(이)라고 하다: 'Is Called / Named'

One use of the quotative marker is so common and so useful that it deserves its own page: the naming construction N(이)라고 하다, "to be called / named N." It is how you say what something is called, ask for a word you don't know, and introduce yourself in a natural, conversational way. English hands you a dedicated verb — "to be called / to be named" — but Korean has no such verb. It reaches for the quote frame instead, and once you see why, the whole construction becomes transparent rather than something to memorise blindly.

Why it's the quotative, not a copula

N(이)라고 하다 breaks down into 라고 (the quotative marker) + 하다 ("say"). So it literally means "[people] say 'N' [about it]." "This is called kimchi" is, word for word, "[people] say 'kimchi' [about this]." That is why naming uses the quotation machinery: a name is just what people say about a thing, so Korean reports the saying rather than asserting an identity.

The form is 라고 after a vowel and 이라고 after a 받침, exactly like the copula's reported form — because that is what it is.

Here 곰 ends in a 받침 (ㅁ), so it takes 이라고; 김치 and 눈치 end in vowels, so they take plain 라고.

뭐라고 해요?: the single most useful phrase for building vocabulary

Because naming is "people say X about it," asking for a name is asking "what do people say about it?" — 뭐라고 해요? This is your all-purpose "what's this called?" and it is the fastest vocabulary-building tool you have while living in Korea: point at anything and ask.

Notice you can swap 하다 for 부르다 ("call, address as") with no real change in meaning — 뭐라고 해요? and 뭐라고 불러요? are both natural. Notice too the little (으)로 on 한국어로 ("in Korean"): naming "in [a language]" needs 로/으로, the same particle as "by means of."

Introducing your own name

You can state your name flatly with the copula — 제 이름은 민수예요 ("My name is Minsu") — and that is perfectly correct. But conversationally, framing it as 라고 하다 is softer and more idiomatic: "[people] call me Minsu," "I go by Minsu."

The formal 합니다 version, 라고 합니다, is standard at first meetings, interviews, and any setting where you would bow. The 해요 version is its everyday-polite equivalent. Both feel warmer than a bare 이에요/예요, which can sound curt as a self-introduction.

하다 vs 부르다: two saying verbs in the frame

You can complete the naming frame with either 하다 ("say") or 부르다 ("call, address as"), and the choice carries a small shade of meaning. 하다 reports the conventional, dictionary name of a thing ("it is called X"). 부르다 leans toward how people address something or someone — a nickname, a form of address, what you choose to call a pet.

Note that 부르다 is a 르-irregular verb, so it conjugates to 불러요 / 불렀어요, not ×부르어요.

The attributive spin-off: (이)라고 하는 → (이)라는

When you want the naming to modify a following noun — "a movie called Parasite," "a thing called love" — you turn 하다 into its attributive form 하는: N(이)라고 하는 + noun.

In real speech this full form almost always contracts to (이)라는: 기생충이라는 영화. That contraction — and its second life capping reported-content clauses onto a noun — is the whole subject of the next page, (이)라는: the attributive 'called / that says'.

Common Mistakes

1. Dropping the copular 이 after a 받침. After a consonant-final noun, the form is 이라고, not bare 라고.

2. Stacking a copula in front of 라고. 라고 attaches to the bare noun — don't glue it onto an already-finished 예요/이에요.

3. Omitting 로/으로 for "in [a language]." "Called X in Korean" needs the 로 particle on 한국어.

4. Leaving off 하다. 라고 is only the quote marker; the construction is incomplete without the saying verb 하다 (or 부르다).

Key Takeaways

• N(이)라고 하다 = "to be called / named N," literally "[people] say 'N' about it" — a special use of the quotative, not the copula.
• Form: 라고 after a vowel (김치라고), 이라고 after a 받침 (선생님이라고).
• 뭐라고 해요? / 뭐라고 불러요? is your all-purpose "what's this called?" — and "in Korean" attaches (으)로: 한국어로 뭐라고 해요?
• For self-introductions, …라고 해요 / …라고 합니다 is softer and more natural than a bare 이에요/예요.
• To modify a noun ("a movie called X"), use (이)라고 하는, which contracts to (이)라는 — see the next page.