Family words are often the most emotionally sticky vocabulary a child learns in a second language — 엄마 (eomma) and 아빠 (appa) in particular tend to be used at home from a very young age, well before formal lessons start, especially in bilingual and heritage families.
Family members
| Korean | Romanization | English |
|---|---|---|
| 엄마 | eomma | Mom |
| 아빠 | appa | Dad |
| 형제 | hyeongje | Brother |
| 자매 | jamae | Sister |
| 할머니 | halmeoni | Grandma |
| 할아버지 | harabeoji | Grandpa |
| 아기 | agi | Baby |
A tip for heritage and bilingual families
If Korean isn't spoken at home every day, family words are a low-effort way to keep a thread of the language alive — using 엄마 and 아빠 in daily address costs nothing and reinforces pronunciation far more often than any single lesson could.
Korean for Kids: Learn Hangul teaches these words with native Korean audio and illustrations, and is built for exactly this use case — first-time learners as well as bilingual and heritage families. See the full Korean vocabulary for kids list, or browse Korean body parts for kids next.