76 Important Household Items Vocabulary In Korean

Ling Learn Languages
10 min readNov 29, 2022

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Original blog post: https://ling-app.com/ko/household-items-vocabulary-in-korean/ (with audio ๐Ÿ”Š)

When it comes to cool household items, Koreans are one of those on the top list. So, letโ€™s first learn some household items vocabulary in Korean.

Aside from K-pop songs, K-dramas and Mukbangs, the other most-viewed Korean contents are the house/apartment tours. Koreans have a lot of cool and aesthetically pleasing household items that are used in daily life. Whatโ€™s more interesting is that you can score good deals in a Korean supermarket.

Knowing this basic household items vocabulary in Korean will go a long way. First, since youโ€™re staying in accommodation, it will help you navigate things inside the room or house. Second, you can also use this vocabulary in almost every situation like asking for a household item, repairing, or even buying one. Of course, it will also widen your Korean vocabulary.

So, do not miss this opportunity to learn some basic household items vocabulary in Korean. This will definitely make your life much easier.

Basic Household Items Vocabulary In Korean

When we talk about household items, there are standard things that we usually see inside the house, whether in Korea or not. So, letโ€™s learn the Korean words for these household items.

์†ŒํŒŒ (Sopa) โ€” Sofa

๋‚˜๋Š” TV๋ฅผ ๋ณด๋ฉด์„œ ์†ŒํŒŒ์— ์•‰๋Š”๋‹ค. (naneun tibeuireul bomyonso sopae anneunda) โ€” I sit on the sofa while watching TV.

The living room is usually the first room youโ€™ll see when you enter a typical house. Of course, the most important household item in a living room is a sofa (์†ŒํŒŒ sopa). This is where families gather to watch television, eat snacks, have a family meeting, and more. It is also where guests sit when they visit.

Nowadays, sofabeds (์†ŒํŒŒ ์นจ๋Œ€ sopa chimdae) are in-demand because itโ€™s a space-save and a budget-saver as well because they can serve both as sofas and a bed.

ํ…Œ์ด๋ธ” (Teibeul) โ€” Table

์‹ํƒ์„ ์ •๋ˆํ•˜๋‹ค (siktageul jongdonhada) โ€” Put the table in order.

Tables (ํ…Œ์ด๋ธ” teibeul) are very important in a Korean household. As seen in K-dramas, they sometimes donโ€™t have any chairs because they usually sit on the floor, but they have tables most of the time.

In Korean movies, we usually see two kinds of tables. First is the dining table, which is the big one used when Korean families eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The second is the smaller one, which is usually used in snacks or drinks. But, some families do not have space for a big table, so they use the smaller one and sit on the floor.

์˜์ž (Uija) โ€” Chair

์˜์ž๋ฅผ ์ •๋ˆํ•˜๋‹ค (uijareul jongdonhada) โ€” Arrange the chair.

Chairs (์˜์ž uija) in Korea are pretty interesting to talk about. Have you noticed that they are used to sitting on the floor? This practice was believed to promote a quiet and pleasant state of mind and foster a sense of belonging. However, โ€œfloor cultureโ€ has given way to tables and chairs as many Koreans choose to eat while sitting in chairs rather than on the floor.

์‹œ๊ณ„ (Sigye) โ€” Clock

์ง€๊ธˆ ๋‹น์‹ ์€ ์‹œ๊ณ„์— ์žˆ์Šต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค. (jigeum dangsineun sigyee itsseumnida) โ€” The clock is ticking.

Koreans are known for their pali-pali culture, where everything is organized and fast-moving. So, clocks (์‹œ๊ณ„ sigye) are essential in a Korean household.

๋ƒ‰์žฅ๊ณ  (Naengjanggo) โ€” Refrigerator/Fridge

์šฐ๋ฆฌ๊ฐ€ ๋ƒ‰์žฅ๊ณ ๋ฅผ ์‚ฌ์šฉํ•ด๋„ ๋ ๊นŒ์š”? (uriga naengjanggoreul sayonghaedo dwelkkayo) โ€” Can we use the refrigerator?

