100 Korean Words to Learn First (From a Teacher Who Taught Korean to Foreigners)

When I used to teach Korean to foreign students, I noticed something strange about most textbooks: the first vocabulary lists were full of words my students never actually used. Meanwhile, the words they desperately needed on day one — at the convenience store, in a taxi, ordering lunch — were buried in chapter seven.

So I made my own list. Over time, teaching student after student, I kept refining it: which words came up in their real lives that week? Which words unlocked the most sentences? Which words did they ask me about again and again?

This post is that list — the 100 Korean words to learn first, organized into ten practical categories, exactly as I taught them to my students. If you’re just starting Korean, learn these before anything else. Ten words a day, and you’ll have all 100 in ten days.

The reason this particular hundred works is that the words combine. Ten verbs sit next to ten nouns next to ten question words, so from the first week you can put them together:

물 (water) + 주세요 (please give) → 물 주세요. — Water, please.
화장실 (bathroom) + 어디 (where) → 화장실이 어디예요? — Where is the bathroom?

Two words from the list, one working sentence. That is what most beginner word lists — all nouns, no verbs — never let you do.

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How to Use This List

• Each entry shows the Korean word, its romanization, and the English meaning.
• Verbs and adjectives are given in dictionary form (ending in 다). In real speech the ending changes — 가다 (to go) becomes 가요 (I go). That change is covered in our guide to Korean verb conjugation. Learn the 다 form anyway: it is what you look up, and if you only memorize 가요 you cannot recognize 갔어요 or 갈 거예요 as the same verb.
• Don’t just memorize — combine. Once you know the SOV sentence pattern from our guide to Korean sentence structure, every word here can go straight into a real sentence.
• Learn Hangul first. The romanization here is a crutch you should drop within two weeks — our guide to learning Hangul in a week covers the whole alphabet in seven days.

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1. Survival Greetings & Expressions (1–10)

These were literally the first ten minutes of my first lesson, every time.

#	Korean	Romanization	Meaning
1	안녕하세요	annyeonghaseyo	hello
2	감사합니다	gamsahamnida	thank you
3	죄송합니다	joesonghamnida	I’m sorry
4	네	ne	yes
5	아니요	aniyo	no
6	괜찮아요	gwaenchanayo	it’s okay / I’m fine
7	잠시만요	jamsimanyo	just a moment / excuse me
8	주세요	juseyo	please give me
9	안녕히 가세요	annyeonghi gaseyo	goodbye (to someone leaving)
10	만나서 반가워요	mannaseo bangawoyo	nice to meet you

My students got the most mileage out of 주세요. Point at anything and add 주세요 — congratulations, you can now shop, order food, and survive in Korea.

One warning about number 9. 안녕히 가세요 is for the person leaving; if you are the one staying put, you say 안녕히 계세요. Getting these backwards is the classic goodbye mistake, and our guide to Korean greetings and self-introduction covers the full set.

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2. People & Pronouns (11–20)

#	Korean	Romanization	Meaning
11	저	jeo	I / me (polite)
12	나	na	I / me (casual)
13	우리	uri	we / our
14	사람	saram	person
15	친구	chingu	friend
16	가족	gajok	family
17	엄마	eomma	mom
18	아빠	appa	dad
19	선생님	seonsaengnim	teacher
20	아이	ai	child

우리 means “our” far more loosely than English does. 우리 집 (our house), 우리 엄마 (our mom) — even when you have no siblings. Korean treats belonging as shared by default, which is also why the family words go much further than mom and dad. Our guide to Korean family terms covers 형, 오빠, 누나, 언니 and why strangers get called them too.

Korean drops pronouns constantly. 어디 가요? has no “you” in it and needs none. Beginners overuse 저 because English demands a subject; Korean does not.

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3. Essential Verbs (21–30)

If vocabulary were real estate, these ten verbs would be Gangnam. They appear in almost every conversation.

#	Korean	Romanization	Meaning
21	하다	hada	to do
22	가다	gada	to go
23	오다	oda	to come
24	먹다	meokda	to eat
25	마시다	masida	to drink
26	보다	boda	to see / to watch
27	있다	itda	to exist / to have
28	없다	eopda	to not exist / to not have
29	사다	sada	to buy
30	좋아하다	joahada	to like

있다 and 없다 deserve special mention. My students used them constantly: 시간이 있어요? (Do you have time?) 와이파이 있어요? (Is there wifi?) 돈이 없어요. (I have no money.) Half of daily life fits into these two verbs.

하다 is a machine, not just a verb. Attach it to a noun and you get a verb: 공부 (study) → 공부하다, 일 (work) → 일하다, 요리 (cooking) → 요리하다. Thousands of Korean verbs are built this way, which means 하다 quietly multiplies every noun you learn.

