Grammar for Travel: Survival Korean in a Weekend

You are flying to Korea soon and you don't have months to study — you have a weekend. This path is ruthlessly practical: the smallest set of grammar patterns that unlocks the largest number of real transactions. Ordering food, buying things, asking where the restroom is, telling a taxi where to stop, getting a photo taken. You will not learn "correct" Korean here; you will learn enough Korean, in the right order, so that a café, a market, and a subway station stop being intimidating. Everything links to a fuller page if you want to go deeper later.

Pattern 1 — Naming and asking: "What is…? Where is…?"

Almost every tourist exchange starts by naming a thing or asking about one. You need the copula 이에요/예요 ("it is") and a handful of question words. Learn these five words cold: 어디 (where), 얼마 (how much), 몇 (how many), 뭐 (what), 언제 (when).

• The polite copula 이에요/예요 — "X is / it's X"
• 어디 / 언제 (where / when)
• 뭐 / 무슨 / 어느 (what / which)
• 얼마 vs 몇 (how much vs how many) and asking quantity 얼마나 / 몇

Pattern 2 — Requesting: the two magic endings

This is the core of the whole path. -(으)세요 turns a verb into a polite request or instruction; -아/어 주세요 adds "for me / please do this on my behalf." With these two you can ask for nearly anything.

• -(으)세요 polite command and the 세요 ending explained
• 주세요 "please give me / please do" and the benefactive -아/어 주다 "do for someone"
• To go one step more polite (asking a favor of staff): the request ladder -아/어 주시겠어요?

Pattern 3 — Prices and money: always Sino-Korean

Money in Korea is counted in 원 (won), and prices are always read with the Sino-Korean number set (일, 이, 삼…) — never the native set. Learn to ask 얼마예요? and to hear numbers up to the tens of thousands, because 만 (10,000) is the everyday unit.

• Reading prices in 원
• Sino-Korean numbers and large numbers 만/억

Pattern 4 — Counting and time: native numbers here

Now the flip side. When you count items or tell the hour, you switch to the native set (하나, 둘, 셋…), which shortens to 한, 두, 세 before a counter. But the minutes go back to Sino. This native-for-hours, Sino-for-minutes split inside a single clock reading is the classic tourist stumble.

• Native numbers before a counter (한, 두, 세…)
• The counter 개 (general things)
• Hours: native + 시 but minutes: Sino + 분
• The rule in one page: native vs Sino numbers

Pattern 5 — Getting around: directions and place particles

To move through Korea you need two location particles and a few direction words. 에 marks a destination or where something is; 에서 marks where an action happens. Add 어디 ("where") and the pointing words, and you can navigate.

• 에 for location and destination vs 에서 for the place of an action, and when to use which
• 여기 / 거기 / 저기 (here / there / over there)
• (으)로 "toward / in the direction of" — for 왼쪽으로 (to the left), 오른쪽으로 (to the right)

Pattern 6 — Wanting and being able

Finally, say what you want and ask whether something is possible. -고 싶다 = "I want to"; -(으)ㄹ 수 있어요? = "can I / is it possible to…?"

• -고 싶다 "want to"
• -(으)ㄹ 수 있다/없다 "can / can't"

Common mistakes travelers make

Using native numbers for prices. Money is always Sino-Korean. Saying 두 원 for "two won" is the number-one tourist error — and it's usually thousands anyway, so you want 이천 원.

Dropping the politeness and sounding blunt. A bare stem like 줘 ("gimme") is fine among close friends and rude to a stranger. Always add 주세요.

Using 에서 where existence needs 에. With 있어요 ("there is / is located"), the location takes 에, not 에서. 에서 is only for the place of an action.

Key takeaways

• -(으)세요 and -아/어 주세요 are your survival unit — polite request and "please do for me." Attach them to everything.
• Money = Sino numbers + 원, always. Counting items and telling the hour = native numbers; minutes flip back to Sino.
• 에 = where something is or is headed; 에서 = where an action happens.
• Point and say 이거 주세요 and you can already shop. When you're back and want the full picture, work through the TOPIK 1 grammar checklist or start from the beginning at Start Here.