These are the 100 most useful Korean words from our 1000-word beginner course - the vocabulary you will hear and use most often. Learn them first and you will understand a surprising amount of everyday Korean.
| # | Word | Korean |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | the apple | 사과 |
| 2 | the book | 책 |
| 3 | the cat | 고양이 |
| 4 | the dog | 개 |
| 5 | the car | 차 |
| 6 | the house | 집 |
| 7 | the chair | 의자 |
| 8 | the table | 탁자 |
| 9 | the window | 창문 |
| 10 | the door | 문 |
| 11 | the pencil | 연필 |
| 12 | the paper | 종이 |
| 13 | the school | 학교 |
| 14 | the teacher | 선생님 |
| 15 | the student | 학생 |
| 16 | the boy | 소년 |
| 17 | the girl | 소녀 |
| 18 | the adult | 어른 |
| 19 | the friend | 친구 |
| 20 | the tree | 나무 |
| 21 | the flower | 꽃 |
| 22 | the river | 강 |
| 23 | the mountain | 산 |
| 24 | the beach | 해변 |
| 25 | the sun | 해 |
| 26 | the moon | 달 |
| 27 | the star | 별 |
| 28 | the cloud | 구름 |
| 29 | the rain | 비 |
| 30 | the snow | 눈 |
| 31 | the wind | 바람 |
| 32 | the fire | 불 |
| 33 | the water | 물 |
| 34 | the food | 음식 |
| 35 | the drink | 음료 |
| 36 | the cup | 컵 |
| 37 | the bottle | 병 |
| 38 | the plate | 접시 |
| 39 | the spoon | 숟가락 |
| 40 | the fork | 포크 |
| 41 | the knife | 칼 |
| 42 | the breakfast | 아침 식사 |
| 43 | the lunch | 점심 식사 |
| 44 | the dinner | 저녁 식사 |
| 45 | the fruit | 과일 |
| 46 | the vegetable | 채소 |
| 47 | the bread | 빵 |
| 48 | the butter | 버터 |
| 49 | the cheese | 치즈 |
| 50 | the milk | 우유 |
| 51 | the coffee | 커피 |
| 52 | the tea | 차 |
| 53 | the juice | 주스 |
| 54 | the soda | 탄산음료 |
| 55 | the chocolate | 초콜릿 |
| 56 | the candy | 사탕 |
| 57 | the cookie | 쿠키 |
| 58 | the cake | 케이크 |
| 59 | the rice | 쌀 |
| 60 | the pasta | 파스타 |
| 61 | the fish | 생선 |
| 62 | the chicken | 닭고기 |
| 63 | the beef | 소고기 |
| 64 | the egg | 계란 |
| 65 | the soup | 수프 |
| 66 | the salad | 샐러드 |
| 67 | the sandwich | 샌드위치 |
| 68 | the pizza | 피자 |
| 69 | the ice cream | 아이스크림 |
| 70 | the cereal | 시리얼 |
| 71 | the honey | 꿀 |
| 72 | the sugar | 설탕 |
| 73 | the salt | 소금 |
| 74 | the pepper | 후추 |
| 75 | the tomato | 토마토 |
| 76 | the potato | 감자 |
| 77 | the onion | 양파 |
| 78 | the carrot | 당근 |
| 79 | the lettuce | 상추 |
| 80 | the cucumber | 오이 |
| 81 | the banana | 바나나 |
| 82 | the orange | 오렌지 |
| 83 | the grapefruit | 자몽 |
| 84 | the strawberry | 딸기 |
| 85 | the grape | 포도 |
| 86 | the lemon | 레몬 |
| 87 | the lime | 라임 |
| 88 | the cherry | 체리 |
| 89 | the watermelon | 수박 |
| 90 | the pineapple | 파인애플 |
| 91 | the mango | 망고 |
| 92 | the kiwi | 키위 |
| 93 | the peach | 복숭아 |
| 94 | the pear | 배 |
| 95 | the plum | 자두 |
| 96 | the berry | 베리 |
| 97 | the melon | 멜론 |
| 98 | the phone | 전화기 |
| 99 | the computer | 컴퓨터 |
| 100 | the television | 텔레비전 |
The 100 most frequent words cover about half of everyday spoken language. With the full 1000-word core vocabulary you understand around 85% of typical conversations in Korean - enough to follow along and make yourself understood.
They are the most frequently used words of the language, selected by word frequency. Every one of them will appear again and again in real sentences, so each learned word immediately pays off.
Listen and repeat: every word in the 1000 Words course comes with native-speaker audio and an example sentence. Combined with spaced repetition in the free vocabulary trainer, most learners master the first 100 words within one to two weeks.