이에요 / 예요 [i-e-yo / ye-yo] L1-L5

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After studying with this lesson, you will be able to say things like “A is B(noun).” or “I am ABC(noun).” in polite/formal Korean.
이에요 / 예요 [i-e-yo / ye-yo]
이에요 and 예요 have a similar role to that of the English verb “to be”. The fundamental difference, however, is the sentence structure that they are used in.
English sentence structure:
ABC + [be] + DEF.
** DEF is a noun here.
Ex)
ABC is DEF.
I am ABC.
You are XYZ.
Korean sentence structure:
ABC + DEF + [be]
** DEF is a noun here.
Ex)
이거 ABC예요. [i-geo ABC-ye-yo] = This is ABC.
In English, the verb “to be” is changed to “am” “are” or “is” depending on the subject of the sentence, but in Korean, you decide whether to use 이에요 [i-e-yo] or 예요 [ye-yo] depending on whether the last letter in the previous word ended in a consonant or a vowel. 이에요 and 예요 are very similar and also sound similar so it is not such a big problem if you mix up these two, but it is better to know the correct forms.
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LEVEL 1 LESSON 5
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When you want to say that ABC “is” DEF in Korean, if the word for “DEF” has a final consonant in the last letter, you add 이에요 [i-e-yo], but if it doesn’t have a final consonant and ends in a vowel, you add 예요 [ye-yo]. This is just to make the pronounciation of the connected part easier, so it will come naturally if you practice with some sample sentences.
Final consonant + 이에요 [i-e-yo]
No final consonant (Only vowel) + 예요 [ye-yo]
Sample sentences
물이에요. = 물 + 이에요 [mul + i-e-yo]
(It’s) water.
가방이에요. = 가방 + 이에요 [ga-bang + i-e-yo]
(It’s) a bag.
사무실이에요. = 사무실 + 이에요 [sa-mu-sil + i-e-yo]
(It’s) an office.
학교예요. = 학교 + 예요 [hak-gyo + ye-yo]
(It’s) a school.
저예요. = 저 + 예요 [jeo + ye-yo]
(It’s) me.
As you can see from the examples above, in Korean, you don’t have to use articles like “a/an” or “the” as in English. So when you look up a noun in your Korean dictionary, you can add 이에요 or 예요 and then it means “It is ABC.” “That is DEF.” “I am XYZ.”
You can also make this a question simply by raising the tone at the end of the sentence.
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물이에요. [mul-i-e-yo] = It’s water.
물이에요? [mul-i-e-yo?] = Is that water? Is this water?
학교예요. [hak-gyo-ye-yo] = It’s a school.
학교예요? [hak-yo-ye-yo] = Is it a school? Are you at school now?
뭐 [mwo] = what
뭐예요? [mwo-ye-yo?] = What is it? What’s that?

죄송합니다 L1-L4

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After listening to this lesson, you will be able to say “I am sorry” or “I apologize” and you will also be able to get someone’s attention when you want to say something to them or order something in a restaurant.
죄송합니다. [joe-song-hap-mi-da]
Do you remember how to say “Thank you” in Korean?
It is 감사합니다. [gam-sa-ham-ni-da]
If you also remember that 감사합니다 is basically 감사 (“appreciation” or “thankfulness”) plus 합니다 (“I do”), you can assume that 죄송합니다 is also 죄송 plus 합니다.
죄송 [joe-song] means “apology”, “being sorry” or “feeling ashamed”, and 합니다 [hap-ni-da] means “I do”, so 죄송합니다 [joe-song-hap-ni-da] means “I am sorry.” or “I apologize.”
죄송합니다 is NOT always “I’m sorry”.
Even though 죄송합니다 [joe-song-hap-ni-da] is BASICALLY “I’m sorry”, you can’t use 죄송합니다 when you want to say “I am sorry to hear that.”
Many Korean people actually get confused when they talk about some bad news to their English-speaking friends and hear “I’m sorry” from them.
If you say “I’m sorry.” after you hear a piece of bad news from your Korean friend, he or she might say “Why are YOU apologizing for that?” to you.
This is because 죄송합니다 ONLY means “I apologize.”, “It was my bad.”, “Excuse me.” or “I shouldn’t have done that.” It can never mean “I’m sorry to hear that.”

