Lesson 12
In the previous lesson, we introduced the phrase “I mean...” and some various ways to use it in Korean. In this lesson, let’s take a look at how to ask someone in Korean, “What do you mean?”, “What does that mean?”, or “What is that supposed to mean?” when you cannot believe what you have just heard or when you do not understand someone’s remark or point very well.
무슨 말이에요?
= What do you mean?
= What is that supposed to mean?
= What does that mean?
= What are you talking about?
무엇 and 뭐 mean the same thing, and if you want to make it into an adjective, you would say 무슨.
무슨 means “what kind of” or “which” and 말 means “word” or “language”. Therefore, 무슨 말 means “what word”, “which word”, or “what kind of things (to be said or written)”.
“무슨 말이에요?” literally means, “What word/language is it?”, but it is more correctly translated as, “What do you mean?” You can use “무슨 말이에요?” when you are in disbelief after you hear someone say something or when you have not clearly understood what they mean.
Between friends, you can say, “무슨 말이야?”
Ex)
A: 카메라 팔 거예요.
(I am going to sell my camera.)
B: 무슨 말이에요? 카메라도 없잖아요.
(What do you mean? You do not even have a camera!)
무슨 소리예요?
“무슨 소리예요?” is the same as “무슨 말이에요?” but it is less formal and less polite. Therefore, it is not advised to use it with someone older than you or someone to whom you are supposed to be polite. This is because 말 means “words”, but 소리 means “sounds”. You do not want to refer to the words of the other person as mere “sounds”. You can use 무슨 소리예요? more safely, however, when you are literally saying, “What is that sound?”
무슨 말씀이세요?
In Korean, there are many ways of making a phrase “honorific”, and one of the ways is to use “honorific” nouns. 말씀 is the honorific version of 말.
How to Literally Ask, “What does this mean?”
As we have introduced in the previous lesson, when you want to LITERALLY ask what a certain expression means, you can use the expression, “무슨 뜻이에요?”
Sample Sentences
네? 그게 무슨 말이에요?
= What? What do you mean?
= Huh? What does THAT mean?
그만둘 거라고요? 갑자기 무슨 말이에요?
= You are going to quit? What do you mean all of a sudden?
무슨 말이에요? 제가 왜요?
= What do you mean? Why (do) I (have to...)?
= What do you mean? Why me?
무슨 말인지 잘 모르겠어요.
= I am not sure what you mean.
= I do not know what you are talking about.
무슨 말인지 알겠어요.
= I know what you mean.
= I understand what you are saying.