You’ve been working all day in Korea and haven’t had anything to eat! You’re starving, but the people in your office are meeting today for a late lunch in Seoul so you have been trying to wait! Finally, the time has come for everyone to meet at the Korean restaurant, and you are craving samgyeopsal. As the waiter walks from person to person at your table taking everyone’s orders in Korean…you suddenly realize you have no idea how to say, “I want to eat…” in Korean. You have to figure something out because you have been craving samgyeopsal so bad! You absolutely have to have it! He’s getting closer and you are trying to listen to everyone order…maybe you can pick up what they are saying. One by one, your coworkers say in Korean, “I want to eat…” and “I want to drink.” You’re next! You listen intently as the person next to you says, “I want to eat…” in Korean. Well, since you haven’t learned to say, “I want to eat…” in Korean, you just use hand motions to let the waiter know you’ll have what she’s having. And you were really craving that samgyeopsal…
Learning Korean with KoreanClass101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Korean! In this Korean Newbie lesson, we’ll be talking about the best Korean food has to offer. In this lesson, we’ll talk about how to express desires in Korean. We’ll be going over how to say, “I want to eat” in Korean and how to say, “I want to drink” in Korean. Every Korean student should know these essential Korean phrases! Also, we’ll be talking about Korean alcohol (Soju), and also some good ol’ Korean barbecue - everyone’s favorite. Stop by KoreanClass101 when you finish eating and get the best Korean lessons and learning materials! Leave us a message while you are there!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Newbie Season 2 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
63 Responses to “Newbie Lesson S2 #14 - Tell Him What You Want to Eat and Drink in Korean!”
Tuesday at 6:30 pm
여러분… 소주 좋아하세요? 소주 마셔봤어요? (Everyone… do you like soju? Have you ever tried soju?)
Tuesday at 8:10 pm
어제 마셨어요 ^^;;;
Tuesday at 8:28 pm
형 많이 마셨지? ㅋㅋㅋ
Tuesday at 8:37 pm
소주 마셔봤어요 is literally “Did you try and drink Soju” or ソジュ飲んで見た? isn’t it?
아니, 아므겄어..
I’d give it a try though.
Tuesday at 9:00 pm
ㅎㅎㅎ Keith, yeah… 많이 마셨어. ㅎㅎ
Max,
うん、日本語に訳したそのとおり!
Soju is not too bad…
I like it … (only) sometimes
Tuesday at 9:05 pm
소주를 마셔 본 적이 없는데요. ㅋㅋㅋ
Tuesday at 10:21 pm
very good vocab , very useful
especially sul masigo sipeo !!
Tuesday at 11:21 pm
In every Korean movie and drama they say “Let’s drink till we die”…that would have been a great sentence to put in the example.
Tuesday at 11:24 pm
theresa,
really? 꼭 마셔 봐야 돼! ㅋㅋ 맛있는데 ^^!! (가끔)
rigo

Yeah I agree. 술 마시고 싶어 is very useful
And a similar phrase is 술 한 잔 하자. (Let’s have a drink.)
존
You mean, “죽을 때까지 마시자” right? ^^ ㅋㅋ
Wednesday at 1:38 am
Could you break that bit of grammar down for me please…to “try and do” something? I don’t want to miss out on an extra grammar point
Wednesday at 1:47 am
Bouks
Literally, ~아/어/여 보다 means to “do (something) and see”
It’s constructed like this
Verb Stem + -아/어/여 보다
마시다 –> 마시(다) + -어 보다 = 마셔 보다
가다 –> 가(다) + -아 보다 = 가 보다
:)
And I believe it’s translated into English as “try doing something”
Wednesday at 3:44 am
아니오. 저는 술을 안 마셔요. (?)
Wednesday at 4:46 am
Thank you, Hyunwoo. It looks familiar, I must have seen it somewhere.
The first verb seems like it’s always conjugated in intimate politeness level, even if 보다 is in standard or formal politeness.
Wednesday at 4:49 am
That’s right
It’s just coincidentally in the same form as the intimate politeness level
hehe.
