Koreans are just like most people and when they are in romantic relationships, they like to use terms of endearment towards their sweethearts. There are many that they use (click on the previous link), but today, we’re going to focus on a specific one. Namely saying “honey” in Korean.
The terms 자기 and 여보 are used a lot in conversation between couples (you will hear it on drama a lot). For 자기, you can use this when you are dating or when you are married.
Korean differs from English when referring to siblings. For instance, in English, someone is a brother or sister regardless of the person’s sex.
However with Korean, how you refer to your brother will depend on whether you are a man or a woman and your age. This is one of the very first things you will probably learn when you start learning Korean.
For starters:
Women referring to their older brother: 오빠 (o-ppa)
Learning how to say why in Korean will take you no more than a few minutes to learn especially since it sounds slightly similar to “why”. For starters, there are two ways to say why when you want to ask why someone is feeling a certain way or why they are doing something.
For example:
그 여자 정말 싫어 = I really dislike that girl.
왜/왜요? = Why?
If you have Korean friends, acquaintances, or if you are/will be spending a decent amount of time in Korea, then this will be a handy phrase to know. You will eventually want to congratulate someone on their graduation, a birthday, wedding, etc. Like most places, these milestones are a big deal and people like to … Read more
This is one of the most common phrases you will use and come across, especially if you are dating a Korean significant other. If you watch a lot of Korean dramas or listen to a lot of Korean songs, you will hear this A LOT.
My wife and I still use this a lot ;p
Since missing someone implies closeness, the most common form you will be using is 보고 싶어 which is the casual/informal form. This form drops the “요”. The phrase is a combination of the verb 보다 (to see) and the grammatical form to want (~고 싶다). We will be starting a grammar series soon so we will go more in-depth about this form at some point in the future.
The word for water in Korean is very easy to learn and kind of sounds like an extending cow sound (moo) in English with an l sound added on at the end.
This should be one of the first words you learn and you should know how to ask for water as well. A lot of other words use “물” such as “콧물” for mucus. It literally means nose water. Same thing for tears which is “눈물” which literally means eye water.
We’ve also included other words related to water in the infographic above:
Chances are if you come to Korea for work or travel (and are 18+ ㅋㅋ), you will be invited to go out and drink with your coworkers or friends. When you go out with your coworkers, it is called a “회식” and you eat, talk, and drink with each other.
Now if you don’t drink, don’t be afraid to refrain from drinking and just tell them the reason why. Aside from the older generation, most people will have no problem.
So last week, we did a post on how to say grandfather in Korean. So naturally, we had to do one on grandmother as well! Saying grandma follows the same standard as grandpa as there are slightly different ways to say it depending on if it’s your mother or father’s side and if you want to say it in a formal or informal way.
Keep in mind that for both grandma and grandpa, a standard 할머니/할아버지 can be used for both sides of the family. Adding the “외” is more academically correct in terms of studying.
Korean family vocabulary can be a bit difficult to learn for learners of Korean. Even Koreans don’t know all the proper terms for family members. The reason being is that unlike in English where “grandpa” or “grandma” can be used for both sides of the family, that’s not the case for Korean. This applies to all family titles.