Korean Course (Unit 1)

Lesson 1: Basic Korean Sentences
Vocabulary
The vocabulary is separated into nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs for the purpose of simplicity.
Nouns:
한국 = Korea
Common Usages:
한국 사람 = Korean person
한국어 = Korean language
한국인 = Korean person
Notes: The formal name of the country is 대한민국
Examples
저는 7 년 동안 한국에서 살았어요 = I lived in Korea for seven years
저는 내년에 한국에 갈 거예요 = I will go to Korea next year
저의 어머니는 올해 한국에 올 것입니다 = My mom will come to Korea this year
저는 한국어를 한국에서 배웠어요 = I learned Korean in Korea
고등학교는 한국에서 어려워요 = High school is difficult in Korea
그 집은 한국에서 지어졌어요 = that house was built in Korea
저는 한국에서 살고 있어요 = I live in Korea
도시 = city
이름 = name
저 = I, me (formal)
나 = I, me (informal)
남자 = man
여자 = woman
그 = that
이 = this
저 = that (when something is far away)
것 = thing
이것 = this (thing)
그것 = that (thing)
저것 = that (thing)
의자 = chair
탁자 = table
선생님 = teacher
침대 = bed
집 = house
차 = car
사람 = person
책 = book
컴퓨터 = computer
나무 = tree/wood
소파 = sofa
중국 = China
일본 = Japan
문 = door
의사 = doctor
학생 = student
Adverbs and Other words:
이다 = to be
안 = not
네 = yes
아니 = no
There are 1050 vocabulary entries in Unit 1. All entries are linked to an audio file. You can download all
of these files in one package here.
For help memorizing these words, try using our Memrise tool.
Greeting Words
When learning a language, people always want to learn “hello,” “how are you,” and “thank you” before
anything else. I know that. However, at this stage you only know words – and have no knowledge or
experience in how to use or conjugate these words. The grammar within these words is too complex for
you to understand right now. However, you can just memorize these words as one unit and not worry
about the grammar within them at this point.
안녕하세요 = hello
감사하다 and 고맙다 are the two words that are commonly used to say “thank you.” However, they are
rarely used in those forms and are almost always conjugated. They can be conjugated in a variety of
ways, which you won’t learn until Lesson 5 and Lesson 6. I will show you a list of the more commonly
used forms, but I can’t stress enough that you won’t understand how this works until later lessons:
감사합니다
감사해요
고마워
고맙습니다
고마워요
잘 지내세요? = How are you?
Technically the appropriate expression in Korean, but not as common as “how are you” in English. I
would say that using “잘 지내세요?” is an English style of greeting people in Korean.
제발 = Please
It is, of course, important for you to memorize these expressions in Korean, but you need to know that
there is a reason why they are said that way. For now, don’t worry about why they are said that way,
and simply memorize them. We will get back to them in later lessons when they become important.
Sentence Word Order
One of the hardest things to wrap your head around in Korean is the alien-like sentence structure. For
our purposes in Lesson 1, Korean sentences are written in the following order:
Subject – Object – Verb (for example: I hamburger eat)

Or
Subject – Adjective (for example: I beautiful)
I am going to quickly explain what a “subject” and “object” mean, as your ability to understand later
concepts depends on your understanding of this.
The subject refers to person/thing/noun/whatever that is acting. The subject does the action of the verb.
For example, the subject in each sentence below is underlined:
I went to the park

I will go to the park
My mom loves me
He loves me
The dog ran fast
The clouds cleared up
In English, the subject always comes before the verb.
The object refers to whatever the verb is acting on. For example, the object in each sentence below is
underlined
My mom loves me
The dog bit the mailman
He ate rice
Students studied Korean
In English, the object always comes after the verb. However, a sentence with a verb does not require an
object. For example:
I slept
I ate
He died
Sometimes there is no object because it has simply been omitted from the sentence. For example, “I ate”
or “I ate rice” are both correct sentences. Other verbs, by their nature, cannot act on an object. For
example, you cannot place an object after the verbs “sleep” or “die:”
I sleep you
I die you
Subjects are also present in sentences with adjectives. However, there is no object in a sentence with an
adjective. The subjects are underlined in the following adjective-sentences below:
School is boring
I am boring
The movie was funny
The building is big
My girlfriend is pretty
The food is delicious
It is incredibly important that you understand this from the very beginning. Every Korean sentence
MUST end in either a verb (like eat, sleep or walk) or an adjective (like beautiful, pretty, and delicious).
This rule is so important that I’m going to say it again: Every Korean sentence MUST end in either a verb
or adjective.
It is also important to point out here that there are two ways to say “I” or “me” in Korean. Depending on
how polite you need to be speaking, many things within a sentence (mostly the conjugation) can change.
You won’t learn about the different honorific conjugations until Lesson 6, so you do not need to worry
about understanding those until then. However, before you reach those lessons, you will see two
different words for “I,” which are:
나, used in informal sentences, and
저, used in formal sentences.
As Lessons 1 – 5 make no distinction of formality, you will see both 나 and 저 arbitrarily used. Don’t
worry about why one is used over the other until Lesson 6, when politeness will be explained.
Okay, now that you know all of that, we can talk about making Korean sentences.
Korean Particles (~는/은 and ~를/을)
Most words in a Korean sentence have a particle (a fancy word to say ‘something’) attached to them.
These particles indicate the role of each word in a sentence – that is, specifically which word is the
subject or object. Note that there is absolutely no way of translating these particles to English, as we do
not use anything like them.
The following are the particles you should know for this lesson:
는 or 은 (Subject)
This is placed after a word to indicate that it is the subject of a sentence.
Use 는 when the last letter of the last syllable of the subject is a vowel. For example:
나 = 나는
저 = 저는
Use 은 when the last letter of the last syllable of the subject is a consonant. For example:
집 = 집은
책 = 책은
를 or 을 (Object)
This is placed after a word to indicate that is the object of a sentence.
Use 를 when the last letter of the last syllable is a vowel. For example:
나 = 나를
저 = 저를
Use 을 when the last letter of the last syllable is a consonant. For example:
집 = 집을
책 = 책을
We can now make sentences using the Korean sentence structure and the Korean particles.
1) I speak Korean = I 는 Korean 을 speak

는 is attached to “I” (the subject)
을 is attached to “Korean” (the object)
2) I like you = I 는 you 를 like

를 is attached to “you” (the object)
3) I wrote a letter = I 는 letter 을 wrote

을 is attached to “letter” (the object)
4) I opened the door = I 는 door 을 opened

을 is attached to “the door” (the object)
5) My mom will make pasta = My mom 은 pasta 를 will make

은 is attached to “my mom” (the subject)
를 is attached to “pasta” (the object)
I am sure that you will be tempted to start substituting Korean words into those constructions to make
real Korean sentences. However, at this point, that is too complicated. The goal of this lesson is to
familiarize yourself with thestructure of Korean sentences.
The same could be done for sentences with adjectives. However, remember that sentences with
adjectives will not have an object:
1) My girlfriend is pretty: My girlfriend 은 is pretty
:”은” is attached to “my girlfriend” (the subject)
2) The movie was scary = The movie 는 was scary

:”는” is attached to “the movie” (the subject)
There is one more particle that you should be aware of before we go any further.
에 (Place or time)
We haven’t talked about places or times yet, but if you do an action at a time, you must attach the
particle “에” to the word indicating the time.
“에” is also attached to a word to indicate that it is a place in the sentence. I want to write more about
what “에” does, but at this point, it would only confuse you. For now, it is sufficient to know that “에” is
used to indicate a place in a sentence.
Again, it is hard to translate these particles into English, but, “에” plays the role of the underlined words
in the following sentences:
1) I went at 3pm
2) I went to the park
Sentences with a place/time can also have an object in them. For example:
3) I ate hamburgers at 3pm

If I were to write those same sentence using Korean structure and particles, they would look like this:
1) I 는 3pm 에 went
2) I 는 park 에 went
3) I 는 hamburgers 을 3pm 에 ate

In these cases, “at 3pm” or “to the park” act as adverbs (a word that tells you when, where, how, how
much). There is no set place for an adverb within a sentence, and it can generally be placed anywhere
(except the end). Adverbs will be discussed at length in Lesson 8.
Again, the purpose of this first part of Lesson 1 was to familiarize yourself with the different Korean
particles and sentence structure. This knowledge will act as your base for upcoming lessons when you
will apply yourself to make actual sentences with verbs/adjectives in Korean. While you will have to wait
a little bit to create those types of sentences, we can now talk about creating actual Korean sentences
with the word “to be.”
To be: 이다
Now its time to learn how to make an actual sentence using the word ‘to be.’ English speakers often
don’t realize how difficult this word is in English. Look at the following examples:
I am a man
He is a man
They are men
I was a man
They were men
In each of those sentences, the word ‘to be’ is represented by a different word (is/am/are/was/were)
depending on the subject and tense of the sentence. Luckily, in Korean, the same word is used to
represent is, am, are, was and were. This word is 이다
이다 should not be thought of as a verb or an adjective in Korean, as in most cases it acts differently. I
will teach you how 이다 differs from verbs and adjectives as it becomes important (in future lessons).
Sometimes however, 이다 is somewhat similar to adjectives. Remember that sentences ending with
adjectives do not have objects in them. Whenever a sentence is predicated by an adjective, there will be
no object in the sentence. Only sentences with verbs have objects. Let’s look at some examples:
I eat hamburgers (eat is a verb, the object is a hamburger)
I meet my friend (meet is a verb, the object is my friend)
I study Korean (study is a verb, the object is Korean)
I listen to music (listen is a verb, the object is music)
All of those sentences (can) have objects because the verb is the predicate of the sentence. However, in
sentences that are predicated by adjectives:
I am pretty
I am beautiful
I am hungry
I am smart
This means that we can never use the particle ~을/를 in a sentence predicated by an adjective (because
~을/를 denotes that there is an object). The object particle is also not used when using the word “이다.”
The basic structure for a sentence predicated by “이다” is:
[noun 은/는] [another noun] [이다]
For example:
I 는 man 이다 = I am a man
Now substitute the words for “man” and “I:”
나=I
남자 = man
나는 + 남자 + 이다
이다 gets attached directly to the noun. So, the above construction looks like:
나는 남자이다 = I am a man
It is very important that you remember that ~를/을 is not attached to words in sentences with “이다.”
The following would be very incorrect:
나는 남자를 이다.
이다 is the only word that acts like this, and is one of the reasons why you should treat it differently
than other verbs or adjectives.
The focus of this lesson (and Lessons 2 and 3) is to introduce you to simple Korean sentence structure.
Until you reach Lesson 5 and Lesson 6 you will not be exposed to the conjugations and honorifics of
Korean verbs, adjectives and 이다.
In reality, these words are never (or very very rarely) used without these conjugations and honorifics.
Therefore, while I stress the importance of understanding the structure of the sentences presented in
this Lessons 1, 2, 3 and 4 do not use the sentences in any form of communication with Korean people, as
they will most likely not be understood. In order to completely understand what is presented in Lessons
5 and 6 (and for the rest of your Korean studies), it is essential that you understand what is presented in
these first four lessons – even though they may be seen as “technically incorrect.”
For all of the “technically incorrect” (un-conjugated) sentences presented in Lesson 1 – 4 I will provide a
correct (conjugated) version of the same sentence in parenthesis below the un-conjugated version (one
formal and one informal conjugation). Note one more time that you will not understand these
conjugations until Lessons 5 and 6(for verbs and adjectives) and Lesson 9 (for 이다).
Other examples of 이다 in use:
나는 여자이다 = I am a woman
(나는 여자야 / 저는 여자예요)
나는 선생님이다 = I am a teacher
(나는 선생님이야 / 저는 선생님이에요)
나는 사람이다 = I am a person
(나는 사람이야 / 저는 사람이에요)
나는 ______이다 = I am a _______
(나는 _______ 이야 / 저는 _____이에요)
You can substitute any noun into the blank space to make these sentences.
This and That (이/그/저)
You can see in the vocabulary above that the word for “this” is 이 in Korean.
We use 이 in Korean when we are talking about something that is within touching distance (For example:
this pen – i.e. the one I am holding). Just like in English “이” (this) is placed before the noun it is
describing. For example:
이 사람 = This person
이 남자 = This man
이 여자 = This woman
이 차 = This car
이 탁자 = This table
이 의자 = This chair
Unfortunately, there are two words for “that”: 그 and 저. Early learners of Korean are always confused
with the difference between “그” and “저.”
We use 그 when we are talking about something from a previous sentence or from previous context,
regardless of if you could see it or not. Providing examples would be too difficult right now because you
do not know any Korean sentences. However, if I were to say: “I don’t like that man [when your friend
mentioned him in a previous sentence].” The word “that” in that sentence would be how “그” is used.
We use 저 when we are talking about something that we can see, but cannot touch because it is too far
away.
We can place “그” or “저” before a noun to describe “this” or “that” thing just like we did with “이.”
이 사람 = This person
그 사람 = That person
저 사람 = That person
이 남자 = This man
그 남자 = That man
저 남자 = That man
이 여자 = This woman
그 여자 = That woman
저 여자 = That woman
이 의자 = This chair
그 의자 = That chair
저 의자 = That chair
이 탁자 = This table
그 탁자 = That table
저 탁자 = That table
Again, although the English translations of “그” and “저” are the same, it is important to remember that
they are not the same word in Korean.
One of the most common words in Korean is “것” meaning “thing.” When 이, 그 or 저 are placed before
“것,” the result is a compound word. Therefore, when placing “것” after 이, 그 or 저, there should not
be a space between the two. In other words, the following are words in and within themselves, and not
two separate words:
이것 = this thing
그것 = that thing
저것 = that thing
We see this same phenomenon happen with other common words that you learn in future lessons. You
don’t need to worry about this now, but we see this same thing happen with the word 곳 (meaning
“place”) and 때 (meaning “time”).
With these words, the word “thing” isn’t necessary in the English translation. Let me explain.
I’ll use “that” as an example, but the same idea can be applied to the word “this.”
“That” can be placed before a noun to describe it. As we saw earlier:
That person
That man
That woman
However, it can also be a noun itself. For example:

I like that
In this type of English sentence, “that” is referring to some thing that you like. It is a noun. It is a thing.
Therefore, the sentence could just as easily be said as:
I like that thing

I don’t like to use grammatical jargon in my lessons, but if you know what these words mean, it could be
helpful. In both English and Korean, “that” can be a determiner (as in, “I like that man”), and it can also
be a pronoun (as in “I like that”). When used as a determiner in Korean, you should place 그 before a
noun. When used as a pronoun in Korean, the word 그것 is used.
In this same respect, while “이, 그 and 저” translate to “this, that and that” respectively, and are placed
before nouns to indicate “this noun, that noun and that noun,” “이것, 그것 and 저것” are nouns (they
are pronouns). Therefore, they do not need to be followed by the redundant word “thing,” although
their meanings would be exactly the same:
I like this
I like this thing
I like that
I like that thing
We can now use these nouns as subjects or objects in a sentence. We will look at how they can be used
with “이다” next.
Using This/That with 이다

Remember, 이다 translates to “to be” and is conjugated as “am/is/are” in English. Now that we know
how to use 이, 그 and 저 (and 이것, 그것 and 저것), we can now make sentences like this:
That person is a doctor
We can start by putting those words into the Korean structure:
That person 는 doctor is
And then changing the English words to the appropriate Korean words:
그 사람은 + 의사 + 이다
그 사람은 의사이다
(그 사람은 의사야 / 그 사람은 의사예요)
More examples:
그 사람은 선생님이다 = That person is a teacher
(그 사람은 선생님이야 / 그 사람은 선생님이에요)
이것은 탁자이다 = This (thing) is a table
(이것은 탁자야 / 이것은 탁자예요)
저것은 침대이다 = That (thing) is a bed
(저것은 침대야 / 저것은 침대예요)
그 사람은 남자이다 = That person is a man
(그 사람은 남자야 / 그 사람은 남자예요)
그 사람은 여자이다 = That person is a woman
(그 사람은 여자야 / 그 사람은 여자예요)
그것은 차이다 = That (thing) is a car
(그것은 차야 / 그것은 차예요)
이것은 나무이다 = This (thing) is a tree
(이것은 나무야 / 이것은 나무예요)
There are 1250 example sentences in Unit 1. All entries are linked to an audio file. You can download all
of these files in one package here.
Wow! That was an extremely difficult lesson. If you were to pick up another Korean text book, I am sure
the first chapter would be much easier than this. Trust me though; learning this at the start will be very
useful to you later on. When I was learning how to speak Korean, it took me months to realize some of
these things (not because they were hard, but because I was using a text book that never taught me the
reason why things are the way they are in Korean).
Before you move on, make sure you understand the simple Korean sentence structure presented in this
first lesson. Also, remember that the sentences not in parentheses are technically incorrect (or very very
uncommon) because they have not been conjugated.
Okay, I got it! Take me to the next lesson! Or,

Click here for a workbook to go along with this lesson.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to make a post on our Forum!
Lesson 2: Korean Particles 이/가

Vocabulary
The vocabulary is separated into nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs for the purpose of simplicity:
Click on the English word to see information and examples of that word in use (you probably won’t
be able to understand the grammar within the sentences at this point, but it is good to see as you
progress through your learning).
A PDF file neatly presenting these words and extra information can be found here.
Want to give your brain practice at recognizing these words? Try finding the words in this vocabulary
list in a Word Search.
Nouns:
나라 = country
가방 = bag/backpack
창문 = window
잡지 = magazine
방 = room
냉장고 = refrigerator
개 = dog
강아지 = puppy
고양이 = cat
쥐 = rat
펜 = pen
전화기 = phone
커피 = coffee
식당 = restaurant
건물 = building
텔레비전 = television
미국 = USA
캐나다 = Canada
호텔 = hotel
학교 = school
은행 = bank
Adverbs
안 = inside
위 = on top
밑 = below
옆 = beside
뒤 = behind
앞 = in front
여기 = here
Verbs:
있다 = to be at a location
Adjectives:
있다 = to have something
There are 1050 vocabulary entries in Unit 1. All entries are linked to an audio file. You can download
all of these files in one package here.
Introduction
In Lesson 1 you learned about simple Korean particles. To review, you learned that:
~는 or ~은 are used to indicate the subject (or main person/thing) in a sentence.
~를 or ~을 are used to indicate the object in a sentence.
For example, in this sentence: “I ate a hamburger”
“I” is the subject of the sentence

“Hamburger” is the object
“Eat” is the verb
In this Lesson, you will learn about the particles ~이/가 and specifically how it can compare with
~는/은. In all situations, ~이 is attached to nouns in which the last letter is a consonant (like ~은) and
~가 is attached to nouns in which the last letter is a vowel (like ~는). For example:
책 ends in a consonant (ㄱ), so “~이” is added: “책이.”

소파 ends in a vowel (ㅏ), so “~가” is added: “소파가.”
But, in what situations should we use ~이/가? Before we get to that, I would like to teach you how to
use the word “있다” in sentences. Let’s get started.
있다: To have
The word “있다” has many meanings. To a beginner of Korean, we can simplify and generalize
these meanings into two forms or usages:

있다 = to have
있다 = to be at a location
Let’s talk about the first usage, “to have.” In English, “to have” is a verb that can act on an object. For
example:
I have a pen
I have a car
This usage of 있다 in Korean is an adjective. This is hard for a learner to wrap their head around. At
this point, this is important to you for one reason.

You learned in Lesson 1 that sentences with adjectives cannot act on an object. Thus,
you cannot have a word with the particle ~을/를 attached to it if the predicating word in a sentence is
an adjective (because ~을/를 indicates an object in a sentence).
If this weren’t the case, we could do the following:

I have a pen
I 는 pen 을 있다
나는 + 펜을 + 있다
나는 펜을 있다 = I have a pen
However, the sentence above is incorrect. 있다 is an adjective and cannot act on an object like this.
Therefore, the use of ~을 on “펜” is incorrect. To get around this, we can attach ~이/가 to the object
instead of ~을/를 in sentences with 있다. This is one usage of the particle ~이/가; that is, to indicate
the thing that a person “has” in sentences with “있다.” Look at the following example sentences:
나는 펜이 있다 = I have a pen
(나는 펜이 있어 / 저는 펜이 있어요)
나는 차가 있다 = I have a car
(나는 차가 있어 / 저는 차가 있어요)
나는 잡지가 있다 = I have a magazine
(나는 잡지가 있어 / 저는 잡지가 있어요)
나는 가방이 있다 = I have a backpack
(나는 가방이 있어 / 저는 가방이 있어요)
Again, note that ~을/를 is not used to indicate the object that a person “has.” Instead, ~이/가 are
used.
Remember that the example sentences provided in Lessons 1, 2, 3 and 4 are not conjugated. While
one/two forms of conjugations are provided in parentheses below each example sentence, the
grammar within these conjugations is too complicated for you to understand right now. For now,
focus on what is being presented in these first four lessons before you start to worry about
conjugating sentences and using honorifics.
.
.
있다: To be at a location
있다 can also be used to indicate that something/someone is “at a location.” In Lesson 1 you learned
about the particle ~에 in Korean. You learned that this particle is used to indicate the place and/or
time of something in a sentence. Therefore, “~에” is often used in sentences with “있다” to indicate
the location of something/someone.

For example: I am at school
If we wanted to write this sentence with Korean structure and particles, we would write:
I 는 school 에 am at
나는 + 학교에 + 있다
This is irrelevant to you now, but when 있다 is used like this, it is again seen as an adjective. This is
confusing, but or now, try to ignore it. I begin to discuss this more in Lesson 5 when I discuss the
conjugations of 있다.
나는 학교에 있다 = I am at school
(나는 학교에 있어 / 저는 학교에 있어요)
or,
나는 캐나다에 있다 = I am in Canada
(나는 캐나다에 있어 / 저는 캐나다에 있어요)
Notice the very big difference in meaning between the following sentences, and the role that
particles have in each case. Because 있다 has two different meanings, changing the particles in a
sentence can drastically change the meaning. For example:
나는 학교가 있다 = I have a school – this could make sense, but in most situations, you would
probably want to say:
나는 잡지가 있다 = I have a magazine
나는 잡지에 있다 = I am at the magazine (this doesn’t make sense)
We can also use position words to indicate specifically where someone/something is with respect to
another noun. The most common position words are:
안 = inside
위 = on top
밑 = below
옆 = beside
뒤 = behind
앞 = in front
These words are placed after a noun to indicate where an object is with respect to that noun. The
particle “~에” is then attached directly to the position words. For example:
학교 앞에 = in front of the school
사람 뒤에 = behind the person
집 옆에 = beside the house
저 건물 뒤에 = behind that building
These constructions can now act as the location in a sentence:
나는 학교 앞에 있다 = I am in-front of the school

(나는 학교 앞에 있어 / 저는 학교 앞에 있어요)
Let’s make some sentences:

나는 학교 뒤에 있다 = I am behind the school
(나는 학교 뒤에 있어 / 저는 학교 뒤에 있어요)
나는 학교 옆에 있다 = I am beside the school
(나는 학교 옆에 있어 / 저는 학교 옆에 있어요)
나는 은행 안에 있다 = I am inside the bank
(나는 은행 안에 있어 / 저는 은행 안에 있어요)
개는 집 안에 있다 = The dog is in the house
(개는 집 안에 있어 / 개는 집 안에 있어요)
고양이는 의자 밑에 있다 = The cat is under the chair
(고양이는 의자 밑에 있어 / 고양이는 의자 밑에 있어요)
식당은 은행 옆에 있다 = The restaurant is next to the bank
(식당은 은행 옆에 있어 / 식당은 은행 옆에 있어요)
호텔은 학교 옆에 있다 = The hotel is next to the school
(호텔은 학교 옆에 있어 / 호텔은 학교 옆에 있어요)
You have learned that ~이/가 can be attached to nouns in sentences to indicate the object that a
person “has.” ~이/가 can also be used to indicate the subject of a sentence, similar to ~는/은. What
is the difference? We will talk about this in the next section.
~이/가 as a Subject Marker
One of the most difficult things for a new learner of Korean to understand is the difference between
the particles ~는/은 and ~이/가. Earlier in this Lesson, you learned that you should use ~이/가 on the
object that a person “has” when using “있다.”
In addition to this, there are more functions of ~이/가 that you should know about.
In Lesson 1, you learned that you should add ~는/은 to the subject of the sentence. To use an
example using the grammar taught earlier in this Lesson, you could say:
고양이는 집 뒤에 있다 = The cat is behind the house
(고양이는 집 뒤에 있어 / 고양이는 집 뒤에 있어요)
In this sentence, notice that the particle ~는/은 indicates that the “cat” is the subject.
However the sentence above could also be written like this:

고양이가 집 뒤에 있다 = The cat is behind the house
(고양이가 집 뒤에 있어 / 고양이가 집 뒤에 있어요)
The two sentences could have exactly the same meaning and feeling. I emphasize “could” because
in some situations the meaning of the two sentences is exactly the same, but in other situations the
meaning of two sentences can be subtly different.
The reason why they could be identical:
~이/가, like ~는/은 is added to the subject of the sentence. In some situations, there is no difference
in meaning or feel between adding ~이/가 or ~는/은 to the subject.
The reason why they could be subtly different:

~는/은 has a role of indicating that something is being compared with something else. The noun that
“~는/은” is added to is being compared. In this example:
The speaker is saying that the cat is behind the house (in comparison to something else that is not
behind the house). The difficulty here is that there is only one sentence; which gives the listener no
context to understand what “the cat” is being compared with. However, if I were to make up a
context that fits into this situation, it could be that “The dog is in the house, and, the cat is behind the
house.”
However, saying:
…is simply stating a fact, and “the cat” is not being compared to anything.
Another example:
커피가 냉장고에 있다 = The coffee is in the fridge (This sentence is simply stating that the coffee is
in the fridge, and there is no intention of comparison)
커피는 냉장고에 있다 = The coffee is in the fridge (This sentence could simply be stating that the
coffee is in the fridge. It is also possible that the speaker is trying to distinguish between the location
of another object. For example, perhaps the tea is on the table, but the coffee is in the fridge).
———————————-
You also might be wondering why “안” isn’t used if we are indicating that the coffee is in the fridge. In
cases like this, where the location being described happens to be “inside” of something, “안” can be
omitted. You can see the similarities of using “안” and not using it in the following English and
Korean sentences:
커피가 냉장고에 있다 = The coffee is in the fridge
커피가 냉장고 안에 있다 = The coffee is inside the fridge
———————————-
In both pairs of examples (using ~는/은 or ~이/가), the translation does not change by altering the
subject particle. Rather, the only thing that changes is the subtle feeling or nuance that something is
being compared.
Note that this “comparative” function of ~는/은 can be used in much more complicated sentences,
and can be attached to other grammatical principles – neither of which you have learned yet. In
future lessons, not only will you see examples of increasing complexity applying this concept, but its
usage with other grammatical principles will be introduced specifically. You need to remember that
the example sentences given at this level are incredibly simple and do not really reflect actual
sentences that you are likely to hear as one-off sentences from Korean people. Real speech is much
more complex and it usually is an intricate combination of many clauses and grammatical principles.
Our lessons don’t really get into the use of multiple clauses until Lesson 24. Creating sentences with
more than one clause opens an entire other can of worms that you don’t have the tools to deal with
yet. I encourage you to NOT read ahead to that lesson. Rather, I encourage you to keep the
information from this lesson in mind as you eventually do reach that level.
As you progress through our Lessons, you will see both “~는/은” and “~이/가” used as the subject
particles in the thousands of example sentences we have provided. As almost all of our example
sentences are just written as one sentence (without any background, prior context, or explanation of
the situation), there is no way to tell if something is being compared to – and thus – their usage is
usually arbitrary. That being said – every Korean example sentence throughout all of our lessons is
always checked by a native Korean speaker to make sure that nothing is awkward (or incorrect).
In addition to the distinction discussed in this lesson, there are other situations where it might be
more appropriate to use ~이/가 or ~은/는. However, I am not able to fully describe the distinction
between these two particles with the limited amount of grammar (and vocabulary) understanding you
have to this point. The purpose of this lesson is to give you a general understanding of ~이/가, and
to introduce you to the comparison between ~는/은.
At this point, I would like you to continue to Lesson 3 to continue learning other grammatical
principles you need to deepen your understanding of Korean in general.
In Lessons 17 and 22, we will come back to this problem and dive into more ways we can distinguish
the functions of ~이/가 and ~는/은. I want to stress that I do not want you to read these now, but you
should know that there is more to distinguishing ~는/은 and ~이/가 than is described here.
If you haven’t reached Lesson 17 (and especially if you haven’t even moved on to Lesson 3) you
won’t understand what is being described in that lesson. Being able to fully understand the
difference between ~이/가 and ~는/은 is important, but not as important (at the moment) as
understanding other aspects of Korean grammar. I can’t stress this enough – your understanding of
the difference between the two will progress with your Korean development in general.
The good thing is, even if you make a mistake with the usages of ~이/가 and ~는/은 (either because
you are confused or because you haven’t reached the later lessons yet), 99.9% of the time, the
listener will be able to understand exactly what you are trying to express. Likewise, if you listen to
somebody speaking, you will be able to understand what they are trying to say regardless of if you
have learned the more complex usages of ~이/가 and ~는/은. The difference between these two
particles is about nuance and does not dramatically change the meaning of sentence.
Making a mistake between other particles, however, would cause other people to misunderstand you.
For example, using ~를/을 instead of ~는/은 would (most likely) make your sentence
incomprehensible.
That’s it for this lesson. Please keep all of this information in your mind for future lesson. We will
continue this discussion in Lesson 17.
For now, please continue to Lesson 3.
There are 1250 example sentences in Unit 1. All entries are linked to an audio file. You can
download all of these files in one package here.
Lesson 3: Korean Verbs/Adjectives
Vocabulary
A PDF file neatly presenting all of these words and example sentences in addition to common
usages and specific notes can be found here.
Nouns:
음식 = food
케이크 = cake
공항 = airport
병원 = hospital
공원 = park
한국어 = Korean (language)
머리 = head
다리 = leg
손가락 = finger
귀 = ear
팔 = arm
눈 = eye
입 = mouth
배 = stomach
버스 = bus
배 = boat
우리 = us/we
Verbs:
먹다 = to eat
가다 = to go
만나다 = to meet
닫다 = to close
열다 = to open
원하다 = to want (an object)
만들다 = to make
하다 = to do
말하다 = to speak
이해하다 = to understand
좋아하다 = to like
Adjectives:
크다 = to be big
작다 = to be small
새롭다 = to be new
낡다 = to be old (not age)
비싸다 = to be expensive
싸다 = to not be expensive, to be cheap
아름답다 = to be beautiful
뚱뚱하다 = to be fat, to be chubby
길다 = to be long
좋다 = to be good
Adverbs:
아주 = very
매우 = very
너무 = too (often used to mean ‘very’)
There are 1050 vocabulary entries in Unit 1. All entries are linked to an audio file.
You can download all of these files in one package here.
Some Quick Notes about Korean Verbs and Adjectives

Okay, now it is time to get serious. Now it is time to start learning things that you can apply
to any verb or anyadjective. There are a few things you need to know about Korean verbs and
adjectives:
1. I said this before (twice) but I’m going to say it again. Every Korean sentence must end in either a
verb or an adjective (this includes 이다 and 있다). Every sentence absolutely must have a verb or
adjective at the end of the sentence.

2. You should notice (it took me months to notice) that every Korean verb and adjective ends with the
syllable ‘다.’ 100% of the time, the last syllable in a verb or adjective must be ‘다.’ Look up at the
vocabulary from this lesson if you don’t believe me.

3. In addition to ending in ‘다’ many verbs and adjectives end with the two syllables ‘하다.’ ‘하다’ means
‘do.’ Verbs ending in 하다 are amazing, because you can simply eliminate the ‘하다’ to make the
noun form of that verb/adjective.

