Phrasebooks give you two hundred sentences and you use four. These are the ones worth the memorisation, ordered by how often you will actually need them.
The three that do most of the work
| English | Korean | Say it like |
|---|---|---|
| Hello / excuse me | 안녕하세요 | an-nyeong-ha-se-yo |
| Thank you | 감사합니다 | gam-sa-ham-ni-da |
| This one, please | 이거 주세요 | i-geo ju-se-yo |
이거 주세요 with a finger pointed at a menu or a shelf will feed you for an entire trip. It is polite, it is unambiguous, and it works in restaurants, market stalls and convenience stores alike.
Ordering and eating
| English | Korean | Say it like |
|---|---|---|
| Is it spicy? | 매워요? | mae-wo-yo |
| Not spicy, please | 안 맵게 해주세요 | an maep-ge hae-ju-se-yo |
| Water, please | 물 주세요 | mul ju-se-yo |
| More of this, please | 이거 더 주세요 | i-geo deo ju-se-yo |
| The bill, please | 계산해 주세요 | gye-san-hae ju-se-yo |
| It's delicious | 맛있어요 | ma-si-sseo-yo |
맛있어요 said to the person who cooked it is the highest-yield sentence on this page. It costs nothing and it changes the temperature of the room.
Getting around
| English | Korean | Say it like |
|---|---|---|
| Where is the toilet? | 화장실 어디예요? | hwa-jang-sil eo-di-ye-yo |
| How much is it? | 얼마예요? | eol-ma-ye-yo |
| Please take me here (showing a map) | 여기로 가주세요 | yeo-gi-ro ga-ju-se-yo |
| I don't speak Korean well | 한국어 잘 못해요 | han-gu-geo jal mo-tae-yo |
어디예요? attached to any noun asks where it is. 지하철 어디예요? 편의점 어디예요? You do not need the grammar; you need the noun and the question.
The two that buy you the most goodwill
죄송합니다 (joe-song-ham-ni-da) — I'm sorry, the formal one. For bumping into someone, for being in the way, for any small friction. Korean cities are dense and this gets used constantly.
괜찮아요 (gwaen-chan-a-yo) — it's fine / no thank you / don't worry about it. Enormously flexible. It declines an offer politely, reassures someone who apologised, and answers "are you okay?".
How to sound less like a phrasebook
Three small things separate memorised phrases from something closer to speech.
- End statements on 요. It is the everyday polite ending and it is the right register for essentially every interaction a visitor has.
- Do not stress syllables. English stresses one syllable per word hard; Korean spreads emphasis far more evenly. Flattening your delivery makes you dramatically easier to understand.
- Learn the numbers you will use. Prices are said in Sino-Korean numbers (일, 이, 삼...) and portions are counted in native Korean numbers (하나, 둘, 셋...). Ordering two of something is 두 개 주세요.
Nobody expects fluency. The gap between zero Korean and five sentences of Korean is much larger socially than the gap between five sentences and fifty.
Questions people actually ask
Will people speak English to me in Seoul?
In tourist areas, cafés and among younger people, often yes. In ordinary neighbourhood restaurants and markets, frequently not. The phrases above cover the gap.
Is it rude to speak English first?
Not rude, but opening with 안녕하세요 and then switching to English lands better than opening in English.
Should I bow?
A small nod of the head is enough and is what you will mostly see between strangers. Deep bows are for formal situations.
What about translation apps?
Papago handles Korean noticeably better than most general translators, and its camera mode on menus is genuinely useful.