How To Say ‘What’s Wrong?’ In Korean
When you see a Korean friend and they look sad or upset, you will probably want to ask ‘What’s wrong?’, right? In this lesson, you will learn how to say ‘What’s wrong?’ in Korean. You will also learn other related expressions you can use when you want to say ‘What’s wrong?’, ‘What’s the matter?’ in Korean.
Related: Get Well Soon In Korean
What’s Wrong In Korean
무슨 일 있어?
무슨 일 있어? [mu-seun il -i-sseo?] is a casual way to say ‘What’s wrong?’ in Korean. As this is the casual form, it should only be used with close friends or people much younger than you.
무슨 일 있어요?
The polite way to say ‘What’s wrong?’ in Korean is 무슨 일 있어요? [mu-seun il -i-sseo-yo?]. As you can see, this is the same as the previous expression with 요 added to the end. Adding 요 makes the expression polite so you can use 무슨 일 있어요? [mu-seun il -i-sseo-yo?] to ask ‘What’s wrong?’ to people you are not very close with and you will sound polite.
왜 그래?
Another casual way to say ‘What’s wrong?’ is 왜 그래? [wae geu-rae]. In this expression, 왜 means ‘why’ and 그래 means ‘be so’. So, 왜 그래 literally means ‘Why be so?’ or ‘Why is it like that?’, but can be used when you want to ask ‘What’s wrong?’ or ‘What’s the matter?’ in Korean.
왜 그래요?
To make 왜 그래? into a polite expression, you simply add 요 to the end to make 왜 그래요? [wae geu-rae-yo].
Related Expressions
Here are some more useful expressions you can use when you want to ask things like ‘What’s wrong?’. ‘What’s the matter?’, ‘Is there a problem?’ ‘Are you okay?’, etc.
| English | Korean | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| What’s up? (casual) | 무슨 일이야? [mu-seun i-ri-ya?] | |
| What’s wrong? (lit ‘What thing is not good?) | 무슨 안 좋은 일 있어요? [mu-seun an jo-eun il i-sseo-yo] | |
| What’s wrong? (When answering phone) | 무슨 일이에요? [mu-seun i-ri-e-yo?] | |
| What’s not working? (When something is broken) | 뭐가 안 되나요? [mweo-ga an doe-na-yo?] | |
| Where does it hurt? (When someone is sick) | 어디가 아프세요? [eo-di-ga a-peu-se-yo?] | |
| Where feels uncomfortable? (When someone is sick) | 어디가 불편하세요? [eo-di-ga bul-pyeon-ha-se-yo] |
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