How to Learn Korean A2 Vocabulary: 300 Flashcards Sorted by Particle and Politeness

The Korean Vocabulary A2 — Everyday deck (code MA0231, 300 cards) is really two decks. Cards 1-176 are words pulled from drama subtitles, kept in the exact form they were spoken — with particles and verb endings attached. Cards 177-300 are clean dictionary forms: 94 verbs ending in -다, then 30 core nouns. Learn them in the opposite order.

What you'll learn

Dictionary verbs: 만들다, 찾다, 묻다, 느끼다, 떠나다, 믿다, 앉다, 서다, 잃다, 만나다, 배우다, 이해하다, 읽다, 열다, 걷다, 가르치다, 기억하다, 사랑하다, 사다, 보내다, 받다, 먹다, 그리다. Nouns: 시간, 돈, 친구, 선생님, 아버지, 어머니, 부모, 회사, 문제, 질문, 정보, 가격, 나라, 물, 방, 밤. Spoken chunks: 그래도, 이미, 아마, 당장, 혹시, 전혀, 거의, 나중에, 잠깐만, 세상에, 맙소사, 미안해, 죄송합니다, 알았어요.

Sample cards

Tip 1: turn the subtitle half into three particle cards

The front labels (subject), (object), (topic) are doing grammar for you. Group them instead of drilling each one:

• 이/가 (subject): 그녀가, 엄마가, 아빠가, 시간이, 문제가, 그들이
• 을/를 (object): 그를, 그녀를, 사람을, 돈을, 시간을, 수술을
• 은/는 (topic): 지금은, 오늘은, 일은, 것은, 너는, 그들은, 사람들은

Notice the pattern: 이/을/은 after a consonant (시간이, 돈을), 가/를/는 after a vowel (엄마가, 그를, 너는). Once you see that, 19 cards collapse into one rule plus the bare nouns.

Do the same for speech levels. The deck hides several casual/polite/formal triplets: 됐어 → 됐어요, 있었어 → 있었어요, 있나 → 있나요, 미안해 → 죄송합니다. Put each pair on one card, front = situation, back = both forms.

Tip 2: suspend the cards that never got translated

24 cards have an English back: she → she, like → like, get → get, will → will, from → from, plus fragments like ll, ve and l (cards 9, 20, 24, 29, 38, 52, 56, 57, 67, 68, 74, 80, 83, 85, 95, 102, 111, 118, 132, 133, 145, 152, 153, 171). Suspend them; card 138 (George → 조지) and 161 (sheep → 양) are subtitle noise too.

Watch the collisions as well. Six backs answer two fronts: 만들다 (make/create), 말하다 (tell/speak), 시작하다 (begin/start), 잡다 (hold/catch), 사실 (truth/fact) and 쓰다 (write/spend). The first five are synonyms — merge each pair into one card. 쓰다 is a genuine homonym: keep both, and add an example such as 돈을 쓰다 (spend money).

Numbers are also half-done: 둘 appears only as both, and 셋, 넷, 다섯 are native Korean without 하나 or the Sino-Korean 일, 이, 삼. Add those before you need to count anything.

Study order

1. Cards 177-300 (dictionary forms), 20 a day.
2. The particle and politeness groupings above.
3. Remaining subtitle chunks as listening practice — read the Korean side first.

Find Korean Vocabulary A2 — Everyday (MA0231) in the library at flip-it.app. Next step: the themed TOPIK I vocabulary guide.