Korean Directions Vocabulary: 40 Words with Romanization and Audio

Korean Directions Vocabulary at a Glance

This list has 40 words in five groups of eight: turns, position, near and far, compass points and landmarks. It sits in Places and Travel, next to Hotel, and it supplies the nouns for the sentences on the asking directions page.

Position words are nouns in Korean, not prepositions, which is the biggest difference from English. A group of them is also covered in position words. The next section picks what to learn first.

Which Direction Words Should You Learn First?

Learn 왼쪽 (left), 오른쪽 (right), 앞 (front), 뒤 (back), 옆 (side) and 근처 (nearby) first. These six answer most directions you will hear: 오른쪽으로 가세요 (go to the right), 은행 옆에 있어요 (it is next to the bank). Add 직진 (straight ahead) and 건너편 (opposite side) next.

• Words to understand when someone points the way. 왼쪽, 오른쪽, 직진, 좌회전, 우회전, 건너편.
• Words to ask with. 근처, 어디, 지도, 출구, 입구.
• Words to read on signs. 입구, 출구, 층, 동쪽, 서쪽, 남쪽, 북쪽.

Korean directions rely more on landmarks than on street names or compass points. A passer-by is more likely to say 편의점 앞에서 오른쪽으로 가세요 (turn right at the convenience store) than to name the road. That is why position nouns and landmarks are in the same list.

Word · 8

1. 1

   왼쪽

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   oenjjok

   left; left side

2. 2

   오른쪽

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   oreunjjok

   right; right side

3. 3

   직진

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   jikjin

   going straight ahead

4. 4

   앞

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   ap

   front; in front of

5. 5

   뒤

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   dwi

   back; behind

6. 6

   옆

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   yeop

   side; next to

7. 7

   건너편

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   geonneopyeon

   opposite side; across the street

8. 8

   사거리

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   sageori

   four-way intersection

Left, Right and Straight

These eight words tell someone where to go. The first two are the pair every learner knows, and the rest name the turns and the way forward.

The words 왼쪽 and 오른쪽 take the particle 으로 to show the way you move: 왼쪽으로 means to the left. The simple form 왼쪽에 means on the left. Compare 오른쪽으로 가세요 (go to the right) with 오른쪽에 있어요 (it is on the right). The first marks movement, the second marks position. The Sino-Korean pair 좌 and 우 appears in 좌회전 and 우회전, which are the words you hear in a car or on a navigation voice.

Above, below, in Front of and Behind

Korean position words are nouns that follow the thing you measure from. These eight are the core set, and place + position + 에 is the frame: 은행 앞에 (in front of the bank).

Use the pattern place + position + 에, then 있어요: 은행 앞에 있어요 (It is in front of the bank). Korean normally puts no 의 between the two nouns here; 은행의 앞에 is possible in stiff writing but sounds unnatural in speech. The position words are nouns, so they take particles like any noun: 앞에, 앞에서, 앞으로. The table in the next section shows the pattern in one frame.

Near and Far

Distance in Korean is a matter of nouns and the adjectives 가깝다 (to be near) and 멀다 (to be far). These eight words name nearby places and the landmarks you use to point to them.

Subway exits are the most used landmark in Korea. People say 2번 출구 앞에서 만나요 (let's meet in front of exit 2). The number before 번 uses a Sino-Korean numeral. Distance is then given in walking time: 걸어서 오 분 (five minutes on foot). The extras section below explains the pattern.

Cardinal Directions

Compass directions are used less often than landmarks, but they appear on maps, in weather reports and in building names. The group also holds the words for the centre.

The Korean compass order is 동서남북 (east, west, south, north), not the English "north, south, east, west". The order matters when you read a map or a weather report. The ending 쪽 is the same as in 왼쪽 and 오른쪽, so you can add it to any direction to mean that side.

Landmarks and Getting There

The last group collects the words you use to make a direction concrete. Landmarks such as a crossing or a traffic light are what Koreans point to when they give a route.

Use the landmarks as hooks. 신호등, 횡단보도 and 사거리 are the three that appear in almost every set of directions. Learn them together with 왼쪽 and 오른쪽, and you can follow most of what a passer-by says.

How Do Position Nouns Work in a Sentence?

English puts "on", "under" and "next to" before the noun. Korean places a position noun after the thing you measure from, then adds the particle 에. The frame is [thing] + [position] + 에 + 있어요, with no particle between the two nouns.

