Hangul, the Korean alphabet, is the native alphabet of the Korean language.

It is a separate script from Hanja, the logographic Chinese characters which are also used to write Korean. It was created in the mid-15th century, and is now the official script of both North Korea and South Korea and is co-official in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of Jilin Province, People's Republic of China. Hangul is a true alphabet of 24 consonant and vowel letters. However, instead of being written linearly like the letters of the Latin alphabet, Hangul letters are grouped into blocks, such as han; each of these blocks transcribes a syllable. That is, although may look like a single character, it is composed of three distinct letters: h, a, and n. Each Hangul block consists of at least two such letters, including at least one each of 14 consonants and 10 vowels. These blocks are arranged either horizontally from left to right or vertically from top to bottom. Hangul is the native script of Korea, created in the mid fifteenth century under King Sejong, as both a complement and an alternative to the logographic Sino-Korean hanja. Initially denounced by the educated class as eonmun (vernacular writing), it only became the primary Korean script following independence from Japan in the mid-20th century.[1] Hangul is a featural alphabet(A featural alphabet is an alphabet wherein the shapes of the letters are not arbitrary, but encode phonological features of the phonemes they represent) written in morpho-syllabic blocks, and was designed for both the Korean and Chinese languages, though the letters specific to Chinese are now obsolete. Each block consists of at least one consonant letter and one vowel letter. When promulgated, the blocks reflected the morphology of Korean, but for most of the fifteenth century they were organized into syllables. In the twentieth century the morpho-syllabic tradition was revived. The blocks were traditionally written in vertical columns from top to bottom, although they are now commonly written in horizontal rows from left to right as well. Spacing has been introduced to separate words in the Western fashion, and punctuation to indicate clauses and sentences, so that hangul now transcribes Korean at the levels of feature, segment, syllable, morpheme, word, clause, and sentence. However, the suprasegmental features of tone and vowel length, seen as single and double tick marks to the left of the syllabic blocks in the image at right, have been dropped. Six new letters, including two of Sejong's which had become obsolete, were introduced in North Korea in 1948 in order to make hangul a perfect morphophonological fit to the Korean language, but they were soon discarded. While hangul contains a large component of iconic invention, it may also have a core that is historically related to the alphabets of Central Asia, and therefore cognate with the Latin alphabet, with the letters b, g, d, and l distantly related to Latin B, C, D, and L.

The Hangeul Alphabet ()

Learn Hangul - For now, I think it's time to begin! Why not start with the characters that make up Hangul .

The first character is It has a couple variations. Generally, it is like an "h" sound. If it is at the beginning of a word, it will sound like an "h". There will be more on this one in Lesson 2. Next comes... This is a vowel, and it is an "a" sound, as in father. It pretty much never varies and always has the same sound. Quite a simple character. This vowel will always be placed to the right of the first consonant. It does not fall below the consonant.

 is a character that usually sounds like an "n". It only has one irregular form, which is in Lesson 2. So far, we have a "h" sound, an "a" sound, and a "n" sound. Or, we have , , and . Together, these form the first half of Hangul, . Now let's break down the second syllable. This is a light "g" or "k" sound. Don't push the air too hard or try and make this sound too heavy, it is a light sound. Don't emphasize the character. Especially at the end of a word, this character is very light. At the end of a word, it is almost as if you don't say the character. This a little harder to explain. I think the best way to say it is, it sounds like the "oo" part in "good". Let me phrase this another way... It is like a short 'u', said in the back of the mouth. It is almost like a grunt! Be sure you don't actually grunt though when you say it :) This vowel will always be placed below the first consonant. It does not fall to the right of the consonant. This character might be the most complicated character you run into! But I'll be honest, you will have it down along with all the other characters before the week is over! Think of it as either a light "l" sound, or a rolling "r" sound, depending on where it is. If it falls between two vowels, it will most likely be a rolling "r" sound. If it is at the end of a syllable, it will usually be a light "l" sound. It does not come at the beginning of a syllable of any Korean word, but will be used at the beginning for borrowed words, like loanwords. If that is the case, treat it as it needs to be in order to say the loanword properly. This character is covered very well in Elementary Korean. That's it! You now have learned 6 characters. You can now write

and you can! You can write both in Hangul, and the word Hangul.

Now, do you remember what each of those characters is like? Let's provide a little practice. Read these words to yourself, and try to not refer to the section above. You may if you need to, but try first!
Learn Hangul - Common Characters So, you feel like you are beginning to see how Korean and Hangul are? Are you ready for more?

This is a common character. It will have a light "b" or "p" sound. pa bap. ban. At the end of a word, it will have a very light, almost unheard sound. This is a very easy character. It sounds just like an "m" sound. As simple as that. What do you think would sound like? If you said ma, that's right! I think you are ready for a very commonly used character. It has two sounds. One sound, is no sound! It makes no sound at all when it is the first consonant in the syllable. It is as simple as that. It is more like a place holder since all Korean syllables must start with a consonant. When it falls at the end of a syllable, it sounds like a light "ng" sound in "running". It is that ng sound in the back of your throat, but do not emphasis the "g" part of it. So the two sounds? No sound at the beginning of a syllable, "ng" sound at the end. Simple. Let's learn two more, and then have a little practice.

This is an "o" sound. It is hard to explain, but try this. Say the letter O. Make it really really long and say it slow. Notice where your mouth starts to close in? This sound is the sound before that. The beginning of the O sound. Let's look at this in a different way... Shape your mouth as if you were to say the 'o' in 'go'. Now make a sound like aw, as in awe, pawl, bawl, and law. This vowel will always be placed to the right of the first consonant, never underneath. This is another "o" sound. They sound very similar. The best I can do is say this may be more like the other side of saying O, as with the experiment before. The part toward the end in O is more like this. Or, think of it this way. is like the 'o' in go, row, bow, and low. They are very similar. Some people will be able to hear the difference if they have a good ear. Many non native speakers have the problem hearing the difference though at first. So, for those who cannot hear the difference, When spelling and learning Korean, try to think of these are learning to spell. In English you can't always know how to spell a word, you must learn it properly. It is the same way in Korean. When words with an O sound comes up, just learn how it is spelled and leave it at that because they sound so similar. This vowel will always appear underneath the first consonant, never to the right of it. Let's try a few more practice words to read. So far we have covered (in order): , , , , , , , , , ,

