๐Ÿณ Korean Cooking Vocabulary: 80+ Must-Know Words & Phrases for the Kitchen

Are you learning Korean and love cooking? Whether you’re following a Korean recipe, watching K-cooking shows, or chatting with Korean friends about food, mastering essential Korean cooking vocabulary is a must!

In this post, you’ll learn 80+ useful Korean words and expressions related to cooking, kitchen tools, ingredients, and step-by-step cooking instructions. Bookmark this list to spice up your Korean vocabulary and take your fluency to the next level!


๐Ÿ”ช Kitchen Tools in Korean

KoreanPronunciationEnglish
์ฃผ๋ฐฉju-bangKitchen
๋ƒ„๋น„naem-biPot
ํ”„๋ผ์ดํŒฌpeu-ra-i-paenFrying pan
์นผkalKnife
๋„๋งˆdo-maCutting board
๊ตญ์žguk-jaLadle
์ˆŸ๊ฐ€๋ฝsut-ga-rakSpoon
์ “๊ฐ€๋ฝjeot-ga-rakChopsticks
ํฌํฌpo-keuFork
์ ‘์‹œjeop-siPlate
๊ทธ๋ฆ‡geu-reutBowl
์ปตkeopCup
์ฒดcheSieve / strainer
๊ฑฐํ’ˆ๊ธฐgeo-pum-giWhisk
๊ณ„๋Ÿ‰์ปตgye-ryang-keopMeasuring cup
๊ณ„๋Ÿ‰์Šคํ‘ผgye-ryang-seu-punMeasuring spoon
์˜ค๋ธo-beunOven
์ „์ž๋ ˆ์ธ์ง€jeon-ja-re-in-jiMicrowave
๋ฐฅ์†ฅbap-sotRice cooker

๐Ÿฅฌ Common Ingredients in Korean Cooking

KoreanPronunciationEnglish
์Œ€ssalRice (uncooked)
๋ฐฅbapCooked rice
๊ณ ๊ธฐgo-giMeat
๋ผ์ง€๊ณ ๊ธฐdwae-ji-go-giPork
์†Œ๊ณ ๊ธฐso-go-giBeef
๋‹ญ๊ณ ๊ธฐdak-go-giChicken
์ƒ์„ saeng-seonFish
๊ณ„๋ž€ / ๋‹ฌ๊ฑ€gye-ran / dal-gyalEgg
์•ผ์ฑ„ya-chaeVegetables
์–‘ํŒŒyang-paOnion
๋งˆ๋Š˜ma-neulGarlic
๊ณ ์ถ”go-chuChili pepper
๊ณ ์ถ”์žฅgo-chu-jangRed pepper paste
๋œ์žฅdoen-jangSoybean paste
๊ฐ„์žฅgan-jangSoy sauce
์ฐธ๊ธฐ๋ฆ„cham-gi-reumSesame oil
์‹์šฉ์œ sik-yong-yuCooking oil
์†Œ๊ธˆso-geumSalt
์„คํƒ•seol-tangSugar
๋ฐ€๊ฐ€๋ฃจmil-ga-ruFlour
ํ›„์ถ”hu-chuBlack pepper
๋ฌผmulWater

๐Ÿฒ Korean Cooking Verbs & Actions

KoreanPronunciationEnglish
์š”๋ฆฌํ•˜๋‹คyo-ri-ha-daTo cook
๋“์ด๋‹คkkeul-i-daTo boil
๋ณถ๋‹คbok-ttaTo stir-fry
๊ตฝ๋‹คgup-daTo grill / bake
ํŠ€๊ธฐ๋‹คtwi-gi-daTo deep-fry
์ฐŒ๋‹คjji-daTo steam
์‚ถ๋‹คsalm-ttaTo boil (food)
์ฐ๋‹คsseol-daTo chop / slice
์ž๋ฅด๋‹คja-reu-daTo cut
์„ž๋‹คseok-ttaTo mix
์ “๋‹คjeot-daTo stir
๋ถ“๋‹คbut-daTo pour
์žฌ๋‹คjae-daTo measure
๋„ฃ๋‹คneot-daTo add / put in
๋ฐ์šฐ๋‹คde-u-daTo heat up
์‹ํžˆ๋‹คsik-hi-daTo cool down

๐Ÿ—ฃ๏ธ Useful Korean Cooking Phrases

KoreanPronunciationEnglish
์š”๋ฆฌ๋ฅผ ์ข‹์•„ํ•ด์š”.yo-ri-reul jo-a-hae-yoI like cooking.
์š”๋ฆฌํ•˜๋Š” ๋ฒ•์„ ๋ฐฐ์šฐ๊ณ  ์žˆ์–ด์š”.yo-ri-ha-neun beop-eul bae-u-go i-sseo-yoIโ€™m learning how to cook.
์ด๊ฒƒ์€ ์–ด๋–ป๊ฒŒ ๋งŒ๋“ค์–ด์š”?i-geo-seun eo-tteo-ke man-deul-eo-yo?How do you make this?
๋ถˆ์„ ์•ฝํ•˜๊ฒŒ ํ•ด ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”.bul-eul yak-ha-ge hae ju-se-yoPlease turn the heat down.
10๋ถ„ ๋™์•ˆ ๋“์ด์„ธ์š”.sip-bun dong-an kkeul-i-se-yoBoil it for 10 minutes.
์žฌ๋ฃŒ๋ฅผ ์„ž์–ด ์ฃผ์„ธ์š”.jae-ryo-reul seok-eo ju-se-yoPlease mix the ingredients.
์„คํƒ•์„ ์กฐ๊ธˆ ๋„ฃ์œผ์„ธ์š”.seol-tang-eul jo-geum neo-eu-se-yoAdd a little sugar.
๋‹ค ๋์–ด์š”!da dwae-sseo-yo!Itโ€™s done!
๋ง›์žˆ๊ฒŒ ๋“œ์„ธ์š”!ma-sit-ge deu-se-yo!Enjoy your meal!

๐Ÿฑ Bonus: Cooking in Korean Culture

Korean cooking often emphasizes balance of flavors (spicy, salty, sweet, sour) and ingredients are typically seasonal and fresh. Dishes are shared family-style with multiple side dishes (๋ฐ˜์ฐฌ ban-chan).

Some popular dishes you might try making include:

  • ๊น€์น˜์ฐŒ๊ฐœ (kim-chi-jji-gae) โ€“ Kimchi stew
  • ๋ถˆ๊ณ ๊ธฐ (bul-go-gi) โ€“ Marinated grilled beef
  • ์žก์ฑ„ (jap-chae) โ€“ Stir-fried glass noodles
  • ๋น„๋น”๋ฐฅ (bi-bim-bap) โ€“ Mixed rice with vegetables

๐ŸŽฏ Practice Time!

Test your Korean food vocab skills!

1๏ธโƒฃ How do you say โ€œfrying panโ€ in Korean?
2๏ธโƒฃ Whatโ€™s the Korean word for โ€œmixโ€ when cooking?
3๏ธโƒฃ How do you say โ€œAdd garlicโ€ in Korean?

Comment your answers below! ๐Ÿ‘‡


๐Ÿ“š Want to Learn More?

โœ”๏ธ Renting a House in Korean
โœ”๏ธ Hotel in Korean
โœ”๏ธ Taking a Taxi in Korea


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