Korean Materials Vocabulary: 30 Words with Romanization and Audio

Korean Materials Vocabulary at a Glance

This list has 30 words in five groups of six. It starts with the two general words for material, then the natural materials you find outdoors, then metals, the fabrics and leather on clothing labels, the plastics in packaging, and the glass, brick and tile of buildings. It belongs to Shapes, Materials and Measurements in Korean and follows Korean Shapes Vocabulary.

All 30 are nouns. Many are loanwords from English, such as 플라스틱, 알루미늄 and 폴리에스터, so you can often guess them. The rest are short native or Sino-Korean words, such as 나무, 돌, 철 and 금, that are worth learning by heart. The pattern for saying what something is made of is the same for every word, and the next section shows it.

Which Materials Should You Learn First?

Learn 나무 (wood), 종이 (paper), 유리 (glass), 플라스틱 (plastic) and 면 (cotton) first. These five cover most of the objects around you, and they are the ones you see on shopping labels. After them, add 금속 (metal), 가죽 (leather) and 소재 (material).

• Words to say. 나무, 종이, 유리, 플라스틱, 가죽. You use these when you describe an object or ask what it is made of.
• Words to recognise. 면, 울, 폴리에스터, 나일론, 리넨. These appear on clothing labels, and you read them rather than say them.
• Words to understand when spoken. 콘크리트, 시멘트, 벽돌, 구리. A builder, a guide or a science video uses these.

There are two general words for material. 재료 (jaeryo) is the stuff something is made from, including cooking ingredients, so 요리 재료 is a cooking ingredient. 소재 (sojae) is the material of a product, and it is the word on clothing labels and in product descriptions. Both can be translated as "material", but they are not interchangeable: a chef talks about 재료, and a shop assistant talks about 소재. For the single-word pages, see wood in korean and glass in korean.

Word · 12

1. 1

   나무

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   namu

   wood; tree

2. 2

   돌

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   dol

   stone; rock

3. 3

   종이

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   jongi

   paper

4. 4

   철

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   cheol

   iron

5. 5

   금

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   geum

   gold

6. 6

   가죽

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   gajuk

   leather; hide

7. 7

   면

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   myeon

   cotton

8. 8

   플라스틱

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   peullaseutik

   plastic

9. 9

   고무

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   gomu

   rubber

10. 10

    유리

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    yuri

    glass

11. 11

    벽돌

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    byeokdol

    brick

12. 12

    도자기

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    dojagi

    ceramics; porcelain; pottery

Natural Materials

This group starts with the two general words for material and continues with four natural materials. You will use the first two to ask a question, and the other four to answer it. Wood and paper come from the same source, so they are easy to remember together.

Example Sentences

The sentences use three frames. The first is thing + 은/는 + material + (으)로 + 만들었어요, as in 이 의자는 나무로 만들었어요 (this chair is made of wood). The particle 로 follows a vowel, as in 나무로, and 으로 follows a consonant, as in 흙으로. The second is object + 을/를 + verb, as in 돌을 던지지 마세요 (please do not throw stones), where 지 마세요 means please do not. The third is place + 에 + object + 을/를 + verb, as in 화분에 흙을 넣어요 and 종이에 이름을 써요, where 에 marks the place or surface. Say each sentence aloud after its clip.

How Do You Say Metals in Korean?

Korean has one general word for metal and short single-syllable names for the traditional metals. The three one-syllable words, 철, 금 and 은, are Sino-Korean and appear in many compounds. The last two are longer: 구리 is a native word, and 알루미늄 is a loanword.

Note the sentence 금은 비싸요. It has 금 (gold) followed by the topic particle 은. The same works for silver: 은은 비싸요 (silver is expensive), where the first 은 is the noun and the second is the particle. For the particle itself, see topic particles.

Metal words are often followed by 제품 (product) or 그릇 (dish), so 금속 제품 is a metal product and 철 그릇 is an iron bowl.

