Korean City Vocabulary: 50 Words with Romanization and Audio

Korean City Vocabulary at a Glance

This list has 50 words in five groups of ten, ordered by what you meet as you walk through a city: public buildings, shops, leisure places, services and stations, and the streets between them. It sits in Places and Travel and has two deeper pages, Korean Post Office Vocabulary and Korean Shops and Buildings Vocabulary.

The shop and building names in the second and third groups are short samples. The deeper pages give the full sets, so this page keeps to the places that every visitor meets. The next section picks the words to learn first.

Which City Places Should You Learn First?

Learn 은행, 병원, 학교, 약국, 편의점 and 역 first. These six are the stops of an ordinary day, and each appears on a street sign. Add 화장실 (toilet) from the places hub, and 공원 (park) for a break. After these, work through the groups in order.

• Words to read on signs. 은행, 병원, 약국, 우체국, 경찰서, 주차장.
• Words to say when asking the way. 역, 버스 정류장, 편의점, 사거리, 횡단보도.
• Words to recognise in conversation. 동네, 골목, 부동산, 헬스장, 찜질방.

Before you start, remember a habit of Korean cities: businesses stack vertically. One building can hold a 병원 on the second floor, a 약국 on the first and a 노래방 in the basement. A sign lists the floor with the name, so a place word usually comes with a floor number.

Word · 10

1. 1

   은행

   Play

   eunhaeng

   bank

2. 2

   병원

   Play

   byeongwon

   hospital

3. 3

   학교

   Play

   hakgyo

   school

4. 4

   도서관

   Play

   doseogwan

   library

5. 5

   우체국

   Play

   ucheguk

   post office

6. 6

   경찰서

   Play

   gyeongchalseo

   police station

7. 7

   공원

   Play

   gongwon

   park

8. 8

   시장

   Play

   sijang

   market

9. 9

   편의점

   Play

   pyeonuijeom

   convenience store

10. 10

    약국

    Play

    yakguk

    pharmacy

Public Buildings

These ten buildings serve the whole city. Most end in a suffix that names the kind of place, such as -서 (an office, as in 경찰서) or -관 (a hall, as in 도서관).

The endings help you read ahead. Words ending in 서 name an office (경찰서, 소방서), and those ending in 관 name a hall (도서관, 대사관). The two particles in the examples, 에 and 에서, do different jobs, which a later section explains.

Shops and Stores

Shops are the most common places in a Korean street. Ten words cover the stores a visitor uses most; the full set of shop types is on the shops and buildings page.

Two endings meet here. The formal ending -점 (as in 서점 and 편의점) and the colloquial ending -집 (as in 빵집 and 꽃집) both mean a shop. The -집 words are everyday speech and sound more homely. For the many other shop types, see Korean Shops and Buildings Vocabulary.

Leisure Places

Koreans spend free time in places that have no exact English equivalent. This group has the standard parks and cultural halls, and three uniquely Korean spaces: the singing room, the PC room and the bathhouse.

The suffix -방 (bang, room) is the key to three of the most Korean places on this list: 노래방, PC방 and 찜질방. Each is a room, or a set of rooms, that you rent for a time. Learn the suffix and you can read 만화방 (comic-book room) and others. The words are everyday speech and appear in many dramas.

Services and Stations

This group holds the places you visit for a single errand: catching transport, parking, cleaning clothes or getting a haircut. Several end in -소, -실 or -장, which name the kind of place.

Notice the endings again: 주유소 and 세탁소 end in 소, 미용실 in 실, and 주차장 and 헬스장 in 장. The endings group places by type: -소 is a service point, -실 a room and -장 a field or lot. The rule is a guide, not a law, and many words fall outside it, such as 역.

Streets and Neighbourhoods

The last group names the spaces between buildings: roads, crossings, bridges and the neighbourhood itself. These are the words you use to say where to meet or how to get there.

Two words here are homophones. 다리 means bridge and leg, and 거리 means street and distance. Read the surrounding words to know which is meant: 다리를 건너요 (I cross the bridge) versus 다리가 아파요 (my leg hurts). The directions page uses 사거리 and 횡단보도 constantly: see Korean Directions Vocabulary.

How Do You Say 'Go to a Place' and 'Be at a Place'?

Two frames carry the whole page. To say you go somewhere, use [place]에 가요. To say you are or something is at a place, use [place]에 있어요. To say where you do an action, use [place]에서 + verb. The particle 에 marks a destination or a location of being, and 에서 marks the place of an action.

