8 Korean phrases for the taxi, from 어디로 가세요 to 여기서 내릴게요
A Korean taxi ride needs about eight sentences, and most of them you can say before the meter starts. The driver is 기사님 (gisanim), the honorific for a professional driver, and that is how you address him if you need his attention.
Everything here is polite 요 speech, and nearly all of it ends in 주세요, the request form that does most of the work in daily Korean.
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트렁크 열어 주세요.
teureongkeu yeoreo juseyo.
Please open the trunk.
Say it before you get in, through the window or from the back. 트렁크 is the English word; most drivers pop it as soon as they see luggage, but not all.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase → -
어디로 가세요?
eodiro gaseyo?
Where to?
Literally: Where are you going?
What the driver asks as the door closes, sometimes shortened to 어디 가세요. A full sentence is not expected; a place name is a complete answer.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase → -
여기로 가 주세요.
yeogiro ga juseyo.
Please take me here.
Said while showing the address on your phone, which is how most people do it now. The pattern is place + (으)로 가 주세요: 인천공항으로 가 주세요, 강남역으로 가 주세요.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase → -
천천히 가 주세요.
cheoncheonhi ga juseyo.
Please drive slowly.
You may need it. 조금만 (just a little) in front softens it: 조금만 천천히 가 주세요.
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저기 앞에서 세워 주세요.
jeogi apeseo sewo juseyo.
Please stop up ahead.
세워 주세요 is 'please stop (the car)'. Point, and add 오른쪽에 (on the right) or 저 건물 앞에 (in front of that building) if the spot matters.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase → -
여기서 내릴게요.
yeogiseo naerilgeyo.
I'll get out here.
Announces your own action, which is what -(으)ㄹ게요 does. Handy in traffic, when stopping exactly here is easier than explaining where.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase → -
카드 돼요?
kadeu dwaeyo?
Do you take cards?
Every Seoul taxi does, along with transit cards, and the reader is usually right in front of you. Still worth asking in a smaller town or an older cab.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase → -
영수증 주세요.
yeongsujeung juseyo.
A receipt, please.
Take it. The receipt carries the taxi number and company phone, which is the only way to recover a phone or wallet you left on the seat.
Ask Ipsae about this phrase →
If you only remember one shape, make it [place]로 가 주세요. Swap in a station, a hotel, a landmark, or just 여기 with your phone held up, and the rest of the ride takes care of itself.