“What a shame” in Korean: 너무 아쉬워요 (neomu aswiwoyo)

너무 아쉬워요

neomu aswiwoyo

Situation: Feelings & cheeringLevel: Beginner (TOPIK 1–2)

Meaning

What a shame.

아쉽다 expresses a feeling of wishing there were more, or mild disappointment. It feels lighter than “regret.”

Romanization follows the Revised Romanization system and is a guide to pronunciation.

Use it for a missed chance, a trip ending or a game lost narrowly. It means you wish it had gone further.

아쉽다 is not “sad” (슬프다) and not “sorry” (미안하다). It’s ㅂ-irregular too, which gives 아쉬워요.

Syllables: 6 · Words: 2

It is pronounced just as it is written.

Syllable	Letters (consonant + vowel + final)	Romanization
너무
너	ㄴ+ㅓ	neo
무	ㅁ+ㅜ	mu
아쉬워요
아	ㅇ+ㅏ	a
쉬	ㅅ+ㅟ	swi
워	ㅇ+ㅝ	wo
요	ㅇ+ㅛ	yo

A ㅇ at the start of a syllable is silent; at the end of a syllable it sounds like “ng”.

Style: Polite (해요체)Sentence type: Statement or set phrase

Ends in -요. The everyday polite style, and a safe choice with shop staff, colleagues, strangers and anyone older than you.

These words from the TOPIK vocabulary lists appear in the phrase (shown in dictionary form).

Korean	Part of speech	Meaning	Level
너무	adverb	too, so	TOPIK level 1

Test yourself before you move on. Tap an answer.

Question 1 What does “너무 아쉬워요” mean?

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Answer: What a shame

Question 2 How do you say “What a shame” in Korean?

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Answer: 너무 아쉬워요 neomu aswiwoyo

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