Essential Korean Phrases for Daily Conversations

Mastering a few basic Korean phrases can give you a headstart as you learn to communicate in Korean. They will not only help you get by in your travels, but also help you develop confidence in your Korean language skills. In this article, we’ll teach you some common Korean phrases you can use in various settings.

Common Korean phrases for introductions and greetings

We’ll start with some important phrases you can use to greet people and introduce yourself in Korean.

When you meet someone for the first time and say hello, it’s important to use formal language, so you should say ‘안녕하세요’ rather than ‘안녕.’

To say goodbye, you can say ‘안녕히 가세요’ or ‘안녕히 계세요.’ We say ‘안녕히 가세요’ to someone leaving a place, while we say ‘안녕히 계세요’ to someone staying at a place.

The table below shows some more phrases for greetings and introductions.

Basic greetings

Now look at the following table for some useful greeting expressions you can use with people you already know.

Basic Korean phrases for talking about personal information

Next, let’s go over some useful phrases for giving and asking about personal information, such as a person’s name and age.

There are two ways of asking someone’s name. We use “성함이 어떻게 되세요?” in more formal situations and when asking the name of someone with seniority. On the other hand, we use “이름이 뭐예요?” in most other settings and when asking the name of someone of similar age or status.

To say your name, you can say “제 이름은 (name) 입니다” (“My name is…”) with your name in the blank.

Similar to asking someone’s name, we also have both a formal and informal way to ask someone’s age. “나이가 어떻게 되세요?” is the more formal question, and “몇 살이에요?” is the standard question.

To say your age, you can say “저는 (age) 살이에요” (“I’m ___ years old”), adding your age in the blank. We say our age using native Korean numbers. To learn how to say Korean numbers, check out our complete guide to Korean numbers.

To say where you are from, just say “저는 (name of country) 에서 왔어요.” (“I’m from ___”).

Most country names are just said phonetically in Korean – for example, ‘Spain’ is pronounced 스페인 [Seu-pe-in] and ‘Canada’ is pronounced 캐나다 [Kae-na-da]. However, there are some country names which are pronounced differently in Korean, as shown in the list below:

• USA: 미국 [Mi-guk]
• UK: 영국 [Yeong-guk]
• Germany: 독일 [Do-gil]
• Australia: 호주 [Ho-ju]
• China: 중국 [Jung-guk]
• Japan: 일본 [Il-bon]
• Thailand: 태국 [Tae-guk]

The following table summarizes some of the useful Korean phrases for talking about personal information.

Important Korean phrases for being polite

Like every language, Korean also has common expressions that mean ‘thank you,’ ‘sorry,’ ‘excuse me’ and other polite phrases that are important for everyday interactions.

As we saw earlier, Korean often has two phrases for the same expression – a standard phrase and a formal phrase. The expressions for ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’ follow this pattern. They are very common in everyday life, so it’s important to know both of them. You can see the standard and formal expressions in the table below.

There are also two phrases for ‘excuse me.’ The formal expression is ‘실례합니다.’ You can use this phrase in all kinds of situations, such as when you want to ask a question to a stranger or when you are trying to push your way through a crowd.

We use the phrase ‘저기요’ to catch another person’s attention. For example, you might say ‘저기요’ to catch the attention of someone who accidentally leaves their phone behind. We also use this phrase to catch the attention of servers at restaurants.

Lastly, we have two phrases to express gratitude for food we are about to eat or food we have eaten. Right before the meal, we say ‘잘 먹겠습니다,’ and right after the meal, we say ‘잘 먹었습니다.’ We can even use these phrases in restaurants when a server brings our food to the table.

Essential Korean phrases for ‘yes’ and ‘no’

It’s also important to be able to answer questions with ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ The table below shows some of the Korean words and phrases you need to do this.

We have two forms of ‘yes.’ In general, the more common, everyday term is ‘네,’ and this is appropriate in nearly all situations. The more formal form is ‘예,’ and this can be used in very formal settings, or when speaking to people with very high seniority, such as elderly people.

We say ‘알겠습니다’ (okay) to confirm that we have understood what the other person said. A slightly less formal form is ‘알겠어요’ [al-ge-sseo-yo]. However, in general it’s more common to use ‘알겠습니다,’ especially when speaking to people we don’t know, such as those we are meeting for the first time and workers in restaurants and shops.

