Memorize Korean A1 Essentials: 260 Drama-Subtitle Flashcards, Cleaned Up

Deck NT0449 "Korean Vocabulary A1 — Essentials" wasn't built from a textbook. Its 260 cards come from a frequency list of the words that show up most in TV-drama subtitles. That's why it opens with 내가, 그, 난 and 내, and later includes 닥터 (doctor), 제발 (please, begging) and 절대 (never). You get spoken Korean as people actually use it. You also get a list that needs some cleaning before you study it.

A sample of the cards

What's inside

Pronouns at every politeness level (나, 저, 제가, 당신, 우리, 그녀는), negation (안, 못, 않아, 아니야, 아뇨), existence (있어, 있어요, 있습니다, 없어), demonstratives (이런, 그런, 그렇게, 여기, 저기), connectors (그리고, 하지만, 그래서, 그러니까, 아니면, 만약), adverbs (정말, 진짜, 너무, 아주, 다시, 아직, 빨리, 항상, 꼭, 곧), the noun 것 and its spoken forms 거, 게 and 걸, family words (엄마, 아빠), and set phrases like 안녕하세요, 고마워요, 잠깐, 알았어 and 그만.

Clean the deck before you start

Delete the 26 English leftovers. Cards 99-237 include cards where front and back are identical: the, a, to, it, is, in, with, nbsp, and the fragments s, t, re, m and don. These are tokenizer leftovers, not Korean words. Suspend them.

Treat cards 96-160 as a replay. About 46 cards repeat an earlier Korean word under slightly different English (난, 좀, 그래, 수, 못, 아니, 말이야…). Keep the first version, which usually has the more precise gloss, unless the second one teaches a new meaning. Watch for two bad glosses: card 156 calls 마 a "name/title", and card 158 translates 줄 as "should". 줄 is the noun in -ㄹ 줄 알다 (to know how to).

Group the particle families instead of drilling them one by one. 나 / 난 / 내가 / 나는 / 나도 / 날 / 나한테 are one pronoun plus particles. The same goes for 우리 / 우리가 / 우린 / 우리는, 사람 / 사람이 / 사람은 / 사람들이, and 말 / 말이 / 말을. Write three rule cards first: 이/가 marks the subject, 은/는 the topic, 을/를 the object. Contractions like 난 (나는) and 날 (나를) then become easy to work out instead of 30 unrelated cards. Also note the politeness level each time: 해 / 해요, 좋아 / 좋아요, 했어 / 했어요.

Once these basics feel automatic, move on to Korean A2 vocabulary sorted by particle and politeness.

To start studying, search for deck code NT0449 in the library on Flip It.