Confused? I was at first too. In fact, I don’t think I knew this until 3 months after I started studying
Korean – but it is something so essential to learning the language. It is confusing to English
speakers because we don’t realize that words can have a verb/adjective form AND a noun form.
For example:
행복하다 = happy
행복 = happiness
성공하다 = succeed
성공 = success
말하다 = speak
말 = speech/words
성취하다 = achieve
성취 = achievement
취득하다 = acquire
취득 = acquisition
You don’t need to memorize those words yet (they are difficult), but it is important for you to realize
that ‘하다’ can be removed from words in order to create nouns.
Verbs/adjectives that end in “~하다” are typically of Chinese origin and have an equivalent Hanja
(한자) form. Verbs that do not end in “~하다” are of Korean origin and do not have a Hanja form. If
you can speak Chinese, you will probably have an advantage at learning more difficult Korean
vocabulary, as a lot of difficult Korean words have a Chinese origin.
Korean Verbs
We have already talked about verbs a little bit in previous lessons, but nothing has been formally
taught. You learned the basic verb sentence structure in Lesson 1. Let’s look at this again. If you
want to say “I eat food” you should know how to use the particles 는/은 and 를/을:
I eat food
I 는 food 를 eat
To make a sentence, you simply need to substitute the English words with Korean words:
저는 + 음식을 + 먹다
저는 음식을 먹다 = I eat food
*Note – Although the structure of the sentences presented in this lesson is perfect, the verbs are not
conjugated, and thus, not perfect. You will learn about conjugating in Lesson 5 and Lesson 6. Before
learning how to conjugate, however, it is essential that you understand the word-order of these
sentences. However, because of some strange Korean grammatical rules, the sentences provided in
the “Adjectives” section are technically perfect but are presented in an uncommon (but simplest)
conjugation pattern.
As with the previous lessons, we have attached audio recordings only to sentences that are
grammatically correct. Incorrect sentences (due to not being conjugated) do not have audio
recordings. Again, you will learn about these conjugations in Lesson 5 and Lesson 6. For now, try to
understand the word order of the sentences and how the verbs/adjectives are being used.
As with previous lessons, conjugated examples (one formal and one informal) are provided beneath
the un-conjugated examples. Use these only for reference at this point.
Let’s look at some examples:
나는 케이크를 만들다 = I make a cake

(나는 케이크를 만들어 / 저는 케이크를 만들어요)
나는 배를 원하다 = I want a boat
(나는 배를 원해 / 저는 배를 원해요)
나는 한국어를 말하다 = I speak Korean
(나는 한국어를 말해 / 저는 한국어를 말해요)
나는 공원에 가다 = I go to the park (notice the particle 에)
(나는 공원에 가 / 저는 공원에 가요)
나는 문을 닫다 = I close the door
(나는 문을 닫아 / 저는 문을 닫아요)
나는 창문을 열다 = I open the window
(나는 창문을 열어 / 저는 창문을 열어요)
Remember that sentences with verbs don’t necessarily need to have an object in them if the context
allows for it.
나는 이해하다 = I understand
(나는 이해해 / 저는 이해해요)
Some verbs by default cannot act on an object. Words like: sleep, go, die, etc. You cannot say
something like “I slept home”, or “I went restaurant”, or “I died her.” You can use nouns in sentences
with those verbs, but only with the use of other particles – some of which you have learned already
(~에) and some that you will learn in later lessons. With the use of other particles you can say things
like:
I slept at home
I went to the restaurant
I died with her
We will get into more complicated particles in later lessons, but here I want to focus on the purpose
of ~를/을 and its function as an object particle.
Korean Adjectives
Korean adjectives, just like Korean verbs are placed at the end of a sentence. The main difference
between verbs and adjectives is that an adjective can never act on an object. Notice, in the
sentences below that there is no object being acted on.
Adjectives are very easy to use. Just put them into the sentence with your subject. (Remember that
the examples in parentheses show sentences that have been conjugated which you have not
learned yet.)
Note that due to weird Korean grammatical rules regarding adjectives, the un-conjugated sentences
below are actually grammatically correct as they are. Therefore, we provided audio examples for the
un-conjugated sentences and not the conjugated sentences (although all are correct). You will learn
about this weird rule and how to conjugate adjectives in Lesson 5.
나는 아름답다 = I am beautiful
(나는 아름다워 / 저는 아름다워요)
나는 작다 = I am small
(나는 작아 / 저는 작아요)
이 버스는 크다 = This bus is big
(이 버스는 커 / 이 버스는 커요)
그 병원은 새롭다 = That hospital is new
(그 병원은 새로워 / 그 병원은 새로워요)
이 공원은 매우 작다 = This park is very small
(이 공원은 매우 작아 / 이 공원은 매우 작아요)
그 사람은 뚱뚱하다 = That person is fat
(그 사람은 뚱뚱해 / 그 사람은 뚱뚱해요)
There is one confusing thing about translating sentences with Korean adjectives to English. Notice
that in all examples above, the words “am/is/are/etc…” are used. In English, these words need to be
used when using an adjective:
I am fat
He is fat
They are fat
Remember, the translation for “am/is/are” to Korean is “이다.” However, you do not use “이다” when
writing a sentence like this in Korean. Within the meaning of Korean adjective is “is/am/are.” Early
learners are always confused by this. The confusion stems from the fact that it is done differently in
English and Korean. Please, from here on, abandon what you know of grammar based on English –
it will only hold you back.
의 Possessive Particle
Note: The pronunciation of the letter “ㅢ” can change depending on how and when it is used. You
might want to check out the section where I discuss the pronunciation of ㅢ in the Pronunciation
Guide.
You already know that ‘I’ in Korean is 저/나. You also know the translation for various objects in
Korean.
“의” is a particle that indicates that one is the owner/possessor of another object. It has the same
role as ” ‘s” in English (for most examples). For example:
저=I
책 = book
저의 책 = my book
저의 차 = My car
그 사람의 차 = That person’s car
의사의 탁자 = The doctor’s table
선생님의 차 = the teacher’s car
저의 손가락 = my finger
You can use these words in sentences you are familiar with (with verbs and adjectives):
선생님의 차는 크다 = The teacher’s car is big
(선생님의 차는 커 / 선생님의 차는 커요)
나는 선생님의 차를 원하다 = I want the teacher’s car
(나는 선생님의 차를 원해 / 저는 선생님의 차를 원해요)
나의 손가락은 길다 = My finger is long
(나의 손가락은 길어 / 저의 손가락은 길어요)
그 여자의 눈은 아름답다 = That woman’s eyes are beautiful
(그 여자의 눈은 아름다워 / 그 여자의 눈은 아름다워요)
You will find that words like “my/our/their/his/her” are often omitted from sentences. As you will learn
continuously throughout your Korean studies, Korean people love shortening their sentences
wherever possible. Whenever something can be assumed by context, words are often omitted from
sentences to make them more simple. For example:
나는 나의 친구를 만나다 = I meet my friend
(나는 나의 친구를 만나 / 저는 저의 친구를 만나요)
Can be written as the following:
나는 친구를 만나다 = I meet (my/a) friend

(나는 친구를 만나 / 저는 친구를 만나요)
In this case (and many others like it) you are clearly meeting “your” friend, so the word “my” can be
omitted from the sentence.
Always try to stay away from translating sentences directly, and try to focus more on translating
sentences based on context as done above.
좋다 and 좋아하다
The word 좋다 in Korean is an adjective that means “good.” Because 좋다 is an adjective we can
use it just like any other adjective:

이 음식은 좋다 = this food is good
(이 음식은 좋아 / 이 음식은 좋아요)
그 선생님은 좋다 = that teacher is good
(그 선생님은 좋아 / 그 선생님은 좋아요)
이 학교는 좋다 = This school is good
(이 학교는 좋아 / 이 학교는 좋아요)
There is also 좋아하다 which is a verb meaning ‘to like.’ Because 좋아하다 is a verb, can use it just
like any other verb:
나는 이 음식을 좋아하다 = I like this food

(나는 이 음식을 좋아해 / 저는 이 음식을 좋아해요)
나는 그 선생님을 좋아하다 = I like that teacher
(나는 그 선생님을 좋아해 / 저는 그 선생님을 좋아해요)
좋아하다 gets formed by removing ‘다’ from 좋다 and adding 아 + 하다. There is a reason for why
this is done, and there is an explanation for how it is done – but you do not need to know this yet.
For now, just understand that:
좋다 is an adjective which cannot act on an object
좋아하다 is a verb which can act on an object
We, Us, and Our (우리)

At this point I would also like to introduce you to the word “우리” which you can see from the
vocabulary list of this lesson translates to “us” or “we.” In English, even though they are technically
the same word, the usage of “us” or “we” depends on its location within the sentence it is used in.
Just like “I” and “me”, if the word is the subject of a sentence, “we” is used. For example:
I like you
We like you
However, if the word is the object in a sentence, the word “us” is used. For example:
He likes me
He likes us
In Korean, they do not make this distinction, and “우리” is used in both situations. For example:
우리는 너를 좋아하다 = We like you

(우리는 너를 좋아해)
I deliberately didn’t include a formal version of the conjugated sentence above because it is usually
awkward to say the word “you” politely in Korean. We’ll get to this in a later lesson.
선생님은 우리를 좋아하다 = The teacher likes us
(선생님은 우리를 좋아해 / 선생님은 우리를 좋아해요)
By placing the possessive particle “의” after “우리” we can create the meaning of “our”. While
this can be done, I feel it is much more common to omit this particle when it is used with “우리.” In
fact, the particle “의” is very commonly omitted from words other than “우리” as well. However, I
don’t suggest thinking about doing this until you have a better grasp of the language. At this point, I
only suggest that you do this with “우리.” For example:
우리 선생님은 남자이다 = Our teacher is a man
(우리 선생님은 남자야 | 우리 선생님은 남자예요)
우리 집은 크다 = Our house is big
(우리 집은 커 | 우리 집은 커요)
A formal version of “우리” is “저희”. However, even in formal situations it is acceptable to use “우리”.
At this point, you haven’t even begun to learn about the different levels of formality of Korean, so I
don’t want you to get too worried about this word.
Okay, I got it! Take me to the next lesson! Or,

There are 1250 example sentences in Unit 1. All entries are linked to an audio file.
Lesson 4: Korean Adjectives ~ㄴ/은

Vocabulary
A PDF file neatly presenting all of these words, example sentences and extra information can be
found here.
Nouns:
길 = street
거리 = street/road
손 = hand
영어 = English
택시 = taxi
열차 = train
역 = train/subway station
버스 정류장 = bus stop
비행기 = airplane
자전거 = bicycle
아내 = wife
아이 = child
아들 = son
딸 = daughter
남편 = husband
아버지 = father
어머니 = mother
편지 = letter
맛 = taste
식사 = meal
아침 = morning
아침식사 = breakfast
물 = water
사과 = apple
돈 = money
Verbs:
오다 = to come
끝내다 = to finish
춤추다 = to dance
알다 = to know
걷다 = to walk
배우다 = to learn
연습하다 = to practice
생각하다 = to think
살다 = to live
Passive Verbs:
끝나다 = to be finished
Adjectives:
위험하다 = to be dangerous
잘생기다 = to be handsome
못생기다 = to be ugly
피곤하다 = to be tired
다르다 = to be different
슬프다 = to be sad
맛있다 = to be delicious
재미있다 = to be fun, to be funny
많다 = to be many of, to be a lot of
행복하다 = to be happy
Adverbs and Other Words:
거기 = there
저기 = there (when farther away)
지금 = now
하지만 = but
Common Greeting Words

I wish I could tell you not to worry about these. Of course, I can tell you “don’t worry about these,”
but I don’t think that will do. When learning a language, everybody wants to learn these words as
soon as possible. I understand that completely, but I have purposely waited to teach you these types
of words. In fact, I still don’t want to show them to you – but at this point I am sure you are asking
yourself “I’ve gotten this far and I still don’t even know how to say ‘goodbye’ yet!”
In Korean, it is much easier to understand these words/phrases if you also understand why they are
used the way they are. Unfortunately, we haven’t reached the point where you can understand this.
We will get to that in a few more lessons. Either way, here are some very common phrases which I
am sure you are dying to know:
안녕히 가세요 = Goodbye (said to somebody going)

안녕히 계세요 = Goodbye (said to somebody staying)
만나서 반갑습니다 = Nice to meet you
실례합니다 = Excuse me
죄송합니다/미안합니다 = Sorry
이름이 뭐예요? = What is your name?
저의 이름은 ______이에요 = My name is
어디에서 왔어요? = Where are you from?
저는 _______에서 왔어요 = I am from
If you can’t memorize them, that is okay. I still maintain the position that you should put off
memorizing these until you can understand the grammar within them.
Now that we have gotten that out of the way, let’s start studying some actual material.
Using Adjectives ~ㄴ/은
Alright, this won’t help you understand those greeting words any better, but what you are about to
learn is a major step in learning Korean. You should remember these two important facts from the
previous lesson:
 All sentences must end with either a verb or adjective

 All verbs/adjectives end with the syllable ‘다’
Although both of those are true (and always will be), let’s look at them more deeply:
 All sentences must end with either a verb or adjective
Yes, but verbs and adjectives can ALSO go elsewhere in a sentence. In the previous lesson, you
learned this sentence:
저는 배를 원하다 = I want a boat
(나는 배를 원해 / 저는 배를 원해요)
But what if you want to say: “I want a big boat.” In that sentence, there is a verb and an adjective.
Where should we put the adjective? In Korean, this adjective is placed in the same position as in
English. For example:
나는 배를 원하다 = I want a boat

나는 big 배를 원하다 = I want a big boat
Simple. So we just substitute the Korean word for big (크다) into that sentence?:
나는 크다 배를 원하다 = Not correct. Not by a long shot.
Remember that second rule I taught you?:
 All verbs/adjectives end with the syllable ‘다’

– Yes, but the version of the word with ‘다’ as the last syllable is simply the dictionary form of that
word and is rarely used. Every verb/adjective in Korean has a ‘stem,’ which is made up of everything
preceding 다 in the dictionary form of the word. Let’s look at some examples:
크다 = 크 (stem) + 다
작다 = 작 (stem) + 다
좋다 = 좋 (stem) + 다
길다 = 길 (stem) + 다
배우다 = 배우 (stem) + 다
Most of the time, when you deal with a verb/adjective, you eliminate ~다 and add something to the
stem.
When you want to make an adjective that can describe a noun, as in:
small boy
big boat
delicious hamburger
soft hand
you must eliminate ‘~다’ and add ~ㄴ or ~은 to the stem of the adjective.
Words in which the last syllable of the stem ends in a vowel (크다/비싸다/싸다) you add ~ㄴ to the
last syllable:
Word Stem Adjective that can describe Example Translation

a noun
크다 크 큰 큰배 Big boat
비싸다 비싸 비싼 비싼 음식 Expensive food
싸다 싸 싼 싼것 Cheap thing
Words in which the last syllable of the stem ends in a consonant (작다/좋다/많다) you add ~은 to the
stem:
Word Stem Adjective that can describe Example Translation

a noun
작다 작 작은 작은 남자 Small man
좋다 좋 좋은 좋은 아들 Good son
많다 많 많은 많은 돈 A lot of money
Looking back to what we were trying to write before:
I want a big boat = 저는 크다 배를 원하다 = incorrect

I want a big boat = 저는 큰 배를 원하다 = correct
The key to understanding this is being able to understand the difference between the following:
음식은 비싸다 = The food is expensive

비싼 음식 = expensive food
The first example is a sentence. The second example is not a sentence. The second sentence
needs more words in order for it to be a sentence. You need to add either a verb or adjective that
predicates the noun of “expensive food.” For example:
나는 비싼 음식을 먹다 = I eat expensive food

(나는 비싼 음식을 먹어 / 저는 비싼 음식을 먹어요)
The verb “to eat” predicates this sentence.

저는 비싼 음식을 좋아하다 = I like expensive food
(나는 비싼 음식을 좋아해 / 저는 비싼 음식을 좋아해요)
The verb “to like” predicates this sentence.

비싼 음식은 맛있다 = Expensive food is delicious
(비싼 음식은 맛있어 / 비싼 음식은 맛있어요)
The adjective “to be delicious” predicates this sentence. Notice that there is no object in this
sentence.
(Remember, for the last time – you do not know how to conjugate verbs and adjectives at the end of
a sentence yet. This will be introduced in the next lesson. Because you do not know how to
conjugate verbs/adjectives at the ends of sentences, examples with un-conjugated forms are
presented in this lesson. Remember that these sentences are technically incorrect, but
understanding them is crucial to your understanding of the Korean sentence structure.
As with the previous three lessons, I have provided conjugated examples below each un-conjugated
example. You will probably not be able to understand these conjugations.)
More examples of using adjectives to describe nouns within a sentence:
나는 작은 집에 가다 = I go to the small house

(나는 작은 집에 가 / 저는 작은 집에 가요)
나는 큰 차를 원하다 = I want a big car
(나는 큰 차를 원해 / 저는 큰 차를 원해요)
나는 잘생긴 남자를 만나다 = I meet a handsome man
(나는 잘생긴 남자를 만나 / 저는 잘생긴 남자를 만나요)
나는 많은 돈이 있다 = I have a lot of money
(나는 많은 돈이 있어 / 저는 많은 돈이 있어요)
나는 뚱뚱한 학생을 만나다 = I meet a fat student
(나는 뚱뚱한 학생을 만나 / 저는 뚱뚱한 학생을 만나요)
In Lessons 1 and 2, I explained that adjectives cannot “act” on objects. Many learners look at the
sentences above and say “Hey! Those sentences have an object and an adjective!” Adjectives
cannot act on an object to predicate a sentence. This means you cannot use a sentence like this (in
either language):
나는 집을 작다 = I small house
However, I didn’t say anything about adjectives and objects being used in the same sentence.
Adjectives can be used to describe an object that is being predicated by a verb. I will continue to talk
about this in the examples below.
In all of the examples above, notice the difference in function between when an adjective is used to
describe a noun compared to when it is used to predicate a sentence. For example:
나는 작은 집에 가다 = I go to the small house

(나는 작은 집에 가 / 저는 작은 집에 가요)
The verb “to go” predicates this sentence.

그 집은 작다 = That house is small
(그 집은 작아 / 그 집은 작아요)
The adjective “to be small” predicates this sentence. Notice that there is no object in this sentence.
저는 큰 차를 원하다 = I want a big car

(나는 큰 차를 원해 / 저는 큰 차를 원해요)
The verb “to want” predicates this sentence.

이 차는 크다 = This car is big
(이 차는 커 / 이 차는 커요)
The adjective “to be big” predicates this sentence. Notice that there is no object in this sentence.
In each of the examples above, even though the adjective always acts as a descriptive word, in the
cases when they are placed before nouns to describe them – those nouns are able to be placed
anywhere in the sentence (for example, as the subject, object, location, or other places). This same
thing happens in English, where I can have a simple sentence like this:
남자는 음식을 먹다 = The man eats food

(남자는 음식을 먹어 / 남자는 음식을 먹어요)
I can use adjectives to describe each noun in the sentence. For example:
행복한 여자는 작은 차 안에 있다 = The happy girl is inside the small car

(행복한 여자는 작은 차 안에 있어 / 행복한 여자는 작은 차 안에 있어요)
You will see some adjectives that end in “~있다.” The most common of these for a beginner are:
맛있다 = delicious
재미있다 = fun, funny
When an adjective ends in “~있다” like this, instead of attaching ~ㄴ/은 to the stem, you must attach
~는 to the stem. For example:
그 남자는 재미있는 남자이다 = that man is a funny man

(그 남자는 재미있는 남자야 / 그 남자는 재미있는 남자예요)
나는 맛있는 음식을 먹다 = I eat delicious food
(나는 맛있는 음식을 먹어 / 저는 맛있는 음식을 먹어요)
The difference here is due to what I call the “~는 것” principle. For now, you do not need to think
about why ~는 is added instead of ~ㄴ/은. It is sufficient at this point to just memorize it as an
exception. The concept behind this grammatical rule is introduced in Lesson 26 and I continue to
discuss it into other Lessons in Unit 2. This concept is related to verbs being able to describe nouns.
For example:
“The man who I met yesterday will go to the park that I want to go to”
However, this is very complex and is the whole basis to the ~는 것 principle that I mentioned earlier.
As I said, you will begin to learn about this in Lesson 26.
To be a lot of: 많다
A good way to practice your understanding of how adjectives can be used to describe a noun in a
sentence or to predicate an entire sentence is to apply your knowledge to the word “많다.” 많다 is an
adjective that describes that there is “many’ or “a lot” of something. Its translation to English usually
depends on how it is used in a sentence. For example, when used to describe nouns in a sentence,
it can be used in the following way:
나는 많은 음식을 먹다 = I eat a lot of food

(나는 많은 음식을 먹어 / 저는 많은 음식을 먹어요)
나는 많은 돈이 있다 = I have a lot of money
(나는 많은 돈이 있어 / 저는 많은 돈이 있어요)
나는 많은 아내가 있다 = I have a lot of wives (ha!)
(나는 많은 아내가 있어 / 저는 많은 아내가 있어요)
Now, if we use “많다” to predicate a sentence, it can be used like this:
사람이 많다
In your Korean studies, you need to realize that it is never effective to think of a Korean sentence as
an exact translation in English. The fact is, Korean and English grammar are completely different,
and trying to force the rules/structure of English into Korean is unnatural. If we stuck with the
translation of “a lot of” for the meaning of “많다” and forced the English translation to the sentence
“사람이 많다”, we would get:
People are a lot of
… But that clearly is not accurate. Instead, what is the sentence “사람이 많다” describing? It is
describing that there is a lot of something, therefore, the translation should be:
사람이 많다 = there is a lot of people

(사람이 많아 / 사람이 많아요)
Therefore, when 많다 predicates a sentence, its translation is usually “There is/are a lot of…”. Here
is another example:
음식이 많다 = there is a lot of food

(음식이 많아 / 음식이 많아요)
Of course, this can be applied to very complex sentences as well, but this is just the very beginning.
Eventually, you will be able to make a sentence like:
There are a lot of singers who become famous and spend all of their money too quickly
This sentence as well would also end in “많다.” The structure would basically be:
(singers who become famous and spend all of their money too quickly)가 많다
You are still very far from understanding how complex sentences like that work, but I want to show
you that the content you learned in this lesson brings you one step closer.
Also notice that the particles 이/가 are attached to the subjects in sentences ending with “많다.”
There are some words where the use of the particles ~이/가 on the subject of the sentence is more
natural than the use of ~는/은. 많다 is one of these words. We will continue to tell you in which
situations it is more natural to use ~이/가 instead of ~은/는 as we progress through our lessons.
Particle ~도
~도 is another particle that is very useful in Korean. It has the meaning of “too/as well.” It can replace
the subject particles (는/은) OR the object particles (를/을), depending on what you are saying “too”
with. For example:
저도 한국어를 말하다 = I speak Korean as well (In addition to other people)

(나도 한국어를 말해 / 저도 한국어를 말해요)
which is different from:
저는 한국어도 말하다 = I speak Korean as well (in addition to other languages)

(나는 한국어도 말해 / 저는 한국어도 말해요)
Make sure you notice the difference between the previous two examples. In English these two are
written the same, but sound different when speaking. In the first example, you are emphasizing that
YOU also speak Korean, in addition to other people that you are talking about. In the second
example, you are emphasizing that (in addition to other languages), you also speak Korean.
See the two examples below for the same issue:
저도 사과를 먹다 = I eat apples as well

(나도 사과를 먹어 / 저도 사과를 먹어요)
저는 사과도 먹다 = I eat apples as well

(나는 사과도 먹어 / 저는 사과도 먹어요)
Notice the difference in pronunciation in English. The first one has the meaning of “other people eat
some apples, but I too eat some apples.” The second example has the meaning of “I eat some other
food as well, but I also eat apples.” It is important to recognize that whatever noun “~도” is attached
to is the thing that is being expressed as “too.” More examples:
More examples:
나도 그것을 알다 = I know that, too
(나도 그것을 알아 / 저도 그것을 알아요)
나도 피곤하다 = I am tired, too

(나도 피곤해 / 저도 피곤해요)
나의 딸도 행복하다 = My daughter is happy, too
(나의 딸도 행복해 / 저의 딸도 행복해요)
Okay, I got it! Take me to the next lesson!
Lesson 5: Korean Conjugation: Past,

Present, Future
Vocabulary
found here.
Nouns:
동생 = younger sibling
남동생 = younger brother
여동생 = younger sister
형 = older brother
오빠 = older brother
누나 = older sister
언니 = older sister
삼촌 = uncle
이모 = aunt (on mother’s side)
고모 = aunt (on father’s side)
아저씨 = older man not related to you
아주머니 = older woman not related to you
할아버지 = grandfather
할머니 = grandmother
친구 = friend
사진 = picture
안경 = glasses
비밀 = secret
비 = rain
가게 = store/shop
박물관 = museum
가스 레인지 = stove (gas range)
오리 = duck (animal)
꼬리 = tail
Verbs:
보고 싶다 = to miss a person
기대하다 = to expect
건너다 = to cross (a road/etc)
던지다 = to throw
싫어하다 = to not like
떠나다 = to leave somewhere
농담하다 = to joke
Adjectives:
지루하다 = to be boring
마르다 = for a person to be too thin
멀다 = to be far away
마르다 = to be dry
비슷하다 = to be similar
싫다 = to not be good
오래되다 = for an object to be old
오늘 = today
어제 = yesterday
내일 = tomorrow
모레 = the day after tomorrow
년 = year
일 = day
시간 = time
Days of the Week:
월요일 = Monday
화요일 = Tuesday
수요일 = Wednesday
목요일 = Thursday
금요일 = Friday
토요일 = Saturday
일요일 = Sunday
How to say “I” or “me” in Korean

First of all, I want to point out the difference between “I” and “me” in English. This is something that I
never knew/realized until I started to learn Korean as you will find that learning a foreign language
will vastly increase your understanding of your mother tongue and languages in general. In English “I”
and “me” have the same meaning, but they differ in their usage. When the speaker is the subject of
a sentence “I” is used. When the speaker is the object (or other part) of a sentence “me” is used. For
example:
I love you (“I” is the subject of the sentence)

You love me (“me” is the object of the sentence)
In Korean, the same word is used to say “I” or “me.” That is, there is no difference in the Korean
word if it used as a subject or object. However, remember that different particles will have to be
attached to these words.
Although the word in Korean for “I/me” doesn’t change based on its usage in a sentence,
it does change based on the politeness of a sentence. For example:
저 means “I/me” and is used in formal situations
나 means “I/me” and is used in informal situations
~는 can be attached to 저 and 나 to indicate “I” is the subject of a sentence. For example:
저는
나는
(I am purposely not providing example sentences because you still haven’t learned proper
conjugations. You will finally learn about conjugations in this lesson)
~를 can be attached to 저 and 나 to indicate that “me” is the object of a sentence. For example:
저를
나를
~가 can be attached to 저 and 나 to indicate “I” is the subject of a sentence or clause. I have already
briefly distinguished the difference between ~이/가 and ~은/는 in Lesson 2. The difference between
these particles is very subtle and takes years to fully grasp. I discuss these differences more deeply
in Lesson 17 and Lesson 24, but this isn’t immediately important to you right now. What is
immediately important to you is that you remember that when ~가 is attached 나 changes to 내, and
저 changes to 제. For example:
내가
제가
In the lesson below, all of the sentences are conjugated in an informal style. Therefore, all of the
example sentences below use the informal “나” or “내.” In this lesson, don’t worry about formality and
just focus on the information that I present. In the next lesson, you will learn more about formal and
informal speech, and you will see “저” and “제” being used.
How to say “you”

You may have noticed that I still haven’t taught you one of those most common words in the English
language. I know this sounds weird, but the word ‘you’ is not said very often in Korean. Korean
people get around saying the word ‘you’ through a number of ways:
1. Most of the time, you use somebody’s (usually job) position when referring to them or talking about
them. For example, boss (부장님), principal (교장선생님), vice principal (교감선생님), Mr. Name (for
a teacher) (Name 선생님), customer (고객님), guest (손님), 회장님/사장님 (president/CEO of a
company).
2. It is very common in Korean to refer to people that you are close with as your own family member.
For example, 오빠 means “older brother” (when you are a woman). But even if somebody is not your
older brother, you can call him ‘오빠’ if you are close to him.
3. You can usually call any woman or man that looks very old “grandmother” and “grandfather”
(할머니/할아버지). But other than that, you don’t really call somebody part of your family unless you
are close with that person.

4. You can generally call any strange man or woman that you don’t know ‘아저씨’ (man) and ‘아주머니’
(woman).
5. In informal situations, you can use the word “너.” ~는 and ~를 can attach to “너” when “you” is the
subject or object of a sentence, respectively. If ~가 is added to ~너, it changes to “네가.” In order to
distinguish the pronunciation of “네가” and “내가” from each other (which, technically should be
pronounced the same), “네가” is pronounced as “knee-ga.”
6. You can also use the word “당신” which means “you.” You may use this word when talking to
anybody, but Korean people hardly ever use it. Most people that say ‘당신’ are foreigners and only
do so because they are so used to saying “you” in a sentence.
Basic Conjugation: Past, Present, Future

As I have mentioned in every lesson so far – every sentence that you have learned thus far
has not been conjugated. All the sentences you have learned so far would never actually be used
in Korean because they are not conjugated. I felt you needed to know basic sentence structure
before you learned how to conjugate. The good news, however is that conjugating in Korean is much
easier than other languages (including English and especially French!).
An important note before you begin

This lesson will show you how to conjugate past/present/future verbs in the most basic way.
Although all of these conjugations are grammatically correct, they are rarely used in conversation.
This form is sometimes called “diary form” because it is usually used when writing to yourself in a
diary. It is also used when writing a test, book (not in dialogue), research paper, newspaper article,
magazine article, and other times when you are not speaking/writing to a specific audience. It is also
sometimes called the “plain form”. If you used this form in a sentence, you should use the informal
“나,” as this conjugation is seen as informal. As such, in this lesson, you will see the word “나” used
for “I” throughout this lesson.

However, as I mentioned, this conjugation form is also used in print (books, newspapers, articles,
etc…). When this is done, the sentence is neither formal or informal – as it is just relaying facts.
When used like this, no specific person is the speaker, and nobody is getting directly spoken to.
Therefore, you don’t generally see “저” or “나” in these forms of Korean, and there is no need to see
these writings as formal or informal.
Though not important in conversation, this “plain form” conjugation is incredibly important if you want
to understand more complex grammar later on or learn to read most printed forms of Korean (books,
newspaper, etc…). You will learn the most important conjugations for conversation in the next lesson,
but I highly recommend you to understand the conjugations presented in this lesson first.
The only part of speech that gets conjugated in Korean is verbs and adjectives. As you already know,
a sentence must end in either a verb or adjective.
Let’s look at how to conjugate verbs and adjectives into the past, present and future tenses.
Verbs
Present Tense
When the last syllable of the stem ends in a consonant, you add ~는다 to the stem of the word:
먹다 = 먹는다 = to eat (먹 + 는다)

닫다 = 닫는다 = to close (닫 + 는다)
Examples:
나는 문을 닫는다 = I close the door

나는 밥을 먹는다 = I eat rice
When the last syllable of the stem ends in a vowel, you add ~ㄴ to the last syllable followed by 다
배우다 = 배운다 = to learn (배우 + ㄴ다)

이해하다 = 이해한다 = to understand (이해하 + ㄴ다)
가다 = 간다 = to go (가 + ㄴ다)
Examples:
나는 친구를 만난다 = I meet a friend
나는 그것을 이해한다 = I understand that
나는 한국어를 배운다 = I learn Korean
나는 집에 간다 = I go home
.
.
Past Tense
Before you learn this, you need to know something important. Korean grammar is based on adding
things directly to verbs or adjectives to have a specific meaning. This is a little bit confusing for you
right now because this is really the first time you have heard about this. Well, actually, in the section
above, you did this. Remember, to conjugate to the present tense, you must add the following to
verbs:
 ~는다 if the stem ends in a consonant and ~ㄴ다 if the stem ends in a vowel
Hundreds of grammatical principles (not just conjugations, but grammatical principles that have
actual meanings in sentences) are used by adding certain things to the stems of verbs and
adjectives. You have not learned about any of these yet, but I want to show you an example of some
things that you will learn about in future lessons. The following are added to the stems of verbs and
adjectives to have specific meanings:
 ~ㄴ/은 후에 to mean “after”
 ~기 전에 to mean “before”
 ~기 때문에 to mean “because”
 ~아/어서 to mean “because”
 ~아/어야 하다 to mean “one must”
 ~아/어서는 안 되다 to mean “one should not”
The list could go on and on forever.
Notice that some of these grammatical principles require the addition of “~아/어.” Many grammatical
principles (or conjugations, or any other thing) require the addition of “~아/어” to the stem of a verb
or adjective. Notice that the “slash” indicates that you need to choose what actually gets added to
the stem. In some cases it is “~아”, and in some cases it is “~어”. The following is the rule that you
can use to determine if you should add “~아” or “~어”:
 If the last vowel in a stem is ㅏ or ㅗ (this includes rare cases of the last vowel being ㅑ or ㅛ) you
add ~아 followed by the remainder of the grammatical principle. (The only exception is “하.” If the
last syllable in a stem is “하“, ~여 must be added to the stem followed by the remainder of the
grammatical principle instead of~아.
 If the last vowel in a stem is anything but ㅏ or ㅗ you add ~어 followed by the remainder of the
grammatical principle
When conjugating to the past tense, we need to add “~았/었다” to the stem of a word (or 였다 in the
case of 하다). Following the rule above, ~았다 is added to words with the last vowel being ㅗ or ㅏ
and ~었다 is added to words with the last vowel being anything but ㅏ or ㅗ. Finally, ~였다 is added
to words with the last syllable being “하.” For example:
나는 밥을 먹다 = I eat rice (note that this sentence is unconjugated)

The last vowel in the stem is ㅓ. This is not ㅏ or ㅗ. So, we add 었다 to the stem:
나는 밥을 먹었다 = I ate rice (먹 + 었다)
나는 문을 닫다 = I close the door (note that this sentence is unconjugated)
The last vowel in the stem is ㅏ. So we add 았다 to the stem:
나는 문을 닫았다 = I closed the door (닫 + 았다)
나는 창문을 열다 = I open the window (note that this sentence is unconjugated)
The last vowel in the stem is ㅕ. This is not ㅏ or ㅗ. So we add 었다 to the stem:
나는 창문을 열었다 = I opened the window (열 + 었다)
나는 한국어를 공부하다 = I study Korean (note that this sentence is unconjugated)
The last syllable in the stem is “하”. Therefore, we add ~였다 to the stem:
나는 한국어를 공부하였다 = I studied Korean (공부하 + 였다)
What makes this complicated (at first) is that for verbs that have a last syllable that end in a vowel
(including 하다), the ~았다/었다 gets merged to the actual stem itself. This is how ~아 and ~어
merge with syllables ending in a vowel:
 아 + 아 = 아 (example: 가 + 았다 = 갔다)
 오 + 아 = 와 (example: 오+ 았다 = 왔다)
 우 + 어 = 워 (example: 배우+ 었다 = 배웠다)
 이 + 어 = 여 (example: 끼+ 었다 = 꼈다)
 어 + 어 = 어 (example: 나서 + 었다 = 나섰다)
 여 + 어 = 여 (example: 켜다 + 었다 = 켰다)
 하 + 여 = 해 (example: 공부하다 + 였다 = 공부했다)
Although 하 + 여 can be written as “해,” there will be some situations (usually official documents)
where you will see “하여” used instead of “해”:
 Words where the last vowel is “ㅡ” (for example: 잠그다) are complicated and will be covered
in Lesson 7.
Many people have asked me “how do I merge ~아/어 to complex vowels like ㅠ, ㅑ, ㅔ, etc…?” You
will find that the stem of almost all verbs and adjectives in Korean do not end in these complex
vowels. The most common words I can think of that have stem that ends in one of these complex
vowels are:
바래다 (to fade)

매다 (to tie up)
메다 (to put on/carry something on one’s shoulder)
With these words (and others like it), the same rule applies as above. That is, the final vowel does
not end in ㅏ or ㅗ, so we need to add “어” plus whatever we are adding. With these complex vowels,
it is irrelevant if you merge the addition to the stem. Both forms (merged and non-merged) would be
correct.
For example:
바래 + 었다 = 바랬다 or 바래었다
매다 + 었다 = 맸다 or 매었다
메다 + 었다 = 멨다 or 메었다
Here is a more detailed breakdown:
가다 = to go
The last vowel in the stem is ㅏ. So we add 았다 to the stem.
나는 박문관에 가았다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 았다 can merge with 가:
나는 박물관에 갔다 = I went to the museum
오다 = to come
The last vowel in the stem is ㅗ. So we add 았다 to the stem.
삼촌은 가게에 오았다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 았다 can merge with 오:
삼촌은 가게에 왔다 = (My) uncle came to the store
배우다 = to learn
The last vowel in the stem is ㅜ. So we add 었다 to the stem.
오빠는 영어를 배우었다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 었다 can merge with 우:
오빠는 영어를 배웠다 = (My) older brother learned English
던지다 = to throw
The last vowel in the stem is ㅣ. So we add 었다 to the stem.
나는 공을 던지었다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 었다 can merge with 지:
나는 공을 던졌다 = I threw the ball
건너다 = to cross
The last vowel in the stem is ㅓ. So we add 었다 to the stem.
나는 길을 건너었다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 었다 can merge with 너:
나는 길을 건넜다 = I crossed the street
만나다 = to meet
The last vowel in the stem is ㅏ. So we add 았다 to the stem.
나는 친구를 만나았다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 았다 can merge with 나:
나는 친구를 만났다 = I met friends
공부하다 = to study
The last vowel in the stem is 하. So, we add 였다 to the stem.
나는 한국어를 공부하였다
But, 하 and 여 can be merged to formed 해:
나는 한국어를 공부했다 = I studied Korean
Future Tense
Future tense is easy, and is simply a matter of adding “~겠다” to the stem of a word. Unlike the past
and present tense conjugations, there is no difference if the stem ends in a vowel or a consonant.
For example:
나는 먹다 = I eat (unconjugated)
나는 먹겠다 = I will eat
나는 가다 = I go (unconjugated)
나는 가겠다 = I will go
나는 배우다 = I learn (unconjugated)
나는 배우겠다 = I will learn
Two verbs specifically that are often conjugated in the future tense without actually having a
meaning in the future tenses are 알다(to know) and 모르다(to not know). I don’t want to make any
example sentences (because they would be too complicated at this point), but it would be good to
remember that the words 알다 and 모르다 are often conjugated to 알겠다 or 모르겠다. Although they
are conjugated to the future tense, those two words are typically used to express that somebody
knows/doesn’t know something in the present tense.
Also note that the ending of the conjugation will often change as well depending on the different
honorifics that you will learn in the next lesson.
Check out the table giving a breakdown of verbs in the past, present and future forms:
Verb Stem Past tense Present tense Future tense
먹다 먹 먹었다 먹는다 먹겠다
닫다 닫 닫았다 닫는다 닫겠다
배우다 배우 배웠다 배운다 배우겠다
가다 가 갔다 간다 가겠다
이해하다 이해하 이해했다 이해한다 이해하겠다
오다 오 왔다 온다 오겠다
던지다 던지 던졌다 던진다 던지겠다

Adjectives
Present Tense
You learned previously that you need to add ~ㄴ/는다 to a verb stem in order to conjugate it in the
present tense. In order to conjugate an adjective into the present tense you don’t need to do
anything! Just leave the adjective as it is, and it is conjugated in the present tense. Some examples:
그 선생님은 아름답다 = that teacher is beautiful

그 길은 길다 = that street is long
나의 손은 크다 = my hand is big
Past tense
In order to conjugate adjectives to the past tense, you must follow the same rule as when you
conjugate verbs to the past tense. This rule, again, is:
You must add 았다 or 었다 to the stem of a word. 았다 is added to words with the last vowel being
ㅗ or ㅏ, and 었다 is added to words with the last vowel being anything but ㅏ or ㅗ. For example:
그 길은 길었다 = That street was long (길 + 었다)

그 음식은 맛있었다 = That food was delicious (맛있 + 었다)
그 선생님은 좋았다 = That teacher was good (좋 + 았다)
그 식당이 오래되었다 = That restaurant is old*** (오래되 + 었다)
The meaning of “오래되다” is not “old” in a bad, negative sense. Rather, it is indicating that
something has existed for a long time, and now it is “old.” A more appropriate way to indicate that
something is “old and decrepit” is to use the word “낡다”… not to be confused with the word “늙다”,
which refers to an “old” person.

