Travel Phrases — Entry No. 0213
지금
jigeum · adverb
지금
jigeum
[JEE-geum]
adverbbeginner
Meaning
Jigeum means ‘now’ or ‘right now’ in Korean and is one of the most essential time words for any beginner learner. It expresses the present moment and is used to ask what someone is doing, where they are, or to stress urgency — making it impossible to avoid in daily conversation or K-Drama dialogue.
K-Pop & K-Drama Context
In Crash Landing on You, the question ‘지금 어디예요?’ (Where are you right now?) becomes a recurring thread of desperate longing between the leads separated by an uncrossable border. BTS anchor listeners emotionally in fleeting, precious moments throughout their discography using jigeum — most pointedly in Spring Day, where ‘지금 보고 싶다’ (I miss you right now) carries the entire emotional weight of the song.
Example Sentences
지금 뭐 해요?
Jigeum mwo haeyo?
What are you doing right now? (the quintessential K-Drama text message that precedes every confession scene — three syllables that make hearts race)
지금 바로 가고 싶어요.
Jigeum baro gago sipeoyo.
I want to go right this instant. (pairing jigeum with baro — ‘immediately’ — intensifies urgency, the kind of desperate longing idol reality shows capture perfectly)
지금 몇 시예요?
Jigeum myeot siyeyo?
What time is it right now? (a traveler’s essential phrase — polite, universally understood, and far better than pointing at your watch in silence)
⚠️ Don’t use jigeum when…
1) Fans mix up jigeum (지금, the present moment) and ije (이제, now implying a change or transition) — use jigeum when you mean ‘at this instant’ and ije when you mean ‘starting from now, things are different.’ 2) Jigeum is an adverb, not a noun — unlike English where ‘now’ can be a subject (‘now is the time’), you cannot place jigeum in Korean subject position.
🎵 Heard In
- K-Drama: Crash Landing on You — Ri Jeong-hyeok asks ‘지금 어디예요?’ in a tense phone call that became one of the most screenshotted lines of 2020, crystallizing the series’ central ache of two people unable to simply be in the same place.
- K-Pop: BTS — Spring Day
💡 Did You Know? Jigeum (지금) is among the first 100 vocabulary items on the Korean TOPIK beginner exam, a sign of how foundational it is — most K-Drama fans absorb it naturally long before opening a textbook.
ℹ️ Editorial Note: The cultural context and example usage are for educational reference only. Artist names, song titles, and drama references are used descriptively to illustrate vocabulary in context. This content is AI-assisted and reviewed for accuracy. For official information, please refer to the respective artists’ or studios’ official channels.