One of the first words that we learn as language learners is none other than Hello. We all know how to say it in the Korean language, but do you know there can be 10 different ways to say Hello in Korean?
Third one will definitely be something new for you!ย
1) ์๋
ํ์ธ์
The most common and first words learned by any student is ์๋ ํ์ธ์ (annyeong-haseyo). It comes from ์๋ ํ๋ค (annyeong-hada), and unlike Englishโs Hello, this adjective has a meaning. It means โpeace, well beingโ.
์๋ ํ์ธ์? Used to come with a question mark since it was a question when asked meant that the person wanted to ask you โAre you at peace?โ, โAre you good?โ.ย
2) ์๋
ํ์ญ๋๊น
์๋
ํ์ญ๋๊น (annyeong-hashimnikka) is the honorific version of ์๋
ํ์ธ์. However, as the first version is used widely in everyday language, this formal one differs from the situation.
์๋
ํ์ญ๋๊น has been used only in extremely formal settings, maybe in the news channel or political discussions on the television.
People donโt choose to use this in daily life.ย
See also: 10 Simple Ways to say THANK YOU in Koreanย
3) ๋ฐฅ ๋จน์์ด์?
If we were to breakdown ๋ฐฅ ๋จน์์ด์? (bab-meog-eoss-eoyo?), we get ๋ฐฅ which means cooked rice and ๋จน์์ด์? Which means โhave you had?โ or โdid you have?โ.
However, ๋ฐฅ also stands for โmealโ in Korean language. Not grammatically or linguistically, but culturally. Since Koreaโs main food is rice, they love to have it everyday. Which is why itโs culturally a factor to ask somebody if they have eaten sometimes as even Hello.
Interesting, isnโt it?
4) ์ ์ง๋ด์ธ์?
Sometimes people skip ์๋ ํ์ธ์ and directly mean to ask โHow are you?โ. And for this we have ์ ์ง๋ด์ธ์? (Jal Jinaeseyo?). This is purely in the honorific format and you can use this with your superior, colleagues, even your friends parents, and whoever you use a formal tone with.ย
The literal meaning is โAre you good?, Are you well?โ.ย
Also read: Benefits of learning Korean in India in 2022ย
5) ์ข์ ์์นจ์ด์์ย
์ข์ ์์นจ์ ๋๋ค/์์นจ์ด์์ literally means Good Morning. One can definitely replace Hello with Good morning.
6) ๋ง๋์ ๋ฐ๊ฐ์ต๋๋ค.ย
๋ง๋์ ๋ฐ๊ฐ์ต๋๋ค (mannaseo phangapseumnida) literally meaning, โAfter meeting you, I feel pleased, gladโ. The phrasal meaning however is Nice to meet you.ย
The next time you meet someone, you have 6 different ways to greet them!