저기요. [jeo-gi-yo]
In English, you can use the expression “Excuse me.” in all of the following situations.
1) when you are passing through a crowd of people
2) when you are leaving the room for a second
3) when you want to get someone’s attention and talk to them or let them know something
4) when you want to call the waiter in a restaurant or a cafe to order something
저기요 [jeo-gi-yo] is an expression that can be translated to “Excuse me” but this Korean expression, 저기요 is ONLY used for situation number 3 and 4 above.
How do you say “Excuse me.” when you want to pass through?
You can say:
잠시만요. [jam-si-man-yo] (literal meaning: “Just a second.”)
죄송합니다. [joe-song-ham-ni-da] (literal meaning: “I am sorry.”)
잠깐만요. [jam-kkan-man-yo] (literal meaning: “Just a second.”)
** Yes, “jamsimanyo” and “jamkkanmanyo” are the same thing.
These are the most commonly used expressions. You don’t have to memorize them right now, but they are just good to know!

안녕하세요. L1-L3

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After listening to this lesson, you will be able to say good-bye in Korean.
Do you remember how to say “Hello.” in Korean?
안녕하세요. [an-nyeong-ha-se-yo]
If you remember 안녕하세요, that is fantastic. And if you even remember that “안녕” in 안녕하세요 means “peace” and “well-being”, that is even more fantastic.
안녕 [an-nyeong] = well-being, peace, health
And in Korean, when you say “Good-bye” in formal/polite Korean, 존댓말 [jondaetmal], there are two types of expressions, and both of these expressions have the word 안녕 [an-nyeong] in them.
One is when you are the one who is leaving.
And the other is when you are the one who is staying.
If you are leaving, and the other person is (or the other people are) staying, you can say:
안녕히 계세요. [an-nyeong-hi gye-se-yo]
If you are staying, an the other person is (or the other people are) leaving, you can say:
안녕히 가세요. [an-nyeong-hi ga-se-yo]
For now, don’t worry about the literary meaning of the expressinos and just learn them as they are, but if you are really curious and if we were forced to translate these greetings, they would be translated like this.
안녕히 계세요. = Stay in peace.

안녕히 가세요. = Go in peace.
But again, don’t worry about the literal meaning of these greetings JUST YET!
** One tip Hyunwoo would like to give you:
When Korean people say 안녕하세요 [an-nyeong-ha-se-yo], 안녕히 계세요 [an-nyeong-hi gye-se-yo] or 안녕히 가세요 [an-nyeong-hi ga-se-yo], they don’t always pronounce EVERY single letter clearly. So often times, what you would hear is just the ending part, “세요” [se-yo].
So you can deliberately sound more fluent by just saying 세요 [se-yo] for all of these occasions.

네 / 아니요 L1-L2

After listening to this lesson, when you are asked a YES/NO question, you will be able to answer that question with either YES or NO in Korean.
네 / 아니요
In Korean, “Yes” is 네 [ne] and “No” is 아니요 [aniyo] in 존댓말 [jondaetmal], polite language.
네. [ne] = Yes.
아니요. [aniyo] = No.
But in Korean, when people say “네”, it is not the same as saying “Yes.” in English. The same goes for “아니요” too. This is because the Korean “네” expresses your “agreement” to what the other person said. And “아니요” expresses your “disagreement” or “denial” to what the other person said.
For example,
someone asks you “You don’t like coffee?” (커피 안 좋아해요? [keo-pi an jo-a-hae-yo?] in Korean) and if your answer is “No, I don’t like coffee.” you have to say “네.”
Strange?
So it is more accurate to put it this way.
네. [ne] = That’s right. / I agree. / Sounds good. / What you said is correct.
아니요. [aniyo] = That’s not right. / I don’t agree. / What you said is not correct.
Therefore, when you ask “You don’t like coffee?” in Korean, if the person answering doesn’t like coffee, he/she will say “No.” in English but “네” in Korean. And if the person DOES like coffee, he/she will say “Yes.” but “아니요” in Korean.
커피 좋아해요? [keo-pi jo-a-hae-yo?] = Do you like coffee?
네. 좋아해요. [ne. jo-a-hae-yo] = Yes, I like coffee.