This is a little bit complicated for you now, but although ~었다 is attached to 되 to make “되었다”, this
can be contracted. Teaching this is not the focus of this lesson, so don’t worry about this for now.
You will learn more about 되다 in future lessons. See Lesson 9 or Lesson 14 for lessons nearby that
discuss ‘되다.’
Also, while 되다 is commonly used and conjugated as a verb, in this case, 오래되다 is an adjective.
Which means that [in addition to other ways it will change when used with other grammatical
principles], ~ㄴ can be added to it to describe an upcoming noun.
For example: 우리는 오래된 집에 갔다 = We went to the old house
Just like with verbs, if the final letter of a verb/adjective stem is a vowel, ~았다/었다 can be merged
to the actual stem itself:
이것은 비쌌다 = This was expensive (비싸 + 았다)

그 남자는 잘생겼다 = That man was handsome (잘생기 + 었다)
그 사람은 뚱뚱했다 = That person was fat (뚱뚱하 + 였다)
Future tense
Conjugating adjectives into the future tense is the same as conjugating verbs into the future tense.
All you need to do is add 겠다 to the stem of the adjective:
나는 행복하겠다 = I will be happy

그것은 맛있겠다 = That thing will be delicious
나는 배고프겠다 = I will be hungry
In general, not only is this basic form rare in conversation, but Korean people do not use adjectives
in the future as often as English speakers.
Check out the table giving a breakdown of adjectives in the past, present and future forms
Adjective Stem Past tense Present tense Future tense
행복하다 행복하 행복했다 행복하다 행복하겠다
비싸다 비싸 비쌌다 비싸다 비싸겠다
길다 길 길었다 길다 길겠다
맛있다 맛있 맛있었다 맛있다 맛있겠다
낡다 낡 낡았다 낡다 낡겠다
Conjugating 있다 and 있다
있다 is one of the most complex and versatile words in Korean. Unfortunately, it is also one of the
most common words. It is often very difficult for learners of a language to fully understand some of
the most commonly used words in whatever language they are studying. For example, and native
English speaker might think that the word “the” is one of the easiest words as it is used so frequently.
However, try explaining the meaning and purpose of “the” to a Korean person and you will quickly
discover that its usage is very complex.
있다 can be an adjective, or it can be a verb. Whether it is an adjective or a verb depends on its

usage.
있다 is an adjective when it is used to indicate that one “has” something. You learned these
sentences in Lesson 2:
나는 펜이 있다 = I have a pen
나는 차가 있다 = I have a car
나는 가방이 있다 = I have a bag
Because this 있다 is considered an adjective, we follow the rule for conjugating an adjective to the
present tense – which is do nothing and leave the adjective the way it is. So, those three sentences
above are perfectly conjugated and grammatically correct.
When 있다 is used to indicate that something/someone is “at/in” a location, it is also an adjective.
This is also very difficult for an English speaker to wrap their head around. You learned these
sentences in Lesson 2:
나는 은행 안에 있다 = I am inside the bank
개는 집 안에 있다 = The dog is in the house
고양이는 의자 밑에 있다 = The cat is under the chair
Again, because this usage of 있다 is considered an adjective, we follow the rule for conjugating an
adjective to the present tense – which is do nothing and leave the adjective the way it is. So, those
three sentences above are perfectly conjugated in the plain form and grammatically correct.
However, the usage of 있다 is much more complex than just these two meanings. 있다
has many usages. In fact, there are times when 있다 is considered a verb. At this point, your
understanding of Korean is not strong enough to see example sentences of 있다 as a verb because
you haven’t learned some critical grammatical principles yet. What I want you to take from this is that
있다 can be a verb – and thus – is conjugated as a verb sometimes. Therefore, although the
example sentences above with 있다 are properly conjugated, there are times when the proper
conjugation of 있다 in the “plain form” would be 있는다.
있다 is considered a verb when a person (or animal) is not only “at” a location, but “staying” at a
location or in a state for a period of time. The difference between the adjective “있다” (to indicate
something/someone is at a location) and the verb “있다” (to indicate that someone stays at a
location or in a state) is confusing.
Below are some complicated ways that 있다 can be seen as a verb. You absolutely do not need to
understand these now. I suggest that you worry about them when you reach that particular lesson in
your studies:
 In Lesson 14 when ~아/어 있다 is used to indicate the passive state of a verb

 In Lesson 18 when ~고 있다 is used to indicate one continues doing something
 In Lesson 40 when telling somebody to stay in a location or in a state

 In Lesson 44 when ~자 is used to make a suggestion to stay in a place
Wow, that is a lot of grammar. Understanding this will probably be your the hardest step you will
need to make in learning Korean. I really mean that. If you can get through this lesson, almost
everything you will learn will relate back to the principles in this lesson in one way or another. Don’t
give up!
Lesson 6: Korean Honorifics

Vocabulary
found here.
Nouns:
신발 = shoe
남방 = shirt
질문 = question
문제 = question, problem
나이 = age
화장실 = bathroom, restroom
부장님 = boss
분위기 = the atmosphere of something
차 = tea
바지 = pants
교실 = classroom
급식 = food at school
교감선생님 = vice principal
교장선생님 = principal
풀 = glue
수도 = capital city
병 = bottle
병 = disease, sickness
생선 = fish
야채 = vegetable
언덕 = hill
선물 = present
기타 = guitar
종이 = paper
우유 = milk
손목 = wrist
시계 = clock/watch
손목시계 = wristwatch
영화 = movie
Verbs:
노력하다 = to try
앉다 = to sit
만지다 = to touch
자다 = to sleep
보다 = to see
기다리다 = to wait
청소하다 = to clean
약속하다 = to promise
듣다 = to hear
들어보다 = to listen
그만하다 = to stop
운동하다 = to exercise
Adjectives:
놀라다 = to be surprised
빠르다 = to be fast
느리다 = to be slow
착하다 = to be nice
곧 = soon
항상 = always
주 = week
아래 = bottom
Conjugating with Honorifics

In Lesson 5, you learned how to conjugate verbs and adjectives into the past, present and future
forms. You also learned that those conjugations are hardly ever used in speech and are most often
used when writing a book, test, article or diary. In this lesson, you will learn the basic word
conjugations that are more commonly used in speech.
What are Honorifics in Korean?

To this point, you haven’t learned anything about Honorifics (from this website, at least). In Korean,
depending on who you are speaking to, you must use different conjugations of the same word. The
different conjugations imply respect and politeness to the person you are speaking to. Depending on
that person’s age and/or seniority in relation to yours, you must speak differently to that person.
The reason this is so hard for English speakers to understand is that we have nothing like this in
English. We can make some sentences sound polite by adding ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ but you can
only use those words in a limited amount of sentences. For example, if somebody asked you “where
did you go yesterday?” You could respond:
I went to school yesterday.
In English, regardless of whether you were speaking to your girlfriend’s grandfather or your best
friend, that sentence would look and sound exactly the same. In Korean, you must use a higher
respect form when speaking to somebody older or higher in position. Unless you are literally just
starting to learn Korean (in which case, some Korean people would let it pass) you must always do
this.
I can share a really funny experience that happened to me. I started learning Korean a few months
before I moved to Korea. I was not studying very hard or often, so my Korean was extremely basic.
When I arrived at the airport in Seoul, was driven directly to my school and introduced to my
principal immediately. My principal said “I am happy you are working at my school,” to which I replied:
나도 (the lower respect form of saying “me too”)
Instead of being impressed that I at least knew some words in Korean, the look on his face was as if
somebody had just kidnapped his daughter.
Never, never underestimate the importance of honorific endings in Korean.

Keep in mind that all these conjugations with different honorific endings have exactly the same
meaning. You will learn how to conjugate using honorifics in the following ways:
1. Informal low respect

Used when talking to your friends, people you are close with, people younger than you and your
family.
2. Informal high respect
This can be used in most situations, even in formal situations despite the name being “informal.”
This is usually the way most people speak when they are trying to show respect to the person they
are talking to.
3. Formal high respect
This is a very high respect form that is used when addressing people who deserve a lot of respect
from you. It is hard to describe perfectly, but honestly, the difference between ‘Informal high respect’
and ‘Formal high respect’ is not very big. As long as you speak in either of these two ways, you will
not offend anyone.
The names of each form of speech might be different in every source, but I have chosen the words
above to describe each form. In addition, you learned the “Plain form” in the previous lesson.
Before you start! Remember the rule you learned in Lesson 5: When adding something to a word
stem, if the last vowel in the stem is ㅏ or ㅗ, you must add 아 plus whatever you are adding. If the
last vowel is anything other than ㅏ or ㅗ, you must add 어 plus whatever you are adding. If the
syllable of the stem is 하, you add 하여 which can be shortened to 해.
Also, in the previous lesson, you learned that if a stem of a word ends in a vowel, “~았/었다” gets
merged to the actual stem itself when conjugating into the past tense.
In this lesson, two of the conjugations you will learn will require the addition of ~아/어. When adding
~아/어 to the stem of a word, the same rule applies from previous lesson. That is, if ~아/어 gets
added to a stem that ends in a vowel, ~아/어 will be merged to the stem itself. For example:
가다 + ~아/어 = 가 (가 + 아)
오다 + ~아/어 = 와 (오 + 아)
배우다 + ~아/어 = 배워 (배우 + 어)
끼다 + ~아/어 = 껴 (끼 + 어)
나서다 + ~아/어 = 나서 (나서 + 어)
켜다 + ~아/어 = 켜 (켜 + 어)
하다 + ~아/어 = 해 (하 + 여)
Conversely, if a stem ends in a consonant, ~아/어 is attached to the stem, but not merged to it. For
example:
먹다 + ~아/어 = 먹어 (먹 + 어)
앉다 + ~아/어 = 앉아 (앉 + 아)
There are many situations when you will have to add ~아/어 (or other vowels and consonants) to
stems. Conjugating is just one of these situations. Always keep this rule in mind, as you will see it
throughout this lesson, and throughout your studies.
Verbs
Present Tense
You learned in Lesson 5 how to conjugate verbs to the present tense by adding ㄴ/는다 to the stem
of the word. To review:

먹다 = to eat (not conjugated)
나는 먹는다 = I eat (conjugated – present tense)
배우다 = to learn (not conjugated)

나는 배운다 = I learn (conjugated – present tense)
There are three more conjugations in the present tense that you should know:
1) Informal low respect

All you need to do is add ~어/아/여 to the stem of the verb:
나는 항상 저녁에 음식을 먹어 = I always eat food in the evening (먹 + 어)

나는 나의 선생님을 항상 봐 = I always see my teacher (보 + 아)
나는 항상 아침에 운동해 = I always exercise in the morning (운동하 + 여)
In Lesson 1, you were introduced to the function of ~에 as a particle which identifies a location or a
time in which something occurs in a sentence. Since then, you have seen many cases of ~에 being
used to indicate a place, but you have yet to see any examples of it being used to indicate a time.
This is just a quick reminder that ~에 is (in addition to other things) attached to the part of sentence
to indicate a time.
Also notice in the examples above that “항상” (always) is placed in two different places within a
sentence. Adverbs are usually able to be placed wherever the speaker desires. The usage and
placement of adverbs is discussed inLesson 8
2) Informal high respect

This is done the exact same way as ‘Informal low respect’ but you also add ‘~요’ to the end of the
word. Adding ~요 to the end of anything in Korean makes it more respectful:
저는 항상 저녁에 음식을 먹어요 = I always eat food in the evening (먹 + 어요)

저는 저의 선생님을 항상 봐요 = I always see my teacher (보 + 아요)
저는 항상 아침에 운동해요 = I always exercise in the morning (운동하 + 여요)
3) Formal high respect
This is done very similar to the conjugation you learned in Lesson 5 – that is, adding ~ㄴ/는다 to the
stem of the word. To conjugate using the Formal high respect honorific ending, you add
~ㅂ니다/습니다 to the end of the word stem. If a word stem ends in a vowel, you add ~ㅂ to the last
syllable and 니다 follows. If a word stem ends in a consonant, you add ~습니다 to the word stem.
저는 항상 저녁에 음식을 먹습니다 = I always eat food in the evening (먹 + 습니다)
저는 저의 선생님을 항상 봅니다 = I always see my teacher (보 + ㅂ니다)
저는 항상 아침에 운동합니다 = I always exercise in the morning (운동하 + ㅂ니다)
.
.
Past Tense
You learned in Lesson 5 how to conjugate verbs to the past tense by adding 었다/았다/였다 to the
stem of the word. To review:

나는 먹었다 = I ate (conjugated – past tense)

나는 배웠다 = I learned (conjugated – past tense)
The three new conjugations should be very simple for you now:

Instead of adding 었다/았다/였다 to a stem, remove 다 and add 어 after 었/았/였:
나는 먹었어 = I ate (먹 + 었어)

나는 들어봤어 = I listened (들어보 + 았어)
나는 운동했어 = I exercised (운동하 + 였어)
Just add 요 to the end of the Informal low respect conjugations:
저는 먹었어요 = I ate (먹 + 었어요)

저는 들어봤어요 = I listened (들어보 + 았어요)
저는 운동했어요 = I exercised (운동하 + 였어요)
After adding 었/았/였 instead of adding 다 add 습니다:
저는 먹었습니다 = I ate (먹 + 었습니다)
저는 들어봤습니다 = I listened (들어보 + 았습니다)
저는 운동했습니다 = I exercised (운동하 + 였습니다)
Future Tense
You learned in Lesson 5 how to conjugate verbs to the future tense by adding 겠다 to the stem of the
word. To review:

나는 먹겠다 = I will eat (conjugated – future tense)

나는 배우겠다 = I will learn (conjugated – future tense)
The three new conjugations should be very simple for you now:

Instead of adding 겠다 to a word stem, remove 다 and add 어 after 겠:
나는 먹겠어 = I will eat (먹 + 겠어)

나는 배우겠어 = I will learn (배우 + 겠어)

Just add 요 to the end of the Informal low respect conjugations:
저는 먹겠어요 = I will eat (먹 + 겠어요)

저는 배우겠어요 = I will learn (배우 + 겠어요)

After 겠 instead of adding 다 add 습니다:
저는 먹겠습니다 = I will eat (먹 + 겠습니다)

저는 배우겠습니다 = I will learn (배우 + 겠습니다)
Lets try looking at all the verb conjugations you know together in one table. This table will include the
conjugation you learned in Lesson 5, often called “Formal low respect,” “plain form,” or “diary form.”
먹다 Past Present Future
Informal low 먹었어 먹어 먹겠어
Informal high 먹었어요 먹어요 먹겠어요
Plain form 먹었다 먹는다 먹겠다
Formal high 먹었습니다 먹습니다 먹겠습니다
자다 Past Present Future
Informal low 잤어 자 자겠어
Informal high 잤어요 자요 자겠어요
Plain form 잤다 잔다 자겠다
Formal high 잤습니다 잡니다 자겠습니다
이해하다 Past Present Future
Informal low 이해했어 이해해 이해하겠어
Informal high 이해했어요 이해해요 이해하겠어요
Plain form 이해했다 이해한다 이해하겠다

Formal high 이해했습니다 이해합니다 이해하겠습니다
.
Adjectives
Thankfully, adjectives are conjugated the exact same way as verbs are when doing to with these
three honorific endings. The major difference in conjugating adjectives and verbs is when
conjugating in the most basic form (which we did in Lesson 5). To conjugate adjectives with ‘Informal
low respect,’ Informal high respect’ and Formal high respect,’ follow the same rules as verbs:
비싸다 Past Present Future
Informal low 비쌌어 비싸 비싸겠어
Informal high 비쌌어요 비싸요 비싸겠어요
Plain form 비쌌다 비싸다 비싸겠다
Formal high 비쌌습니다 비쌉니다 비싸겠습니다
길다 Past Present Future
Informal low 길었어 길어 길겠어
Informal high 길었어요 길어요 길겠어요
Plain form 길었다 길다 길겠다
Formal high 길었습니다 깁니다 * 길겠습니다
*Irregular conjugation. You will learn about irregulars in the next lesson.
착하다 Past Present Future

Informal low 착했어 착해 착하겠어
Informal high 착했어요 착해요 착하겠어요
Plain form 착했다 착하다 착하겠다
Formal high 착했습니다 착합니다 착하겠습니다
There are 1250 example sentences in Unit 1.

All entries are linked to an audio file. You can download all of these files in one package here.
That’s it for this lesson! You are progressing really well in Korean! There are a few irregulars that
you need to learn before anything else, so we will cover that in our next lesson.
Lesson 7: Korean Irregulars
Vocabulary
found here.
Nouns:
눈썹 = eyebrow
교사 = teacher
반 = class of students in school
직장 = location of work
벽 = wall
털 = hair (not on head), fur
머리카락 = hair (on head)
저녁 = dinner, evening
점심 = lunch, noonish
옷 = clothes
Verbs:
찾다 = to search for, find
가르치다 = to teach
일하다 = to work
짓다 = to build
가지다 = to own, to possess
잠그다 = to lock
잊다 = to forget
돕다 = to help
주다 = to give
맞다 = to be correct
Adjectives:
쉽다 = to be easy
덥다 = to be hot
그립다 = to miss (a thing)
귀엽다 = to be cute
춥다 = to be cold
어렵다 = to be difficult
더럽다 = to be dirty
바쁘다 = to be busy
같다 = to be the same
안전하다 = to be safe
딱딱하다 = to be hard, to be rigid
부드럽다 = to be soft
가능하다 = to be possible
불가능하다 = to be impossible
Adverbs:
일찍 = early
오전 = morning
오후 = afternoon
매일 = everyday
여름 = summer
가을 = fall
겨울 = winter
봄 = spring
Irregulars
As with all languages, there are some irregular conjugations that you need to know. Irregulars are
applied to certain verbs or adjectives when adding something to the stem of the word. Korean
grammar is based on these “additions” that are added to stems. I mentioned this in Lesson 5, but I
want to reiterate it here.
There are hundreds of additions that you can add to the stem of a verb or adjective. Some of these
additions are conjugations and some of them are grammatical principles that have meaning in a
sentence.
You have learned about some of these additions now. For example:
 ~ㄴ/는다 to conjugate to the plain form

 ~아/어 to conjugate to the informal low respect form
 ~아/어요 to conjugate to the informal high respect form
 ~ㅂ/습니다 to conjugate to the formal high respect form
 ~았/었어 to conjugate to the informal low respect form in the past tense
 ~ㄴ/은 added to an adjective to describe an upcoming noun
In future lessons, you will learn about many more of these additions. For example, some of them are:
 ~ㄴ/은 후에 to mean “after”

 ~기 전에 to mean “before”
 ~기 때문에 to mean “because”
 ~아/어서 to mean “because”
 ~(으)면 to mean “when”
 ~아/어야 하다 to mean “one must”
 ~아/어서는 안 되다 to mean “one should not”
Notice that some of these additions start with a vowel, and some of them start with a consonant.
Most of the irregulars are applied when adding a vowel to a stem. The ㄹ irregular that is introduced
at the end of the lesson is the only irregular that applies when adding a consonant to a stem.
Let’s look at one example before I introduce each irregular one by one. Let’s say we want to
conjugate the word “어렵다” into the past tense using the informal low respect form. The following
would happen:
어렵다 + ~았/었어 = 어려웠어
Here, you can see that the actual stem of the word changed. This is referred to as the “ㅂ irregular”
because the same phenomenon happens with many (but not all) words whose stem ends in “ㅂ”.
As I mentioned previously, most of these irregulars are applied when adding a vowel to a stem.
Although there are many additions that start with a vowel, the only ones that you have learned about
to this point are the conjugations taught in Lessons 5 and 6:
 ~아/어
 ~아/어요
 ~았/었어
 ~았/었어요
 ~았/었습니다
 ~았/었다
As such, this lesson will present the Korean irregulars and how they change as a result of adding
these conjugations. In later lessons when you learn about other additions, you can apply what you
learned in this lesson to those concepts. For now, let’s get started.
.
.
ㅅ Irregular
If the last letter of a word stem ends in ㅅ (for example: 짓다 = to build), the ㅅ gets removed when
adding a vowel. For example, when conjugating:
짓다 = to make/build
짓 + 어 = 지어
나는 집을 지어 = I build a house
짓 + 었어요 = 지었어요
저는 집을 지었어요 = I built a house
Notice that this only happens when adding a vowel. When conjugating to the plain form, for example,
you only add “~는다” to a stem and thus ㅅ does not get removed. For example:
집을 짓는다 = to build a house
The reason this irregular is done is to avoid changing the sound of a word completely after
conjugating it.
Pronouncing 짓다 sounds like ‘jit-da.’

Pronouncing 지어 sounds like ‘ji-uh’
Pronouncing 짓어 sounds like ‘jis-suh’
The third one (which is incorrect) completely changes the sound of the word stem when a vowel is
added (from ‘jit’ to ‘jis.’ Whereas in the second one, the sound of the word stem only changes from
‘jit’ to ‘ji,’ which is much smaller of a difference (especially considering the ‘t’ in the pronunciation of
짓 is not aspirated – which makes it barely audible). I know that is confusing, but if you can’t
understand why it is done, that’s fine. Just know that it must be done.
Some other examples of words that follow this irregular are (these words are too difficult for you right
now, but I’m just showing you):
낫다 = better (adjective) – You will learn more about this word in Lesson 19
잇다 = to continue (verb)
Common words that this does not apply to are:
웃다 (to laugh) = 저는 웃었어요 = I laughed
벗다 (to take off clothes) = 저는 저의 옷을 벗었어요 = I took off my clothes
씻다 (to wash) = 저는 저의 손을 씻었어요 = I washed my hands
Here is a table with the word “짓다 (to build)” being conjugated using all the honorific forms you have
learned so far. The irregular conjugations are in bold. Notice that this only occurs when ~아/어 (or
one of its derivatives like ~았/었어요) is added to the verb stem.
짓다 = build Past Present Future
Informal low 지었어 지어 짓겠어
Informal high 지었어요 지어요 짓겠어요
Plain form 지었다 짓는다 짓겠다
Formal high 지었습니다 짓습니다 짓겠습니다
Note that when a word stem has ㅅ as the fourth consonant, this irregular does not apply. For
example, this does not apply to 없다, which you will learn about in the next lesson.
ㄷ irregular
If the last letter of a word stem ends in ㄷ (for example: 걷다 = to walk), the ㄷ gets changed to ㄹ
when adding a vowel. This is only done with verbs. For example:
걷다 = to walk
걷 + 어 = 걸어
저는 걸어요 = I walk
걷 + 었어요 = 걸었어요
저는 걸었어요 = I walked
I don’t mean to confuse you, but I will:
걷다 means “to walk.” When conjugating, by adding a vowel it changes to 걸어

Another meaning of 걷다 is “to tuck.” But this meaning of 걷다 does not follow the irregular rule. So,
when conjugating, by adding a vowel is simply stays as 걷어.
걸다 means “to hang.” When conjugating, by adding a vowel it stays as 걸어
Confusing enough? Let’s look at all three:
걷다 걷다 걸다
To walk To tuck To hang
Past Formal 걸었어요 걷었어요 걸었어요
Present Formal 걸어요 걷어요 걸어요
Future Formal 걷겠어요 걷겠어요 걸겠어요
Honestly, though, the whole 걷다/걷다/걸다 thing is probably the most confusing part of this
conjugation, and don’t worry too much about it. “Walk” is a word that is used much more frequently
than “tuck,” so it is not something that comes up a lot.
The reason this conjugation is done is simply because the sounds flows off your tongue better. It is
similar to pronouncing the word “butter” in English. When pronouncing “butter” we don’t say “butt-
tter,” we just say “bud-er.” Like the ㄷ irregular, it is simply to avoid saying a hard consonant.
This is done to most stems ending in ㄷ, common words that this does not apply to (like 걷다 = to
tuck) are:
받다 (to get/receive) = 돈을 받았어요 = I received money
묻다 = 묻어요 (to bury) = 저는 저의 강아지를 묻었어요 = I buried my dog
닫다 = 닫아요 (to close) = 저는 문을 닫았어요 = I closed the door
Here is a table with the word “걷다 (to walk)” being conjugated using all the honorific forms you have
걷다 = walk Past Present Future
Informal low 걸었어 걸어 걷겠어
Informal high 걸었어요 걸어요 걷겠어요
Plain form 걸었다 걷는다 걷겠다
Formal high 걸었습니다 걷습니다 걷겠습니다

ㅂ Irregular
If the last letter of a word stem ends in ㅂ (쉽다 = easy), the ㅂ changes to 우 when adding a vowel.
우 then gets added to the next syllable in the conjugated word.
This is mostly done with adjectives. Many verbs end with ㅂ but this rule is rarely applied to verbs
(some of the few verbs where this rule applies are: 줍다 (to pick up), 눕다 (to lie down)). For example:
쉽다 = to be easy
쉽 + 어 = 쉬 + 우 + 어 = 쉬워
그것은 쉬워 = That thing is easy
어렵다 = to be difficult
어렵 + 어요 = 어려 + 우 + 어요 = 어려워요
그것은 어려워요 = That is difficult
귀엽다 = cute
귀엽 + 어요 = 귀여 + 우 + 어요 = 귀여워요
그 여자는 귀여워요 = That girl is cute
In the words “돕다” (to help) and “곱다” (an uncommon way to say “beautiful”) ㅂ changes to 오
instead of 우. For example:
돕다 = to help
돕 + 았어요 = 도 + 오 + 았어요 = 도왔어요
저는 저의 어머니를 도왔어요 = I helped my mother
Note: The ㅂ in 돕다 and 곱다 changes to 오 only when ~아/어 (or any derivative
like ~았/었다 or ~아/어요) is added. When adding any other vowel, ㅂ changes to 우. As of now, you
haven’t learned when you would need to add a different vowel. For example, in future lessons you
will learn about adding ~ㄹ/을 to verbs. When this gets added to 돕다, it changes to 도울. This isn’t
immediately pressing to you now, but you should make a mental note of it.
Because the ㅂ irregular is found in adjectives, you will be conjugating it not only at the end of a
sentence, but also in the middle of a sentence (before a noun). Remember the difference between
these two sentences.
사과는 크다 = Apples are big
나는 큰 사과를 좋아한다 = I like big apples
In the first sentence, ‘big’ is an adjective that describes the noun (apple) at the end of the sentence.
In the second, ‘big’ describes the apple (as ‘a big apple’) and then “like” acts on the noun. In Lesson
4, you learned how to describe a noun by placing an adjective with ~ㄴ/은 before it. Adding ~ㄴ/은 to
adjectives where the stem ends in “ㅂ” causes this irregular to come into play.
When placing an adjective (who’s stem ends in “ㅂ”) before a noun to describe it, you add ~ㄴ to the
newly formed 우/오 syllable:
귀엽 + ㄴ = 귀여 + 우 + ㄴ = 귀여운
저는 귀여운 여자를 좋아해요 = I like cute girls
More examples:
쉽다 = easy
쉽 + ㄴ = 쉬 + 우 + ㄴ = 쉬운
저는 쉬운 일을 했어요 = I did easy work
부드럽다 = soft
부드럽 + ㄴ = 부드러 + 우 + ㄴ = 부드러운
나는 부드러운 손이 있어= I have soft hands
춥다 = cold
춥 + ㄴ = 추 + 우 + ㄴ = 추운
저는 추운 날씨를 좋아해요 = I like cold weather
Note that in most irregulars, the word changes differently if the last vowel in the stem is ㅗ OR ㅏ.
However, in the ㅂ irregular, except for 돕다 and 곱다, all applicable words are changed by adding
우.
아름답다 = beautiful:
아름답 + 어요 = 아름다 + 우 + 어요 = 아름다워요
그 여자는 아름다워요 = That girl is beautiful
새롭다 = new
새롭 + 어요 = 새로 + 우 + 어요 = 새로워요
그 학교는 새로워요 = That school is new
그것은 새로운 학교예요 = That (thing) is a new school
Probably the most confusing of all irregulars, mainly because it seems strange that ㅂ can change to
우/오. The reason this happens is similar to the ㅅ irregular. As you know already, when pronouncing
a syllable with the last letter ㅂ, you don’t really pronounce the ‘B’ sound. If you don’t know what I
mean, check out the Pronunciation guide. But, if you add a vowel after ㅂ the sound of ‘B’ would be
pronounced. The purpose of the irregular is to eliminate the ‘B’ sound which isn’t actually in the word.
Confusing? Yes, I know, but again, you don’t really need to care about why it is done.
This is done to some words ending in ㅂ. Some common words in which this does not apply:
좁다 (narrow) = 이 방은 좁아요 = This room is narrow

넓다 (wide) = 이 방은 넓어요 = This room is wide (Korean people often describe a room/place being
“big” by saying it is “wide”
잡다 (to catch/grab) = 저는 공을 잡았어요 = I caught the ball
Here is a table with the word “춥다 (cold)” being conjugated using all the honorific forms you have
춥다 = cold Past Present Future
Informal low 추웠어 추워 춥겠어
Informal high 추웠어요 추워요 춥겠어요
Plain form 추웠다 춥다 춥겠다
Formal high 추웠습니다 춥습니다 춥겠습니다
Adjective form 추운 날씨 = cold weather
ㅡ Irregular
If the final vowel in a stem is ㅡ (for example: 잠그다 = to lock), when adding ~아/어, you can not
determine whether you need to add ~어 or ~아 to the stem by looking at ㅡ. Instead, you must look
at the vowel in the second last syllable. For example, in the word “잠그다”, the second last syllable in
the stem is “잠”, and the vowel here is ㅏ. Therefore, as usual, we add ~아 to 잠그. For example:
잠그다 + ~아/어
= 잠그아
In cases like this where a word ends in “ㅡ” (that is, there is no final consonant after “ㅡ”) and is
followed by ~아/어 (or any of its derivatives), the ~아/어~ the “ㅡ” is eliminated and the addition of
~아/어~ merges to the stem. For example:
잠그다 = to lock
The last vowel in the stem is ㅡ. The vowel in the second last syllable is ㅏ, so we add ~아.
For example: 잠그 + 아
Because there is no final consonant after “ㅡ”, ~아 replaces ㅡ.
잠그 + 아 = 잠가
This would be the same in the past tense as well, for example:
잠그 + 았어요 = 잠갔어요
저는 문을 잠갔어요 = I locked the door
Let’s look at another example:
바쁘다 = to be busy
The last vowel in stem is ㅡ. The vowel in the second last syllable is ㅏ, so we add 아.
For example: 바쁘 + 아
Because there is no final consonant after “ㅡ”, ~아 replaces ㅡ.
바쁘 + 아요 = 바빠요
저는 바빠요 = I am busy
예쁘다 = pretty
The last vowel in the stem is ㅡ. The vowel in the second last syllable is not ㅏ or ㅗ, so we add 어.
For example: 예쁘 + 어
Because there is no final consonant after “ㅡ”, ~어 replaces ㅡ.
예쁘 + 어요 = 예뻐
그 여자는 예뻐요 = That girl is pretty
Some stems only have one syllable. For example, the stem of 크다 is just 크. In this case, we know
that we need to use the ㅡ irregular, but there is no previous syllable to draw on to determine what
should be added to the stem. In these cases, ~어 is added to the stem. For example:
크다 = to be big
The last vowel in the stem is ㅡ. 크 is the only syllable in the stem, so we add 어
For example: 크 + 어
Because there is no final consonant after “ㅡ”, ~어 replaces ㅡ
크 + 어요 = 커요
그 집은 커요 = That house is big
This same rule applies when adding ~아/어 to words where, not only is the last vowel in the stem ㅡ,
but all the vowels in the stem are ㅡ. For example, in the word “슬프다,” not only does the stem end
in “ㅡ” but the vowel in the second last syllable is also “ㅡ”. In this case as well, ~어 should merge to
the stem. For example:
슬프다 = to be sad
The last vowel in the stem is ㅡ. The second last vowel in the stem is also ㅡ, so we add 어
For example: 슬프 + 어
Because there is no final consonant after “ㅡ”, ~어 replaces ㅡ
슬프 + 어요 = 슬퍼요
저는 아주 슬퍼요 = I am very sad
Sometimes the last vowel of a stem is ㅡ, but the stem ends in a consonant. In these cases, all of
the above rules still apply, but the addition of ~아/어 does not merge to the stem (because it is
blocked by the consonant). For example:
긁다 = to scratch
The last vowel in the stem is ㅡ. 긁 is the only syllable in the stem, so we add 어
For example: 긁 + 어
Because there is a final consonant after “ㅡ”, ~어 does not merge to the stem
긁 + 어요 = 긁어요
저는 머리를 긁었어요 = I scratched my head
Another example where we find a single-syllable word with “ㅡ” as the only vowel is “듣다 (to hear)”
듣다 = to hear
Last vowel in stem is ㅡ. There is no syllable preceding 듣, so we must add 어.
듣 ends in a consonant, so 어 does not get added directly to the syllable.
듣 + 었어요 = 듣었어요
But wait! Don’t forget the ㄷ irregular. In this example, both ㅡ and ㄷ irregulars are used:
듣 + 었다 = 들었다
저는 쥐를 들었어요 = I heard a mouse
An irregular to this already irregular rule is “만들다 (to make).” Even though the second last syllable
in the stem has the vowel “ㅏ”, ~어~ is added instead of ~아~. For example:
만들다 + ~아/어요
= 만들어요
Here is a table with the word “잠그다 (to lock – which is a verb)” being conjugated using all the
honorific forms you have learned so far. The irregular conjugations are in bold. Notice that this only
occurs when ~아/어 (or one of its derivatives like ~았/었어요) is added to the verb stem.
잠그다 = lock Past Present Future
Informal low 잠갔어 잠가 잠그겠어
Informal high 잠갔어요 잠가요 잠그겠어요
Plain form 잠갔다 잠근다 잠그겠다
Formal high 잠갔습니다 잠급니다 잠그겠습니다
And here is a table with the word “예쁘다 (pretty – which is an adjective)” being conjugated using all
the honorific forms you have learned so far. The irregular conjugations are in bold. Notice that this
only occurs when ~아/어 (or one of its derivatives like ~았/었어요) is added to the verb stem.
예쁘다 = pretty Past Present Future
Informal low 예뻤어 예뻐 예쁘겠어
Informal high 예뻤어요 예뻐요 예쁘겠어요
Plain form 예뻤다 예쁘다 예쁘겠다
Formal high 예뻤습니다 예쁩니다 예쁘겠습니다

Finally, here is a table with the word “만들다 (to make – which is a verb)” being conjugated using all
the honorific forms you have learned so far.
만들다 = to make Past Present Future
Informal low 만들었어 만들어 만들겠어
Informal high 만들었어요 만들어요 만들겠어요
Plain form 만들었다 만든다 만들겠다
Formal high 만들었습니다 만듭니다 만들겠습니다
You will learn how 만든다 and 만듭니다 are formed later in the lesson when you learn about
the ㄹ irregular.
르 Irregular
If the final syllable in a stem is 르 (마르다), it is conjugated differently when adding ~아/어. This
irregular only applies when adding ~아/어(or any of its derivatives) to a stem and not when adding
any other grammatical principles that starts with a vowel or consonant. Up until now, you haven’t
learned about any of these other grammatical principles, that can start with anything other than
~아/어~, so don’t worry about this distinction too much.
When adding ~아/어 to these words, an additional ㄹ is created and placed in the syllable preceding
르 as the last consonant. The 르 also gets changed to either 러 or 라 (depending on if you are
adding 어 or 아). This is done to both verbs and adjectives (the only exception is 따르다 = to
follow/to pour). This is difficult to explain, and much easier to show with examples:
다르다 = different
다르 + 아요 = 다 + ㄹ + 라요 = 달라요
그것은 달라요 = That thing is different
빠르다 = to be fast
빠르 + 아요 = 빠 + ㄹ + 라요 = 빨라요
그 남자는 빨라요 = That man is fast
부르다 = to call somebody’s name
부르 + 었어요 = 부 + ㄹ + 렀어요 = 불렀어요
저는 저의 누나를 불렀어요 = I called my sister
Here is a table with the word “고르다 (to choose – which is a verb)” being conjugated using all the
occurs when ~아/어 (or one of its derivatives like ~았/었어요) is added to the verb stem.
고르다 = choose Past Present Future
Informal low 골랐어 골라 고르겠어
Informal high 골랐어요 골라요 고르겠어요
Plain form 골랐다 고른다 고르겠다
Formal high 골랐습니다 고릅니다 고르겠습니다
And here is a table with the word “마르다 (thin – which is an adjective)” being conjugated using all
the honorific forms you have learned so far. The irregular conjugations are in bold. Notice that this
only occurs when ~아/어 (or one of its derivatives like ~았/었어요) is added to the verb stem.
마르다 = thin Past Present Future
Informal low 말랐어 말라 마르겠어
Informal high 말랐어요 말라요 마르겠어요
Plain form 말랐다 마르다 마르겠다
Formal high 말랐습니다 마릅니다 마르겠습니다
Adjective form 마른 여자 = thin girl

