Korean Drinks Vocabulary: 45 Words with Romanization and Audio

Key facts

Korean Drinks Vocabulary at a Glance

This page holds 45 words in five groups of nine and works as the hub of the Drinks section. It starts with water and soft drinks, adds coffee and tea, moves to traditional drinks, covers alcohol and ends with the words you use at a cafe counter. It sits inside Food and Drink. Each word has an example sentence, so the page doubles as a ready deck.

The words are nouns. Many pair with the verb 마시다 (to drink), and the example sentences show the pairing. The next section picks the words to learn first.

Which Drink Words Should You Learn First?

Learn 물 (water), 커피 (coffee), 차 (tea), 음료수 (beverage) and 주세요 with a counter, such as 한 잔 (one glass), first. With these you can ask for a drink in any shop or restaurant. After that, add 아이스 (iced) and 핫 (hot), because they come before the drink name in every cafe.

• Words to say. 물, 커피, 차, 주스, 아이스, 한 잔. These go straight into your order.
• Words to recognise. 식혜, 수정과, 보리차, 유자차. You will see these on traditional menus and in convenience stores.
• Words to understand when spoken. 사이즈, 휘핑크림, 테이크아웃. The staff say these as questions after you order.

Three contrasts save confusion. 물 is water, 음료수 is any soft drink and 차 is tea. Second, 차 is also "car", so the verb tells you which. Third, 사이다 is not cider; it is a clear lemon-lime soda. The single-word pages on water in korean and coffee in korean look at those words in more depth.

Word · 8

1. 1

   물

   Play

   mul

   water

2. 2

   음료수

   Play

   eumnyosu

   drink; beverage

3. 3

   커피

   Play

   keopi

   coffee

4. 4

   아메리카노

   Play

   amerikano

   Americano

5. 5

   식혜

   Play

   sikhye

   sweet rice drink

6. 6

   수정과

   Play

   sujeonggwa

   cinnamon punch

7. 7

   소주

   Play

   soju

   soju (distilled spirit)

8. 8

   아이스

   Play

   aiseu

   iced

Water and Soft Drinks

The plainest drink words come first. Korean separates 물 (water) from 음료수 (beverages in general), and it has a particular word, 사이다, for a drink that English speakers might expect to be cider. The group ends with milk, which Koreans group with drinks and not with food.

Example Sentences

The examples use two frames. The first is drink + counter + 주세요 (please give me drink), as in 물 한 잔 주세요. The second is drink + 을/를 마셔요 (I drink drink), as in 우유를 마셔요. The particle 을 follows a noun that ends in a consonant and 를 follows a noun that ends in a vowel, so it is 우유를 and 생수를 but 물을. Say each sentence aloud after the audio clip, and swap in other drinks to make new ones.

Which Counters Go with Drinks?

Drinks are counted by the container, not by the liquid. The table lists four counters you need at a counter or a shop.

The numbers before these counters are native Korean numbers: 한, 두, 세, 네. See the food and drink counters page for the full list.

How Do You Say Coffee and Tea in Korean?

Coffee is a major part of daily life in Korea, and most coffee words are loanwords. Tea has its own native and Sino-Korean words, and the plain word 차 has a second meaning that you must watch. This group covers the drinks you order every day.

The word 차 means both "tea" and "car". Written alone, the context decides: 차를 마셔요 means "I drink tea" because 마시다 goes with drinks, and 차를 타요 means "I ride in a car" because 타다 goes with vehicles. Verbs make the sentence clear, which is one reason to learn nouns together with their verbs. Single-word pages give more on coffee in korean and tea in korean.

Traditional Drinks

Traditional Korean drinks are served at family meals, in tea houses and at holidays, and most are made from grain, fruit or roots. They have native or Sino-Korean names that look unfamiliar at first, but each name tells you the main ingredient. These nine are the ones you meet on menus and in shops.

The suffix 차 (tea) turns an ingredient into a drink: 보리 + 차 is barley tea, 유자 + 차 is yuzu tea and 대추 + 차 is jujube tea. You can build new names this way, and a tea house menu uses the same pattern. Note that 식혜 and 수정과 do not end in 차, since they are cold drinks with their own names. Learn them as a pair: they are the two classic after-meal drinks.

