Korean Phone Phrases Flashcards: 22 Cards with Audio and Notes

Korean Phone Phrases Flashcards: Study the 22 Cards

The deck above holds the same 22 cards as the table further down the page. Each card is a whole phrase or a key word, so you practise saying and recognising it, not just spelling it. Nothing plays until you press an audio button.

How Do I Use These Flashcards?

Use the deck in four steps. It works with tap, click or keyboard.

1. Choose a mode. Start with recognition (Hangul to meaning). Switch to recall (meaning to Hangul) or listening (audio to meaning) when recognition feels easy.
2. Show the answer. Think of the answer first, then press Show answer (or Space). Turn on the romanization toggle only if you need it; the card table below always shows it.
3. Grade yourself. Press Got it if you answered correctly without help, or Not yet if you hesitated or guessed.
4. Finish the session. A session holds up to 20 cards (you can set 10, 20 or 40). With 22 cards, one session reviews the whole deck once, and a second pass picks up the cards you missed.

What Do the Three Modes Do?

Recognition shows the Hangul and asks for the meaning, which trains reading. Recall shows the meaning and asks for the Hangul, which trains remembering; you may type the phrase with your Hangul keyboard or recall it in your head. Listening plays a clip and hides the letters, which trains the ear. Listening mode only uses a card once its audio is approved, and cards without approved audio are skipped in that mode with a note.

What Do Got It and Not yet Do?

Got it moves the card up one Leitner box, so it returns later. Not yet sends the card back to box 1, so it returns in the same session or within 10 minutes. The grades are your own judgement; the deck does not score you or claim fluency.

Deck Scope: What Is and Is Not Covered

The deck covers answering and ending calls, asking who is calling, putting someone on hold, fixing a bad line and giving a phone number. It does not cover text-message phrases and workplace meeting talk. Each card uses the same Korean as the matching phrase guide, and the phrase flashcards list has the other decks.

What Is Left out of This Deck?

Left out: text-message phrases and workplace meeting talk. For related topics, see the Korean texting phrases flashcards and Korean small talk flashcards decks. The full lesson is the korean phone phrases guide, and the Korean flashcards hub lists every deck, including Hangul, vocabulary, grammar and TOPIK decks.

All 22 Cards in One Table

All 22 cards are listed below. The table is plain HTML and works without the deck.

How Do I Read the Table?

Hangul is the phrase or word. Revised Romanization (RR) is a learning aid from the South Korean government system of 2000, and it does not show every sound change, so learn the Hangul first. The Meaning column gives the English sense, and the Note column gives a sound or usage tip. The last column lists the audio assetId for the normal-speed clip, with a second ID where a slow clip (0.8x) exists for a sound-focus card.

Usage Notes for These Cards

여보세요 belongs to the phone. You say it when you pick up and again when the line seems dead, as in 여보세요? 들려요? ("hello? can you hear me?"). It is not a greeting for meeting people face to face, where 안녕하세요 is correct.

The honorific -시- appears when you talk about the other person. That is why the wrong-number line is 잘못 거셨어요, with 거시-, and not 잘못 걸었어요. The same pattern turns 누구야? into the polite 누구세요?.

Three phrases come in a formal, polite and casual set: hold on, call back and hang up. Use the formal set for business calls, the polite set with strangers, and the casual set only with friends who have agreed to casual speech.

Say a phone number digit by digit with Sino-Korean numbers, and read 0 as 공. The common mobile prefix 010 is 공일공. End a call with the closing that fits the last topic, and say 안녕히 계세요 to an elder before you hang up.

Which Sounds Do Not Match the Spelling?

Spelling and sound differ in Korean. Brackets show the sound. The standard pronunciation rules of the National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원) describe these changes, and the audio shows them.

• 끊을게요 is spoken [끄늘께요]. The ㅎ of 끊 is silent, the ㄴ moves onto 을, and the ㄱ after ㄹ is tensified.
• 잘못 거셨어요 is spoken [잘몯 꺼셔써요]. The final ㅅ of 못 is a [ㄷ] sound, and the ㄱ after it is tensified when the phrase is said in one breath.
• 들려요 is spoken as written, [들려요], but the double ㄹ is one long, clear [l] sound, not the light r-like flap of a single ㄹ between vowels.

What Mistakes Do Learners Make with Phone Phrases?

• Answering with 안녕하세요 only. It is polite, but the usual pickup is 여보세요, then your name.
• Saying 여보세요 to a person in the street. Use 안녕하세요 or 저기요.
• Saying 누구야? to a stranger. Use 누구세요?.
• Using 끊어요 as a goodbye. It sounds like an order to hang up, so say 끊을게요.
• Reading 0 as 영 in a phone number. Both exist, but 공 is the usual choice.

How Does the Review Schedule Work?

The deck uses a simplified Leitner system with five boxes. A new card starts in box 1. Each Got it moves it up one box, and each Not yet returns it to box 1. The box sets how long the card waits before it is due again.

Each session shows due cards first, oldest due first, and then up to 10 new cards a day by default. A deck of 22 cards fits in two or three short sessions. Progress is saved only in this browser, so clearing site data deletes it. Use the export button to save a small JSON file with card IDs, boxes and due dates, and import it on another device. No account is needed.

Cultural and Practical Context

Many Koreans answer the phone with a plain 여보세요, and shops and offices often skip it and answer with 네 and the company name. Callers who speak for a company usually give the company and their own name first. With a senior, 들어가세요 or 안녕히 계세요 is the polite way to close.

Limits of This Deck

The deck teaches 22 cards, not every phrase on the topic. Revised Romanization is a reading aid and does not show every sound change. All Korean text on the page is generated and was reviewed and signed off by Min-ji Park on 15 October 2026.

Next Steps after the Korean Phone Phrases Flashcards

When these cards feel easy, move on to the korean texting phrases flashcards or the korean small talk flashcards. Browse more topics in the korean phrases flashcards list, or open the Korean flashcards hub for every deck.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do I Answer the Phone in Korean?

Say 여보세요. It is the word for answering and for checking that the line works. A shop or office often answers with 네 and the company name instead.

How Do I Tell the Caller They Have the Wrong Number?

Say 잘못 거셨어요, which means "you have the wrong number". The honorific -시- is used for the caller. If you are the caller, apologise and hang up.

How Do I Politely End a Call?

Say 끊을게요 when you are the one leaving the call. With an elder, say 안녕히 계세요 first. In business, 끊겠습니다 is the formal version, and 들어가세요 ("take care") fits when the other person is heading home.

What Do I Say If I Cannot Hear Well?

Say 잘 안 들려요 ("I can't hear you well"). If the line seems dead, say 여보세요? 들려요? to check whether the other person can hear you.

Is My Progress Saved If I Close the Page?

Yes, in the same browser on the same device. Card boxes and due dates are stored locally and no account is needed. Clearing site data, using a private window or switching browsers removes them, so use the export button if you want a backup file to import later.