ㄹ Irregular
Okay, last one, I promise.
As you know, there are times when you must choose between two things to add to a stem. For
example:
~아/어 means you must choose between adding ~아 or ~어

~ㄴ/은 means you must choose between adding ~ㄴ or ~은
~ㅂ/습 means you must choose between adding ~ㅂ or ~습
~ㄹ/을 means you must choose between adding ~ㄹ or ~을
As you know, you choose the correct addition based on the stem.
If the final letter of a stem is ㄹ AND you add any of the following:
~ㄴ/은
~ㄴ/는
~ㅂ/습
~ㄹ/을
The first option (~ㄴ/ ~ㅂ / ~ㄹ ) should be used. In addition, the ㄹ is removed from the stem and
the ~ㄴ / ~ㅂ / ~ㄹ is add directly to the stem. Let’s look at each one individually.
ㄹ Irregular: Adding ~ㄴ/은 to words

You have learned about adding ~ㄴ/은 to adjective stems when describing nouns. Usually, you add
~ㄴ directly to the stem of an adjective ending in a vowel, and ~은 to the stem of an adjective ending
in a consonant, for example:
크다 = 큰 남자
작다 = 작은 남자
When adding ~ㄴ/은 to a stem which ends in ㄹ, the ㄹ is removed and ㄴ is added to the stem:
길다 = long
길+ㄴ=긴
저는 긴 거리를 건넜어요 = I crossed the long street
멀다 = far away
멀+ㄴ=먼
저는 먼 병원에 갔어요 = I went to a far away hospital (a hospital that is far away)
There will be times when you have to add ~ㄴ/은 to verbs stems as well, but you haven’t learned
about this yet. I introduce this concept in Lesson 26, and then talk about the irregular being applied
in Lesson 28. I don’t want you to think about this too much until those lessons, but just so you know,
the concept is the same as adding ~ㄴ/은 to an adjective. For example:
열다 = to open
열+ㄴ=연
Although you haven’t learned about adding ~ㄴ/은 to stems, you have learned about adding
~ㄴ/는다 to verb stems. Normally, you add ~ㄴ다 to the stem of a verb ending in a vowel, and ~는다
to the stem of a verb ending in a consonant. For example:

나는 집에 간다 = I go home
나는 밥을 먹는다 = I eat rice
But when adding ~ㄴ/는다 to a verb stem that ends in ㄹ, you must remove ㄹ and add ~ㄴ다 to the
verb stem:
나는 문을 연다 = I open the door

나는 케이크를 만든다 = I make a cake
ㄹ Irregular: Adding ~ㅂ/습 to words

You have also learned about adding ~ㅂ/습니다 to verb and adjective stems when conjugating in the
Formal high respect form: Normally, you add ~ㅂ니다 to the stem of a word ending in a vowel, and
~습니다 to the stem of a word ending in a consonant. For example:
Verbs:
저는 집에 갑니다 = I go home
저는 밥을 먹습니다 = I eat rice
Adjectives:
그 여자는 예쁩니다 = That girl is pretty
이 방은 넓습니다 = This room is big/wide
But when adding ~ㅂ니다 to the stem of a word that ends in ㄹ, you must remove ㄹ and add ~ㅂ
directly to the stem. For example:
Verbs:
저는 문을 엽니다 = I open the door
저는 케이크를 만듭니다 = I make a cake
Adjectives:
그 병원은 멉니다 = That hospital is far
그 여자의 머리카락은 깁니다 = That girls hair is long
머리 can mean ‘head’ or ‘hair’ depending on the context. If you want to specifically mention your hair,
you can say “머리카락” always means the hair on one’s head. 머리 or 머리카락 does not refer to the
hair on an animal, or the body hair of a human. This hair is referred to as “털” and extends to most of
the hair that can be found on animals (fur, the wool on a sheep, etc)
Here is a table with the word “열다 (to open – which is a verb)” being conjugated using all the
occurs when ~ㄴ or ~ㅂ is added to the verb stem.
열다 = open Past Present Future
Informal low 열었어 열어 열겠어
Informal high 열었어요 열어요 열겠어요
Plain form 열었다 연다 열겠다
Formal high 열었습니다 엽니다 열겠습니다
And here is a table with the word “길다 (long – which is an adjective)” being conjugated using all the
honorific forms you have learned so far. Notice that this only occurs when ~ㄴ or ~ㅂ is added to the
verb stem (it would happen when ~ㄴ is added, but you don’t add ~ㄴ/는 to an adjective when you
conjugate it like this. There are times, however, when this would happen, but you haven’t even
gotten close to learning about them yet. For example, in Lesson 76, we talk about the addition of
~ㄴ/는데 to clauses. This would make 길다 turn into 긴데. Please don’t even think about looking
ahead until Lesson 76 until you’ve finished with this lesson, and the 69 lessons in between.
길다 = long Past Present Future
Informal low 길었어 길어 길겠어
Informal high 길었어요 길어요 길겠어요
Plain form 길었다 길다 길겠다
Formal high 길었습니다 깁니다 길겠습니다
Adjective form 긴 거리 = long road
I don’t want to confuse you too much more because I am sure you are already really confused. Just
the amount of content on this page alone is enough to make somebody cry. That being said, I think it
is a very good exercise to try to compare how the words 듣다 and 들다 differ in their conjugations.
Don’t worry about the meaning of 들다 yet (it is a very complex word that has many meanings), but
just assume it is a verb in this case. For now, let’s just focus on how they are conjugated.
Notice that when conjugating 듣다, you need to consider the following irregular patterns:
 ㄷ irregular (because it ends in ㄷ)

 ㅡ irregular (because the final vowel is ㅡ)
The following table shows how 듣다 should be conjugated across the honorifics and tenses you
have learned so far:
듣다 = to hear Past Present Future
Informal low 들었어 들어 듣겠어
Informal high 들었어요 들어요 듣겠어요
Plain form 들었다 듣는다 듣겠다

Formal high 들었습니다 듣습니다 듣겠습니다
Notice when conjugating 들다, you need to consider the following irregular patterns:
 ㄹ irregular (because it ends in ㄹ)

 ㅡ irregular (because the final vowel is ㅡ)
The following table shows how 들다 should be conjugated across the honorifics and tenses you
have learned so far:
들다 Past Present Future
Informal low 들었어 들어 들겠어
Informal high 들었어요 들어요 들겠어요
Plain form 들었다 든다 들겠다
Formal high 들었습니다 듭니다 들겠습니다
I feel that comparing these two is a very good exercise because you can see that sometimes,
because of the irregular conjugations, 듣다 might look exactly like 들다. For example, in all of the
past tense conjugations, there is no way to distinguish between the two based on sound, and the
only way to distinguish them is by context in a sentence.
There is no easy way around memorizing stuff like this. The only words of encouragement I can give
you is that – as you become more and more familiar with the language, and as you expose yourself
to it more and more, itdoes become second nature. I know you can’t believe that now, but it does.
ㄹ Irregular: Adding ~ㄹ/을 to words

You have yet to learn any situation where you would need to add ~ㄹ/을 to a stem, so don’t worry
about this too much now right now. I will show you the examples, but you won’t be able to
understand them. Just try to see how the irregular works within these examples, and I will re-present
these again when you learn how to deal with adding ~ㄹ/을.
Normally (just like with other similar additions), you would add ~ㄹ to the stem of a word ending in a
vowel, and ~을 to the stem of a word ending in a consonant. For example:
작다 + ~ㄹ/을 = 작을
크다 + ~ㄹ/을 = 클
However, when you add ~ㄹ/을 to a stem of a word that ends in ㄹ, the ㄹ is dropped and ㄹ is
attached directly to the stem. In effect, you removed something and replace it with exactly the same
thing. For example:
갈다 + ㄹ/을 = 갈
빨다 + ㄹ/을 = 빨
Again, that is just for your reference. I will teach you more about this irregular when I teach you
about the specific grammar within it in Lesson 9. You will also see this irregular applied again
in Lesson 28.
.
ㄹ Irregular – Adding Anything that Starts with a “Solid” ㄴ or ㅅ
As of now, you have not yet learned about adding anything that starts with a solid ㄴ or ㅅ to a stem,
so don’t worry about this too much now. What I mean by “solid ㄴ” is that – any addition where you
add something that starts with “ㄴ,” but there is no choice of having to add ~ㄴ or something else.
For example, even though the plain form conjugation “~ㄴ/는다” starts with “~ㄴ”, there is a choice of
having to add “ㄴ” OR “는”. This irregular only applies to grammar additions that start with “ㄴ”, and
there is no alternate addition. For example, as you will learn later, a grammatical addition to form a
question is ~니. There is no alternate addition to this. For example, it is not ~ㄴ/니.
I will show you the examples of how this works, but you won’t be able to understand them. Just try to
see how the irregular works within these examples, and I will re-present these again when you learn
how to deal with adding a solid ~ㄴ and ~ㅅ.
When you add a solid ~ㄴ or ~ㅅ to a stem of a word that ends in ㄹ, you must drop the ㄹ from the
stem, and add the solid ~ㄴ or ~ㅅ after the stem:
For example:
열다 + ~나(요) = 여나요
열다 + ~니 = 여니
열다 + ~는 = 여는
열다 + ~냐 = 여냐
열다 + ~세요 = 여세요
Again, that is just for your reference. I will teach you more about those irregulars when I teach you
about the specific grammar within them. Specifically, you will learn about adding ~니 and ~나 to
stems in Lesson 21; you will learn about ~는 in Lessons 26, 27 and 28; and will learn about~세요
in Lesson 40.
As of now, you have not yet learned about adding ~는 or ~ㅅ to a stem, so don’t worry about this too
much now. I will show you the examples, but you won’t be able to understand them. Just try to see
how the irregular works within these examples, and I will re-present these again when you learn how
to deal with adding ~는 and ~ㅅ.
Make sure that you realize that you have not learned any grammatical principle where “~는” is added.
The addition of “~는” is not the diary form conjugation that you learned in Lesson 5. That conjugation
is ~ㄴ/는다 – where, depending on the stem of the verb, you might need add ~ㄴ다 or ~는다. The
“~는” addition is not the same, and will be talked about in Lessons 26, 27 and 28, but try not to worry
about it now.
Just to make my point clear – the diary form present tense conjugation of “열다” is “연다” (based on
the information earlier). It is not 여는다.
Adding ~ㄴ/은 to Adjectives
I mentioned this in some of the sections above, but I would like to organize it all here. In Lesson 4,
you learned how to add ~ㄴ/은 to adjectives to describe an upcoming noun. Some irregulars will
come into play when adding doing this because of the possibility of adding a vowel to a stem. Let’s
look at the word “어렵다” as an example. 어렵다 has a consonant as its final letter, which means that
~은 must be added (instead of ~ㄴ). Therefore, we end up with:
어렵은
Because of this, now we now have the final consonant “ㅂ” followed by a vowel, which causes the ㅂ
irregular to be applied. The correct conjugation of 어렵다 + ~ㄴ/은 is therefore “어려운.”
Below is a table that shows how irregular adjectives can change because of adding ~ㄴ/은:
Irregular Example Word Does this apply? Application
ㅅ Irregular 낫다 (better) YES 나은
ㄷ Irregular NA NA NA
ㅂ Irregular 쉽다 (easy) YES 쉬운
ㅡ Irregular 바쁘다 (busy) NO 바쁜
르 Irregular 빠르다 (fast) NO 빠른
ㄹ Irregular 길다 (long) YES 긴
That’s it! Wow that is a lot of irregulars.
Note that these irregulars do not apply to word stems ending with a four-letter syllable. For example,
the ㅅ irregular does not apply to 없다, which you will learn about in the next lesson.
Check out our Irregular Guide if you are confused (I’m sure you are!).
Everybody is confused when they learn these irregulars. Eventually you will reach a point where all
of these will come natural to you. Whenever you learn a new word where the stem ends in
ㅅ/ㄹ/ㅂ/ㄷ/르/ㅡ just make a mental note about how you should conjugate that word in the future. I
don’t even have to think about these irregulars anymore because they just flow out naturally. If you
can’t memorize them all right now, just try to understand them, which will allow you to recognize
them later. Eventually, you will memorize them simply from using and hearing them so much.

Lesson 8: Korean Adverbs, Negative

Sentences in Korean
Vocabulary
A PDF file neatly presenting all of these words and example sentences in addition to common
usages and specific notes can be found here.
Nouns:
기계 = machine
대학교 = college, university
트럭 = truck
검은색 = (the color) black
흰색 = (the color) white
음료수 = beverage, drink
외국 = foreign country
외국인 = foreigner
고등학교 = high school
도서관 = library
Verbs:
놀다 = to play
쓰다 = to use
쓰다 = to write
실수하다 = to make a mistake
수리하다 = to repair
잡다 = to catch, to grab, to grasp
읽다 = to read
내다 = to pay for
받다 = to get, to receive, to acquire
도착하다 = to arrive
여행하다 = to travel
Adjectives:
완벽하다 = to be perfect
아프다 = to be sick, to be sore
똑똑하다 = to be smart
중요하다 = to be important
젊다 = to be young
늙다 = to be old
나이가 많다 = to be old
나쁘다 = to be bad
Adverbs:
바로 = immediately
즉시 = immediately
빨리 = quickly/fast
자주 = often
가끔 = sometimes
많이 = many/a lot of
방금 = a moment ago
곳 = place
동시에 = same time
밤 = night
어젯밤 = last night
갑자기 = suddenly
매년 = every year
다시 = again
혼자 = alone
낮 = daytime
동 = East
남 = South
서 = West
북 = North
Korean Adverbs
To this point, you have studied Korean verbs and adjectives in great depth, but you have yet to learn
much about Korean adverbs. First of all, what is an adverb? Adverbs are words in sentences that tell
you when, where, or to what degree something is being done.
When: I went to work on Tuesday

Where: I am inside the house
Degree: I opened the door quickly
In this lesson, you will learn how to use adverbs in Korean sentences. Let’s get started!
When and Where

Anytime you put a word in a sentence that indicates when or where something is taking place, you
must add the particle 에 to the end of that word. Keep in mind, however, that 에 is not the only
particle that can go at the end of words of position or time. There are other particles that can go at
the end of these words to indicate fromwhen/where something occurred, until when/where, etc. For
now, though, lets just talk about 에.
This is very important. Even though all places (park, house, hospital, school, office, room, kitchen,
etc) are alsonouns, when they are being talked about as a place, the particle 에 must be attached to
them. Notice the difference between the following two sentences:

저는 병원을 지었어요 = I built a hospital
저는 병원에 갔어요 = I went to the/a hospital
In the first sentence, “hospital” is the thing in which you are building – so it is an object, which
requires you to use the 을/를 particle.
In the second sentence, the hospital is the place in which you went to – so it is a place, which
requires it to have the 에 particle.
However, if you wanted to say where you built that hospital, you could say this:
저는 병원을 공원 옆에 지었어요 = I built a hospital beside the park
In addition to this, any word that indicates when something is taking place, needs have the Korean
particle 에 attached to it. For example:
저는 화요일에 가겠어요 = I will go on Tuesday

저는 저녁에 공부했어요 = I studied in the evening
저는 가을에 공원 옆에 병원을 지었어요 = I built a hospital beside the park in the fall
The best part about Korean adverbs is that they can essentially be placed at any place in the
sentence. The only place they cannot be placed is at the end of the sentence – because a sentence
must always end in an adjective or verb. They could even be placed at the beginning of a sentence:
여름에 저는 공부하겠어요 = I will study in the summer

Korean people don’t add ~에 when using 오늘 (today), 내일 (tomorrow) and 어제 (yesterday):
저는 한국에 오늘 도착했어요 = I arrived in Korea today

저는 도서관에 어제 갔어요 = I went to the library yesterday
저는 내일 한국어를 공부하겠어요 = I will study Korean tomorrow.
To what degree/How much

In addition to “when” and “where” adverbs, many adverbs can tell us to what degree something is
being done. These adverbs usually (but not always) end in ‘ly’ in English:
I ran really quickly

I ate fast
I left immediately
I often meet my friend on Thursday
I eat too much sometimes
When adding these types of adverbs to sentences, no particle needs to be attached.
While other adverbs are generally free to be placed anywhere in a sentence, adverbs like this that
indicate a degree to which something is done are typically placed immediately before the verb. For
example:
저는 저의 친구를 자주 만나요 = I meet my friend often
저는 밥을 많이 먹었어요 = I ate a lot of food (rice)
저는 집에 바로 갔어요 = I went home immediately
저는 숙제를 빨리 했어요 = I did my homework quickly
Also, many of these words are just transferred from their adjective forms to create an adverb. This is
done in English as well, for example:
Quick -> Quickly

Easy -> Easily
Quiet -> Quietly
A lot of adverbs in Korean are simply made by adding ‘게’ to the stem of an adjective:
Adjective Adverb
쉽다 = easy 쉽게 = easily
비슷하다 = similar 비슷하게 = similarly
다르다 = different 다르게 = differently

Adjectives that end in 하다 are sometimes changed into adverbs by changing 하다 to 히. With most
adjectives you can either add 게 to the stem or 히 with no difference in meaning. The only thing I can
suggest is try to listen to which one is said in a specific situation, because even Korean people don’t
know the answer to the question “what is the difference between 조용하게 and 조용히”:
Adjective Adverb
조용하다 = quiet 조용하게/조용히 = quietly
안전하다 = safe 안전하게/안전히 = safely
Finally, some adjectives are changed into adverbs in a different way. When this happens, they are
usually very similar to their original adjective form:
Adjective Adverb
많다 = many 많이 = many/a lot*
빠르다 = quick/fast 빨리 = quickly

*많다/많이 essentially have the same meaning aside from the fact that one is an adverb and one is
an adjective. Most of the time, the difference between the adjective and adverb form is very clear,
but with 많이/많다, the meaning is similar. See the following:
저는 많은 밥을 먹었어요 = I ate a lot of rice

저는 밥을 많이 먹었어요 = I ate a lot of rice.
Now that you know ALL that, using adverbs in sentences is easy as pie!:
저는 조용하게 먹었어요 = I ate quietly
저는 거리를 안전하게 건넜어요 = I crossed the street safely
저는 행복하게 살았어요 = I lived happily
You can, of course, use more than one adjective in a sentence. To look at the list I showed you
earlier:
저는 매우 빨리 달렸어요 = I ran really quickly

저는 빨리 먹었어요 = I ate fast
저는 바로 떠났어요 = I left immediately
저는 저의 친구를 목요일에 자주 만나요 = I often meet my friend on Thursday
저는 가끔 너무 많이 먹어요 = I eat too much sometimes
Though you can do that, using two adjectives that indicate the ‘degree of something’ is generally not
done in Korean. For example, this would sound awkward:
저는 거리를 쉽게 빨리 건넜어요 = I easily quickly crossed the street (It’s also awkward in English!)
.
.
Negative Sentences
There are two ways you can make a sentence negative:
1. By adding 안, which acts as an adverb in the sentence. 안 is typically placed immediately before
the final verb or adjective. For example:

그 여자는 안 예뻐요 = That girl isn’t pretty
저는 생선을 안 좋아해요 = I don’t like fish
저는 내일 학교에 안 가겠어요 = I’m not going to school tomorrow
2. By adding ~지 않다 to the stem of the final verb or adjective. 않다 then becomes the verb or
adjective in that sentence and must be conjugated accordingly. For example:
그 여자는 예쁘지 않아요 = That girl isn’t pretty

저는 생선을 좋아하지 않아요 = I don’t like fish
저는 내일 학교에 가지 않겠어요 = I’m not going to school tomorrow
Their respective meanings are identical. It is up to the speaker to decide which one will be used.
There are times when it will be more natural to use “안” and there will be times when it will be more
natural to use “~지 않다.” At this point, you can consider them the same. Throughout your studies
you will constantly be exposed to 안 and ~지 않다, and through this exposure you can gradually
develop a preference for which one should be used and in which circumstance.
I like to share my observations that I have made through my experiences with the Korean language.
I think this can be helpful to learners as they struggle to understand when to use some grammatical
principles over others. There are a few things I would like to talk about regarding these negative
sentences.
As you know, most verbs ending in ~하다 can be turned into a noun-form of that verb by removing
~하다. For example.
공부 = the noun form of “study”
실수하다 = to make a mistake

실수 = a mistake
여행하다 = to travel
여행 = a trip
When indicating that one “does not do” a ~하다 verb, it is common to separate ~하다 from the noun
and place “안” in between them. For example:
저는 공부를 안 했어요 = I didn’t study
Instead of:
저는 안 공부했어요
저는 실수를 안 했어요 = I didn’t make (do) a mistake

Instead of:
저는 안 실수했어요
저는 여행을 안 했어요 = I didn’t travel

Instead of:
저는 안 여행했어요
It would also be appropriate to use the ~지 않다 form with these words. However, in these cases, it
doesn’t matter if the noun is separated from ~하다 or not. For example.
저는 공부하지 않았어요 = I didn’t study

저는 공부를 하지 않았어요 = I didn’t study
저는 실수하지 않았어요 = I didn’t make a mistake
저는 실수를 하지 않았어요 = I didn’t make a mistake
저는 여행하지 않았어요 = I didn’t travel

저는 여행을 하지 않았어요 = I didn’t travel
Many adjectives end in ~하다. It is unnatural to remove the ~하다 in these words and place “안”
between them. You can’t separate an adjective and “act” on it with ~하다 because they are
adjectives. For example, the following would be incorrect:
저는 행복을 안 해요 (This does not mean “I am not happy”)
I have had people ask me about the word order of sentences using an adverb and the negative
adverb “안”. One learner asked me if this sentence would be okay:
저는 빨리 안 공부했어요
While it might be understood, this sentence sounds very awkward in Korean. The reason is probably
due to the fact that there are two adverbs being used. In this sentence, both “빨리” and “안” act as
adverbs that indicate the degree to which the studying was done. As I mentioned earlier, this usually
isn’t done in Korean. Instead, if you wanted to express that meaning, you can use the ~지않다
negative addition instead. By doing this, you effectively remove one of the adverbs and are left with:
저는 빨리 공부하지 않았어요 = I didn’t study quickly
Even still, though. This sentence could still be a little awkward in Korean – because when would you
ever say “I didn’t study quickly”? In most cases, it would be more natural to simply use an adverb
that has the opposite meaning. For example, this sentence:
저는 밥을 빨리 먹지 않았어요 = I didn’t eat (rice) quickly
Would be more naturally said as:
저는 밥을 천천히 먹었어요= I ate rice slowly
To not be: 아니다

아니다 (to not be) is the opposite of the word 이다 (to be), but they are used a little bit differently.
Remember that 이다 is always attached directly to a noun. For example:
나는 대학생이다 = I am a university student
However, when using 아니다, the particle ~이/가 is attached to the noun, and 아니다 is used as a
separate word:
나는 선생님이 아니다 = I am not a teacher

나는 대학생이 아니다 = I am not a university student
Below are some examples, with possible conjugations of 아니다. You have learned how to conjugate
verbs and adjectives, but you still haven’t learned how to conjugate 이다 and 아니다. You will learn
this in the next lesson.

나는 선생님이 아니다 = I am not a teacher
(저는 선생님이 아니에요)
나는 너의 친구가 아니다 = I am not your friend
(나는 너의 친구가 아니야)
나는 대학생이 아니다 = I am not a University Student
(저는 대학생이 아니에요)
To not have: 없다
Just like how 아니다 is the opposite of 이다 – 없다 is the opposite of 있다. In Lesson 5, you learned
some ways to use 있다. 없다 can indicate that one “does not have” something or that something
“wasn’t at a particular location.” For example:

To not have:
저는 돈이 없어요 = I don’t have money
저는 시간이 없어요 = I don’t have time
우리는 차가 없어요 = We don’t have a car
To not be in a location:
저의 친구는 지금 한국에 없어요 = My friend is not in Korea now
사람이 없었어요 = There was no people
To not like: 싫어하다 and 싫다

While we are talking about negative words, I want to talk about 싫어하다 quickly. “싫어하다” is a verb
that is used to indicate that one dislikes something. 싫어하다 is the opposite of 좋아하다 (to like).
For example:
저는 과일을 싫어해요 = I dislike fruit

저는 과일을 좋아해요 = I like fruit
In Lesson 3, you learned how 좋다 and 좋아하다 are different. I explained that 좋다 is an adjective
(meaning “to be good”), and thus cannot act on an object. For example:
그 선생님은 좋다 = That teacher is good
이 학교는 좋다 = This school is good
The adjective form of 싫어하다 is 싫다. However, contrary to what you probably expect, 싫다 is not
used to mean “to not be good.” In order to indicate that something is “not good” (i.e. “bad”), the
adjective 나쁘다 is commonly used. Instead, 싫다 is often used to indicate that one dislikes
something (just like 싫어하다). For example:
저는 과일이 싫어요 = I dislike fruit

Notice that because 싫다 is an adjective, it cannot act on an object, so the particles ~이/가 are
attached to the noun. This type of sentence is a little bit too complex right now, so I don’t want to dig
too deep into it. I discuss this more deeply in Lesson 15.
Be careful to not make double negative sentences. Although technically grammatically correct, this
one reads funny:
저는 과일을 싫어하지 않아요 = I don’t dislike fruit

That’s it for this lesson! I don’t think this one was very hard. I went easy on you!
Lesson 9: Conjugate 이다 (할 것이다)

Vocabulary
Nouns:
공장 = factory
열 = fever
극장 = theater
회사 = company
장소 = place/location
간판 = a sign
직업 = job
수업 = a class (that you 'take' or 'teach')
고기 = meat
돼지 = pig
돼지고기 = pork
소 = cow
소고기 = beef
꽃 = flowers
값 = price
땅콩 = peanut
축구(하다) = (to play) soccer
야구(하다) = (to play) baseball
여권 = passport
수건 = towel
체육 = physical education
지하철 = subway
Verbs:
되다 = to become
시작하다 = to start
행동하다 = to act
소개하다 = to introduce
발견하다 = to find
방문하다 = to visit
잃다 = to lose
잃어버리다 = to lose
벗다 = to take off one's clothes
웃다 = to laugh
Adjectives:
부끄럽다 = to be shy
건강하다 = to be healthy
예쁘다 = to be pretty
Adverbs:
미래 = future
이제 = now
현재 = now/present
Conjugating 이다
이다 is conjugated differently than other verbs/adjectives. Not just when conjugating, but when doing
other things to 이다, it usually behaves in another way (you will learn about those other things later).
As of now, the only conjugation you know for 이다 is the plain form in the present tense:
If the last letter of the noun before 이다 ends in a vowel, you can eliminate 이. For example:
나는 의사다 = I am a doctor
나는 의사이다 = I am a doctor
Both of the above can be seen as correct. Here, the pronunciation of “이” is merging with the
pronunciation of the vowel in the noun. If you pronounce the two sentences above, you can see that
there is very little difference.
Conversely, if the last letter of the noun before 이다 is a consonant, this merging cannot happen. For
example:
나는 선생님이다 = I am a teacher (correct)

나는 선생님다 – incorrect
This merging of 이다 does not happen because it has nothing to merge with. Furthermore, if you try
to pronounce “선생님다”, it just doesn’t flow properly. It is hard to get your mouth to move from the
“ㅁ” sound immediately to the “ㄷ” sound. This same principle occurs in other conjugations of 이다,
but it is a little bit more complex.
In almost every case, you can conjugate 이다 differently depending on if the noun it is being
attached to ends in a vowel or consonant. The reason they are conjugated differently is similar to the
example above with 의사다 vs. 의사이다. Here, the pronunciation of “이” is being merged with
something, and can therefore disappear. You will learn about each conjugation specifically, but I will
give you an example here to prepare you for all the future explanations. Try not to worry about the
meanings of these sentences, and just focus on what I am presenting.
As you will learn later, when conjugating 이다 into the past tense in the plain form, “었다” is added to
the stem of “이다” (이). This is actually quite simple for you to understand, because every other verb
and adjective follows this same rule. For example:
의사이었다
선생님이었다
However, the pronunciation of 이었다 can merge to “였다” when the noun that it is being attached to
ends in a vowel. For example, both of these are correct:
의사이었다
의사였다
Pronounce both of those, and listen to how little of a difference there is between the two. Not only
that, the pronunciation of both of those is very easy and it flows off the tongue.
Conversely, 이 and 었다 cannot merge when the noun it is added to ends in a consonant. For
example:
선생님이었다 – correct
선생님였다 – incorrect
Pronounce both of those and listen the difference. Not only that,‘선생님였다’ is hard to pronounce. It
is difficult to move your mouth from the ㅁ sound directly to the 여 sound. It is much easier to
pronounce it like this: 나는 선생님-이-었-다.
Although I am only talking about the past tense plain form in this example, this same rule applies in
many situations. If you keep this in mind when learning the conjugations in this lesson, they will be
much easier to grasp.
이다 Present Tense
Conjugating 이다 to the present tense is relatively confusing compared to the past tense because
new syllables are added with no real logic behind them. Whereas past conjugations are simply done
by connecting the stem “이” to the typical past tense addition of “었다”, present tense conjugations
have additions that are not seen with any other verb or adjective. Let’s talk about these first.
Informal Low Respect

Add ~이야 to a word ending in a consonant, or ~(이)야 to a word ending in a vowel:
나는 좋은 학생이야 = I am a good student

그것은 책이야 = That thing is a book
나는 선생님이야 = I am a teacher
이것은 여권이야 = This is a passport
그것은 사과야 = That thing is an apple
나는 의사야 = I am a doctor
야구는 좋은 스포츠야 = Baseball is a good sport
When conjugating “아니다” in this respect, you simply add “~야” to “아니다:”
나는 학생이 아니야 = I am not a student

그것은 책이 아니야 = That thing is not a book
Informal High Respect

Add ~이에요 to a word ending in a consonant, or ~예요 to a word ending in a vowel:
그것은 사진이에요 = That thing is a picture

저는 선생님이에요 = I am a teacher
저는 좋은 학생이에요 = I am a good student
이 사람은 저의 누나예요 = This (person) is my sister
저는 의사예요 = I am a doctor
저것은 사과예요 = That thing is an apple
When conjugating “아니다” in this respect, you simply add ~에요 to 아니다:
저는 학생이 아니에요 = I am not a student

Note that Korean people are often confused if they need to add “~예요” or “~에요” to 아니다.
Therefore, it is not uncommon to see somebody use “아니예요.”
Formal High Respect
Add ~입니다 (~이 + ~ㅂ니다) to words ending in a vowel or consonant:
저는 의사입니다 = I am a doctor
그 사람은 저의 형입니다 = That person is my brother
저는 선생님입니다 = I am a teacher
저는 좋은 학생입니다 = I am a good student
이 고기는 돼지고기입니다 = This meat is pork
With words ending in vowels, you can eliminate ~이 and attach ~ㅂ니다 directly to the word. This is
more commonly done in conversation, and not usually written.
When conjugating “아니다” in this respect, you must add “~ㅂ니다” directly to “아니다.” For example:
저는 의사가 아닙니다 = I am not a doctor

저는 학생이 아닙니다 = I am not a student
그것은 저의 직업이 아닙니다 = That (thing) is not my job
그것은 저의 여권이 아닙니다 = That (thing) is not my passport
그 건물은 극장이 아닙니다 = That building is not a theater
.
.
이다 Past Tense
Conjugating 이다 to the past tense is simple, and is done by connecting ~이 to ~었~. When the last
syllable in a word ends in a vowel, ~이 + ~었 can combine to make ~였.
Informal Low Respect

Add ~이었어 to all words. If the word ends in a vowel, ~이었어 can contract to ~였어.
나는 바쁜 선생님이었어 = I was a busy teacher

나는 학생이었어 = I was a student
나는 선생님이었어 = I was a teacher
나는 나쁜 애기였어 = I was a bad baby
나는 나쁜 의사였어 = I was a bad doctor
Informal High Respect
This conjugation is the same as above (Informal Low Respect), except for that “~요” is added to the
end of ~이었 or ~였. That is, you should add ~이었어요 to all words. If the word ends in a vowel,
~이었어요 can contract to ~였어요.
그것은 큰 비밀이었어요 = That was a big secret

저는 선생님이었어요 = I was a teacher
저는 의사였어요 = I was a doctor
저는 나쁜 애기였어요 = I was a bad baby
Plain Form
Same as above, but you should add the regular “~다” ending instead of “~어요.” That is, you should
add ~이었다 to all words. If the word ends in a vowel, ~이었다 can contract to ~였다.
나는 선생님이었다 = I was a teacher

나는 의사였다 = I was a doctor
Formal High Respect

add ~이었습니다 to all words. If the word ends in a vowel, ~이었습니다 can contract to ~였습니다다.
저는 선생님이었습니다 = I was a teacher

저는 의사였습니다 = I was a doctor
In all situations in the past tense, 아니다 is conjugated just like any other word. An example of each
respect:
나는 학생이 아니었어
나는 학생이 아니었다
저는 학생이 아니었어요
저는 학생이 아니었습니다
The weird thing is that Korean speakers sometimes would use these:
나는 학생이 아니였어
나는 학생이 아니였다
저는 학생이 아니였어요
저는 학생이 아니였습니다
Just going by the rules of the language, I’d have to assume that the first set is correct. I base this on
the fact that in no other word do we add “~였~” to a stem. In other words, “~였~” is created from “이
+ 었,” but it is never added as a stand-alone thing.
How to actually conjugate verbs/adjectives to the Future Tense

In Lesson 6, you learned how to conjugate words to the future tense by adding
겠어/겠어요/겠다/겠습니다 to the word stem. Though adding ~겠~ to a word stem is one way to
conjugate words to the future, there is a more common way to conjugate to do this!
Before learning how to do to this, you needed to learn more grammar first (namely, how to conjugate
이다 properly). Either way, ~겠~ is still used in Korean, but not as much as the method you are
about to learn.
For verbs or adjectives, when conjugating into the future tense, you must first add ~ㄹ/을 to the stem
of the word.
When you add ~ㄹ/을 to a word stem, ~ㄹ gets attached directly to stems ending in a vowel, and ~을
gets added onto stems ending in a consonant. For example:
가다 ends in a vowel, so
가다 + ㄹ = 갈
먹다 ends in a consonant, so
먹다 + 을 = 먹을
There is also one irregular involved with adding ㄹ/을 to a stem. You were introduced to this irregular
briefly inLesson 7, but I could not teach it to you perfectly because you didn’t know about ~ㄹ/을 at
that point.
If a stem ends in a final consonant that is ㄹ, when adding ~ㄹ/을, you actually don’t add anything.
That sounds weird, but it is true. Check it out.

