Learning Korean — frequently asked questions
55 questions people really ask when learning Korean, with answers that stand on their own. Where there is more to say, the link comes underneath — not instead of the answer.
Getting started
Where to begin, how long it takes, which Korean to learn, and what the levels mean.
How should I start learning Korean?
With Hangul, the alphabet, and then straight away with whole sentences. Hangul comes first because it is quick: fourteen basic consonants and ten basic vowels, put together into blocks of one syllable each, and most people can read slowly after an afternoon or two. Learn the sound rules alongside it, because a word is not always said letter by letter: 먹어요, “I eat”, is said as if it were written 머거요. From the first week, learn short sentences as wholes — 안녕하세요. 저는 안나예요. 영국 사람이에요. — and notice what is in them: the verb at the end, a small particle on the noun, and the polite ending -요. Then come the few patterns everything else is built on: A is B with 이에요/예요, there is and there is not with 있어요 and 없어요, the topic and the object particle, and the polite present of a verb.
What do levels 1 to 4 mean on this site?
They follow the numbered scale that learners of Korean commonly use to describe where they are, in which 1 is the first step. That scale goes further; this site goes as far as 4. The levels are not an examination and not an official placement. No word lists published by any examining body were used, every placement of a word or a grammar point here is this project’s own judgement, and the site has no connection with the bodies that run such examinations. There is no official equivalence between these steps and the European scale from A1 to C2; as a rough guide only, 1 corresponds to the beginning of A1 and 4 to about B2. The yardstick for placing something is stated openly: not how hard it looks, but from what point you cannot get by without it. -(으)ㄹ게요, the ending that promises something to the listener, looks advanced and sits at level 2, because people use it all the time; the written ending -(으)므로 is short and simple and sits at level 4, because everyday speech does the same work with other endings for a long time before you need it.
Why does this site stop at level 4?
Because level 4 is roughly the point at which ordinary adult Korean — notices, messages, articles, conversation at normal speed — becomes readable and followable with a dictionary to hand, and that is what this pair was built to get you to. Beyond it, what a learner mostly needs is volume: many more words, many more Sino-Korean compounds, and the written style met again and again in real texts. A site of explanations and word lists adds less per page there than reading does. It would rather cover the levels it has properly than spread itself thinly over more.
Is Korean hard for English speakers?
It is hard in different places from a European language, and easy in some that surprise people. The script is the easy part: Hangul was designed to be learnt quickly, and it spells the sounds far more regularly than English spelling does. Verbs do not change for person or number — 가요 is I go, you go and they go — nouns have no gender, and there are no articles. What takes time is everything an English speaker cannot borrow. The word order is reversed, with the verb at the very end: 저는 커피를 마셔요 is “I coffee drink”. Every noun carries a particle that says what it is doing. Every sentence carries an ending that says how polite you are being. And the vocabulary has almost nothing in common with English, apart from the loanwords. None of it is beyond anyone; it is a language in which reading comes quickly and fluent speech comes slowly.
How long does it take to learn Korean?
There is no honest figure in hours, and a page that states one as a fact has taken it from somewhere it should not have trusted: it depends on what you already know, how often you practise and what you mean by having learnt it. Three things can be said. Reading Hangul aloud comes within days, but understanding what you read takes much longer, because the words are new and the endings carry a great deal of meaning. The particles and the speech levels decide a lot in the first months, and time spent getting them right early is time you do not spend unlearning habits later. And short, regular practice beats occasional long sessions. Measure progress by what you can do — order a meal, ask the way, follow a short message — rather than by the calendar.
Which Korean does this site teach — and what about the dialects?
Standard Korean as it is spoken and written in Seoul today: the language of schools, broadcasting, offices and public life in South Korea, and what most learners elsewhere are taught. Its spelling and spacing follow the official rules, and its pronunciation is the standard one. Korean has regional varieties, and some are very distinctive: the speech of the southeast around Busan has a melody of its own, and the language of Jeju Island is so different that it is often treated as a language in its own right. North Korea has its own written standard, with some differences in spelling, spacing and vocabulary, although the grammar is the same and speakers from both sides understand each other. A learner who starts with the Seoul standard is understood everywhere, and local words are best picked up where they are spoken.
