Korean vocabulary · 20 words
Korean food and drink vocabulary
Ordering food and talking about it is one of the first things the course teaches. These are the food and drink words from the course, with the verbs and adjectives that go with them.
Examples are written in Hangul. New to it? Start with the hangul chart.
Good to know
- 밥 means cooked rice and also a meal. 밥 먹어요 is the everyday way to say I'm eating.
- To order, name the thing and add 주세요: 커피 주세요.
- Cups and glasses are counted with 잔 and native numbers: 커피 한 잔.
Food
| Korean | Romanization | Meaning | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 밥 | bap | (cooked) rice / a meal | |
| 빵 | ppang | bread | |
| 고기 | gogi | meat | |
| 생선 | saengseon | fish (food) | |
| 김치 | gimchi | kimchi | |
| 라면 | ramyeon | ramyeon (noodles) | |
| 사과 | sagwa | apple | |
| 과일 | gwail | fruit |
Drinks
| Korean | Romanization | Meaning | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 물 | mul | water | |
| 커피 | keopi | coffee | |
| 우유 | uyu | milk | |
| 차 | cha | car / tea |
Eating, drinking and places
| Korean | Romanization | Meaning | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 먹다 | meokda | to eat (dictionary form) | |
| 먹어요 | meogeoyo | eat / will eat (polite) | |
| 마시다 | masida | to drink (dictionary form) | |
| 마셔요 | masyeoyo | drink / will drink (polite) | |
| 먹고 싶어요 | meokgo sipeoyo | want to eat | |
| 맛있다 | masitda | to be delicious (dictionary form) | |
| 맛있어요 | masisseoyo | is delicious (polite) | |
| 식당 | sikdang | restaurant |
Practice this in Open Lingo
This page comes from the Open Lingo course. In the app it is a short interactive lesson with listening, speaking and spaced-repetition review. Free, and no account needed to try it.
Keep going
- The object particle 을/를 and Korean word orderHow the Korean object particle 을/를 works, how Korean word order puts the verb last, and why 좋아하다 takes 을/를.
- NumbersThe two Korean number systems for beginners: Sino-Korean 일, 이, 삼 and native 하나, 둘, 셋, when to use each, plus counters, with audio.
- The polite present tenseHow to conjugate Korean verbs and adjectives into the polite 요 form: 아요 vs 어요, 하다 → 해요, the ㅡ drop and vowel contractions.