Korean Sound Effects
So we’re doing this video on Korean Sound Effects as kind of part 2 to our Korean Animal Sounds video. In fact, we had the idea for this video at the same time as the animal sounds video, but it just got lost in a pile of other video ideas. Anyhow, we’re doing it now! Huzzah! Be warned, though: we might be off about some of these things. We went over them with our Korean friends, and supposedly the list is alright, but we had some difficulties sometimes coming up with the English counterparts. What’s the sound effect for running water? How do you write that out?
So here’s a list of the Korean Sound Effects we go over in the video.
| Thing | English | Korean |
|---|---|---|
| Sound of Pain | Ouch/Ow! | 아야 A YA! |
| Eating | Munch Munch | ëƒ ëƒ Nyam Nyam/ ì©ì© Jjeop jyeop! |
| Disappearing in a Puff of Smoke | Poof! | ë¿… Byong! |
| Shooting | Bang Bang! | 빵빵 Bahng baaaahng |
| Coughing | Cough? Maybe Hack? I dunno | 콜ë¡ì½œë¡ kollogk, kollogk |
| Sneezing | Achoo! | ì—ì·¨ eh-chwee |
| Barfing | BLAAAHH | 우웩 uhweagk |
| Yawning | Yaaaaaaawn | 하~ haaaaaaa~ |
| Sighing | Sigh! | ì—휴 eh-hyuu |
| Being Surprised | AH! OMG! | 어머! eoh-moe! |
| Horses Walking | Clop clop clop | 딸까닥, 딸까닥! dalga dak, dalga dak! |
| Crying Babies | WWAAAAHHH! | 엉엉! eong eong! |
| Sword Fighting | Schwing! | 챙챙 chang, chang |
| Excited Heartbeat | Thump thump | ë‘ê·¼ë‘ê·¼ duhgun, duhgun |
| Farting | Pffft or Brriiips (depending on the volume) | ë¿¡~booooooooooo-ng~ |
| Honking Your Horn | HONK HONK | 빵빵~ – bahng baaaahng~ |
Is it just us, or are Korean sound effects cuter than English ones? Eating is cute. Sighing is really cute. Hell, even farting is cute. Maybe there are other versions of the sound effects that we missed. We did, after all, get a lot of these from Martina’s students at her all girls’ high school. Maybe they left out the non-cute ones on purpose? Who knows. On that note, let us know if there are any big ones that we missed. Yeah!
Also, do make sure you check out our Bonus Channel. We have a few more Korean sound effects that we cut out of this video because the video was starting to get too long. See us do our cheesy swordfighting along with some yawning. Ching ching!
Also, as an added bonus, just because it’s awesome: here’s Spudgy the Poptart dog. NYAN NYAN NYAN!
Spudgy, the NYAN NYAN NYAN NYAN NYAN NYAN NYAN Dog
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I love how “bla bla bla” aka “ignore what is being said here because its completely boring and useless” is “momomo” in Korean.
My nickname is Momo… even my mother calls me that.
So in essence, just ignore everything I say, because its compl- momomomo mo momomo momo mo…
June 5, 2013 at 2:42 pmFor eating sounds, I say Nyum Nyum but I’m Canadian.
November 15, 2012 at 11:31 amYou guys are hilarious! Im in Korea for a year and ive actually seen those hangers downtown. Keep the videos coming, i laugh at every one i watch!
October 8, 2012 at 2:39 amLove love love the voice of the hulk-cupcake!!!
September 19, 2012 at 7:25 amI honestly think that the korean sound effects (at least some) are more realistic also
July 12, 2012 at 4:30 amlmao! holy crap! that baby noise is soooo creepy! haha i thought it was fake at first! that’s so amazing!
July 12, 2012 at 4:28 amcould u tell me where i can download the link of all the sound effect of korean? its so cute!!
July 6, 2012 at 10:00 amI checked your likes and dislikes…. can you tell ma about spudgy’s car accident cause Im super curious of what happen…
June 11, 2012 at 1:04 pmNyam nyam is like Nom Nom.
May 17, 2012 at 6:47 amnom nom nom nom nom….
from watching dramas ive noticed that when we talk about a heart beating we say “thump thump” but they say “dugeun degeun” although apparently the literal translation for that is “pit-a-pat?”…ALSO from watching Love Rain, now i could definitely be wrong but the way to say “raindrop” or whatever the sound effect for that is in English, in Korean is “salam salam?” i’ll admit this is just from Jang Geun Suk’s (<33333) song from the drama.
