Breaking down some basic words in Korean for a reader

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hangul

Dan Massicotte asks if I could:

It would be awesome, if you broke down how exactly you went about breaking down each word. I’m just picking up the language now as much as possible for the fall, since I’ll be teaching English there.

He was referring to a relatively popular post of mine called “Top English words translated into Korean (phonetically).”

My answer:

Not sure what you mean, but do you mean something like this?

on = 위에  위 = the “wee” sound; 에 = the “eh” sound.  Together, it’s “Wee-eh”

Top English words translated into Korean (phonetically)

I’ve mentioned this site before, but Wordcount.org keeps track of the top used English words in the world (possibly from an English, English perspective [UK]).  I thought it was be kind of fun to translate these into how Koreans say it phonetically in their language.  The top 10 aren’t used that often (most of them) or there is less of an equivalent in Korean…so I thought I’d focus on the next 10.

1. the, 2. of, 3. and, 4. to, 5. a, 6. in, 7. that, 8. it, 9. is, 10. was

11. I = Na-neun, Neh-gah or more formally Juh-neun, Jeh-gah,

12. for = Wee-heh

Interesting Korean words and phrases

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This is long overdue. I kept a log for my own, but these words/phrases in Korean were things I had to learn over the past two years. They’ll be primarily Korean words I find (as an intermediate speaker of the Korean langauge) interesting. So, you may not…anyhoo, it’s my blog so I get to dictate that, right?

넵 — pronounced “Nep”. It means “YES” like you were answering a military commander & saluting them. It’s basically saying “yes” in a somewhat sarcastic manner when it feels like someone is bossing you around in Korean. The real easy phrase for “yes” in Korean is simply 네 or “Neh”.

Saying or writing “hello” in Korean

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In response to the one of the higher referrals to my site via the search phrase: “thank you in Korean”, I thought I’d write a post about how to say another simple phrase “hello.” It appears lots of travelers want to know how to at least start a conversation with a Korean.

Spelled out in an English friendly manner, you say hello in a casual way by saying “Ahn-young”. This version of Hello in Korean is used between friends and family. It’s definitely not something you want to say to someone you just met.

Hangul may help others record history

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January 19, 2008
Lee Hyun-bok, 72, believes that Hangul, or the Korean alphabet, can be learned in a day.
An honorary professor of phonetics and linguistics at Seoul National University, Lee said Hangul is just that simple.
He witnessed the Lahu people, an ethnic group living in northern Thailand, learning Hangul in almost no time.
For a decade, the professor has been encouraging the Lahu people to adopt the Korean alphabet so they can record their history, myths and other material on paper ― something they weren’t able to do in the past. Stories were handed down orally.

Saying or writing “Thank You” in Korean

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Just noticed one of the biggest search referrals to the site is “writing korean thank you.” Well, saying or writing the word is not as simple as “thank you” in English. In contrast to the two syllables used to give someone appreciation or praise for something that they received, you have to say the Korean version in about 5 syllables. Loosely in English phonetic version, it’s: