Topic guide
Korean Greetings & Everyday Politeness โ The Survival Set
Every Korean interaction runs on a small set of ritual phrases โ and almost all of them come in a polite version and a casual version. Learn the phrase AND its level, and you sound like you get it.
This set covers arriving, thanking, apologizing, agreeing, calling for help, and the meal-table rituals โ the complete survival kit for your first conversations.
- 01
What Does ์๋ ํ์ธ์ (Annyeonghaseyo) Mean in Korean?
Learn what ์๋ ํ์ธ์ (annyeonghaseyo) means, its literal meaning 'are you at peace?', when to bow, and how it differs from casual ์๋ .
- 02
What Does ์๋ (Annyeong) Mean in Korean?
Learn what ์๋ (annyeong) means โ the casual Korean hi that also means bye โ who you can say it to, and how it relates to ์๋ ํ์ธ์.
- 03
์๋ ํ ๊ฐ์ธ์ vs ์๋ ํ ๊ณ์ธ์: The Goodbye Pair
Learn the difference between ์๋ ํ ๊ฐ์ธ์ and ์๋ ํ ๊ณ์ธ์ โ Korean's two polite goodbyes โ and which one to say based on who's leaving.
- 04
What Does ๊ฐ์ฌํฉ๋๋ค (Kamsahamnida) Mean in Korean?
Learn what ๊ฐ์ฌํฉ๋๋ค (kamsahamnida) means and how to choose between ๊ฐ์ฌํฉ๋๋ค, ๊ณ ๋ง์์, and ๊ณ ๋ง์ โ Korean's three levels of thank you.
- 05
๊ฐ์ฌํฉ๋๋ค vs ๊ณ ๋ง์: Which 'Thank You' Should You Use?
๊ฐ์ฌํฉ๋๋ค, ๊ณ ๋ง์์, or ๊ณ ๋ง์? A situation-by-situation guide to choosing the right Korean thank-you, with examples and a quiz.
- 06
What Does ์ฃ์กํฉ๋๋ค (Joesonghamnida) Mean in Korean?
Learn what ์ฃ์กํฉ๋๋ค (joesonghamnida) means โ the formal Korean apology โ how it differs from ๋ฏธ์ํด, and when 'excuse me' uses it too.
- 07
What Does ๋ฏธ์ํด (Mianhae) Mean in Korean?
Learn what ๋ฏธ์ํด (mianhae) means โ the casual Korean sorry โ plus ๋ฏธ์ํด์, ์ง์ง ๋ฏธ์ํด, and why K-drama apologies hit differently.
- 08
๋ค (Ne) vs ์ (Eung): How to Say Yes in Korean
๋ค (ne) and ์ (eung) both mean yes โ but one is polite and one is casual. Learn which to use, plus ์ (ye) and why ๋ค doesn't always mean 'yes'.
- 09
How to Say No in Korean (์๋์/์๋)
Learn how to say 'no' in Korean โ ์๋์ (polite) and ์๋ (casual) โ plus how Korean 'no' answers work differently than English on negative questions.
- 10
What Does ์ ๊ธฐ์ (Jeogiyo) Mean in Korean?
Learn what ์ ๊ธฐ์ (jeogiyo) means โ the all-purpose Korean 'excuse me' for calling staff and strangers โ plus ์ฌ๊ธฐ์ and restaurant culture.
- 11
What Does ์ด์ ์ค์ธ์ (Eoseo Oseyo) Mean in Korean?
Learn what ์ด์ ์ค์ธ์ (eoseo oseyo) means โ the 'welcome!' you hear entering every Korean shop โ and whether you're supposed to reply.
- 12
Why Do Koreans Ask ๋ฐฅ ๋จน์์ด? (Did You Eat?)
๋ฐฅ ๋จน์์ด? (bap meogeosseo) means 'did you eat?' โ but it's really a Korean greeting meaning 'how are you?'. Learn the culture and how to answer.
- 13
What Does ์ ๋จน๊ฒ ์ต๋๋ค (Jal Meokgetseumnida) Mean?
