gwaenchanayo) Okay
์ฃ„์†กํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๋‹ค (joisonghamnida) Iโ€™m sorry
์ฃผ์„ธ์š” (juseyo) Please give me
๋ชฐ๋ผ์š” (mollayo) I donโ€™t know
์•Œ์•„์š” (arayo) I know
์ดํ•ดํ•ด์š” (ihaehaeyo) I understand
์ข‹์•„์š” (joayo) Good
 ์•ˆ ์ข‹์•„์š” (an joayo) Not good

Other Useful Korean Words:

Words from the original South Korean language make up lovely Korean words. The South Korean language has several terms that have Chinese roots. These Chinese-derived terms are sometimes referred to as โ€œloan words.โ€ However, youโ€™ll discover a handful of the many beautiful native Korean terms in the following part.

Korean Word Meaning
 ํ•˜๋Š˜ (haneul) sky
๋น„ (bi) rain
 ๊ณ ์–‘์ด (goyangi) cat
๊ฐ•์•„์ง€ (gangaji) puppy
์‚ฌ๋žŒ (saram) person
๋ฐ”๋žŒ (baram wind
 ๋งˆ์Œ (maeum) mind/heart
๊ฐ€๋žŒ (garam) river
๋ฐ”๋‹ค (bada) ocean
๋ฏธ๋ฅด (mireu) dragon
๋‚˜๋ฅด์ƒค (nareusha) to fly
๋‚˜๋ž˜ (narae) wing
๋ˆ„๋ฆฌ (nuri) world
 ๋‚˜๋ผ (nara) nation

How to Expand Your Vocabulary in Korean?

1. Creating Word Lists

The most popular techniques for learning vocabulary are word lists and flash cards. Make note cards with Korean words on a single column and respective meanings on the other, or create a two-column table with the words in one column and their definitions on the other (you can even add extra columns, such as sample sentences, etc.).

List of a few Korean Greetings:

  • Nice to meet you โ€“ Mannaseo Bangapseumnida
  • Whatโ€™s up? โ€“ Museun ir-iya?
  • Long Time No See โ€“ Oraenmanieyo
  • Please stay well โ€“ Annyeong Hi Gyeseyo
  • Excuse me โ€“ Jam-shi-mahn-yo

2. Search The Dictionary

Always have a dictionary close at hand and look up unfamiliar words. Try to break the habit of choosing a different way to say what you mean when you donโ€™t know (or canโ€™t remember) the correct term. Although it may be laborious to look up a term in a dictionary, doing so is eventually helpful.

3. Learn Words in Context

Rarely are words used alone. They are employed with other terms, phrases, and grammatical constructions. It is not sufficient to understand a wordโ€™s meaning; you also need to understand โ€œwho,โ€ โ€œwhere,โ€ โ€œwhen,โ€ and โ€œhow.โ€ Otherwise, thereโ€™s a significant probability that youโ€™ll slip up at some point.

4. Make Connections

Create links and correlations between the new vocabulary you are learning and the Korean words and phrases concepts you already know. For instance, a term in your native language could sound distinct, hilarious, or fascinating. Or perhaps some words bring up a memory for you.

5. Examine & Apply

To learn a word permanently, we must frequently be exposed to it by listening, speaking, writing, or reading. Words need 20โ€“30 reviews or repetitions to be permanently stored in the human mind. Use new terms as much as possible, even if you are unclear on how to do so.

Also Read:

  • Basic Greetings in Korean โ€“ Hi, Hello, Goodbye & More
  • Best K-Dramas To Watch

Wrapping Up:

It is difficult to communicate well with the natives since you will constantly encounter idioms and words you do not recognize. As a result, knowing the key Korean terminology and phrases might help you survive in such situations.



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