갈다 is a word where the stem ends in a consonant, so you would normally add 을:
갈 + 을 = 갈을
But saying this is weird. Try to pronounce that: 갈을.
Instead, it is way easier to just say 갈.
Anyways, that’s it for the irregular.
——————-
This is going to sound extremely complicated (and it is): adding ~ㄹ/을 to the stem of an adjective
changes it to a word that can describe a noun in the future tense. For example:
행복한 사람 = happy person

행복할 사람 = a person that will be happy
Similarly, (this is where it gets complicated) adding ~ㄹ/~을 to a stem of a verb turns it into a word
that can describe a noun in the future:

먹을 음식 = the food that will be eaten.
——————-
If you can’t understand the explanation between the lines – don’t worry. That level of grammar is
very difficult to grasp at this stage of learning. That grammar will be discussed very deeply
in Lessons 26 – 29. If you want to jump ahead to those lessons, feel free. However, the mechanics
within the grammar are not important to you yet.
– Adding ~ㄹ/~을 to the stem of an adjective allows that adjective to describe a noun in the future
tense
– Adding ~ㄹ/~을 to the stem of a verb allows that verb to describe a noun in the future tense
– Because these newly formed words can describe nouns, they must be followed by a noun
What does all this have to do with conjugating into the future?
When Korean people conjugate to the future, they usually do so by adding ~ㄹ/~을 to a
verb/adjective.
This is essentially the same as adding ㄴ/은 to an adjective stem which you already know: (좋다 ->
좋은).
You should know, however, that you cannot end a sentence like this:
나는 좋은
Because 좋은 is an adjective that modifies a noun, a noun must follow 좋은:

나는 좋은 사람
Now, to end the sentence, you need to add 이다 to the noun:

나는 좋은 사람이다 = I am a good person.
So, again, when Korean people conjugate verbs/adjectives to the future, they usually do so by
adding ~ㄹ/~을 to the word stem:
나는 행복할
나는 먹을
나는 공부할
But this changes verbs/adjectives into an adjectives that describe nouns. Therefore, (just like 좋은) a
noun mustfollow these words. The noun that is always used in this situation is 것 (thing):
나는 행복할 것
나는 먹을 것
나는 공부할 것
Now, to end those sentences, you need to add 이다 to the noun:
나는 행복할 것이다
나는 먹을 것이다
나는 공부할 것이다
If you try to directly translate these sentences to English, they have the meaning:
I am a thing who will be happy

I am a thing who will eat
I am a thing who will study
But there actual meanings are:
나는 행복할 것이다 = I will be happy

나는 먹을 것이다 = I will eat
나는 공부할 것이다 = I will study
The 이다 can then be conjugated based on the level of politeness or formality. But keep in mind that
even though this sentence is conjugated into the future, the 이다 should stay in the present tense.
Because the ~ㄹ/을 creates a future sentence, 이다 does not need to be in the future.
것 is also sometimes shortened to 거, for no other reason than it is easier to say and creates a
shorter sentence. For example, these two are exactly the same:
저는 밥을 먹을 것이에요 = I will eat rice

저는 밥을 먹을 거예요 = I will eat rice
Notice that ~이에요 is added when 것 (which ends in a consonant) is used and ~예요 is added
when 거 (which ends in a vowel) is used. This is the same rule that you learned earlier in the
lesson when conjugating 이다 depending on if the final letter of a noun ends in a consonant or vowel.
Note that Korean people are often confused if they need to

add “~이에요,” or “~예요” or “~에요” to 거 in these cases. Therefore, it is not uncommon to see
somebody use “할 거에요.”
Other examples:
나는 내일 친구를 만날 것이야 = I will meet my friend tomorrow

나는 내일 친구를 만날 거야 = I will meet my friend tomorrow
저는 내일 학교에 갈 것입니다 = I will go to school tomorrow
저는 영어를 공부할 거예요 = I will study English
Irregulars come into play when adding ~ㄹ/을 to a verb or adjective because of the possibility of
adding a vowel to a stem. Let’s look at the word “걷다” as an example. 걷다 has a consonant as its
final letter, which means that ~을 must be added (instead of ~ㄹ). Therefore, we end up with:
걷을
Because of this, we now have the final consonant “ㄷ” followed by a vowel, which causes the ㄷ
irregular to be applied. The correct conjugation of 걷다 + ~ㄹ/을 것이다 is therefore “걸을 것이다.”
Below is a table that shows how ~ㄹ/을 effects each of the irregulars that you learned in Lesson 7.
Irregular Example Word Does this apply? Application
ㅅ Irregular 짓다 (build) YES 지을 것이다
ㄷ Irregular 걷다 (walk) YES 걸을 것이다
ㅂ Irregular 쉽다 (easy) YES 쉬울 것이다
ㅡ Irregular 잠그다 (lock) NO 잠글 것이다

르 Irregular 부르다 (call) NO 부를 것이다
ㄹ Irregular 열다 (open) YES 열 것이다
Here is one example sentence:
저는 문을 열 거예요 = I will open the door (열 + 을 = 열)
Future 이다 – Using 되다
Conjugating 이다 to the future tense is the same as is done above, but it is also possible to use
another verb; 되다. 되다 is one of the hardest words in Korean, mainly because it has so many
meanings. You will be introduced to each of these meanings as you progress through our lessons,
but the first meaning of ‘되다’ is “to become”… which is slightly different than “to be”. Let me
introduce the word “되다” to you by showing you examples of it being used in the past tense:
(Note the way 되다 is used. ~이/가 is attached to the noun that the subject “becomes” instead
of ~를/을)
저는 선생님이 되었어요 = I became a teacher
Which is slightly different than:
저는 선생님이었어요 = I was a teacher
Very similar, but the difference between “to become” and “to be” (which in this case is in the past
tense of ‘was’) is “become” suggests that prior to that time, the situation was different. I’m sure you
get it, but let me describe it using English examples:
I became a teacher last year

I was a teacher last year
(The reason I am explaining this using English examples instead of Korean is because you haven’t
learned the word “last year” in Korean yet).
When you say “I became a teacher last year”, you are indicating that – before last year you were not
a teacher – but last year you became a teacher.
When you say “I was a teacher last year”, you are not specifying if you were a teacher before that
time as well, or even if you are still a teacher. All you are specifying is that you were a teacher last
year, and no other information is given.
되다 can be used in the present tense as well (and again differs slightly from 이다), but most of the
natural sentences require the use of grammatical principles that you haven’t learned yet, so I am not
going to introduce them to you here.
Anyways, the whole purpose of this is to explain how this applies to the future tense. First off, it is
awkward to conjugate 이다 to the future tense using ~겠다. For example, this sounds awkward in
Korean:
나는 선생님이겠다
If you want to say that something “will be” something in the future, because of the nature of the word
“되다” there is no real difference if you use 되다 or 이다. For example:
저는 곧 선생님이 될 것입니다 = I will become a teacher soon

저는 곧 선생님일 거예요 = I will be a teacher soon
Other examples:
나는 미래에 의사가 될 거야 = I will become a doctor in the future
나는 미래에 의사일 거야 = I will be a doctor in the future
한국이 곧 좋은 나라가 될 것이다 = Korea will become a good country soon
한국이 곧 좋은 나라일 것이다 = Korea will be a good country soon
이 장소는 공원이 될 것이다 = This place will become a park
이 장소는 공원일 것이다 = This place will be a park
I just want to point out here that the “일” you are seeing above is not the word “일“. Rather it is the
future conjugation (using the conjugation taught in the lesson) of 이다. 선생님이다 becomes 선생님
+ 이다 + ~ㄹ/을 것이다.
At this point it is hard to create more example sentences because you don’t know many words that
describe times in the future. Once you learn how to say words like “next year” or “a few months from
now”, you will be able to apply this same format of sentences to create sentences like:
This place will become a park next year
I will become a doctor in a few months
However, introducing those words is a lesson in itself, and I don’t want to overload this lesson even
more than I already have.
The sentences above using 이다 and 되다 in the future tense can be used to make negative
sentences as well. When making the negative form of a 되다 sentence, you can just add 안 or ~지
않다 just like with any other verb or adjective. When making the negative form of an 이다 sentence,
you should use 아니다. You can change each pair of sentences above to a negative sentence. For
example:
나는 미래에 의사가 되지 않을 거야 = I won’t become a doctor in the future

나는 미래에 의사가 아닐 거야 = I won’t be a doctor in the future
한국이 곧 좋은 나라가 되지 않을 거야 = Korea won’t become a good country soon

한국이 곧 좋은 나라가 아닐 거야 = Korea won’t be a good country soon
이 장소는 공원이 되지 않을 거야 = This place won’t become a park

이 장소는 공원이 아닐 거야 = This place won’t be a park
Those sentences, while kind of ridiculous, are all grammatically correct. I can’t think of any time
when you would actually want to say a sentence like that, but they are all possible if the right
situation came up. Most of the time, there would be a better way to say each of the sentences above.
For example, instead of saying:
나는 미래에 의사가 되지 않을 거야 = I won’t become a doctor in the future
It would probably be more natural to say something like “I don’t want to become a doctor in the
future.” You will learn how to say this, and other grammatical principles that can make your speech
more natural as you progress along with your studies. For now, try to understand what is being done
grammatically, and don’t worry too much about when you would actually use a sentence like that.
One other quick thing; and I really don’t want to spend too much time on this because I have already
overwhelmed you with grammar in this lesson. However, the future conjugation of 이다 is introduced
in this lesson and I feel this needs to be talked about here. By using the future ~ㄹ/을 것이다
conjugation on 이다, you can also create a sentence where the speaker is guessing about a certain
situation in the present tense. Look at some examples first:
그 사람이 의사일 거예요 = That person is probably/most likely a doctor

그것은 여권일 거예요 = That thing is probably/most likely a passport
문제는 돈일 거예요 = The problem is probably/most likely money
These sentences as well can be said using 아니다 instead of 이다:
그 사람이 의사가 아닐 거야 = That person is probably/most likely not a doctor
그것은 여권이 아닐 거야 = That thing is probably/most likely not a passport
문제는 돈이 아닐 거야 = The problem is probably/most likely not money
Notice that in these cases the speaker is not talking about him/herself. Also, even though the
sentence is conjugated into the future tense, the speaker is guessing that something is the case in
the present tense. Thus, it is weird to include time indicators in these sentences (for example “next
year” or “in a few months from now”) because the speaker is not trying to create this meaning.
The question then becomes – how can I distinguish if somebody is saying one of these “guessing”
sentences or saying “something will become something”. You will learn continuously throughout your
Korean studies that understanding a Korean sentence is all about context – and the situation almost
always makes it clear what the speaker wants to express.
At this point though, I don’t want you to focus too much on these guessing-like sentences because
they are probably too advanced for you right now. I suggest focusing on how to use the ~ㄹ/을
것이다 form to conjugate verbs/adjectives into the future tense – and realize that 되다 can be used
instead of 이다 when conjugating to the future tense.
Lesson 10: Korean Numbers

Vocabulary
The vocabulary in this section does not need to be separated. In my mind, they would all fall under
the category of “Other.”
하나 = one
둘 = two
셋 = three
넷 = four
다섯 = five
여섯 = six
일곱 = seven
여덟 = eight
아홉 = nine
열 = ten
스물 = twenty
서른 = thirty
마흔 = forty
쉰 = fifty
일 = one
이 = two
삼 = three
사 = four
오 = five
육 = six
칠 = seven
팔 = eight
구 = nine
십 = ten
백 = one hundred
천 = one thousand
만 = ten thousand
영 = zero
공 = zero
Click on the English words below to see information and examples of that word in use. You probably
won’t be able to understand the grammar within the sentences at this point, but seeing words being
used in sentences is very helpful for understanding how they can be used.
처음 = the first time/beginning
마지막 = last
번째 = counter for 1st/2nd/3rd/etc..
첫 번째 = first (1st)
두 번째 = second (2nd)
개 = counter for things
번 = counter for behaviors/actions
명 = counter for people
대 = counter for automobiles
잔 = counter for a ‘glass’ of ____
시 = “o’clock”
분 = minute
초 = second
살 = years old
Korean Numbers
Korean numbers are actually very easy once you get the hang of them. But, because they are so
different from English numbers, it is often hard for English speakers to fully understand them at first.
First thing you need to know, there are two sets of numbers in Korean: The pure Korean numbers
and the numbers derived from Chinese (called Sino-Korean numbers). Let’s look at the Sino-Korean
numbers first, because they are easier:
Sino-Korean Numbers
These are the Sino-Korean numbers as provided earlier:
일 = one
이 = two
삼 = three
사 = four
오 = five
육 = six
칠 = seven
팔 = eight
구 = nine
십 = ten
백 = one hundred
천 = one thousand
만 = ten thousand
With only those numbers, you can create any number from 1 – 10 million. All you need to do is put
them together:
일 = one (1)
십 = ten (10)
십일 = eleven (10 + 1)
이십 = twenty (2 x 10)
이십일 = twenty one (2 x 10 + 1)
이십이 = twenty two (2 x 10 + 2)
백 = one hundred (100)
백일 = one hundred and one (100 + 1)
백이 = one hundred and two (100 + 2)
백구십 = one hundred and ninety (100 + 90)
구백 = nine hundred (9 x 100)
천 = one thousand (1000)
천구백 = one thousand nine hundred (1000 + 9 x 100)
오천 = five thousand (5 x 1000)
오천육백 = five thousand six hundred (5 x 1000 + 6 x 100)
만 = ten thousand
십만 = one hundred thousand
백만 = one million
천만 = ten million
The Sino-Korean numbers are used in limited situations. As each of these are taught throughout the
upcoming lessons, you will slowly learn when to use the Sino-Korean numbers over the Korean
numbers. For now, don’t worry about memorizing when they should be used, as it will come naturally.
– When counting/dealing with money

– When measuring
– When doing math
– In phone-numbers
– When talking about/counting time in any way except the hour
– The names of each month
– Counting months (there is another way to count months using pure Korean numbers)
Pure Korean Numbers

These are the pure Korean numbers as provided earlier:
하나 = one
둘 = two
셋 = three
넷 = four
다섯 = five
여섯 = six
일곱 = seven
여덟 = eight
아홉 = nine
열 = ten
스물 = twenty
서른 = thirty
마흔 = forty
쉰 = fifty
Creating numbers 11-19, 21-29, 31-39 (etc..) is easy, and is done like this:
11: 열하나 (10 + 1)

12: 열둘 (10 + 2)
21: 스물하나 (20 + 1)
59: 쉰아홉 (50 + 9)
Notice that there are no spaces between the words representing numbers for both the Sino-Korean
and pure Korean numbers. This is true, but only extends so far. I’ll discuss this in a later lesson. For
now, it is more important to focus on how to use simple numbers in sentences.
After 60, regardless of what you are doing, pure Korean numbers are rarely used. I was talking to my
wife about this once, and she said that she didn’t think there was even a pure Korean number for 60.
I told her “yes, there is: 예순.” To which she replied “Oh yeah, I forgot.” When you get that high (even
as high as 40-50) it is not uncommon to use the Sino-Korean numbers instead.

The pure Korean numbers are used when:
– You are counting things/people/actions

– Talking about the hour in time
– Sometimes used when talking about months.
Again, don’t worry about memorizing each of those yet. Whenever I talk about numbers, I will tell you
which set you are expected to use.
.
.
Using Numbers
Counters
When counting anything in Korean, you need to use the pure Korean numbers. In addition, one thing
that is very hard for English speakers to wrap their head around is that, when counting most things in
Korean, you need to also include a ‘counter.’ The most common counters are:
개 = counter for things

명 = counter for people
번 = counter for behaviors/actions
There are many more counters, but if you can’t remember the specific counter of something, you can
usually substitute “개” (the counter for “thing”) instead. You will learn the more difficult counters as
you progress through future lessons. For now, the goal is to get you accustomed to using these
three simple counters.
When counting in English, we usually don’t use counters. Rather we just say: “two people,” as in:
I met two people
But some things in English require the use of these counters. For example, you could not say “I
bought two films” (referring to the film in a camera, not a ‘movie’). Instead, you have to say “I bought
two rolls of film.” The word roll in that sentence is a counter, and is similar to the counters in Korean.
The main difference is that counters are used to count almost everything in Korean.
The words 1, 2, 3, 4 and 20 change when adding a counter:
1 = 하나 -> 한
2 = 둘 -> 두
3 = 셋 -> 세
4 = 넷 -> 네
20 = 스물 -> 스무
All counters can be written in 2 different ways with no difference in meaning:
사람 두 명 OR 두 명의 사람 = 2 people
사람 한 명 OR 한 명의 사람 = 1 person
펜 다섯 개 OR 다섯 개의 펜 = 5 pens
펜 마흔네 개 OR 마흔네 개의 펜 = 44 pens
When writing out the word instead of using the numeral (for example, writing “한” instead of “1”) the
correct form is to have a space between the written number and the counter. For example:
한 개 instead of 한개
두 번 instead of 두번
세 명 instead of 세명
When the Korean numbers are used (i.e. when counting things or actions), the numeral is more
typically used than the word. In our lessons, you will usually see the Korean word written out when a
counter is used.
In other situations where Sino-Korean numbers are used, there is no difference if you use the Sino-
Korean numeral or the word. I will come back to this in the next lesson when you learn applications
for Sino-Korean numbers.
These nouns that we have counted can now become the object of a sentence:
나는 펜 네 개를 샀어 = I bought four pens

나는 햄버거 두 개를 먹었어 = I ate two hamburgers
나는 어제 친구 다섯 명을 만났어 = I met five friends yesterday
OR
나는 네 개의 펜을 샀어 = I bought four pens

나는 두 개의 햄버거를 먹었어 = I ate two hamburgers
나는 어제 다섯 명의 친구를 만났어 = I met five friends yesterday
Notice the difference in placement of ~를/을 in the first and second examples.
Although the placement of the particles is important for your initial understanding of Korean grammar,
eventually, you will become more comfortable with omitting particles altogether. Omitting particles is
not something I recommend for a beginner because it is very important that you understand how to
use them perfectly for more complex sentences. Nonetheless, most often in speech, particles in this
situation are often omitted. For example, you might hear something like this:
나는 펜 네 개 샀어 = I bought 4 pens
But like I said, at this stage, it is crucial that you continue to use particles in all of your sentences so
you can continue to familiarize yourself with them.
Here are some more examples of counters in use:
그 사람은 차 네 대가 있어요 = That person has four cars

저는 우유 두 잔을 샀어요 = I bought two glasses of milk
저는 땅콩 두 개를 먹었어요 = I ate two peanuts
Zero
I figure since I am talking about numbers, I should mention something about how/when the number
zero is used. Just like other numbers, there are two ways to say “zero” in Korea. However, unlike
other numbers, both ways of saying “zero” are of Chinese origin.
영, which is (from what I understand), the way Chinese people say “zero”
공, which is sort of like the meaning of “nothing”
That isn’t really very important, but what is important is knowing which word to use in which situation.
You should use “영” when talking about:
 Points that can be given or taken away, like in a game. For example, when saying the score “2 – 0”,
you would say “이 대 영”. Another example would be if you are in a quiz show, and you ask your
friend how many points she has, she could say “영점”
 The temperature “zero”

 When using numbers in math (which, if you’re just learning Korean now, you probably won’t do for a
long time)
You should use “공” when talking about:
 Phone numbers. For example, when saying “010 – 5555 – 5555”, all the zeros should be read as
“공.” If you don’t live in Korea, you probably won’t know this, but “010” is the typical area code for a
cell phone (in Seoul, at least). Therefore, when giving your phone number, you usually start out by
saying “공-일-공”.
번 – Counter of Behavior or Action

번 is a common counter that counts behavior or actions, and is not directly counted with a noun in a
sentence. Putting a number before “번” creates an adverb that tells you how many times something
was done. It is an adverb, so 를/을 is usually not attached to it.
저는 어제 학교에 세 번 갔어요 = I went to school three times yesterday

저는 그 영화를 다섯 번 봤어요 = I saw that movie five times
저는 오늘 두 번 운동할 것입니다 = I will exercise twice (two times) today
저는 어제 고기를 두 번 먹었어요 = I ate meat twice yesterday
저는 오늘 축구를 네 번 할 거예요 = I will play soccer four times
This is fairly simple to use, but you will continue to learn about this word in the next lesson when you
learn how to say “this time,” “next time,” and “last time.”
Telling Korean Time

There are so many different ways to talk about time (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months,
years, etc…). You will learn more about how to indicate when you did/do/will do something using
these ‘time’ words in thenext lesson. In this lesson, however, you will learn about telling time, as in
the time on a clock.
When talking about the hour, as in ‘2 o’clock’ all you need to do is put 시 after a number:
2 시 = 2:00 (2 o’clock)
When talking about the minute, add 분 after the number:

2 시 30 분 = 2:30
The pure Korean numbers are used when saying the hour number, whereas the Sino-Korean
numbers are used when saying the minute number. For example:
2 시 30 분 = 2:30, or
두 시 삼십 분 = Two thirty
Earlier in the lesson I said that when a pure Korean number is used with a counter, it is more
commonly written out instead of using the numeral. In this case, “시” could be seen as a counter as
we are counting “hours.” However, writing the numeral or the word is equally as common and
acceptable when referring to the time. In my case, I much prefer to use the numeral instead of the
word.
To indicate the minute, Sino-Korean numbers are used and (just like all times when Sino-Korean
numbers are used) there is no difference if you use the numeral or the word. I prefer to use the
numeral in these cases.
The spacing of these also needs to be discussed. As I mentioned earlier, when a written number is
placed before a counter, there should be a space between the number and the counter. This is true
for the number before “분” as well. For example, if you were writing the words out:
두 시 should be written instead of 두시

삼십 분 should be written instead of 삼십분
However, when using the numeral, it is acceptable to omit the space and attach the numeral directly
with the following counter. For example:
2 시 30 분
Officially, there should be a space. However, most people do not include a space and it is also seen
as correct to omit it. Other examples:
3 시 10 분 = 3:10
세 시 십 분 = Three ten
12 시 50 분 = 12:50
열두 시 오십 분 = Twelve fifty
You will see more examples of this in the next lesson when you learn more applications of numbers
(specifically Sino-Korean numbers). If you can’t get it into your brain yet, it will be easier when you
see more examples in the next lesson.
These times can now go in a sentence as usual by adding 에 to indicate a time:
나는 5 시에 먹을 거야 = I will eat at 5:00

나는 2 시 30 분에 왔어 = I came at 2:30
우리는 야구를 1 시에 할 거예요 = We will play baseball at 1:00
우리는 7 시 20 분에 시작할 거예요 = We will start at 7:20
Age
When indicating how old a person is, you should use pure Korean numbers along with the word “살”
which is a counter for ages. For example:
저는 열 살이에요 = I am ten years old

저의 여자 친구는 스물여섯 살이에요 = My girlfriend is twenty six years old
It would sound weird to use the Sino-Korean numbers to indicate the age of somebody who is under
thirty. However, after thirty, it is not uncommon to use the Sino-Korean numbers instead of the pure
Korean numbers. The older the age, the more likely you will hear the Sino-Korean number used
instead of the pure Korean number. After 50, you are most likely to exclusively hear the Sino-Korean
numbers.
You haven’t learned how to ask questions yet, so it is difficult for me to explain how to ask about a
person’s age. You will understand the following sentence better once you are confident with the
content introduced in Lessons 21 and 22. Nonetheless, it would be good to memorize this sentence
because of how common of a question it is:
(나이가) 몇 살이에요? = How old are you?
번째: First, Second, Third, etc…

번째 can be used after a number like a counter to mean first/second/third/etc. When saying “first”,
“첫” replaces “한”.
For example:
첫 번째 = first
저의 첫 번째 친구는 착했어요 = My first friend was nice
저는 첫 번째 차를 싫어했어요 = I didn’t like that first car
If you think that is confusing, explain how ‘one’ gets changed to ‘first,’ ‘two’ gets changed to ‘second’
and ‘three’ gets changed to ‘third.’
After “first,” you can use the regular Korean numbers. Just like with counters, the numbers 2 – 4
change when 번째 follows. For example:
두 번째 = second
그 두 번째 선생님은 똑똑했어요 = That second teacher was smart
저는 두 번째 남자를 골랐어요 = I chose the second man
세 번째 = third
이 여권은 저의 세 번째 여권이에요 = This is my third passport
저는 세 번째 문을 열었어요 = I opened the third door
네 번째 = fourth
저는 네 번째 사람이었어요 = I was the fourth person
이 아이는 저의 네 번째 아들이에요 = This person is my fourth son
After the number four, the words don’t change when adding 번째. For example:
이 수업은 오늘 저의 열 번째 수업입니다 = This is my tenth class today

저는 백 번째 페이지를 읽었어요 = I read the 100 page
th
Sometimes you might see these numbers + counters used in the following way:
첫 번째 = 첫째 = first
두 번째 = 둘째 = second
세 번째 = 셋째 = third
네 번째 = 넷째 = fourth
etc.…
These shortened formed can’t be used in as many situations as their longer counterparts. The most
common situation where these are used is when talking about your first/second/third/etc children.
For example:
우리 둘째 아들은 고등학생이에요 = Our second son is a high school student
우리 셋째 아이는 야구를 좋아해요 = Our third child likes baseball
이 아이는 우리 첫째 아들이에요 = This (child) is our first son
In these cases, it is common to just refer to the child as “one’s first” or “one’s second.” We often do
the same thing in English. For example:
우리 둘째는 고등학생이에요 = Our second (child) is a high school student

우리 셋째는 야구를 좋아해요 = Our third (child) likes baseball
이 아이는 우리 첫째예요 = This (child) is our first (child)
However, as I mentioned, it would be unnatural to use these words in sentences like this:
저는 셋째 문을 열었어요 (very understandable, but awkward)

저는 넷째 사람이었어요 (very understandable, but awkward)
Another place you will see words like 첫째 and 둘째 is when making lists about things that need to
be done, and the speaker/writer is indicating “Firstly… and then secondly…” For example:
첫째, 저는 야채를 많이 먹겠습니다 = First, I will eat a lot of vegetables

둘째, 저는 매일 운동하겠습니다 = Second, I will exercise everyday
I didn’t make audio recordings for the above sentences because I feel they would more likely be
written than spoken.
Another useful word is 마지막 which often translates to ‘last.’ It is often confusing for English
speakers to understand the usage of 마지막 at first because the word “last” has more than one
usage in English. 마지막 is used to refer to the final (last) thing at the end of sequence… as in “first
meal… second meal… third meal… fourth meal… final (last) meal.” It is not used to refer to a
“previous” thing. Notice the difference between these two usages of “last night”:
Last night (the previous night) I went to the movies
The last night (the final night) of our trip was the best
The second example would be where you could use 마지막, because you are referring to
the final(last) night of a sequence of nights on a trip. In the first example, you are talking about the
previous night. I will introduce how you can refer to a “previous” thing in the next lesson where I
introduce 지난.
Here are some examples of 마지막 in use:
이것은 저의 마지막 수업이에요 = This is my last class
저는 마지막 것을 안 봤어요 = I didn’t see the last thing (I didn’t see that last one)
In these examples, 마지막 is being used as a descriptive word, even though it is not an adjective in
its original form (it is not an adjective because it does not end in 다, and cannot be conjugated).
Words can be used this way in English as well. The word “face” is a noun. But in the sentence “I put
on face paint,” the word “face” describes the type of paint you used. Similarly, you could say “that is
a computer room,” where the word “computer” is describing the room.
처음– First Time

처음 is a very complex word that be used in many situations. I have been studying Korean for years
and I still don’t know how to use it perfectly in all situations. It can be used in sentences when you
are talking about the first time something is being done. It can be used as a noun or an adverb,
depending on the situation (which adds to it’s complexity). The two most common situations are:
1) 처음에 … (at first/in the beginning)

처음에 그 여자를 싫어했어요 = I didn’t like that girl at first
저는 처음에 체육 수업을 싫어했어요 = At first I didn’t like PE class
2) Put in a sentence as an adverb to indicate this is the first time something has happened:
저는 어제 선생님을 처음 만났어요 = I met my teacher for the first time yesterday
저는 내일 한국에 처음 갈 것입니다 = I will go to Korea for the first time tomorrow
You’ve gotten this far! You can’t stop now! Haha. The learning curve now is still fairly steep, but it will
get much easier in the future. As I keep saying, having a good solid base in the fundamental
grammar concepts of Korean will help you tons later on!
Lesson 11: 동안, Seconds, Minutes, Hours,

Days, Weeks, Months, Years
Vocabulary
Months of the year:
1 월 (일월) = January
2 월 (이월) = February
3 월 (삼월) = March
4 월 (사월) = April
5 월 (오월) = May
6 월 (유월) = June*
7 월 (칠월) = July
8 월 (팔월) = August
9 월 (구월) = September
10 월 (시월) = October*
11 월 (십일월) = November
12 월 (십이월) = December
*June (6 월/유월) and October (10 월/시월) should actually be 육월 and 십월 but, written like that,
they are difficult to pronounce. Because of this, their correct pronunciations are 유월 and 시월 NOT
육월 and 십월.
Click on the English words below to see information and examples of that word in use. You probably
won’t be able to understand the grammar within the sentences at this point, but seeing words being
used in sentences is very helpful for understanding how they can be used.
Nouns:
기회 = chance/opportunity
계획 = plans
회사원 = office worker
요리사 = a cook/chef
운전사 = a driver
Verbs:
달리다 = to run
요리하다 = to cook
운전하다 = to drive
죽다 = to die
Adjectives:
두렵다 = to be scared
이상하다 = to be strange
동안 = for, during, while
달 = month
개월 = month
날 = day
하루 = one day
이틀 = two days
사흘 = three days
지난 주 = last week
지난 달 = last month
이번 주 = this week
이번 달 = this month
다음 주 = next week
다음 달 = next month
작년 = last year
올해 = this year
내년 = next year
평생 (동안) = in my whole life
보통 = usually
.
Introduction
In this lesson, you will build on what you learned in Lesson 10 by learning how to use a variety of
different words of time in Korean. Using these words, you will be able to say “I did X for 2 months” or
“I didn’t do Y last week.” You will also learn whether you should use the pure Korean or Sino-Korean
numbers when using these different words of time.
The use of pure Korean or Sino-Korean numbers may seem random, but there is a reason for it.
Anytime the ‘time’ word is of Chinese origin, the Sino-Korean numbers are used. For example “개월”
(month) is counted using Sino-Korean numbers, because “개월” is of Chinese origin and has
corresponding Chinese (한자) characters. “달” (also meaning month) is a Korean word, and thus,
counted using Korean numbers. A lot of Korean words are of Chinese origin and have corresponding
Chinese (한자) characters. You will learn about those later.
This lesson is a little bit less organized than the previous lessons. It was difficult to teach everything
in this lesson together because you need to have a mutual understanding of all concepts in order to
understand one of them. In order to understand how to use 동안, you need to know how to use 주.
But in order to understand how to use 주, you should understand how to use 동안. Around and
around we go. Anyways, I made it as simple as possible. After this lesson, any time you learn about
other ‘time’ grammar concepts, it should be really easy because this lesson will give you a solid base
to work from.
“For” a certain amount of time (동안)
동안 is a very useful word that can be used to tell how long something is being done. It can also be
used to say “While I was… during the…” but you will learn about that application in Lesson 33 (the
grammar is too complex for you right now). 동안 gets added after any indication of length of time.
For example:
2 분 = 2 minutes
2 분 동안 = for 2 minutes
10 분 = 10 minutes
10 분 동안 = for 10 minutes
이틀 = two days
이틀 동안 = for two days
Those can then be added into sentences to indicate how long one does something for. Notice also
that no additional particle is added to 동안. One would think that 에 should be added, but it is not.
저는 10 분 동안 걸었어요 = I walked for 10 minutes

저는 30 분 동안 공부했어요 = I studied for 30 minutes
While the translation of “동안” in these examples is usually “for”, in essence, what you are doing is
stating “for that period of time.” Understanding this will help you understand later usages of “동안” in
future lessons. For example:

저는 10 분 동안 걸었어요 = I walked for (a period of) 10 minutes
저는 30 분 동안 공부했어요 = I studied for (a period of) 30 minutes
저는 이틀 동안 안 잤어요 = I didn’t sleep for two days
Remember:
It doesn’t matter if you use the word or the numeral when writing a number. However, typically the
word is written when a pure Korean word is used with a counter like 개, 명, 번, 시간, 대, 살, etc. In
situations where Sino-Korean numbers are written (for example, in the sentences above) it makes
no difference if you write the numeral or the word.
Also remember that the spacing is different depending on if you write a numeral or a word. If writing
the word, there should be a space between the number and the word. For example:
저는 십 분 동안 걸었어요
If writing a numeral, it doesn’t matter if you include a space or not. Both are seen as acceptable:
저는 10 분 동안 걸었어요
저는 10 분 동안 걸었어요
I want to show you more and more examples of 동안, but at this point, the only time word you are
familiar with at this point is “분” (minutes). Let’s move on to hours.
.
.
Korean Hours (시간)

Talking about minutes is easy because you always simply use 분. For example:
3 시 20 분 means “3:20”, and

20 분 동안 means “for 20 minutes”
When talking about hours, however, 시 is used when talking about the hour on a clock, whereas
시간 is used when counting hours. Notice the difference between these two sets:
3 시 = 3:00
세 시 = Three o’clock
3 시간 동안 = for 3 hours
세 시간 동안 = for three hours
Remember that pure Korean numbers are used when talking about hours. I usually write out the
Korean word when I’m referring to an amount of hours as in the examples below. For example:
저는 세 시간 동안 잤어요 = I slept for 3 hours

저는 한 시간 동안 달렸어요 = I ran for one hour
저는 여덟 시간 동안 운전했어요 = I drove for eight hours
저는 어제 한 시간 동안 야구를 했어요 = I played baseball for an hour yesterday
저는 어제 두 시간 동안 TV 를 봤어요* = I watched TV for two hours yesterday
*Notice that 보다 (to see) is used when watching something. You can also use 보다 when you watch
a performance or concert, or similar things. In English “I saw a TV” and “I watched TV” have two
different meanings, but Koreans simply say “I see TV.”
At this point you are probably asking saying “Okay, I understand how to say that I have done things
for X hours or minutes, but what about if I want to say something like:
I will eat in three hours, or

I ate three hours ago
I will go in 10 minutes, or
I came 10 minutes ago”
You will learn how to create those types of sentences when you learn about 전 and 후 in Lesson 24.
For the moment, there is a ton of content in this lesson, so try to focus on what is presented here.
Korean Seconds (초)
When talking about seconds, you need to use the Sino-Korean numbers. When putting a number
before “초,” it doesn’t matter if you use the word or the numeral. For example:
1 초 = 1 second
일 초 = one second
2 초 = 2 seconds
이 초 = 2 seconds
2 초 동안 = for 2 seconds
이 초 동안 = for two seconds
Examples in sentences:
저는 2 초 동안 달렸어요 = I ran for 2 seconds
저는 그 사람을 10 초 동안 만났어요 = I met that person for 10 seconds
1 분은 60 초입니다 = One minute is sixty seconds
Last/Next (지난/다음)
지난 and 다음 are two words that you can use in many situations, including in situations related to
time. In Lesson 10, you learned about 마지막, which can be used to refer to the “last” or “final” thing
in a sequence. Remember, Korean people use another word when referring to a “previous” (or last)
thing, as in: “I saw a movie last (the previous) week.”
In order to refer to a “previous” thing, the word “지난” can be used. I drew a picture to depict the
image I have in my head distinguishing 마지막 and 지난. Imagine you are on a six week trip, and
you are currently in your fourth week of the trip. You can use “지난” to refer to the previous week,
and you can use “마지막” to refer to the finalweek. (You can refer to them both as “last week” in
English). For example:
지난 can be added immediately before some words of time (I discuss “some” a little bit later) to refer
to a “previous” thing. This often translates to “last,” though. For example:
저는 지난 주에 영화를 봤어요 = I saw a movie last week
저는 지난 주에 캐나다에 갔어요 = I went to Canada last week.
저는 지난 수업을 안 들었어요 = I didn’t go to/attend the last/previous class
In order to say “attend a class,” Korean people say “수업을 듣다,” which literally translates to “listen
to/hear a class.” As such, you can see that the particle ~을 is attached to “수업” because “the class”
is the noun that is being listened to. Korean learners are sometimes confused as to why “~에” is not
attached to “수업” because they are accustomed to the English way of saying “I didn’t go to the last
class”.
Also, note that this sentence is also correct, but is referring to a different class than above:
저는 마지막 수업을 안 들었어요 = I didn’t attend the last class
지난 can be added only before some words of time. For example, you couldn’t say “지난 분/지난 초.”
These would mean “last minute/second” as in ‘the last minute/second that just passed – which
doesn’t make any sense. Notice that they do not have the meaning of “I handed in my paper at
the last minute.” This meaning refers to the last minute in a sequence of minutes; therefore, “마지막”
must be used in this case.