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4. Essential Adjectives (31–40)

#	Korean	Romanization	Meaning
31	좋다	jota	to be good
32	나쁘다	nappeuda	to be bad
33	크다	keuda	to be big
34	작다	jakda	to be small
35	많다	manta	to be many / a lot
36	맛있다	masitda	to be delicious
37	예쁘다	yeppeuda	to be pretty
38	비싸다	bissada	to be expensive
39	싸다	ssada	to be cheap
40	재미있다	jaemiitda	to be fun / interesting

맛있어요! (It’s delicious!) was, without exception, every student’s favorite word. Say it in any Korean restaurant and watch the owner’s face light up.

Notice that these are listed as “to be good,” not “good.” Korean adjectives conjugate exactly like verbs — 좋다 → 좋아요 → 좋았어요 — and there is no separate is to add. That is why 맛있어요 is already a complete sentence.

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5. Time Words (41–50)

#	Korean	Romanization	Meaning
41	오늘	oneul	today
42	내일	naeil	tomorrow
43	어제	eoje	yesterday
44	지금	jigeum	now
45	아침	achim	morning
46	점심	jeomsim	lunch / noon
47	저녁	jeonyeok	evening / dinner
48	시간	sigan	time / hour
49	주말	jumal	weekend
50	매일	maeil	every day

45, 46 and 47 mean both the time of day and the meal. 아침 먹었어요? is did you eat breakfast? — Korean does not need a separate word.

오늘, 내일 and 어제 refuse the particle 에. ✓ 내일 만나요, not 내일에 만나요. Other time words take it normally: 주말에 만나요. Clock times, days of the week and dates are all in our guide to telling time in Korean.

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6. Food & Drink (51–60)

#	Korean	Romanization	Meaning
51	밥	bap	rice / meal
52	물	mul	water
53	커피	keopi	coffee
54	김치	gimchi	kimchi
55	고기	gogi	meat
56	빵	ppang	bread
57	과일	gwail	fruit
58	우유	uyu	milk
59	차	cha	tea
60	맥주	maekju	beer

Note that 밥 means “cooked rice” but also “meal” in general. 밥 먹었어요? (“Have you eaten?”) is one of the most common Korean greetings — it’s how Koreans say “how are you?” with food.

Put this block together with 주세요 and you can already order: 물 주세요, 커피 주세요, 맥주 주세요. Our guide to ordering food in Korean takes it from there.

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7. Places (61–70)

#	Korean	Romanization	Meaning
61	집	jip	house / home
62	학교	hakgyo	school
63	회사	hoesa	company / office
64	식당	sikdang	restaurant
65	카페	kape	cafe
66	화장실	hwajangsil	bathroom
67	병원	byeongwon	hospital / clinic
68	시장	sijang	market
69	공항	gonghang	airport
70	역	yeok	station

화장실이 어디예요? (Where is the bathroom?) — I taught this sentence in lesson one, always. Trust me on this one.

병원 is not only a big hospital. It covers the small neighbourhood clinic too, and that is usually the one you want — see being sick in Korean.

역 attaches to station names: 서울역, 홍대입구역. You will meet it within an hour of landing, and our guide to using the Korean subway covers the rest of the signage.

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8. Question Words (71–80)

These ten words turn everything you know into a conversation.

#	Korean	Romanization	Meaning
71	뭐	mwo	what
72	누구	nugu	who
73	어디	eodi	where
74	언제	eonje	when
75	왜	wae	why
76	어떻게	eotteoke	how
77	얼마	eolma	how much
78	몇	myeot	how many
79	어느	eoneu	which
80	무슨	museun	what kind of

얼마예요? (How much is it?) plus 주세요 (please give me) — with just these two phrases, one of my students successfully negotiated her way through Namdaemun Market on her second week in Korea. She came back to class very proud, and honestly, so was I.

Korean does not move question words to the front. 뭐 먹었어요? has the same word order as 김치 먹었어요? — you swap one word and nothing else changes. No inversion, no helper verb. Our guide to Korean question words covers the whole set and the pairs that get confused.

몇 nearly always needs a counter behind it — 몇 개, 몇 명, 몇 시. Which counter goes with what is in our guide to Korean counters.

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9. Daily Life Nouns (81–90)

#	Korean	Romanization	Meaning
81	돈	don	money
82	전화	jeonhwa	phone / phone call
83	책	chaek	book
84	옷	ot	clothes
85	이름	ireum	name
86	나라	nara	country
87	한국	hanguk	Korea
88	한국어	hangugeo	Korean language
89	영어	yeongeo	English language
90	날씨	nalssi	weather

87 and 88 show you how Korean builds words. 한국 (Korea) + 어 (language) = 한국어. 중국 becomes 중국어, 일본 becomes 일본어, 독일 becomes 독일어 — one suffix, and most country names turn into a language. 89 is the big exception: English is 영어, not 영국어 and not 미국어, so learn it as its own word.

이름이 어떻게 되세요? is the polite way to ask someone’s name — literally “how does your name become.” 이름이 뭐예요? is correct but blunt with strangers.

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10. Connectors & Adverbs (91–100)

These are the little words that make you sound natural instead of robotic.