May 12, 2012 at 1:50 pmim lovin the Arrested Development reference haha
April 10, 2012 at 10:05 pmFor men, OMG would be ‘엄마야/eommaya’ or they can go far as 아이구, 깜짝이야, which literally mean Oh, what a surprise.
April 4, 2012 at 11:31 pmI believe that there’s another sound that especially used for babies. It’s “eoong-eh” or written, “응애.”
January 27, 2012 at 3:27 pmThe sword fight one is totally normal with the chang chang (I have no idea how to write Hangul as Google Translate is my annoying [because it does so not know how to make sense] best friend.) What about pulling a sword out of it’s sheath? In english, it’s like, shuweeh (shoe~ – weh). What about Korean/Hangul or whatever?
October 25, 2011 at 9:42 amMaybe “스르릉”(Su-ru-rung)
November 21, 2011 at 6:47 pmPretty good!!! but some faults… :)
October 14, 2011 at 1:07 pmCorrection: barfing sound~ ‘꺼억’, baby crying sound~ ‘응애 응애 응애’ …… these are more common!!
correction: ‘꺼억’ is used to describe burping/belching, not barfing.
January 27, 2012 at 3:30 pmsome extra info here
에휴 sounds more like as if you’re being annoyed by someone’s bad joke, stupid behavior.one would go ‘휴~’ after doing some hard work or getting out of trouble.one would go ‘하아~’ when he feels despair, hopeless.
빵 sounds like a little kid playing with a toy gun.
탕! you’ll see more often (could be only) in comics for 12+
men don’t go ‘어머!’
for blah blah, ‘모모모’ feels just weird we’d go 어쩌구 저쩌구 (or, 어쩌고 저쩌고). if it’s a foreign language, especially western one, we’d say 쏼라 쏼라.
딸가닥 (달그닥) sounds more like a horse-powered (i’m sure there’s a word for this but i just cannot remember) cart being a little shaky… for a horse, we’d go 다그닥 which is actually what you did say.
엉엉 is for an adult, most of the time. and also a quite sad one. a baby, however will always go ‘응애~!’
well you asked for it. i hope no one’s already done this as i hadn’t read through the comments when i started this.
September 24, 2011 at 7:54 amwhat you guys are doing is pretty awesome. keep on!
So what does ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ mean as a sound effect? It’s just literally “k k k k k k k ” right? Does it mean something like kekekekekeke? I also see a lot of ㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛ too, are those all just laughing sounds?
September 8, 2011 at 3:34 pmfeels like lol to me. no one would say that in real life i think. kekeke sounds like a villain laughing to me.
September 24, 2011 at 7:56 amㅛㅛㅛ i’ve never seen this one in my life. ㅗㅗㅗ would be used when someone would like to give you a finger, only on the internet
I have a Korean friend who literally says 케케케케
March 27, 2012 at 3:42 pmSo what does ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ mean as a sound effect?I also see a lot of ㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛ too, are those all just laughing sounds?
September 8, 2011 at 3:32 pmSo what does ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ mean as a sound effect?I also see a lot of ㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛㅛ too, are those all just laughing sounds?
September 8, 2011 at 3:32 pmㅋㅋㅋ 재밌네여 ㅋ
August 27, 2011 at 9:51 pm내가 영어 쓰는것도 저렇게 보이겠지?
kgollok kgollok is actually hiccupping :)
August 25, 2011 at 5:37 amThis site is so hilarious. I’m gonna make my bf study your videos to get some tips about korean culture before he comes and visits :) Thanks guys!
August 7, 2011 at 4:54 pmYou guys are so awesome and amazing!! My english teacher recommanded this site and the site open a new world to me!!                                                             - Korean from Gyeonggi-do  -
August 7, 2011 at 8:05 amAlso in Italy we say Nyam Nyam when we eat xD
July 29, 2011 at 8:23 amThis one is for you Rebecca….lolÂ
July 15, 2011 at 11:39 pmã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ 잼있ìŒ
July 14, 2011 at 9:42 amhahah Schwing! Â that just brings back Wayne’s World lol!
July 8, 2011 at 8:38 pmWhat a great informations!! thank you!
