Say (imperative) in Korean 🇰🇷

말해 info.

Tips to Remember the Word:
• Associate 말 (mal) with “mall” to remind you of a marketplace of words, and 해 (hae) sounds like “hey!”—a prompt to speak. Together, they form the command “say it!”
• Remember that in Korean, many verbs combine a noun or stem with 해 (hae) in the informal imperative, so 말해 simply means “speak” or “say.”

Explanations:
• 말해 (romanized as malhae) is the informal imperative form of the verb 말하다 (malhada), which means “to speak” or “to say.”
• It is used when addressing someone casually, like a friend or someone similar in age.
• The root 말 means “word” or “speech,” and 하다 means “to do.”

Other Words with Similar Meanings:
• 이야기해 (iyaghae) – means “talk” or “narrate,” often used interchangeably when telling someone to speak.
• 말씀해 (malsseumhae) – a more polite version, using the honorific noun 말씀 instead of 말.

Conjugations of the Base Verb 말하다:
• Infinitive: 말하다 (malhada) – “to speak/to say”

Present Tense:
 – Informal low: 말해 (malhae) – “speak/say” (command)
 – Polite: 말해요 (malhaeyo) – “speak/say” (polite command)
 – Formal: 말씀합니다 (malsseumhamnida) – “speak/say” (formal)

Past Tense:
 – Informal low: 말했어 (malhaesseo) – “spoke/said”
 – Polite: 말했어요 (malhaesseoyo) – “spoke/said”
 – Formal: 말씀했습니다 (malsseumhaetseumnida) – “spoke/said”

Future Tense:
 – Informal low: 말할 거야 (malhal geoya) – “will speak/say”
 – Polite: 말할 거예요 (malhal geoyeyo) – “will speak/say”
 – Formal: 말씀할 것입니다 (malsseumhal geosimnida) – “will speak/say”

Examples of Sentences:
• Tell me what happened.
 – 네가 무슨 일이 있었는지 말해. (nega museun iri isseonneunji malhae.)
• Say your name.
 – 이름을 말해. (ireumeul malhae.)
• He said he was coming.
 – 그가 온다고 말했어. (geuga ondago malhaesseo.)

a few seconds ago