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I have a hard time grasping the meaning of certain Korean phrases the first time I hear them, especially when they are quickly.

How can I politely ask someone to repeat something they just said?

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5 Answers 5

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"네?" is a semi-formal and probably the simplest way. If you talk to friends, you can simply say "응?". If you talk to someone really close to you, you can also say "뭐?"

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There are a lot of ways to do this. But some very general, polite examples would be...

  1. 뭐라고요? / 뭐라고 하셨어요?
    • "What did you say?"
  2. 다시 말씀해 주시겠어요?
    • "Will you say that again?"
  3. 다시 말씀해 주실 수 있어요?
    • "Can you say that again?"
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5

My Korean teachers always made me say:

다시 한번 해 주세요?

(Please say that again one more time?)

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  • The sentence “다시 한번 해 주세요.” is not a question but a statement, and also it means to ‘do’ it one more time, not ‘say’ it one more time.
    – DH K
    Commented Jul 20 at 23:04
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You don't necessarily need to ask directly. For example:

(죄송합니다,) (잘) 못 들었어요. ((Sorry,) I didn't hear what you said.)

There is no explicit request, but they will understand that you want to listen once more.

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  • One thing to note is that 잘 못 들었어요 means "I misunderstood what you said," while 못 들었어요 means "I didn't hear what you said."
    – user12
    Commented Jun 22, 2016 at 17:43
  • @dotVezz If I misunderstood something, I say "잘못 들었어요", not "잘 못 들었어요". It is a word spacing problem. If you are confused, how about removing "잘"?
    – choco_addicted
    Commented Jun 22, 2016 at 18:12
  • I suppose what I'm saying is: For clarity when speaking, and you want to make sure they know that it was specifically an auditory problem, not an understanding problem, you really should just say 못 들었어요, omitting the 잘. Otherwise Koreans tend to interpret it as you being unable to understand, rather than unable to hear. Foreign speakers (and often native Korean speakers) often don't pronounce the difference between "잘 못" and "잘못" clearly, leading to confusion.
    – user12
    Commented Jun 22, 2016 at 18:15
  • @dotVezz Okay, I edited my post, so that readers know that "잘" can be omitted.
    – choco_addicted
    Commented Jun 22, 2016 at 18:39
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The simpliest way is to say "I am sorry. (미안해요 or 죄송해요)" first and then say "한번만 더요. (one more time, please)"

The more polite way would be

(죄송합니다). 다시한번 말씀해 주시겠어요? (I am sorry) Can you say one more time, please?

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