Basic Korean Vocabulary

WATCH THE LESSON HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzLEm9TyENQ

We are now going to learn some basic Korean vocabulary. These are words that I think you should know in any language you are even vaguely interested in.
HELLO, GOODBYE, YES, NO, PLEASE, THANK YOU, YOU'RE WELCOME & I'M SORRY.
In Korean there is a casual way to say things, and there is a polite way to say things, and, sometimes, there is also a formal way to say things. That means that when you learn Korean you have to learn two, or, sometimes, three ways of saying the same thing: the casual way, the polite way, and the formal way.

The casual way of speaking is used with close friends, and people who are younger than you.
The polite way of speaking is for strangers, and people who are older than you, and people who are ranked higher than you, at work, for example. If your boss is younger than you you still have to speak to him or her politely.
The formal way of speaking, likewise, is used for strangers, people who are older than you, or ranked higher than you. But, moreover, it is the more common way of speaking when addressing a large group of people and it is used in the military. You may also consider using it when addressing the elderly, or any time you wish to show an extra level of respect.
To sumize, I would say polite language is more appropriate for one-on-one interactions and formal is more appropriate when speaking to groups,  or showing extra respect to a person.

Polite language and formal language can be used interchangeably. You can mix them into the same paragraph, and, in fact, many words only have one version that is considered both polite, and formal.
However, you should not mix the casual language in with the polite and formal. That, makes no sense. Either you have a respectful relationship with the person you're talking to or you have a casual-friendly relationship with them. Your relationship shouldn't change mid-speech.
Another thing to note is that because of the three types of language we get a situation in Korean conversations that we don't usually experience in English conversations. A situation where one person is speaking with formal language, and the other person is speaking in casual language. Imagine an English conversation like that. For example, you would say politely and formally "Hello, Grandmother" and your Grandmother would reply all casually "'sup dawg".
Even if you do, by chance, have a grandma who speaks like that she would expect you to match her level of informality. So you would both be speaking casual. Or, in a much more common situation, you would both be speaking formally. It is very rare that you have one person speaking formally, and one speaking casually in an English conversation, but this happens often in Korean.
So now let's get to this vocabulary.
Let's begin with hello.
안녕하세요
An-nyeong-ha-se-yo
This is both the formal and polite way of saying hello. Korean words can be quite long. Why do we need 5 syllables just to say hello? Well, what it literally means is "Are you at peace?" or "Be at peace". It isn't really a question that requires a yes, or no answer. When someone says "Annyeonghaseyo" you should respond with the same. It's a lovely sentiment isn't it? Wishing someone inner peace.
But, when we are talking casually with our friends we don't want to say that big long word. So we shorten it to:
안녕
An-nyeong
and what does annyeong mean? PEACE.
We English speakers sometimes use that as a greeting too.
PEACE! ANNYEONG!

Now what about Goodbye?
Well... there are two types of goodbye. Which one you use depends on whether the people you are talking to are leaving, or you are leaving.
If they are leaving the extra polite way to say goodbye is
 안녕히 가십시오
an-nyeong-hi ga-sip-si-o
Notice it has the word peace in it too. That is because "Annyeonghi gasipsio" literally means "go peacefully" or "go with peace". Remember, this is the extra polite way to say goodbye.
If They are leaving the polite way to say goodbye is
안녕히 가세요
An-nyeong-hi ga-se-yo
It means literally the same thing as the extra polite version, "go peacefully" or "go with peace" The difference is that the first one was extra polite and this one is just polite.
To casually say goodbye to people who are leaving it's what we learned just a moment ago.
안녕
An-nyeong
That's right to say goodbye to your friends you can just say PEACE.

