Korean abbreviations and slang words

Have you ever felt frustrated when text-chatting with a Korean person? They often write things in short words or slang words without explaining what they mean. You may wonder why they do that, don’t they know it doesn’t make sense? Why not use normal words? It turns out that it is because Koreans use slang, shortened or abbreviated words and phrases on a daily basis.

Have you ever tried to read posts on Korean internet forums like, Naver, Daum and Nate, but couldn’t make out an abbreviation or slang word that was being used? If so, then you would probably find this list of Korean abbreviations helpful. Many slang words and abbreviations are hard to comprehend for those who aren’t quite familiar with the language. That’s why we decided to prepare a list of Korean abbreviations that came up on Korean internet forums. These abbreviations are mostly used in different types of media such as text messages, tweets and instant messaging services.

There are several different slang words and abbreviations used in Korean. Here are some useful abbreviations which are helpful in your everyday conversation with Koreans :

One of the great things about Korean is how easy it is to make abbreviations out of the words. This can be useful in a text message where you don't want to take up your friends' time with your texts, or if you want to avoid abbreviations that may be ambiguous or hard to remember. There are also many ad-lib words that aren't exactly slang, but are used a lot in daily speech, so we have included those as well.

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