Fabrics and Leather

These six words come from clothing labels and shop descriptions. 천 is the general word for fabric, 가죽 is leather, and the other four are the most common cloth names. Most are loanwords or short Sino-Korean words, so they are quick to learn.

Clothing labels list the material by percent, for example 면 100%. A label may read 면 80%, 폴리에스터 20%, with the number after the material. Read the label from left to right and look for the first word you know. For the words that name the clothes themselves, see clothing.

The word 면 has several meanings, and a clothing label settles the question. Next to a percent it means cotton, and in a restaurant 면 means noodles, as in 냉면 (cold noodles). The two share a spelling and a sound, and you tell them apart from the setting.

How Do You Say Plastics and Synthetics in Korean?

Most synthetic materials are loanwords, and the words are used on packaging, in recycling and on clothing labels. This group has two plastic words, a rubber word, two synthetic fibres and a foam. All six are nouns.

Korea sorts rubbish by material, so these words appear on bins and bags. You will see the word 플라스틱 on a bin for plastic, 비닐 on a bin for plastic bags and film, and 스티로폼 on a bin for foam packaging. Recycling labels also print the material in letters, such as PET or PE, with the Korean word beside them. Learn the Korean words and you can sort the rubbish without asking.

Building Materials

The last group names the materials of buildings, floors and dishes. Glass and ceramics are also materials of everyday objects, so they fit here. These words appear on construction signs, in house descriptions and in museums.

The words 시멘트 and 콘크리트 are easy to confuse, because English speakers use both for the same grey material. In Korean, 시멘트 is the grey powder, and 콘크리트 is the hard, mixed building material. On a site, builders say 콘크리트를 부어요 (they pour concrete). In a shop, the bag says 시멘트.

Ceramics have a long history in Korea, and 도자기 is the word used for museum labels and gift shops. Related words, such as 청자 (celadon) and 백자 (white porcelain), appear on those labels, but they are not on this list.

How Do You Say What Something Is Made Of?

Korean says what something is made of with the pattern thing + 은/는 + material + (으)로 + 만들었어요. The particle 로 or 으로 marks the material, much like "of" or "from" in English. Use 로 after a vowel or after ㄹ, and 으로 after any other consonant.

The question is 뭐로 만들었어요? (What is it made of?). The word 뭐로 is short for 무엇으로. A shop assistant may also ask the shorter 소재가 뭐예요?. There are two verbs for making. 만들다 is for making something from raw material, and 되다 describes what the thing is, as in 이 그릇은 유리로 되어 있어요 (this bowl is made of glass). You can use either, and 만들었어요 is the safer one at beginner level. The verb 만들다 drops its ㄹ before ㅅ, so the polite form is 만들어요 and the honorific form is 만드세요.

The question word for what, 뭐, is covered on the 뭐 and 무엇 page.

What Do the Recycling and Packaging Words Mean?

Packaging prints material words in Korean next to a recycling symbol, so these words are useful in daily life. In an apartment building, bins are labelled by material, such as 종이 (paper), 플라스틱 (plastic), 비닐 (vinyl), 유리 (glass) and 캔 (cans). Fabric goes in a separate clothing bin. The bin labels use the words in this list, so you can read them without a dictionary.

Local rules vary, so check the notice in your building or the website of your district office. The labels use the same words, but which items go where can differ.

How Do You Pronounce These Words?

Most material words are easy to say, but a few have sounds that differ from the spelling. The main changes are a double final consonant in 흙, tensing in 벽돌, and the double ㄹ in loanwords such as 알루미늄 and 폴리에스터. Standard pronunciation follows the National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원) rules, and the romanization follows the Revised Romanization of Korean, which records some sound changes and ignores others.

Loanwords such as 플라스틱 (peullaseutik) and 콘크리트 (konkeuriteu) add a vowel ㅡ (eu) between consonants that English says together. This is the biggest difference between a loanword and the English original. Say 플 as peul, not pl, and 크 as keu, not k. The extra vowel is short, but it is there. Listening to the clip will help you hear it.

