Korean words for emotions: 60 feelings and personality words

60 Korean words for feelings and character

Feeling and personality words are given in the dictionary form, ending in -다; abstract nouns such as 기쁨 (joy) have no ending. Readings are Revised Romanization, written as the word sounds: 혼란스럽다 is hollanseureopda. The Contos web app uses this same pack for flashcard review.

Why are Korean feeling words verbs?

Korean has no separate class of adjectives as English does. 슬프다 (seulpeuda, sad) and 외롭다 (oeropda, lonely) are descriptive verbs: they end in -다 in the dictionary and conjugate like any other verb, with no word for "am" or "is". The subject is usually dropped when it is obvious, so 슬퍼요 on its own means I'm sad.

Words ending in -ㅂ다, such as 외롭다, 고맙다, 자랑스럽다 and 혼란스럽다, turn the ㅂ into 우 before a vowel: 외로워요, 자랑스러워요. That is how 고맙다 gives the everyday 고마워요, one of the ways to say thank you in Korean.

화나다 or 화내다? Feeling it and showing it

Several pairs in the list separate a feeling from what you do with it. 화나다 (hwanada) is to be angry, and it is often written as two words, 화가 나다, "anger comes out". 화내다 (hwanaeda) is to get angry at someone, to let it show. In the same way 걱정되다 (geokjeongdoeda) is to feel worried, while 걱정하다 is to worry about something, and 긴장되다 is to feel nervous.

Talking about someone else's feelings

Korean is careful about stating what another person feels inside. For a third person, many feeling words add -아하다/-어하다, which turns an inner state into visible behaviour: 무섭다 (to be frightened) becomes 무서워하다, to be afraid, and 그립다 (to miss) becomes 그리워하다. Both of these -하다 forms are in the list.

Describing personality: -이 있다 and -적이다

The personality words come in three shapes. Most are -하다 descriptive verbs: 친절하다 (kind), 똑똑하다 (clever), 부지런하다 (hard-working). Some are a noun plus 있다 or 많다: 참을성이 있다, "has patience", and 호기심이 많다, "has a lot of curiosity". Swap in 없다 for the opposite: 참을성이 없다, impatient. Words ending in -적이다, such as 낙관적이다 and 창의적이다, are Sino-Korean and a little formal.

The list gives 수줍음이 많다 (sujubeumi manta) for shy, literally "to have a lot of shyness", which is how people say it. 수줍다 (sujupda) is correct but bookish, and 낯을 가리다 (nacheul garida) is to be shy with strangers. 웃기다 (utgida) is funny in the sense of making people laugh, and it can also mean ridiculous, depending on the tone.