You know maybe forty Korean words. You can hear a question coming — and still have no idea what was asked. That gap usually closes with six little words. Korean question words are the hinges every conversation swings on. This beginner-friendly guide covers all six, where they sit in a sentence, and the two that trip everyone up.
What are the Korean question words?
There are six core ones: 뭐 (what), 누구 (who), 어디 (where), 언제 (when), 왜 (why), and 어떻게 (how). Learn them as a set — they behave identically in a sentence, so once one clicks, all six do.
| Korean | Romanization | English | Example question |
|---|---|---|---|
| 뭐 | mwo | what | 이름이 뭐예요? — What's your name? |
| 누구 | nugu | who | 저 남자는 누구예요? — Who is that man? |
| 어디 | eodi | where | 화장실이 어디예요? — Where's the bathroom? |
| 언제 | eonje | when | 언제 시간 있어요? — When do you have time? |
| 왜 | wae | why | 왜 공부해요? — Why do you study? |
| 어떻게 | eotteoke | how | 어떻게 가요? — How do I get there? |
Three more earn their place fast: 몇 (myeot) for "how many," 얼마 (eolma) for "how much" in the price sense, and 무엇 (mueot), the stiff written cousin of 뭐 you'll meet on forms and in the news.
Where does the question word go in a Korean sentence?
Nowhere special — and that is the good news. English yanks the question word to the front of the sentence. Korean leaves it exactly where the answer would sit, and the verb still comes last.
| Question | Answer | What moved |
|---|---|---|
| 뭐 먹어요? (mwo meogeoyo) — What are you eating? | 김밥 먹어요. (gimbap meogeoyo) — I'm eating gimbap. | 뭐 → 김밥. Same slot, nothing shifts. |
| 어디 가요? (eodi gayo) — Where are you going? | 학교 가요. (hakgyo gayo) — I'm going to school. | 어디 → 학교. Same slot. |
| 언제 와요? (eonje wayo) — When are you coming? | 내일 와요. (naeil wayo) — I'm coming tomorrow. | 언제 → 내일. Same slot. |
So building a Korean question is really just fill-in-the-blank. Say the statement, then drop the question word into the blank you want filled. If subject-object-verb order still feels shaky, that guide is worth ten minutes first. And the answers to 어디 questions are usually 여기, 거기, 저기.
Hear the six Korean question words
Tap each line for a native speaker. Listen for the small lift on the question word itself — Korean marks questions with intonation, not with word order.
어떻게 is spelled with a ㅎ but pronounced 어떠케 — the ㅎ fuses with the following ㄱ into a puffy "k." Say "uh-DDUH-keh," leaning on the middle syllable. Learners who read the spelling literally skip that aspiration and say "uh-DDUH-geh," and it never quite lands.
Why is 누가 different from 누구?
누구 becomes 누가 (nuga) when it's the subject of the sentence. 누구 plus the subject particle 가 doesn't stay 누구가 — it contracts, always, with no exceptions. This is the single most common error learners make with Korean question words.
| Role in the sentence | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Subject — the one doing it | 누가 | 누가 왔어요? (nuga wasseoyo) — Who came? |
| Object — the one it happens to | 누구(를) | 누구 만났어요? (nugu mannasseoyo) — Who did you meet? |
| After 예요 / 이에요 | 누구 | 누구예요? (nuguyeyo) — Who is it? |
| With another particle | 누구 + 랑 / 한테 | 누구랑 가요? (nugurang gayo) — Who are you going with? |
뭐 vs 무슨 vs 어떤: which "what" do you need?
The split is about what follows. 뭐 stands alone as a pronoun. 무슨 and 어떤 must lean on a noun right after them — they can never end a phrase by themselves.
| Word | Goes where | Asks for | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 뭐 (mwo) | Alone, as a noun would | The thing itself | 취미가 뭐예요? — What's your hobby? |
| 무슨 (museun) | Before a noun | Which specific one, open field | 무슨 영화 봤어요? — What movie did you see? |
| 어떤 (eotteon) | Before a noun | What sort — qualities, type | 어떤 영화 좋아해요? — What kind of movies do you like? |
| 어느 (eoneu) | Before a noun | Which one, from a known set | 어느 나라에서 왔어요? — Which country are you from? |
A quick gut check: if you could point at the answer, you probably want 무슨. If the answer is a description, reach for 어떤. And in casual speech 뭐 often absorbs the object particle and shrinks to 뭘 (mwol) — 뭘 먹을까요? is just 뭐를 먹을까요? said faster.
Korean question words out in the wild
That last one is worth pausing on. Literally it's "how does your size become?" — and Koreans lean on 어떻게 되세요? as a soft way to ask personal information. 성함이 어떻게 되세요? (seonghami eotteoke doeseyo) is how a hotel clerk asks your name. 이름이 뭐예요? is fine among peers; to an elder, it lands bare.
Here's the thing textbooks skip: four of these — 뭐, 누구, 어디, 언제 — also work as "something, someone, somewhere, sometime." 어디 가요? is "Where are you going?" — but with a flat rise across the whole sentence, it becomes "Are you going somewhere?" Your ear sorts this out long before your brain does. So don't panic when a question you understood perfectly gets answered with a plain 네.
Common mistakes with Korean question words
| Mistake | Say instead | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 누구가 왔어요? | 누가 왔어요? | 누구 + 가 contracts to 누가. 누구가 is never correct — treat 누가 as its own word. |
| 이거 어떻게예요? | 이거 어때요? | 어떻게 means "by what method," so it can't take 예요. To ask "how is it?" or "what do you think?", use 어때요 (eottaeyo). |
| 이름이 무슨이에요? | 이름이 뭐예요? | 무슨 always needs a noun immediately after it. Standing alone at the end of a phrase, only 뭐 works. |
| 이거 몇이에요? (asking a price) | 이거 얼마예요? | 몇 counts things — 몇 개, 몇 시, 몇 명. Prices take 얼마 (eolma). |
One more of the social kind: a bare 왜? to someone older can read as a challenge, closer to "what's your problem" than "why." Add the polite ending — 왜요? — or soften the whole question with 혹시 (hoksi, "by any chance"), as in 혹시 시간 있어요?
Korean Question Words — Quick Check
1. How do you ask "Who came?"
2. Your friend tries on a jacket and turns to you for your opinion. What do you ask?
3. You want to ask "What movie did you see?"
Recap: six words, one rule. 뭐, 누구, 어디, 언제, 왜, 어떻게 drop into the exact slot the answer will fill — no reshuffling, no auxiliary verbs. Watch 누구 contract to 누가 as a subject, keep 무슨 and 어떤 glued to a noun, and let 어때요 handle "how is it?"
Now try it. Take a sentence you already know — 커피 마셔요 (I drink coffee) — and swap in a question word: 뭐 마셔요? 언제 마셔요? 누구랑 마셔요? Three questions from one sentence, and three more Korean question words still to go. Then drill 언제, 몇 시, and the rest of the time vocabulary with native audio.
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