The frame works with any noun, so a single sentence pattern gives you dozens. The location particles page explains 에 and 에서. The related page on position words gives more examples.

How Do Koreans Give Directions with Landmarks?

Koreans give a route by naming a landmark and then the turn. The usual frame is [landmark] + 에서 + [direction] + 으로/로 + 가세요. The 에서 marks the point where the action happens, and the 으로 or 로 marks the direction you move.

A short route might be: 편의점 앞에서 오른쪽으로 가세요. 신호등에서 왼쪽으로 도세요. 은행 건너편에 있어요. (At the convenience store, go to the right. At the traffic light, turn left. It is across from the bank.) The verbs here are 가다 (to go), 돌다 (to turn) and 건너다 (to cross). Their honorific polite forms, which a speaker uses with a stranger, are 가세요, 도세요 and 건너세요. The verb 돌다 drops its ㄹ before 세요.

When you need to ask, use the question words: 어디예요? (Where is it?) and 어떻게 가요? (How do I get there?). The words from this page then fill the answer. For the full question-and-answer set, see asking directions.

How Do You Say Distance and Walking Time?

Distance in everyday talk is given in minutes on foot or by transport. The pattern is 걸어서 [number] 분 걸려요 (it takes [number] minutes on foot). The number is Sino-Korean: 오 분 is five minutes and 십 분 is ten minutes. The verb 걸리다 means to take (time) and its polite form is 걸려요.

The last two use the adjectives 가깝다 and 멀다, whose polite forms are 가까워요 and 멀어요. The form 가까워요 follows the ㅂ-irregular pattern. The pair 가까운 곳 and 먼 곳 in this page's list are the modifier forms of the same two adjectives. Say them aloud to practise the sounds.

How Do You Pronounce Korean Direction Words?

Position words are short, but several change sound before the particle 에. The Revised Romanization of Korean records the spelling and ignores many of these changes. The standard pronunciation rules published by the National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원) give the spoken form.

The links in 앞에, 옆에 and 밖에 are the ones you hear in every set of directions. The spelling keeps the final consonant, but the speaker moves it onto 에. Listen to the slow clips and copy the rhythm before you speed up.

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 Direction Words?

These five mistakes come up most when learners give or follow directions.

1. Putting position words before the noun. Korean says 은행 옆에, not 옆에 은행. The thing you measure from comes first.
2. Confusing 으로 and 에. 오른쪽으로 가세요 marks movement, and 오른쪽에 있어요 marks position.
3. Mixing 안 (inside) with the negative 안. In 가방 안에 있어요 it means inside. In 안 가요 it means do not go.
4. Saying north, south, east, west in English order. Korean uses 동서남북.
5. Writing 앞에 as it sounds. The spelling is 앞에, but you hear [아페].

If you remember only one, remember that the reference noun comes first, because every direction sentence depends on 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, copy the 40 words by hand and write the meaning next to each. Draw a map of your route home and write the directions in Korean.

Where to Go Next

After this page, continue with Hotel, the last list in the section, or asking directions for the full sentences. For the position nouns in other contexts, see position words. To move up a level, return to Places and Travel.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do You Say Left in Korean?

Left is 왼쪽 (oenjjok). It means the left side. Use 왼쪽으로 가세요 to say go to the left, and 왼쪽에 있어요 to say it is on the left. The matching word for right is 오른쪽.

How Do You Say Right in Korean?

Right is 오른쪽 (oreunjjok), the right side. Say 오른쪽으로 가세요 for go to the right, and 오른쪽에 있어요 for it is on the right. The Sino-Korean word 우회전 means a right turn and is what drivers and navigation apps say.

How Do You Say Front in Korean?

Front is 앞 (ap). With a place, say 학교 앞 (in front of the school). Before the particle 에, the final ㅍ links to the vowel, so 앞에 sounds like [아페]. The opposite is 뒤 (back).

How Do You Pronounce 왼쪽?

Say oen-jjok. The first syllable is 왼, said like "wen" with the final [n]. The second syllable has a tense ㅉ, said tight with no puff of air, and it ends in a held [k]. Use the audio button on this page for the normal and slow versions.

Why Do Koreans Give Directions with Landmarks?

Road names and building numbers are hard for a visitor to spot, while a landmark such as a convenience store is easy to see, so people say 편의점 앞에서 오른쪽으로 가세요. A subway exit number is also a common landmark.

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.