시간, however, means “time” in addition to being a counter for “hours.” So, “지난 시간” can be used
to mean “last time” (but not “last hour”).
저는 그것을 지난 시간에 배웠어요 = I learned that (thing) last time

You can also use the word 번 to refer to the last “time” something happened.
저는 그것을 지난 번에 배웠어요 = I learned that (thing) last time

우리가 지난 번에 계획이 없었어요 = We didn’t have plans last time
우리는 지난 번에 돼지고기를 먹었어요 = We ate pork last time
다음 is used in the same way as 지난, but it means “next.” For example:
저는 다음 주에 영화를 볼 거예요 = I will see a movie next week

저는 다음 주에 캐나다에 갈 거예요 = I will go to Canada next week
Like above, 다음 can be used with 시간 to mean “next time,” but not “next hour.”
우리는 다음 번에 학교에 갈 거예요 = We will go to school next time

우리는 다음 시간에 학교에 갈 거예요 = We will go to school next time
나는 너를 다음 번에 방문할 거야 = I will visit you next time
나는 너를 다음 시간에 방문할 거야 = I will visit you next time
Korean Days (일/날/하루)
Days are very confusing in Korean because there are a few different words you need to be
acquainted with. You learned the names of the days of the week in the vocabulary section of another
lesson. You should have noticed that every day of the week ends in 일. 일 means “day” but it is
never used alone (if it is used alone, it means ‘work’). I’m looking at my Korean calendar now, and
see a variety of words ending in “일.” Don’t worry about these words now, just recognize the
importance of “일” within them:
총선 = general election
총선일 = the day of the general election (election day)
현충일 = Memorial day
일 is also the counter for days. You learned in Lesson 10 that you must use pure Korean numbers
when counting. When you count days, however, you use Sino-Korean numbers. When putting a
number before “일,” it doesn’t matter if you use the word or the numeral.
나는 3 일 동안 공부했어 = I studied for 3 days
나는 삼 일 동안 공부했어 = I studied for 3 days
나는 3 일 동안 학교에 안 갔어 = I didn’t go to school for 3 days
나는 삼 일 동안 학교에 안 갔어 = I didn’t go to school for 3 days
저는 5 일 동안 계획이 없을 거예요 = I won’t have plans for 5 days
우리는 6 일 동안 만나지 않았어요 = We didn’t meet for 6 days
To make things more confusing, if you are counting days from 1 – 10 there is a word that
corresponds to “one day,” another word that corresponds to “2 days,” another word that corresponds
to “3 days” etc… The most common of these words is 하루 which means “one day.” 하루 is used
much more than 일 일. But 2 일 (이 일)/3 일 (삼 일)/4 일 (사 일)/5 일 (오 일)/etc are used more than
their corresponding words.
저는 하루 동안 여행했어요 = I traveled for 1 day

저는 사흘 동안 밥을 안 먹었어요 = I didn’t eat rice for 3 days
저는 삼일 동안 밥을 안 먹었어요 = I didn’t eat rice for 3 days
우리는 이틀 동안 미국에 있었어요 = We were in America for two days
우리는 10 일 동안 한국에 있을 거예요 = We will be in Korea for ten days
You can also place a (Sino-Korean) number before 일 to refer to a specific day in a month. It seems
like it would be easy to confuse when one is talking about the day of a month (3 일) and when doing
something for a specific period (3 일). But, in sentences, these are easily distinguishable:
나는 3 일에 수업을 들었어 = I went to class on the 3rd (day of the month)
나는 3 일 동안 수업을 들었어 = I went to class for three days
You can refer to a specific day and month by adding #일 after #월:
3 월 2 일 = March 2nd
5 월 25 일 = May 25th
저는 8 월 15 일에 도착할 거예요 = I will arrive on August 15th

저는 이 여권을 1 월 2 일에 받았어요 = I received my passport on January 2
nd
날 is another word that means “day” and can be used as a stand alone word, but not counted. It is
used when talking about a specific day by itself. For example:
저는 그 날에 갔어요 = I went on that day

저는 그 날에 계획이 있어요 = I have plans on that day
저는 그 날에 선생님이 되었어요 = I became a teacher on that day
우리는 그 날에 시작할 거예요 = We will start on that day
If you want to talk about doing something on the first/second/third day, you can use 번째 (which you
learned in the previous lesson) with 날. For example:
우리는 두 번째 날에 서울에 갔어요 = We went to Seoul on the second day

우리는 둘째 날에 서울에 갔어요 = We went to Seoul on the second day
우리는 세 번째 날에 안 만났어요 = We didn’t meet on the third day
우리는 셋째 날에 안 만났어요 = We didn’t meet on the third day
저는 네 번째 날에 계획이 없어요 = I have no plans on the fourth day
저는 넷째 날에 계획이 없어요 = I have no plans on the fourth day
첫날 is a word that specifically refers to the first day:
저는 첫날에 명동에 갔어요 = I went to 명동 on the first day

저는 첫날에 그 여자를 만났어요 = I met that girl on the first day
Korean Weeks (주)

Weeks in Korean can be used in sentences just like 일 (day) except that there are no other weird
words to worry about. You use Sino-Korean numbers when talking about weeks:
저는 다음 주에 미국에 갈 거예요 = I will go to the US next week

지난 주에 저는 계획이 많았어요 = I had a lot of plans last week
The word “주” can also be used as a counter to counter weeks. When counting weeks, just like when
counting days, Sino-Korean numbers are used. When putting a number before “주,” it doesn’t matter
if you use the word or the numeral. For example:
저는 2 주 동안 한식을 안 먹었어요 = I didn’t eat Korean food for 2 weeks

저는 4 주 동안 여자친구를 안 만났어요 = I didn’t meet my girlfriend for 4 weeks
저는 이 주 동안 한식을 안 먹었어요 = I didn’t eat Korean food for two weeks
저는 사 주 동안 여자친구를 안 만났어요 = I didn’t meet my girlfriend for four weeks
The word “주일” can also be used as a counter for weeks. This is acceptable, but it sounds a bit
more natural to use “주” as shown above. For example:
저는 2 주일 동안 한식을 안 먹었어요 = I didn’t eat Korean food for two weeks

저는 4 주일 동안 여자친구를 안 만났어요 = I didn’t meet my girlfriend for four weeks
Korean Months (달/개월)
First, notice that the names of each month correspond to the number of the month in the calendar
For example:
January = 1 월
February = 2 월
December = 12 월
When counting months, you can either use 달 or 개월. When using 달, you must use the pure
Korean numbers, and when using 개월, you must use the Sino-Korean numbers. There is no
difference in meaning, and both are used frequently. When putting a number before 달, I prefer to
write the Korean word. When putting a number before 개월, it doesn’t matter if you use the word of
the numeral.
저는 두 달 동안 한국어 수업을 들었어요 = I took a Korean class for 2 months

저는 2 개월 동안 한국어 수업을 들었어요 = I took a Korean class for 2 months
저는 이 개월 동안 한국어 수업을 들었어요 = I took a Korean class for 2 months
My Korean grammar teacher told me years ago that ‘동안’ is actually incorporated into the meaning
of 달, which would mean that you wouldn’t have to say 동안 after 달. Still, though, most people use
동안 after 달.
Korean Years (년)
Years are used just like weeks, which means that you must use the Sino-Korean numbers. When
putting a number before “년,” it doesn’t matter if you use the word or the numeral.:
저는 3 년 동안 형을 안 만났어요 = I didn’t meet my brother for 3 years

저는 10 년 동안 한국어를 공부했어요 = I studied Korean for 10 years
저는 삼 년 동안 형을 안 만났어요 = I didn’t meet my brother for three years
저는 십 년 동안 한국어를 공부했어요 = I studied Korean for ten years
However, if you want to say “last/next year” in Korean, you can’t use “지난/다음 년.” Instead, you
must use separate words:
작년 = last year
내년 = next year, for example:
나는 내년에 한국에 갈 거야 = I will go to Korea next year

그 사람은 작년에 죽었어요 = That person died last year
This Week/This Month/This Time (이번)

Finally, you can use 이번 just like 지난/다음 when talking about weeks or months to mean “this
week/this month.” You cannot say “이번 년,” instead you must use the separate word “올해.”
저는 이번 주에 계획이 없어요 = I have no plans this week

저의 어머니는 올해 한국에 올 것입니다 = My mom will come to Korea this year
Note here that it is common to see “에” omitted from the word “올해.” You can also see in the section
above that this is not the case with 작년 and 내년.
You cannot use 이번 when talking about minutes/seconds/hours. “I want to go to school this hour”
doesn’t make any sense. But remember, in addition to meaning ‘hour’ 시간 also means “time.” This
means that you can, say 이번 시간 to mean “this time,” which is usually used when talking about
“this time in class.” For example:

우리는 이번 시간에 많이 배웠어 = We learned a lot this time
In most other cases, it is more natural to use “이번에” instead of “이번 시간:”
나는 너를 이번에 안 만날 거야 = I won’t meet you this time
번 can also be added after 지난/다음 to mean “last/next time”
저는 박물관에 다음 번에 갈 거예요 = I will go to the museum next time

저는 박물관에 지난 번에 갔어요 = I went to the museum last time
“Per”
When talking about each of these units of time, you can add the particle ~에 to indicate within that
unit of time, how much something was done. You can usually translate this to “per” in English. For
example:
저는 이 약을 하루에 두 번 먹어요 = I eat (take) this medicine twice per day
저는 그 친구를 1 주일에 한 번 만나요 = I meet that friend once per week
저는 여기에 한 달에 세 번 와요 = I come here three times per month
저는 1 년에 두 번 미국에 가요 = I go to America twice per year
Almost all the examples in this lesson used 동안. There are other ways you can talk about these
time words without using 동안 (for example, “I will go to Canada 3 days from now”). However, this
lesson was reaching the 6 page mark, and I didn’t want to overload you more than I already have. I
feel like the material in this lesson alone is enough to make your head spin for a while, so I will end it
here.
In later lessons, you will learn how to apply the concepts you learned in this lesson to more
complicated sentences.
Lesson 12: Korean Particles 들, only, from,

부터/까지, (으)로
Vocabulary
Nouns:
점원 = store assistant
배우 = actor
목 = neck/throat
소리 = noise/sound
목소리 = voice
의미 = meaning
상황 = situation
닭 = chicken
문장 = sentence
기름 = oil/grease/gasoline
그들 = them
생활 = lifestyle/life
Verbs:
속삭이다 = to whisper
복습하다 = to review, to re-study
바꾸다 = to change
유학(하다) = to study abroad
넘어지다 = to fall
독서하다 = to read
출발하다 = to depart
마시다 = to drink
내리다 = to get off, to go down, to come down
나오다 = to come out
나가다 = to go out
쓰다 = to cover one's head
모르다 = to not know
신청하다 = to apply
사다 = to buy
팔다 = to sell
Adjectives:
얇다 = to be thin
적당하다 = to be moderate
어리다 = to be young
기쁘다 = to be glad
꽤 = fairly/quite
때 = time, when
그때 = at that time
쪽 = side/direction
열심히 = ‘hard/well’ (study hard)
완전히 = perfectly, completely
몇 = some ____, how many (used with a counter)
층 = floor
Common Usages
3 층 = third floor
4 층 = fourth floor
지하층 = basement floor
Notes: Placed after a number to indicate the “third floor,” fourth floor,” etc…
Example:
저는 2 층에서 살아요 = I live on the second floor
.
Introduction
As of now, you have learned a few different Korean particles. The particles you have learned so far
are: 는/은, 이/가, 를/을, 의 and 도. There are many more particles that you will need to learn – and
this lesson will cover a lot of them. In this lesson, you will learn about ~들, ~만, ~에서, ~부터, ~까지
and ~(으)로! Let’s get started!
An Important Note: Eliminating the Subject
One thing that I have yet to tell you is that Korean people often omit the topic/subject of the sentence
– especially when the topic/subject is ‘I.’ Korean people love making their sentences as short as
possible, and this is one additional way of doing it. In most cases, when the subject/topic can be
inferred by the situation, Korean people drop it entirely from the sentence. For example, instead of
saying:
저는 아침식사를 안 먹었어요 = I didn’t eat breakfast
They would say:

아침식사를 안 먹었어요 = I didn’t eat breakfast
Both are perfect sentences and both can be used, but you should be aware that Korean people often
get rid of the subject/topic altogether when speaking. This will be done from time to time throughout
our lessons.
.
Korean Particle ~들 and using 몇 with a counter
You have probably been asking yourself ‘how can I make something plural?’ Up to now, I haven’t
mentioned anything about plural words in Korean. The reason for this is Korean people rarely
distinguish between singular and plural. For example, if I say:
나는 사과를 샀어
This could mean “I bought an apple” OR “I bought apples.” This seems crazy to English speakers,
but this is just how it is done in Korean. In most cases, the context can make it clear if you bought
‘an apple’ or if you bought ‘apples.’ If you really want to make it clear that you bought one apple, you
could say:
나는 사과 한 개를 샀어 = I bought one apple

When dealing with the ambiguity of singular/plural sentences in Korean, you could also use the word
몇 which can replace a number in these examples: 두 개/두 명/두 번. When 몇 replaces a number in
these cases (몇 번/몇 명/몇 개), it has the meaning of “some ____.” For example, instead of saying:
“나는 사과 한 개를 샀어”, you could say:
나는 사과 몇 개를 샀어 = I bought SOME apples
More examples (remember that 펜 한 개 and 한 개의 펜 have the same meaning):
나는 몇 개의 펜을 샀어 = I bought some pens
나는 몇 명의 사람을 만났어 = I met some people
나는 학교에 몇 번 갔어 = I went to school a few/some times (not sometimes)
(remember, 번 acts as an adverb – so it doesn’t need a particle to be attached to it).
Anyways, back to what I was trying to say earlier. ~들 can be attached to a noun to make that noun
plural. However, adding ~들 to a noun that is not referring to a person is usually unnatural. Therefore,
it would be unnatural to say something like this:
저는 사과들을 샀어요
Instead, ~들 is usually only attached to the word “person” (사람) or other words with the meaning of
people (for example: actors, workers, doctors, etc…).
의사들은 돈이 많아 = doctors have a lot of money

선생님은 내일 학생들을 만날 거야 = The teacher will meet the students tomorrow
배우들은 그들의* 영화를 보통 좋아하지 않아 = actors usually don’t like their movies
*By adding the possessive particle 의 to 그들 (them) it becomes 그들의 (their)
Korean Particle ~만 (only)

The particle ~만 is very common and has the meaning of “only.” It can be attached directly to the end
of a noun to express “only (that noun).” For example:
나는 물만 마셔 = I only drink water

It can be attached to the subject or the object of a sentence, and in each case it replaces the particle
that would normally be attached there (~은/는 or ~을/을) or For example:
나만 그 여자를 좋아해 = Only I like that girl

나는 그 여자만 좋아해 = I only like that girl
나만 사과를 샀어 = Only I bought apples
나는 사과만 샀어 = I only bought apples
You could also stress that you only bought one apple (or any other number of things) by placing ~만
on a counter:
나는 사과 한 개만 샀어 = I only bought 1 apple
저는 차 두 대만 있어요 = I only have two cars
저는 친구 한 명만 만났어요 = I only met one friend
I said it once before in Lesson 3, but it is something that learners of Korean often forget: When a
verb ends in 하다, the part before 하다 is usually a noun form of that verb. The examples I gave
before were:
성공하다 = succeed
성공 = success
말하다 = speak
말 = speech/words
성취하다 = achieve
성취 = achievement
With these verbs, the part before 하다 can be separated from 하다 to make a noun form of that verb.
Then, “하다,” meaning “do” can act on that noun (I do study = I study). It is hard to explain, but look
at the following example:
나는 공부했어 = I studied
나는 공부를 했어 = I studied
Those two mean exactly the same thing, even though in the second example, 공부 is used as a
stand-alone noun. But why is all of this important? It is important because now you can treat 공부 as
a regular noun, which means you can attach 만 to it:
저는 공부만 했어요 = I only studied

저는 어제 일만 했어요 = Yesterday, I only worked
Note that just because a word ends in 하다, doesn’t mean you can do this. For example, many
adjectives end in 하다 (for example: 행복하다: happy), but this:
저는 행복만 해요 = I am only happy – doesn’t really make a lot of sense
Also, many verbs don’t end in 하다 and just end in 다 (for example: 가다, 먹다, 보내다). The way
that you can change those verbs into a form that allows ~만 to be attached will be discussed
in Lesson 29.
The examples above show ~만 attached to nouns, but really it can be attached to a wide variety of
things – including grammatical principles and other particles. We can’t get into these right now
because you are still learning the basics of Korean.
When ~만 gets attached to more complicated things, it usually doesn’t replace something, but
overlaps it. What I mean is, when ~만 is attached to the subject or object, ~을/를 or ~은/는 get
eliminated. However, when ~만 is attached to something else, everything usually stays in place.
I can show you how it can be attached to ~에, but I can’t show you how this is done with other
particles because you haven’t learned them yet. Some examples:
우리는 학교에만 갔어요 = We only went to school

학생들은 교실 안에만 있어요 = The students are only in their classrooms
저는 밤에만 운동해요 = I only exercise at night
저는 커피를 낮에만 마셔요 = I only drink coffee during the day
저는 그 여자를 그때만 사랑했어요 = I only loved her at that time
When using 그때, ~에 is often omitted because it can be assumed.
.
.
Korean Particle ~에서

Foreign learners of Korean are often very confused as to when they should use ~에서 instead of ~에,
as they both denote places in Korean sentences. ~에서 is used to denote the location in which the
subject is doing something in.
For example:
저는 학교에서 공부할 거예요 = I will study at school

저는 저의 친구를 병원에서 봤어요 = I saw my friend at the hospital
저는 남편을 공원에서 만날 거예요 = I will meet my husband at the park
저는 한국어를 한국에서 배웠어요 = I learned Korean in Korea
In order to help you understand the purpose of ~에서, I would like to make a distinction between ~에
and ~에서. As I said, ~에서 is used to indicate the location in which the subject is doing something.
This does not mean the location that he/she is going to

This does not mean the location that he/she looking at
This does not mean the location that he/she places something on
This does not mean the location that he/she places something in
All of the locations from those examples above would require the particle “~에” to denote the location.
~에서, on the other hand refers the location in which the subject – the acting agent of the sentence –
is in when actually doing the action. Let’s look at the following example:
저는 건물에 간판을 봤어요
In this sentence, where is the subject (저) when doing the action (보다)? ~에서 is not used in this
sentence, so it is unknown as to where the subject was when he/she saw the sign. It might be known
from context, but this specific sentence is not describing it. Therefore, the person is saying that
he/she saw the sign “on the building” – as if he/she was walking by and saw the sign attached to the
building in some way. The action did not occur at/on/in the building, it’s just that the location in which
he/she was looking at.
Conversely, look at this sentence:
저는 건물에서 간판을 봤어요
In this sentence, where is the subject (저) when doing this action (보다)? ~에서 is attached to “건물.”
Therefore, the subject was in the building and saw the sign.
Another example:
저는 병을 탁자에 놓았어요
In this sentence, where is the subject (저) when doing the action (놓다)? ~에서 is not used in this
sentence, so it is unknown as to where the subject was when he/she put the bottle on the table. It
might be known from context, but this specific sentence is not describing it. Therefore, the person is
saying that he/she put the bottle “on the table.”
Conversely, look at this sentence:

저는 병을 탁자에서 놓았어요
This sentence is nonsense. It is indicating that, the action actually occurred on/in the table. That is,
the subject somehow within the table placed the bottle somewhere. But the sentence is so
nonsensical that it is not even indicating where the bottle is placed. It could translate to something
like “(While I was) in the table, I placed the bottle.” Don’t get too hung up on that translation because
it’s hard to translate a sentence that doesn’t make sense.
However, because ~에서 can be used to indicate where the subject is acting, and because ~에 can
be used to in this sentence to indicate where the bottle is placed, both ~에 and ~에서 can be used in
the same sentence. For example:
저는 방에서 탁자에 병을 놓았어요 = I placed the bottle on the table in the room
This is the same reason that the particle ~에 is placed on the location in which a person is going. For
example, if I said something like this:
저는 한국에서 갈 거예요
(This sentence is correct, but it is stating that the person left from Korea because the action of “going”
(가다) is occurring at/in Korea). This function is talked about a little bit later.
Instead, in order to indicate the place in which you are going (and, therefore, not currently in/at), you
must use ~에. For example:
저는 한국에 갈 거예요 = I will go to Korea
~에서 can also be attached to a location where an adjective “occurs.” The word “occurs” is a bad
way to describe this (because adjectives don’t really “occur”, but I can’t think of a better word. Just
like how a verb can be used with a subject…:
저는 잤어요 = I slept
…and a location can be used in this sentence to indicate where that action occurred:
저는 집에서 잤어요 = I slept at home
In that same sense, adjectives can be used with a subject…:
과일은 비싸요 = Fruit is expensive

… and a location can be used in this sentence to indicate where that adjective “occurs”:
과일은 한국에서 비싸요 = Fruit is expensive in Korea

Here are some other examples:
저는 학교에서 추웠어요 = I was cold at school
고등학교는 한국에서 어려워요 = High school is difficult in Korea
녹차는 한국에서 유명해요 = Green Tea is famous in Korea
I don’t want to provide a ton of examples for this because in order to make perfectly natural
sentences, it requires the use of other, more complicated grammar that you haven’t been introduced
to yet. For now, try to understand this specific function of ~에서 and how it can be used to indicate
where a verb or adjective “occurs.”
Also note that when you indicate where something is by using 있다, you should use ~에 instead of
~에서. For example:
저는 집에 있어요 = I’m at home

저는 차 안에 있어요 = I’m in the car
The other main usage of ~에서 has the general meaning of “from.” In it’s most basic sense, it can be
used to indicate the place in which the subject is departing from. This is the usage I mentioned
earlier. For example:
저는 한국에서 갈 거예요 = I will go from Korea

다음 버스는 저 정류장에서 출발할 거예요 = The next bus will depart from that station
This same usage can be applied to more complicated scenarios that are similar to “departing.” For
example:
When you are getting off of something (bus/train):

저는 서울역에서 내릴 거예요 = I will get off at (from) Seoul station
When something/someone is coming/going/being taken out of something:
학생은 교실에서 나왔어요 = the student came out of the classroom
You can also use this to indicate the country (or any other place, for that matter) that you come from.
In English, we say “I come from Canada/I’m from Canada” but in Korean the past tense of “come”
must be used:
저는 캐나다에서 왔어요 = I come from Canada

I don’t want to go on a rant here, but one of the things that bugs me is the textbooks that teach “저는
___에서 왔어요” in the first or second lesson – before any of the grammar concepts within the
sentence have been taught. For example, when I first started learning Korean, I had a textbook that
taught me “저는 ____에서 왔어요” on the very first page. Without explaining why I was using 저
instead of 나, why I was using 는, what 에서 meant, what 오다 meant, how/why 오다 changes to
왔다, how/why 왔다 changes to 왔어요. But I digress…
It is also important to know that when ~에서 is added to the words 여기/거기/저기 (here, there, there),
it is common to write/say:
여기서 instead of 여기에서

거기서 instead of 거기에서
저기서 instead of 저기에서
In addition to the examples provided, there are more ways in which 에서 can be used to mean “from,”
but the grammar/words that would be used in those sentences are too complex for you right now.
You won’t understand these examples completely, but try to understand the role of 에서 within these
sentences:
저는 학교에서 멀리 살고 있어요 = I live far from school

1 에서 10 까지 센다 = Count from 1 to 10
그들은 많은 후보자들 중에서 저를 뽑았어요 = They chose me from many candidates
1 시에서 2 시까지 오세요 = Please come from 1:00 to 2:00
10 에서 5 를 뺀다 = Subtract 5 from 10
As you can see, ‘from’ (in English) has many usages as well. When a word has a lot of meanings in
Korean – and the corresponding English word also has a lot of meanings – it is usually very difficult
to understand the usage completely.
Korean Particles ~부터 and ~까지

Two more important Korean particles you need to know are ~부터 and ~까지.
~까지 can be used in sentences with or without ~에서 to have the meaning of “to/until a place/time.”
For example:
3 시까지 기다릴 거예요 = I will wait until 3:00

그 여자를 지금까지 좋아했어요 = I liked that girl until now
저는 그 회사에서 5 월까지 일할 거예요 = I will work at that company until May
저는 그때까지 김치를 먹지 않았어요 = I hadn’t eaten Kimchi until that time
저는 오늘 이 책을 여기까지 읽었어요 = Today, I read this book until here (this point)
저는 한강까지 달렸어요 = I ran until the Han River
~부터 is a particle that is often confused with ~에서 because both can translate to “from” and have
seemingly overlapping usages. You learned earlier that one usage of ~에서 is to indicate the location
from which an action is departing. For example:
우리는 집에서 출발할 거예요 = We will depart from home
~부터 is very similar, but is specifically identifying the place (or time) in which something starts from.
If we look at this sentence:

나는 인천에서 서울까지 갈 거야 = I will depart from Incheon and go to (until) Seoul
The particle ~에서 identifies that the person departed from 인천. In theory, this could also be seen as
the starting point. Therefore, this sentence could also be written as:
나는 인천부터 서울까지 갈 거야 = I will go from Incheon to Seoul

These two sentences (despite the slight nuance of “departing” and “starting”) are essentially the
same. In both cases, the subject is going from Incheon to Seoul. They can both be seen as correct,
but most Koreans would rather use ~에서 when talking about the location in which something
starts/departs.
For example, I showed these two sentences to a Korean person and asked him to explain the
difference:
다음 버스는 저 정류장에서 출발할 거예요 = The next bus will leave from that stop
다음 버스는 저 정류장부터 출발할 거예요
He said: “The first one sounds more natural. The second one sounds as if the place the bus is
leaving from is the bus garage… like the absolute starting point of the bus. In most situations, it
would be most natural to say the first sentence.”
Instead, ~부터 is commonly attached to a time to indicate when something starts. For example:
저는 어제부터 아팠어요 = I have been sick since (from) yesterday
저는 내일부터 한국어를 공부할 거예요 = I’m going to study Korean from tomorrow
내년부터 우리는 서울에서 살 거예요 = From next year, we will be living in Seoul
저는 3 시부터 학교에 있을 거예요 = I will be at school from 3:00
저는 작년부터 한국어를 배웠어요 = I have been learning Korean since last year
It is very common to see ~까지 used in the same sentence as ~부터. Here, ~부터 indicates the
starting point and ~까지 indicates the end point. For example:
저는 아침부터 밤까지 공부만 했어요 = I only studied from morning to night
나는 캐나다에 1 일부터 8 일까지 있을 거야 = I will be in Canada from the 1 to the 8
st th
It is common to see “부터” attached to 처음 to translate to something like “from the start” or “from the
beginning.” For example:
그들은 저를 처음부터 싫어했어요 = They didn’t like me from the start

우리는 그 일을 처음부터 시작할 거예요 = We will start that job/task from the beginning
When used to say “from start to finish,” the word “끝” is often used to mean “finish.” For example:
저는 그 상황을 처음부터 끝까지 몰랐어요 = I didn’t know that situation from start to finish
저는 그것을 처음부터 끝까지 복습했어요 = I reviewed that from start to finish
저는 그 책을 처음부터 끝까지 읽었어요 = I read that book from start to finish
Korean Particle ~(으)로

The Korean particle ~(으)로 can be added to nouns with a few different meanings. One of the main
meanings is to indicate with what tool/device/method/material something is carried out. The English
equivalent varies depending on the usage:
Write with a pen

Go to the store by car
Go to school on foot
Make a house out of wood
This meaning of ~(으)로 can be used in so many situations it would be impossible to list them all. As
you get comfortable with the basic examples of this usage, you will slowly be able to grasp when it
should be used in all situations.
~로 is added to words ending in a vowel, whereas ~으로 is added to words ending in a consonant.
~로 is also added to words ending in ㄹ. The only reason for this difference is for ease of
pronunciation. If you say “것로” there is a split second where your tongue cannot go directly from 것
to ~로 – so it is changed to 것으로.
나는 우리 집을 나무로 지었어 = I built our house out of wood
배로 제주에 갈 거야 = I will go to Je-ju by boat
저는 그것을 손으로 만들었어요 = I built that with my hands
In this same respect, ~(으)로 can be used to indicate the language in which something is spoken in.
Here, just like in some of the examples above, the language acts as the “tool” in which something
was communicated. For example:
저는 그 문장을 한국어로 말했어요 = I said that sentence (using) in Korean

저는 그것을 영어로 할 거예요 = I will say that (using) in English
It is also used to indicate what you ate for a specific meal:
저는 아침식사로 밥을 먹었어요 = I ate rice for breakfast

저는 보통 점심식사로 과일만 먹었어요 = I usually only ate fruit for lunch
If somebody does an action in line with a bunch of other people, you can use ~(으)로 to indicate the
order something is done by attaching it to a number + 번째. For example:
저는 그것을 두 번째로 했어요 = I did that second (I was the second person to do that)
저는 학교에 두 번째로 왔어요 = I came to school second (I was the second person to come to
school)
저는 그것을 첫 번째로 할 거예요 = I will go (do it) first
The other main meaning of ~(으)로 is to indicate the direction that something is happening in. This
sometimes has the same meaning as “에.”For example:
저는 집으로 갈 거예요 = I will go in the direction of home (simply ‘I will go home’), which would be
the same as:
저는 집에 갈 거예요 = I will go home
~(으)로 is often added after ~쪽 to make “~쪽으로”. ~쪽 can be added after some nouns and some
direction words (above/below/East/West/etc) to mean “the direction of ___.”

그쪽 = that way/direction
위쪽 = upper direction
사람 쪽 = the direction of the people, etc..
To make sentences like:
저의 친구는 저 쪽으로 갔어요 = My friend went that way

학생들은 교실 쪽으로 걸어요 = Students walk towards/in the direction of their class
Notice the difference between these two:
저는 집 안 쪽으로 달렸어요 = I ran inside the house

저는 집 안에서 달렸어요 = I ran inside the house
In the first example, you are running into the house/in the direction of ‘inside the house.’ In the
second example, you are running inside the house.
That’s it for this lesson! I wanted to cover a few more particles, but this lesson already has way too
much in it! In the next lesson, I will introduce you to more of these common particles. Until then,
make sure you review this lesson before you move on!
Lesson 13: Korean Particles: and, with, to,

from, for, about
Vocabulary
Nouns:
사실 = fact
약 = medicine
음악 = music
하늘 = sky
땅 = land
지하 = underground
빵 = bread
쓰레기 = trash/garbage
회계사 = accountant
녹차 = green tea
이 = teeth
정부 = government
성격 = personality
온도 = temperature
커튼 = curtains
숨 = breath
Verbs:
축하하다 = to congratulate
일어나다 = to rise, to get up
준비하다 = to prepare, to get ready
익숙하다 = to be familiar with something
들어오다 = to come in
들어가다 = to go in
입장하다 = to enter (the verb form of 'admission'
숨쉬다 = to breathe
Adjectives:
흥미롭다 = to be interesting
늦다 = to be late
시원하다 = to be cool, to be relaxing
질투하다 = to be jealous
맵다 = to be spicy
죄송하다 = to be sorry
미안하다 = to be sorry
무겁다 = to be heavy
가볍다 = to be light
유명하다 = to be popular, to be famous
Adverbs:
요즘 = these days
같이 = together
Introduction
In the last lesson, you learned some important Korean particles that you can use in a wide variety of
situations. There are still a few more basic particles that you need to be aware of before you can
begin learning more complex grammar. Most of these particles are very common, so it is hard to
build sentences using more complex grammar without the use of what you learned in Lesson 12,
and what you will learn in this lesson. Let’s get started!
Korean Particles (and): ~과/와, ~랑/이랑 and ~하고

~과/와, ~랑/이랑 and ~하고 can all be used interchangeably to mean “and” in Korean.
~과 and ~와 are the same. ~과 is attached to words ending in a consonant, ~와 is attached to words
ending in a vowel. Similarly, ~랑 and ~이랑 are the same. ~이랑 is attached to words ending in a
consonant, ~랑 is attached to words ending in a vowel. ~하고 can be attached to words ending in a
vowel or consonant. These can be added fairly simply to nouns. For example:
우리는 밥과 빵을 팔아요 = We sell rice and bread

나는 사과와 바나나를 샀어 = I bought apples and bananas
The two examples above show ~와/과/랑/이랑/하고 placed between two nouns that together act as
the object of the sentence. Notice that although there are two nouns, both of them (together) sort of
act as the single object of the sentence.
Other particles can attach to the construction made by using ~와/과/랑/이랑/하고 as well. For
example:
나는 인천이랑 서울에 갈 거야 = I will go to Seoul and Incheon

형하고 아버지는 영화를 봤어 = My brother and dad saw a movie
저는 약과 녹차만 샀어요 = I only bought medicine and green tea
.
.
Korean Particles (with): ~과/와, ~랑/이랑 and ~하고
Just when you thought this was going to be an easy lesson! Ha! This sounds crazy to an English
speaker, but the same particles are used to mean “and” and “with” in Korean. You can distinguish
them purely by the context of the conversation, which sounds like it would be difficult. However, even
though you probably think it is difficult, it is always clear (even to a beginner) if the speaker is trying
to express the meaning of “and” or “with” because of the sentence structure.
For example, when used to have the meaning of “and,” a noun will always follow
과/와/(이)랑/하고: For example:
나는 사과와 바나나를 샀어 = I bought apples and bananas

After 와, another noun is used, which means you are talking about apples AND bananas. But if I said
this:
나는 친구와 갔어 = I went with my friend

There is no additional noun after 와, which means it can only mean “with.” If ~와 in that sentence had
the meaning of “and”, it would translate to:

I went, my friend and…
… which is just nonsense
Here are some examples:
저는 친구와 집에 갔어요 = I went home with my friend

나는 아버지랑 공원에 갈 거야 = I will go to the park with my dad
선생님은 학생들과 박물관에 갔다 = The teacher went to the museum with the students
요즘에 사람들이 친구들이랑 매운 음식을 먹지 않아요 = These days, people don’t eat spicy food with
their friends
Also notice that you can actually use these particles to mean both “and” and “with” within the same
sentence:
저는 밥을 친구랑 저의 어머니랑 먹었어요 = I ate (rice*) with my mom and my friend

*Korean people often use “밥” (rice) to simply mean “food.” It stems from the fact that Korean people
eat rice with (almost) every meal – so if you ate, it means that you ate rice. You can say “밥을 먹었어”
which can simply mean “I ate.”

Two adverbs that are commonly used in sentences with “with” are 같이 and 함께. Both of them
mean “together,” and can be used in sentences even if the sentence doesn’t have one of the
particles meaning “with” (과/와/랑/이랑/하고). For example:
우리는 빵을 같이 먹었어요 = We ate bread together

우리는 빵을 함께 먹었어요 = We ate bread together
우리는 집에 같이 들어갔어요 = We went into the house together
우리는 집에 함께 들어갔어요 = We went into the house together
우리는 음악을 같이 들었어요 = We listened to music together
우리는 음악을 함께 들었어요 = We listened to music together
The use of the word “together” in the same sentence as the word “with” in English is usually
unnatural. For example, it sounds unnatural for me to say something like this:
I ate bread together with a friend
Instead, in English, we would say one of the following sentences:
I ate bread with a friend

We ate bread together
In Korean however, it is okay to use 같이 or 함께 in either of these situations; that is – with the word
“with” in the sentence, or without it. For example:
저는 빵을 친구랑 같이 먹었어요 = I ate bread with a friend (together)

저는 빵을 친구와* 함께 먹었어요 = I ate bread with a friend (together)
저는 빵을 친구랑 먹었어요 = I ate bread with a friend
저는 빵을 친구와 먹었어요 = I ate bread with a friend
Notice that I used ~와 with 함께 instead of ~랑. Just like with the meaning of “and,” “~와/과” is more
likely to be used in writing and in formal situations, whereas “~(이)랑” is more likely to be used is
speech. This entirely depends on the person who is speaking/writing, but it is generally true.
Likewise, the use of “함께” is generally used in writing and formal situations. Therefore, the use
of 함께 is more likely to be paired with ~과/와 in these cases.
To add an additional level of complexity to this explanation – 같이 is more commonly used than 함께
(같이 is probably one of the most common words in Korean, while 함께 would fall much further down
the list). However, when 함께 is used, it is more likely to be used with ~과/와. These are just
generalizations based on observations of years of speaking with Korean people.