Should I learn to speak first, or to read?
With Korean the question almost answers itself, because reading the script is the quickest part of the whole language: there is little reason to put it off. What does need a decision is how much to lean on the romanisation. It is useful at the start, and it shows how a word is really said where the spelling does not, but it is a crutch for the eyes, not a second way of writing Korean — Koreans never use it among themselves. The best way for most people is to read Hangul from the first week, say every sentence aloud, and use the romanisation to check the sound rules. This site is laid out for exactly that: every sentence is in Hangul, and every word has its romanisation under it until you switch it off.
Is Korean related to Japanese or Chinese?
Not in the way English is related to German. Korean has borrowed a great many words from Chinese over many centuries, so a large part of its vocabulary, especially the formal and technical part, is built from Chinese syllables: 학교, school, and 도서관, library, are such words. Its grammar, on the other hand, looks much more like Japanese: the verb comes last, particles follow nouns, and endings pile up on the verb. Whether Korean and Japanese go back to a common ancestor has never been shown, and many linguists treat Korean, together with the language of Jeju, as a family of its own. For a learner the practical upshot is simple: knowing Japanese helps a great deal with Korean grammar, and knowing Chinese helps with the vocabulary of the newspapers.
Hangul and typing
The alphabet, how a syllable block is built, the spaces between words, Chinese characters, and typing Korean.
Can I really learn Hangul in a day?
You can learn to read it in a day, slowly, and most people do. There are fourteen basic consonants and ten basic vowels, the rest are doubles and combinations of those, and each letter has a sound that does not depend on spelling conventions the way English letters do. What takes longer is reading fluently, which means recognising a block at a glance rather than letter by letter, and reading correctly, which means knowing the handful of rules that change a sound where two blocks meet: 국물, broth, is written with a k and said with an ng, gungmul. Give the letters an afternoon and the sound rules a few weeks of reading aloud.
Who invented Hangul, and why does it look like that?
It was created in the fifteenth century at the court of King Sejong, so that ordinary people, who could not read the Chinese characters used for writing at the time, could write their own language. That makes it one of the very few scripts whose origin and purpose are written down. Its shapes are not arbitrary. The basic consonants picture the mouth making them: the letter for k shows the back of the tongue raised, the one for n the tip of the tongue touching behind the teeth, the one for m the closed lips. Related sounds add a stroke, so the aspirated k has one more line than the plain one. The vowels are built from a short stroke, a horizontal line and a vertical line, long explained as heaven, earth and a person. Once you know this, the letters stop looking like a code and start looking like a system.
How is a syllable block built?
Every block is one syllable, and it always starts with a consonant. Where a syllable begins with a vowel sound, a silent circle stands in the consonant’s place: 아 is a, 오 is o. The vowel goes to the right of the consonant if it is a tall one, as in 가, or underneath it if it is a flat one, as in 고. A final consonant, if there is one, sits at the bottom: 각, 곡, 한. So 한국, Korea, is two blocks, h + a + n and g + u + k. The block is a unit of writing, not of meaning: a word can have one block or five, and the spaces in a sentence come between words, not between blocks.
Why do some consonants come doubled?
Because Korean has three kinds of k, t, p, ch and two kinds of s, and the doubled letters write the third kind. The plain consonant, as in 가, is relaxed and has a little breath after it. The aspirated one, as in 카, has a strong puff of air, like the k at the start of an English word. The tense one, written double as in 까, has no breath at all and a tight throat, a little like the k in “sky”. The difference changes words: 불 is fire, 풀 is grass and glue, and 뿔 is a horn. English uses breath without noticing it, so the three sound alike at first; listen for the puff of air and for the pitch, which is higher after the aspirated and the tense consonants.