Wednesday at 5:51 am
소주를 아직 안 먹어 봤어요. 그런데 한번 먹고 싶어요.
Wednesday at 5:55 am
by the way, is there any specific reason that people use 먹다 for drinking even though there is a specific verb for drinking (마시다)? in english you couldn’t say i ate alcohol, but i always hear 술 좀 먹었어 and not 마셨어. as a result, i never use 마시다. is this common everywhere in korea?
Wednesday at 10:13 am
Emily,
Good question! I’m not sure that there’s a strong ‘rule’ to it, but like you said in many occasions in Korean, 먹다 is used instead of 마시다 (mainly) for water and alcohol.
주스(juice)를 먹다 doesn’t work,
콜라(cola)를 먹다 doesn’t work,
but
물(water)을 먹다 works,
술(alcohol)을 먹다 works
I think it’s a cultural thing that we’ve gotten used to - in Japanese, for example, they say that you “drink” medicine even when it’s not necessarily a beverage-type medicine.
:)
Wednesday at 10:15 am
So when I hear 물을 먹다 and 술을 먹다 , it’s accepted in my head very naturally
but when I hear 주스를 먹다, I can’t go without imagining a person with a spoon in front of a big bowl of orange/tomato juice.
Wednesday at 10:44 am
that’s very like my dialect!
as in we can say “eat water”, “eat medicine”, “eat wine” but it would sound very odd if we say “eat juice”!
Wednesday at 10:49 am
이번 주말에 같이 술 마시고 죽자!!!!!!
Wednesday at 11:04 am
Theresa, oh,
That’s interesting! It’s the same as in Korean! 
한국어랑 똑같네요! ㅎ
Michel
이렇게 말하기도 하죠 ㅎㅎ “먹고 죽는 거야!” 라고요 ㅎㅎ
Wednesday at 11:09 am
Yea, really good question Emily! I’ve wondered the same thing myself, and my mom always just told me, just like what Hyunwoo said, it’s just what people say and no one considers it incorrect.
Wednesday at 11:11 am
And when I think of that phrase “마시고 죽자!!” (let’s drink till we die), I always think abou the movie 엽기적인 그녀 (My Sassy Girl). lol…
Wednesday at 12:08 pm
Keith… since you brought it up…
Here’s the trailer for the American version of that movie….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXsMTxrsQR4
It’s so American….but they still try to make the same jokes that don’t really come across so well in an American setting. I am not impressed.
Wednesday at 12:09 pm
hahaha i saw “My sassy girl” too! ㅋㅋㅋ
Very good movie!
저는 소주를 안 마셔봤어요.
Wednesday at 12:31 pm
소주가 악마의 피인데 그 것을 마실때마다 나쁜 일 해요..너무 이상해요….. 맥추를 끊없고 나쁜효과없이 마실 수 없지만 소주가 두병밖에 안 마시면 이상한 느낌이 되요…왜 그런지 모르겠어요… 저에게 살명하는 분 있어요?
Wednesday at 1:50 pm
In Arabic, people “drink” cigarettes. Strange but logical sounding at the same time.
Wednesday at 2:03 pm
설명해 주시는 분…… (is that correct?)
Wednesday at 6:44 pm
Bouks, that’s interesting!!
Haha… Is it because you ‘drink’ the ’smoke’ of the cigarettes?
Michel,
“설명해 주실 분?” is better
그런데, 제 생각에 소주가 맥주보다 alcoholic degree (알콜 도수)가 훨씬 높아서 그런 것 같아요 ^^ㅎ
Thursday at 12:03 am
Hyunwoo - that seems to be the idea! I think people “drink” medicine in Arabic as well, if I remember correctly.
Thursday at 4:55 am
I was just studying the -네요 ending , and since i have never drinked soju, let’s just imagine i drink it for the first time ^^, is it correct to end the sentence with 네요 here^^? (i’m just practicing ^^
)
소주가 진짜 맛있네요!
