Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Hi, everyone! Welcome to the Korean Whiteboard Lesson! My name is K-Jin.
안녕하세요, 케이진입니다. (Annyeonghaseyo, Keijinimnida.)
In this lesson, you’ll learn Korean words for family members.
Let’s get started!
Okay, so let’s look at the vocabulary.
First word we have is 아버지 (abeoji).
아버지 (abeoji) [enunciated]
아버지 (abeoji)
It means “father.”
아버지 (abeoji)
But in English, you also say dad a lot, right? Dad. Daddy! Dad.
In Korean, we say it 아빠 (appa).
아빠 (appa)
So, 아버지 (abeoji) is a polite word to say “father” in Korean.
아빠 (appa) is quite informal.
아빠 (appa)
How about “mother” in Korean?
“Mother” in Korean is…
어머니 (eomeoni) [enunciated]
어머니 (eomeoni)
어머니 (eomeoni)
And this, again, is a polite word.
Informal word is 엄마 (eomma).
엄마 (eomma)
엄마 (eomma)
엄마 (eomma)
So, when you talk about your father and mother to your friends, you will use these words more often, 아빠 (appa), 엄마 (eomma), but in some formal situation, I will use 아버지 (abeoji), 어머니 (eomeoni).
아버지 (abeoji)
어머니 (eomeoni)
So, imagine you are a male. You’re a male and you have an older brother, older sister, younger brother, and younger sister. How can you say these words in Korean?
So, the “older brother” is 형 (hyeong).
형 (hyeong) [enunciated]
형 (hyeong) in Korean.
This word is only used by male.
형 (hyeong)
How about “older sister”?
If you are a male, you can use this word, 누나 (nuna).
누나 (nuna)
누나 (nuna), 누나 (nuna)
So it means “older sister,” and again, this word is only used by a male.
How about “younger brother”?
“Younger brother” is 남동생 (namdongsaeng).
남동생 (namdongsaeng) [enunciated]
남동생 (namdongsaeng)
남 (Nam), 남 (nam), it means “male.”
동생 (dongsaeng), 동생 (dongsaeng) means “younger sibling,” so it literally means “male younger sibling.”
남동생 (namdongsaeng)
How about “younger sister”?
You just replace 남 (nam) with 여 (yeo).
여 (yeo) means “female.”
So, “female younger sister,” “younger sibling” is 여동생 (yeodongsaeng).
여동생 (yeodongsaeng)
여동생 (yeodongsaeng)
You can omit this gender word though, 남 (nam)/여 (yeo). Just remove 남 (nam)/여 (yeo) and you can just say 동생 (dongsaeng), 동생 (dongsaeng). It means “younger sibling.” It’s very commonly used, so you don’t have to mention their gender. You just say 동생 (dongsaeng). This is my 동생 (dongsaeng) means “this is my younger sibling”. It doesn’t have to have the gender word all the time.
Okay, so what if you’re a female?
If you’re a female, you will use different words for older siblings.
For example, 오빠 (oppa).
If you’re a K-Pop fan or if you’re a fan of Korean dramas, Korean movies, or Korean TV shows, you probably heard this word really a lot.
오빠 (oppa) [enunciated]
오빠 (oppa) [enunciated]
오빠 (oppa)
It means “older brother.”
오빠 (oppa)
오빠 (oppa)
And again, this word is only used by a female.
오빠 (oppa), 오빠 (oppa)
How about “older sister”?
언니 (eonni)
언니 (eonni) [enunciated]
언니 (eonni) [enunciated]
언니 (eonni)
It means “older sister,” used by a female.
오빠 (oppa)
언니 (eonni)
And for younger siblings, they use exactly the same word, 남동생 (namdongsaeng) or 여동생 (yeodongsaeng) or even just 동생 (dongsaeng).
동생 (dongsaeng)
동생 (dongsaeng)
And imagine, you are married and you have your own family.
If you’re a male, you will have a wife, right?
“Wife” in Korean is 아내 (anae).
아내 (anae) [enunciated]
아내 (anae)
아내 (anae)
Or we use this English word, “wife,” wife. In Korean pronunciation, it is 와이프 (waipeu).
