Korean · Frustration & Doom
됐어
dwaesseo
DWEH-ssuh · /twɛ.s͈ʌ/
Forget it / I'm good / enough — the conversational door closing.
coarse but friendly; fine among acquaintances
Literally
"it has become / it is done"
Word-for-word — which is rarely what it means.
How to use it
Literally "it's done," and what's done is this conversation. 됐어 is the verbal hand-wave: "forget it," "never mind," "I don't want your excuse." Delivered soft it's a shrug; cold, with a turn of the head, it's a K-drama breakup beat — the single most efficient way in Korean to tell someone their apology has been declined. A 2 because the word is clean but the door-slam is real; to a senior, the polite 됐습니다 somehow manages to be even icier. "아, 됐고—" (anyway, moving on—) bulldozes whatever the other person was saying.
Heard in the wild
변명은 됐어. 그냥 가자.
Save the excuses. Let's just go.
Where it lands
South Korea (universal)
Quick answers
- What does "됐어" mean?
- In Korean, "됐어" means "Forget it / I'm good / enough — the conversational door closing.". Literally it's "it has become / it is done". Literally "it's done," and what's done is this conversation. 됐어 is the verbal hand-wave: "forget it," "never mind," "I don't want your excuse." Delivered soft it's a shrug; cold, with a turn of the head, it's a K-drama breakup beat — the single most efficient way in Korean to tell someone their apology has been declined. A 2 because the word is clean but the door-slam is real; to a senior, the polite 됐습니다 somehow manages to be even icier. "아, 됐고—" (anyway, moving on—) bulldozes whatever the other person was saying.
- Is "됐어" offensive?
- It's on the mild end — 2/5 (Bar-safe) on the Punch-o-Meter. coarse but friendly; fine among acquaintances.
- How do you pronounce "됐어"?
- Say it "DWEH-ssuh" — capitals mark the stressed syllable. In IPA: twɛ.s͈ʌ.
Related in Korean
The same idea, elsewhere
Via concepts like "Shut up".
- French Ta gueule ! Shut up! / Shut your mouth!
- German Halt die Klappe! Shut your trap! / Shut up!
- Greek σκάσε Shut up! / Zip it!
- Japanese うるさい Shut up / you're too loud / quit nagging
- Polish zamknij mordę Shut your trap / shut the hell up.
- Russian Заткнись! Shut up! / Shut it!
- Japanese 黙れ Shut up / shut your mouth
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