Thursday at 4:57 am
Jacqueline,
Exactly
쟈클린, 열심히 공부했네요! ㅋㅋ
Thursday at 5:14 am
현우가 안 자네요! ㅋㅋ
It’s 5:13 am in korea!!!!! ㅋㅋ
Thursday at 5:16 am
하하하하.
시계를 보니까, 그렇네요.
Checking the clock, it is so. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Thursday at 5:17 am
It was actually at 4:57 am when you wrote the comment so it was earlier!!!
They don’t need security guard where you live ㅋㅋ cuz you are always awake protecting the neighborhoodㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Thursday at 5:22 am
하하하… ㅋㅋ
I don’t think I can protect the neighborhood too well
동네를 잘 지킬 수 없을 것 같아요 ㅎㅎ
왜냐하면 밤에는 제 창문이 항상 닫혀 있기 때문에 ^^ㅋㅋ
because at night my windows are always closed.
겨울에는 춥고,
여름에는 모기가 있고…ㅎㅎ
Monday at 3:31 am
peace be upon you……….well i did not try to drink soju……..
and i do not think i will
hehehehe
but the lesson is very benefitable
thanks
Monday at 12:30 pm
어제밤 소주를 먹었어요! 저는 자주 호프 가고 소주 마실 동안 한국말 공부해요. 호프 소유자 제 친구이서 그기에 한국말 이야기도 수 있어요.
Sorry my Korean is bad. is that understandable? I’m trying to say: “I drank soju last night. I often go to the bar and drink soju while studying Korean. The bar owner is my friend so I can also speak Korean there”
Monday at 12:34 pm
브라이언!
술을 마시면서 공부하는 것은 정말 좋은 방법 중 하나라고 생각해요 .. 하하.
브라이언이 한국어로 하고 싶었던 말이 무슨 말인지 충분히 이해했어요~~ 그런데 조금만 더 자연스럽게 고치면, 이렇게 돼요
“어젯밤에 소주 마셨어요! 저는 술집에 자주 가는데 한국어 공부를 하면서 소주를 마셔요. 술집 주인이 제 친구여서 거기서 한국어도 할 수 있어요.”
Monday at 12:34 pm
Nahla Abdulrahman,
Welcome to the site!! 만나서 반가워요!!
Saturday at 12:27 am
햄버거 사랑 하는데, 안 먹거
Monday at 7:02 pm
How do you say ” I want xxx”, without any other verb in the sentence? For example, “I want this” or “I want some toys”…
Monday at 7:45 pm
Hey Shan, you can use the verb 원해… 나 xxx 원해. But that has a different nuance. It’s closer to “desire” than it is to “want.” Hope this answers your question!
Monday at 7:47 pm
Maruska 씨.
햄버거를 왜 안 먹어요? 비싸요? 겅강에 상관없었으면, 저는 아마 매일 먹을 거예요. (If hamburgers weren’t so unhealthy, I’d probably eat them everyday.)
Tuesday at 12:53 am
I guess people seldom say “I want this” or “I want that” in Korean since it’s not very polite. If you are buying something at a stall, for example, instead of saying “I want this”, they would always say “xxx 주세요” right?
How about a brat throwing tantrums and demanding something, “I want this now!!”???
What would he say?
Tuesday at 11:10 am
A little brat might use… 이거 갖고 싶어! Literally (I, have, want.) - Kind of like I want to have that! but there you’re still using the 고 싶다 construction… haha
Tuesday at 2:56 pm
Saying “I want” is absolutely essential for someone who has 공주병
Tuesday at 9:07 pm
안영하세요ㅡ
“소주 좋아하세요? 소주 마셔봤어요”
heuuuuuuuuuuuuuu sorry but 술 안 마시어요 …
but I want to practice …….. so :
저음에 일본말을 배우고 싶었어요 ( I wanted )
but …..