How Do You Say Alcohol in Korean?

Alcohol words matter in Korea because drinking is a common part of meals and work gatherings. The vocabulary covers the drinks, the toast and the food that goes with them. It also covers the morning after. These words are for adults, and the conversation around them has its own etiquette, which a separate page covers.

Look at the word 안주. It is a Korean concept with no direct English word: food ordered to accompany drinks, and not eaten as a meal. In a bar the staff will ask 안주는 뭘로 하시겠어요? (what would you like for food?). See Korean Drinking Culture Vocabulary.

Cafe Menu Words

A cafe menu mixes English loanwords with a few Korean question forms, and the order of choices is always the same: hot or iced, size, extras. Knowing this order lets you order a drink exactly as you want it. The list gives the nine words that fill in the blanks.

How Do You Order a Drink at a Korean Cafe?

A typical order has four steps. This sample shows them in order and uses mostly words from this page.

The particle 로 in 사이즈로 marks the choice: "as a tall size". For a fuller menu vocabulary, with more drinks, extras, pastries and the eat-in or takeaway question, see the cafe menu page.

How Do You Pronounce These Words?

Drink words contain several sound changes. The Hangul shows the written form, while the spoken form shifts where a final consonant meets another sound. 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 맥주 and 막걸리 are the ones learners miss most. A tense consonant is said with a tight throat and no puff of air. The doubled l in 콜라 is one long l, held slightly longer than a single l.

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 Drink Words?

These five mistakes come up often with drink words.

1. Hearing 사이다 as cider. Cider in English is an apple drink. In Korea, 사이다 is a clear lemon-lime soda. If you want an apple drink, say 사과 주스.
2. Using 차 without context. 차를 마셔요 is tea and 차를 타요 is a car. The verb makes the difference.
3. Using 개 for drinks. Count drinks with 잔, 병, 캔 or 컵, as in 커피 두 잔. Using 개 sounds odd.
4. Saying 물 for any liquid. 물 means plain water. Juice is 주스 and tea is 차. Use 물 only for water.
5. Forgetting the order at a cafe. Say hot or iced first, then the drink, then the size: 아이스 아메리카노, 톨 사이즈. Reversing the order still works but sounds less natural.

If you meet only one, make it the counter mistake, because it comes up whenever you order more than one drink.

Practice: Flashcards and Worksheet

Study in three steps. First, run the flashcard deck in recognition mode until you know each of the 45 words. Second, switch to listening mode and answer from the audio alone. Third, take the quiz. The deck covers all 45 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, write your own cafe order in Korean: the drink, the temperature, the size and the counter. Read it aloud, then compare it with the sample in the cafe menu section.

Where to Go Next

After this page, continue with At the Restaurant, which teaches the words for ordering a meal, or Fruits and Vegetables. To move up a level, return to Food and Drink.

Pages in This Section

Two deeper pages sit under this one. Choose the one that matches what you want to order.

• Korean Cafe Menu Vocabulary: 35 words for coffee and tea drinks, sizes and extras, pastries, and eat-in or takeaway, plus the slang 아아 and 뜨아.
• Korean Drinking Culture Vocabulary: soju, beer, toasts, rounds and hangover words.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do You Say Water in Korean?

Water is 물 (mul). Ask for a glass with 물 한 잔 주세요 (mul han jan juseyo), meaning "a glass of water, please". Bottled water is 생수 (saengsu). Add 을 to make an object: 물을 마셔요 (mureul masyeoyo), "I drink water". In most restaurants water is free and self-serve.

How Do You Pronounce 음료수 (eumnyosu)?

Say eum-nyo-su, written [음뇨수]. The ㄹ in 료 becomes [ㄴ] after the ㅁ in 음, so the middle sounds like "nyo", not "ryo". The vowel ㅡ in 음 is flat, with spread lips. Press the audio button on this page for the normal and slow versions.

How Many Drink Words Should I Learn First?

Five first: 물, 커피, 차, 음료수 and 한 잔. At five new words a day, the whole list of 45 takes nine days plus review. Add 아이스 and 핫 on day two, since every cafe order uses them.

Where Can I Practise Drink Words with Flashcards?

Use the vocabulary flashcard decks. The deck for this page holds all 45 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 Drink 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 45 words.