Basic Greetings and Politeness
Learning a few key expressions in Korean can make a huge difference when traveling or interacting with Korean speakers. Here are 10 essential Korean phrases to help you navigate daily conversations.
1. ์๋ ํ์ธ์ (an-nyeong-ha-se-yo)
A formal greeting meaning Hello. With close friends you can simply say ์๋
(an-nyeong).
2. ๊ฐ์ฌํฉ๋๋ค (gam-sa-ham-ni-da)
A formal way to say Thank you. With friends ๊ณ ๋ง์ (go-ma-wo) is more natural.
3. ์ฃ์กํฉ๋๋ค (joe-song-ham-ni-da)
Used when apologizing formally. With friends ๋ฏธ์ํด (mi-an-hae) or ๋ฏธ์ (mi-an) is more natural.
4. ๊ด์ฐฎ์์ (gwaen-chan-a-yo)
Means It's okay or No problem. Used to reassure someone or when declining an offer politely.
5. ์ผ๋ง์์? (eol-ma-ye-yo)
Used when asking for the price of something. Equivalent to How much is this?
6. ์ดํดํ์ง ๋ชปํ์ด์ (i-hae-ha-ji mot-hae-sseo-yo)
Used when you didn't understand something. You can also say ์ดํด๊ฐ ์ ๋ผ์ (i-hae-ga an dwae-yo).
7. ๋์์ค ์ ์๋์? (do-wa-jul su it-na-yo)
Used when asking for help. It means Can you help me?
8. ์ฒ์ฒํ ๋งํด ์ฃผ์ธ์ (cheon-cheon-hi mal-hae ju-se-yo)
Used when asking someone to speak more slowly. With friends ์ฒ์ฒํ ๋งํด์ค (cheon-cheon-hi mal-hae-jwo) is fine.
9. ์ด๊ฑฐ ์ด๋์ ์์ด์? (i-geo eo-di-e it-seo-yo)
Used when asking about the location of something. Can be shortened to ์ด๊ฑฐ ์ด๋ ์์ด์? (i-geo eo-di it-seo-yo).
10. ์ ๋จน๊ฒ ์ต๋๋ค (jal meok-get-seum-ni-da)
Said before starting a meal, similar to bon appรฉtit. With friends ๋ฐฅ ์ ๋จน์๊ฒ (bap jal meok-eul-ge) or ์ ๋จน์๊ฒ (jal meok-eul-ge) is commonly used.
Learning these phrases will be very helpful when living in Korea or conversing with Koreans.