SnapVerbo app icon SnapVerbo

Korean parallel text from any page you read

Photograph a page of a Korean book, share a web page or paste a few paragraphs. SnapPara shows the Korean with its English translation, sentence by sentence.

A photographed page of Hyun Jin-geon's A Lucky Day in SnapPara, the first sentence highlighted in Korean on the page and in English below.

Korean above, English below

What it looks like

The opening of Hyun Jin-geon's 운수 좋은 날 (A Lucky Day), photographed from a printed page, with the English SnapPara gave:

이날이야말로 동소문 안에서 인력거꾼 노릇을 하는 김 첨지에게는 오래간만에도 닥친 운수 좋은 날이었다.

This was indeed a lucky day for Kim Cheom-ji, a rickshaw puller inside Dongso-mun Gate—the first such day in a long while.

첫번에 삼십 전, 둘째 번에 오십 전 - 아침 댓바람에 그리 흔치 않은 일이었다.

Thirty jeon on the first trip, fifty on the second—such good fortune was rare so early in the morning.

Tap a sentence and it lights up in both languages. Tap a word to hear it and save it with the sentence and its translation; it comes back on your flashcards. The translation can be into your own language instead of English.

What to read

Any Korean you already have works: a paperback, a news site, a screenshot of an app. If you're looking for something, these are free and public domain:

  • 운수 좋은 날, 현진건 (Hyun Jin-geon) (Wikisource) — a short story read in Korean schools.
  • 메밀꽃 필 무렵, 이효석 (Lee Hyo-seok) (Wikisource) — a short story with famously lyrical prose.
  • 동백꽃, 김유정 (Kim Yu-jeong) (Wikisource) — a short, funny country story.

Open a chapter in your phone's browser and share it to SnapVerbo, or photograph a printed page.

Reading Korean in SnapVerbo

  • A tap picks the whole word with its ending. The arrows drop the ending: 도서관에서 becomes 도서관 (library).
  • Words borrowed from Chinese show their Hanja on the word card (설렁탕: ‑湯).
  • SnapPara reads Korean written across the page, which is how almost all modern Korean is printed.

Questions

Can I read Korean short stories with English side by side?
Yes. Open a story on Wikisource and share it to SnapVerbo, or photograph a page of your own copy. SnapPara shows each Korean sentence with its English translation.
Does it work with vertical Korean?
Not yet. SnapPara reads Korean written across the page, which is how almost all modern Korean is printed.
Is the translation only into English?
No. SnapPara translates Korean into many languages; set the one you want. This page uses English as the example.
Is it free?
Yes, free forever, with no account needed. Short ads help cover the cost of AI translation.