June 21, 2011 at 7:22 pm우연히 ì˜ìƒì„ 보게ë¬ëŠ”ë° ìžì£¼ì˜¤ê²Œë˜ë„¤ì—¬
June 8, 2011 at 10:34 am재밌게 ë³´ê³ ê°€ìš”~~
greeks say nyam nyam as well
June 5, 2011 at 9:04 pmLol in Russian we say nyam-nyam when we eat as well XD
June 5, 2011 at 8:51 pm하하 재밋게 ë³´ê³ ê°‘ë‹ˆë‹¤.
June 2, 2011 at 10:13 pmHaha very funny!!
May 30, 2011 at 9:29 amahahaa spanish ones are wierd too :d
May 29, 2011 at 12:11 amWow… i think u guys read like Japanese mangas tht were translated into korean or something.. cuz some of the sound effects r rly.. um… old.. yehhhh
May 26, 2011 at 9:29 pmWow… i think u guys read like Japanese mangas tht were translated into korean or something.. cuz some of the sound effects r rly.. um… old.. yehhhh
May 26, 2011 at 9:29 pmHello, I’m Korean, and when you guys were saying those sound effects in Korean, I was laughing like crazy!!!!!!!!!! You guys are so cute! T-T Keep making those videos, thank you!
May 26, 2011 at 1:39 amIn english language children’s books, eating is “nom nom nom”. Â That is also the sound that the Cookie Monster makes on Sesame Street when imitating eating all the cookies!Â
May 26, 2011 at 12:37 amthe english eating sound is nomnomnomnom lol <3 I think its the most accurate one xD <3 I love you guys!
May 25, 2011 at 10:13 pmAnother Gun shot= Dahng Dahng or Tang Tang?
I think ‘I-go or I-gu sounds funny. you guess what!
May 25, 2011 at 2:05 pmthunder sounds like 우르르관광 우르르관광 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
May 24, 2011 at 6:09 pmI thought it was nom nom nom
May 24, 2011 at 2:17 pmAwesome, this will be super handy for my 코리안 코믹스 (Korean Comics) -http://koreancomics.blogspot.com
Pardon the blatant self-promotion. But seriously, thank you.
May 23, 2011 at 6:38 pmI seriously think the sneezing and puking ACTUALLY DOES sound different in Korea than in Canada…..*bad images of people puking and sneezing*Â
May 23, 2011 at 1:30 pm My surname is Ong… if i hear the baby crying sound maybe I would go like “WTF, Why you calling me?” haha
May 23, 2011 at 10:56 am My surname is Ong… if i hear the baby crying sound maybe I would go like “WTF, Why you calling me?” haha
May 23, 2011 at 10:56 amSome of things are little bit different. but funny!!!Â
May 23, 2011 at 1:50 amJust a quick note for anyone wanting to use the “surprise” sound (어머!) ~
May 23, 2011 at 12:08 amKorean men don’t normally use this. It’s pretty much only the women.Â
So if you are a man and you say it – it’ll get a chuckle or two…but
seem kind of weird.
부천ì—ì„œ ë‘ë¶„ì„ ëµ™ëŠ”ë‹¤ë©´ ì •ë§ íŒíƒ€ìŠ¤í‹± í• ê²ƒ 같아요!! ã…‹ã…‹
May 22, 2011 at 9:47 pm nyam nyam sounds like miam miam in french!! haha !!!Â
May 22, 2011 at 5:26 pmno way you pulled out a “thats what she said” joke!!! haha it killed me!Â
May 22, 2011 at 5:30 pmin spanish eating has the same pronunciation: “ñam ñam” :D
May 22, 2011 at 2:36 pmkorean baby sound is incorrect.(i m a korean)
‘엉엉’ is not popular sound.
‘ì‘ì—~’ is more widely used and written. (eung ~ eh~? ^^)
^-^; i enjoyed ur this post. have a nice day!
May 22, 2011 at 6:47 amI don’t really agree with you, ’cause baby’s crying sound is ì‘ì—, but children’s crying sounds 엉엉
May 22, 2011 at 10:39 am Rin Choi, 엉엉 is a general crying sound, not only used by children. í‘í‘ is more like stifled crying and @sungksoh it’s not 훌ì it’s 훌ì©
May 22, 2011 at 6:25 pm엉엉 is for all ages crying controllably breaking down with tears, 훌ì 훌ì is trying to  control, tears coming down intermittently, baby crying is ì‘ì— Korean language is very rich for describing sound, color, taste, shape, etc..
May 22, 2011 at 1:39 pm엉엉 is for all ages crying controllably breaking down with tears, 훌ì 훌ì is trying to  control, tears coming down intermittently, baby crying is ì‘ì— Korean language is very rich for describing sound, color, taste, shape, etc..
