The only 15 phrases you’ll need for your first trip to Korea

You have booked your first vacation to Korea. You probably know the basics about the country, the customs, the history and maybe you even know some Hangul. But what when you need to ask where the restroom is at the airport, what direction your hotel is in? In this blog I will provide you with the only 15 basic & essential sentences that you will need to survive your vacation to Korea.

And do you not know any Korean yet? No worries. All sentences also have romanized versions with them so you will be able to mimic the correct sounds. Although I do recommend learning Hangul as it will make it much easier to achieve the correct sounds!

Tip: download the images to have a basic Korean phrases cheatsheet in your photo gallery!

1. Hello

안녕하세요 (an-nyeong-ha-se-yo)

Let’s start at the beginning of a conversation: hello! You will hear Koreans say this whenever they greet a friend or when walking into a restaurant. The starting sentence for many thing, so an absolute essential!

2. Nice to meet you

반갑습니다 (ban-gap-sum-ni-da)

A polite second thing to say after your initial greeting of 안녕하세요 is: Nice to meet you! There are more ways to say this, but this specific form is quite a polite way to say this. As Korea is a very hierarchical society, you can’t go wrong with using this version when meeting someone for the first time!

3. How are you?

밥 먹었어요 (bab meo-geo-seo-yo)

You’ve greeted your friend outside of the restaurant with Hello and Nice to meet you. Your next question will be ‘How are you?’. That’s what this question means.

For those that are already a bit further in learning Korean, you might notice the past tense: ‘었어요’. That’s because you are quite literally asking your friend ‘Have you eaten?’ with this question, but don’t worry they won’t answer you with the meal they just had or even if they have just eaten or not.

4. How old are you?

몇 살이에요? (mweot sal-ee-ye-yo)/

나이가 어떻게 되세요? (na-ee-ga eo-tteoh-ke dwae-se-yo)

This might not seem as an essential phrase to know, but believe me, it is. Korea is a very hierarchical society. As a foreigner you might not always be expected to use the right hierarchical terms, but it’s good to know that you can expect this question. And this way you can recognise what is being asked of you. Or you can try using one of them if you are already a bit more experienced with Korean.

Above you see two polite ways of asking someone their age. You can do a quick google translate on how to pronounce your specific age for an answer to the question. It should look somewhat like this:

[your age] 살이에요 ([your age] sal-i-e-yo)
example (25): 스물다섯 살이에요 (seu-mul-da-seot sal-ee-ye-yo)

Until 2024 Korea used to have a Korean age system, besides the international age system.

To prevent confusion on which age system is being used, sometimes Koreans will simply ask for or answer with birth year. So make sure you also know your birth year in Korean, just in case! Example: I was born in 1998, “저는 구십팔년생입니다”. (cheo-neun gu-sib-pal-nyeon-saeng-im-ni-da). You can ommit ’19’ in most cases as it is obvious that is the only possibility in preceding.

5. Where is the …?

…어디예요 (…eo-di-ye-yo?)

So you are now fully prepared for a first greeting with a Korean. What are some other things you need to talk about. For example: How do you ask where the restaurant (식당) is? Or the restroom (화장실)? Or the popular tourist spot ‘Gyeongbokgung Palace’? You can ask where any place is with this sentence. Just place the location you are asking for before ‘어디예요’. So:

Where is the restaurant? – ‘식당이 어디예요?’ (sik-dang-ee eo-di-ye-yo);
Where is the restroom? – ‘화장실이 어디예요?’ (hwa-jang-shil-ee eo-di-ye-yo);
Where is Gyeongbokgung Palace? – ‘ 어디예요?’

6. Please (please give me…)

… 주세요 (… ju-se-yo)

The same structure can be used for asking for asking to get something. Think: asking for a coffee when ordering, asking for a fork at a restaurant or a size bigger in a clothing storel:

Please give me a coffee – 커피 주세요 (keo-pi ju-se-yo)
Please give me a fork – 포크 주세요 (po-keu ju-se-yo)
Please give me a size bigger – 더 큰 사이즈를 주세요 (deo keun sa-ee-jeu-reul ju-se-yo)

Recently, a video about how to use ‘주세요’ went viral on social media. After watching this video you will never forget how to ask for something in Korean!

@koreader_
🗣️How to say "please give me" in Korean?🇰🇷
♬ 오리지널 사운드 – Koreader🇰🇷

7. How much is (…)?

… 얼마예요 (… eol-ma-ye-yo?)

A last phrase that can be used in the same way is asking for the price of something. The easiest way would be to place ‘this’ in front of it, but you can replace it with any word, really.

How much is this? – 이것은 얼마예요? (ee-geo-seun eol-ma-ye-yo?)

8. Here! / Please help me!

요기요 (yo-gi-yo)

You have greeted someone, asked for directions and hopefully gotten there by this point. Let’s say you asked for the directions to a restaurant. You said 아녕하세요 when you walked in and are now at a table. However, in Korea waiters do not come up to you to take your order. You have to call them to your table by saying: 요기요 . You can do it!

9. Thank you for the food, I will eat well / The meal was very good, I ate well

잘 먹겠습니다 (jal meog-sseum-ni-da)

잘 먹었습니다 (jal meo-geo-sseum-ni-da)

When the food you ordered arrives at your table it is customary in Korea to say a “thank you for the food”, which literally translates to: “I will eat well”. You say this by saying: 잘 먹겠습니다. Additionally, after finishing your meal you will say the same thing in the past tense: 잘 먹었습니다, to say “the meal was very good”. Literally translated this is something like: “I ate well”. You’re starting to sound like a Korean now!

10. Goodbye!

안녕히 가세요 (an-nyeong-hi ga-se-yo)

안녕히 계세요 (an-nyeong-hi gye-se-yo)

After you have finished your meal, you naturally say ‘Goodbye’. The 2 sentences above mean the same thing, but are not interchangeable: one is meant to say when you’re the one leaving, the other is meant for when you’re staying behind, or ‘the other person’ is leaving.

If you are leaving: 안녕히 계세요 (an-nyeong-hi gye-se-yo)
If the other person is leaving: 안녕히 가세요 (an-nyeong-hi ga-se-yo)

If it helps: the literal meaning of 안녕히 계세요 is ‘stay in peace’ and the literal meaning of 안녕히 가세요 is ‘go in peace’.

11. …to go please

…포장해세요 (… po-chang-chu-seo-yo)

If you don’t feel like trying all the sentences necessary for eating at a restaurant, you can always just take your order to go. For example:

Can I get an Iced Americano to go please? – 아이스 아메리카노 포장해세요? (a-ee-seu a-meh-ri-ka-no po-chang-chu-seo-yo)

12. Do you speak English?

영어 할 수 있어요? (yong-oh hal su-ee-ssoh-yo?)

And if all fails: some basic emergency sentences, like asking someone if they could speak English to you so you can understand them better.

13. I don’t understand

잘 모르겠네요 (jal-mo-reu-geht-neh-yo)

And/or explaining to them that you don’t understand what they are saying

14. I’m lost

길일 일었어요 (gil-eul ilh-uht-seo-yo)

Or notifying someone that you are lost.

15. I don’t speak Korean very well

한국어를 할 수 없습니다 (han-guk-eo-reul hal su eob-seum-ni-da)

And lastly, saying you can’t talk Korean well ( maybe you can speak a bit of Korean after reading this blog), which might go well accompanied by an ‘I’m sorry’, which is 최성합니다 (choe-seong-ham-ni-da) or 미안합니다 (mi-an-ham-ni-da).

Bonus:

My last ‘you can do it!’ message to you would be: 화이팅! Which sounds like and is translated to ‘hwaiting’. This sounds a bit like the English word ‘fighting’ and it could be translated to that to get to its meaning of wishing someone good luck. You might not hear it a lot on the street, but it is overall used quite widely in Korea!

Do you have any more tips for Korean essential phrases for first time visitors?