Korean Fruit Names: 40 Words with Romanization and Audio

Korean Fruit Names at a Glance

This list has 40 words in five groups. It belongs to Fruits and Vegetables. The first group holds the fruits everyone eats. The second holds fruits tied to a Korean season. The remaining three cover imported fruit, berries and melons, and fruit that is dried or turned into juice. Long-established fruits have native names (배, 감) or Sino-Korean names built from Chinese characters (사과 沙果, 귤 橘), while newer arrivals such as 바나나, 키위 and 망고 are loanwords.

The origin split helps you learn. A native or Sino-Korean fruit name is usually one or two syllables, as in 배 and 사과. A loanword is usually longer and sounds like its English source, as in 파인애플 (pineapple), so it is easy to guess when you see it written.

Which Fruit Names Should You Learn First?

Learn 사과, 바나나, 포도, 딸기 and 귤 first. They are everyday fruits in Korean supermarkets, on cafe menus and in beginner textbooks. A short sentence such as 사과를 먹어요 (I eat an apple) uses the first of them with the most common verb.

• Words to say. 사과, 바나나, 포도, 딸기, 수박. Use these when you shop or order.
• Words to recognise. 참외, 홍시, 한라봉, 유자. You see these in markets, on gift boxes and in tea names such as 유자차.
• Words that need care. 배 (pear, belly, ship) and 사과 (apple, apology).

A Korean fruit stall sells by season, so learning the seasons and the names together makes both stick. The scene below shows a fruit stall with numbered objects that match the list.

Word · 20

1. 1

   과일

   Play

   gwail

   fruit

2. 2

   배

   Play

   bae

   pear

3. 3

   귤

   Play

   gyul

   tangerine

4. 4

   포도

   Play

   podo

   grape

5. 5

   수박

   Play

   subak

   watermelon

6. 6

   홍시

   Play

   hongsi

   soft ripe persimmon

7. 7

   복숭아

   Play

   boksunga

   peach

8. 8

   대추

   Play

   daechu

   jujube

9. 9

   한라봉

   Play

   hallabong

   hallabong (Jeju mandarin)

10. 10

    파인애플

    Play

    painaepeul

    pineapple

11. 11

    키위

    Play

    kiwi

    kiwi

12. 12

    자몽

    Play

    jamong

    grapefruit

13. 13

    코코넛

    Play

    kokoneot

    coconut

14. 14

    산딸기

    Play

    santtalgi

    wild raspberry

15. 15

    체리

    Play

    cheri

    cherry

16. 16

    청포도

    Play

    cheongpodo

    green grape

17. 17

    건포도

    Play

    geonpodo

    raisin

18. 18

    말린 과일

    Play

    mallin gwail

    dried fruit

19. 19

    과즙

    Play

    gwajeup

    fruit juice (the liquid in fruit)

20. 20

    씨

    Play

    ssi

    seed

Everyday Fruits

Everyday fruits are the words you will meet first, at breakfast, in a lunchbox or on a dessert plate. 과일 (gwail) is the general word for fruit, and each fruit takes its name directly. Fruit is usually eaten fresh and peeled or sliced, and a plate of cut fruit after a meal is common in Korean homes.

Two homophones deserve a note. 사과 means both apple and apology, and 배 means pear, belly and ship. Korean speakers rarely get confused because the sentence around the word decides the meaning: 사과를 먹어요 is about eating, while 사과해요 is about apologising.

Example Sentences

Three frames carry most of the examples. The first is fruit + 을/를 + verb, as in 바나나를 먹어요 (I eat a banana). The second is fruit + 이/가 + describing word, as in 딸기가 맛있어요 (the strawberries are tasty). The third is fruit + number + counter + 주세요, as in 포도 한 송이 주세요 (a bunch of grapes, please). Say each aloud after the audio and swap in another fruit. Remember that 를 follows a vowel (바나나를) and 을 follows a consonant (귤을).

Which Fruits Belong to a Korean Season?

Korean seasonal fruits are the ones shops display when they are at their best. In general, 딸기 comes in winter and spring, 참외 and 복숭아 in summer, 감 in autumn and 귤 in winter, though greenhouses stretch these dates. The words below include fruits you will hardly find in English-language lists.

Seasonal fruit is also a gift. A box of 배 is a common present at Chuseok, and a box of 한라봉 is popular around the Lunar New Year (설날), its winter season. The next section moves to fruit that arrives from abroad.

The table is a rough guide, not a rule. Greenhouses and imports mean you can buy many fruits all year round.

Tropical and Imported Fruits

Tropical fruits arrive from abroad, so their names are loanwords written in Hangul. Most are quick to learn because they sound like their English names; 자몽 is the exception. You will meet them in the supermarket, in juice bars and on cafe menus.