Learn what ์ ๋จน๊ฒ ์ต๋๋ค (jal meokgetseumnida) means โ 'I will eat well' โ when to say it, and its after-meal partner ์ ๋จน์์ต๋๋ค.
- 14
What Does ์๊ณ ํ์ด (Sugohaesseo) Mean in Korean?
Learn what ์๊ณ ํ์ด (sugohaesseo) means โ 'you worked hard / good job' โ the levels ์๊ณ ํ์ จ์ต๋๋ค and ์๊ณ ํ์ธ์, and why English can't quite translate it.
- 15
๋ vs ์จ: Korean Titles Explained
Learn the difference between ๋ (nim) and ์จ (ssi) โ the two most common Korean title suffixes โ and when each one fits.
- 16
What Do ์๋ง and ์๋น Mean? Mom and Dad in Korean
Learn ์๋ง (mom) and ์๋น (dad) in Korean, the more formal ์ด๋จธ๋/์๋ฒ์ง, and why kids (and grown adults) keep using the cute versions for life.
- 17
How to Say Good Night in Korean
Learn how to say good night in Korean โ ์ ์์ (polite) and ์ ์ (casual) โ plus the sweet-dreams variant ์ข์ ๊ฟ ๊ฟ.
- 18
How to Say Happy Birthday in Korean
Learn how to say Happy Birthday in Korean โ ์์ผ ์ถํํด์/์ถํํฉ๋๋ค โ at every politeness level, plus the birthday seaweed soup tradition.
- 19
How to Introduce Yourself in Korean
Learn how to introduce yourself in Korean โ name, nationality, and a polite closing line โ with a full example script using patterns you already know.
- 20
10 Ways to Say Thank You in Korean
From formal ๊ฐ์ฌํฉ๋๋ค to casual ๊ณ ๋ง์, here are 10 ways to say thank you in Korean, organized by how polite or casual each one sounds.
- 21
10 Ways to Say Goodbye in Korean
Korean goodbye depends on who's leaving โ ์๋ ํ ๊ฐ์ธ์ vs ์๋ ํ ๊ณ์ธ์ โ plus casual, phone, and see-you-later versions. 10 phrases, organized by situation.
- 22
8 Ways to Say "I Love You" in Korean
์ฌ๋ํด isn't the only way to express love in Korean โ from a formal ์ฌ๋ํฉ๋๋ค to a lighter ์ข์ํด, here are 8 phrases organized by depth and formality.
- 23
6 Ways to Say Good Morning in Korean
From formal ์๋ ํ ์ฃผ๋ฌด์ จ์ด์? to casual ๊ตฟ๋ชจ๋, here are 6 ways to say good morning in Korean, organized by how polite or casual each one sounds.
- 24
5 Ways to Say I Miss You in Korean
From the everyday ๋ณด๊ณ ์ถ์ด์ to the deep, poetic ๊ทธ๋ฆฌ์์, here are 5 ways to say I miss you in Korean, organized by how polite or intense each one sounds.
- 25
6 Ways to Say Congratulations in Korean
From formal ์ถํ๋๋ฆฝ๋๋ค to a casual ์ถํํด, here are 6 ways to say congratulations in Korean, organized by formality and occasion.
- 26
6 Ways to Say You're Welcome in Korean
From formal ์ฒ๋ง์์ to a casual ์๋์ผ, here are 6 ways to say you're welcome (or no problem) in Korean, organized by how polite or casual each one sounds.
- 27
6 Ways to Say See You Later in Korean
From formal ๋ค์์ ๋ ๋ต๊ฒ์ to casual ์ด๋ฐ ๋ด, here are 6 ways to say see you later in Korean, organized by formality and timing.
- 28
5 Ways to Say Good Luck in Korean
From formal ํ์ด์ ๋น๋๋ค to the iconic ํ์ดํ , here are 5 ways to say good luck in Korean, organized by formality and situation.
Want these to stick?
Quiz yourself in today's study session โ