Korean Law and Crime Vocabulary: 35 Words with Romanization and Audio

Korean Law and Crime Vocabulary at a Glance

Korean law and crime vocabulary is the set of words you meet in news reports, dramas and everyday paperwork about rules, courts and crimes. Most of them are Sino-Korean words, which means they were built from Chinese-origin syllables and are read with Korean sounds. That is good news for a learner, because the same syllables repeat. Once you know 죄 (crime) and 권 (right), you can read many new terms. This page holds 35 words in five groups, and every word has Hangul, Revised Romanization, audio and one example sentence.

This list sits inside Korean Society Vocabulary. The words offer vocabulary only and are not legal advice. A contract or a court case in Korea should be handled with a qualified professional, and this page cannot say how any law applies to you.

Which Law and Crime Words Should You Learn First?

Start with the words that appear outside the courtroom: 법, 경찰, 신고, 계약 and 벌금. You will hear or read them in daily life, for example on signs, in apartment paperwork and in the news. Words such as 피고인 and 원고 mostly appear in trial reports, so they can wait.

1. Day one (8 words). 법, 법원, 경찰, 경찰서, 검찰, 신고, 범죄 and 증거.
2. Day two (6 words). The rights words: 법률, 헌법, 권리, 인권, 의무 and 규칙.
3. Day three (7 words). The trial words: 재판, 판사, 검사, 변호사, 판결, 유죄 and 무죄.
4. Day four (8 words). The crime words and the people in a case: 사기, 절도, 폭행, 음주운전, 도둑, 피고인, 원고 and 증인.
5. Day five (6 words). The paperwork words: 계약, 계약서, 보증금, 합의, 소송 and 벌금.

At 6 to 8 words a day (8 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 6 = 35), the list takes five days. The scene below puts eight of the words on one picture, so you can link each word to an image.

Word · 8

1. 1

   법

   Play

   beop

   law

2. 2

   법원

   Play

   beobwon

   court

3. 3

   재판

   Play

   jaepan

   trial

4. 4

   판사

   Play

   pansa

   judge

5. 5

   변호사

   Play

   byeonhosa

   lawyer

6. 6

   범죄

   Play

   beomjoe

   crime

7. 7

   증거

   Play

   jeunggeo

   evidence

8. 8

   계약

   Play

   gyeyak

   contract

By origin, 34 of the 35 words are Sino-Korean. The only native Korean word is 도둑 (thief). That is typical for legal language, which was written in Chinese characters for centuries. The origin column in each table marks the word type.

Laws and Rights

A 법 is a law, and 법률 is a law as it is written down by the legislature. The 헌법, the constitution, sits at the top. A 권리 is a right that a person holds, and an 의무 is a duty that a person owes. Both end up in the news as pairs, as in 권리와 의무 (rights and duties). 인권 means human rights, and 규칙 is a plain rule, such as a school rule or a game rule, with no court involved.

The words 법 and 법률 overlap. Use 법 when you talk about law in general or about a named law, as in 법을 지켜요. Use 법률 when the text is about the written text of a specific law, as in 새로운 법률. In daily speech, 법 is far more common.

Example Sentences

The examples in this group follow two simple patterns. The first is noun + 이/가 + 있어요, as in 권리가 있어요 (there are rights). The second is noun + 을/를 + verb, as in 법을 지켜요 (obey the law). Say each sentence aloud, then replace the noun with another word from the same table. For instance, 모든 사람은 권리가 있어요 becomes 모든 사람은 의무가 있어요 when you swap 권리 for 의무.

How Do You Say Police and Courts in Korean?

The police are 경찰, and the building is a 경찰서. A court is a 법원. The person who leads a trial is a 판사 (judge), and the person who brings a criminal case against a suspect is a 검사 (prosecutor). The prosecutors as a body, or their office, are the 검찰. A trial itself is a 재판.

Three of these words end in the suffix -사 (person in a profession): 판사, 검사 and, in the next groups, 변호사. The suffix -사 is easy to spot, which makes new job titles easier to guess. Notice also that 경찰서 is made of 경찰 (police) plus 서 (署, office). The 서 in 계약서 (written contract) is a different character (書, document) that happens to sound the same.

Crimes

A crime in general is a 범죄. The word 사기 is fraud or a scam, 절도 is theft, and 폭행 is assault. Drunk driving is 음주운전, and the evidence in a case is the 증거. The only native Korean word in the list is 도둑, which is the everyday word for a thief or burglar. News reports prefer 절도범 (theft offender) over 도둑, but people say 도둑 when they talk at home.

The glosses here are neutral definitions, and the page avoids describing any real case. Notice that in 폭행 the final ㄱ of 폭 and the ㅎ of 행 merge into an aspirated k sound: [포캥]. The next section looks at that in the sound notes.

Reading Legal Terms: -죄, -권, -인, -사 and -금

Legal Korean is built from short Sino-Korean pieces. If you recognise the piece, you can guess much of the meaning of a word you have never seen. The table shows the five most useful pieces.

This kind of pattern reading is one reason Sino-Korean words are worth learning as families rather than one by one. The Sino-Korean words list works the same way for other topics.

How Do You Say Lawyers and Trials in Korean?

