Korean Cooking Vocabulary: 40 Words with Romanization and Audio

Key facts

Korean Cooking Vocabulary at a Glance

This list has 40 words in five groups of eight. It follows how a cook works: you read the recipe and prepare the ingredients, you use tools and heat, you taste the result, you name the method and you measure the amounts. It belongs to Food and Drink, next to the restaurant and drinks lists. Every word has an example sentence, so the page doubles as a ready deck.

All are nouns. Many add 하다 to make a verb, such as 준비하다 and 설거지하다. The next section picks the words to learn first.

Which Cooking Words Should You Learn First?

Learn 요리 (cooking), 레시피 (recipe), 재료 (ingredients), 맛 (taste) and 양념 (seasoning) first. They name the activity and the two things every cook handles, and they appear in every recipe heading. After that, add the tools and the method nouns, because the method nouns also read menus.

• Words to say. 요리, 맛, 간, 냄비, 칼. You use these when you cook with someone or talk about food.
• Words to recognise. 볶음, 찜, 구이, 조림, 무침, 튀김. You read these on menus and in recipe titles.
• Words to understand when spoken. 큰술, 작은술, 약간, 적당량. A cooking show or a family cook says these as quick instructions.

The Korean words for taste carry more meaning than their English glosses. 맛 is taste, but 간 is the seasoning level, and 손맛 is the cook's own touch. Learn these three with their notes and not just their translations. The single-word page on cooking in korean gives the lookup answer for 요리 and 요리하다.

Word · 8

1. 1

   레시피

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   resipi

   recipe

2. 2

   냄비

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   naembi

   pot (saucepan)

3. 3

   프라이팬

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   peuraipaen

   frying pan

4. 4

   칼

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   kal

   knife

5. 5

   도마

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   doma

   cutting board

6. 6

   불

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   bul

   fire; heat (of a stove)

7. 7

   그릇

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   geureut

   bowl; dish; container

8. 8

   볶음

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   bokkeum

   stir-fried dish

Cooking Steps

The first eight words follow the order of a cooking session: you choose a recipe, gather the ingredients, prepare them, season them and clean up at the end. They are nouns, and several add 하다 to become verbs, such as 준비하다 and 손질하다, which is how they appear in the example sentences.

Example Sentences

The sentences use two frames. The first is noun + 을/를 + 해요 (I do noun), as in 저녁 준비를 해요 and 설거지를 해요. The second is noun + 을/를 + verb, as in 재료를 준비해요 and 반죽을 만들어요. The same noun can sit in either frame: 준비를 해요 and 준비해요 mean the same, and the shorter one is more common in speech. Say each sentence aloud after the audio clip, and change the noun to make new ones.

How Do You Say Tools and Heat in Korean?

Kitchen tools are a mix of loanwords and older native words. The knife and the cutting board have been in Korean kitchens for generations, while the oven and the frying pan are loanwords from English. The word for heat is the plain noun 불, which also means fire.

The word 불 does two jobs. As "fire" it appears in 불을 켜다 (switch on a light) and 불이 나다 (a fire breaks out). As "heat" it appears in a recipe: 센 불에서 볶아요 (stir-fry on high heat) and 약한 불로 끓여요 (simmer on low heat). In a recipe you will see 센 불, 중간 불 and 약한 불, which are high, medium and low heat. The verbs that match these tools, such as 끓이다, 볶다, 굽다 and 삶다, are covered on the common verbs page, so this list stays with the nouns.

Taste Words

Korean has a rich set of words for how food tastes and feels. The basic noun is 맛, taste, and many other words are built on it. This group also includes two ideas that are hard to translate: 간, the level of seasoning, and 손맛, the flavour that comes from a particular cook's hands.

What Does 손맛 Mean?

손맛 (hand taste) is the Korean idea that a dish tastes different depending on who made it, even from the same recipe. A person says 손맛이 좋다 about a cook whose food is always right. The word is a compliment, and it is used for home cooks and for restaurants that people trust. There is no single English word for it; "a cook's touch" comes closest. The related word 간 is more technical: it is the seasoning level, usually how salty a dish is, and a cook tastes the food with 간을 보다 before serving.

How Do You Say Cooking Methods (as nouns) in Korean?

Korean dish names are often built from an ingredient and a method noun. 생선구이 is fish + grilling, 갈비찜 is short rib + braising, and 오징어볶음 is squid + stir-frying. Learn these eight nouns and you can read a large part of a Korean menu. This list keeps to the nouns; the matching verbs are on a separate page.