The contrast is easy to test: 도서관에 있어요 (I am at the library) versus 도서관에서 공부해요 (I study at the library). The first describes where you are. The second names where an action takes place. The location particles page explains the rule in full.

Which Places Are Special to Korean Cities?

Four places on this page have no neat English equivalent, and visitors often ask about them.

• 찜질방. A large public bathhouse with hot rooms, sleeping areas and snacks. Families go on weekends, and some are open all night.
• 노래방. A private karaoke room rented by the hour, not a bar stage. A group sings in turn.
• PC방. A room of computers where people play online games and pay by the hour.
• 편의점. More than a shop: many convenience stores have tables and hot water, and people eat ramyeon there.

All four are part of daily life, and each appears in dramas. They are also useful words for making a plan with a friend: 오늘 노래방 갈래요? (Shall we go to the karaoke room today?).

What Do the Endings -관, -원, -소, -실 and -점 Mean?

Place words are built from a root plus a short ending. The table shows each ending, its meaning and examples from the list above.

Use the ending to guess. If you meet 약국 or 학원 for the first time, the ending tells you the kind of place before you check the dictionary. The pattern also helps you build sentences, such as 서점에서 책을 사요 (I buy a book at the bookstore).

How Do You Pronounce Korean Place Words?

Place words contain many tense sounds that the spelling does not show. The Revised Romanization of Korean records the spelling and ignores most of these changes. The standard pronunciation rules published by the National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원) give the spoken form.

The tense sounds in 약국, 식당 and 학교 are the easiest to miss. Say the second consonant tight, with no puff of air, as if you stopped just before saying it. The Hangul does not show the change, so the audio is the best guide.

Audio and Slow Playback

Each headword and each example sentence has its own audio clip. The clips below replay the trickiest words at a slower pace. Play one, repeat it aloud, then play it again and compare.

What Mistakes Do Learners Make with City Places?

These five mistakes come up most when learners talk about places.

1. Using 에 for an action place. Say 도서관에서 공부해요 (I study at the library), not 도서관에 공부해요.
2. Reading 집 only as "house". In 빵집 and 꽃집, 집 means a shop. In 우리 집 it means home. Context decides.
3. Confusing 마트 and 시장. 마트 is a supermarket and 시장 is an open market with stalls.
4. Missing the tense sound. 약국 is said [약꾹], with a tight kk sound in the second syllable, not a soft yak-guk. The spelling hides it.
5. Mixing 다리 meanings. 다리 is both bridge and leg. Use 다리를 건너요 for the bridge.

If you remember only one, remember 에 versus 에서, because it changes every place sentence.

Practice: Flashcards and Worksheet

Study in three steps. First, run the flashcard deck in recognition mode until you know each of the 50 words. Second, switch to listening mode and answer from the audio alone. Third, take the quiz. The deck covers all 50 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, copy the 50 words by hand and write the meaning next to each. Draw a map of your own street and label the places in Korean.

Where to Go Next

After this page, continue with Korean Post Office Vocabulary or Korean Shops and Buildings Vocabulary, the two deeper pages. For getting around, see Transportation, Travel and Airport and Korean Directions Vocabulary. To move up a level, return to Places and Travel.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do You Say Art Museum in Korean?

Art museum is 미술관 (misulgwan). 미술 means art and 관 marks a public hall. A general museum, for history and objects, is 박물관 (bangmulgwan), said [방물관]. Say mi-sul-gwan, and ask 미술관이 어디예요? (Where is the art museum?).

How Do You Say Bookstore in Korean?

Bookstore is 서점 (seojeom), from 서 (book) and 점 (shop). In a sentence, 서점에서 책을 사요 means I buy a book at the bookstore. Say seo-jeom, with two clear syllables. A shop for pens and notebooks is a different place, the 문구점.

How Do You Say Cafe in Korean?

Cafe is 카페 (kape), a loanword from English. Many shop signs also write it in Latin letters, as CAFE. It is used for coffee shops of every kind, and many students use cafes as study spots. Say 카페에서 커피를 마셔요 for I drink coffee at a cafe.

How Do You Pronounce 미술관?

Say mi-sul-gwan, with three short syllables. The ㄹ at the end of 술 is a light l that runs straight into 관, and there is no hidden sound change. Play the 미술관 clip in the leisure table to hear the normal speed.

What Is the Difference between 에 and 에서 with Places?

에 marks a destination or a place of being: 은행에 가요 (I go to the bank), 은행에 있어요 (I am at the bank). 에서 marks the place where an action happens: 은행에서 일해요 (I work at the bank).

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.