Does Korean still use Chinese characters?
Very little in everyday life. Everything you will see in shops, on signs, in messages and in most books is written in Hangul alone. Chinese characters, called hanja in Korean, still appear here and there: in some newspaper headlines, on a few signs, in personal names, which are usually chosen with a particular character in mind, and in dictionaries, where they show where a Sino-Korean word comes from. Some people learn a few hundred of them, because they make the many Sino-Korean words easier to remember: once you know that the syllable 학 means learning, 학생, 학교 and 과학 hang together. But you do not need them to read Korean, and this site writes no Chinese characters in its sentences.
Where do the spaces go in a Korean sentence?
Between words, as in English — but a Korean “word” includes the particles and endings that stick to it. So 저는 학교에서 공부해요, “I study at school”, is three words with two spaces: the topic particle sits on 저, the place particle on 학교, and the ending on the verb. A few small nouns that depend on what comes before them stand on their own, however: 먹을 수 있어요, I can eat, and 갈 거예요, I will go, each have a space before the small noun. Counters stand apart from the number too: 두 개, two items. Koreans themselves argue over a few cases, but the basic rule — particles and endings attached, everything else separate — covers almost every sentence you will write.
How do I type in Korean?
Add a Korean keyboard to your phone or computer: every common system includes one. The standard layout puts the consonants under the left hand and the vowels under the right, and you type letter by letter in the order you would write them; the system assembles the blocks for you as you go. Typing ㅎ, ㅏ, ㄴ gives 한, and the doubled consonants come with the shift key. It takes a week or two to stop looking for the keys. On this site you do not have to: wherever an exercise asks you to type Korean, you may type the romanisation shown under the words instead — jeoneun haksaengieyo for 저는 학생이에요 — and it counts as correct if it matches the romanisation of the answer. Spaces, hyphens and capital letters do not matter there.
Sounds and the romanisation
Why a word is not said the way it is written, the sounds English does not have, and what the line under each word shows.
Why is a Korean word not always said the way it is written?
Because Hangul spells the parts of a word, and the sounds change where the parts meet. The spelling keeps the stem of a verb recognisable whatever ending follows: 먹다, to eat, 먹어요, 먹는, 먹고. The mouth, meanwhile, follows a few regular rules. A final consonant moves over to a following vowel, so 먹어요 is said meogeoyo. A k, t or p before an n or m becomes nasal, so 먹는 is said meongneun. And an h next to k, t, p or ch adds a puff of air, so 좋고 is said joko. The rules are few and very regular, and once they are known the spelling becomes a help rather than an obstacle: it shows you what the word is, and the rules tell you how it sounds.
What does the romanisation under the Korean show, and how do I switch it off?
It shows how each word is actually said, written in the official romanisation used on road signs in Korea, so 국물 appears as gungmul and 같이, together, as gachi. It follows the sound rules rather than the letters, which is the whole point of having it. It leaves out one thing the official system leaves out too: the tightening of a consonant after certain others, so 학교 is written hakgyo, although it is said with a tense k in the middle. And where the official system keeps an h for the sake of signs, this site writes what is heard: 백화점, department store, is baekwajeom. The romanisation can be switched off with the button in the header; your choice is remembered.
Why does the romanisation write g where I hear a k?
Because the plain Korean consonants are neither an English g nor an English k. At the start of a word, the plain consonant in 가방, bag, has a little breath after it and no voice, so to English ears it sounds closer to k. Between two vowels the same letter is relaxed and voiced, and sounds like a g, as in 아기, baby. The romanisation writes g for both, because it is the same Korean sound, and keeps k for the aspirated consonant with its strong puff of air, as in 카드, card. The same holds for d and t, b and p, and j and ch. Do not try to say an English g; aim for a soft k with very little air, and let it voice itself between vowels.
Why does the romanisation not show the doubled sound in hakgyo?
