LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

GREETING WORDS

The words for "hello," "thank you," "how are you," and "please" are actually quite difficult in Korean. There is actually grammar within the word themselves. At this stage, I would simply memorize these "greeting words" as one unit. The words are:

안녕하세요 - hello

감사하다 and 고맙다 are the two words that are commonly used to say "thank you." However, they are rarely used in those forms and are almost always conjugated. They can be conjugated in a variety of ways. The most common ways to conjugate these words are:

감사합니다
감사해요

고마워
고맙습니다
고마워요

The way to say "how are you?" in Korean is:

잘 지내세요? - how are you?

Although this is the most literal way to ask "how are you?" in Korean, it is not common as the English expression. Korean people love food, and common way to greet somebody is to ask them if they have eaten.

The way to say "please" in Korean is:

제발 - please

It is, of course, important for you to memorize these expressions in Korean, but you need to know there is a reason why they are said that way. For now, don't worry about why they are said that way, and simply memorize them.