Korean Physical State Adjectives: Hungry, Thirsty, Tired, Sick

What you'll learn

• Say how you feel physically in 10 sentences with the pattern body part + 이/가 + adjective.
• Conjugate 배고프다, 목마르다, 졸리다, 피곤하다 and 아프다.
• Tell 피곤하다 from 힘들다.
• Follow a simple conversation with a doctor.

Prerequisites: verbs vs adjectives. Time: about 30 minutes.

How Do You Say How You Feel Physically in Korean?

You say how you feel physically with an adjective in the polite present, usually after a body word: 배가 고파요 ("I am hungry"), 목이 말라요 ("I am thirsty"), 머리가 아파요 ("I have a headache"). The person can be named with 저는 or left out, because the situation makes the subject clear.

Each of these describes a state of the body at the moment of speaking. The next two sections list the words with all their forms, starting with hunger, thirst and sleep.

Which Words Describe Hunger, Thirst and Sleep?

Four words describe the basic needs: hunger (배고프다 and its opposite 배부르다), thirst (목마르다) and sleepiness (졸리다). Three of the four change their stem in the polite present.

배고프다 and 목마르다 are compound adjectives, built from the body words 배 and 목 plus the adjectives 고프다 and 마르다. The dictionary lists them as single words, and speakers also say them as phrases: 배가 고프다 and 목이 마르다. Both ways are correct, as the next section explains. 졸리다 is related to the verb 졸다 ("to doze") and is listed as a verb in some dictionaries, but learners can use it like an adjective: 졸려요 in the present and 졸린 as the modifier (졸린 눈, "sleepy eyes").

Which Words Describe Being Tired, Sick or Dizzy?

Five words describe condition and health: tired (피곤하다), sick or in pain (아프다), dizzy (어지럽다), healthy (건강하다) and hard or exhausting (힘들다). Their classes are more varied.

아프다 covers two meanings that English splits. As "to hurt", it follows a body part: 머리가 아파요. As "to be sick", it stands alone or with a person: 동생이 아파요 ("My younger sibling is sick"). 건강하다 takes the honorific -(으)시- when you describe an older person, as in 할머니는 건강하세요. Next, the pattern that ties these words together.

Why Do You Say 배가 고파요 and Not 저는 고파요?

You say 배가 고파요 because the stomach is the thing that is empty, and Korean names it as the subject. The person is added as the topic with 저는, which gives two subject-like parts: 저는 (about me) and 배가 (the stomach). This is called the double-subject pattern.

Read the sentence in two parts.

1. 저는. The topic marker 는 says "as for me".
2. 배가 고파요. The subject marker 가 follows the body part 배, and 고파요 says what is true of it.

Together: "As for me, the stomach is empty." English translates it as "I am hungry". The pattern works for any body part and state, so you can build new sentences by swapping the noun. The table gives ten sentences.

The same logic explains why 저는 고파요 is wrong: 고프다 does not describe a person, it describes an empty stomach. Without 배, the sentence would lose its subject. Two accepted shortcuts exist: 배고파요 as a single word, and dropping 저는.

Learn the ten sentences as chunks first and swap the nouns later. The next section compares two easily confused words, because learners often pick the wrong one when they want to say they are exhausted.

What Is the Difference between 피곤하다 and 힘들다?

피곤하다 means a person is tired because the body or mind is worn out, while 힘들다 means a task or situation is hard, or that someone is having a hard time. 피곤하다 reports a condition. 힘들다 reports a cause or a difficulty.

힘들다 is an ㄹ stem: 힘들어요 in the polite present, and 힘든 as the modifier, as in 힘든 하루 ("a hard day"). It is regular before 어요 but drops the ㄹ before ㄴ. You will meet both words constantly. For the pain-versus-showing-pain split of 아프다 and 아파하다, see Korean feeling verbs.

How Do You Say These States in the Past?

Past states use the same stems with -았/었어요: 배고팠어요, 피곤했어요, 아팠어요. Use the past for a state that is over, such as hunger earlier in the day.

Notice the stem change: 고프 becomes 고팠 because ㅡ drops before 았. For the modifier forms, see the adjective -(으)ㄴ form.

How Do You Ask about and Negate a Physical State?

