Everyone loves a blue sky, especially after a few cloudy days or a day of rain. It makes you feel happy and alive. Your mood brightens and things just feel right with the world.
How do Koreans say sky in Korean? Well, for starters, it’s considered one of the more “beautiful” words in Korean. Not only is it something we name for the blue vastness above us, people also use it as a name for themselves or children.
Let’s start with the basic word for sky:
하늘 (ha-neul)
It’s a really word to remember and one of the easier Korean words to pronounce. As we said earlier, people are also named after the sky. You may know a famous Korean actress named 김하늘. I’ve also had a few students I’ve taught English to over the years with the name as well.
Now what if you wanted to describe the color of the sky. In English, the color of the sky is referred to as sky blue. In Korean, you would say:
하늘색 (ha-neul-saek)
Here, you can see the word ‘색’ added on to the word. It means color (check out our post on colors here).
You can also add words to 하늘 just like you would in English to describe what kind of sky it is. Here are some variations:
파란 하늘 (pa-ran ha-neul) = a blue sky
밤 하늘 (bam ha-neul) = the night sky
흐린 하늘 (heu-rin ha-neul) = a cloudy sky/cloudy skies
맑은 하늘 (mal-geun ha-neul) = a clear sky/clear skies
하늘나라 (ha-neul-na-ra) = heaven
And that’s it! Try listening for this word during conversations, songs, and your favorite dramas, and you will also be able to pick up on other related words. See you next time!