Korean Metaphors and Expressions

A while back I introduced some common Korean idioms; phrases like “find a needle in a haystack” or “rags to riches”. This time I’m going more into some general Korean metaphors! A few of these will be combinations of different words to create their own meaning, others will have both literal and metaphorical meaning, and some are similar to metaphors in English so let’s get into it.

놀고 먹다

놀다: to play/hangout
먹다: to eat

놀다 + 먹다 combined together means “to live idly/without purpose”.  Living an easy comfortable life without a job or work, just playing and eating your life away haha

그냥 놀고 먹고 싶어요: I want to just live idly

먹고 살다

먹다: to eat
살다: to live

Conversely, 먹다 + 살다 means more to “make a living”.

요즘 먹고사는게 정말 힘들긴: It’s really hard to make a living these days

뒤끝 있다

뒤: back
끝: end

Together these two mean to “hold a grudge”. I guess you can think of it like ‘holding something against someone until the end’, though this is just a phrase I thought of to help remember, not related to why these two make ‘to hold a grudge’. You can also change out 있다 for 없다, to say you don’t have a grudge.

저는 뒤끝 없고 싶어요: I don’t want to hold any grudges

차이다

차이다: to be kicked

If you hear 차이다 used in a dating/romantic context it probably doesn’t mean someone’s partner literally kicked them, it means they were dumped. Sort of like ‘being kicked to the curb’ in English.

7년을 연애한 남자한테 차였어요: I was dumped by the guy I was dating for 7 years

거기서 거기

거기: there

거기서 거기 literally means “from there to there”. It has a meaning similar to the “they’re the same picture” meme. Something that is indistinguishable and practically the same thing.

어디를 가든지 모든 사람은 다 거기서 거기: Wherever you go, people are all the same

선을 넘다

선: line
넘다: to cross/go over

Just like in English, going over the line can also mean “crossing boundaries”.

장난이 선을 넘었어요: The prank crossed the line.

금수저

금: gold
수저: spoon and chopsticks

Similar to the English “born with a silver spoon” but instead in Korean the golden spoon is more commonly used to show wealth instead of silver.

그래요, 저 금수저예요: It’s true, I was born with a silver spoon