You ask about a state by using the same polite form with a rising tone, and you negate it with 안 or -지 않다. A question does not change the adjective: 배고파요? ("Are you hungry?") and 배고파요 ("I am hungry") differ only in intonation. Degree words go before the adjective.

The phrase 몸이 안 좋아요 is a general way to say you are unwell without naming a symptom. It is useful when you do not know the exact word, and it uses the body noun 몸 ("body") in the same pattern as the other sentences. Degree words such as 너무, 정말 and 조금 are explained in Korean adverbs, and negation is covered in the negation lessons of the grammar hub.

Which Body States Use a Verb Phrase Instead of an Adjective?

Some physical states are said with a verb phrase, not an adjective. Korean says that a fever "comes out" (열이 나요) or that sleep "comes" (잠이 와요). These phrases still use a body noun as the subject, so the double-subject idea carries over. Learn them as whole phrases.

Notice that 나다 ("to come out") and 오다 ("to come") are verbs, not adjectives, so they follow the verb rules in verbs vs adjectives: they take -는 before a noun (열이 나는 아이, "a child with a fever") and do not take the bare adjective form. Use the adjective words for steady states and these phrases for symptoms that appear.

Doctor Visit: a Six-Line Dialogue

This dialogue shows the pattern in a clinic. The doctor asks where it hurts, and the patient answers with body-part sentences.

The doctor uses honorific forms with -(으)시- to show respect to the patient: 아프세요 (from 아파요), 아프셨어요 (from 아팠어요) and 있으세요 (from 있어요). The patient never uses -(으)시- about themselves, so the answers keep plain 요 forms. Health words are in Korean hospital vocabulary, body nouns are in Korean body parts, and emergencies are in Korean emergency phrases.

Practice: Can You Say It?

Say each sentence aloud in Korean, then check. Cover the answer column first. Score eight or more out of ten and you can use the pattern in daily speech; if you missed items 2, 7 or 8, review the body-part table above, because each uses a body noun as the subject.

Common mistakes are 저는 고파요 (write 배가 고파요), 목마라요 (write 목말라요), 어지러어요 (write 어지러워요) and 배고프어요 (write 배고파요). What this page does not cover. It leaves out most illness vocabulary and the description of long-term health conditions. Fever and cold phrases appear only in the verb-phrase table.

What Should You Learn after Korean Physical State Adjectives?

After Korean physical state adjectives, continue with Korean emotion adjectives, which use a related pattern for feelings. For the full list of adjectives, read common Korean adjectives.

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 hungry" in Korean? Say 배가 고파요, or 저는 배가 고파요 if you want to name yourself. The word 배 means "stomach" and 고프다 means "empty", so the sentence is literally "The stomach is empty". The one-word form 배고파요 is also correct. For "I am very hungry" add 너무 or 정말: 정말 배가 고파요.

How do I say "I am thirsty" in Korean? Say 목이 말라요 or 목말라요. The word 목 means "throat", and 마르다 means "to be dry", so the sentence is literally "The throat is dry". 마르다 is a 르 verb that doubles the ㄹ in the polite present: 목말라요. The past is 목말랐어요, and the modifier is 목마른, as in 목마른 사람.

How do I say "I have a headache" in Korean? Say 머리가 아파요. The body part 머리 ("head") is the subject and 아프다 ("to hurt") is the adjective, so the sentence is literally "The head hurts". Replace 머리 with another body part for other pains: 배가 아파요 (stomach), 목이 아파요 (throat), 다리가 아파요 (leg).

How do I say "I am full" in Korean? Say 배불러요, the polite present of 배부르다. It pairs with 배가 고파요 as an opposite: the stomach is full instead of empty. 배부르다 is a 르 irregular adjective, so an extra ㄹ is added before 어요: 부르 becomes 불러. You can also say 배가 불러요, with 배 and 불러요 written as two words.

Can I say 저는 배고파요 without 가? Yes. 배고프다 is a single adjective in the Standard Korean Language Dictionary, so 저는 배고파요 is correct and common. The longer 저는 배가 고파요 splits the word into 배 and 고프다 and shows the double-subject pattern. Both are accepted, and speakers use them interchangeably in daily speech.