Having a fridge (๋ƒ‰์žฅ๊ณ  Naengjanggo) is really important in a Korean household. They have lots of different side dishes in a meal so`= itโ€™s better to keep stocks of food in the fridge.

๊น€์น˜๋ƒ‰์žฅ๊ณ  (Gimchinaengjanggo) โ€” Kimchi Refrigerator

๊น€์น˜๋ฅผ ๊น€์น˜ ๋ƒ‰์žฅ๊ณ ์— ๊ฐ€์ง€๊ณ  ์˜ค์„ธ์š”. (gimchireul gimchi naengjanggoe gajigo oseyo) โ€” Bring the kimchi to the kimchi refrigerator.

Itโ€™s no secret that Koreans love Kimchi, so itโ€™s not surprising that they have a specific refrigerator for their Kimchi. They eat almost everything with Kimchi, so itโ€™s reasonable to store it properly.

์ „๊ธฐ๋ฐฅ์†ฅ (Jeongibapssot) โ€” Electric Rice Cooker

๋‚˜๋Š” ์ƒˆ ์ „๊ธฐ๋ฐฅ์†ฅ์„ ์ƒ€๋‹ค. (naneun sae jongibapssoteul sattta) โ€” I bought a new electric rice cooker.

Remember the scene in Crash Landing On You where North Koreans are not allowed to have an electric rice cooker from South Korea? Well, this electric rice cooker is quite different from the common one, so itโ€™s hard not to want to buy this kind of electric rice cooker seen on K-dramas.

์™€์ดํŒŒ์ด (Waipai) โ€” WiFi

์™€์ดํŒŒ์ด ์žˆ์–ด์š”? (waipai issoyo) โ€” Do you have wifi?

Today, itโ€™s impossible not to find a house without wifi. The speed in South Korea is four times quicker than the global average of 7.0 Mbit/s. According to Akamai Technologiesโ€™ State of the Internet report, South Korea had the fastest average internet connection in the world in 2017 at 28.6 Mbit/s.

์นจ๋Œ€ (Chimdae) โ€” Bed

์นจ๋Œ€๋ฅผ ๊ณ ์น˜๋‹ค. (chimdaereul gochida) โ€” Fix the bed.

Beds (์นจ๋Œ€ Chimdae) in Korea are also interesting to talk about. There are different kinds of beds that Koreans use. You can see it in their K-dramas. Some use beds with bedframes, while some just sleep on the floor with a mattress.

์ด๋ถˆ (Ibul) โ€” Blanket

๋‘๊บผ์šด ๋‹ด์š”๋ฅผ ์‚ฌ์„ธ์š”. (dukkoun damnyoreul saseyo) โ€” Buy a thick blanket.

South Koreaโ€™s climate can be too cold, especially during the winter season. So, blankets (์ด๋ถˆ ibul) are really needed in a household. They even use double blankets and heaters to stay warm.

๋‹ค๋ฆฌ๋ฏธ (Darimi) โ€” Iron

๋‹ค๋ฆฌ๋ฏธ๊ฐ€ ์žˆ์Šต๋‹ˆ๊นŒ? (darimiga itsseumnikka) โ€” Do you have an iron?

Koreans are well-dressed and groomed, especially in school or work; thatโ€™s why having iron (๋‹ค๋ฆฌ๋ฏธ Darimi) in every household is a must. Thereโ€™s a scene in Reply 1988 where Jung Hwanโ€™s parents argue because of a broken iron. Thatโ€™s how important iron is in a Korean household.

ํ…”๋ ˆ๋น„์ „ (Tellebijeon) โ€” Television

ํ…”๋ ˆ๋น„์ „์—์„œ ํ•œ๊ตญ ๋“œ๋ผ๋งˆ๋ฅผ ๋ณด์ž. (telrebijoneso hanguk deuramareul boja) โ€” Letโ€™s watch Korean dramas on TV.

Televisions (ํ…”๋ ˆ๋น„์ „ tellebijeon) for Koreans are a source of entertainment and a way for family and friends to gather together. Even in this age where everything is on the internet, televisions are still in-demand in Korea, especially because K-dramas are being shown.