Alternatively you can say goodbye to people who are leaving by just wishing them well, without all that PEACE stuff.
When we are polite we say
잘가요
Jal-ga-yo
Jal means well and ga-yo means go
This literally means "go well"

To say it casually you say
잘가
Jal-ga
just cut off the yo part. Jal means well. Ga is go. This literally means "go well"

Now let's learn the type of goodbye that you should say when you are the one leaving. The extra polite way is:
안녕히 계십시오
"An-nyeong-hi gye-sip-si-o"
It is so similar to the other goodbye right? The only difference is gye instead of ga
An-nyeong-hi-gye-sip-si-o
So the literal translation is probably very similar right?
This one means "stay peacefully" or "stay with peace". Ga is go and gye is stay

The polite version of goodbye when you are leaving is:
안녕히 계세요
 "an-nyeong-hi gye-se-yo"
Compare it to the polite goodbye for when they are leaving. Again the only difference is that we change ga to gye:
It means "stay in peace"
When we are being caual we can just say PEACE!
안녕
An-nyeong
It makes sense no matter who is leaving. Peace! Anyeong!

Now how do we wish someone well when we are leaving? The polite way is:
잘있어요
Jal i-sseo-yo
Jal means "well" and i-sse-yo means "be". Jal i-ssseo-yo means "be well"
The casual goodbye for when you are leaving is
잘있어
Jal i-seo
same literal meaning just more casual.
NOW, WHAT IF YOU ARE BOTH leaving?? Well, If you are both going then you can both say go well, or go with peace.
One more thing to remember if you really want to say hello or goodbye respectfully you should do a little bow when you say the words.
Yes, I know, it's a lot to remember there are a lot of ways to say goodbye. But you will find it easier if you  look for patterns. Many of these words contain identical syllables. That should make things easier to memorize.

Let's move on to the word "Yes" The formal version is
예"ye"
the polite version is
네"ne"
Be careful with this one. Don't get confused. Neh is yes.
the casual versions of yes are
응 "eung"
and
어 "eo"
How do you say no? Well, the formal version is
아님니다
a-nim-ni-da
the polite version is
아니요
a-ni-yo.
and the casual version is
아니
a-ni.
Notice the similarities between the yes's and the similarities between the no's.

The next word is "Please". For "Please" the word you should learn is
주세요
ju-se-yo
However, this is used a little differently than the English please. If you want someone to give you something you say the THING that you want them to give you followed by ju-se-yo

For example Ice Cream:
a-i-seu-keu-rim ju-se-yo (아이스크림 주세요).
Ice Cream is a good example because it is practically the same word in Korean and English. "a-i-seu-keu-rim ju-se-yo" means "please give me ice cream". Or  "Ice cream, please!"

But, what if you want someone to do something for you rather than, give you something? Well, you can use ju-se-yo then too. Say the modified ACTION WORD, or modified VERB (to use the correct terminology) and add ju-se-yo to the end. We haven't learned any verbs, or how to modify them yet, so, we can't really look at an example. But, you can imagine it to be almost anything: "sit please", "jump please", "hide please"... any action.

The other way we can use ju-se-yo is when we want someone to do an ACTION(verb) to a THING. Like "VERB the Ice Cream, please". In Korean that would be "Ice cream MODIFIED VERB-juseyo". We can imagine the modified verb to be anything you can do to ice cream: eat, scoop, drop. Just remember the word order here: THING VERB-juseyo. Using English words for an example:
"Ice Cream, eat please"
THING VERB-juseyo
 Remember, it is a modified verb not the whole verb. Modifying verbs is still a little too advanced for us at this point. We haven't even learned any verbs yet. So that's something to look forward to in a future lesson.

Now, to be extra polite you can insert the word "Jom" (좀) between the verb and the Noun or THING. Your sentence would look like this:
NOUN jom modVERB-juseyo
If there is no Noun
jom modVERB-juseyo
If there is no VERB even easier
NOUN Jom Juseyo
aiseukeurim Jom Juseyo

Remember, if there is no verb the implied verb is give me.

Now, what is the casual way to say please?
Well, there is no casual way to say please. Think about it. The point of saying please is to be polite. So, of course you are going to use the polite way of speaking to say please.
Remember earlier when I said never mix polite language with casual language? Well, here is the exception. When you say please always use the polite form even if you have a casual relationship with the person.