May 22, 2011 at 1:39 pm엉엉 is for all ages crying controllably breaking down with tears, 훌ì 훌ì is trying to  control, tears coming down intermittently, baby crying is ì‘ì— Korean language is very rich for describing sound, color, taste, shape, etc..
May 22, 2011 at 1:39 pmBWAHAHAHA!! THE NYAN CAT THING KILLED ME xD
May 22, 2011 at 3:24 amLol. Love this! I actually got corrected by a Korean when I sneezed. They told me, “Not achoo. Echwi.” haha
May 22, 2011 at 2:12 amDa eff?! How do you get corrected for sneezing?? o__O
May 22, 2011 at 5:18 amFor the sound of Eating,
May 22, 2011 at 1:18 amin french it’s Miam miam…
so it’s pretty close to the korean one !
i wanted to write abt the heartbeat sound effect but yall already have it in ur chart lol … ooh what abt the running away quickly / the sound where nobody is around and they do a survey of the place … ive seen it on runningman its kinda like swiiiinggg somethign like that … like wind …
May 21, 2011 at 10:36 pmoooh theres also “merong” the sound effect for sticking ur tongue out :P in english its like “nyah nyah” and in british english its also a diff sound effect but i cant remember exactly what from my harry potter obsessed years lol Â
May 21, 2011 at 11:34 pmIn Poland we have very similar sound for eating something delicious, it’s “mniam mniam” or “niam niam” :DÂ
May 21, 2011 at 9:32 pm‘nyam nyam’ is also used here in indonesia for eating sound effect
May 21, 2011 at 5:36 pm Nyam nyam = ñam ñam in spanish!!!!! It’s the same!!!!
May 21, 2011 at 5:16 pmPu hahahahaha
May 21, 2011 at 4:51 pmyou guys so funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Â
haha this is adorable..but when korean babies cry,,they cry “ung ehhhhhh”like this lol
May 21, 2011 at 2:29 pm DEAR SIMON&MARTINA PLEASE READ;
ANNYUNG AMAZING VIDEOOO HEHE xDI watched your videooo now please watch my friend’s vid. We are trying to get more VIEWS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fql7le1aX3M&feature=player_embedded
thankkk you :D
May 21, 2011 at 1:10 pm DEAR SIMON&MARTINA PLEASE READ;
ANNYUNG AMAZING VIDEOOO HEHE xDI watched your videooo now please watch my friend’s vid. We are trying to get more VIEWS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fql7le1aX3M&feature=player_embedded
thankkk you :D
May 21, 2011 at 1:10 pm nyan nyan nyan nyan nyan~ spudgy!!! 8D
May 21, 2011 at 12:18 pmI’ve seen gun sounds being written as ‘탕탕탕!!’ before, which makes a lot more sense I think :)
May 21, 2011 at 11:52 amGreat video, and Martina, I would recommend The Tarot Cafe for you to read! The artwork is some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, slightly romantic/gothic, but yeah I love the plotlines in it too :) Check it out if you can!!
 I know the sound effect for a light sabre…’ Wong wong wong’
May 21, 2011 at 10:47 am I love you guys for mentioning the Nyan Cat. Epic video as usual.
May 21, 2011 at 9:45 amThere is a korean book for kids about farting animals. It’s really weird, but also amazing. You can see it at http://goo.gl/HsxU6 (gallery) or download http://www.cl.ly/6y35 (zip)
May 21, 2011 at 9:15 amThe part about the ‘blah blah’ blanks, my Korean teacher also says ‘mo mo’ but I thought it was ‘ëë’…and since Koreans tend to speak very fast and slur their words, it comes out as ‘mo mo’ instead of ‘mwo mwo’. But yeah, she also says ‘ìŒìŒ’ sometimes too.
May 21, 2011 at 8:20 amIn Hungary we also say nyam nyam,but we say it like nyami nyami!!!!And that is the same like yummie:)  And you forgot the sound of the heart:kung kung kung.And how is a dog barking?And what about a cat?Â
May 21, 2011 at 7:42 amOuch is smilar ” 아야” (A- Ya)
May 21, 2011 at 6:43 amfart =뽕 (BBong)
May 21, 2011 at 6:37 am I have that ‘bla bla’ often with my Korean teacher but it depends on the context. If it is a thing she usually says 모모모… if it is place, 어디어디… and if it is person she uses누구누구… So i think they just use their question marker.Â
May 21, 2011 at 6:13 amit’s actually ëë but when you speak it fast it sounds like 모모
May 22, 2011 at 6:27 pm the only time I can tell you’re Canadian because of your accents is when you say “sorry”-  :)Â
May 21, 2011 at 4:24 amNice. Love it So much
May 21, 2011 at 3:22 am ok you are the best thing in the world really!!! I laugh SO HARD everytime I watch one of your videos! incredible
May 21, 2011 at 2:59 amI love “dugeun dugeun”–of all the different onomatopoeic words for a heartbeat, it sounds the most accurate.