 Go back and review the characters you have learned now. Here is a list of them. If you know what has been said about each so far, move on! , , , , , , , , , , . This one is easy. it is the "ou" part in you. Simple as that. "oo" in boot. This vowel always falls below the first consonant, never to the right. *Notice a pattern with placement of vowels? One vowel consisting of a horizontal line will be placed underneath the consonant, while vowels consisting of a vertical line will be placed to the right. Don't believe me? Go back and check!* This character is easy as well. It is the "ee" sound in meet. An example using it would be . That sounds just like saying "me" in English. You can guess where it is placed...Go ahead and try! This vowel is placed to the right of the first consonant, never underneath. This vowel sounds like ea in bear. The vowels are all easy if you just memorize them, and do not ever sound irregular (When could they?!?). This vowel always appears to the right of the first consonant, never underneath . This one is pretty similar to the one above. It sounds like the e in yes. The e in met. This vowel always appears to the right of the first consonant, never underneath.
Learn Hangul - More On Vowels

You have now covered all the basic vowels. There are two more things you can learn about vowels, and then you know all vowels and everything about them. And these next two things are simple. You will see vowels like , ,,, , etc. Notice how instead of one short line, there are two? This means that before the vowel sound, there is a y like sound. I will give two examples.

This sounds like saying "you" in English. This sounds like saying Ya in English. All the teenagers should know it from the song Hey Ya! by Outkast. It played all the time. All other vowels follow the same pattern. Next, you will see vowels combined to form a new vowel sound, such as , , , . You just run the vowels together into one sound. The vowel on the left (long horizontal line) comes first. Here are a couple examples. This sounds like wa in water. This sounds just like the French oui. It is more or less like wee. I have chosen to include this one for a special reason. It works just like the others, except if it comes after a consonant, you only hear and not the other part. It is just how it sounds when spoken. At the beginning of a syllable, you do run the two together however. Speaking of mixing these with consonants. Let's just take a look at a couple and it will explain itself on how to write them. The first consonant is written in the top left. Any consonant that comes after the vowel sound comes at the bottom. You are now a master at vowels. You also know a few of the consonants in Korean as well. Let's finish up the rest of the consonants.

Learn Hangul - More Consonants

This is a consonant that sounds like an s in English. It is a very light s and isn't stressed or anything. Also, before the Korean vowel , like , it is usually pronounced like an sh, or for this example, shee. At the end of a word or before a syllable that begins with a vowel or consonant other than , it ends with a light d sound. You will find many consonants sound like a light d sound if they are at the end of a word. Speaking of light d sounds, here it is. This is a light d or t sound. sounds like mat, with a very light t sound at the end. So does however. See what I mean by sounding like a light d sound at the end? is not mas. It is mat. This is a light j sound in between vowels. At the beginning of the word, it is often heard as a "ch" sound instead. At the end of a word, it sounds just like an and a . Are you excited? There are only four more consonants left, and you know Hangul! But first, let's make sure we know what we have covered so far. We have covered A LOT! Better put, we have covered ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,. That is actually in order of the keyboard. ^-^

 ? ! Also, let's try one of these on for size. Most likely you won't understand it, but you can try and pronounce it! ? !
Learn Hangul - Aspirated Consonants

Here are the final four! These four are aspirated sounds. If you don't know what that means, they basically are said with more of a puff of air. Also, try to see if you can catch something in common with all of these in relationship to their similar consonant sounds. this is like kha. It is similar to the sound, except is said with more air. More towards a K sound. This is a t sound, much like , except said with more air to it! This is a cha sound. Always. It is similar to the sound, except said with more air to it. Always a cha sound, never a j sound ( sounds like a j between vowels. One more note, you will see some consonants doubled up. You can consider these seperate characters if you wish, or just think of them as being stronger with more voice to them. These are ,,,,. Let's practice one more time. ? ! ?

 . ? ! ! :( .

Beginners Lesson Two Hangul Irregularities

So, you feel you've got a good grasp on the basics of the characters.

Then you're ready for Lesson 2! This lesson will cover all the Hangul irregularities. Once you know the characters and the times they are irregular, you can read any Hangul and read it perfectly. Korean is more simple when it comes to reading than English is. Sometimes in English you can read it 5 times and still not know how to say the word correctly. This is not the case with Korean. So, enough talk. Let's get started. The first irregular pattern has already been mentioned in Lesson One.

, ,
These three characters are your three main basic consonants. At the end of a word or before a consonant, many other characters will be simplified to sound just like these. Here is what I mean:

,
both of these characters will sound like before another consonant or at the end of a word. But for this example, that isn't so much of a difference. How about this one though?

, , ,,
Now, all of these will sound like before another consonant or at the end of a word. That makes more of a difference. Even though gives an s sound normally, it will sound like a d or t if it occurs before another consonant or at the end of a word. If it occurs before a vowel, it will sound like an s.

These will sound like . See a pattern? , , and are all made by closing your lips. Notice the pattern in the two sets above? One includes characters that are made in the back of the throat, while the other includes characters that are made with the tongue behind the teeth on the roof of the mouth. If you remember this pattern, you should not forget which characters end with a , , or sound. Now, how about some real examples. mat mas-un ap ap-e (with more air on the p)

 Goht Gohch-ee Keep in mind; if a syllable begins with the Hangul character following these rules, we treat it as if the syllable begins with a vowel (since it is unheard). So, a better way to put it would be if the character comes before another consonant sound or at the end of a word, then it will be reduced to one of the three basic consonants. This is the first irregular to keep in mind. After the second irregularity, there will be some time to practice a little bit before continuing. The second Irregularity The second irregularity involves changing the sound of a few characters if it comes before certain other characters. The main thing to watch for is the second character. There are two of them and they are both consonants. They are

,
These two characters are known as nasal sounds. Basically, the reason for this irregularity is it makes the words flow better. If , , any of the "throat" sounds occur before one of these two consonants, it will change to an "ng" sound, as if it was the consonant . Notice why it changes to that? That is a throat sound as well, and let's the word flow better. In writing it will keep the original spelling, but when spoken it will reflect the change. , , any of the sounds made by closing your lips will change to the sound before either of these two consonants. Notice how saying flows a lot better than saying ? It just flows better, as with the above case. is also made by closing the lips. The last cases are all the sounds made by placing the tip of the tongue on the roof of the mouth. , , , , , , get the picture? These will change to the sound before an or an . is also made with the tongue in a similar position. here are some examples. - This is pronounced hamnida, as opposed to hapnida. - this is pronounced hang-nyon, as opposed to hak-nyon - This is pronounced mong-ne, as opposed to mok-ne - This is pronounced ee-nun, as opposed to eet-nun (notice the t at the end? That would be the case following irregularity rule number one, but because it comes before , it sounds like an ). These two rules are the main two irregularities you will run into. Most other irregularities are much smaller, and not as common. They tend to be specific to a single character, and not a group of characters.

