Travelling to South Korea, there are essential Korean phrases to learn to make your travel smooth. Here are some essential Korean phrases to help you in a number of different situations, such as when shopping or eating out. These basic Korean phrases are quick and easy to learn but will help you so much.
These essential Korean words and phrases for travellers have been split into 6 different sections to cover the different areas where you might need some Korean when travelling to Korea.
These 6 different sections are as follows:
Now, letโs get started with these first 10 basic Korean phrases.
1: Basic Korean Words & Phrases
Things youโll need for every conversation
๋ค. | (Nae) | Yes |
์๋์. | (Ah-nee-yo) | No |
์๋ ํ์ธ์. | (An-nyong-ha-seh-yo) | Hello |
This can be said at any point in the day, and you can reply to this in the same manner. But if you know someone well, you can just say ์๋ (an-nyong). This is considered rude with strangers and older people though, so be careful.
์๋ ํ ๊ณ์ธ์. | (An-nyong-hee gyeh-seh-yo) | Goodbye |
์ฃผ์ธ์. | (Ju-seh-yo) | Pleaseย give |
๊ฐ์ฌํฉ๋๋ค. | (Gam-sa-ham-ni-da) | Thank youย |
์ ์๋ง์. | (Cham-shi-man-yo) | Excuse me |
์ฃ์กํฉ๋๋ค. | (Joe-seong-ham-ni-da)ย | Iโm sorry |
๊ด์ฐฎ์์? | (Gwen-chahn-ah-yo?) | Is this OK? |
๊ด์ฐฎ์์. | (Gwen-chahn-ah-yo) | Itโs OK / No problem |
โOKโ, is very flexible and you can use it when you want to say youโre OK, refuse something or ask if it is okay to do something.
๊ด์ฐฎ์์? Are you OK?
2: Greetings and Introduction
what to say when you meet someone
These essential Korean phrases for greeting people will really help you stand out.
I have earlier mentioned โHelloโ which is a basic greeting anytime of the day.
๋ฐ๊ฐ์ต๋๋ค. | (Ban-gap-soom-ni-da) | Nice to meet you. |
์ด๋ฆ์ด ๋ญ์์?ย | (Ee-room-ee mwo-ye-yo?) | What is your name? |
์ ์ด๋ฆ์ _ ์ด์์. | (Jae ee-room-un _ ee-eh-yo) | My name is ____. |
์ด๋ป๊ฒ ์ง๋ด์ธ์? | (uh-dduh-kehย ji-neh-seh-yo?) | Hope you are fine? |
This is a standard way of asking someone how they have been. Itโs used to inquire about a personโs welfare. It is the Korean way of asking โHow have you beenโ?
์ ์ง๋ด์? | (Jal jee-nae-yo?) | How are you? |
์ ์ง๋ด์. | (jal-ji-neh-yo) | I am fine |
This is a standard response to the question โhow are youโ?
์์ด ํ ์ ์์ด์? | (Yong-oh hal su iss-oh-yo?) | Do you speak English? |
ํ๊ตญ๋ง ์ ๋ชปํด์. | (Han-goog-mal jal mot-hae-yo) | I canโt speak Korean well. |
์ฒ์ฒํ ๋ง ํด์ฃผ์ธ์. | (Chon-chon-hee mal hae-ju-seh-yo) | Please speak slowly. |
์ข์ ํ๋ฃจ ๋ณด๋ด์ธ์. | (Jo-un ha-ru bo-nae-seh-yo) | Have a good day. |
์ ๋ ____ ์์ ์์ด์. | (Jo-nun ____ eh-so wass-oh-yo) | Iโm from ____. |
3: Korean Words when Dining
How to ask for and order stuff

You canโt travel to South Korea and not try the delicious local foods! On every street, youโll find indoor and outdoor food venues. Ordering food in a Korean restaurant can vary from being really easy to a real challenge. These phrases will help you when youโre up for some dining.
