Basic Expressions (I): Korean Script

You will shortly learn the Korean alphabet, and then you should use this section to review the Basic Expressions. Until then, you may find it helpful to have a rough Roman-script indication of how the sentences sound, and we have provided you with this in the following section. The transcription there reproduces the same set of expressions, but in a phonetic notation so as to give you a guide to pronunciation.

1. ๋„ค or ์˜ˆ. Yes.
2. ์•„๋‹ˆ์˜ค. No.
3. ๊น€์„ ์ƒ๋‹˜, ์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š”? How are you, Mr. Kim? [Explanation: ๊น€ (a family name); ์„ ์ƒ teacher, Mr. or Mrs. or Ms.; ์„ ์ƒ๋‹˜ revered teacher, Mr., Mrs. or Ms.; ์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š”? Are you peaceful (=well)?]
4. ๋„ค. ์•ˆ๋…•ํ•˜์„ธ์š”? Fine, how are you?
5. …์ž…๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. I’m…
6. ๋งŒ๋‚˜์„œ ๋ฐ˜๊ฐ‘์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. Nice to meet you; nice to see you. [Literally: I meet you, so I am pleased]
7. ์•ˆ๋…•ํžˆ ๊ฐ€์„ธ์š”. Good-bye! [To one who is leaving = Go in peace (i.e. health)]
8. ์•ˆ๋…•ํžˆ ๊ณ„์„ธ์š”. Good-bye! [To one who is staying = Stay in peace (= health)]
9. ์ˆ˜๊ณ ํ•˜์‹ญ๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. Hello! [to someone working]
์ˆ˜๊ณ ํ•˜์„ธ์š”. Good-bye! [to someone working]
์ˆ˜๊ณ ํ•˜์…จ์–ด์š”. Thank you for helping me or Well done! [Explanation: ์ˆ˜๊ณ  hard work, i.e. You’re doing a great job, Keep up the good work, and Well done.]
10. ์ฒ˜์Œ ๋ต™๊ฒ ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค.. Pleased to make your acquaintance. [Literally: I see you for the first time (formally), i.e. How do you do?]
11. ๋˜ ๋ต™๊ฒ ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. See you later! [FORMAL] [Explanation: ๋˜ again, ๋ต™๊ฒ ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค will humbly see / meet = I will see you]
12. ๊ณ ๋ง™์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค or ๊ฐ์‚ฌํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. Thank you.
13. ์ฒœ๋งŒ์—์š” or ๊ดœ์ฐฎ์•„์š”. You’re welcome! or Don’t mention it! [= It’s one of ten million (words)]
14. ์–ด์„œ ์˜ค์„ธ์š”! Welcome! [= Come (in) right away!]
15. ๋“ค์–ด์˜ค์„ธ์š”! Come in! [= Please enter]
16. ์•‰์œผ์„ธ์š”. Please take a seat / sit down.
17. ์‹ค๋ก€ํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. Excuse me (for what I am doing). [= I am committing a discourtesy]
์‹ค๋ก€ํ–ˆ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. Excuse me (for what I did). [= I have committed a discourtesy]
์‹ค๋ก€ํ•˜๊ฒ ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. Excuse me (for what I’m about to do). [= I am about to commit a discourtesy]
18. ๋ฏธ์•ˆํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๋‹ค or ์ฃ„์†กํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. I’m sorry or Excuse me. [= I feel uneasy]
19. ์•„๋‹ˆ์˜ค, ๊ดœ์ฐฎ์•„์š”. Not at all, it’s all right; No, thanks. [Explanation: ์•„๋‹ˆ์˜ค No; ๊ดœ์ฐฎ์•„์š” It makes no difference, it doesn’t matter, it’s okay]
20. ์—ฌ๋ณด์„ธ์š”! Hello! or Hey there! [Hello on the telephone, or when peering into a dark house. Also means Look here!]
21. ์‹œ๊ฐ„์ด ๋‹ค ๋์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. It’s time (to begin or stop). [Explanation: ์‹œ๊ฐ„ time; ์‹œ๊ฐ„์ด time (as subject); ๋‹ค all, completely; ๋์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค it has become. . .]
22. ๋˜ ๋ด์š”. See you later! [POLITE] [= See you again. This is less formal than 20]
23. ๊ทธ๋ž˜์š”? Is that so? Really?
๊ทธ๋ž˜์š”. That’s so. Really.