In this post, we’ll talk about the sentence “How are you” and ways to say it in Korean. When you learn Korean, you might quickly wonder how to say this kind of sentence, because it’s one of the most common sentences you would use in daily life while speaking English.
But in Korean, the usage of “how are you” is slightly different. You won’t use it the same way, and I will try to explain the differences to you so you can use it appropriately in conversations.
Translations from Korean to English
Something that is important to know is that there are a lot of nuances that exist in Korean and not in English, as well as the opposite. The same goes for this kind of sentence, or greeting.
For instance, when you ask to Google Translate for a translation of “How are you” in Korean, it will give you this:
The first thing to know is that 지내다 (the verb used in 어떻게 지내세요 ? or 어떻게 지냈어요?) has the meaning of “to get along with”, “to spend time”.
So essentially, when you ask this question: “어떻게 지냈어요?”, it translates to “How have you been spending time?” “how have you been doing?” which is not entirely similar to “How are you?” in English.
In addition, you will use this sentence (어떻게 지냈어요?, or similar) only with acquaintances or friends you haven’t seen for a while when you’re genuinely wondering about how they’ve been doing.
You won’t use it with people you don’t know, or people you’ve never met.
So, as you can tell, there is a bit of a difference from the usage of “how are you?” in English. Nonetheless, you can use it!
3 ways to say “How are you” in Korean
So as I just explained, you’ll encounter a lot of nuances when you learn to say “how are you” in Korean, and it might be complicated to understand what to use, and when. But let’s see ways to say “How are you?” or “How have you been doing?” in Korean.
잘 지냈어? / 잘 지냈어요? / 잘 지내셨어요?
Meaning : How are you ? / Have you spent your time well ? Have you been well ?
잘 = well
지내다 = “to get along with”, “to spend time”
You can use this with acquaintances that you haven’t met for some time and whose life/updates you genuinely want to know about.
잘 있었어? / 잘 있었어요? / 잘 계셨어요?
Meaning : How are you ? / Have you spent your time well ? Have you been well ?
잘 = well
있다 / 계시다 = to exist, to be
This expression has the same meaning as the first one.
밥 먹었어? / 밥 먹었어요? / 식사 하셨어요 ?
Meaning : How are you ? / Did you eat ? / Have you eaten?
밥 = rice, meal
먹다 = to eat
식사하다 = to have a meal
This expression is a bit different, as you can tell from the vocabulary. It comes from a time when food was difficult to access in South Korea, and people would ask each other if they’d eaten when they met each other. If the answer were “no”, they would try to share a meal.
Since then, South Korea has evolved a lot and this expression doesn’t have the exact same meaning. Nonetheless, it is used a lot, every day. And nowadays, it’s used as a way to care about you and ask you about your day. It’s an extremely common greeting you should get used to!