The next irregularity deals with the character

This character has a few irregular forms that you will see. I personally believe if you know irregular forms above this, you will be able to pronounce most anything reasonably well. If is between vowel sounds, it will sound like a rolling "r" like in spanish or japanese. If this makes it difficult for you like that, just think of it sounding like a quick d or t sound. It is not the long rolling "r" sound you hear in spanish, just a short one click of the tongue. At the end of a syllable before a consonant ( excluding then it will usually sound like a light "l" sound. Both of these were mentioned in the previous lesson. Irregularities deal with when is falls next to certain characters. It will only begin a word if it is a loanword, in which case it will sound like the loanword. But it sometimes (rarely) will be the first consonant after another syllable ending in a consonant, such as . When this is the case, it will sound like . is pronounced chongno. The second irregularity is if it is at the end/beginning of a syllable, and the other consonant it lies next to (end/beginning, whichever the is not) is a or an . If it is an , then it will be an "l" sound, like usual. But, if it is next to an , as in , it will still make an "l" sound. is pronounced eel-lyon, not eel-nyon. Try saying it both ways, you will see that eel-lyon flows a lot better.

This character has one irregular form. It is simple as well. If comes before , it is pronounced as if it were , meaning with a "ch" sound. is pronounced ga-chee, not gat-ee. This is the final irregular form you will learn. Whenever this falls next to (end/beginning syllable combination) a sound such as , , , or , you will usually not hear the sound and the , , , or sound will sound more like ,,,or with more air. Some words in this situation are , , .

Beginners Lesson Three Korean Verbs

Korean verbs are extremely important. Verbs in Korean sentences are the most important part of the sentence. In fact, it is the only part you need for the sentence to be complete. Korean, unlike English, does not mention the subject of the sentence if it can be assumed from context. For example, in English, one might ask "Are you hungry?" In Korean, if someone could just ask "Hungry?" and people knew who they were referring to, then it is perfectly fine to leave off the "you." You may hear this in English as well, but it is not considered grammatically correct. It is considered grammatically correct in Korean! So, to sum up that paragraph, the verb is the only needed part in a Korean sentence. Everything else is extra. Now I know you are eager to start learning verbs and looking them up in the dictionaries, but we must cover one important piece of grammar first. Korean verbs can take many different forms, depending on who you are talking to. Korean still has social status literally integrated into the language itself. The verb "to be" when speaking to an older person or teacher will be slightly different than "to be" when speaking to your best friend. Most Korean verbs have the same root, regardless of who you are talking to, but you will change the ending of the verb depending on who you are speaking with. is the dictionary form of the verb "to eat." The dictionary form consists of the verb root, in this example, and the ending. Go ahead, look up a few of your favorite verbs here or even better, grab yourself a copy of Declan's Korean Flashcards (contains over 3600 words with audio, arranged in vocabulary sets) to start building a strong foundation of Korean verbs. You will see all forms they list end in . If you remove the ending, you will be left with the verb root. The verb root of is . The verb root by itself has no meaning. You must remove the ending and replace it with a different ending depending on what you want to say and who you want to say it to. In my mind, I see three different, very distinct endings for speaking and writing. Formal , Polite , and Casual . Formal Ending Polite Ending Casual Ending / / /

For now, we will focus on the two most common styles of verbs you will use, polite and casual. As you can see above, there are also two different endings for both polite and casual speech. The way you decide which ending to choose is based on the verb root. If the last vowel in the verb

root is or then you choose the (polite) or (casual) ending. If the last vowel in the verb root is anything other than or , then you choose the (polite) or (casual) ending. Look at the following chart of commonly used verbs and compare the verb root to the ending to get a better understanding of this. I will refer to the Formal ending section next. English To Have To Be Good To Go To Do Verb Root Dictionary Form Polite Ending Casual Ending Formal Ending

To Not Have

Let's look at a couple. means "to have." is the verb root. The last vowel in is . Since this is not or then we know to choose the / endings depending on whether we will need to be polite or if it is casual speech. (~) has a verb root of . The final vowel in this root is , so we need to choose the / endings. If you look at , this has a verb root of with a final vowel of . So, since that is or , it must take the / ending. Understand the general pattern? Irregular Verb Patterns

Now, as you can see in the chart, there will be some situations that do not follow this exactly. means "to go". If you remove the to get the verb root you are left with . Following this pattern, you would add / to the verb root, and get something like . The real way is just . It has been shortened because otherwise we just say two of the same vowel in a row. Since that is a waste of time and breath, it is simply or . The final verb is the chart above is . This is a very common verb in any language. This one verb is irregular all on it's own. It doesn't follow a pattern, and you just need to memorize the case. It shouldn't be too hard because you will see this all over the place. has a root of . The polite form is and the casual form is . Just take a few minutes right now to memorize this and then you will never have to worry about it again. Done? Ok, let's move on. Below is a table of irregular verbs that follow a pattern. Briefly look over the table and then continue on.

English To Drink To Meet To Come To Be Busy To Not Know To Be Hot

Verb Root

Dictionary Form

Polite Ending

Casual Ending

The first one is "To Drink" or . If we remove the dictionary ending, we are left with . Following normal patterns for the polite form, we would have . To make it easier and sound better, the real polite form is . Any verb root that ends in will naturally take the / endings, and we shorten + to . Other verb examples that take this pattern are - , - , - . Next we meet (get it?). This one should be easy. We already went over it with . Since the verb root ends in , we shorten to . Also, keep in mind this pattern works with verb roots that end in as well. If it ends in it would naturally take the ending. This would be a double vowel sound so we just shorten it the same way. Other verb examples that take this pattern are - , - , - . Next, we come to (ok, I will really stop now, I promise!). The verb root is . This would naturally take the ending, making . Wouldn't it be much easier to combine the and the into ? It sure sounds better and smoother. That is exactly what we do. Whenever a verb root ends in , it will naturally take the ending and because all of you will know this lesson, you will naturally combine the and the to . Other verb examples that take this pattern are - , - . Next, we have . The verb root is . Following normal verb patterns we would figure the polite form would be . Try and say that. Now, try and say . That is the correct way. When a verb root ends in , we drop the , look at the last vowel in the root that is left (not including the ) and add the appropriate ending. For this example, the last vowel would be . So, when we drop the and add the ending, we get . Other verb examples that follow this pattern are - , - , - .