More examples:
저는 녹차를 엄마랑 같이 마셨어요 = I drank green tea with my mom

저는 엄마랑 유명한 영화를 같이 봤어요 = I saw/watched a famous movie with my mom
저는 선생님과 함께 공부했어요 = I studied with my teacher
저는 여자 친구와 함께 영화를 봤어요 = I watched a movie with my girlfriend
You can also use these particles to say that you are simply ‘with’ somebody in a location. In order to
do this, you must use 있다 along with one of the adverbs meaning “together”. For example:
나는 친구랑 같이 있어 = I’m with my friend

저는 친구와 집에 함께 있어요 = I’m with a friend at home
Note that this meaning of “with” in Korean cannot be used like this:
I built a house with my hands
Remember, “my hands” are the method in which you did something, so, as you learned in Lesson
12 ~(으)로 should be used in those situations. For example:
저는 손으로 집을 지었어요
Korean Particles (to) 에게/한테/께
These three particles can all be used to indicate that you are doing (usually giving) something TO
somebody. 에게, 한테 and 께 all have the same meaning, but ~한테 is usually used in conversation,
~에게 is usually written (although it is still said in conversation very often) and ~께 is used when the
person you are giving something to requires respect (께 is the honorific form of 에게/한테).
아버지는 아들에게 돈을 준다 = The father gives money to his son

나는 학생들한테 한국어를 가르쳤어 = I taught Korean to the students
저는 부장님께 그 사실을 말할 거예요 = I will tell that (fact) to my boss
In the sentence above using ~께, a different verb (말씀) and grammatical form (드리다) would more
likely be used to conjugate the sentence. At this point, you haven’t learned either of those words (or
how they are used), so I refrained from using them in this example. These will be introduced
in Lesson 39. For now, focus on the use of ~께 in this sentence.
Note that just because you use ~께 doesn’t mean that your sentence needs to end in a polite way.
~께 is used when the person who is being given is of high importance, regardless of who you are
talking to. For example, if I was a teacher, talking to my student, talking about something being given
TO the principal, I could say:
나는 책을 교장선생님께 줬어 = I gave the principal a book

Again, the word “드리다” would most likely be used instead of 주다 here. For now, focus on the use
of ~께 and we will continue to discuss this in Lesson 39.
Korean Particles (from): ~에게서/한테서/(으)로부터

You learned in Lesson 12 that ~에서 can be used to mean “from” in a wide variety of situations.
~에게서/한테서 can also have the translation of “from,” but they are used in a more restricted way.
~에게서/한테서 has the meaning that is opposite of ~에게/한테/께, which means it is used when
somebody receives something from somebody. These particles are attached to the person from
whom one receives something from. For example:
나는 나의 여자친구에게서 편지를 받았어 = I received a letter from my girlfriend

The “thing” that is being received doesn’t need to be something physical. It could be something
abstract like stories, explanations, or other things. For example:
저는 교감선생님에게서 한국어를 배웠어요 = I learned Korean from my vice principal

저는 그것을 친구한테서 들었어요 = I heard that from my friend
A very similar particle is ~(으)로부터. This particle can also be attached to the person from whom
one receives something from. For example:
나는 나의 여자친구로부터 편지를 받았어 = I received a letter from my girlfriend

저는 교감선생님으로부터 한국어를 배웠어요 = I learned Korean from my vice principal
저는 그것을 친구로부터 들었어요 = I heard that from my friend
저는 친구들로부터 사랑을 많이 받았어요 = I received a lot of love from friends
아버지로부터 선물이 왔어요 = A present came from my father
~(으)로부터 can also be used when receiving something from a non-person thing (a company/the
government/etc). For example:
나는 돈을 정부로부터 받았어 = I received money from the government

이것을 하늘로부터 받았어요 = I received this from the sky
However, you cannot use ~에게서/~한테서 to indicate that you received something from a non-
person.
To summarize, ~(으)로부터 can be used to indicate that one receives something from a person or
non-person. ~에게서 and ~한테서 have a similar meaning, but can only be used when one receives
something from a person.
Do something for somebody: ~을/를 위해(서)

If you want to say that you are doing something FOR (the benefit of) somebody, you can add ~를/을
to the person who you are doing something for, followed by 위해(서):
나는 나의 여자 친구를 위해(서) 꽃을 샀어 = I bought flowers for my girlfriend

나는 부장님을 위해(서) 이것을 썼어 = I wrote this for my boss
저는 친구를 위해 빵을 만들었어요 = I made bread for my friend
아버지를 위해 시원한 물을 준비했어요 = I prepared cool water for my father
There doesn’t seem to be a difference between 위해 and 위해서.
This form is usually used when you are doing something for a person, but can also be used
sometimes when you are doing something for a non-person:
저는 회사를 위해 열심히 일할 거예요 = I will work hard for the company

The important thing is that the thing in which you are doing something for must be a noun (that’s a
confusing sentence – read it again if it went over your head). You can use 위해 to indicate that you
are doing something for the purpose of a verb (I am going there to/for the purpose of see(ing) a
movie) but you will learn about that inLesson 32 once you have learned how to change verbs into
nouns.
Also make sure that you realize that ‘for’ can have many meanings in English. Just because you say
‘for’ in English, doesn’t mean that it can be translated directly to ~를/을 위해. In Korean, ~를/을 위해
means for the benefit of. For example, in this sentence:

I am waiting for the bus – the ‘bus’ is the object in which you are waiting for, so, in Korean, you
attach the particle ~을/를 to ‘bus’ but not ~을/를 위해:
나는 버스를 기다린다
About something ~에 대해
~에 대해 can also be attached to nouns like 를/을 위해, but this has the meaning of “about.” It’s very
easy to understand when used in simple situations:
나는 너에 대해 생각했어 = I was thinking about you

나는 나의 아버지에 대해 말했어 = I was talking about my father
나는 그것에 대해 책을 쓸 거야 = I will write a book about it
그 회계사는 정부에 대해 나쁜 말을 했어요 = That accountant said bad things about the government
Just like with ~을/을 위해서, there is very little (if any) difference between ~에 대해 and ~에 대해서.
For example, the sentences above could all be written as:
나는 너에 대해서 생각했어 = I was thinking about you

나는 나의 아버지에 대해서 말했어 = I was talking about my father
나는 그것에 대해서 책을 쓸 거야 = I will write a book about it
그 회계사는 정부에 대해서 나쁜 말을 했어요 = That accountant said bad things about the
government
One way that you cannot use ~에 대해 is in the following sentence:
My favorite thing about you is your eyes.

I’d love to teach you that sentence in Korean, but it is just a little bit too complicated for you right now.
Ah, what the heck – I’ll show you – but don’t expect to understand much of it:
너에 있어서 내가 가장 좋아하는 것은 너의 눈이야.
Too complicated for you right now, the grammar within that sentence will be discussed in Lesson 28.
Until then…
That’s it for this lesson! I think this one was one of the easiest lessons yet… haha, what do you think?
Simple memorizing – nothing too complicated. In the next lesson, we will be talking about something
native speakers of any language never think about when they speak… which means it is going to be
hard to grasp! Think of this lesson as a gift from me to relax your brain before you start to get
confused again!
Lesson 14: Korean Passive Verbs
Vocabulary
Nouns:
냄새 (나다) = smell
청소기 = vacuum cleaner
얼굴 = face
시장 = market
몸 = body
불 = light/fire
숙제 = homework
기억 = memory
상자 = box
바람 = wind
세금 = tax
Verbs:
켜다 = to turn on
끄다 = to turn off
숨다 = to hide oneself
숨기다 = to hide an object
고장내다 = to break
놓다 = to lay an object down
눕다 = to lie down
존경하다 = to respect
대체하다 = to replace
제공하다 = to provide, to offer
포함하다 = to include
내다 = to make something come up/arise/occur
싸우다 = to fight
속이다 = to trick somebody
감동하다 = to impress
서다 = to stand
Passive Verbs:
잠기다 = to be locked
켜지다 = to be turned on
꺼지다 = to be turned off
나다 = to have something you didn’t have
고장나다 = to be broken
화나다 = to be mad
짜증나다 = to be annoyed
놓이다 = for an object to be lying down
열리다 = to be open
닫히다 = to be closed
속다 = to be tricked
Adverbs:
자꾸 = repeatedly
Introduction
This lesson contains a lot of boring, confusing grammar. I am warning you now.
If you looked at the vocabulary list of this lesson before reading this, you may have noticed
something strange with some of the words. A lot of the words look very similar to each other. The
reason for this is because today you will learn about passive verbs in Korean. Though I studied
passive verbs very early in my studies, it is something that actually took me a year to fully grasp –
and not because it is incredibly difficult, but rather that I never received any proper instruction
regarding passive verbs.
I don’t really like explaining English grammar too much in my lessons. However, an understanding of
what passive verbs are and how they are used in English sentences will help you with your
understanding of their equivalent Korean sentences.
An active verb is used when a subject does an action. For example:
In the examples below, the subject is “I”

I eat
I learn
I open
Active verbs often act on an object. For example:
The word “object” here refers to the part of speech that a verb can act on. Sometimes learners get
confused and think that an object means “a thing,” for example; “a pencil” or “a door.” In theory, any
noun can be an object of a sentence – including people or abstract ideas that are not considered
“objects” in the literal (non-language) sense. For example, the objects are underlined in the following
sentences:
I love my father
He wants respect
I eat rice
I learn Korean
I open the door
Some active verbs by their nature cannot act on an object. For example, the active verbs are
underlined in the examples below:
I went to the park

I arrived at the park
“The park” in the above examples are not objects. The verb is not acting on that part of speech.
They just indicate places within the sentence.
In all of the above examples, regardless of if there is an object in the sentence or not, the subject
performs the action. These are all active sentences.
Passive sentences indicate that an action is performed on the subject. For example:
I was kicked
The door was opened
The hamburger was eaten
In English, passive verbs feel like adjectives because their sentence structures are similar. For
example:
I was handsome
The door was big
The hamburger was delicious
Let’s look at an active verb and passive verb being used in similar sentences:
1) I opened the door

2) The door was opened
In the first example “I” am the subject and I performed the action (opening) on the object (the door).
In the second example, “the door” is the subject and the action (opening) was performed on it.
Below are some more active-passive pairs to help you see how they differ from one-another:
All of the examples below are in the present tense. In the present tense, these passive sentences
(just like most plain sentences used in the present tense) sound unnatural. For example, I would
never say “I turn the computer on.” However, I am using the present tense simply because this is the
basic “raw” form of the sentence. They could be applied to the past, the future, or other complicated
things could be applied to them.
I turn the computer on
The computer is turned on
I lock the door

The door is locked
I respect my friend
My friend is respected
I cooked the rice

The rice is cooked
Passive verbs (like adjectives) cannot act on an object. For example:
I opened the door (active verb) – correct

The door was opened me (passive verb) – incorrect
The door was big me (adjective) – incorrect
However, sentences with passive verbs can include more information to indicate by whom (or by
what) the action was performed. For example:
The door was opened by me

The door was opened by the wind
The door was opened by the guard
I’ll do the same with all of the passive sentences that I showed you earlier:
The computer was turned on by me

The door was locked by the teacher
My friend is respected by many people
The rice was cooked by my mother
Because passive verbs cannot act on an object, you will never see ~을/를 in a sentence predicated
by a passive verb in Korean. Remember, ~을/를 is used to mark objects in Korean sentences – and
therefore their usage is impossible with passive verbs.
This is probably the most important paragraph in the entire lesson; it is usually unnatural to use
passive verbs in Korean. In almost every situation, it is more natural to use the active form of a verb.
For example, instead of saying “the house is built” it is more natural to say “somebody built the
house” (which implies that the house is now built).
Nonetheless, understanding how passive verbs are used in Korean is crucial to your development.
There are many ways to make a passive sentence in Korean. In this lesson, we will look at the
different ways this can be done.
It is also important to remember that passive verbs are verbs – not adjectives. Korean learners often
think they are adjectives because they look, sound and feel similar to adjectives and they never act
on objects. Always remember that passive verbs are verbs. This is important because you must
conjugate them as verbs and not as adjectives.
Alright, let’s get started.
Korean Passive Verbs – 하다 to 되다

I’ve told you twice before that verbs ending in 하다 can usually be separated from 하다 to create a
noun form of that verb. 하다 then has the meaning of “do”:
나는 일했어 = I worked
which has the same meaning of:
나는 일을 했어 = I did work/I worked
When dealing with 하다 verbs, most of the time you can simply exchange 하다 with 되다, to make
that verb passive. For example:
이해하다 = to understand
이해되다 = to be understood
포함하다 = to include
포함되다 = to be included
제공하다 = to provide
제공되다 = to be provided
You can use these passive verbs in sentences, but remember, these sentences cannot act on
objects. For example:
이 값은 세금을 포함해요 = this price includes tax

세금은 포함돼요 = the tax is included
*Adding 어 to 되 creates either 되어 or 돼 with no difference in meaning. (For example, 되다 in the
past tense can either be 되었다 or 됐다)
More examples:
Active: 저는 점심을 준비했어요 = I prepared (the) lunch

Passive: 점심이 준비되었어요 = (The) lunch was prepared
Active: 회사는 기계를 대체했어 = The company replaced the machine
Passive: 기계는 대체되었어 = The machine was replaced
However, a lot of times you want to indicate by whom/what the lunch was prepared, or
by whom/what the machine was replaced. For example:
– The lunch was prepared by the school
– The machine was replaced by the company
In the examples above, although we are still using a passive verb, information about how the
passive verb occurred is given. This is an example of when it is much more common to use the
active form over the passive form in Korean. In Korean (and most likely in English as well), it would
be much more natural to say “I prepared the lunch” instead of “The lunch was prepared by me.”
Nonetheless, the grammar within these sentences is important, so I need to continue teaching it to
you here.
In order to create these sentences, you need to remember that sentences with a predicating passive
verb can NOT have an object – which means that you CANNOT attach ~를/을 to “the school” or “the
company.” For example, the sentence below would be ridiculous and probably wouldn’t be
understood at all:
점심이 학교를 준비되었어요
In these types of sentences, in order to indicate how/by which means the passive verb occurs, you
need to use different particles. If this part of a sentence is a person, it is acceptable to attach the
particle “에게” to the noun. For example:
그것은 이해되었어 = it was understood

그것은 학생들에게 이해되었어 = It was understood by the students
집은 청소되었어 = the house was cleaned
집은 아버지에게 청소되었어 = the house was cleaned by my dad
Again, I highly suggest that you refrain from using this passive voice in Korean. I need you to
understand what is being introduced here so I can build on it in later lessons. The two sentences
above would be better said as:
학생들은 그것을 이해했어요 = The students understood that
아버지는 집을 청소했어요 = My dad cleaned the house
The particle ~에 can be used when this part of a sentence is a non-person. For example:
점심이 학교에 준비되었어요 = The lunch was provided by the school
The particle “~에 의해” can also be attached to nouns that are non-people in these situations, but the
distinction between ~에 and ~에 의해 at this point doesn’t need to be discussed (it will only confuse
you, and it – especially because I advise against using this passive form in Korean anyways –
doesn’t need to be taught until much later. In Lesson 78, I formally introduce ~에 의해 and its main
function. I suggest not skipping ahead to that lesson, and focusing on the information I am
presenting here.
Also, remember the meaning of ~(으)로 which you learned in Lesson 12. You learned that ~(으)로
can be used to indicate with what tool/device/method/material something is carried out. This means
that you can say something like:
저는 집을 청소기로 청소했어요 = I cleaned the house with a vacuum cleaner
But, if you wanted to say that sentence by using the passive verb (to be cleaned), you would have to
again use ~(으)로 as the particle attached to 청소기 because that was the method/tool that was used
for it to be cleaned:
집은 청소기로 청소되었어요 = the house was cleaned by a vacuum cleaner, whereas:
집은 청소기에 청소되었어요 = is not correct, although most Korean people would probably
understand you.
Wow. Confusing.
It’s confusing for me, I’m sure it is confusing to you, and it is actually confusing to Korean people as
well – so don’t get too hung up on the difference between ~에/에게 /~(으)로 in these situations
because, as I said – Korean people don’t use passive verbs as much as they use active verbs.
What do you need to take from all of this? Because it is so confusing, I wrote the main points that
you should know:
1. Clauses ending in a passive verb can never have a word with an object marker (를/을) within the
clause.
2. Passive verbs are conjugated just like active verbs, even though they feel like adjectives
3. Though clauses ending in a passive verb cannot have an object in the clause, other particles can be
attached to nouns to indicate how the passive action occurred. These particles are usually:
1. 에 – to indicate that something occurred due to a non-person
2. 에 의해 – to indicate that something occurred due to a non-person, but we haven’t studied this
specifically yet
3. 에게 – to indicate that something occurred due to a person
4. ~(으)로 – to indicate the tool/method in which something occurred
One other thing. Just because an noun in a passive sentence has the particle ~에 (or ~에게, or ~에
의해 for that matter) attached to it, it doesn’t necessarily mean that is the noun that caused the
passive verb to occur. ~에 could also have its more familiar function of designating a place. For
example, we saw this sentence before:
세금은 포함돼요 = the tax is included

I could put the noun “값” in the sentence to indicate the location of where the tax is included in.
세금은 값에 포함된다 = The tax is included in the price

Notice in the example above that the particle “~에” is not denoting that the tax is included by the
price. Rather, it is included in the price. Being able to recognize things like this just takes practice
and your understanding of this will increase as you progress through your studies. For now, try not to
focus too much on the tiny parts of this lessons, and focus more on the big-picture.
Korean Passive Verbs – 하다 to 받다

In addition to the usual way of switching 하다 with 되다 to make a passive verb – there is another
(similar) way of making these verbs passive. This can only be done with certain verbs (usually acting
on people), and is done by switching 하다 with 받다 (to receive). For example:
저는 저의 형을 존경해요 = I respect my brother

저의 형은 존경 받아요 = My brother is respected (literally-my brother receives respect)
The same rules apply with ~에 and ~에게 as described previously:
교장선생님은 선생님들에게 존경받아요 = The principal is respected by the teachers
나는 너의 말에* 감동받았어 = I was impressed with what you said
*Remember that 말하다 means “to speak.” By removing 하다, 말 becomes the noun form of “speak,”
which is ‘words/the thing you said/what you said/etc…”
Korean Passive Verbs – Non-하다 verbs

So far you have only learned how to change ~하다 verbs into the passive tense. There are, of
course many verbs in Korean that don’t end in ~하다. When dealing with words not ending in 하다,
there is often a separate (but very similar) word that can be used to indicate the passive voice.
These words will always be presented separately in the vocabulary lists. Here are some examples:
켜다 = to turn on
켜지다 = to be turned on
끄다 = to turn off
꺼지다 = to be turned off
닫다 = to close
닫히다 = to be closed
The words above are just some examples of active verbs and their passive equivalents. There are
many more of these active-passive pairs, and unfortunately there is no way to instinctively know
which one is active and which one is passive. In all of the examples above, the longer word (i.e. the
word with one more syllable) is the passive verb. However, sometimes the longer word is the active
verb, for example:
붙다 = to be attached
붙이다 = to attach
끓다 = to be boiling
끓이다 = to boil
If you look at these examples, you might think “Oh, so maybe the pattern is – if there is an active-
passive pair where “이” is the difference between the two, then the longer word will be the active
verb.” Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Here are two other examples of active-passive pairs that
show the opposite:
쓰다 = to write
쓰이다 = to be written
보다 = to see
보이다 = to be seen
There are many instances of these active-passive pairs in Korean, and there is no way to know
which one is active or which one is passive unless you have specifically memorized it. This is just
something that you will have to memorize whenever you come across it. The only thing that is
helpful is that the active verb usually looks very similar to the passive verb – with just one syllable
added or deleted from the active form.
You can treat these passive verbs just like the passive verbs you learned in the previous two
sections (되다 and 받다 verbs). Make sure you use the passive verb and not the active verb (for
example – use 닫히다 instead of 닫다 in a passive sentence)
밥은 학교에 의해 제공된다 = food is provided by the school

밥은 학교에 의해 제공되었다 = food was provided by the school
문은 바람에 의해 닫혔어요 = The door was closed by the wind
When dealing with these passive verbs however, you need to think about whether or not that
passive verb is in thestate of something. For example, every passive verb you learned in the
previous two sections (하다 to 되다 and 하다 to 받다) were not passive verbs in the state of
something. For example, again:

나는 너의 말에 감동받았어 = I was impressed with what you said
Simply means that you were impressed. It does not mean that you are in the state of being
impressed. But, in these sentences:
The computer is on.

The TV is off
The door is locked
All of those nouns are in the state of something. The computer is in the state of being on, the TV is
in the state of being off, and the door is in the state of locked. To indicate that something “is in the
state” of something in Korean, you must add ~아/어 있다 to the passive verb. For example:
As you know, 있다 has many usages and meanings in Korean. Sometimes 있다 is a verb, and
sometimes it is an adjective. When used as ~아/어 있다 as described here, 있다 is a verb. For now,
this is only important to you when conjugating in the plain form. In the future, there will be other
times when this distinction will be important.
저는 컴퓨터를 켰어요 = I turned the computer on
컴퓨터가 켜져 있어요 = The computer is (in the state of) on
저는 TV 를 껐어요 = I turned the TV off
TV 가 꺼져 있어요 = The TV is (in the state of) off
저는 문을 잠갔어요 = I locked the door
문이 잠겨 있어요 = The door is (in the state of) locked
Notice that ~이/가 is used in the passive sentences above. In most cases, this is usually more
natural with these types of sentences. Don’t worry about that for now (I’ll discuss it in Lesson 17),
and focus more on how the verbs (both active and passive) are being used.
I get a lot of people who are confused about this “state” nonsense of these passive verbs. I would
like to fully describe how these words can be used to describe that something is in a “state” and
compare them to the same passive verb that is not in that state. For example:
저는 문을 닫았어요 = I closed the door

This sentence is an active sentence. It has an active verb, and has an object. This should be no
problem.
문이 닫혔어요 = The door was closed
This is a passive sentence. It is indicating that at some point in the past, the door was closed by
something or someone. This is the exact passive equivalent of “저는 문을 닫았어요” – the only
difference is that we have no idea who/what closed the door. Though you could assume that the
door (after that point) was in the state of “closed” this sentence does not specifically indicate that.
문이 바람에 닫혔어요 = The door was closed by the wind
This is essentially the same sentence as above, but in this case we know how the door was closed.
Again, though you could assume that the door (after that point) was in the state of “closed” this
sentence does not specifically indicate that.
문이 닫혀 있었어요 = The door was closed
This is another passive sentence, but notice the difference between this sentence and the two
examples above. Here, the sentence is specifically indicating that the door was in the state of
“closed”. Here, we have absolutely no idea if something/somebody had opened it recently; all we
know is that, at that time, the door was not open.
저는 문을 닫아요 = I close the door
This is another active sentence with an active verb. Though it makes sense, it probably wouldn’t be
said like this unless there was some sort of adverb or other information in the sentence (for example,
“I close the door every day at 9:00pm”)
문이 닫혀요 = The door closes
While technically correct, you would need some other information to make this sentence more
natural (for example, “the door closes every day at 9:00pm”). This is the exact passive equivalent of
“저는 문을 닫아요” – except for that in this example, there is no information given as to who/what will
close the door. The sentence is not referring to the door being in the state of “closed”, but rather,
indicating that door somehow closes.
문이 닫혀 있어요 = The door is closed
Notice the difference between this example and the one above. This sentence is not referring to the
door closing. It is only stating that the door is currently in the state of “closed”
문이 닫힐 거예요 = The door will close
Again, this example is referring to the door somehow closing. It is the exact passive equivalent of
“저는 문을 닫을 거예요” – except for that in this example, there is no information given as to
who/what will close the door.

문이 닫혀 있을 거예요 = The door will be closed
This is a passive sentence that is indicating that the door will be in the state of “closed” in the future.
It does not indicate who/what will close the door; all we know is that, at that time in the future, the
door will be closed.
Just because an active verb has a passive equivalent, it does not mean you can attach ~아/어 있다
to that word to describe that it is in the “state” of something. Typically this is only done for words like
on, off, open, closed, etc…
A good example of this not working with a passive verb is with 속이다 and 속다.
속이다 = to trick somebody

속다 = to be tricked
나는 친구를 속였어 = I tricked my friend

This is an active sentence.
나는 친구에게 속았어 = I was tricked by my friend
This is a passive sentence
나는 속아 있다…
… I am… in the state of being tricked.
This doesn’t make sense. Once you’re tricked, you’re tricked. You do not continue being in the state
of “tricked” like a door continues to be open once it is open.
Here’s an example that I am including just because I have the audio for it. I’m going to get more
example sentences for this lesson shortly with more audio clips:
펜이 탁자에 놓여 있었어요
= The pen was (in the state of) laying on the table
Korean Passive Verbs – 내다 and 나다
There are quite a few words in Korean that can either end in 나다 or 내다.
These two play the same role as 되다 and 하다, where a word ending in 나다 is passive and a word
ending in 내다 is active. For example:
나다 and 내다 can actually be used as standalone verbs as well as be attached to other words. Both
of their meanings are very complex and depend heavily on the situation, but their general meanings
are:
나다 = for something to come up/arise/occur

내다 = to make something come up/arise/occur
However, not all words ending in 나다 have an equivalent 내다 verb (and vice-versa). For example,
어긋나다 is a word (to be out of step with something) but 어긋내다 is not a word. At any rate, the two
most common words ending in 나다/내다 are:
고장 내다 = to break
고장 나다 = to be broken
It is very common to use the past tense conjugation of both of these words in the passive voice even
when the thing is currently broken/finished. In English, we would say these sentences in the present
tense, but in theory the task/thing was broken/finished in the past. For example:
숙제는 끝났어요 = My homework is finished

컴퓨터는 고장 났어요 = The computer is broken
It is possible to use the active voice to express these sentences, but the use of “나다” (as seen
above) is more common than the use of 내다 in these cases. Nonetheless, the following are
acceptable:
저는 숙제를 끝냈어요 = I finished my homework

저는 컴퓨터를 고장냈어요 = I broke the computer
As I said before, 나다 itself means “for something to come up/arise/occur” which means it can be
used in a lot of sentences to indicate that some noun “comes up”. Three common ways to use 나다
are with 기억 (a memory) with 생각 (a thought) and with 냄새 (a smell):
아! 그것이* 기억났다! = Ah! I remember that! (Literally – my memory came up)

좋은 생각이* 났어요! = I have a good idea (Literally – a good idea came up)
그 가방에서 냄새가 났어요 = That bag is smelly (A smell is coming out of that bag)
그 방에서 냄새가 났어요 = That room is smelly (A smell is coming out of that room)
*Remember that 나다 is a passive verb and cannot act on an object. Therefore, the particle
~이/가 must be used on “것.” You will learn more about this sentence structure in the next lesson.
Another common example of “나다” in use is in the following phrase:
큰 일 났어요!
Literally, this translates to “a big thing/task/work came up!” In Korean, this expression is used similar
to the expression “Oh no! Something bad just happened!” A more common expression would
probably be “Oh crap!”
You will see “나다” used with many other words throughout your Korean studies. The most common
examples of 나다 (or it’s active 내다 form) are the examples above. Other common examples that
you will learn shortly are provided below. I haven’t included these words in the vocabulary list above,
so you don’t need to memorize them now. I am simply introducing them to you at this point because
they are related to this topic.
소리 = sound
소리가 나다 = the verb of a sound happening (for a sound to “come up”)
화 = anger, rage
화가 나다 = to be angry (for anger to “come up”)
사고 = accident
사고가 나다 = to get into an accident (for an accident to “arise”)
땀 = sweat
땀이 나다 = to be sweating (for sweat to “come up”)
전쟁 = war
전쟁이 나다 = for a war to start (for a war to “come up”)
멀미 = motion sickness
멀미가 나다 = for motion sickness to “come up”
In a lot of these cases, you will see 나다 conjugated into the past tense when we as English
speakers would think of the situation in the present tense. To explain this phenomenon, let me bring
up an example from before:
아! 그것이 기억났다! = Ah! I remember that!

Notice here that 나다 is conjugated to the past but I have translated the English sentence into the
present tense. If you imagine your memory as a thing that can “come up,” in theory, the memory had
already came up before you said that sentence – therefore making it in the past tense. Here, the
context of the conversation can inform you if the speaker is referring to something in the past or
present tense.
It is possible to use these words in the present tense, but that would mean that the noun
is currently coming up. A good example from that list above would be:
땀이 났어요 = I’m sweating
Here again, you can see 나다 conjugated to the past tense but the English sentence is translated
into the present tense. Just by the nature of the word “나다” (to come out) in Korean, when sweat
has “come out” of your body it means that you now have sweat on your body which we as English
speakers would say as “I’m sweating.”
When 나다 is conjugating into the present tense in these cases, it insinuates that the thing is
currently “coming up.” In most situations, the difference is negligible and distinguishing them would
really be splitting hairs.
However, let’s split some hairs:
땀이 났어요 = Sweat was coming out of my body… which means that there is currently sweat on my
body… which means that I am wet from the sweat on my body that had previously come out of my
body.
땀이 나요 = Sweat is literally currently coming out of my body
저는 그것이 기억 났어요 = I remembered that… which means that I also currently remember that
fact… which means that I know that fact that I had previously remembered
저는 그것이 기억 나요 = That memory is literally currently just coming to my mind
Really, this whole past/present thing is quite advanced and it not something I developed an
understanding of until many years of exposure to Korean. As a beginner (you are still a beginner if
you are only at Lesson 14!) you probably don’t need to worry about splitting these hairs. However,
when I was learning, I would have wanted this to be explained to me at some point, so here I am
explaining it to you.
I should point out that we don’t see this same phenomenon when these words are used in negative
sentences. For example, if I say:
그것이 기억 안 났어
Does the fact of your memory “not coming up” mean that it is currently not up when you said the
sentence? Huh…. I can’t even wrap my head around that sentence.
This type of past-tense-conjugated negative sentence with 나다 would only be used to say that you
didn’t remember something sometime in the past. If you want to say that you cannot currently
remember something, you can use the present tense conjugation. For example:
나는 그때 기억이 안 났어 = I didn’t remember (that) at that time
나는 그것이 기억 안 나 = I don’t remember that
Korean Passive Verbs – Normal verbs

So far, you’ve learned about dealing with 하다/되다/받다 verbs, verbs that can be in a state
(닫다/닫히다) and 나다/내다 verbs. Sometimes, however, a verb that fits none of these conditions
can be put into the passive voice. All that needs to be done in these cases is to add ~아/어지다 to
the verb stem to make it passive. Note that this cannot be done with all verbs, but some common
examples are:
주다 = to give
주어지다 = to be given
(Note that the word is 주어지다 and not 줘지다)
짓다 = to build
지어지다 = to be built (짓 + 어 = 지어) + 지다 = 지어지다
기회가 주어졌어요 = I was given a chance

그 집은 한국에서 지어졌어요 = that house was built in Korea
That’s it!
I warned you earlier, there was a lot of grammar in this lesson. Though all of the grammar in this
lesson is very important, and must be understood to continue your development of Korean – keep in
mind that it is always more natural to use active sentences instead of passive sentences in Korean.
I’m sure you are very confused! But I did my best to describe everything somebody would need to
know when having to worry about the passive voice in Korean.
Lesson 15: Miscellaneous Words and

Grammar: 들다, Korean Homonyms, Being
Sick, Different/Similar/Same
Vocabulary
Nouns:
잠 = sleep
모자 = hat
줄 = line, string, rope, queue
감기 = a cold
기침 = cough
설사 = diarrhea
독감 = the flu
재채기 = sneeze
동아리 = a club in school or university
취미 = hobby
수학 = math
가족 = family
실력 = skills
사촌 = cousin
삶 = life
맥주 = beer
과거 = past
마음 = one’s heart/mind
Verbs:
들다 = to lift, to carry, to hold
들다 = to enter, to go into
가져오다 = to bring an object
가져가다 = to take an object
돌리다 = to turn, to run a machine, to hand out
돌다 = to turn oneself, to rotate oneself
돌아보다 = to look back
돌아가다 = to go back, to return
돌아오다 = to come back, to return
돌려주다 = to give back
걸다 = to hang
주문하다 = to order
결혼하다 = to get married
부르다 = to call out
고르다 = to choose, to pick
넣다 = to insert, to put inside
경험하다 = to experience
설명하다 = to explain
자랑하다 = to show off
Passive verbs:
걸리다 = to be hanging
걸리다 = to be caught, to be stuck, to be trapped
걸리다 = to catch a cold/sickness
걸리다 = to “take” a certain amount of time
Adjectives:
똑같다 = to be exactly the same
자랑스럽다 = to be proud
또 다르다 = another
시끄럽다 = to be noisy, to be loud
흔하다 = to be common
드물다 = to be rare
아마도 = maybe/might
속 = inside
Introduction
This lesson will have a very different feel than all the previous lessons you have learned. Most of the
words you have learned so far can be understood and used in sentences without much thought or
hesitation. For example, if you knew how to say this:
저는 한국어를 배웠어요 = I learned Korean
And then subsequently learned “공부하다” (to study), it would be easy to figure out that you could
also say:
저는 한국어를 공부했어요 = I studied Korean.
However, there are many words that you would not be able to pick up instinctively because they
follow different rules or patterns. In this lesson, I want to teach you about some of these words. I also
want to use this lesson as a means to teach you some small concepts in Korean that you should
know. These concepts are important, but are too small to have an entire lesson dedicated to that
one concept. So, I have included them in this “miscellaneous” lesson:
More about 좋다/싫다 to 좋아하다/싫어하다
I have told you a few times that in most words ending in 하다, you can remove the ~하다 and the
remaining word then becomes a noun of that verb. For example:

말 = speech/words/the thing that you say
말하다 = to speak
주문 = an order
주문하다 = to order
결혼 = marriage
결혼하다 = to marry
존경 = respect
존경하다 = to respect
This cannot be done with 좋아하다 and 싫어하다. That is:
좋아 is not a noun that means “likeness” (or whatever), and

싫어 is not a noun that means “dis-likeness “(or whatever)
Note, however that 좋아 and 싫어 can be found in sentences, but only as conjugated forms
of 좋다/싫다 and not as the noun form of 좋아하다 and 싫어하다. You learned in previous lessons
that 좋다 and 싫다 are adjectives. As adjectives, they can describe an upcoming noun or predicate a
sentence. For example:

저는 좋은 김치를 먹었어요 = I ate good kimchi
김치는 좋아요 = Kimchi is good
Just a quick note. Only in rare cases would you actually say ‘김치는 좋아요.’ In most cases if you
wanted to describe 김치 by saying it was good, you would use the word 맛있다 instead. You would
only really use this sentence if you/somebody was talking about something bad (like maybe
something bad for your health), and then you could say “… is bad, but Kimchi is good.” Nonetheless,
it is grammatically correct, and I am specifically using this sentence to make a point that you will
understand later in the lesson.
좋아하다 is made by adding ~아/어하다 to the stem of 좋다. This changes 좋다 from an adjective
(good) to a verb (to like). Likewise,
싫어하다 is made by adding ~아/어하다 to the stem of 싫다. This changes 싫다 from an adjective
(not good) to a verb (to dislike).
It would be good to note that you can add ~아어하다 with some other adjectives as well. 좋다 and
싫다 are the most common (and the most important) to worry about right now, but other common
examples are:
부끄럽다 = shy (this is an adjective)

부끄러워하다 = shy (this is a verb)
부럽다 = envious (this is an adjective)

부러워하다 = envious (this is a verb)
Aside from knowing that one is a verb and one is an adjective, you don’t need to worry about these
other words right now. I talk more about this concept and how they are used differently, but not until
much later in Lesson 105. For now, let’s just focus on 좋아하다 and 싫어하다.
As a verb, 좋아하다 can be used to indicate that one “likes” something. For example:
김치는 좋아요 = Kimchi is good

