· 7 lists · 280 words

Idioms, sound words and loanwords

Sound words, four-character idioms, body idioms, loanwords, formal words.

What holds these lists together

These lists are not about a subject but about a kind of word, and each kind pays off in every other list. Korean has a great many words that imitate a sound or paint a manner, usually doubled: 반짝반짝for something that twinkles두근두근for a pounding heart The four-character idioms come from Chinese and pack a story into four syllables, and the body idioms say things English says with other pictures: 발이 넓다, “to have wide feet”, is to know a lot of people. The loanwords are a trap of their own, because many of them changed meaning on the way: a 노트북 is a laptop, not a notebook. And the written style has words of its own, such as 및 for “and”, that a learner meets in every notice and article.

The seven lists

3Sound and manner wordsThe words Korean uses to imitate a sound or paint the way something moves.40 words 4Four-character idiomsThe four-syllable sayings Koreans use in everyday speech.40 words 4Idioms with parts of the bodyHeavy mouths, thin ears and a big liver: character in body parts.40 words 3Verb phrases learnt as a unitA noun and a verb that only mean what they mean together.40 words 2Loanwords of daily lifeEnglish-looking words that mean something else in Korea: a laptop, a studio flat, a desk lamp.40 words 4False friends from EnglishLoanwords whose Korean meaning is not the English one.40 words 4Words of the written styleThe stiff, compact words of notices, forms and reports.40 words

Spread across the levels

The category runs across the levels — it is an area, not a difficulty. If you practise it, you can also choose a level at the top of the practice page and then get only the part that sits there.

Level	Words	Share
2	47	17 %
3	84	30 %
4	149	53 %

Practise this category

Multiple choice and gaps, across all seven lists and all 280 words. Whatever you get wrong comes back tomorrow.