10 Korean phrases you hear in every K-drama episode
Watch enough Korean dramas and the same ten lines start arriving on schedule: someone faints and gets asked 괜찮아요?, someone turns to leave and hears 가지 마, someone does something ridiculous and is told 미쳤어? Once you recognise them, the subtitles start to look like approximations.
Most of these are in casual speech (반말), because drama characters are mostly talking to friends, siblings and the person they are falling for. Each note says when a line is casual and what the polite 요 version would be, so you can use it off screen without borrowing a character's intimacy.
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괜찮아요?
gwaenchanayo?
Are you okay?
Said after someone trips, faints, or gets bad news, which in a drama is every episode. The answer 괜찮아요 means both 'I'm fine' and 'no thanks', so context decides.
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잠깐만요.
jamkkanmanyo.
Wait a second.
Literally: Just a moment.
What gets said right before the wrist grab. In real life it is also how you ask someone to hold the lift or step aside on the subway, with no drama attached.
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어떻게 된 거예요?
eotteoke doen geoyeyo?
What happened?
Literally: How did it become (this)?
The question asked on arrival at the hospital or the scene. 무슨 일이에요? (what's the matter?) is the shorter cousin you hear just as often.
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미쳤어?
michyeosseo?
Are you crazy?
Casual speech (반말), between friends, siblings and couples; in dramas it is usually affectionate exasperation. Said to a stranger, or with 요 added, it stops being playful.
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뭐 하는 거야?
mwo haneun geoya?
What are you doing?
Literally: What is it you're doing?
Casual speech. Flat, it is a question; sharp, it is 'what do you think you're doing?' Dramas use it for both, often in the same scene.
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가지 마.
gaji ma.
Don't go.
Casual speech, which is what makes it land: this is said to someone you are close to, at an airport or in the rain. The polite 가지 마세요 is for stopping a colleague leaving a meeting.
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보고 싶었어.
bogo sipeosseo.
I missed you.
Literally: (I) wanted to see (you).
Casual speech. Korean has no separate verb for missing a person; wanting to see them is the idiom. Present tense 보고 싶어 is 'I miss you' now.
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걱정하지 마.
geokjeonghaji ma.
Don't worry.
Casual speech, to a friend or a younger person; polite is 걱정하지 마세요. In dramas it is usually said by the character who is about to do something worrying.
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죽을래?
jugeullae?
Do you want to die?
Casual speech, and not a threat: this is the playful warning between close friends and siblings, said with a raised hand. The polite version does not exist, because you would never say it to someone you are polite with.
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대박.
daebak.
No way. Amazing.
Literally: Big hit (jackpot).
Reaction to any surprise, good or bad. Fine with friends and colleagues of similar age; add 이에요 for 대박이에요 when the setting calls for 요.
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One pattern worth noticing: half of these are commands or questions with no subject and no object. 가지 마, 보고 싶었어, 괜찮아요? all leave out who is going, who was missed, who should be okay. Korean drops whatever is obvious, and in a close relationship almost everything is obvious, which is why drama dialogue is so short and the subtitles so long.