얼움이에요 surtout l’écrit ….
fortunatly 한국말을 듣었어요
지금 한국어배우고 싶어요 ( I want )
하지만 일본어 공부하고 싶 I want in the futur ???? or do I have to use 일본을 공부었으면 절 겠어요 I’m not sure that it is the good formule, but it’s to say that I would like to learn ,( j’aimerai bien apprendre ) or that it will be good if I can learn in the future ( ce serai bien si je pouvais apprendre )
sorry, sorry !!!!!!!!!!!!!
when i read what i wrote, it seems to me that it’s as we say in my country ” c’est du chinois”
merci pour vos efforts !!!
Tuesday at 9:17 pm
Véronique
Good job! 잘 했어요!
Here are some small corrections to help you remember the correct phrases of what you want to say
Great job overall, and hope you will keep practicing!! 화이팅!
Wednesday at 9:15 pm
감사합니다
I have another question about 고 십다 :
I listen the same song by 2 different singers and one time I hear ” 있고 십어” and the other one it ’s “있고 십온” ( or maybe is it 은)
did I hear well ?
Monday at 7:55 pm
it seems that I heard well :
I’ve founded ( j’ai trouvé ?) the lyrics
it was 고 십 은 ( I don’t know what 은 is here : I will find later maybe.. )
I’ve also seen :
고 십겠지 ( is 지 the négation ? )
and 고 십시만 … I will try to understand what that means )….
Saturday at 10:48 pm
아~~ 매우 도움이 ,너무 고마워요
Wednesday at 9:43 pm
hi, there’s something i need your help
보고 싶어 means “I miss you”, right?
then, how to say: I want to watch TV???? TV를 보고 싶어
Thursday at 10:34 am
Hello rocknana,
Good point!
You are asking for the ‘literal’ meaning of every words, right?
Think about this!
When you say, “I miss you” and “I want to see you”, both mean about the same.
When you say, “I miss my mom” and “I want to see my mom”, both mean about the same. that’s why…
Anyway… I will explain those “literal” meanings to you.
The literal meaning of “I want to watch tv” is
“want” is 원하다.
“to watch’ is 보는 것(을)/보기를.
therefore, “I want to watch tv” is (나는) tv 보는 것을 원해/tv 보기를 원해.
This is the usage of “to VERB”, which can be translated as ‘Verb-stem’+ 기.
“I want to see…” 보기를 원해 = 보고 싶어
“I want to eat…” 먹기를 원해 = 먹고 싶어
“I want to run…” 달리기를 원해 = 달리고 싶어
I hope this helps you,
cheers,
Tim
Friday at 3:22 pm
How do you say “Have you eaten?”
Saturday at 3:08 pm
I don’t think i’ve ever had soju, but i’ve had sake before. Are they similar at all?
Friday at 2:12 am
난 정말 배고파요
I want 함 버거
Friday at 11:04 am
Hello Batool,
just one small note…
함버거 => 햄버거 (함 => 햄)
It’s nothing important though…
cheers,
Tim
Tuesday at 5:23 am
thanks for telling me timandyou
Tuesday at 10:27 am
Hello Batool,
천만에요 “you’re welcome!”
cheers,
Tim
Tuesday at 10:48 am
Michel wrote:
소주가 악마의 피인데 그 것을 마실때마다 나쁜 일 해요..너무 이상해요….. 맥추를 끊없고 나쁜효과없이 마실 수 없지만 소주가 두병밖에 안 마시면 이상한 느낌이 되요…왜 그런지 모르겠어요… 저에게 살명하는 분 있어요?
Here’s an — not the — answer: The alcohol in beer, wine, whiskey, and soju are slightly different in their carbon chains. They all get you drunk but in a different way. And soju…well…we used to call it a “soju experience” as in “LSD experience”. I know a guy who can drink vodka till the cows come home and he’s fine, but if he drinks whiskey (or any brown liquor), he gets means. Different alcohol! And there’s got to be some genetic component in there too…anyway. Wish I could write that in Korean.
Saturday at 10:56 pm
Hyunwoo ssi,…you are really a helpful person eh…haha…정말 감사합니다!!
Monday at 10:14 am
Hyunwoo will be happy to see your comment.
If you have any question while listening to our lessons, feel free to ask us.
Thank you!
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