#	Korean	Romanization	Meaning
91	그리고	geurigo	and
92	하지만	hajiman	but
93	그래서	geuraeseo	so / therefore
94	너무	neomu	too / so (very)
95	정말	jeongmal	really
96	아주	aju	very
97	조금	jogeum	a little
98	빨리	ppalli	quickly
99	천천히	cheoncheonhi	slowly
100	같이	gachi	together

천천히 말해 주세요 (Please speak slowly) saved my students more times than I can count. And 빨리 빨리 — well, spend one week in Korea and you’ll understand why Koreans are famous for it.

너무 used to mean only “excessively” — 너무 비싸요 is too expensive. In everyday speech it drifted to simply mean very, and in 2015 the National Institute of Korean Language updated the standard dictionary to match. 너무 맛있어요 is a compliment, not a complaint.

같이 is not pronounced the way it is spelled. ㅌ before 이 becomes ㅊ, so it comes out as [가치] gachi. That sound change is one of the rules in our guide to Korean pronunciation rules.

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Ten Days, Ten Words

One block a day, with review folded in.

Day	New block	Review
1	Greetings (1–10)	—
2	People (11–20)	Day 1
3	Verbs (21–30)	Day 1–2
4	Adjectives (31–40)	Day 2–3
5	Time (41–50)	Day 3–4
6	Food (51–60)	Day 4–5
7	Places (61–70)	Day 5–6
8	Question words (71–80)	Day 6–7
9	Daily nouns (81–90)	Day 7–8
10	Connectors (91–100)	Day 8–9
11–14	—	Everything, once a day

Review the last two days, not all ten. Trying to review a hundred words daily is how people quit on day six. Two days back is enough to move the material into long-term memory without the session swallowing an hour.

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How My Students Actually Memorized These

After years of teaching, here’s what actually worked in my classroom:

Learn words inside sentences, not in isolation. Instead of memorizing 커피 = coffee, my students memorized 저는 커피를 마셔요 (I drink coffee). One sentence gave them a noun, a verb, two particles, and the SOV pattern — all at once. The particles in that sentence are covered in our guide to Korean particles.

Group by situation, not alphabet. That’s why this list is organized by category. Your brain stores words in networks: when you recall 식당 (restaurant), 먹다 (eat), 맛있다 (delicious), and 얼마예요 (how much) come along for free.

Use each word the same day you learn it. I gave my students one homework assignment every week: use three new words in real life — at a cafe, in a text message, anywhere. The words they used stuck; the words they only read did not.

Say them out loud. Silent reading builds recognition. Speaking builds recall. They are not the same skill, and only one of them helps in a conversation.

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Try It: Six Sentences From the Hundred

Build these from words on the list. Answers below.

1. Water, please. → ?
2. Where is the bathroom? → ?
3. How much is it? → ?
4. It’s delicious. → ?
5. Do you have time? → ?
6. Please speak slowly. → ?

Answers:

1. 물 주세요.
2. 화장실이 어디예요?
3. 얼마예요?
4. 맛있어요.
5. 시간이 있어요?
6. 천천히 말해 주세요.

Every answer is built from the hundred, with one exception: 말해 in the last one comes from 말하다, “to speak” — 말 plus 하다, and a good first 하다 verb to add.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many Korean words do I need for basic conversation?

With these 100 words plus basic sentence structure, you can handle simple daily interactions — ordering, asking prices, asking the way. After that, growth comes less from a target number than from the situations you meet: each new place or conversation brings its own ten or twenty words, and a few hundred well-chosen ones will carry most everyday small talk.

What order should I learn Korean in as a complete beginner?

Hangul first, then the sounds — getting your ear and mouth right before habits set in — then raw material like these 100 words and numbers, then sentence building with particles and verb endings, and politeness levels last. That is the order our complete beginner’s roadmap follows, with a 12-week schedule.

Is ten words a day realistic?

For ten days, yes — especially with the review schedule above. Beyond about two weeks most people need to drop to five a day. Consistency beats volume: twenty words a day for four days and then nothing is worse than five a day for a month.

What should I learn after these 100?

Numbers and counters, because they attach to everything, then verb conjugation so the verbs you know can move through tenses. Our guide to Korean numbers is the natural next step.

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Start With Block One Today

A hundred words is not much — roughly one page. What makes this particular hundred worth ten days is that they were chosen from watching real students: which words they reached for at the counter, which ones they asked me about twice, which ones let them say something instead of just recognizing something.

That’s why 물 주세요 and 화장실이 어디예요? come out of it in the first week. Not because the words are unusual, but because the set is closed enough that combinations fall out on their own.

Start with block one today. Say 안녕하세요 out loud, badly, several times. Then tomorrow do the next ten.

Vocabulary is stage three of five. The full beginner roadmap shows what comes before it and what to build on top.

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Written by Minhyung Cha — 25 years teaching Korean, and 15+ years running an English academy in South Korea. I live and work in Busan, and every example on this site is checked as a native speaker. More about KEL.