Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

안녕하세요. 에이미에요. 반가워요.
Hi everybody! I’m Amy.
Welcome to KoreanClass101.com’s 삼분 한국어. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Korean.
In the last lesson, we learned the most common greetings in Korean. Do you remember them?
In this lesson we’re going to learn a very useful phrase: “Do you speak English?”
If you find yourself in a situation where you need assistance in English, this phrase can be a lifesaver. And because you’re asking it in Korean, you can be sure that everyone will understand what you’re asking, even if their answer is no.
Are you ready? Then let’s start!
Here's the basic way to ask whether someone speaks English:
영어 하세요?
[slowly] 영어 하세요?
영어 means "English," and 하세요? means "Do you do?". So 영어 하세요? means "Do you do English?"
If you want to be a little more specific, and ask about someone’s ability to speak English, you can say:
영어 할 수 있어요?
할 수 있어요? means "Can you do?"
"Can you do English?"
영어 할 수 있어요?
This sentence could be very helpful if you’re in trouble on the street, in a restaurant, or at a hotel—no matter where you are, if you’re looking for someone who can speak English, just ask…
If you want to be super polite, just add 실례하지만 which means “Excuse me but”.
실례하지만 영어 하세요?
“Excuse me but do you speak English?”
The response will be probably be like one of these three:
예. Yes.
[slowly] 예.
조금이요. Just a little.
[slowly] 조금이요.
아니, 못 해요. No, I don’t.
[slowly] 아니, 못 해요.
Since this last one is a negative statement about ability, we add 못, an adverb meaning “can’t.” 못 해요 doesn't just mean "I can't ."
Now it’s time for Amy’s insights.
For those of you who are not only English speakers, you can obviously use this question with any language you need.
일본어 for Japanese.
중국어 for Chinese.
스페인어 for Spanish.
독일어 for German.
프랑스어 for French.
If you want to say ‘Do you speak German?’, you can simply replace 영어 with 독일어.
독일어 하세요?
“Do you speak German?”
In today’s lesson we mentioned the word 실례합니다, meaning “Excuse me.” In the next lesson we will learn this and other ways to apologize in Korean. It’s never too late to show your good manners to Korean people!
I'll see you in our next 삼분 한국어 lesson.
안녕히 계세요! 다음에 봐요!

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