The phrase “좋아요” (“Sounds good”) comes from ‘좋다’ [jo-ta], which means ‘to be good.’ We use this polite phrase when accepting an invitation or agreeing with someone’s suggestion to do something. So if a Korean friend suggests going to see a movie, and you want to say “Okay,” then you can say “좋아요.”

Useful Korean phrases for communication

Next let’s look at some useful phrases you need to know when communicating with native Koreans.

To let people know that you can speak Korean, you can say “한국말 할 수 있어요.” The phrase ‘한국말’ means ‘Korean language’ and ‘할 수 있어요’ means ‘can do,’ so “한국말 할 수 있어요” literally means “I can do Korean language,” or “I can speak Korean.”

You can also add ‘조금’ and say “한국말 조금 할 수 있어요” (“I can speak a little Korean”). You can say “한국말 잘 못 해요” to tell someone you don’t speak Korean very well. ‘못 해요’ means ‘cannot do’ and ‘잘’ means ‘well,’ so “한국말 잘 못 해요” means “I cannot speak Korean well.”

Finally, ‘말해 주세요’ means ‘please speak,’ so you can use this phrase with ‘다시’ (again) or ‘천천히’ (slowly) to say “Please say (that) again” or “Please speak slowly.”

Important Korean phrases for shopping

If you’re planning to do any shopping in Korea, a few phrases will make things easier. Let’s learn some basic phrases you can use when you are shopping in Korea.

To ask about the price of things, you can ask “얼마예요?” which means “How much?” You can add the words for specific things in front of this question, so to ask for the price of a coat (‘코트’), you would ask “코트 얼마예요?” (How much is the coat?)

The table above also shows the question “이거 얼마예요?” (“How much is this?”) The word ‘이거’ means ‘this.’ To ask “How much is that?” you can say “그거 얼마예요?” or “저거 얼마예요?” The word ‘그거’ refers to an object close to the listener and ‘저거’ refers to an object far from both the speaker and the listener.

Another useful question is “뭐예요?” which means “What is (it)?” We can again use words like ‘이거’ (this), ‘그거’ (that) and ‘저거’ (that) to ask questions like “What is this?” or “What is that?”

To ask whether you can try on something in a clothing store, you can ask “입어 봐도 돼요?” (“Can I try it on?”) You can use the words ‘이거’ (this), ‘그거’ (that), and ‘저거’ (that) to ask questions like “Can I try this on?” or “Can I try that on?” You can also ask about specific items of clothing by saying something like, “청바지 입어 봐도 돼요?” (“Can I try the jeans on?”)

Perhaps the most important phrase is ‘주세요’ (‘please give me’). To make requests in English, the common question is “Can I….” However, in Korean we say “Please give me….” You can use words like ‘이거’ (this), ‘그거’ (that) and ‘저거’ (that) to say “Please give me this” or “Please give me that,” but you can also add the things we want to ask for in front of ‘주세요.’ So to ask for socks, you can say “양말 주세요” (“Please give me socks”).

Useful Korean phrases for restaurants

Let’s conclude by discussing some basic Korean phrases you can use when you go to a restaurant.

All of the sentences in the table above use the phrase ‘주세요’ (‘please give me’) to make a request at a restaurant. To order food, you can say “(food) 인 분 주세요” (“Please give me a portion of___”), adding your order in the blank. To ask for more than one portion, you can change ‘일’ (1) to another Sino-Korean number, such as ‘이’ (2) or ‘삼’ (3).

To order drinks, you can say “(drink) 한 병 주세요” (“Please give me a bottle of__”), adding the drink you want in the blank. ‘병’ means ‘bottle,’ and to ask for more than one bottle of something, you can change ‘한’ (1) to another native Korean number, such as ‘두’ (2) or ‘세’ (3).

In Korean restaurants, we sometimes have to ask for more side dishes. To do so, you can say “저기요, (side dish) 더 주세요” (“Excuse me, please give me more___”). You can just ask for more of a side dish by saying ‘반찬’ (side dish), or you can ask for something specific like ‘김치’ (kimchi).

Essential Korean phrases recap

It’s important to learn the basic phrases when you start learning a language, and in this article, we’ve provided phrases on how to introduce yourself in Korean, how to say ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry,’ and how to ask people to speak slowly and repeat what they have said. We’ve also looked at many useful Korean phrases you can use when shopping and when eating at restaurants.

As always, practice helps to reinforce what you’ve learned, so why not head over to the nearest Korean restaurant and practice ordering food in Korean!