와이프 (waipeu) is also commonly used, but have you noticed, 와이프 (waipeu)?
In Korean, you don’t have “F” sound, so we replace the “F” pronunciation with “P” sound.
So instead of “wife,” /f/, we say 와이프 (waipeu), /p/, /p/, /p/.
와이프 (waipeu)
So, for “wife,” we have two different words, 아내 (anae) and 와이프 (waipeu). Both of them are used very commonly. 와이프 (waipeu) is from the English word. It’s a loanword.
How about “son”?
This is my son.
Son
“Son” in Korean is 아들 (adeul).
아들 (adeul) [enunciated]
아들 (adeul)
아들 (adeul)
딸 (ttal)
딸 (ttal) is also commonly used, which means “daughter,” daughter.”
딸 (ttal)
딸 (ttal)
What if you’re a female and you are married and you have a husband?
“Husband” in Korean is 남편 (nampyeon).
남편 (nampyeon) [enunciated]
남편 (nampyeon)
남편 (nampyeon)
Then do you use this “husband” in Korean too?
We don’t use this husband as a loanword, so nobody say…
“This is my 허즈밴드 (heojeubaendeu).”
So, we just say 남편 (nampyeon).
So, for “husband,” we only have one word, which is 남편 (nampyeon).
For “son” and “daughter,” the words are exactly the same.
“Son” is 아들 (adeul).
아들 (adeul)
“Daughter” is 딸 (ttal).
딸 (ttal)
So, these are the must-know Korean words for your family members.
Let’s look at the dialogue.
Two coworkers are talking and one of them is showing a picture to the other on her phone.
See what family member is used in the dialogue.
누구예요? (Nuguyeyo?)
남편이에요. (Nampyeonieyo.)
One more time.
누구예요? (Nuguyeyo?)
남편이에요. (Nampyeonieyo.)
누구예요? (Nuguyeyo?) “Who is this?”
누구 (Nugu) means “who.”
예요 (Yeyo) is from the verb 이다 (ida) meaning “to be.” It’s technically a particle, but it works like a verb.
누구예요? (Nuguyeyo?) “Who is this?”
“Who is this?”
And 누구 (nugu) “who” 예요 (yeyo) “is.”
So, there is no “this” in the sentence.
In Korean, we often omit some part of the sentence because it’s understood in the context without it.
남편이에요. (Nampyeonieyo.)
남편이에요. (Nampyeonieyo.) [enunciated]
남편이에요. (Nampyeonieyo.)
We learned this word here, right?
남편 (nampyeon)
남편 (nampyeon)
It means “husband.”
“This is my husband” is 남편이에요 (nampyeonieyo).
이에요 (ieyo), again, is from the verb 이다 (ida), 이다 (ida) meaning “to be.”
Again, it’s a particle, but it acts like a verb “to be.”
남편이에요. (Nampyeonieyo.)
So, technically, it means “is my husband,” “is husband,” but in the context, we understood “this” and “my.”
“This is my husband.” 남편이에요. (Nampyeonieyo.)
What if you want to say a different family member? It’s not husband, but, for example, it’s my mother? “This is my mother.”
Let’s look at more examples.
So, what if you want to say another family member?
For example, “This is my mother.”
Do you remember the word for “mother”? It’s 어머니 (eomeoni), okay.
어머니 (eomeoni) [enunciated]
어머니 (eomeoni)
And this 예요 (yeyo) is from 이다 (ida), again, meaning to be? So, it literally means “is mother” which is “This is my mother,” 어머니예요 (eomeoniyeyo).
어머니예요 (eomeoniyeyo) [enunciated]
어머니예요 (eomeoniyeyo)
Do you notice? Did you notice the difference?
I used 이에요 (ieyo) here, but I used 예요 (yeyo) here. Why?
어머니 (eomeoni)
어머니 (eomeoni)
This word is ended with a vowel sound, right?
어머니 (eomeoni)
어머니 (eomeoni), (-i), (-i), (-i). It ended with vowel sound, so we used 예요 (yeyo), 예요 (yeyo).
But here, 남편 (nampyeon), 남편 (nampyeon), it kind of ended with N sound. It ended with a consonant, so we used 이에요 (ieyo), 이에요 (ieyo).
