What does hyung and oppa mean

You can try Pimsleur here for free! Disclosure : There are affiliate links in this article that provide us a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only endorse the best software and products we use ourselves. Find out more about our code of ethics. Minjung is a writer for Lingua Asia who covers Korean culture, travel and trends in addition to webtoons and K-dramas.

She grew up in a small town of one million people in South Korea and moved to Incheon to attend university where she majored in Journalism.

After working for a PR company in Seoul, she started a translation business in Jump to:. What can oppa I do for you? Basically, hangul is written in a four-by-four square and is completely filled up by its component, read clockwise, starting from the top left.

There are 11 components which you can either double up or add little ticks to in order to change the sound a bit. So, that first character is made up of two components. Every character needs either both a consonant and a vowel , or a vowel and the place holder. It also needs to fill up the whole four-by-four space. That leads to some inconsistent Romanization methods.

Now what on earth is that little right angle at the bottom? What does it mean? So, basically, in this song, the singer, Psy, is playing a bit of a fool. First up, what does hyung mean in Korean? This is the immediate counterpart to oppa. Hyung is what a guy calls an older guy. Dongsaeng is what the older person calls the younger person, regardless of gender.

It gets pretty expansive and a bit complicated. Besides, these six words will cover most of your most important honorific needs. For example, hyung is often used by both men in a gay relationship to refer to each other. This is a non-gendered term. We only endorse the best software and products we use ourselves. Find out more about our code of ethics. Minjung is a writer for Lingua Asia who covers Korean culture, travel and trends in addition to webtoons and K-dramas.

She grew up in a small town of one million people in South Korea and moved to Incheon to attend university where she majored in Journalism. After working for a PR company in Seoul, she started a translation business in This post goes over the meaning of hyung from a Korean perspective. Jump to:. Insider Tips You can call someone of the same age hyung with aegyo when he buys you a meal or when you ask him a favor. This is not considered effeminate for men. Some guys call easy-going or boyish older women hyung , instead of noona.

Bonus Info! By using these terms, you show your willingness to be informal as if they were your own brothers or sisters. Suppose that a year-old baritone singer joined a church choir, where he was introduced to a year-old tenor. Initially, he may address the older singer somewhat formally. The initial, formal period may be a week, a day or as short as 2 minutes. Or, it may never end. In fact, there are many Koreans who would never use and never want to be called by these family terms outside of the real blood relationship.

So, the extended usage is by no means mandatory.