Because it is predictable, and the official romanisation leaves out what can be predicted. After a final k, t or p, a plain consonant becomes tense: 학교 is said with a tight kk in the middle, and 식당, restaurant, with a tight tt. Every Korean speaker does this without thinking, and once you have heard it a few times, so will you. A few cases are not predictable from the spelling, above all the tightening after the future ending: 할 수 있어요, I can do it, is said as if it were hal ssu. The topic on tensification lists where it happens. The romanisation stays silent about it on purpose, so that the line under each word stays readable.
Do Koreans still tell ae and e apart?
In writing, always; in speech, mostly not. The vowels written ㅐ and ㅔ were once distinct, the first more open than the second, and they still are in careful speech and in the standard. In the everyday speech of Seoul today, and above all among younger speakers, the two have largely merged into one sound between them. That is why Koreans themselves sometimes have to ask whether a name is spelled with one or the other, and why 개, dog, and 게, crab, are told apart by context. For a learner the advice is simple: learn the spelling of each word, say both as the sound between the e of “bed” and the a of “bad”, and do not worry about being misunderstood.
Does Korean have an r or an l?
One letter does the work of both. Between two vowels it is a light tap of the tongue, close to the t in an American “water”, and the romanisation writes r: 사람, person, saram. At the end of a syllable, and when it is doubled, it is a clear l: 말, word, mal, and 빨리, quickly, ppalli. At the start of a word it appears mostly in loanwords, as in 라면, instant noodles. English speakers usually manage both sounds easily; the trap is to roll the r or to put an English r with rounded lips into a Korean word.
Does Korean have tones or stress?
Standard Korean has no tones: a syllable means the same thing whatever its pitch. Some regional varieties, above all in the southeast, do use pitch to tell words apart, but the Seoul standard does not. There is no strong word stress either; Korean gives its syllables roughly equal weight, so it sounds more even than English. Where pitch matters is at the end of a sentence. Many sentences are questions only because the voice rises: 밥 먹었어요?, have you eaten, and 밥 먹었어요., I have eaten, are written with the same words and said with a different melody. The last syllable is where Korean intonation does its work.
Why is hanyeoreum said hannyeoreum?
Because in some compound words an n sound is inserted where the second part begins with i or y. 한여름, the height of summer, is built from 한, full, and 여름, summer, and is said hannyeoreum. The same happens in 꽃잎, petal, said kkonnip. The rule is real but not fully predictable from the spelling, because it depends on where one word ends and the next begins inside the compound. This site lists the words where it happens and shows the inserted sound in the romanisation, so you can trust the line under each word.
Grammar
The verb at the end, the particles, the numbers, and the places where an English speaker most often goes wrong.
Why does the verb come at the end?
Because the basic order of a Korean sentence is subject, object, verb: 저는 사과를 먹어요, “I an apple eat”. Everything that describes the action — when, where, with whom, how — stands in front of the verb, and the verb with its endings closes the sentence. That is also why the end of a Korean sentence carries so much: tense, negation, politeness, a question, a guess, a promise. For a listener it means waiting for the last word before knowing what is happening; for a speaker it means planning the sentence the other way round. The order of the things in front of the verb is fairly free, because the particles say which noun does what.
What are particles, and why do they change shape?
Particles are small endings attached to a noun that say what it is doing in the sentence, the work that word order and prepositions do in English. 이/가 marks the subject, 을/를 the object, 에 where you go or are, 에서 where something happens. Most come in two shapes, one for a noun that ends in a consonant and one for a noun that ends in a vowel: 책을 읽어요, I read a book, but 커피를 마셔요, I drink coffee. The reason is the sound: Korean avoids two vowels or two consonants crashing together at that join. Look at the last letter of the noun and the right shape follows.
What is the difference between eun/neun and i/ga?
