Learn Top 100, 500, 1000+
Most Frequent Korean Words

Research on language understanding shows that learning Korean efficiently depends on learning the most frequent words first, rather than memorizing long vocabulary lists. In our large-scale study measuring how understanding grows with vocabulary size, we analyzed how much real Korean learners can comprehend at each stage of learning.

According to the research, learning the top 100 Korean words gives you about 32% language understanding, the top 500 words around 53%, and the top 1000 words about 63% of real-world Korean. This page focuses on the first step: the Top 100 most frequent Korean words, which form the foundation of everyday comprehension.

→ Top 100 Most Frequent Korean Words
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Top 100 Most Frequent Korean Words

Below is a representative list of the Top 100 most frequent Korean words, ordered by real-world usage frequency.

#	Word	#	Word	#	Word	#	Word
1	있다	26	네	51	들	76	건
2	이	27	사람	52	받다	77	날
3	하다	28	난	53	게	78	잘
4	거기	29	안	54	하지만	79	어떻게
5	그	30	때	55	다른	80	아
6	수 있는	31	한	56	저	81	가지다
7	것	32	그리고	57	에서	82	찾다
8	되다	33	해	58	도	83	함께
9	가	34	말하다	59	다	84	다음
10	는	35	그것	60	전	85	아니
11	에	36	가다	61	제	86	대하다
12	은	37	더	62	위해	87	못
13	우리	38	여기	63	싶다	88	및
14	않다	39	등	64	만들다	89	이후
15	보다	40	같다	65	같은	90	다시
16	없다	41	오다	66	일	91	그럼
17	나	42	좋다	67	듣다	92	죽다
18	알다	43	주다	68	당신	93	마
19	의	44	그래	69	지금	94	모두
20	말	45	왜	70	모르다	95	못하다
21	아니다	46	수	71	보이다	96	모든
22	이다	47	좀	72	정말	97	그의
23	내	48	중	73	그녀	98	이제
24	뭐	49	으로	74	생각하다	99	후
25	너	50	로	75	하나	100	쓰다

What to Do Next

The top 100 words establish the core of Korean understanding. The largest gains come as learners move to the top 300 and 500 words, where comprehension grows steadily, and then to 1000+ words, where Korean becomes comfortable to read and understand in real contexts.

WRD is built on the same research and tracks language understanding precisely as each word is learned, guiding learners from the top 100 Korean words to higher levels in the most efficient way possible.

The WRD app enables gradual vocabulary growth beyond the top 100 words, with progress tracked through comprehension.

→ Download WRD and start learning today

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