Korean Friendship Vocabulary: 30 Words with Romanization and Audio

What you'll learn

• Match all 30 friendship words to their English meanings.
• Say five of them aloud with the help of the Revised Romanization and the audio.
• Write two original sentences that use words such as 친구 (friend) and 동갑 (same age).
• Choose the right good-bye for a friend who is leaving and a friend who is staying.

Prerequisites: you can read Hangul and know the polite ending -아요/-어요. Estimated time: about 75 minutes, plus short reviews on the following days.

Korean Friendship Vocabulary at a Glance

The list has 30 words in five groups of six. It follows a friendship: who the friends are, how you meet and talk, what goes right and wrong, how you stay in touch online, and how you say goodbye. It belongs to Relationships and Titles.

This page is a themed list. If you need the single word for friend with its meaning and one use, the dedicated page on friend in Korean gives that answer. Here the goal is the wider set of words around the friend.

Which Friendship Words Should You Learn First?

Learn 친구 (friend), 동갑 (same age), 약속 (appointment, plan), 같이 (together) and 안녕 (hi, bye) first. With these five you can arrange to meet a friend and say goodbye. A short sentence such as 친구와 약속이 있어요 (I have plans with a friend) needs only the nouns and a common verb. Then follow this order:

1. Step 1: the five words above.
2. Step 2: close friends: 단짝, 절친 and 동창.
3. Step 3: meeting and talking: 모임, 수다 and 함께.
4. Step 4: trust and conflict, then online friends and the good-bye phrases.

The scene below numbers ten of the objects and ideas from a meeting of friends, so you can tie each word to something you can point at.

Word · 10

1. 1

   친구

   Play

   chingu

   friend

2. 2

   단짝

   Play

   danjjak

   close buddy

3. 3

   절친

   Play

   jeolchin

   best friend

4. 4

   동갑

   Play

   donggap

   same age

5. 5

   약속

   Play

   yaksok

   appointment; promise

6. 6

   수다

   Play

   suda

   chatter; chat

7. 7

   우정

   Play

   ujeong

   friendship

8. 8

   화해

   Play

   hwahae

   making up

9. 9

   단톡방

   Play

   dantokbang

   group chat room

10. 10

    프로필

    Play

    peuropil

    profile

Tap a number to hear the word. Notice that several words come from Sino-Korean roots, such as 우정 and 화해, while 수다 and 싸움 are native words.

Types of Friends (친구, 단짝, 동갑)

Korean separates friends by how close they are and where they come from. 친구 is the general word. 단짝 and 절친 are the close ones, 동갑 names a friend of the same age, 동창 is someone from the same school, and 이웃 is a neighbor.

친구 and 동갑 work together in Korean life. Because speech level depends on age, Koreans often ask 몇 살이에요? early in a first meeting, and a friend who turns out to be 동갑 can usually speak casually with you. The friend who is a year or two older is not called 친구 in everyday talk: a younger person may use 형, 누나, 오빠 or 언니 instead. See Oppa, Hyung, Unnie and Noona for those terms. 절친 is the opposite end of the closeness scale: it names how close you are, not how old.

How Do You Say Meeting and Hanging out in Korean?

These six words cover the plan, the gathering and the talk. 약속 is the plan you make, 만남 is the meeting, 모임 is a group gathering, 수다 is relaxed chatting, and 같이 and 함께 both mean together.

같이 and 함께 mean the same thing: with someone, together. 같이 is the easy everyday choice, and 함께 sounds slightly more careful, so you will see it on posters and hear it in speeches. The word 약속 has two meanings, plan and promise. The context decides: 약속이 있어요 means I have plans, while 약속할게요 means I promise. Notice the particle in 친구와: 와/과 means with, and it marks the person you do something with.

Trust and Conflict

A friendship has good and hard moments. 우정 is friendship itself, 의리 is the loyalty that Koreans value in friends, and 비밀 is a secret you keep. When something goes wrong, 싸움 is a fight, 오해 is a misunderstanding, and 화해 is making up.

의리 deserves a note. It is more than loyalty: it means that you stand by a friend even when it costs you. People say 의리가 있다 (to have 의리) as a strong compliment. The set 싸움, 오해 and 화해 gives you a small story in three words: a fight, caused by a misunderstanding, ended by making up. For the related verb to trust, use 믿다, as in 친구를 믿어요 (I trust my friend). 오해 and 화해 can both take 하다: 오해하다 (to misunderstand) and 화해하다 (to make up), while 싸움 comes from the verb 싸우다 (to fight).

