Korean front-loads a win. Hangul is the most learnable writing system in wide use, and an afternoon of effort gets you reading signs, which is a feeling almost no other language gives you that fast. Then the language asks the harder question, one you have to answer in every single sentence: how much respect are you showing the person you are talking to?
Mixing registers inside one sentence is the most common early slip, and the easiest to fix.
Age, seniority and closeness all change your verb endings. There is no neutral option to hide in, so learners either sound stiff with friends or careless with strangers until they have practised both.
은 and 는 against 이 and 가 is the Korean version of a problem Japanese has too. The difference is real, small, and almost impossible to feel from an explanation alone.
Subject, object, verb. You have to hold the whole sentence before the point lands, which is a listening habit English never asked you to build.
한국말 is not said the way it is spelled, because the final consonant of one block reshapes the start of the next. Reading Hangul correctly and hearing Korean correctly are two different milestones.
You can read Korean by dinner. Knowing which ending to use takes considerably longer.
| Say this | When |
|---|---|
| 다시 한 번 말해 주세요dasi han beon malhae juseyo | Please say that once more. Polite, and you will use it constantly. |
| 이거 한국어로 뭐예요?igeo hangugeoro mwoyeyo | What is this in Korean. Keeps you in the language instead of reaching for English. |
| 잘 모르겠어요jal moreugesseoyo | "I do not really know." Softer and far more natural than a flat no. |
| 괜찮아요gwaenchanayo | Fine, okay, no thanks, do not worry. One of the hardest working words in Korean. |
| 진짜요?jinjjayo | "Really?" Shows you are engaged, which keeps the other person talking. |
Mixed politeness inside one sentence gets caught, with the reason, so consistency becomes a habit rather than a worry.
Tap any word in the transcript to save it to your dictionary, and it returns in later conversations until it sticks.
On Pro, your speech is scored per sound, which helps with the consonants English treats as one and Korean does not.
This language is in beta: it works end to end, and it has had far fewer real conversations behind it than Spanish or Japanese. If something sounds wrong, tell us from inside the app.
You do not need it to speak, and it is still worth an afternoon. Hangul was designed to be learnable quickly, the letters are shaped after the mouth positions that make them, and most people can sound out signs after a few hours.
Start with the polite -yo form. It is correct with strangers, shopkeepers, colleagues and new friends, which is almost everyone you will meet early on. Casual speech is for people who have invited you into it.
Mostly. Drama dialogue leans casual and emotional, and everyday spoken Korean is more polite than what you hear between close characters. The vocabulary carries over, the register often does not.
Two minutes, no account. Getting the ending wrong here costs nothing.
Start speaking Korean