Let's learn how to say Thank You.
There are two versions of thank you. with three different levels of respect each.
The formal ones are
Gam-sa-ham-ni-da 감사합니다 and
Go-map-seum-ni-da 고맙습니다
The polite ones are
Gam-sa-hae-yo 감사해요 and
Go-ma-wo-yo 고마워요
and the casual ones are
Gam-sa 감사 and
Go-ma-wo고마워

This version the one that begins with gam-sa is more fancy sounding.
The other one, that begins with Go-ma, has an interesting literal translation. Go means high, and ma is a reference to the earth goddess: Mother earth. when you say Go-ma-wo-yo you are comparing the person to a goddess. Like in English where we might thank some on by saying "you're a saint!". Not something you necessarily need remember but I find these details fascinating, personally.

Let's learn how to say You're Welcome. You have a few options here.
One way to say you're welcome in Korean is to say
괜찮습니다
gwaen-chan-seum-ni-da
that's the formal way
괜찮아요
gwaen-chan-a-yo
that's the polite way
or
괜찮아
gwaen-chan-a
that's the casual way
This literally means "that's alright" as in "that's alright no need to thank me".

Another thing you can say is
아님니다 a-nim-ni-da as we just learned animnida is the formal way of saying "No" as in "No, you don't need to thank me"
more casually we can say
아니야 a-ni-ya. Again it means no as in "no you don't need to thank me" or "no problem".

And finally, let's learn how to say I'm Sorry.
The formal way is 미안합니다 mi-an-ham-ni-da
The polite way is 미안해요 mi-an-hae-yo
the casual way is  미안해 mi-an-hae
But there is another way to say it. If you mess up big time to someone very important there is a super respectful way to apologize and that is
죄송합니다
jwi-song-ham-nida in the formal form and
죄송 해요
jwi-song-hae-yo in the polite form.

So there is our beginner vocabulary. You can notice from the chart that the formal form of words usually end in nida and the polite form usually ends in hae-yo or just yo. And the casual is a lot like the polite except without the yo. So in English we add yo yo yo our sentences to sound cool! But, in Korean that just comes off sounding really, really polite.
At this point I have taught you all the most common was of saying this vocabulary.
If you would like to learn some alternative ways to say Hello, Goodbye, Please, and You're Welcome we're going to look at those now.

So, we learned casual hello (annyeong), but there is another one that you might want to learn. That is

and it means "you're here!" or "you came!" It gained popularity because it sounds a lot like the English phrase "what's up?"
and you can add yo at the end to make it more polite  "what's up, yo"

There is also a different way to say hello when you answer the phone. When you answer the phone in korea you say
여보세요
yeo-bo-se-yo
Here are a couple alternative goodbyes
Jal-ji-nae(-yo) 잘지내(요) which mean "leave well" for when they are leaving
and these following ones can be used no matter whether it is you leaving or them leaving.
Nae-il bwa(-yo)내일 봐요= see you tommorrow
ddo man na(-yo) 또 만나요= see you again
geon-gang-hae(-yo)건강해요=stay healthy


There are a few other versions of please. One you may have seen or heard else where is je-bal 제발. Which is a please for when you are in a very desperate situation and begging for something je-bal
Another one that a lot of phrasebooks and dictionaries give is butag-hamnida 부탁합니다 which means "I beg of you" and is really not used very frequently.

I told you earlier there is is no casual way of saying please, but there sort of is. However, it doesn't make your sentence more polite. In fact, it, actually, makes it more rude and it is something you say when your patience is worn out. That word is: jwo 줘. As in "aiseu keurim jwo". For when you've been asking for ice cream for an hour and you still haven't gotten it yet. "Aiseu keurim jwo". Don't know about about you, but my patience doesn't last that long when there's sugary food to be had.

Let's move on, You're Welcome. A common translation of you're welcome that you may see in other resources is cheon-man-e-yo. But don't use this one. Never use this one. It means "Not at all" which is a reasonable response when some says thank you. It's just that it's not how most people talk.

OK, now we are thoroughly done. I tried to cover as many ways of saying this basic vocab that I could without making things overly confusing. Make sure you give the quizzes a try when you feel you have mastered it.
Now I am leaving you so I will say will say An-nyeong-hi gye-seo-yo and Gam-sa-ham-ni-da for studying with me. Stay with peace and Thank you (for studying with me).
WATCH THE LESSON HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzLEm9TyENQ