댕댕이 Meaning in Korean

Hello guys, it’s your Korean teacher Jun! Native Koreans make sooooo many slangs every year and it’s really really hard to catch up the word trend. At same time, many slangs disappear also. Personally, I don’t prefer to teach Korean slangs because only few slangs survive for years. But today, I’m going to teach you a cute / funny slang that has been so popular since 2017.

This tutorial was requested by @heeeeeeeeeeeeera on Instagram. Follow Korean Jun Instagram and Facebook page to request everything you want to learn! You can find links on the bottom of Korean Jun website.

Warm Up Your Brain

Can you guess what 댕댕이 means? It’s related to an animal.

댕댕이 Meaning in Korean

댕댕이

[dengdeng-i]
Puppy / Doggy

댕댕이 is an internet slang that uses a similar shape to 멍멍이 (doggy). If you write ㄷ and ㅐ so close together, then it looks very similar to 머. Native Koreans often use similarities to make a new word for fun.

Even it’s made by using a similarity of letters. The new word doesn’t keep its original pronunciation. 멍멍이 is [meongmeong-i] and 댕댕이 is [dengdeng-i].

댕댕이 is mostly used between young Korean people especially on internet. But it’s not hard to hear it in real life.

야민정음

Normally those words that use a similarity to original words called 야민정음 [yaminjeongeum]. Its origin was from 훈민정음 which is the book that defines Hangeul letters. Internet users made this new letter system and 야민정음 became huge popular in time. You can find that so many popular slang words, such as 머머리, 띵작, are based on 야민정음.

띵작
= 명작
Masterpiece

How To Use

A: 댕댕이 너무 귀엽다
the puppy is so cute
B: 귀여워서 죽음
Died by cuteness

A: 댕댕이 키우고 싶어요
I want to have a puppy
B: 저는 고양이가 더 좋은데
I like cats more

A: 댕댕이 너무 귀엽네요!
Your puppy is so cute
B: ㅎㅎ 감사합니다
🙂 thanks
A: 한번 안아줘야 겠어요
I should hug him
B: 아니 왜 절 안으세요???
Why are you hugging me???

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The Original Word

멍멍이

[meongmeong-i]
Doggy

멍멍이 is a word that uses an onomatopoeia of dogs’ barking sound. 멍멍 is the onomatopoeia which is same to ‘woof woof’ or ‘bow-wow’. 이 is a word that changes a word to a noun. 멍멍이 was a word for kids but now many adult Koreans use it too. Well… recently almost every people use ‘댕댕이’ though.

Every Koreans Can Understand?

The answer is no. I was really confused what it means at the first time when I saw it on internet. Not only I, many people asked what it actually means or where this word came from. I didn’t know the meaning of 댕댕이 before I googled its meaning.

Now, it’s way more common than before. So yes, now maybe almost Koreans can understand this word but I’m pretty sure not ‘every’ Koreans.

Vocabulary Note

너무 [neomu] : so / too much / too many
귀엽다 [guiyeopdda] : to be cute / adorable
죽음 [jugeum] : death
키우다 [kiuda] : to raise
싶다 [sipdda] : want to –
고양이 [goyang-i] : cat
더 [deo] : more
좋다 [jota] : to be good / to like
한번 [hanbeon] : once
안아주다 [anajuda] : to give a hug
-야 겠다 [ya getta] : should / need to
아니 [ani] : no
왜 [we] : why
절 [jeol] : 저(me) + 를(object marker)