Again, if the word is ended with a consonant, we use 이에요 (ieyo) and if the word ended with this, vowel sound, then we use 예요 (yeyo), 예요 (yeyo).
어머니예요 (eomeoniyeyo)
누나예요. (Nunayeyo.)
누나예요. (Nunayeyo.) [enunciated]
누나예요. (Nunayeyo.)
누나 (nuna)
“This is my older sister.” 누나예요. (Nunayeyo.)
누나예요. (Nunayeyo.)
누나 (Nuna), (-a), (-a). It ended with vowel sound, so again, we are using 예요 (yeyo) here.
누나예요. (Nunayeyo.)
And by looking at this word, you know that the speaker is a male, right, because 누나 (nuna) is only used by male.
If you’re a female, you will use this word instead, 언니 (eonni).
언니 (eonni)
It also means “older sister,” but is only used by a female.
언니예요. (Eonniyeyo.)
언니 (Eonni) because 언니 (eonni), (-i), (-i), it ended with a vowel sound.
오빠예요. (Oppayeyo.)
오빠예요. (Oppayeyo.) [enunciated]
오빠예요. (Oppayeyo.) “This is my older brother.”
오빠 (Oppa) is your “older brother.”
오빠 (Oppa) is used by a female, right?
So, if you’re a male, you will be probably saying 형 (hyeong).
형 (hyeong)
형 (hyeong)
It means exactly the same, but this word is used by male.
형 (hyeong)
But, 형 (hyeong), it ended with a consonant sound, right?
형 (Hyeong), (-ng), (-ng), it ended with a consonant sound, so in this case, I’ll be using this ending, 이에요 (ieyo).
이에요 (ieyo)
형이에요. (Hyeongieyo.)
How about this?
“This is my son.” 아들이에요. (Adeurieyo.)
아들이에요. (Adeurieyo.) [enunciated]
아들이에요. (Adeurieyo.) “This is my son.”
아들 (adeul)
Daughter is 딸 (ttal), right?
So I would say:
딸이에요. (Ttarieyo.) “This is my daughter.”
딸이에요. (Ttarieyo.) [enunciated]
Again, 아들 (adeul), (-deul), (-l), (-l), it ended with a consonant sound, right?
아들 (adeul)
So we are using 이에요 (ieyo) here.
If you want to say “this is my younger sister,” then it will be:
여동생이에요. (Yeodongsaengieyo.)
여동생이에요. (Yeodongsaengieyo.) [enunciated]
여동생 (Yeodongsaeng) means “my younger sister.”
여동생 (Yeodongsaeng), (-ng), it ended with consonant sound, right? So we are using 이에요 (ieyo) here.
So, if you look at these examples, you will probably notice a pattern here.
You say a [family member] word here and say 예요 (yeyo) or 이에요 (ieyo).
Again, you just say the [family member] and then say 예요 (yeyo) or 이에요 (ieyo).
Do you remember when you used 예요 (yeyo)?
예요 (yeyo) [enunciated]
Let’s see.
어머니예요. (Eomeoniyeyo.)
누나예요. (Nunayeyo.)
누나 (Nuna), (-a), (-a).
If a word is ending with a vowel, you use 예요 (yeyo).
예요 (yeyo).
If the word ends with a consonant, then you are going to use 이에요 (ieyo).
이에요 (ieyo)
So, any family member is okay. Just say the [family member] in Korean and say 예요 (yeyo) or 이에요 (ieyo). In English, it means, “This is my [family member].”
In the example, you don’t see "my" which is 내 (nae) informally or 제 (je) formally in Korean. It’s because you can omit it when it’s understood in the context.
If you want to mention "my" to refer your family member, you will use 우리 (uri) informally or 저희 (jeo-hi) formally, which literally means "our."
So the informal way to say "my mother" is 우리 엄마 (uri eomma).
The formal way to say "my son" is 저희 아들 (jeohi adeul).
Please note that you will use 내 (nae) informally and 제 (je) formally, which means "my," to refer to your younger siblings.
So the informal way to say "my younger sister" is 내 여동생 (nae yeodongsaeng).
The formal way to say "my younger brother" is 제 남동생 (je namdongsaeng).

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