Both can mark the noun a sentence is about, and the choice depends on what is new. 은/는 marks the topic, something already known or being set against something else: 저는 학생이에요, as for me, I am a student. 이/가 marks a subject that is new information, or that answers a question: to 누가 왔어요?, who came, the answer is 민수가 왔어요, Minsu came. A question word as the subject therefore takes 이/가 rather than 은/는: 누가, 뭐가. A useful first rule: introduce something with 이/가, and talk about it further with 은/는. The topic particle also contrasts — 커피는 마셔요 suggests “coffee I do drink, unlike something else”. It takes time to feel, and it is one of the things every learner keeps getting better at.
Why can I leave out “I” and “you”?
Because Korean leaves out whatever is clear from the situation, and the person is usually clear. 어디 가요? is “where are you going?” and 학교에 가요 “I am going to school”, with no pronoun in either. Saying 저는 in every sentence sounds heavy, and saying “you” is a problem of its own: Korean has no neutral word for it that can be used with a stranger or an older person. Instead people use the other person’s name with 씨, their title, or nothing at all. Pronouns come back when there is a contrast to make: 저는 커피, 친구는 차, coffee for me, tea for my friend.
Are Korean adjectives really verbs?
They behave like verbs, and Korean grammar treats them as a kind of verb that describes. They have a dictionary form in -다, take the same endings for tense and politeness, and need no word for “to be”: 날씨가 좋아요 is “the weather is good”, and 날씨가 좋았어요 “the weather was good”. Where they differ from action verbs is in a few endings: before a noun, an adjective takes -(으)ㄴ and an action verb -는, so a good person is 좋은 사람, and an adjective cannot be used for commands or suggestions. Think of “to be good”, “to be busy”, “to be cold” as single words, and the pattern makes sense.
Does Korean have tenses?
Yes, a past and a future, both marked on the verb, and a present that covers a lot. The past adds one syllable before the ending: 가요, I go, 갔어요, I went. The future is most often a phrase after the stem, 갈 거예요, I will go, which also covers guesses. The present form does the work of English “I go” and “I am going”, and with a time word it can also be a plan: 내일 가요, I am going tomorrow. Beyond that Korean has helping verbs for “is doing”, for a state that lasts, and for having done something before, and the tenses page gathers them all in one place.
How do I say yes and no — and why can ne mean no?
Yes is 네, or 예 in a more formal tone, and no is 아니요. The surprise comes with questions that contain a negative. 네 agrees with what the other person said, not with the facts, so to 안 가요?, “aren’t you going?”, the answer 네 means “right, I am not going”, and 아니요 means “no, I am going”. English answers the facts; Korean answers the speaker. 네 also does duty as “I see”, “I’m listening” or “here you are”, which is why Koreans on the phone say it so often. When in doubt, add the verb: 네, 안 가요 is clear either way.
How do I ask a question in Korean?
A yes–no question often needs no change at all: the polite ending -요 stays, and the voice rises at the end. 커피 마셔요? is “do you drink coffee?”. A question with a question word keeps the normal order, with the question word where the answer will stand: 뭐 마셔요? is “what do you drink?”, literally “what drink?”, and 어디에 가요? “where are you going?”. Nothing moves to the front, and there is no “do”. In the formal style the ending changes, -습니까? instead of -습니다, and in casual speech a question can end in -니? or simply in the casual form with a rising voice: 먹어?.
What is the difference between an and mot?
Both stand before the verb and make it negative, but they say different things. 안 is “not”, by choice or as a plain fact: 안 가요, I am not going. 못 is “cannot”, because something prevents it: 못 가요, I can’t go. Using 안 where 못 is meant can sound rude, as if you had decided against somebody’s invitation. With verbs made of a noun and 하다, both go between the two: 공부 안 해요, not 안 공부해요. And the longer forms after the stem, -지 않다 and -지 못하다, mean the same and sound a little more careful.
Why are some Korean verbs irregular?
