Korean Emotion Adjectives: 25 Feelings and How to Use Them

What you'll learn

• Name 25 feelings in Korean and give the polite present of each.
• Choose between near-synonyms such as 기쁘다, 행복하다 and 즐겁다.
• State your own feeling and know when another form is needed for other people.
• Write a six-line feeling diary entry.

Prerequisites: verbs vs adjectives. Time: about 40 minutes.

How Do You Say Feelings in Korean?

You say a feeling in Korean with an emotion adjective in the polite present, usually with 저는 as the topic or with the cause of the feeling as the subject: 저는 슬퍼요, 시험이 걱정돼요. The adjective needs no "be" verb, and 요 makes it polite for everyday use.

Each table below has the same columns.

• Word. The dictionary form, which ends in 다.
• Polite present. The form to say aloud, such as 기뻐요.
• Modifier. The form before a noun, such as 기쁜 in 기쁜 소식 ("good news").
• Class. How the stem behaves.
• Example. A short sentence with audio. The cause of the feeling often takes 이/가, and the person who feels it is the topic or is left out.

Everything here describes the speaker's own feeling in the present. A later section explains what changes for other people. The first group is the easiest.

Which Korean Adjectives Express Positive Feelings?

Six words cover positive feelings. They split into happiness (행복하다, 기쁘다), enjoyment (즐겁다), welcome (반갑다), gratitude (고맙다) and pride (자랑스럽다). Four of the six are ㅂ-irregular and change to 워요 in the polite present.

반갑다 and 고맙다 are mostly used in greetings and thanks: 만나서 반가워요 and 고마워요 are everyday phrases. The next group is larger, because learners need more words for difficult feelings.

Which Korean Adjectives Express Negative Feelings?

Eleven words cover negative feelings, from sadness and anger to embarrassment and regret. This is the largest group, and it has the most irregular stems: 슬프다 drops ㅡ, and six words are ㅂ-irregular.

화나다 and 짜증 나다 are verbs, not adjectives. Their modifiers use the past form, so an angry face is 화난 얼굴, and speakers often say 화가 나요 with a particle. 화나다 is one word in the dictionary, but standard spelling writes 짜증 나다 as two words (짜증 나요, or 짜증이 나요); the unspaced 짜증나요 is common in casual writing. The third group holds the in-between feelings.

Which Korean Adjectives Express Mixed and Neutral Feelings?

Eight words describe feelings that are neither clearly positive nor negative: nerves, worry, curiosity, wonder, awkwardness, boredom and longing. They include two more dictionary verbs, 긴장되다 and 걱정되다.

긴장되다 and 걱정되다 end in 되다, a verb that means "to become". They describe a state that comes to you, which is why the cause takes 이/가: 시험이 걱정돼요, "The exam worries me." The polite present is usually the contraction 돼요 (the full form is 되어요); 되요 is a common spelling mistake. Now compare words that look alike.

What Is the Difference between near-Synonym Feelings?

Near-synonym feelings differ in cause, length or formality. Five pairs or triples cause most confusion, and each has a one-line rule.

우울하다 and 두렵다 are not in the 25 above, but they are common enough to learn. 우울해요 is an everyday word for a low mood; a long-lasting low mood is a medical matter, so this page does not use the word to describe illness. The next section turns to talking about other people.

How Do You Talk about Someone Else's Feelings?

For someone else's feeling, use the verb form with -아/어하다 or add an ending that shows you are guessing. A bare adjective such as 친구는 슬퍼요 claims direct knowledge of another mind, so Korean speakers avoid it in plain statements.

The -아/어하다 pattern also switches the particle: the thing feared takes 을/를. 동생이 개를 무서워해요 means "My younger sibling is afraid of dogs." The full contrast is on Korean feeling verbs. For emotion nouns such as 기쁨 and 슬픔, see Korean emotions vocabulary, and for ready-made sentences see Korean feelings phrases.

How Do You Give the Reason for a Feeling?

Give the reason with -아/어서 after a verb or adjective, with -(이)라서 after a noun, or with 때문에 after a noun. Both put the cause first and the feeling last. The feeling word stays in the polite present or past.