The next verb is . The verb root is . You might be thinking, that ends in so wouldn't it follow the above irregular pattern, and become ? Indeed, it would, except Koreans have decided if a verb root ends in (not just ), then we will double up the by adding a second to the end of the syllable before the . And then we drop the . . We added a to and got . We dropped the and got . Together, we have . Other verb examples using this pattern are - , - , - . The final verb in the verb chart above is . You should definitely be good with verb roots by now and instantly know it is . Now, with this irregular pattern, you must remember two things. Often, when a verb root ends in , you should drop the and add . After that, you move to the second step. If it ends in , when we pick a style such as polite style, it should naturally take the ending. This is another pattern where we combine two characters to make it smoother. and combine into . We get in the end. Other verb examples that follow this pattern are - , - . Now you should know the verb patterns you will run into. You can take a verb out of a dictionary such as Declan's Korean Dictionary, find the root, and put it in either casual language or polite language. But you may still be wondering what exactly that means! Is polite language simply the same thing as if you were to be polite in English?

Remember how in Korean verbs can be used all alone and the sentence will be grammatically correct? Let's see some examples. If we were to say , what exactly are we saying? We know it is a polite way, and it means "to eat" (don't worry if you haven't memorized the verbs yet. You will be sent to the homework page shortly to do some memorization). But do we know what we are saying when we say to someone? Well, it depends :). You could be saying "I'm eating." Or, you could be saying "you're eating". You could be saying "eat." If someone said "What do you want to do?" You could reply . In Korean you can use the verbs in a much more general manner than in English. Later we will see how to add words such as "I" or "You" if necessary to clear up the meaning of a sentence. Another example could be . This means To Be Good. If someone asks you how is something, you can say ! Like, "Are my new shoes ok? Do you like them? How are they?" "!". Or, if you are having a casual conversation about something with your friend, and they say something and in English you would just give the reply "Good!" or something, you can just say !(remember, it's a conversation with your friend). This whole concept about the verbs being so general is hard to learn at first. Just try your best! Casual verbs can have even more meanings than other forms! If you say you could be saying I'm going, you're going, someone's going, let's go, are we going?, etc. A lot of Korean is about what can be assumed. If it can be assumed, there is no need to say it in the language. One of the most recommended Korean language products, Rosetta Stone Korean Level 1, makes learning this part a breeze. This wraps up the intro to Korean verbs! It's time for you to memorize a few,

and to go back and make sure you know the patterns covered on this page. There will definitely be more to come on verbs later.

Irregular Verbs
Beginners Lesson Four is all about those verbs in Korean that are just plain weird. Irregular verbs in Korean are actually not too bad though! In Beginners Lesson Three, you were introduced to Korean verbs and the irregular verb patterns . The verbs on this page are different. These verbs are commonly used verbs, but either have more than one meaning, are used weird, etc. instead of being irregular patterns . You will see what I mean, right now!
Verb - Polite Style

The first irregular verb that I need to cover here is definitely what many books and courses will call the copula . Basically, it is the verb of equality. Equality? What is that?!? In English, we may say "It is a book." "It" is equal to "book". It is pretty much the verb "to be." If you look in a dictionary, you will see

The verb root is . This verb will follow it's own pattern however. It doesn't fit any pattern and just needs to be learned. The polite form will be if it comes after a consonant, or if it comes after a vowel. You will also see it spelled after a vowel. When spoken, it will sound more like after a vowel. Let's practice with a sentence. We will use the same sentence as the example in English. Book in Korean is

Since ends in a consonant, we should use the polite ending . With most normal verbs, there is a space between the verb and any other words, but the copula is a special case. There is no space in between the two words. Also, in Korean sentence structure is different. I feel the best way for you to understand it and get used to it is just to see it. The verb falls at the end of the sentence always . Other words fall before the verb. So, since our verb of "to be" is , that will fall at the end. There is no space between and the word it is describing, so, our sentence comes out to be

As you see, this is like "book-to be". The structure is different, but you will get used to it as you see more and more of it. means "It is a book." Let's see a couple more examples.

Remember, you don't need to remember every noun you see yet. Memorize what you find on the homework page.

means pencil. It ends in which is also a consonant. If we combine this with the polite ending and keep the correct word order, we get , meaning "It is a pencil."

means car. It ends in which is a vowel. Because it ends in a vowel, the correct spelling of would be . The sentence would be , meaning "It is a car." Do you understand it a little better now? If so, then let's look at this, and then there will be some practice problems.
Verb - Casual Style

Many resources choose to teach you mostly one style first, usually polite style, and then much later return to teach you the other commonly used style. I feel it is best to teach you them both from the start, because they both are very important if you plan on learning Korean well. If we put off one, you will not be as strong with it. If we teach both, you will learn at a slower pace at first, but will learn faster later on and the whole time you will be learning more efficiently. So, here it is! has two polite forms, depending on whether it follows a consonant or vowel, and so does the casual form. If follows a consonant, it is spelled . If follows a vowel, it is spelled . Lets use the same three examples as above so that you may compare the two forms. The first one used the word , or book, in the example. The polite style was . Since ends in , a consonant, the casual style form should be . If we put this with , we get . and mean the exact same thing! The only difference is who we are speaking with. As previous lessons covered, if we speak with someone older or a teacher or anyone who deserves more respect, we would use the polite form . If we are speaking with our close friends, we can just use . That is the only difference! It is something you will get used to as you learn Korean.

The second example sentence was , meaning "It is a pencil." This ends in , a consonant, so we will add to this one as well. is correct. and

 also mean the same thing, and are only different because of who we may be speaking to. was the final example sentence. ends in a vowel, so we only add instead of . When we form the new sentence, we get . As you can guess, this is equal to . I think you probably understand this pretty well by now and are ready to take on anything like this! Here are a few practice problems. If you can get these, then you know the irregular verb and are one step closer to knowing Korean!
How do you say, "It is a ____"?

