Korean for fun

This page is a crash course of Korean, designed for those who need Korean words and phrases for unexpected reasons, yet urgently, or just for fun. You don't need to have a Korean software to view these pages, since the texts are given in graphics. (You can also download the image you want for publicational purposes.) If you click on each text image, you can also hear how it sounds.

Basics
(i) simple phrases (ii) smart phrases

Eating, Drinking, Traveling, and shopping.

(i) numbers and money (1) (2) (ii) food and drinks (3) (4) (iii) transportation (iv) call a doctor! food words food phrases drink words drink phrases

Dating a korean!
(i) do you have time? (ii) shall we ...? (iii) moving forward

Korean for fun: Basics I -- Simple Phrases

Yes. yeh No. ah-ni-o It's okay. That's alright. kwen-chah-nah-yo How are you? How do you do? [also in reply] ahn-nyong-ha-se-yo Good bye. ahn-nyong-i kah-se-yo Thank you. [formal] kahm-sa-hahm-ni-da Thank you. [less formal] koh-mahp-soom-ni-da I am sorry. [intense] che-sohng-hahm-ni-da I am sorry. [less intense] mi-ahn-hahm-ni-da

Korean for fun: Basics II -- Smart Phrases

The following phrases are complete sentences by themselves. However, you can also make multiple sentences with them. All you have to do is put the word you want in front of the phrase. For example:

+
k'uh-p'i coffee chu-se-yo give me

=
k'uh-p'i chu-se-yo "Give me coffee." " I'd like to have coffee, please."

Is there ...? Is ... there? Do you have ...? Have you got ...? issuh-yo There is ... ; I have ... ; ... is here issuh-yo Is there not ...? Is ... not there? Do you not have ...? up-suh-yo There is not ... ; ... is not here ; I don't have ... up-suh-yo

Give me ...; I'd like ..., please. chu-se-yo Do you do ...? Do you speak ...? hah-se-yo I don't know ; I don't know ... mol-lah-yo Is it good? Do you like it? ; Is ... good? Do you like ...? cho-ah-yo It's good. I like it. Okay ; ... is good. I like ... cho-ah-yo Where is ...? uh-dee-ye-yo What is ...? mwuh-ye-yo

Korean for fun: Number and money

1. Numbers

il 1 ship 10 paek 100 ch'on 1,000

ee 2 ee-ship 20 eepaek 200

sahm 3 sahmship 30 sahmpaek 300

sah 4

oh 5

yook 6

ch'il 7 ch'ilship 70 ch'ilpaek 700

pahl 8 pahlship 80 pahlpaek 800

koo 9 kooship 90 koopaek 900 kooch'on 9,000

sahyookoh-ship ship ship 50 40 60 sahpaek 400 ohpaek 500 yookpaek 600

ee- sahm- sahohyook- ch'il- pahlch'on ch'on ch'on ch'on ch'on ch'on ch'on 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000

ee- sahm- sahohyook- ch'il- pahlkoomahn mahn mahn mahn mahn mahn mahn mahn mahn 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 90,000

"100,000" is [ship-mahn ]. As you can see, units change every four digits in Korea (and in many other Asian counturies), and adding a comma every three digits ('1,000') is very western custom.

"14" is

[ship-sah

]. -- 14 = 10+4.

Similarly, 143 is

[paek-sah-ship-sahm

].

2. Money in different forms money tohn the Korean monetary unit won k'ah-d credit card

traveler's check yo-haeng-jah soo-p'yoh dahl-luh dollar

Korean for fun: Food and drinks: (1) Food words

meal shik-sah

breakfast ; morning ah-ch'im lunch ; lunch time chum-shim dinner ; evening

cho-nyok

shik-tahng

restaurant

menu me-nyoo soh-goh-gi beef

pork tweh-ji-goh-gi chicken tahg-goh-gi vegetarian diet ch'e-shik

a vegetarian (person) ch'e-shik-chu-ui-jah bread

bahng

pahp

(cooked) rice

salt so-goom pepper

hoo-ch'oo

water mool check, bill kyeh-sahn-suh restroom hwah-jahng-shil

Korean for fun: Food and drinks: (2) Food phrases

The following are also smart phrases. you can add in front of them the words in the "food-related words." Also, refer to "smart phrases" for more phrases.

