Skip to content

Korean Basics Textbook

A free, self-paced textbook in 6 chapters. Read a chapter, then drill it with the 100 companion flashcards using spaced repetition.

6 chapters · 100 cards · Updated

Chapters

  1. 1The Hangul Writing System

    Korean is written in an alphabet called 한글 (Hangul), which was created in 1443 under King Sejong the Great. Hangul is widely admired for its logical design: the shapes of the let...

  2. 2Greetings, Courtesy, and Basic Phrases

    Every conversation in Korean begins with a greeting, and choosing the right level of politeness is essential. The most common formal hello is 안녕하세요 (annyeonghaseyo). When part...

  3. 3Numbers, Time, and Counters

    Korean has two parallel number systems, and learners must know when to use each. The Sino-Korean numbers are based on Chinese characters and are used for dates, money, phone number...

  4. 4Speech Levels and Sentence Particles

    Korean verbs change form depending on whom you are speaking to, a system known as speech levels. The four most commonly used are 합쇼체 (hapsyo-che), the formal polite style used i...

  5. 5Verbs and Sentence Structure

    Korean follows a Subject–Object–Verb (SOV) order, meaning the verb always comes at the end of the sentence. For example, "I eat rice" would be structured as "I rice eat," with the...

  6. 6Food, Family, and Cultural Life

    Food is central to Korean culture, and a few core words cover most situations. 밥 (bap) means both "rice" and "meal," 물 (mul) is water, and 김치 (gimchi) is the iconic fermented s...

← Back to the Korean Basics deck