์Šคํ„ฐ๋”” ํ…Œ์ด๋ธ” (Seutodi Teibeul) โ€” Study Table

๋‚˜๋Š” ๊ณต๋ถ€ ํ…Œ์ด๋ธ”์—์„œ ๊ณต๋ถ€ํ•œ๋‹ค. (naneun gongbu teibeureso gongbuhanda) โ€” I study at my study table.

Another household item that most Korean homes have is the study table (์Šคํ„ฐ๋”” ํ…Œ์ด๋ธ” Seutodi Teibeul). You know how Koreans value education, right? So they make sure that there is an intended study space in their home.

Remember Na Hee-do and Sung Deok-sunโ€™s study table, right? Those are the perfect example of what a Korean study table looks like. Sometimes, Korean girls also use this table as their vanity table where they put their skincare and cosmetic products.

๊ฐ€์Šค๋ Œ์ง€ (Gasseurenji) โ€” Stove

๊ฐ€์Šค๋ ˆ์ธ์ง€๊ฐ€ ์ž‘๋™์ด ์•ˆ ๋ผ์š”. (kkasseureinjiga jakttongi an dwaeyo) โ€” The gas stove is not working.

When it comes to food, Korean cuisine is one of the best, so having a stove (์Šค๋ Œ์ง€ gasseurenji) is really important. If you have watched the K-drama Reply 1988, there are lots of different stoves used by Koreans; there are electric stoves, portable stoves, gas stoves, and more.

๋ƒ„๋น„ (Naembi) โ€” Pots

๋ผ๋ฉด์„ ๋ƒ„๋น„์— ๋„ฃ์œผ์„ธ์š”. (ramyoneul naembie noeuseyo) โ€” Put the ramen in the pot.

Instant ramen is must-have food in a Korean house. So, make sure that you have the perfect household items for that, the silver-nickel pots. You can also use this in cooking stews and soups.

์„ธํƒ๊ธฐ (Setakggi) โ€” Washing Machine

์„ธํƒ๊ธฐ ์‚ฌ์šฉ๋ฒ•์€? (setakkki sayongppobeun) โ€” How to use the washing machine?

K-dramas like Crash Landing On You, Reply 1988, and Boys Over Flower give us a glance at how Koreans do their laundry, but of course, in this modern era, washing machines are commonly found in a household. Since South Korea is home to large technology companies, itโ€™s no surprise that they have the latest advancements like the Korean washing machines. You can check those blogs out to have an overview of how to use a Korean washing machine.

๋ณ€๊ธฐ (Byeongi) โ€” Toilet

ํ™”์žฅ์‹ค์ด ์–ด๋””์— ์žˆ๋‚˜์š”? (Hwajangsiri eodie innayo?) โ€” Where is the toilet?

The toilet is a standard item that every household should have. You can see a variety of toilets in Korea, starting from the most modern, like the one with a keypad, down to the traditional one like the squatter toilets, which is technically porcelain hole in the floor.

์ปดํ“จํ„ฐ (Keompyuteo) โ€” Computer

์ปดํ“จํ„ฐ๋Š” ์œ ์šฉํ•˜๋‹ค. (Kompyutoneun yuyonghada) โ€” Computers are helpful.

Have you watched the K-drama Start-up? That will give you an idea of how important computers are in South Korea. In K-dramas, youโ€™ll see that there is at least one computer in a household. Desktop computers are quite expensive, so some resort to buying laptops (๋…ธํŠธ๋ถ nothbuk).

According to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, South Korean researchers have invented the computer that can preserve data long after the power is turned off, facilitating approaches to cut electric power use.

๊ทธ๋ฆดํŒฌ (Geurilpaen) โ€” Grill Pan

๊ทธ๋ฆด ํŒฌ์„ ๊บผ๋‚ด์„ธ์š”. geuril paeneul kkonaeseyo โ€” Bring out the grill pan.

Every hour is a pork belly hour, and to cook it, youโ€™ll need a grill pan. In Korea, if they crave pork belly (Samgyupsal), they donโ€™t need to go to the nearest restaurant because they usually have a portable or electric grill pan (๊ทธ๋ฆดํŒฌ geurilpaen) at their home. Korean families and friends enjoy shared grilled meals, so a grilling pan is a no-brainer household item.

