식사하셨어요?

So it seems you see a friend or colleague near a mealtime. You think to say “안녕하세요?”, but there is actually a better greeting! In Korean there is a special greeting for when you meet someone near a mealtime.  In this case you should say “식사하셨어요?”.  This greeting literally means “have you had a meal”, but the  person saying it does not mean to ask whether a meal has been had; it is simply a type of greeting near a mealtime.  Using this phrase with your native Korean friends will be sure to impress them!

Here is a quick reference.

Korean Lesson of the Day (Triweekly)

In an effort to help myself remember Korean Words, phrases, and grammar, I am going to be updating my blog three times a week with said topics.  They will all be listed under my “language” category, so if you do find yourself using this series, that is how you can sort them from the rest of the blog.

Today I will start with the very simple phrase “안녕하세요?”.  This simply means hello in the formal sense.  If you need help pronouncing the Hangeul (Korean letters), you can use this basic chart that I made.  It is similar to several other charts you will find by searching “Korean alphabet” (probably because I based it off of those charts).

Read characters top to bottom and left to right.  안녕하세요? is pronounced “An nyeong ha se yo”.

One quick note: if “ㅇ” is at the beginning of a syllable, it has no sound.

I will be updating my mini language lessons every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday.