MangaDex Style:Romanization for Korean Titles

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This is the style guide that MangaDex uses to Romanize Korean titles on the site. These have been adopted from MangaBaka's Romanization style guide who originally wrote the original text. The goal is to have titles consistently Romanized across MangaDex, by defining a standard that is easy to read and write, while staying true to the linguistic norms.

Base Romanization

Revised Romanization of Korean with adjustments

We follow the Revised Romanization of Korean (RR) with the following specific enhancements and deviations to align with our styling standards:

• Loanword restoration: Translate clear English/foreign loanwords into their standard spelling (e.g., 택시 → Taxi, 헌터 → Hunter) instead of strict transliteration (Taeksi, Heonteo).
• Particle separation: All grammatical particles are separated by a space and written in lowercase, regardless of standard Hangul agglutination (e.g., 나를 → Na reul)
• Pronunciation-based transcription: Romanization reflects pronunciation (sound changes/assimilation) rather than strict Hangul orthography, strictly adhering to standard RR rules (e.g., 독립 → Dongnip, not Dokrip).
• Personal names: Family names are capitalized, and given names are hyphenated (e.g., 김민수 → Kim Min-su).

Capitalization

As we are Romanizing titles of Korean literature, we use the following capitalization style:

1. Capitalize all nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and auxiliary verbs (when separated).
2. Keep lowercase all particles and suffixes (when hyphenated).

Word spacing, fusions and hyphenation

Korean is an agglutinate language, but for title legibility, we standardize distinct word boundaries.

• Nouns and compounds: Keep compound nouns separate unless they are established single dictionary words.
• Verbs and adjectives: The verb stem and its grammatical endings (suffixes) are always fused (e.g., 가다 → Gada, 갔습니다 → Gasseumnida).
• Auxiliary verbs: When an auxiliary verb follows a main verb (usually connected by a particle or ending), it is separated and capitalized (e.g., 하고 있다 → Hago itda).
• Particles: Always separate particles from the preceding noun/pronoun.
• Hyphens: Used for personal names, specific prefixes, suffixes and Arabic numerals with counters.

Expanded explanation

Loanword restoration

Unlike Japanese, where loanwords are often heavily modified, Korean loanwords often map directly to English. To improve searchability and readability:

Standard English terms: If a Hangul word corresponds to a common English word, use the English spelling.

Examples

• 버스 → Bus (not Beoseu)
• 던전 → Dungeon (not Deonjeon)
• 아카데미 → Academy (not Akademi)
• S급 → S-Class or S-Geup (prefer English S-Class if broadly understood contextually, otherwise Romanize the counter).

Unclear/faux-English: If the term is a "Konglish" abbreviation or unique concept without a direct English equivalent, Romanize the Korean sound.

Examples

• 스킨십 → Skinship (Accepted Konglish)
• 알바 → Alba (German/Korean slang for part-time)

Loanword hybrid components: If a compound consists of a loanword + native particle/noun, separate without a hyphen and capitalize accordingly.

Examples

• Skill-eul → Skill eul (Skill + particle)
• Bus-tago → Bus Tago (Bus + riding)

Verbs and adjectives

Korean verbs consist of a stem + endings. In titles, these are fused.

• Dictionary form: 가다 (Ga-da) → Gada (to go)
• Honorific/formal: 갑니다 (Ga-pni-da) → Gamnida (formal version of "to go")
• Past tense: 갔다 (Gat-da) → Gatda (went)
• Future/guessing: 알겠습니다 (Al-get-seum-ni-da) → Algesseumnida (I understand / I will know)
• Modifier form: 예쁜 (Yeppeun) → Yeppeun (Pretty), 먹는 (Meokneun) → Meongneun (Eating - *note the sound change k → ng).

Auxiliary verbs

When a sentence structure involves main Verb + space + auxiliary verb, Romanize them as two separate capitalized words.

Examples

• 먹고 싶다 → Meokgo Sipda (want to eat)
• 해야 한다 → Haeya Handa (must do)
• 되어 버렸다 → Doseo Beoryeotda (ended up becoming)

Personal names

Follow the pattern: surname + given name. The given name is hyphenated with the second syllable in lowercase.

Examples

• 김민수 → Kim Min-su
• 박지민 → Park Ji-min
• 이재욱 → Lee Jae-wook (common conventional spellings for surnames like Lee/Park/Choi are acceptable if the author is well-known, otherwise follow RR: I, Bak, Choe).

Prefixes

Specific prefixes regarding numbering or size are hyphenated.

Examples

• 제1화 → Je-1-hwa (chapter 1)
• 고(故) → Go- (the late...)
• 대(大) → Dae- (great/big - only when acting as a distinct prefix, otherwise fused in compounds like Daehak (University)).

Suffixes

Suffixes are attached to a base word with a hyphen and in lowercase.

Examples

• 사람들 → Saram-deul (people)
• 헌터들 → Hunter-deul (hunters - applying the loanword rule)
• 한국식 → Hanguk-sik (Korean-style)
• 직업별 → Jigeop-byeol (by profession)
• 서울행 → Seoul-haeng (heading to Seoul)

Honorifics:

• 민수씨 → Minsu-ssi
• 선생님 → Seonsaeng-nim (teacher)
• 아저씨 → Ajeossi (mister/uncle - often lexicalized without hyphen if standalone, hyphenated if used as address).

Bart note

Clarify the Ajeossi line

Arabic numerals with counters

Arabic numerals are hyphenated with their counters.

Examples

• 10년 → 10-nyeon (10 Years)
• 3명 → 3-myeong (3 People)
• 100번째 → 100-beonjjae (100th)
• 24시간 → 24-sigan (24 Hours)

Particles

Particles must be separated from the word they modify and written in lowercase.

Expression	Romanization	Function
이 / 가	i / ga	Subject markers
은 / 는	eun / neun	Topic markers
을 / 를	eul / reul	Object markers
의	ui	Possessive particle (typically pronounced as e, but written as ui)
에	e	Location / time (at, in, to)
에서	eseo	From (location), at (action)
로 / 으로	ro / euro	Direction / instrument (towards, by means of)
와 / 과	wa / gwa	And / with
하고	hago	And / with (colloquial)
도	do	Also / even
만	man	Only
부터	buteo	From (time/place)
까지	kkaji	Until / to
에게 / 한테	ege / hante	To (a person)
요	yo	Polite particle to end sentence (see context rules below)

Polite particle 요 (-yo)

The polite particle 요 (-yo) requires contextual treatment depending on its grammatical function:

• Attached to a verb/adjective (verb ending): Fuse it to the preceding word (e.g., 가자요 → Gajayo).
• Attached to a noun/pronoun (particle): Separate it with a space (e.g., 저요 → Jeo yo).

Copulas

The copula Ida (to be) and Anida (not to be) are unique. In standard RR, they are fused to the preceding noun. However, for readability in titles the following rules apply.

Ida (이다): fuse to the noun/particle if it is the verb ending.

Examples

• 학생입니다 → Haksaengimnida (it is a student / I am a student)
• 남자이다 → Namjaida (to be a man / is a man)

Anida (아니다): usually behaves as a separate adjective requiring a subject particle.

Example

학생이 아니다 → Haksaeng i Anida (Is not a student)

Special characters

• Symbols (♥, ★, etc.): keep as-is, with spaces around them unless stylistically fused on the cover.
• Tildes (~): keep as ～.
• Ellipsis: keep as is.
• Brackets: convert 『 』, 「 」, 【 】 to standard double quotes " or square brackets [ ] depending on context.

• Quoted dialogue should be between double quotes ".
• Non-quoted text should be between square brackets [ ].