Teugether: Korean Texting Abbreviations 🍪

ㅌㄱㄷ: ㅇㅋ? ㄱㄱ!

2022. 5. 26.

2022.05.26

Teugether Today

Texting Abbreviations in Korean
What's New in Teuida

Before we start...
Take a quick look at this...👇

🙆🏻‍♂️ ㅎㅇ hey!
🙎🏻‍♀️ ㅎㅇ hi!
🙆🏻‍♂️ 뭐해? wyd?
🙎🏻‍♀️ 그냥 ㅋㅋ nothing lol
🙆🏻‍♂️ 스파이더맨 보러갈래? wanna go watch spiderman?
🙎🏻‍♀️ ㄴㄴ. 남친이랑 어제 봤어 no. watched it with my bf yesterday.
🙆🏻‍♂️ 남친 생겼어? you have a bf?

🙎🏻‍♀️ ㅇㅇ yup
🙆🏻‍♂️ 진짜? ㅠㅠ really? :'(
🙎🏻‍♀️ ㅇㅇ yup
🙆🏻‍♂️ 오오오. ㅊㅋㅊㅋ wow. congrats

🙎🏻‍♀️ ㄱㅅ thx
🙆🏻‍♂️ ㅇㅋ... okay...
🙎🏻‍♀️ ㅈㅅ srry
🙆🏻‍♂️ ㄴㄴㄴ no worries
🙎🏻‍♀️ ㅂㅇ bye
🙆🏻‍♂️ ㅠㅠ

Did you get that?

If you did, unfortunately this email is not for you. You can go back to what you were doing and wait two weeks for the next newsletter.

But if you're confused and wondering whether that was actually a conversation or a bunch of random consonants, you're in for a treat!

Grab yourself some milkis, because it's time for...

Korean Expression of The Week 🍯

Today, we'll learn about all these abbreviations that Koreans use while texting.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that knowing these 9 expressions alone will do more in helping you understand Korean texts than learning how to conjugate irregular verbs or memorizing object particles.

1. lol 🤣

Comes from the sound people make when they're laughing.

Depending on how many times you repeat the ㅋs, you can convey a very different meaning.

ㅋ = lol (i'm not really laughing. i'm just attaching this to the end of my sentence out of habit.)
ㅋㅋ= haha
ㅋㅋㅋ = lollll
ㅋㅋㅋㅋ = legit cracked me up
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ = im ded

tldr:
ㅋㅋㅋ <- 크크크 = lol = 하하하 -> ㅎㅎㅎ

2. hi & bye 😁

Cute way to say hi and bye.

As with most abbeviations, it's taking the consonants from the word.

tldr:
hi -> 하이 -> ㅎㅇ = ㅎ2 (because 이=2)
bye -> 바이 -> ㅂㅇ = ㅂ2 = ㅃㅇ = ㅂㅂㅇ

3. yes & no 🙆🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️

Kinda looks like a pair of eyes. Or wheels.
It means yes. If it helps at all, imagine some toddler's eyes opening wide as they're asked whether they want a cookie. cookies? ㅇㅇ yes!

(Orrr you could just imagine a circle, I guess.)

응 = yes
ㅇ= yup
ㅇㅇ= yes

ㅇㅇㅇㅇㅇㅇㅇ = YASSS

ㄴㄴ = 노노 = nope
ㄴ = nah

4. okay 👌🏼

This one's pretty straight forward. It comes from the english word "okay".
Koreans use ㅇㅋ so often I wouldn't be surprise if kids thought this was a Korean word.
Anywho... If you want to say okay while laughing... you can go ㅇㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ.
That's some golden tip you definitely won't find it on the interwebs, you're welcome.

tldr: okay -> 오케이 -> 오케 -> ㅇㅋ

5. sorry 🙇🏻‍♀️

Cute way of saying "sorry".
As with most expressions here, you wouldn't want to use it in a serious conversation. Unless that serious conversation involves you apologizing for something you shouldn't be apologizing for and you want to be sarcastic in your apology.

tldr: 죄송합니다 -> 죄송 -> ㅈㅅ = sry/ my b

6. congrats 🥳

It comes from a misspelling of 축하.

Often used sarcastically (maybe it's just me and my friends) to congratulate friends when they're humblebragging.

tldr: 축하합니다 -> 축하 -> 추카 -> ㅊㅋ

7. let's go 👍

Korean culture owes a lot to gamers when it comes to texting lingo because I'm pretty sure most of these came from gaming.

You don't have time to type out "We've already chosen our champions, please choose yours so we can start the game". So you instead say "ㄱㄱㄱㄱㄱㄱ"

tldr: gogo -> 고고 -> ㄱㄱ = leggo

8. sad 😭

This one goes without saying. It's just a crying face. You see those tears coming down? The thickness of the tears doesn't correlate to how sad you are. It's just a matter of preference if you prefer ㅠㅠ or ㅜㅜ.
When referring to this expression irl, people will say 유유 [yooyoo] but never 우우[woowoo] or 티티 [teetee] despite what Twice's song would make you think.

tldr: ㅠㅠ = ㅜㅜ = T T = Twice's most catchy song.

9. smh 😒

The sound of disapproval, I guess, is univeral.

ㅉㅉ = tsk tsk = smh or oh.. what a pity.

Now go back to the top and see if you can figure out what the conversation was all about!

Now go impress your Korean friends with these! ㅇㅋ?

New in Teuida 🏝

Unit 14 is here!!!

A stranger helps you when you're run over by a scooter. Turns out that stranger is your neighbor who also turns out to be your... 🤫

Check out the UNIT 14-1 for FREE! ㄱㄱ

More grammar lessons!

We've been getting positive feedback on grammar lessons so we're adding more!

We’ve added 5 more grammar lessons with Punita in units 2-1, 3-2, 3-5, 5-4, Review-1.

Is it just me or is grammar fun when she teaches it? 🧠

Learn some grammar with Punita!

Feedback from You 🍍

Here's what you said regarding our previous issue of Teugether:

😄"Your E-Mail really had an impact! It came right on time when I restarted with learning Korean."

😄"..Keep up the good work - I'm really enjoying this "every day Korean" words and phrases thing you are doing Yeji! Those are things you just can't learn in textbooks or language learning resources! So I super appreciate it!!"

Was this Teugether useful to you?
How many of the abbreviations did you already know?
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Let us know your thoughts ! 🙏

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