Because the last sound of some stems changes when an ending starting with a vowel is added. It happens in a few clear groups. A stem in b may turn the b into a w sound: 춥다, cold, 추워요. A stem in d may turn it into an l: 듣다, to listen, 들어요. A stem ending in 르 doubles the l: 모르다, not to know, 몰라요. The vowel 으 drops: 쓰다, to write, 써요. The irregularity is a matter of sound and is regular within each group. The trap is that not every stem that looks the same belongs to the group: 입다, to wear, gives 입어요, and 받다, to receive, gives 받아요. Learn each verb with its polite present and the problem disappears.
How do I say “the book I read” or “the man who came”?
By putting the whole description in front of the noun, with an ending on its verb that says a noun is coming. 제가 읽는 책 is “the book I am reading”, literally “I reading book”. The ending also carries the time: -는 for now, -(으)ㄴ for the past, -(으)ㄹ for what has not happened yet. So 어제 온 사람 is “the person who came yesterday” and 내일 할 일 “the work to do tomorrow”. There are no words for “who”, “which” or “that” in such sentences. However long the description, the noun comes last, and reading Korean means getting used to waiting for it.
Why does Korean have two sets of numbers?
Because it kept its own numbers and also took a full set from Chinese, and each settled into its own jobs. The native numbers, 하나, 둘, 셋, count things and people, give the hour and a person’s age, and go up to ninety-nine. The Sino-Korean numbers, 일, 이, 삼, are used for dates, money, minutes, telephone numbers, floors and everything large. Both can appear in one phrase: 두 시 삼십 분, half past two, has a native hour and Sino-Korean minutes. Four native numbers and twenty change their form before a counter: 하나 becomes 한, so one person is 한 명. The counter after the number usually tells you which set to use.
What are counters, and do I really need them?
A counter is a small word between a number and what is counted, like “slices” in “three slices of bread”, except that Korean uses one every time it counts. People take 명, animals 마리, books 권, cups and glasses 잔, bottles 병, flat things 장, machines and vehicles 대. The order is the reverse of English: noun, number, counter — 커피 두 잔, two cups of coffee. You do need them, but you can start with a few, and the general counter 개 fits most objects when you cannot remember the right one: 사과 세 개, three apples.
Does Korean have plurals and articles?
It has no articles at all: 책 is a book, the book, books or books in general, and the situation decides. Where English needs “this” or “that”, Korean has three words, 이, 그 and 저: this one near me, that one near you, and that one over there. There is a plural ending, -들, but it is optional and used much less than the English “-s”: 학생이 많아요, there are many students, needs none, because “many” already says it. It is used mostly for people and when the plural is the point: 여러분, everyone, and 친구들, my friends.
Politeness and speech levels
Which ending to use with whom, the words that show respect, and why everybody asks how old you are.
Which speech level should I learn first?
The polite ending -아요/어요, the one in 가요, 먹어요 and 해요. It is polite without being stiff, and it is right for almost everybody you meet: shop staff, colleagues, neighbours, people you do not know, people older than you. The formal -습니다 style is for announcements, speeches, the news and the first minutes of a formal meeting; a learner needs to understand it early and to use it in a few set phrases, such as 감사합니다. Casual speech without -요 is for close friends of the same age, younger people who know you well, and children. Starting with -요 means you are never rude, and Koreans will tell you when you may drop it.
What is the difference between -yo and -mnida?
Both are polite; they differ in tone, not in respect. -습니다 and -ㅂ니다 are formal, the voice of announcements, news readers, soldiers, presentations and staff speaking to customers: 감사합니다, 도착했습니다. -아요/어요 is the polite voice of everyday life, softer and more personal: 고마워요, 도착했어요. Many people mix the two in one conversation, using the formal ending for a greeting or a thank-you and the softer one for the rest. Understand both from the start, use -요 by default, and switch to the formal style where everyone around you does.
When can I speak casually?