A lawyer is a 변호사. In a trial, the 원고 is the plaintiff who brings a case, and the 피고인 is the person accused of a crime. A person who speaks about what they saw is a 증인. The 판결 is the court's ruling. A guilty verdict is 유죄, and a not-guilty verdict is 무죄. Both end in 죄 (crime or guilt), so 유 (have) and 무 (not have) are the only parts that change.

Korean courts also use 피고 for a defendant in a civil case. In news about criminal trials, you will see 피고인. The page keeps to 피고인, because it is the term for a person accused in a criminal trial.

Everyday Legal Terms (계약, 신고)

Most learners meet legal Korean through paperwork, not through trials. A 계약 is a contract, and the paper itself is a 계약서. When you rent a home, you usually pay a 보증금, a deposit that is returned at the end of the contract. When you tell the authorities about a crime, a loss or a problem, you make a 신고. If two sides settle without a judge, that is a 합의. A lawsuit is a 소송, and a money penalty is a 벌금.

The housing words in this group connect directly to renting and housing, where 보증금 appears next to 월세 (monthly rent) and 전세 (a lump-sum deposit rental). For a single-word lookup, the pages for law in Korean and police in Korean go deeper into one word each.

How Do You Pronounce These Words?

Many Sino-Korean law words change in speech. The table lists the changes that learners most often miss. Brackets show the spoken sound. The romanization in the word tables follows RR, which shows some of these changes and not others.

The rules come from the Standard Pronunciation rules (표준 발음법) of the 국립국어원. Revised Romanization writes 폭행 as pokhaeng, because it keeps the h in a noun. It shows assimilation, as in gwolli, but it does not show tensing caused by a neighbouring sound, so 절도 stays jeoldo.

Audio and Slow Playback

Each word has a normal clip. Five words with tricky sounds also have a slow clip at 0.8 times the speed: 법원, 인권, 절도, 폭행 and 합의. Nothing plays until you press a button. The audio is generated with text-to-speech and checked by a Korean teacher before publication.

Listen to 법원 first. You should hear beo-bwon, with the ㅂ joined to the next syllable and no pause between the two.

What Mistakes Do Learners Make with Law and Crime Words?

• Mixing the two meanings of 검사. Wrong: reading 검사 only as "inspection". Correct: 검사 is "prosecutor" in a court story and "check-up or test" in a hospital or factory story. The spelling is the same, and the context decides.
• Using 법 for the court. Wrong: 법에 갔어요 for "I went to court". Correct: 법원에 갔어요. A 법 is a law, and a 법원 is the place.
• Confusing 재판 and 소송. A 재판 is the trial, the process before a judge. A 소송 is the lawsuit as a whole, from filing to the end. People say 소송을 내다 (file a lawsuit) but 재판을 받다 (go through a trial).
• Treating 신고 as "tell on someone" only. 신고 is a neutral report to an authority, including a lost item, a move or a fire. It is not a charge against a person.
• Saying beop-won with a gap. Wrong: pausing between 법 and 원. Correct: link them as [버붠].
• Using 피고인 or 원고 in daily talk. They sound stiff outside a court story. In daily speech, use the person's role in a plain way.

The first two mistakes change the meaning, the next two change how well you describe the process, and the last two change how natural you sound.

Everyday Words and Written Words

Not every word in the list is equally common in speech. The table sorts them by where you are most likely to hear them.

If your goal is to read news, learn the third row early. If your goal is to live in Korea, learn the first two rows first.

Practice: Flashcards and Worksheet

Drill these words with the vocabulary flashcard 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. Progress in the decks is saved only in your browser.

Try this five-question check, then say all 35 words aloud once more.

Where to Go Next

This list sits inside Korean Society Vocabulary. Contracts and deposits also appear in renting and housing, so that list is a natural next step. After Korean law and crime vocabulary, many learners move on to Korean Politics and Government Vocabulary, which covers the bodies that make the laws, or to Korean Military Service Vocabulary.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do You Say Law in Korean?

Law is 법 (beop). It is a Sino-Korean word with one syllable, and it is also the first part of 법원 (court) and 법률 (statute). To say you obey the law, use 법을 지켜요 (beobeul jikyeoyo). Press the audio button to hear the word.

How Do You Pronounce 법원 (beobwon)?

법원 is said [버붠], beo-bwon, in two beats. The final ㅂ of 법 moves onto the vowel of the next syllable, so the two syllables join with no pause. The vowel ㅓ is a relaxed, unrounded sound, and the ㅝ in the second syllable glides from w to eo. Use the slow clip to match the rhythm.

How Many Law and Crime Words Should I Learn First?

Learn five first: 법, 경찰, 신고, 계약 and 벌금. That takes one day. Then add the court words, the crime words and the paperwork words. The whole list of 35 takes five days at 6 to 8 words a day, with review on the sixth day.

Where Can I Practise Law and Crime Words with Flashcards?

Use the vocabulary flashcard decks, which list every deck with audio. A deck for these words is planned. Progress stays in your browser. Until then, copy a table above onto cards: Hangul on one side, English on the other, and say each word aloud as you flip it.

Is the Romanization on This Page Official?

It follows the Revised Romanization of Korean, which South Korea officially adopted on 7 July 2000 and whose rules the National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원) publishes. It is a learning aid that does not show tensing caused by a neighbouring sound, so learn the Hangul and use the audio to hear the real sound.

Is There a Printable Worksheet for Law and Crime 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, write the Hangul from memory, cover the English column and check your answers against the tables above.

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