Audio and Slow Playback

Every headword and every example sentence has its own audio. The five clips below replay the trickiest words slowly. Play one, repeat it aloud, then play it again and compare.

What Mistakes Do Learners Make with Materials?

These five mistakes come up often with material words.

1. Using 에 instead of (으)로 for the material. 나무에 만들었어요 is wrong. The material takes 로 or 으로: 나무로 만들었어요.
2. Choosing the wrong form of the particle. After a vowel use 로, as in 나무로, and after a consonant use 으로, as in 면으로. The exception is ㄹ: 철, 돌 and 울 take 로, not 으로 (철로, 돌로, 울로).
3. Mixing up 재료 and 소재. 재료 is the stuff or the ingredient, and 소재 is the material of a finished product. 요리 소재 is odd, and 가방 재료 describes the supplies for making a bag.
4. Reading 면 as noodles on a clothing label. On a clothing label, 면 100% means cotton. The same word means noodles on a menu, as in 냉면.
5. Pronouncing 흙 with the double letters. The word has two consonant letters at the end, but on its own you say only [흑]. Do not try to say both.

A habit that avoids most of these: always say the material first, then the particle, then the verb. Say 나무로 만들었어요 as one unit, and you will not forget the particle.

Practice: Flashcards and Worksheet

Study in three steps. First, run the flashcard deck in recognition mode until you know each of the 30 words. Second, switch to listening mode and answer from the audio alone. Third, take the quiz. The deck covers all 30 words with audio, and your progress stays in your browser. The vocabulary flashcard decks page lists the other decks.

A printable worksheet for these words (word list, matching, writing practice, fill-in-the-blank exercises and answer key) is available in A4 and US Letter from the download card on this page. For practice, pick five objects around you, such as a cup, a chair, a bag, a shirt and a window, and say what each is made of: 이 컵은 유리로 만들었어요. Saying the sentence while you hold the object fixes both the word and the pattern.

Where to Go Next

After this page, continue with Korean Measurement Vocabulary, which teaches words for length, weight and temperature, or go back to Korean Shapes Vocabulary. For the clothes that these fabrics make, see clothing. To return to the full set, go to Shapes, Materials and Measurements in Korean.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do You Say Wood in Korean?

Wood is 나무 (namu). The same word also means a tree. To say something is made of wood, use 나무로 만들었어요. The formal word for timber is 목재, but 나무 is enough in daily speech. The single-word page on wood in korean gives more examples.

How Do You Pronounce 유리 (yuri)?

Say yu-ri, with two short syllables. The first vowel ㅠ is like "you" with no final w. The ㄹ between vowels is a light tap, like the "tt" in the American "butter". There is no sound change, so the spelling matches the sound. The page on glass in korean has more detail.

How Many Materials Should I Learn First?

Five first: 나무, 종이, 유리, 플라스틱 and 면. At five new words a day, the whole list of 30 takes six days plus review. Add 소재 and 금속 on day two, since you will meet them on product labels.

Where Can I Practise Materials with Flashcards?

Use the vocabulary flashcard decks. The deck for this page holds all 30 words with Hangul, romanization and audio, and it offers recognition and listening modes. Your progress stays in your browser, so return daily and review the cards you missed.

Is the Romanization on This Page Official?

It follows the Revised Romanization of Korean, which South Korea adopted on 7 July 2000 and whose rules the National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원) publishes. It is a learning aid and does not show every sound change, so rely on the Hangul and the audio.

Is There a Printable Worksheet for Materials?

A printable worksheet for these words (word list, matching, writing practice, fill-in-the-blank exercises and answer key) is available in A4 and US Letter from the download card on this page. For practice, copy the tables on this page by hand or use the flashcard deck, which carries the same 30 words.

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