Degree and negation work as they do for other adjectives. Put 너무 ("too, very"), 정말 ("really") or 조금 ("a little") before the feeling: 정말 기뻐요, 조금 슬퍼요. For "not", use 안 or -지 않다: 안 슬퍼요 and 슬프지 않아요 both mean "I am not sad". Past forms follow the same stems: 슬펐어요, 무서웠어요, 행복했어요. Next, the irregular classes.

Which Emotion Words Are Irregular?

Seventeen of the 25 words are irregular or verb-like, and only the eight 하다 adjectives are regular in the plain way. The table counts each class from the conjugation engine.

• ㅂ irregular. The ㅂ becomes 우 before a vowel ending: 무섭다 becomes 무서워요 and 그립다 becomes 그리워요. The rule is in ㅂ irregular.
• ㅡ-drop. The ㅡ drops before 아/어: 슬프다 becomes 슬퍼요 and 기쁘다 becomes 기뻐요.
• 하다 type. 하 becomes 해: 행복하다 becomes 행복해요.
• Verbs. 화나다 becomes 화나요 and 긴장되다 becomes 긴장돼요, as ordinary verbs.

Mistakes to avoid: 무섭어요 (write 무서워요), 슬프어요 (write 슬퍼요) and 기쁘어요 (write 기뻐요). If the stem ends in ㅂ or ㅡ, check the table.

A rule of thumb helps with new words: if a feeling adjective ends in 롭다, 럽다 or 갑다, it is almost certainly ㅂ-irregular, as in 외롭다, 부럽다 and 반갑다. Exceptions exist elsewhere in the language (좁다 and 입다 are regular), so test each new word against a dictionary or the conjugation engine before relying on the rule.

Practice: Can You Write a Feeling Diary?

Read the six-line diary entry, then write your own with three feelings from the lists. The model entry uses past forms for the day and one present form for the end.

Check your own entry: each line should have a feeling, a cause with -아/어서, and the right polite past or present form.

What this page does not cover. It does not teach the full emotion vocabulary, noun forms such as 기쁨 and 슬픔, or how to describe feelings with idioms. The diary is a model written for this lesson and is not a template for formal writing.

What Should You Learn after Korean Emotion Adjectives?

After Korean emotion adjectives, learn Korean feeling verbs to talk about other people. For body states, continue with Korean physical state adjectives, where the double-subject pattern 배가 고파요 is introduced.

About this page. Last updated 2026-10-09. The Korean text on this page was machine-generated and reviewed and signed off by Min-ji Park on 15 October 2026. Forms were cross-checked with the site's rule-based conjugation engine. Romanization follows the Revised Romanization of Korean and is shown only as a learning aid.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I say "I am sad" in Korean? Say 저는 슬퍼요 or just 슬퍼요. The adjective 슬프다 drops its ㅡ before 어요, so the polite present is 슬퍼요 and the past is 슬펐어요. Because the feeling belongs to the speaker, the bare adjective is natural. The same pattern works for 기뻐요 (glad), 외로워요 (lonely) and 무서워요 (scared).

What are the Korean words for happy and sad? Happy is 행복하다 (lasting happiness) or 기쁘다 (glad about something), and sad is 슬프다. Their polite present forms are 행복해요, 기뻐요 and 슬퍼요. 즐겁다 also translates as happy but means enjoyable, so use it for a fun event such as a trip or party: 여행이 즐거워요.

Is 화나다 an adjective or a verb? It is a verb meaning "to get angry". The Standard Korean Language Dictionary lists 화나다 as a verb, so it takes verb forms: 화나요 in the polite present and 화난 as the modifier, as in 화난 얼굴 ("an angry face"). Speakers also say 화가 나요 with the particle 가. Both are correct.

How do I say "I miss you" in Korean? Say 보고 싶어요, which uses the verb 보다 and -고 싶다 and literally means "I want to see you". The adjective 그립다 ("to miss, to long for") is used for places, times and memories, as in 고향이 그리워요 ("I miss my hometown"), and is less common for a person you can call.

Do I need 저는 at the start of every feeling sentence? No. Korean drops a subject that is clear from the situation, so 슬퍼요 alone already means "I am sad" when you say it about yourself. Add 저는 when you want to contrast yourself with someone else, as in 저는 기쁘지만 동생은 슬퍼해요 ("I am glad, but my sibling feels sad").