This also works for people and their names, as in "It's Joe" or if you were referring to yourself. In the next lesson we will see how to specify who we are referring to. Verb -

- Root is , Polite style is , Casual style is . Meaning - To have or To be (location). is a special verb because it has a couple of different meanings. I feel it is a verb worth mentioning because it is an extremely common verb. Let's look at the two meanings you will see. To Have This is a very common verb in all languages. "I have chicken." "I have a car." "Do you have a car?" All of these deal with possesion of something. So does . We could say to mean "I have a car" or "she has a car". Remember, in Korean the subject may be left out if it can be assumed. If it cannot be, it will be added in, which you will learn soon. This is a fairly simple verb when looking at it from this position, and is easy to understand with this meaning alone. could mean "I have a pencil." In written Korean, you can turn this statement into a question asking "Do you have a pencil?" by simply adding a question mark on the end.

? In spoken Korean, it is the tone of your voice that determines this. Nothing else in the sentence changes. To Be (Location) can also mean To Be, when used for location. For example, using the same sentence, ? could also mean "Is there a pencil?" For this sentence as it is, it pretty much means the same thing. You are wanting a pencil and are asking if there is one or if they have one or whichever. Later, you will see the difference easier as we learn how to make our sentences longer and more complex. If we said "(In the room) ?" then we can automatically assume it is talking about location. If we say "(Anna) ?" Then we can automatically assume we are talking about possession. Try the following practice problems. They should not be difficult, but should help you to see more examples of the use of . Anna ? At-Home ? 2 Blocks away .
Verb -

- root is , Polite style is , casual style is . Meaning - To Do. has an irregular spelling when used as you learned in Lesson Three. Keep in mind it is and not . This verb is not as irregular as with and , but I would still like to briefly talk about it. is a verb you will soon know perfectly, as you will see it forms many other verbs. What I mean by this is, many Korean verbs are simply formed by taking a word and simply adding on the end of it. The verb "To Make a Phone Call" is made by sticking the word for "phone" and the verb (To Do) together. Phone is . The verb "To Make a Phone Call" is . Shower is . "To Shower" is simply . Homework is . "To Do Homework" is . This is why you will see this verb a lot. Many verbs are formed using it. When you conjugate them, it is done the same as . , , etc. You will have no problem with .

Particles
Particles - Endings attached to words to specify what significance the word has in the sentence. The particle is attached to the end of the word, without a space in between the word and the particle.
Subject Particle One of the first and most common particles you will run into is the subject particle. In English, one of the most basic parts of a sentence is the subject. It is a required part in English, but is not required in Korean. The subject tells us who or what is doing the action.

As you learned in Lesson Three, means To Eat. You also learned that you could say to mean "I'm eating." Up until now though, we haven't learned how to specify who or what is the subject if we need to for clarification. The subject particle has two forms. and . comes after a word ending in a consonant, and comes after a word ending in a vowel. For example, let's say Eunji is eating. ends in a vowel, so we attach and get . means Eunji, as the subject of the sentence. The is what makes Eunji the subject. Then, we can simply add the verb in the proper present tense form, and we have our sentence. in the polite form, or simply . Eunji is eating. As you will notice, when speaking in the casual form, particles are commonly left off. In Lesson Four, we learned the irregular verb . can mean To Be, as in location. There is a pencil. From Lesson Four, you should have memorized means pencil. means pencil, as the subject. means "There is a pencil (there, as in location)." means "It is a pencil." Be sure to keep and separate when it comes to the verb To Be. Say "There is (a) _____" by filling in the blank with the words below, using the correct subject particle.

Object Particle Another very common particle is the object particle. This states which word in the sentence is the object of the sentence, or the word receiving the action. It has two forms as well. after a word ending in a consonant, and after a word ending in a vowel.

In Lesson Three you were asked to learn the verb , To Drink. You should be able to say "I drink" or "I'm drinking" but you haven't been able to specify what it is you are drinking. You specify this using an object particle. means milk. If you attach the proper object particle to it, you get . You can then say . In Lesson Four you learned means water. Now you should know that means "I'm drinking water." or "I drink water." Now, try these sentences. . . .
Location Particle You know the verb from Lesson Three, so you know how to say you're going or someone is going, but knowing how to say where it is you are going is very important! This is very simple! . It takes the same form no matter what word it comes after. . You should know this! "I'm going home." . If I told you was school, you would know this too :) .

One other location particle that I want to tell you about right now is . When you add the on the end, it then turns into a place where the action is happening. doesn't mean "to school" anymore. It means the action is happening at school . means "Anna is eating at home." means "I am studying at school."
Topic Particle

The topic particle may be the most common particle you will run into. It also has two forms. after a vowel, and after a consonant. Keep in mind it will replace the subject or object particle if it is attached to a word that would otherwise have a subject or object particle attached, but it will fall after any other particle. It is also one of the most difficult particles to learn when you begin to study Korean. I will keep it simple, and you will do just fine. It does exactly what it is called. It sets the word or words before it as the topic of the sentence...what the sentence is all about. You can take any part of a sentence and make it the topic, except for the verb of course. Say you have a simple sentence saying "Joe is eating bread at his house." You can make Joe the topic, meaning the sentence is about Joe, and we are saying what he is doing and where. If we like, we may decide bread should be the topic, in which case the rest of the sentence will tell us who and where is eating the bread. Or, if we are talking about

"at home", we may want to make "at home" the topic. In this case, we are saying what is going on at home. Joe is eating bread.