Are you hungry? peh-goh-p'ah-yo I am hungry. peh-goh-p'ah-yo Shall we eat? Shall we eat ...? muh-gul-gah-yo Give me ..., please. chu-se-yo Do you have ...? issuh-yo muh-guh-yo I eat ...

I don't (or can't) eat ... (as in "I don't eat pork.") mot-muh-guh-yo

Do you like it? ; Do you like ...? cho-ah-hey-yo I like it. ; I like ... cho-ah-hey-yo Is it spicy? ; Is ... spicy? meh-wuh-yo It is spicy. ; ... is spicy meh-wuh-yo What is in it? mwuh-tool-uh-ssuh-yo Is it delicious? ; Is ... delicious? mah-shi-ssuh-yo It is delicious. ; ... is delicious. mah-shi-ssuh-yo It is not delicious. ; ... is not delicious. mah-duhp-ssuh-yo Add a little touch with...

mah-nee

a lot (-- Add it right in front of the phrases.) a little (-- Add it right in front of the phrases.)

cho-goom

Example:

-- "I am a little bit hungry."

Korean for fun: Food and drinks: (3) Drink-related words

alchol in general sool soft drinks in general oom-nyoh-soo Now, smart phrases:

chahn

glass; cup -- also as a counting unit; a glass of

pyung Now,

bottle

coffee shop -- most likely serving soft drinks only, like Starbucks k'uh-p'i-shohp tea house -- most likely serving Korean/herb tea ch'aht-chip caf -- soft drinks and liquer (by night, maybe), some meal k'ah-p'eh bar -- a generic term for bars in different types sool-jip

coffee k'uh-p'i ch'ah k'o-lah tea cola sprite or 7-up (un-cola)

sai-dah juice as in orange juice (most likely when you don't specify it)

choo-s

mack-choo

beer

soh-choo

soju -- a typical Korean hard liquer.

Transparent

milk-colored liquer made of fermented rice mahk-gohl-li wine, alternatively called p'oh-doh-joo (grape-liquer) wah-inn Western hard liquer in general, such as whisky, brandy, burbon, etc. (you need to specify it)

yahng-choo

Korean for fun: Food and drinks: (4) Drink-related phrases

a glass; a cup hahn-jahn a bottle

hahn-byung

Give me ... chu-se-yo Shall we drink ... ? mah-shil-gah-yo Would you like to do/eat/drink ....? hah-shih-geh-suh-yo

It's okay. (More likely, 'I am okay. No, thanks.') kwen-chah-nah-yo Okay. Good. ( cho-ah-yo

I cannot drink. mohm-mah-shuh-yo I don't drink. ahn-mah-shuh-yo

Cheers! kun-beh

Korean for fun: Call a doctor!

-- Here are some words and phrases that you might need when you need some medical attention. We start with some necessary vocabulary, such as 'hospital,' 'doctor,' etc., learn names of body parts, and check some of common words that you might hear around a hospital. Some information about the Korean medicare system: The word for hospital ( /pyung-won/) is used for both large hospitals--with a number of doctors and equipment--and small clinics run by a doctor. Pharmacists can not only sell medicine but also write prescriptions to make medicine. It has been a serious dispute between phrmacists and doctors for a long time. Pharmicists are also allowed to practice some Chinese/Korean medicine. It is partially because the role of pharmacists had been very crucial (and still is in some regions) from the time they did not have enough doctors. 1. Basic nouns

hospital; clinic pyung-won medical doctor ui-sah nurse kahn-ho-sah

emergency room ung-goop-shil medicine, drug yahk pharmacy; drug store yahk-kook

Now, you can say such phrases as 'Where is the hospital?,' or 'Let's go to the hospital.'

pyong-won "hospital"

uh-tee "where"

issuh-yo "is...?"

Where is the hospital?

pyong-won "hospital"

. kah-yo "go"

Let's go to the hospital.

2. Basic body parts

head muh-ree face ul-gool eye noon nose k'oh mouth ip ear kui body; torso mohm neck; throat mohk

shoulder uh-gae chest kah-soom stomach pae upper back toong lower back huh-ree side body yup-koo-ree arm p'ahl hand sohn butt

ung-dung-ee leg tah-ree foot pahl

Now, the smart phrase:

muh-ree "head"

ap'ah-yo "... hurts."

My head hurts. (= I have a headache.)

