Check your own Korean

Write or paste a Korean text in Hangul. This page holds it up against exactly the rules the site itself teaches: 147 things standard Korean does not write, 182 misspellings that even Korean writers make and 0 loanwords that are false friends. Each finding comes with the page on which the rule is explained. Everything runs in your browser; the text never leaves your device.

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What it is measured against

Every rule in this checker is on one of these pages — and the same table checks this site’s own Korean when it is built. A finding without a source would be an assertion; here are the sources, even without you checking anything.

On top of that: -(으)ㄴ/는 데다가 About: 에 대해(서) and 에 대한 Depending on: 에 따라(서) and 에 따른 Because, and then: -아서/어서 Whether … or, any at all: -든지 Before and after: -기 전에, -(으)ㄴ 후에 Because, firmly: -기 때문에 and 때문에 And, and then: -고 The more … the more: -(으)ㄹ수록 In order to, intending to: -(으)려고 Since I will, since it will: -(으)ㄹ 테니까 It seems, I think: -(으)ㄴ/는/(으)ㄹ 것 같다 Might: -(으)ㄹ지도 모르다 I'll do it: the promise ending -(으)ㄹ게요 Shall we?: -(으)ㄹ까요 False friends A is not B: 아니에요 Yes–no questions and answering 네/아니요 Question words: 뭐, 누구, 어디 … A is B: 이에요/예요 There is, I have: 있어요/없어요 The verb comes last Final consonants: seven sounds at the end of a block The letters and the syllable block Plain, aspirated, tense: 가, 카, 까 May and must not: -아도/어도 되다, -(으)면 안 되다 Must and have to: -아야/어야 하다 Want to: -고 싶다 Know how to: -(으)ㄹ 줄 알다/모르다 Can and cannot: -(으)ㄹ 수 있다/없다 Have you ever: -(으)ㄴ 적이 있다/없다 Reporting a question: -냐고 하다 Causative suffixes: 이, 히, 리, 기, 우, 구, 추 Aspiration and palatalisation: 축하 and 같이 An inserted ㄴ, and the three sounds of 의 Tensification: 학교 sounds like 학꾜 Adjectives before a noun: 좋은, 예쁜, 맛있는 The remembered past before a noun: 내가 다니던 학교 The written nominaliser -음: 있음, 없음, 알림 The thing that …: 것, 거 and -는 것 The nominaliser -기: 읽기 쉬워요, 자기 전에 When: -을 때 and 방학 때 Nothing but: 밖에 with a negative From and until: 부터 and 까지 Like and as … as: 처럼, 같이, 만큼 에: to a place, at a place, at a time To and from a person: 에게, 한테, 께 에서: where something happens, and "from" The object particle 을/를 The topic particle 은/는 Direction, means and change: (으)로 The subject particle 이/가 Every and each: 마다 and 씩 The possessive 의 and its contractions And between nouns: 와/과, 하고, (이)랑 Stems in 비읍 (b): 춥다 → 추워요, 돕다 → 도와요 Stems in 디귿 (d): 듣다 → 들어요, 걷다 → 걸어요 The vowel 으 drops: 쓰다 → 써요 Adjectives in 히읗 (h): 그렇다 → 그래요, 빨갛다 → 빨개요 Stems in 리을 (l): 살다 → 사세요, 만들다 → 만듭니다 Stems in 르: 모르다 → 몰라요, 부르다 → 불러요 Stems in 시옷 (s): 낫다 → 나아요, 짓다 → 지어요 Verb families The polite present -아요/어요 Casual speech: -아/어 and the plain -다 Humble words: 저, 드리다, 뵙다 Honorific words: 드시다, 주무시다, 계시다 The formal style: 갑니다, 먹습니다 Not: 안 before the verb Verbs that are negative already: 없다, 모르다, 아니다 Long negation: -지 않다 and -지 못하다 Don't: -지 마세요 and -지 맙시다 Cannot: 못 before the verb Dates: months, days and weekdays Money: 원, 만 and 얼마예요 Native Korean numbers: 하나, 둘, 셋 Telling the time: 세 시 이십 분 Counters: 개, 명, 마리 and the rest How long: 동안, 만에 and 지나다 In the middle of: -는 중이다 The past tense -았/었- The future with -(으)ㄹ 거예요

What this checker can do — and what it cannot

It does not check your Korean. It checks 329 particular things in it. A text with no findings is not a text without mistakes: tenses, word order, articles and everything there is no rule for here are invisible to this tool. The reverse holds, though: whatever it reports is explained on a page of this site.

Three levels of certainty, and the difference matters. A mistake is a construction this site explicitly rules out — there is nothing to weigh up. A spelling is a misspelling that does not stop anybody from understanding you, and many Korean writers make it themselves: 며칠 spelt as if it were built from 몇 and 일, 설거지 and 희한하다 written the way they sound, a loanword spelt as people say it. The standard writes each of them one way, and so does this site. A note is a question rather than a verdict, kept for words that are good Korean and may still not be what you meant — the loanwords that look like English and mean something else.

Topic or subject particle, tense, speech level, and words that sound alike are left out on purpose. They are among the commonest mistakes of all, and as a rule none of them can be recognised from a pattern: 저는 학생이에요 and 제가 학생이에요 are both correct, and only the writer knows which was meant. The same goes for spacing that depends on meaning — 안 돼요, “it is not allowed”, and 안됐어요, “what a pity”, are both right. Where a pattern does settle it — 할 수 있어요 written as one word, 돼요 typed with the wrong vowel — the checker speaks; everywhere else a checker that guessed would be wrong often enough that nobody believed it the next time it was right. Each has its own page; here the checker stays silent.

The word list below is information, not a mark. It shows which levels the words of your text sit at in this vocabulary. A text made entirely of A1 words can be very good, and one full of C1 words very bad.