May 21, 2011 at 2:48 am4 videos this week PLUS bloopers?! You keep spoiling us like this, all the other blogs are gonna get jealous!
Â ëƒ ëƒ sounds like the french “miam miam” for “yummy” or “snacks”! Could you say “ëƒ ëƒ ê°€ 싶어” ?
May 21, 2011 at 2:10 am You guys are so funny..lol.
May 21, 2011 at 1:33 amIs there a different sound for a kiss? I’m asking because in English, I suppose we’d write “smooch”or something, but in Japanese manga they say “chu” which is infinitely cuter. What about korean manhwas?
May 21, 2011 at 1:24 am“쪽” and “쪽쪽”Â
May 21, 2011 at 3:02 amJjok…? Jjog…? Weird either way o.OÂ
May 21, 2011 at 4:10 amhahaha I like the Sighing sound it’s so cute  >.<  Thank you for the video ~!
May 21, 2011 at 1:16 amYou guys are awesome ^____~
 baby’s crying sound is more accurately described with ì‘ì• ~~ than 엉엉 I think…..
May 21, 2011 at 1:13 amYes, ì‘ì• (pronounced eung-eh) is indeed more accurate.Â
May 21, 2011 at 4:23 amI <3 your videos! Also, we use the words 'chomp chomp' or 'gobble gobble' for eating in the UK, maybe thats what you were searching for?
May 21, 2011 at 10:12 amLOL so when people are playing video games, do they go say “BREAD! Bread bread bread! Ha, I killed you!”
May 21, 2011 at 1:12 am Hahah! For the Korean *munch-munch* -sound, or *OMG! this is so delicious* -sound , in Norwegian we say *Nam-Nam*, almost just like they do in Korean. Like the the “n” in Norway, the “a” in fAther, “m” in More, and we also stretch them out: So it becomes something like “Nnnnaaaammmm”, like if its so delicious you want to die. And for a more, gosh this is good, like the *munch-*much* -sound we say it short like the Koreans, *Nam-Nam*.. Its funny to hear other languages Onomatopoeia like this.Â
May 21, 2011 at 1:12 amI’m surprised you didn’t mention all the strange animal sounds they make! They are so strange, funny, weird all by themselves. LOL!
May 21, 2011 at 1:10 amÂ
 and for the crying baby in Mexico (cause i don’t really know about the other Latin-American countries) it’ll be something like hahaha :P
May 21, 2011 at 1:07 amSuch an interesting perspective on conveying the same sound in a different language. Too funny. And enlightening…Thanks!
May 21, 2011 at 1:01 ami thought bla bla bla is uhjjugoo jujjugoo uhjjugoo juhjjugoo???
May 21, 2011 at 9:59 am I just love every single one of your videos.Â
May 21, 2011 at 12:53 amYou guys teach me so much about Korea, and it makes me want to go there someday.Â
Kamsahamnida!~
miam miam is the eating sound no? well i use it …
May 21, 2011 at 12:50 amÂ
LOVE the barfing noise~! lol
May 21, 2011 at 12:49 amlol nyan nyan dog~!!
May 21, 2011 at 12:46 am Oh, in mexico we have a very different sound while eating ‘chom, chom’
May 21, 2011 at 12:45 am Wouldn’t the sfx for thunder be more like, “rumble rumble”? That’s what I recall… not “grrrrrr”… though I lol’d a little bit =P
May 21, 2011 at 12:45 amRemembering the English sound effects for things was soooo difficult! Â Not sure why. Â Rumble rumble would definitely be a better answer :DÂ
May 21, 2011 at 12:52 amRemembering the English sound effects for things was soooo difficult! Â Not sure why. Â Rumble rumble would definitely be a better answer :DÂ
May 21, 2011 at 12:52 am Yippeee!  First comment.  Is there an equivalent in Korean for this?  Keep up the great updates!
May 21, 2011 at 12:43 am