Korean for fun: Dating a korean: Do you have time?

now chee-goom today oh-nool

tomorrow neh-il on the weekend

chu-mah-reh

time shee-gahn Is there ...? Is ... there? Do you have ...? Have you got ...? issuh-yo There is ... ; I have ... ; ... is here issuh-yo Is there not ...? Is ... not there? Do you not have ...? up-suh-yo There is not ... ; ... is not here ; I don't have ... up-suh-yo phone number chuhn-hwah-bun-ho What is ...? mwuh-ye-yo

example of making a question

ne-il tomorrow

shee-gahn time

issuh-yo do you have?

Do you have time tomorrow?

Korean for fun: Dating a korean: Shall we?

theatre, movie theatre kook-chahng where Shall we go? Shall we go ...? Shall we go? Shall we go ...?

uh-dee (polite or formal) kahl-gah-yo (intimate or to a younger person)

kahl-gah?

pahp

rice or meal in general

mwuh (polite or formal) muh-gul-gah-yo (intimate or to a younger person)

what Shall we eat it? Shall we eat ...? Shall we eat it? Shall we eat ...?

muh-gul-gah

coffee k'uh-p'i cola

k'o-lah ch'ah (polite or formal) mah-shil-gah-yo (intimate or to a younger person)

tea Shall we drink it? Shall we drink ...? Shall we drink it? Shall we drink ...?

mah-shil-gah

movie yong-hwah TV t'ee-bee (polite or formal) pohl-gah-yo (intimate or to a younger person) Shall we watch (or see) it? Shall we watch (or see) ...? Shall we watch (or see) it? Shall we watch (or see) ...?

pohl-gah

kohng-boo (polite or formal) hahl-gah-yo (intimate or to a younger person)

studying Shall we do it? Shall we do ...? Shall we do it? Shall we do ...?

hahl-gah

example of making a question

k'uh-p'i coffee

mah-shil-gah-yo shall we drink?

Shall we drink (or go to have) coffee?

Korean lessons
Korean Lessons contain short step-by-step materials for you to study Korean with. It starts with some fundamental features of the Korean language, Hangul, and basic sentence structures. It is based on the lecture notes of my Korean class. Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Lesson 4 Lesson 5 Lesson 6 Lesson 7 Lesson 8 Lesson 9 Fundamental features of Korean language Hangul, the Korean alphabetic system Some phonological notes Base form and stem in a predicate Forming predicates with verbs, adjectives, and nouns Subject markers Object markers Who? What? Where? This 'n that, here 'n there

Lesson 10 Lesson 11 Lesson 12 Lesson 13

Styles of speech -- a broad picture Numbers (I) -- General description and Chinese numbers Numbers (II) -- Native Korean numbers Locative markers (-e and -eso^)

Korean lessons: Lesson 1

Fundamental features of Korean Language
The Korean language is spoken by more than 60 million people. It belongs to the group of Altaic languages together with Japanese, Ainu, and Mongolian, which were splitted one another several thousand years ago. Syntactically, Korean shares some common characteristics with these Altaic languages, while over 70% of its contemporary vocabulary came from Chinese.

1) SOV language
Korean is classified as an SOV language, which stands for <Subject-Object-Verb> word order. English on the other hand is an SVO language. A subject is the one who acts. An object is the one who receives the subjects action. For example: <English> Bob loves Jenny. Who loves Jenny? Bob does. Who is loved by Bob? Jenny is. In Korean this sentence will be in the the word order: <Korean> Bob Jenny loves.

2) Topic-prominent language
Although we call it a subject, its position is not for subjects, the actor, only. A topic can also be in the position. A topic may not be an actor, but the one which the sentence is about. Let's take an example: You bumped into a friend after lunch. Your friend asks you, "Hey, how about a lunch?" You might want to say, "Lunch? I already had it. How about a cup of coffee?" The first part of this speech can be understood, 'As for (or, speaking of) lunch, I already ate it.' In Korean, this can be stated simply: <Korean> Lunch, I ate.

3) Agglutinating language
Now, you may have been confused, saying, "I don't get it. How come no one interprets it 'A lunch ate me.'?" This is where the powerful function of particles, endings, and conjugation comes in. By attaching these little grammatical devices, you label each words, so that your words come into places without causing misunderstanding.

4) Basic Sentence Formation:

{Subject/Topic+particle} + {Object+particle} + {Verb/Adjective+conjugation}