๋ฉ๋ด ์ฃผ์ธ์. | (Men-yu ju-seh-yo) | Please give me a menu. |
์์ด๋ฉ๋ด๊ฐ ์๋์? | (Yong-oh-men-yu-ga it-na-yo?) | Do you have an English menu? |
์ด๊ฑฐ ๋งค์์? | (Ee-goh mae-wo-yo?) | Is this spicy? |
์ผ๋ง์์? | (Ol-ma-yeh-yo?) | How much is it? |
์ธ ์ฃผ์ธ์. | (ssaย ju-seh-yo) | Please wrap / Itโs to-go |
๊ณ์ฐ์ ์ฃผ์ธ์. | (Gyeh-san-soh ju-seh-yo) | Please give me the bill. |
์ ๋จน์์ต๋๋ค. | (Jal moh-goh-ssoom-ni-da) | That was delicious. |
How to use transportation
Travelling in Korea is a lot easier than you might think. Almost all of the signs at the airport, train stations, subways, and on buses, are in English. It is inevitable that you may get lose your way or go off track.
๊ธฐ์ฐจ์ญ์ ์ด๋์์? | (Gee-cha-yog-eun oh-dee-yeh-yo?) | Where is the train station? |
ํ์ฅ์ค์ด ์ด๋์์? | (Hwa-jang-shil-ee oh-dee-yeh-yo?) | Where is the toilet? |
์ผ์ชฝ | (oen-jjok) | Left |
์ค๋ฅธ์ชฝ | (oh-reun-jjok) | Right |
์ง์ง | (jik-jjin) | Straight |
These are important for when you are asking for directions. You need to memorize them.
____ ์ด๋์์? | (___ oh-dee-yeh-yo?) | Where is the ____? |
์ฌ๊ธฐ์. | (Yoh-gee-eh.) | Here. |
์ฌ๊ธฐ์ ์ธ์ ์ฃผ์ธ์. | (Yoh-gee-soh seh-wo-ju-seh-yo) | Please stop here. |
This is useful for when you take a taxi.
5: Korean Phrases to Help You when shopping In Koreaโs Markets
Buying and asking about goods
Shopping in Korea will be a lot easier with these essential Korean phrases, whether you are in a department store or trying to buy some Korean street food.
์ผ๋ง์์? | (Ol-ma-yeh-yo?) | How much is it? |
This is a Korean word you can use for ordering food, shopping, and so much more. Want to haggle for an item in the market? Just ask ol-ma-yeh-yo?
๋น์ธ์! | (Bi-ssa-yo!) | Itโs expensive! |
์ธ์! | (Ssa-yo!) | Itโs cheap! |
๊น์ ์ฃผ์ธ์. | (Kka-kka ju-seh-yo.) | Please give me a discount. |
์นด๋ ๋ฐ์ผ์ธ์? | (Kah-deu bad-euh-seh-yo?) | Do you take credit cards? |
____ ์์ด์? | (____ iss-so-yo?) | Do you have ____? |
๊ตํํด ์ฃผ์ธ์. | (Gyo-hwan-hae ju-seh-yo.) | Please give me an exchange. |
6: Emergencies โ Essential Korean Phrases When In Need
What to say when you need help
Hopefully you will never need to use these emergency Korean phrases, but they are here for you just in case.
There are separate numbers for the different emergency services in Korea. Dial 112 to contact the police and 119 for fire and medical emergencies.
๋์์ฃผ์ธ์! | (Doh-wah-ju-seh-yo!) | Help! |
This literally means โGive me help,โ
๊ธด๊ธ์ํฉ์ด์์! | (Gin-geum-sang-hwang-ee-eh-yo!) | Itโs an emergency! |
Whatever the nature of your problem, this phrase will get you rapid assistance.
์ด๋์ ๋์์ ๋ฐ์ ์ ์๋์? | (Oh-di-soh doh-oom-eul bad-eul su -itnayo?) | Where can I get help? |
๊ฒฝ์ฐฐ์ ๋ถ๋ฌ์ฃผ์ธ์. | (Gyong-chal-eul bul-lo-ju-seh-yo.) | Call the police. |
๋ณ์ | (Byong-won) | Hospital |
๊ตฌ๊ธ์ฐจ๋ฅผ ๋ถ๋ฌ์ฃผ์ธ์. | (Gu-geum-cha-reul bul-loh ju-seh-yo.) | Please call an ambulance. |
๋๋ ์์ฌ๊ฐ ํ์ํด์. | (Na-neun wi-sa-ga pil-yo-hae-yo.) | I need a doctor. |
์ฌ๊ธฐ๊ฐ ์ํ์. | (Yoh-gi-ga ah-pah-yo.) | It hurts here. |
๋ชธ์ด ์ํ์. | (mom-ee ah-pah-yo.) | I feel sick. |