Seven of the eight method nouns come from a verb: the verb stem plus -(으)ㅁ or -이 gives a noun. 볶다 gives 볶음, 굽다 gives 구이, 조리다 gives 조림 (조리 + ㅁ) and 튀기다 gives 튀김 (튀기 + ㅁ). The exception is 전, a Sino-Korean word with no verb behind it. When you meet an unfamiliar dish word that ends in ㅁ or 이, look for the verb it comes from. For the dish names themselves, see the Korean Dishes list.

Recipes and Measures

Korean recipes often use spoons and cups rather than grams, and they use a few vague amounts that cooks judge by eye. The measure words follow a number, and the number is a native Korean number that shortens before a counter. Here are the eight measure words you will meet in most recipes.

How Do You Read a Korean Recipe Line?

A recipe lists the item, then the amount, then the verb. The sample below shows three typical lines and how to say them.

The digits in the recipe are read with native numbers: 한, 두, 세. Native numbers shorten before a counter, so 둘 becomes 두 and 셋 becomes 세. The table does not list 약간 with a number, because it is itself an amount. The food and drink counters page lists the counters that go with food.

How Do You Pronounce These Words?

Cooking words contain several sound changes, because many end in a consonant that meets another consonant or a vowel. 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.

The tense sounds in 식감, 약간 and 볶음 are the hardest. A tense consonant is said with a tight throat and no puff of air, so the second syllable should sound sharp and short. For 레시피 (resipi), say re-si-pi, with a short first vowel and an even rhythm.

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 Cooking Words?

These five mistakes come up often with cooking words.

1. Missing the second meaning of 요리. 요리 is the activity and also a cooked dish or a cuisine, so 중국 요리 is Chinese food. For the act of cooking, use 요리하다 or 요리를 해요.
2. Confusing 간 and 맛. 맛 is the overall taste, and 간 is only the salt level. 맛이 없어요 says the food is not good, while 간이 싱거워요 says only that it needs more salt. Use 간 when you mean salt, as in 간을 봐요 (I taste it for seasoning).
3. Translating 손맛 word for word. "Hand taste" in English sounds odd. Use it as a compliment: 손맛이 좋아요, or explain it as "a cook's special touch".
4. Treating method nouns as standalone dishes. 구이 alone is grilled food. Add the ingredient to make a dish: 생선구이, 갈비구이.
5. Putting a number before 약간. 약간 already means "a little", so it does not take 한 or 두. Say 소금 약간 or 소금 한 꼬집, not 소금 한 약간.

One habit helps with all five: learn each noun with the dish or the sentence that shows it.

Practice: Flashcards and Worksheet

Study in three steps. First, run the flashcard deck in recognition mode until you know each of the 40 words. Second, switch to listening mode and answer from the audio alone. Third, take the quiz. The deck covers all 40 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 a Korean recipe and underline every noun from this list. Reading a real recipe is the best test of the whole page.

Where to Go Next

After this page, continue with At the Restaurant, which teaches the words for ordering and paying, or Korean Dishes to put the method nouns to work. For the verbs that go with these nouns, see common verbs. To move up a level, return to Food and Drink.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do You Say Cooking in Korean?

Cooking is 요리 (yori). The verb is 요리하다 (yorihada), and the polite form is 요리해요 (I cook). 요리 also means a cooked dish, as in 중국 요리 (Chinese food). A cook or chef is 요리사 (yorisa). With 하다 as a separate verb, add the object particle 를 (used after a vowel): 요리를 해요 (I cook).

How Do You Pronounce 레시피 (resipi)?

Say re-si-pi, with three even syllables. The first vowel ㅔ is short, like the vowel in "bed". The ㅣ vowels in 시 and 피 are clear and bright. The ㅍ is aspirated, with a small puff of air. Press the audio button on this page for the normal and slow versions.

How Many Cooking Words Should I Learn First?

Five first: 요리, 레시피, 재료, 맛 and 양념. At five new words a day, the whole list of 40 takes eight days plus review. Add the method nouns next, since they help you read menus as well as recipes.

Where Can I Practise Cooking Words with Flashcards?

Use the vocabulary flashcard decks. The deck for this page holds all 40 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 mark every sound change, so rely on the Hangul and the audio.

Is There a Printable Worksheet for Cooking Words?

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 40 words.