Often when you begin to learn Korean, you will be confused about when to use the subject particle vs. the object particle. As you learned above, means Eunji is eating. But... also would mean Eunji is eating. In one case, Eunji is simply the subject of the sentence. In the second case, Eunji is the topic of the sentence. Very similar. Honestly, it usually won't make much of a difference. Both are right :) . Now for a few examples in Korean. . still means "I". This sentence simply says "I am going home." But if it helps you understand the topic particle better, think of it as "Speaking about me, going home." Another example could be . This sentence is a little longer, but if you knew all the nouns and verbs, you could understand it just fine :) . is math. is school. is to study. This sentence says "Speaking about what is going on at school, Anna is studying math." This is why my lessons are so grammar heavy at first. If you know the grammar, you can understand any sentence with the use of a dictionary. If you do not know the grammar your chances of understanding the sentence are much smaller, and a dictionary won't help much. I will begin to introduce larger amounts of vocabulary words, but I just ask that you stick through the grammar until then :). I promise it will be worth it.
/ The particle is commonly used to mean "by means of." It will fall after a noun, and take the form after vowels and a word that ends in the consonant , but will take the form if it falls after any other consonant.

means To go by car. You are expressing which means of transportation you will be using. is a sentence saying Let's Go by train. It is not only used for means of transportation though. It can be used for anything to mean "by means of." means Please write with a pencil, or please write by means of a pencil.

is a particle you stick onto nominals of place or time. It means "All the way up to." As in, I'm going all the way to China, . I'm going (as far as) China. You can use it to say a destination you will go to, and meaning thats how far you will go. It is found in the question ? How far should we go?

Household Terms
If you have completed lessons 1-5, you are now ready to start learning household terms. It is mainly a bunch of vocabulary words...I know, that doesn't sound fun, but it's part of the language! One of the hardest things about learning any language is just building a large enough vocabulary.

Luckily for you, this lesson will be full of items commonly found around the house. You will see them frequently, so whenever you do, think of the Korean word, not the English word. This is the best way to learn all the household terms. Plus, you will begin to build the foundation of your vocabulary with common items and tasks. You will get used to the structure of sentences and the language, and can practice while you walk around at home! It'll be a breeze :)
Household Term Nouns Korean English House Apartment Dormitory Room Bed Pillow Blanket Alarm Clock Mirror Bathroom Toilet Shower Towel Toothpaste

 Household Term Verbs

Toothbrush Soap Shampoo Kitchen Oven Refrigerator Dinner Table Chair Plate Cup Lamp Window Sofa Television Bookcase Telephone Computer

Here is a list of common household verbs to go along with the household terms. To form the casual style, drop the at the end.
Korean Polite Style English

To Do To Get Up To Sleep To Have (Lesson 4) To Not Have (Lesson 4) To Read To See / Watch To Clean To Play To Exercise To Write To Eat To Drink To Go To Put On Clothes To Put On Shoes To Take Off Clothes / Shoes To Do Homework To Study

A Korean Paragraph Using Household Terms

Now this can be your real first lesson diving into real Korean and real sentences. It will be based using the vocabulary above, and we will examine some sentences and then have some practice

ones. First, read through the following paragraph. Try your best to understand it, even if there are a couple of words you do not know yet :) You will be amazed at what you can accomplish by now if you have done the previous lessons and learned some household terms. It will all be in present tense since that is the only tense that has been discussed so far. Be sure to read it outloud to yourself at least once! 7 . . . 8 . . . 3 , . 4 ! 6 ( !). . . 9 . ? I bet you did! Now that you have read it, let me cover a couple things that you may have picked up. First off, this is a general account of what could happen in a day using the household terms, but all in the present tense. numbers were used to help you pick up on this. As you may have noticed, means hour. 3 means 3:00. means half. It is used when you say 3:30. 3 . 3 hours and half! is used like , but means minutes (it is not needed when you use ). 3 26 means at 3:26. if you see attached to a noun, it will either mean "and" or it will mean "with". In these cases, it means "and". would mean bulgogi and rice. Yet wait, you see another thing used for and when I listed the foods. When using to attach nouns, you can also use and . comes after a word that ends in a vowel, while after a noun that ends in a consonant. It will have the same meaning as . There were a few in there. That means "and" as well! When connecting sentences that is. One final thing, if you see two or three things that all seem like verbs but don't seem to have the exact same end on the word as you would've thought ( ) You would think it would be . But, this is one last way to use "and". When listing verbs, you can add to the stem of the verb. Only the final verb in the list will be conjugated otherwise. Now read that paragraph again (or maybe twice!) now that you understand those couple things. Now continue to read an English translation... At 7:00 I get up. I exercise and shower. There is no shampoo and soap :( . At 8:00 I eat. I go to school. At school I study. I come home at 3:00, and I do homework. At 4:00 I clean and play! At 6:30 I eat dinner (rice and kimchi and bulgogi!). After dinner, I watch tv, and read a book. at 9:00 I sleep.
Korean Practice Using Household Terms

. ? ! ? . .

. ? ( = = ) . . ? . . ? . ? . ? . .

Where are you going? Where (as in how far) are you going? I am going home. I am going as far as school. What are you eating? What are you drinking? I am eating rice and kimchi. I am drinking milk. What are you doing? I'm sleeping. I'm exercising and playing. I'm exercising. And I'm playing. Where is the toothpaste? I don't know. Anna knows. Where is my house? I don't know. Where is my pillow. It's (right) here. It's over there.

Body Parts And Numbers

Lesson Seven is a vocabulary lesson on body parts. It also includes an intro to basic Korean numbers. It will be the second major vocabulary lesson you will learn. This will be a shorter lesson, simply containing some common vocabulary words based on the body, and the first 10 numbers in Korean. It is provided for you to help you increase your vocabulary with common words.

Body Parts Korean English Body Head, Hair Face Eye Eyebrow Nose Ear Mouth Cheek Lips Chin Neck Shoulders Chest Stomach Back Arm Hand Fingers

 Pure Korean Numbers

Waist Buttocks Legs Foot Toes

First, I will tell you right off there are two sets of Korean numbers you will run into. There are Pure-Korean numbers, which come straight from the Korean language, and there are SinoKorean numbers, which are taken from Chinese. Both sets of numbers are commonly used, and you will learn when to use which kind. For now, you will be introduced to the Pure-Korean numbers. Pure-Korean numbers are used to count physical, tangible objects (excluding money) and the hour (but not minutes). You will learn time in the future. It is more difficult as it is composed of both number systems. Pure-Korean numbers only go through 99. Sino-Korean numbers can go as large as you like them to. Here are the first 10 Pure-Korean numbers.
Korean Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

 ()

8 9 10

To form the numbers 11-99, you will simply follow a pattern. + (10 + 1) = 11 + (10 + 5) = 15 But in order to continue this pattern, you need to learn the word for 20, 30, 40, and so on.
Korean Number 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

The pattern is the same as it was for the teens. 25 - + = 31 - + = 46 - + = 55 - + = 69 - + = 78 - + =

82 - + = 99 - + = There are two last things to keep in mind with numbers. The first four, , , , change when they come before a noun or something you are changing. They will change to , , , respectively. - 1:00 - 2 bottles - 3 animals - 3 pieces of paper This occurs in all cases where the number ends in one of these. - 91 animals - 43 people Secondly, when or come before the sounds or , they may be pronounced and respectively...instead of and . This may not always happen however.
Practice

Use the body part terms above and the Pure-Korean numbers for this practice. - How Many . . . ? . ? . ? . How many eyebrows do you have? How many legs do you have? How many fingers do you have? How many hands do you have? How many feet do you have?

