Describing Food (Part 1)

1. 맛있어요 (ma shit seo yo)

If you have studied Korean for a while, this might be familiar. This means "It's delicious". A combination of "맛 mat" (taste) and "있어요 it seo yo" (It's there), this directly translates to "The taste is there".

The opposite of this would be "맛없어요" (mat eop seo yo), which means "It does not taste good", or "It is not delicious". 

2. 짜요 (tcha yo)

This means "It's salty". A good idea is to follow up this sentence with "물 주세요", which means "Please give me water"! 😉

Exercise: Say "It's salty. Please give me some water." in Korean! 

3. 싱거워요 (shing gŏ wŏ yo) 

Use this to describe the dish as bland. This is the opposite of "짜요" (tcha yo).

4. 부드러워요 (bu dŭ rŏ wŏ yo)

This is a good way to say that the dish is very soft. You can use this to describe a meat dish, bread, or even alcoholic drinks that feel smooth!

Bonus: 너무 (Nŏ mu)

너무 means "very", which is why you can use this in a lot of situations. Add this before any of the phrases above to add a level of exaggeration to it! For example, instead of saying "부드러워요", you can say "너무 부드러워요".

Bonus: 조금 (Jo geum)

조금 means "a little". Add this before any of the phrases above - for example, if you want to say something is a little bland, say "조금 싱거워요".

Exercise: How do you say "It's a little salty" in Korean?