When the other person invites it, or when the relationship clearly allows it. Casual speech, 반말, leaves off the polite ending — 가 instead of 가요, 먹어 instead of 먹어요 — and is used between close friends of the same age, by older family members to younger ones, and to children. Using it uninvited with a stranger or somebody older is rude, and a learner is not excused for long. The usual way in is an explicit invitation: 말 놓으세요, “drop the polite speech”, or a question such as 우리 말 편하게 할까요?. Between friends who have made that step, going back to -요 sounds cold, so the switch is a real event in a friendship.
What is the honorific -si-?
A syllable put into the verb to show respect for the person who is doing the action, not for the person you are talking to. 가요 is “goes”, and 가세요 is “goes”, said of someone you look up to: 선생님이 가세요, the teacher is going. It is used for older people, teachers, customers, superiors and strangers, and never for yourself: you say 저는 가요, not 저는 가세요. Because the polite request -(으)세요 contains the same syllable, 앉으세요 means “please sit down” as well as “he or she sits”, and the situation tells you which.
Why do some words have a special respectful version?
Because adding -시- is not always enough: a few very common verbs and nouns have a separate word for a person you respect. To eat is 먹다, but a grandmother 드시다; to sleep is 자다, but she 주무시다; to be somewhere is 있다, but she 계시다. Her age is 연세 rather than 나이, her name 성함 rather than 이름, and her house 댁 rather than 집. There are perhaps two dozen such pairs in daily use. Learn them in pairs, and use the respectful one whenever you would put -시- into the verb.
Why shouldn’t I use dangsin for “you”?
Because 당신, which dictionaries give as “you”, is not a neutral word in conversation. Between married couples it is affectionate; in a quarrel it is hostile; in song lyrics and advertising it addresses nobody in particular. Said to a stranger or a colleague, it sounds rude or odd. Korean speakers avoid the problem by not saying “you” at all, which is easy because the pronoun can be left out, or by using a name with 씨, a title such as 선생님, or a word for the person’s role. Among friends of the same age, the casual 너 is fine.
Why do Koreans ask how old I am?
Because age decides how two people speak to each other. Somebody older is addressed with more respect, and somebody younger may be addressed more casually; friendship between people of the same age is the one relationship where casual speech comes naturally. Asking about age, or about the year somebody was born, is therefore not nosy but practical: it tells both sides which endings and which forms of address to use. It is also why Koreans call people they know by a family word or a title — 언니, 형, 선배, a senior at school or work — rather than by name. A learner who answers the question simply and accepts the result is doing exactly what is expected.
What do people mean by “Have you eaten?”
Very often, hello. 밥 먹었어요?, literally “have you eaten rice?”, is a friendly greeting between people who know each other, and an expected answer is 네, 먹었어요 — even if you have not, unless you want to be invited. The same kind of greeting is 어디 가요?, “where are you going?”, asked by a neighbour who does not really need to know: 시장에 잠깐 가요, just to the market for a moment, is plenty. Both show interest in the other person rather than asking for information, and both are easier to answer than to explain.
Words and everyday use
Which words come first, where they come from, the English words that changed on the way, and the family words.
Which Korean words should I learn first?
The ones without which no sentence stands: the question words, the two sets of numbers and the first counters, the days and the time, the commonest verbs and adjectives, and the set phrases of a day — 안녕하세요, 감사합니다, 죄송합니다, 괜찮아요. Learn verbs in their polite present as well as their dictionary form, because the polite form is the one you will say and it shows at once whether the stem is regular. Learn nouns with a particle and a short sentence, because a Korean noun is never alone in a sentence. And learn the words of your own life early: your work, your family, what you eat. The vocabulary lists here begin with exactly those.
What are Sino-Korean words?
Words built from syllables borrowed from Chinese over many centuries. They make up a large part of the vocabulary, especially the formal, academic and technical part, and they work like building blocks: 학, learning, gives 학생, student, 학교, school, and 대학, university; 대, big, gives 대학 and 대사관, embassy. Many everyday ideas have both a native and a Sino-Korean word, and the Sino-Korean one is usually more formal: 이 and 치아 are both teeth, the second at the dentist. Recognising the common syllables is one of the fastest ways to grow a vocabulary, and it does not require learning the Chinese characters behind them.