Clothes
Lesson Nine is the third lesson on vocabulary. The focus is on clothes for this lesson. After the vocabulary lists, there will be a brief reading, followed by practice exercises. The following lesson will be a grammar lesson on adjectives and colors. This will be done based on this set of vocabulary (plus the adjectives and colors). You will then be able to describe your clothing in more detail.
Nouns Korean English Clothes Shirt White Dress Shirt Pants Shorts Jeans Shoes Dress Shoes Sneakers Socks Skirt Coat Jacket Hat Glasses

Ring Earrings Necklace Gloves Dress Suit Necktie Pajamas Bra Underwear(Male and Female) Teeshirt Hanbok, Traditional Clothing

You may have noticed many of these terms are taken from the English language. Just makes it easier to remember :)
Clothes Verbs

One thing you will notice is there are several verbs for wear, depending on where the object is. General clothing (shirt, pants) will use . Shoes and socks will use . Hat, glasses, stuff on the head will use . Stuff on the hands like rings and gloves will use . is used to mean take off, and is used for any of the objects, no matter where it is.
Korean Polite Style English To Wear (Body) TO Wear (footwear)

To Wear (headwear) To Wear (Hands) To Take Off (anything)

To say you are currently wearing something, I recommend using the phrase ~ . As you learned in Lesson Eight, this means 'currently taking place' action. would mean currently wearing clothes. - I am wearing a skirt. - I am wearing a shirt. - I am wearing a ring. If you use instead of , the sentence usually in the following way. - I wear skirts (in general). - I wear shirts (in general). - I wear rings (in general).
Clothes Practice

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . I am wearing a hat. I am not wearing a hat. I was not wearing glasses. I intend to wear a skirt tommorrow. I probably will wear my glasses tommorrow. I intend to undress. I used to wear three rings.

I did not used to wear four rings. I'm not wearing jeans. I am wearing shorts. I am wearing sneakers.

Korean Colors
Hello and welcome to the lesson on Korean colors! Hopefully you now understand everything covered in lessons 1-9 because that is the best way to begin this lesson. If you skipped ahead, then some parts may be understandable, some may not. Whatever you have decided to do, I hope you come out of this lesson with a good grasp on Korean color words.
Korean Colors

These are a little more complicated than color words in English, but you should be able to handle them! There are a few ways to deal with color words in Korean, and I will teach you the most basic, common way. First off, colors can come in a couple forms. There is the word that means just the color. There are color verbs. For now, you will learn the most basic uses of color words and these should let you use colors just fine in an easy to understand way. means color. Knowing this will allow you to make more sense and understand the rest of this color lesson easily. I will refer to the chart below throughout the lesson. You may refer to it any time you wish until you learn the colors properly.
Color Blue Black White Red Adjective / Noun Modifier

Yellow Green Orange Purple Pink Silver Gold Light Brown Brown Gray

Let's look at the color blue. . You can think of this as "blue color". is the part that lets us know it is blue instead of orange, and tells us it is a color we are talking about (you will see when should be included and when it shouldn't be in a minute). If you are naming colors, then you should put at the end of the color word. From the table above, when naming colors use the actual color name form (the words on the left). If you are using them as an adjective, such as "The blue car is big." ( - To Be Big). Here...we are just saying that the car is blue, but that isn't the topic of our sentence or anything like that. It is just an adjective or noun modifier describing the car. If that is the case, then you should use the form that is on the right side of the table. Some of the words will have a shortened form, without the . Other colors you can't really shorten like that, however. So you would just say . If you do wish to make a sentence stating that something is a certain color, you should use the verb - To Be. This way it is very easy. You can just take the word for the color, , ..whatever the word is...and attach the verb, . means the car is blue. It is very simple this way. However, you may see other versions of the word. For example, you may see it written as a verb itself, such as , stating something is yellow. would be white.

What do you think is? If you said...color #2 in the chart above, then that's right! They are fairly easy to recognize when you read them, but it may be harder to use them this way yourself because they aren't written exactly the same way when they are combined with or . A few other examples are and . For now, just be aware that these forms do exist. If you see a version of one of the colors similar to these, chances are the sentence states something is that color.

Korean Modals
Modals? What are modals?

Modals is a grammatical term that is pretty much unknown to everyone except grammar teachers. You know what they are though. Have you ever wanted to say 'I can go,' 'I should go,' 'I want to go,' 'I need to go,' or 'I may go' ? If so, you've wanted to know how to use modals! Modals are simply combining verbs such as may, want, need, can and should with another verb. That is all there is to it! See, modals are not so bad, but everyone uses them in conversation. Now you can go out, speak Korean, use modals, and communicate well!

Oh, right. You still want to know how to use them in Korean. Well, here we go! To Want To Need, To Have To Can, Be Able To May, Have Permission Random Practice
To Want

There are two things to consider when thinking about the verb 'to want'.

To want a noun. To want to do something (verb).

Since we are talking about modals, or conditions of verbs, we are going to cover the second one in depth.

To want a noun

Alright. I will mention the first as well! The verb is: - To want (a noun). You use when you say something like 'I want an apple.' . 'I want a car' . 'I want a house' .
To want (to do)

What if you want to say 'I want to go'? Would you say ? At first, you may think so. Unfortunately, we cannot simply take the infinitive for 'to go', , and stick it before 'to want'. There is another pattern you must use. The verb 'to want' becomes ~ . Now, take that infinitive, , and drop the . This gives you the verb base, or simply in this case. Now all you have to do is add the new verb! . When you say it in a sentence, will change just like any other verbs. It becomes . Simple enough? Let's just add one more thing... ~ is only used when talking in first person (about yourself). This simply means you use ~ if you are talking about something you (yourself) want. If you are talking about something someone else wants to do, the verb is ~ . .
Practice

. . . . . .