Loanword fruits often appear as fruit + 주스 or fruit + 에이드, as in 망고 주스 and 자몽에이드. The Korean Coffee Shop Vocabulary page uses these flavour words on cafe menus.

How Do You Say Berries and Melons in Korean?

Small fruits and melons follow the same 'fruit + type' habit. Korean often marks a colour or a wild origin with a prefix. 산 means mountain, so 산딸기 is a wild raspberry (literally a mountain strawberry). 청 means blue or green, so 청포도 is a green grape.

Compare 멜론 and 참외 when you shop. A 참외 is small and yellow, while a 멜론 is larger with green or netted skin. Both are sold in summer.

Dried Fruit and Juice

The last group covers fruit after it has been processed, plus the words for its parts. Drying is an old way to keep fruit through winter, and 곶감 (dried persimmon) is the best-known Korean example. 과일 주스 and 과즙 cover drinks and juice.

Use 껍질 and 씨 with the verbs 벗기다 (to peel off) and 뱉다 (to spit out). They give you the two most useful actions at the fruit plate.

Fruit is sold in standard units. A single piece is counted with 개, a bunch with 송이, a box with 상자 and a bag with 봉지. So 사과 세 개 is three apples and 귤 한 봉지 is a bag of tangerines. The food counters page lists more units.

How Do You Pronounce These Words?

Fruit names include tense sounds, linking and a nasal change. Standard pronunciation follows the National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원) rules, and the romanization follows the Revised Romanization of Korean, which writes the sound you hear in some cases and the spelling in others.

The pattern behind three of these is the same: a final ㄱ, ㅂ or ㄷ-sound makes the next plain consonant tense. You will find it in many nouns, so a rule you learn from 복숭아 also helps with 껍질. The word 석류 is different, because it follows the nasal rules (Standard Pronunciation Articles 18 and 19).

Audio and Slow Playback

Each word and sentence has its own clip. The five clips below replay the hardest words slowly. Play one, repeat it aloud, then play it again and compare.

What Mistakes Do Learners Make with Fruit Names?

Five mistakes appear often.

1. Saying 사과 alone to mean "sorry". 사과 is a noun, apple or apology, so on its own it sounds like a fruit name. To apologise, say 미안해요 or 죄송해요; the formal 사과드립니다 (I offer my apology) needs the verb.
2. Confusing 배 (pear) with 배 (belly). In a shop the meaning is clear. If you point at your stomach and say 배가 아파요, it means your belly hurts.
3. Calling a 참외 a 멜론. A 참외 is the small yellow Korean melon. A 멜론 is the larger melon with netted skin.
4. Using 개 for everything. 개 works for single fruits, but a bunch of grapes is 송이 and a bag of tangerines is 봉지.
5. Writing 오랜지 for 오렌지. The loanword is spelled 오렌지, with ㅔ in the second syllable.

Fixing these five covers most shopping trouble. For a single word with fuller notes, see apple in Korean.

Practice: Flashcards and Worksheet

Study in three steps. First, run the flashcard deck in recognition mode until you recognise all 40 words. Second, switch to listening mode. Third, take the quiz. The deck holds 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, list the five fruits in your kitchen in Korean and write one sentence for each.

Where to Go Next

Once these Korean fruit names feel familiar, move on to the produce you cook with. After this page, continue with Korean Vegetables Vocabulary. For the overview, return to Fruits and Vegetables. Fruit also appears in Korean Coffee Shop Vocabulary.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do You Say Fruit in Korean?

Fruit is 과일 (gwail). It is a general word, like fruit in English, and each fruit also has its own name, such as 사과 (apple) and 딸기 (strawberry). A fruit shop is a 과일 가게, and fruit juice is 과일 주스.

How Do You Say Apple in Korean?

Apple is 사과 (sagwa). Say sa-gwa in two beats, with the second syllable like 'gwa' in guava. The same spelling also means apology, so the sentence decides the meaning. The single-word page on apple in Korean has more detail.

Which Korean Fruits Are Not Common in English?

The best known are 참외 (Korean melon), 감 (persimmon), 대추 (jujube), 유자 (yuja citron) and 한라봉 (a Jeju mandarin). Each has a season, a typical use and an entry in this list, so you can recognise them at a market.

How Do You Count Fruit in Korean?

Use 개 for single pieces, 송이 for a bunch of grapes, 봉지 for a bag and 상자 for a box. Put the fruit first and the number second: 사과 세 개 means three apples. Native Korean numbers are used with these counters.

Why Do 배 and 사과 Have Two Meanings?

They are homonyms, words that share a spelling and sound but have different origins. 배 covers pear, belly and ship. 사과 covers apple and apology. The sentence around the word shows which one is meant, and Korean speakers rarely mix them up.

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, so rely on the Hangul and the audio.