38 Korean Phrases All Beginners Need To Know

Basic Korean Phrases || A Simple, Easy To Follow Guide

Looking for some basic Korean phrases to learn?

You’ve come to the right place!

No matter how hard we study new words or grammar points in our target language, we won’t get far in the journey to fluency unless we familiarise ourselves with the way natives speak in their everyday lives.

Even if we understand every word in a Korean sentence, its true meaning could still go over our heads because we’re not used to the Korean way of speech.

In this article, we will introduce you to the most basic phrases in Korean language that will give you a head start in your language journey.

Korean Phrases | Greetings in Korean

Korean Phrases | Asking a Name

Korean Phrases | Asking for Age

Korean Phrases | How to Thank Someone

Korean Phrases | I’m Sorry / Excuse Me in Korean

Korean Phrases | How to Say Goodbye

Korean Phrases | Useful Korean Phrases

Korean Phrases | FAQ’s

Want to study Korean in Korea? Good news, we also offer Korean courses in Seoul!

Greetings in Korean

Let’s start with the most important part – we need to greet people in order to start talking with them.

I’m sure all of you are familiar with the most basic form of greeting in Korean – Play 안녕하세요 (an-nyeong-ha-se-yo).

If you want your greeting to sound more formal, you should use the form – Play 안녕하십니까? (an-nyeon-ha-shim-ni-kka?).

While talking to your friends you can use the shortest and least formal form – Play 안녕! (an-nyeong!).

Nice to meet you is Play 반갑습니다 (ban-gab-seum-ni-da).

If you want to flaunt your skills you could add a little bit of spice and say – Play 만나서 반갑습니다 (man-na-seo ban-gab-seum-ni-da.)

If it’s not your first meeting with the person, you should ask them how they’ve been.

‘How are you?’ in Korean would be:

• Play 잘 지내요? (jal ji-ne-yo?) (informal).
• Play 잘 지내셨어요? (jal ji-ne-syeo-seo-yo?) (formal/honorific).

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Asking for a Name | Basic Korean Phrases

Now let’s ask for the person’s name.

BONUS CONTENT | Check out our article about Korean Names to learn more about Korean culture.

We’ll introduce ourselves as ‘Name’- Play 입니다 ‘ (Name-im-ni-da), or the more sophisticated version ‘Name’- Play 라고 합니다 ’ (Name-ra-go ham-ni-da) – which means ‘I am called Name’.

But to ask the other person’s name, you should use one of these phrases, depending on how formal and respectful you want to sound.

• Play 이름이 뭐예요? (i-reum-I mwo-ye-yo?)
  What’s your name? Use this simple phrase when talking with people your age, or people you’d like to befriend.
• Play 성함이 어떻게 되세요? (seong-ham-I eo-tteo-ke doe-se-yo?)
  This phrase will be useful if you’re talking to someone older, and much more respectable than you are.

Play 성함 (seong-ham) is a honorific form of the word ‘name’ and should be used in formal or official situations.

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Asking for Age

What about the age? The role of our age is hugely important in Korean society.

But why?

Whilst it’s not so common in the west to divulge your age, in Korea it is. This way people will determine in which honorific level to speak to you.

Among friends or younger people the phrase ‘How old are you?’ would be “ Play 몇 살이에요? ” (myeot sar-i-e-yo?).

But with people older, you should use a more formal phrase.

In this case, always say “ Play 나이가 어떻게 되세요? ” (na-i-ga eo-tteo-ke doe-se-yo?).

This is an example of a basic exchange in Korean:

안녕하세요, 저는 NAME입니다. 만나서 반갑습니다!

(An-nyeong-ha-se-yo, jeo-neun NAME-im-nida. man-na-seo ban-gab-seum-ni-da.)

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How to Thank Someone | Basic Korean Phrases

There are several ways to say thank you in Korean, because we have two verbs expressing gratitude – Play 감사하다 (gam-sa-ha-da) and Play 고맙다 (go-mab-da).

Therefore you could use either one of them to express your gratitude, which would be: Play 감사합니다 (gam-sa-ham-ni-da), or Play 고맙습니다 (go-mab-seum-ni-da).

There are several ways to say ‘you’re welcome’.

I think the easiest and the most common one would be Play 아니예요 (a-ni-ye-yo) (or ‘it’s nothing’.)

• Play 고마워요 (Thank you!)
• Play 아니예요 (It’s nothing)

I’m Sorry / Excuse me…

If we know how to say thank you, we need to know how to express that we’re sorry too.

I’m sorry is Play 마인합니다 (mi-an-ham-ni-da), or Play 미안해요 (mi-an-hae-yo) (in a less formal way).

While excuse me would be Play 죄송합니다 (joe-song-ham-ni-da).

You can use these phrases in many situations, such as when you want to apologize for something, or for your behavior.

If you want to catch someone’s attention in the street or to call a waiter in a restaurant, you could just say Play 저기요! (jeo-gi-yo).

Speaking of restaurants. We know how important dining is in Korean culture. So let’s learn a few phrases that would help us be as polite and respectful as possible in such situations.

Before eating we should say Play 잘 먹겠습니다 (jal meog-get-seum-ni-da!). Translated word-for-word this phrase is simply ‘I will eat this well’.

‘By saying this we are thanking the host for giving us food’.

After eating our meal, we should finish with Play 잘 먹었습니다 (jal meog-eot-seum-ni-da), sounds similar right?

If you’ve touched on grammar in Korean before, you’ll notice how the word ‘eat’ has changed from future tense to a past tense. ‘I ate well’, or ‘I enjoyed the food’.

This is how we express our gratitude towards someone who put in effort to make us food.

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How to Say Goodbye?

Now let’s say our goodbyes.

You’ve probably heard there are two basic ways to say goodbye in Korean.

Let’s get through each of them.

1. Play 안녕히 가세요 (an-nyeong-hi ga-se-yo).

With this phrase, we say goodbye to the person who’s leaving.

So if you’re staying in the room and the other person is going out, you would say ‘go well’ or Play 안녕히 가세요 (an-nyeong-hi ga-se-yo).

2. Play 안녕히 계세요 (an-nyeong-hi gye-se-yo).

This phrase comes in handy in the opposite situation. Meaning ‘stay well’, we use this phrase when we are the ones leaving the other person.

If we memorise the words 가다 (ga-da) (to go) and 계시다 (gye-shi-da), the honorific form of the verb ‘to be’, we’ll never mix these two sentences again!

Useful Korean Phrases

Now let’s go over other useful Korean phrases that could come in handy in Korea.

Play 얼마예요? (eol-ma-ye-yo?) How much is it? A handy phrase for shopping when asking for prices.

Play 잠시만요 (jam-shi-man-yo) Just a moment!

Play 괜찮아요 (gwen-chan-a-yo) It’s okay. You’ve probably heard this phrase a lot, if you watch K-dramas.

Play 여보세요? (yeo-bo-se-yo?) Hello. Only used while talking on the phone, this is how we answer our calls.

Play 한국말을 조금 할 수 있어요 (han-gug-mar-eul jo-geum hal su is-seo-yo) I can speak a little Korean.

Play 배고파요 (be-go-pa-yo) I’m hungry!

Play 도와주세요 (do-wa-ju-se-yo) Help me.

To make it more polite you could remember the phrase Play 도와주실 수 있어요? (do-wa-ju-shil su is-so-yo?) Can you help me?

These are some of the most basic phrases in Korean that will make your life in Korea easier!

Did you know many of these? Have we missed any important ones out? Tell us below in the comments.

Good luck Play 화이팅!

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Basic Korean Phrases || FAQs

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