Are there English words in Korean?
A great many, especially for modern things: 커피, coffee, 컴퓨터, computer, 버스, bus. They are written in Hangul and said with Korean sounds, which can make them hard to recognise at first: an English word ending in a consonant often gains a vowel, so “bus” is said beoseu and “cake” keikeu. The trap is the words that changed on the way, sometimes called Konglish. A 노트북 is a laptop, a 핸드폰 a mobile phone, a 원룸 a studio flat, and a 파이팅 is not a fight but a cheer: “go on, you can do it”. Some are English words combined in a way English never does; others are borrowed English words whose meaning narrowed or shifted.
Why are there so many words for brother and sister?
Because Korean names a sibling by age and by the speaker’s sex. An older brother is 형 if you are male and 오빠 if you are female; an older sister is 누나 to a man and 언니 to a woman; a younger brother or sister is 동생 to everyone, and 남동생 or 여동생 where it matters. These words reach far beyond the family: friends, colleagues and even shop staff are called 언니 or 형, because age decides how people speak to each other and a family word says it warmly. 오빠 in particular is also how a woman may address a boyfriend or a slightly older man she is close to.
What are words like banjjakbanjjak and dugeundugeun?
Sound and manner words, one of the liveliest parts of Korean. Some imitate a sound — 멍멍 is a dog’s bark, 쾅 a bang — and others paint a way of moving or a feeling: 반짝반짝 is something that twinkles, 두근두근 a pounding heart, 엉금엉금 a slow crawl. Most of them are doubled, and many come in pairs whose vowels change the size or weight of the picture. They are used constantly, in speech, in children’s books, in comics and in advertising, usually before a verb: 별이 반짝반짝 빛나요, the stars twinkle. Learn them in a sentence; out of context they are hard to pin down.
Do I need to learn proverbs and four-character idioms?
To understand them, yes; to use them, only a few. Korean speakers quote proverbs in conversation more readily than English speakers do, often only the first half, and four-character idioms built from Chinese syllables are common in writing, the news and careful speech: 작심삼일, “resolution for three days”, is a resolution that does not last. Many everyday idioms are built on the body, and their pictures are not the English ones: 발이 넓다, to have wide feet, is to know a lot of people. For a learner, understanding comes first: you will hear them long before you need to produce them, and one used slightly wrongly sounds stranger than plain words would.
This site
Where the material comes from, who it is for, and what it is not.
Can I use this site as a complete beginner?
Yes. The grammar begins with the letters and the syllable block, every explanation is written in English, every Korean word in every sentence carries its romanisation, and each topic says which level it belongs to — so you can stay at level 1 until it feels secure and move on when it does. You do not need to know a single letter of Hangul to start.
Why does this site write Korean without romanisation in the text itself?
Because Korean is written in Hangul, and a learner should see it the way it is written from the first day. The romanisation is a line under each word, computed from the Hangul by the sound rules, so that you can check how a word is said; it is not a second spelling of the language, and Koreans do not read it. Keeping the two apart has a practical side as well: you can switch the line off and test whether you can read the Hangul alone, and switch it on again when you are not sure.
Where does the material on this site come from?
Every explanation, example sentence, word list and exercise was written for this site. Nothing is taken from a textbook, a grammar, a dictionary, a flashcard deck or another learning site — not even a list of words for a level, because the selection and arrangement of a list is protected even where the single words are not. That is also why the levels of words and grammar here are this project’s own judgement, and say so.
Does this site prepare me for a Korean exam?
No, and that is a statement of fact rather than modesty. The site has no connection with any body that sets or marks examinations, it used none of their word lists and follows none of their syllabuses, and it does not claim to predict anybody’s result. Its levels follow a numbering that learners commonly use, and every placement on it is this project’s own judgement. It explains, gives examples and asks questions. What you practise here helps with any exam, because it is the same language; but a certificate comes from an examining body, not from here.