Indicate items, order something

Now that you learned the very first fundamentals about Korean language, it is time to give you a small vocabulary boost by listing very common words and expressions that are very useful for your daily life.

Like for example, let’s say you’re trying some Korean food for the first time or buying something in a shop. You will get to ask your first basic questions:

• 이거 뭐예요?
  What is this?

• 얼마예요?
  How much is this?

Until you have some more vocabulary you can even order at a restaurant by just pointing at the menu and say:

• 이거 주세요
  Please give me this

You can do better by reading the actual menu you chose:

• 김밥 주세요
  Please give me a kimbap

Or even fancier:

• 삼겹살 일인분 주세요
  Please give me samgyeopsal for one person

A conversation at the restaurant will probably go like this:

• 저기요! 이거 뭐예요?
  Excuse me! What is this?
• 안녕하세요? 이거 삼겹살이에요
  Hello. This is 삼겹살 (korean pork belly)
• 얼마예요?
  How much is it?
• 삼겹살 20,000원이에요
  It is 20,000 wons
• 그럼 삼겹살 주세요
  Then I’ll have 삼겹살 please

Asking emplacement

Soon after that you’ll probably need to ask for directions, or where to find something

• 화장실 어디에 있어요?
  Where is the bathroom(화장실)?
• 저기예요
  It’s over there

• 지하철 어디예요?
  Where is the subway(지하철)?
• 거기예요
  It’s over there

어디예요 / 어디에 있어요 are kind of interchangeable when it comes to a place/location whereas 어디에 있어요 will be more suitable for objects.

• 재 가방이 어디에 있어요?
  Where is my bag?
• 여기에 있어요
  It’s here

More examples:

• 저기요! 병원이 어디에 있어요?
  Excuse me! Where is the hospital(병원)?
• 병원은 학교 옆에 있어요
  The hospital is next to the school(학교)

• 민수 씨, 어디예요?
  Minsoo-ssi, where are you?
• 지금 편의점에 있어요
  I’m at the convenience store(편의점) right now

• 지은님 있어요?
  Is Jieun-nim here ?
• 지은이 없어요
  Jieun is not here

Say what you like / dislike

When talking about food there is of course 2 expressions that come out the most : 맛있어요 / 맛없어요 (delicious / not good).

Those words are the shorten version of “맛이 있어요/없어요” which connected to what we learned earlier literally means : “there is (no) taste”.

• 떡볶이 너무 맛있어요!
  Tteokbokki is delicious

• 이 영화를 좋아해요?
  Do you like this movie(영화)?
• 네 아주 좋아해요
  Yes I like it a lot

• 이 노래를 좋아해요?
  Do you like this song(노래)?
• 아니요 싫어해요
  No, I hate it

Here, you have to understand that 싫어해요 is more negative than saying “i don’t like”. It emphasize the fact that you almost “hate” it. If you want to say something more close to “I don’t like” you can say:

• 안 좋아해요
  I don’t like it

You will learn in more details how to use negation in a future lesson.

When you’re having trouble

First things first, since you’re still only at lesson 7, there are more things that you don’t know than things you know. So let’s give you few expressions that actually convey that you don’t know about something.

So let’s give you few expressions that actually convey that you don’t know about something.

If you need assistance, you can go with:

• 도와주세요
  Please help me
• 영어를 할 수 있어요?
  Can you speak english(영어)?

When you don’t understand something:

• 이해 못해요
  I don’t understand
• 한국어를 못해요
  I can’t speak Korean(한국어)
• 다시 말해주세요
  Please repeat

Or if someone asks you about something but that you don’t know the answer to:

• 잘 모르겠어요
  I don't know

Simply asking to wait a moment :

• 잠깐만요
  Wait a second
• 잠시만요
  Give me a second
• 기다려주세요
  Please wait

잠깐만요 is often used to emphasize that you only need the other person to wait briefly like when we say “wait a second”.

기다려주세요 is used in a general way. You can also mix these two expressions and say :

• 잠깐 기다려주세요
  Please wait a moment

It can even be used as “Excuse me” in some cases. Let’s say you’re squeezing your way out of a crowded subway during 출근(commute) time. Then 잠깐만요 even works at an interjection here.

• 잠깐만요, 내릴게요
  Excuse me, I’ll get off

In this lesson, you learned various useful expressions. Don't worry, you don't have to fully understand their grammatical structure at the moment, you will learn that in future lessons.

For now, just focus on memorizing them!