 . . . .

Have to, Need to

I have to do homework. Many of you may need to say this statement, even if sometimes you pass up homework for a good time. ;-) I have to work. This statement may fit you better. Whether we want to do something or not, sometimes we just do not have a choice! If this is the case.... ~ will come in handy. Let's stick with the example 'to go' to illustrate this. - You simply drop the from the polite form of the verb and add the ending. Note how becomes . + = . However, you will still see it written both ways. A couple more examples should make this pattern clear. . - I have to do homework. . - I have to work. Notice how all we did was take the verb to do, , drop the , and add the ending? . You just need to remember which part of the verb to use. In 'to want' we drop the from the dictionary form and use that (the verb stem). In this case, we drop the from polite form and attach the ending to that (the casual form of the verb).
Practice

. .

 . . . .
Can, Be Able To

Moving right along. If you need to say you can do something, you can go, you can eat, you use the following pattern. Take the verb stem (drop the from the dictionary form) and add ~() . Let me explain that a little better. First, get the verb stem. - . - . Now, add the appropriate ending. If the verb stem ends in a vowel, like , all you do is add . - I can go. However, if it ends in a consonant, you cannot add another consonant to the verb stem because there is already one there! If this is the case, you add . . - I can eat. That's really all there is to it! Just remember the ending is ~() . Note: Oh, and one more thing! If the verb ends in the consonant , you don't have to add either or . Simply jump to the . Otherwise, the becomes redundant. . Conditions:

Verb ends in vowel - add Verb ends in - add Verb ends in any other consonant - add

Practice

. . . . .
May, Have Permission

If you have permission to do something, you would use the verb 'may'. I may go. (I have permission to go). I may play. (I have permission to play). This is pretty simple in Korean. The ending is ~ You attach the ending to the casual form of the verb (drop the from the polite form). - I may go. - I may play. Nothing fancy here. Use the following practice to get used to this pattern.
Practice

. . . . .

Some Real Practice

So, you understand them when separated. Do you think you can recognize what they all mean when random? . . . . . . . . .

Adjectives - How To Modify A Noun

Have you ever noticed a word in a sentence that you almost recognized? Perhaps it looked very similar to a verb you had seen before. Note: You may need to change the encoding for this page - I do. Right click - encoding - Korean
Making The Distinction Between Verb And Adjective

What is an adjective? As of now, I have been calling all 'verb style' words verbs. However, it is now time to make the distinction between true verbs and adjectives. Both come at the end of a sentence. Both may take the normal endings you have learned.

An adjective is a word that describes something. Words such as 'to be cold' 'to be clean', and 'to be busy' are all adjectives, because they describe something. Adjectives usually begin with 'to be' in English. Other words, such as 'to run', 'to swim', and 'to write', are all true verbs. They are actions. Yet, they both take the same / / endings. We use them almost exactly alike. There will be many cases when you will need to know whether or not the 'word' you are dealing with is an adjective or a verb. I am going to introduce you to one right now, so hold on!
How To Use An Adjective To Modify A Noun

What exactly do I mean by that? Well, you can say 'The car is blue' and you can also say 'It is a blue car'. These two sentences mean the exact same thing, except the word 'blue' is used two different ways. In the first sentence, the whole sentence is based on describing the car, the color in particular. In the second sentence, the writer may not necessarily be putting the emphasis on the color. The color could just be there to provide additional information. What if I were to say 'A blue car just drove across the street.' Am I focusing on the fact that a blue car just drove across the street, or is the color of the car simply extra details? As of now, you have been using the first form of the sentence. Let's look at the following sentence. The weather is good. You would probably say , correct? What if you wanted to say 'Warm weather is good.' This gets you into a situation in which you need to use another form of the adjective. You need to modify the noun - weather. It is not enough to say . . which means 'The weather is good, and the weather is warm.' It doesn't quite mean the same thing. Instead, you would say . This means 'Warm weather is good.'

How To Move An Adjective Before The Noun

So now you understand exactly what we want to accomplish. Let's learn how to do it. The structure for this is based off adding or to a verb stem. To know the verb stem, simply drop the from the dictionary form. is the verb for 'to be warm'. After you drop , you are left with . Because it ends in a vowel (), you should add the ending. Let's look at an example in which we will add the ending. Good cars are expensive. While this may not necessarily be entirely true in every case, it provides a good example to demonstrate this point ;-) We want to modify the noun 'cars' to specify only 'good cars'. We don't care about 'bad cars' or 'yellow cars', because we are talking about 'good cars'. - to be good If we drop the , we are left with . Since ends in a consonant (), you should add the ending. You get . . means 'good cars'. Be careful, don't confuse adding the topic particle / to the end of a noun with this new ending we attach to the word modifying the noun. They are two separate things.
How To Do This With Irregular Adjectives

As you have learned by now, there are usually some kind of irregular verb / adjective.
Irregular Ending

For example, the adjective is conjugated as in the present tense. Somewhere, we lost the and gained a , right?

In these adjectives that drop the , you will do the same when moving the adjective before the noun. You will also include the . Instead of adding the ending to as you would in the present tense ( contracts to ), you simply add the vowel ending form, . This results in .
Irregular Endings

Another irregular ending is when an adjective ends in . Often, the is dropped in some forms. An example is . In the present tense, you cannot notice any change. It stays . However, before , , and , the is usually omitted. It can be a little confusing to think of it like that, because you might think is the base, and so we would add , rather than . However, try your best to realize that we are truly adding , and the only reason the part is usually added is simply because we need the extra vowel if it follows a consonant. Or, if this is easier, simply remember that when moving an adjective before the noun, adjectives that end in will drop the :-) - to be far In this case, we have . Let's drop the and get . Now, simply add the proper ending . You could say , meaning 'the house that is far away'.
and

You will occasionally run into a time where and will be used. One common adjective would be - to be interesting is an adjective, because it describes something as interesting. However, it ends in , which usually comes with special endings. With and endings, you will add instead of /. The interesting car would be

Remember, this is pronounced , because when is followed by , it sounds like . For a review on irregular pronunciation, visit the Hangul Irregularities page
Practice Moving Adjectives

Now that you know how to move them, try practicing some!