How Do You Say Online Friends in Korean?

Online friendship has its own words. The messaging app KakaoTalk (카카오톡, often shortened to 카톡) is used by most people in Korea, so 친구 추가 (add a friend) and 단톡방 (group chat room) come up constantly. 팔로우 and 팔로워 are used for social media in the same way as in English.

Note how many words are loanwords: 팔로우, 팔로워, 메시지 and 프로필 are English words written in Hangul. Only 단톡방 is a Korean blend. For the larger set of app and social media words, see social media vocabulary. The verb in the profile sentence, 바꿨어요, comes from 바꾸다 (to change), and the sentence shows a pattern you will use again: noun + 을/를 + verb.

Good-Bye Words for Friends

These six are the casual good-byes. They are for friends of the same age or close friends and, as casual speech, they are not for elders or strangers. Korean has two different goodbyes, depending on whether you are the one leaving or the one staying.

The two goodbyes depend on direction. 잘 가 (go well) is said to the person who leaves, and 잘 있어 (stay well) is said by the person who leaves to the one who stays. The ending -(으)ㄹ게 in 연락할게 is a promise from the speaker, and it is said with a tense [께]. All six in this group are casual. With someone older, use 안녕히 가세요 for someone who is leaving and 안녕히 계세요 for someone who is staying.

How Do You Pronounce Korean Friendship Words?

Most friendship words are easy, but several change their sound. The National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원) sets these changes in its standard pronunciation rules. Revised Romanization follows the spoken sound for linking, but it does not show tensing caused by a neighbouring sound. Words that are spaced are romanized separately.

Audio and Slow Playback

Each word and sentence has its own clip. The five clips below play the harder words slowly. Play a clip, say the word, then play it again and compare the ends of the syllables.

What Mistakes Do Learners Make with Friendship Words?

Five patterns catch learners when they talk about friends.

1. Using casual speech with an older friend. 반말 is for friends of the same age or by agreement. Even friendly older people usually expect 요 endings until they say otherwise.
2. Calling every acquaintance 친구. 친구 implies a real friend, usually of your age. For someone you know a little, use 지인 (acquaintance) or the person's name with 씨.
3. Using 안녕 with elders. 안녕 is casual. To an older person, say 안녕하세요 when you meet and 안녕히 가세요 or 안녕히 계세요 when you part.
4. Reading 같이 as written. The sound is [가치]. Saying gat-i with a separate ㅌ sounds stiff.
5. Mixing up 잘 가 and 잘 있어. 잘 가 is said to the person who is leaving, and 잘 있어 is said by the person who is leaving.

If you keep the age rule and the two goodbyes in mind, most of the trouble goes away. The practice section turns the list into drills.

Practice: Flashcards and Worksheet

Study in three steps. First, run the deck in recognition mode until the 30 words feel familiar. Second, switch to listening mode and tap the clip before the card turns. Third, take the five-question quiz below. The deck stores your progress 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 additional practice, write the five groups on cards and sort them by hand.

Where to Go Next

After this page, continue with Korean Dating Vocabulary for the next step in relationships, or with Korean Pregnancy and Baby Vocabulary for family words. For the online side, see the social media vocabulary.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do You Say Friend in Korean?

Friend is 친구 (chingu). It is used for a friend of about your own age. For someone who is a few years older, a younger person usually uses a kinship term such as 형 or 언니 instead. The single-word page on friend in Korean gives more detail.

How Do You Say Same Age in Korean?

Same age is 동갑 (donggap), as in 우리는 동갑이에요 (we are the same age). It matters because friends of the same age can use casual speech with each other. Koreans often ask age early in a first meeting to find out which speech level to use.

How Do You Pronounce 친구 (chingu)?

Say chin-gu as two syllables. The first starts with an aspirated ch, said with a clear puff of air, then the vowel i as in see and an n. The second is gu with a soft g and the vowel u as in food. The stress is light and even. Press the audio button on this page to hear it, then repeat it.

How Many Friendship Words Should I Learn First?

Five first: 친구, 동갑, 약속, 같이 and 안녕. They let you arrange to meet a friend and say goodbye. At five new words a day the 30 words take about a week with review. Add the close-friend words and the online words next.

Where Can I Practise Friendship Words with Flashcards?

Use the vocabulary flashcard decks. The deck for this page holds all 30 words with Hangul, romanization and audio, in recognition and listening modes. Your progress stays in your browser. Give the good-bye group extra time in listening mode.

Is There a Printable Worksheet for Friendship 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, the tables on this page can be copied by hand, and the deck carries the same 30 words.

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