์ปคํ”ผ ๋ฉ”์ดํฌ (Kopi Meiko) โ€” Coffee Maker

๋‚˜๋Š” ์ปคํ”ผ ๋ฉ”์ด์ปค๋กœ ์ปคํ”ผ๋ฅผ ๋งŒ๋“ค์—ˆ๋‹ค. naneun kopi meikoro kopireul mandeurottta โ€” I made coffee with a coffee maker.

Coffee makers are especially trendy nowadays. Even in K-dramas, youโ€™ll see different kinds of coffee makers used by the Koreans. Upon seeing these items, youโ€™ll sure wanna buy your own. So, if you wanna recreate a K-drama scene with a coffee maker, then buy your own now!

์ “๊ฐ€๋ฝ (Jeoggarak) โ€” Chopsticks

์ €๋Š” ์ “๊ฐ€๋ฝ์„ ์‚ฌ์šฉํ•  ์ค„ ๋ชฐ๋ผ์š”. (joneun jotkkarageul sayonghal jjul molrayo) โ€” I donโ€™t know how to use chopsticks.

Chopsticks (์ “๊ฐ€๋ฝ Jeoggarak) โ€” are one of the primary utensils used by Koreans in dining, so thereโ€™s no need to explain further about this one. You can check this video out if you donโ€™t know how to use chopsticks.

๋””์ง€ํ„ธ ์ž ๊ธˆ (Dijitol Jamgeum) โ€” Digital Lock

์ €๋Š” ์ “๊ฐ€๋ฝ์„ ์‚ฌ์šฉํ•  ์ค„ ๋ชฐ๋ผ์š”. (joneun jotkkarageul sayonghal jjul molrayo) โ€” I donโ€™t know how to use chopsticks.

Digital locks (๋””์ง€ํ„ธ ์ž ๊ธˆ dijitol jamgeum) are extremely popular in South Korea. It adds extra safety compared to the common locks. Itโ€™s a lot more expensive compared to the common ones, but you donโ€™t put a price on safety, especially nowadays.

์ดˆ์ธ์ข… (Choinjong) โ€” Doorbell

์ดˆ์ธ์ข…์„ ๋ˆ„๋ฅด์„ธ์š”. (choinjongeul nureuseyo) โ€” Ring the doorbell.

Doorbells are also popular in South Korea, especially the ones with built-in cameras already. Aside from you can talk to the person at the door, you can also see them, which makes you safer.

Other Household Items Vocabulary In Korean

Let us start with the general household items. These items can be found in the living room, bedroom, and other parts of the house. They are typically furniture or items used for repairing and improving the overall ambiance and look of the house.

After the general household items, letโ€™s move to the kitchen and bathroom excluding the appliances. Iโ€™m pretty sure that you have watched a lot of K-dramas that feature cooking dishes and doing skin care. With that, itโ€™s important to know some basic household utensils used in the kitchen and bathroom. These household items help us go around the kitchen easily and maintain our hygiene.

When it comes to trendy appliances, South Korea does not disappoint us. These household items make our daily lives easier thanks to the development of technology. Today, almost everything can be done with a click because of these appliances.

Do You Know Any Household Item For Learning Korean Language?

Learning Korean can also be done at home. No need to go to a Korean school like Seoul National University just to learn Korean because thereโ€™s actually a platform that you can use at home. This platform is no other than Ling App.

With Ling App, you can develop your language skills. Actual native speakers develop the lessons, so you wonโ€™t be worrying about accuracy. There are dialogues that can help you develop your speaking skills. Even the main accent of Koreans will be achievable if you just put effort into learning.

Signing up is easy. You can just simply click this link, and youโ€™ll be directed to a new tab. Find the signup button and make sure that thereโ€™s no required field missing. You can also use your existing email address. Invalid email addresses wonโ€™t work, so make sure that youโ€™ll enter a valid one. After creating your account, you can start learning Korean online. It can be through the website or download the app.

So, spend your free time at home learning Korean. Start your first lesson with Ling App now!

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