커피 좋아해요? [keo-pi jo-a-hae-yo?] = Do you like coffee?
아니요. 안 좋아해요. [aniyo. an jo-a-hae-yo] = No, I don’t like coffee.
커피 안 좋아해요? [keo-pi an jo-a-hae-yo?] = You don’t like coffee?
아니요. 좋아해요. [aniyo. jo-a-hae-yo] = Yes, I like coffee.
커피 안 좋아해요? [keo-pi an jo-a-hae-yo?] = You don’t like coffee?
네. 안 좋아해요. [ne. an jo-a-hae-yo] = No, I don’t like coffee.
You don’t have to worry about the other parts of the sample sentences above. Just remember that the Korean system for saying YES and NO is different from the English system.
네 is more than just YES or THAT’S RIGHT.
While 네 [ne] is used to express “Yes” or “That’s right”, it is also used as a conversation filler. If you listen to two Korean people talking with each other, you will hear them saying 네 quite often, even when it is not intended to mean “Yes”.
So two people can have a conversation like this. Imagine it is all in Korean.
A: You know what, I bought this book yesterday,
B: 네. [ne]
A: and I really like it.
B: 네.
A: But it’s a bit too expensive.
B: 네.
A: Do you know how much it was?
B: How much was it?
A: It was 100 dollars!
B: 네? [ne?]
A: So I paid the money with my credit card.
B: 네...


A: But I still like it a lot because it’s a book by Kyeong-eun Choi, one of the teachers at TalkToMeInKorean.com
B: 네...
So, as you can see from the dialog above, 네 [ne] is a multi-player. It can be:
Yes. / That’s right
but also,
I see. / I got it. / I’m here! (when someone calls you) / I understand. / Ah-ha. / etc...
맞아요.
Because 네 [ne] and 아니요 [aniyo] are focused more on your agreement and disagreement rather than whether something is true or not, and ALSO because 네 can mean “I see.” or “Ah-ha.” as well, Korean people often add this expression, 맞아요 [ma-ja-yo] after 네 [ne].
네, 맞아요. [ne, ma-ja-yo] = Yes, that’s right.
This is in order to express more strongly and clearly that you are saying “You’re right.” rather than sounding like you are just passively listening, while nodding.
네 again.
네 is amazing. It can be many things already, but it can also be “What did you say?”
Suppose someone said something to you but you couldn’t hear the person well or you weren’t paying much attention. Then you can say “네?” [ne?] to mean “Pardon me?” “I’m sorry?” “What did you say?” “I didn’t hear you well.” You can also use “네?” to show your surprise.

A: I bought a present for you.
B: 네? [ne?]
A: I said I bought a present for you?
B: 네?
A: Forget it.
B: 네?

안녕+하세요 = 안녕하세요. L1-L1

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LEVEL 1 LESSON 1
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안녕하세요. = Hello. / Hi. / How are you? / Good afternoon. / Good evening. / etc...
안녕+하세요 = 안녕하세요.
[an-nyeong] [ha-se-yo]
안녕 = well-being, peace, health
하세요 = you do, do you?, please do
안녕하세요 is the most common way of greeting someone in Korean, and 안녕하세요 is in
존댓말 [jondaetmal], polite/formal language. When someone greets you with 안녕하세요, you can simply greet the person back with 안녕하세요.
Sample Conversation
A: 안녕하세요. [annyeong-haseyo] = Hello.
B: 안녕하세요. [annyeong-haseyo] = Hi.
감사합니다. = Thank you.
감사 + 합니다 = 감사합니다.
[gam-sa] [hap-ni-da]
감사 = appreciation, thankfulness, gratitude
합니다 = I do, I am doing
감사합니다 is the most commonly used formal way of saying “Thank you.” 감사 means “gratitude” and 합니다 means “I do” or “I am doing” in 존댓말, polite/formal language, so together it means “Thank you.” You can use this expression, 감사합니다, whenever you want to say “Thank you.” in English.