저는 김치를 좋아해요 = I like Kimchi
Likewise, 싫어하다 can be used to indicate that one “dislikes” something. For example:
김치는 싫어요 = Kimchi is bad/not good

저는 김치를 싫어해요 = I don’t like Kimchi
However, the use of “좋다” and “싫다” in these sentences is commonly used to say:
김치가 좋아요 = I like Kimchi, and

김치가 싫어요 = I don’t like Kimchi
Or, other examples:
학교가 좋아요 = I like school

학교가 싫어요 = I don’t like school
맥주가 좋아요 = I like beer
맥주가 싫어요 = I don’t like beer
The mechanics to how this is done is talked about next.
Subject – Object – Adjective Form
One of the basic fundamentals of grammar (not just Korean grammar) is that an adjective cannot act
on an object. This means in Korean you can never have a sentence predicated by an adjective that
is acting on a word with the object particle ~를/을. This means that you cannot say this:
저는 김치를 좋다 = I kimchi good

(this doesn’t make sense in either language)
But, you can say any of these:
저는 김치를 먹었어요 = I ate kimchi

An object predicated by a verb
김치가 좋아요 = kimchi is good
A subject predicated by an adjective
저는 좋은 김치를 먹었어요 = I ate good kimchi
An object being described by an adjective predicated by a verb
That being said, sometimes, Korean people actually DO make sentences that are predicated by
adjectives and also have an “object.” Remember though, you cannot (100% cannot) use an adjective
to act on an object. So how do Korean people say this? They do so by adding ~이/가 to the object
instead of ~을/를. This technically makes the grammar within the sentence correct because there is
not an adjective acting on an object. Take a look at the example:
김치는 좋아요 = kimchi is good

저는 김치를 좋아해요 = I like kimchi, which can also be said like this
저는 김치가 좋아요 = I like kimchi
What I am trying to get at here – is that often times in Korean there is an adjective or passive verb
that acts on objects. However, these adjective/passive verbs must (of course) always be treated as
an adjective or passive verb.
Adjectives and passive verbs can never act on objects, so instead of using ~를/을 in these situations,
you have to use ~이/가. Another example where this is commonly done is with 그립다:
그립다 = this word is translated as “to miss,” but is usually used when talking about missing a non-
person (it is sometimes used to say that you miss a person, but we will talk about how to say you
miss a person in Lesson 17).
그립다 is an adjective in Korean (because it actually describes the feeling rather than an action verb).
This means that if you want to say “I miss Korean food” you cannot say:
저는 한국 음식을 그리워요. Instead, you must say:
저는 한국 음식이 그리워요 = I miss Korean food
More examples. Notice that the predicating word of each sentence in an adjective:
나는 네가 자랑스러워 = I am proud of you

나는 그 사람이 싫어 = I don’t like that person
저는 한국이 좋아요 = I like Korea
You also saw this same phenomenon in the previous lesson with passive verbs. Remember, you
cannot have a passive verb act on an object. Therefore, we saw the following types of examples in
the previous lesson:
저는 그것이 기억나요! = I remember that!
저는 땀이 나요! = I’m sweating!
저는 화가 났어요 = I was/I am angry
Korean Word: 들다
The word 들다 in Korean is very difficult because it can be used in so many ways. Two of the most
common usages are:
들다 = to carry/hold something
들다 = to enter/go into something/somewhere
Both of these usages are overarching situations that most of the usages of 들다 can fit into. The
difficulty with 들다 is, because it can be used in so many different ways, it is often hard to come up
with a translation that fits all possible situations.
Right now, you don’t have a good enough understanding of Korean grammar/vocabulary for me to
list all the possible ways 들다 can be used. However, let me show you three examples of how 들다
can be used under the overarching situation of “to enter/go into something/somewhere.”
나는 동아리에 들었어 = I joined a club (I “entered” a club)

(나는) 잠이 들었다 = I fell asleep (I “entered” sleep)
저는 그 그림이 마음에 들어요 = I like that picture (That picture enters my heart)
The definition of the word 마음 generally refers to one’s heart/one’s mind
Now, let me show you examples of how 들다 can be used under the overarching situation of “to
carry/hold something.”
저는 손을 들었어요 = I raised my hand (I “held up” my hand/carried my hand)

저는 가방을 들었어요 = I carried the/my bag
Okay, so what’s my point?
Well, I have three points actually.
1) First, I wanted to show you how 들다 can be used. As I mentioned, there are many other possible
ways that 들다 can be used that fit under those two overarching situations. Even though I only
showed you five example sentences, that represents a good percentage of the ways 들다 can be
used.
2) This is really crucial to your development of Korean and how it relates to the meanings you have
of words from your understanding of English. You have to realize that Korean and English are
fundamentally different, and it is very difficult to translate sentences sometimes. In cases like these,
you should try not to translate the meaning of a word directly into a specific definition. Rather, you
should be open to the fact that it can have many meanings depending on the context.
For example, imagine if you knew the following words and their definitions:
 저 = I/me
 마음 = heart/mind
 들다 = enter
 그림 = picture
And you saw the following sentence:
저는 그 그림이 마음에 들어요

Would you be able to understand its meaning if I had not explained it to you earlier? Many learners
of Korean might read that and say “Well, it looks like that person has a picture entering his
heart/mind… but I’m not quite sure what that means.”
This is the first of many times where I will encourage you to not translate/understand sentences
literally. Instead, try to understand what the meaning of a sentence could be based on your
understanding of the words within it. For example, if you come across the word “들다” in your studies,
realize that it can have many usages – and just because it doesn’t immediately look like it will
translate to “enter” or “carry,” an open mind might allow you to see things in different ways.
3) I specifically wanted to teach you the meaning of 들다 because it is commonly used in compound
words, which I will talk about in the next section.
.
.
Korean Compound Verbs
You will notice (or may have already noticed) that many Korean verbs are made by combining two
verbs together. This is usually done by adding one verb to the stem of the other, along with ~아/어.
When this happens, the meanings of both of the words form to make one word. For example:
들다 = to enter something
가다 = to go
들다 + 가다 = 들 + 어 + 가다
= 들어가다 = to go into something
아버지는 은행에 들어갔어요 = My dad went into the bank
들다 = to enter something
오다 = to come
들다 + 오다 = 들 + 어 + 오다
= 들어오다 = to come into something
남자는 방에 들어왔어요 = A man came into the room

나다 = to arise out of something/come up/come out
가다 = to go
나다 + 가다 = 나 + 아 + 가다
= 나가다 = to go out of something
저는 집에서 나갔어요 = I went out of home (I left home)
나다 = to arise out of something/come up/come out

오다 = to come
나다 + 오다 = 나 + 아 + 오다
= 나오다 = to come out of something
학생은 학교에서 나왔어요 = The student came out of school
가지다 = to own/have/posses
오다 = to come
가지다 + 오다 = 가지 + 어 + 오다
= 가져오다 = to bring something
나는 나의 숙제를 가져왔어 = I brought my homework

그 학생은 숙제를 가져오지 않았어 = That student didn’t bring his homework
가지다 = to own/have/posses
가다 = to go
가지다 + 가다 = 가지 + 어 + 가다
= 가져가다 = to take something
저는 저의 모자를 가져갈 거예요 = I will bring my hat

You will come across many of these words when you are leaning how to speak Korean. It is not
something terribly difficult, but is something that you should be aware of (it helps to understand the
word if you realize that it is made up of two separate words).
Another word that you will see commonly in these compound words is “돌다”:
돌다 = to turn/to spin/to rotate
Examples of compound words:
돌다 + 보다 = 돌아보다 = to turn around (and see)

돌다 + 가다 = 돌아가다 = to return/go back
돌다 + 오다 = 돌아오다 = to return/come back
돌리다 + 주다 = 돌려주다 = to give back
저는 9 월 1 일에 캐나다에 돌아갈 거예요 = I will go back to Canada on September 1

st
저는 친구에게 책을 돌려줬어요 = I gave my friend back his book

That’s good enough for now, but you will continue to see these as you progress through your studies.
Different/Similar/Same in Korean (다르다/비슷하다/같다)
Three words that you have learned in previous lessons are:
다르다 = different
비슷하다 = similar
같다 = same
Using these words isn’t as straight forward as it would seem, so I wanted to spend some time
teaching you how to deal with them. Of course, in simple sentences, they can be used just like any
other adjectives. For example:
그것은 비슷해요 = That is similar

우리는 매우 달라요 = We are so different
우리는 같아요 = We are the same*
The sentence above sounds unnatural in Korean. Although “같다” translates to “the same,” in most
cases (especially in cases like this where nothing is being compared), it is more natural to use the
word “똑같다,” which usually translates to “exactly the same.”
For example:
우리는 똑같아요 = We are exactly the same
When comparing things like this in English, we use a different preposition for each word. For
example:
I am similar to my friend
That building is different from yesterday
Canadian people are the same as Korean people
In Korean, the particle ~와/과/랑/이랑/하고 can be used to represent all of these meanings. For
example:
저는 친구와 비슷해요 = I am similar to my friend

그 건물은 어제와 달라요 = That building is different from yesterday
캐나다 사람들은 한국 사람들과 같아요 = Canadian people are the same as Korean people
이 학교는 우리 학교와 똑같아요 = This school is exactly the same as our school
The ability of ~와/과/랑/이랑/하고 to be used in all of these cases creates confusion for Korean
people when they learn English. You will often hear mistakes from Korean people like:
“This school is the same to our school”

Notice in the sentence above that the particle ~와/과/랑/이랑/하고 is used to denote that something
is differentfrom, similar to, or the same as something else. In theory, you could change the order of
the sentences (to make the sentence structure similar to what you learned in Lesson 13) to indicate
that two things (this and that) are different, similar or the same. For example:
우리 학교와 이 학교는 똑같아요 = Our school and this school are exactly the same
As you can see with the English translation – this doesn’t create any difference in meaning. It merely
changes the wording of the sentences and the function of the particles slightly.
I talk about the usage of 같다 later in Lessons 35 and 36. Specifically, in Lesson 36 I talk about how
같다 is more commonly used to say “something is like something.” I don’t want to get into this too
much in this lesson, because the purpose of this section was for me to introduce you to the grammar
within these sentences so you could apply it to what I am about to introduce next.
Check this grammar out. This is probably an easy sentence to you now:
나는 잘생긴 남자를 만났어 = I met a handsome man
Subject – adjective (describing an) – object – verb
What about these next sentences?
나는 비슷한 남자를 만났어 = I met a similar man, or
나는 같은 남자를 만났어 = I met the same man
These sentences have the same structure as before:
Subject – adjective (describing an) – object – verb
That should be easy for you too. But what about if you wanted to say “I met a man who is similar to
your boyfriend.” Seems too complicated, but let’s break it down:
너의 남자친구와 비슷하다 = similar to your boyfriend

비슷하다 is an adjective – which means it can modify a noun:
비슷한 남자 = similar man
너의 남자친구와 비슷한 남자 = A man (that is) similar to your boyfriend

나는 ( — )를 만났어 = I met —
나는 (너의 남자친구와 비슷한 남자)를 만났어 = I met a man that is similar to your boyfriend
Easy! Actually, not very easy. This structure is essentially the base of THE most important grammar
concept in Korean. You’ll learn more about that in Lesson 26 – but for now, just try to understand the
structure I showed you.
The meaning of “different” in English has more than one nuance, which are possessed by “다르다”
as well. Although the meaning of “different” in the two sentences below is similar, try to see that they
are slightly different:
I am different than him

I saw a different movie
The first one describes that something is not the same as something else
The second one has a meaning similar to “other” or “another”, where (in this case), the person did
not see the movie that was originally planned, but instead saw “another” or a “different” movie.
다르다 can be used in both situations. For example:
저는 그와 달라요 = I am different from him

저는 다른 영화를 봤어요 = I saw a different (another) movie
“또 다르다” usually translates to “another,” while “다르다” translates to “other.” However, in the
example above, replacing “another” with “other” makes it sound weird.
The function of “또 다르다” is hard to explain, but it is easier to explain (and understand) if you think
of it as two separate words (which it actually is). It is a combination of the adjective “다르다” and the
adverb “또”, which is used when something happens again.
“또 다르다” is used when one particular thing has already been described, and you are
explaining another thing. For example, imagine you are sitting in a meeting with your coworkers
discussing potential problems for a plan. People are all discussing the problems they see, and you
can point out:
또 다른 문제는 그것이 비싸요 = Another problem is that (that thing is) expensive
In this same respect, you can say the following sentence, and although the translation in English is
similar, try to understand the difference in adding “또”:
저는 또 다른 영화를 봤어요 = I saw ANother movie

In this, maybe the person saw one movie, and then again saw a different movie.
Words that are the same but have different meanings (Korean Homonyms)
This may be something that is obvious when learning any language, but I wanted to point it out. In
Korean, there are a lot of words that have more than one meaning. It is like this in English as well,
but most people never notice it until they stop to think about how many there actually are. Whenever
there is a word with many meanings in Korean, these different meanings will always have a separate
entry in our vocabulary lists (not necessarily in the same lesson, however). An example of this is
“쓰다”:
쓰다 = to write
쓰다 = to use
쓰다 = to wear a hat
Each of these words has had a separate entry in our vocabulary lists. However, when a word has
many meanings, but most of those meanings can be combined into a few ‘umbrella term’ meanings
– only those ‘umbrella term’ meanings will be shown. A good example we talked about earlier
is 들다. 들다 has so many meanings, but most of which can be grouped into 3 or 4 groups.
Either way, be aware that many words have many meanings in Korean:
나는 편지를 친구를 위해 쓸 거야 = I am going to write a letter for my friend

나는 그 기계를 썼어 = I used that machine
저의 아버지는 모자를 항상 써요 = My father always wears a hat
Another word that has many common meanings is 걸리다:
걸리다 = to be (in the state of) hanging

걸리다 = to be caught/stuck/trapped
걸리다 = to catch a cold/sickness
There are more usages, but lets just focus on these four for now:
걸리다 = to be hanging
Similar to the passive verbs you learned in the previous lesson, this verb can be used to indicate the
passive ‘state’ of hanging:
그림은 벽에 걸려 있어요 = The picture is hanging on the wall
걸리다 = to be caught/stuck/trapped
An active verb that can be used when something trips/gets caught/gets trapped:
나는 줄에 걸렸어 = I tripped over the line
This is a very useful form that we will talk about in greater detail in a later lesson. You can use this to
indicate how long it takes to get from one place to another:
서울부터 인천까지 2 시간 걸려요 = It takes 2 hours to get from Seoul to Incheon
우리학교에서 식당까지 10 분 걸려요 = It takes 10 minutes to get from our school to the restaurant
Notice however, that even though each of these has a very different meaning in English (to be
hanging, to be caught, to take a certain amount of time) they are actually pretty similar. When a
picture is ‘hanging’ on the wall, technically it is ‘stuck/trapped’ on the wall. Similarly, if you go from
Incheon to Seoul, the time it takes (2 hours) is ‘stuck/trapped.’ Haha, No? Well, that’s just the way I
explained it to myself when I first learned some of these words.
Try to think outside of the English box. One word in Korean is often used to represent many words in
English. Usually these words aren’t actually very different, but the different translations lead us to
believe that they are in fact very different. Read these sentences again and see if you can
understand them this way:
The picture is caught on the wall
I was caught over the line
2 hours are caught to get from Seoul to Incheon
Obviously not natural in English – but you can probably understand what these sentences mean.
My point? Just because it looks like a word has many meanings –doesn’t necessarily mean that
those meanings are vastly different from each other. Think about the example from earlier in this
lesson (들다) one more time. 들다 has many meanings – but most of which can be grouped into only
2 or 3 different meanings. Always keep this in mind.
Being Sick in Korea

One of the things people often try to learn first when learning a new language is how to express
themselves in the event that they have to go to the doctor. This is something that wouldn’t fit into any
specific lesson, so I want to cover it here:
You already know the word 아프다, which you can use to indicate that you are sick OR sore in some
place. In English “sore” and “sick” mean slightly different things. Because of this, Korean people
(who are learning English) often mistakenly say “My arm is sick.” Also note that 아프다 is an
adjective… and for some reason ‘이/가’ are used instead of 는/은 when creating sentences about a
place on your body:
배가 아파요 = My stomach is sore

팔이 아파요 = My arm is sore
저는 어제 너무 아팠어요 = I was very sick yesterday
Also, you can use the word 걸리다 to indicate that you have some sort of disease/sickness. You
learned a little bit about 걸리다 in the previous section. This usage of 걸리다 essentially has the
same meaning that was described in all the other examples of 걸리다 (I am caught in a sickness).
Korean people use this in the following way:
저는 감기에 걸렸어요 = I caught a cold/I have a cold

저는 독감에 걸렸어요 = I caught the flu/I have the flu
Notice how “에” is used in these sentences due to 걸리다 having the nuance of being stuck IN
something
Also note that even though you have a cold in the present tense, Korean people use the past
“걸렸다” to express that they currently have a cold.
기침 (a cough) and 재채기 (a sneeze), although not originally nouns of Chinese origin, are both
nouns where you can add 하다 to get the respective verb form (to cough and to sneeze). For
example:
저의 아들은 시끄럽게 기침했어요 = My son coughed loudly

(Probably more naturally translated to “My son was coughing loudly.” Korean people don’t really
distinguish between simple and progressive past tenses as much as we do in English. You will learn
about the progressive tense in Lesson 18.)
Wow that’s a long lesson. I have to apologize for writing these lessons so long. This lesson could
have easily been broken into 2, 3 or even 4 separate lessons, but I chose against doing it that way.
When I was first learning Korean, I wanted to plow through material as fast as I possibly could – and
I guess that is coming out as I am writing these lessons as well.
Lesson 16: Noun + ~적, ~적으로, ~적이다,

~스럽다
Vocabulary
Some of these words are too difficult for you at this level. However, I am introducing them to you in
this lesson so you can understand a specific grammatical concept. These words are separate from
the other words in the Vocabulary List below.
경제 = economy/economics
경제적 = economical
역사 = history
역사적 = historical
과학 = science
과학적 = scientific
충동 = impulse/shock
충동적 = impulsive
문화 = culture
문화적 = cultural
민주(주의) = democracy
민주적 = democratic
개인 = individual/personal
개인적 = individual
자연 = nature
자연스럽다 = natural
실망(하다) = disappointment(disappointed)
실망스럽다 = to be disappointing
사랑(하다) = love/(to love)
사랑스럽다 = to be lovely
만족(하다) = satisfaction/(to be satisfied)
만족스럽다 = to be satisfactory
Nouns:
관계 = relationship
스트레스 = stress
연필 = pencil
색깔 = color
그 = he, him
그녀 = she, her
결과 = result
꿈 = a dream
세상 = world
세계 = world
회화 = conversation
문자 = text message
가슴 = chest
제목 = title of something (book, etc)
Verbs:
풀다 = to untie, to unfasten, to loosen
꿈꾸다 = to dream
태어나다 = to be born
다니다 = to go somewhere frequently
믿다 = to believe, to trust
Adjectives:
가깝다 = to be close to, to be near
힘들다 = to be difficult to do something
순수하다 = to be pure
조금 = a little
근처 = close/near by
나중에 = later
최근에 = recently
그러나 = but/however
~적/적으로/적이다
~적 is a common suffix that can be added after some nouns of Chinese origin (적 (的) is of Chinese
origin). At first, there is no way to anticipate or expect which nouns this can be added to. As you
progress through your Korean studies, you can sort of start anticipating this, but still, the only real
way of knowing if ~적 can be added to a particular noun is if you have specifically learned that it can.
The goal of this lesson isn’t to teach you all of the words that ~적 can be attached to (that would take
forever). Rather, the goal of this lesson is to show you how you can recognize and use these words
when you come across them.
Adding ~적 to a noun changes it into a descriptive word that has the meaning of “relating to, or
having the properties of’ the original noun. For example:
문화 = culture
문화적 = relating to, or having the properties of culture
경제 = economy
경제적 = relating to, or having the properties of economy
역사 = history
역사적 = relating to, or having the properties of history
However, the translations above are nonsense and a more accurate way to translate words with ~적
is to add “-al” to the English word. For example:
문화 = culture
경제 = economy
역사 = history
Adding “-al” doesn’t always work with the English word, though. For example:
과학 = science
과학적 = relating to, or having the properties of science
충동 = relating to, or having the properties of impulse
The main point of this lesson is to teach you how you can understand the meaning of a word ending
in ~적 even if you have never seen it before. This still happens to me fairly regularly – I will read
something, and come across a word I have never seen before ending in ~적.
For example, if you knew that the word “민주” meant “democracy” What do you think “민주적” would
mean? A descriptive word that has the properties of democracy – that would be “democratic.”
민주 = democracy
Though these descriptive words can be used in sentences, it is easy for a beginner to understand
them when they are used by adding ~이다 or ~으로.
Adding 으로
Adding ‘으로’ to the end of ~적 changes the word into an adverb. These adverbs usually have the
ending ‘ly’ in English. Below are the most common examples of using ~적으로 with example
sentences for each:
문화 = culture
문화적으로 = culturally
한국은 지난 50 년 동안 문화적으로 많이 변했어요 = Korea has changed a lot culturally in the period
of/during/for the past 50 years
경제 = economy
경제적으로 = economically
그것은 경제적으로 가능하지 않아요 = That isn’t economically possible
역사 = history
역사적으로 = historically
한국과 미국은 역사적으로 좋은 관계에* 있다 = Historically, Korea and the US have had a good
relationship
Again, as I said in the previous lesson – don’t get too hung up on grammar – especially when
reading/listening to a sentence and trying to understand its meaning when compared to English. My
Korean grammar teacher told me that once. I always asked him “why isn’t this sentence like this?
Why isn’t this sentence like this?” He eventually told me “Don’t get hung up on things like that.” In
this sentence, you would think that it should be written as “좋은 관계가 있다” – have a good
relationship. For whatever reason however, it is more naturally said with 에 instead of 가 – translating
to something like “they are in/have been in a good relationship.” You just need to let go of grammar
sometimes and let your brain tell you what you think it should mean based on the words around the
grammar.
과학 = science
과학적으로 = scientifically
그들은 그 문제를 과학적으로 풀었다 = They solved that problem scientifically
충동적으로 = impulsively
저는 자주 옷을 충동적으로 사요 = I often buy clothes impulsively
민주 = democracy
민주적으로 = democratically
Any examples I can make using “민주적으로” require me to use words that you haven’t learned
before. Forgive me:

미국은 대통령을 민주적으로 선출해요 = America elects its president democratically
Adding 이다
Adding ‘이다’ to the end of ~적 turns the word into an adjective that can predicate a sentence or
describe an upcoming noun. The translation of these adjectives are usually are the same (in English)
as without adding ‘이다.” For example:
문화 = culture
문화적이다 = cultural
캐나다와 미국은 문화적인 차이가 있다 = Canada and the US have a cultural difference
(차이 = difference)
경제 = economics
경제적이다 = economical
미국은 경제적인 결정을 했어요 = The US made an economical decision
역사 = history
역사적이다 = historical
저 학교는 역사적인 건물이에요 = That school is a historical building
과학 = science
과학적이다 = scientific
이것은 과학적인 문제예요 = This is a scientific problem
충동 = impulsive
충동적이다 = impulsive
저는 너무 충동적이에요 = I’m too impulsive

Notice that when a word ending in ~적이다 is used to predicate a sentence, 이다 is conjugated as if
it were actually 이다.
민주 = democracy
민주적이다 = democratic
미국은 민주적인 나라예요 = The US is a democratic nation
A question that always comes up here is – What is the difference between using ~적이다 and just
using ~적? For example, what is the difference between these two:
경제적이다 = economical
The difference between these is that ~적 is a noun, whereas ~적이다 is an adjective. Sometimes
however, nouns can technically be used to sound like adjectives. For example:
That is a big bag
‘Big’ describes the type of bag it is. Big is clearly an adjective which is telling us about the type of
bag that it is (that it is big). “Book” is clearly a noun.
However, in the following example:
That is a book bag
In this example, ‘book’ acts as a descriptive word because it describes the type of bag it is (that it is
a book bag).
This is usually the only time that ~적 (with nothing following it) is used in Korean. That is, when it is
actually a noun, but acting as a descriptive word within a sentence. Because it is usually used as this
type of descriptive word, you don’t really need to worry much about the difference between ~적 and
~적이다. Just be aware that ~적이다 is more commonly used, and how they are used within a
sentence. That is, when using “~적이다,” 이다 should be conjugated, and when using “~적” nothing
needs to be conjugated because it is a noun. For example:

미국은 민주적인 나라예요 = The US is a democratic nation
북한에는 민주적 정부가 없습니다 = There is not a democratic government in North Korea
At this point, I don’t want you to spend too much time dwelling over when you need to use ~적 vs.
적이다 . The purpose of this lesson was to introduce you to what ~적(이다/으로) can do to a word
and how it can be used. I’ve created four more examples of ~적 vs. ~적이다 that I would like to show
you, but please don’t worry about these too much. If anything, just try to understand the use of
~적(이다) in these sentences:
경제적 문제가 있다 = There is a financial problem

경제적인 문제가 있다 = There is a financial problem
캐나다와 미국은 문화적 차이가 있다 = Canada and the US have a cultural difference
캐나다와 미국은 문화적인 차이가 있다 = Canada and the US have a cultural difference
나는 개인적 문제로 회사를 그만두었다 = I quit the company due to personal reasons (problems)
나는 개인적인 문제로 회사를 그만두었다 = I quit the company due to personal reasons (problems)
(그만두다 = to quit a job or school)
이 건물은 역사적 건물이다 = This building is a historical building
이 건물은 역사적인 건물이다 = This building is a historical building
In all cases above, I would rather use the ~적인 form to describe the upcoming noun. The native
Korean speaker beside me says the same thing. However, she also says that the first example of
each (the examples just using ~적 instead of ~적인) are also acceptable. In my opinion, the use of
~적인 instead of ~적 is more common in speaking and in printed sources. However, you are more
likely to see ~적 in print sources compared to hearing it in spoken Korean. (i.e. ~적이다 is more
common than ~적 in all cases. However, when compared only to itself, you are more likely to find
~적 in print than in speech).
Okay, enough of that for now. Let’s talk about something else.
~스럽다
~스럽다 can also be added to some nouns to change them into an adjective, much like the function
of ~적(이다). When doing this, ~스럽다 changes the noun into an adjective that has the “properties”
of that noun. The two easiest examples to explain this change are:
사랑 = love
사랑스럽다 = “with the properties of love”
자연 = nature
자연스럽다 = “with the properties of nature”
For example:
그 여자가 아주 사랑스러워요 = That girl is something “with the properties of love”

그 여자의 머리 색깔은 자연스러워 = That girl’s hair color has “the properties of nature”
Of course, those translations are nonsense. A more accurate translation of these words would be:
사랑스럽다 = lovely
자연스럽다 = natural
The only way of knowing if ~스럽다 or ~적 can be added to a word is if you have specifically learned
that it can. Because one can never know which words ~스럽다 and ~적 can be added to, these
words will always be presented as a separate entry in our vocabulary lists.
Anyways, ~스럽다 can be added to nouns to make that noun a descriptive word:
The two examples above are fairly straight-forward. However ~스럽다 is sometimes added to words
that seem to already have an adjective form. For example:
실망 = disappointment
실망하다 = to be disappointed
실망스럽다 = “with the properties of disappointment” (disappointing)
I’ll do the best I can to distinguish between 실망스럽다 and 실망하다 for you.
실망하다 is used to describe a person’s emotions. This could be referring to anybody’s emotions; not
necessarily just the speaker’s emotions. For example:
저는 실망했어요 = I was disappointed

우리 아버지는 어제 실망했어요 = Our dad was disappointed yesterday
If you want to say that somebody is disappointed in a person using 실망하다, you must attach the
particle ~에게/한테 to the person he/she is disappointed in. For example:
저는 친구에게 실망했어요 = I was disappointed in my friend
우리 아버지는 저에게 실망했어요 = Our dad was disappointed in me yesterday
If you want to say that somebody is disappointed in a non-person using 실망하다, you must attach
the particle ~에 to the thing he/she is disappointed in. For example:
저는 영화에 실망했어요 = I was disappointed in the movie
우리 아버지는 식당에 실망했어요 = Our dad was disappointed in the restaurant
Hmmm… Adding ~에게/한테 to a person, and adding ~에 to a non-person. What does this remind
you of? Remember, you learned this same rule in Lesson 14 when predicating sentences with
passive verbs.
Well, 실망하다 is a verb. In English, it definitely feels like an adjective, but in Korean the dictionary
(and the use of the particles ~에게/한테 and ~에) indicate that it is a verb. Here, 실망하다 is a verb
(much like passive verbs) that cannot act on an object. Other verbs like this are 자다 (to sleep), 죽다
(to die), etc. This really means very little, and the only thing you need to take from this is:
In order to say one is disappointed, you can use 실망하다:

우리 아버지는 어제 실망했어요 = Our dad was disappointed yesterday
In order to say one is disappointed in something/somebody, you can use 실망하다 along with the
use of the particles ~에게/한테 (for a person) or ~에 (for a non-person). For example:

우리 아버지는 저에게 실망했어요 = Our dad was disappointed in me yesterday
우리 아버지는 식당에 실망했어요 = Our dad was disappointed in the restaurant
Now, 실망스럽다 usually is not describing one’s emotions. Rather, it is describing something that
has the “properties of disappointment.” This usually translates to “disappointing.” For example:
결과는 조금 실망스러웠어요 = The result was a little bit disappointing

그 영화는 조금 실망스러웠어요 = The movie was a little bit disappointing
That being said, you might sometimes hear 실망스럽다 being used like this:
저는 실망스러웠어요
In this case, what do you think this would mean?
I guess in theory this could sometimes mean “I am disappointing.” But very rarely would somebody
say that. Most of the time, this sentence would translate to “I am disappointed.”
Wait a second… I thought the word to describe one’s emotions as “disappointed” was “실망하다.” In
this sentence, why is “실망스럽다” being used to describe the person’s emotions in this sentence.
It’s not.
If you heard the sentence “저는 실망스럽다” in Korean, it would most likely be from a person
describing thatsomething is disappointing, but they have omitted it from the sentence. For example,
using the adjective “실망스럽다” you can use the Subject – Object – Adjective form in the following
way:
저는 친구가 실망스러워요 = I am disappointed in my friend
(My friend is disappointing, and therefore I am disappointed)
저는 학생들이 실망스러웠어요 = I was disappointed in the students
(My students were disappointing, and therefore I was disappointed)
저는 그 영화가 실망스러웠어요 = I was disappointed in the movie
(The movie was disappointing, and therefore I was disappointed)
If you just walked into a room and said:
저는 실망스러워요~ = I am disappointed (in something….)
Whoever was listening to that sentence would probably say “In what?”
What the speaker has done when saying “저는 실망스러워요” is they have simply omitted the object
that they are describing.
Wow… that’s a lot of stuff to wrap your head around. Let’s break it down one more time:
 실망하다 is a verb that describes one’s emotions of being disappointed:

 실망하다 cannot act on an object (like 자다, 죽다, or any passive verb). Therefore, the following is
incorrect:
저는 학생을 실망했어요
 Instead, as with passive verbs, the use of ~에게/한테 should be used to indicate that you are
disappointed in a person:
 ~에 can be used to indicate that you are disappointed in a non-person:
 실망스럽다 is an adjective that describes something which is disappointing:
그 영화는 조금 실망스러웠어요 = The movie was a little bit disappointing
 The adjective 실망스럽다 can be used in the subject – object – adjective form to indicate that you
were disappointed in something:

저는 그 영화가 실망스러웠어요 = I was disappointed in that movie
 In the sentence above, the object can be omitted from the sentence, in which case the speaker is
indicating that something was disappointing (and by virtue, he/she is disappointed), but has omitted
the noun that is disappointing:
저는 실망스러웠어요 = I was disappointed (something was disappointing…)
I realize that is incredibly confusing.
This same phenomenon happens with the word 만족스럽다. Look at the following three words:
만족 = satisfaction
만족하다 = to be satisfied
만족스럽다 = “with the properties of satisfaction” (satisfactory)
Just like with 실망하다, 만족하다 is used to describe a person’s emotions. This could be referring to
anybody’s emotions; not necessarily just the speaker’s emotions. For example:
저는 만족해요 = I am satisfied
그는 만족해요 = He is satisfied
Again, just like with 실망스럽다, 만족스럽다 is not describing one’s emotions. Rather, it is an
adjective that is describing something that has the “properties of satisfaction.” This usually translates
to “satisfactory.” For example:
결과는 만족스러웠어요 = The results were satisfactory
만족스럽다 can be used in the Subject – Object – Adjective form to indicate that one is satisfied in
something. For example:
저는 결과가 만족스러웠어요 = I was satisfied with the results

저는 음식이 만족스러웠어요 = I was satisfied with the food
In this Subject – Object – Adjective form, the object can be omitted and the speaker can indicate
that somethingwas satisfactory (and thus he/she was satisfied). For example:
저는 만족스러웠어요 = I was satisfied (something was satisfying…)
Don’t worry too much about the difference between words like 실망하다 vs. 실망스럽다 and
만족하다 vs. 만족스럽다. I’m really going deep into this, and it is not something you really need to
worry about as most Korean people wouldn’t know the difference unless they really think about it.
In other words with -스럽다, the difference is much less ambiguous because the -스럽다 version of
the word is an adjective, but the –하다 version is a verb that can act on an object. For example:
저는 그 여자를 사랑해요 = I love that girl
그 여자는 사랑스러워요 = That girl is lovely
Another good example of –스럽다 is:
자랑하다 = to show off (verb)

자랑스럽다 = proud (adjective)
Here as well, 자랑하다 is a verb that can act on a noun, so its usage is very simple:
저는 저의 한국어 실력을 자랑했어요 = I showed off/boasted my Korean skills
자랑스럽다 is usually used in the Subject – Object – Adjective form to indicate who somebody is
proud of. For example:
저는 저의 딸이 아주 자랑스러워요 = I am very proud of my daughter

저는 학생들이 자랑스러워요 = I am proud of the students
It’s also good to recognize that because all of these ~스럽다 words are adjectives, they can also
describe an upcoming noun (just like any other adjective) by placing ~ㄴ/은 to the stem of the word.
For example:
우리 딸은 사랑스러운 여자예요 = Our daughter is a loving/lovely girl

Also, ~게 can be added to the end of the stem of –스럽다 to change the word into an adverb. For
example:
그는 한국어를 자연스럽게 말해요 = he speaks Korean naturally

저는 그를 사랑스럽게 봤어요 = I looked at him lovingly
그는 실망스럽게 행동했어요 = He acted disappointingly (in a disappointing way)
저는 일을 만족스럽게 끝냈어요 = I finished the work/job satisfactorily (in a satisfactory way)
That’s it!
Lesson 17: Connecting Particle ~고 and ~고

싶다 “I want to”
Vocabulary
Nouns:
과일 = fruit
술 = alcohol
우산 = umbrella
잎 = leaf
교회 = church
강 = river
계절 = season
날씨 = weather
부엌 = kitchen
담임선생님 = homeroom teacher
방학 = vacation
배 = pear
당근 = carrot
무 = radish
감자 = potato
칼 = knife
단어 = word
문법 = grammar
발 = foot
바다 = sea
신문 = newspaper
고객 = customer
부자 = a rich person
교육 = education
기분 = feelings
산 = mountain
순서 = turn (turn to go)/order
시험 = exam/test
Verbs:
머무르다 = to stay
쉬다 = to relax, to rest
보내다 = to send
걸어오다 = to come by walking
걸어가다 = to go by walking
초대하다 = to invite
울다 = to cry
환영하다 = to welcome
Adjectives:
반갑다 = to be happy when meeting somebody
따뜻하다 = to be warm
높다 = to be high
가난하다 = to be poor
새롭다 = to be new
낮다 = to be low
권 = a counter for books/magazines/etc
분 = ‘person’ – high respect form, also a high-respect counter for ‘people’
Introduction
In this lesson, you will be introduced to your first (of very many) connecting particles in Korean. You
can usually use these particles to separate two ideas/phrases/sentences. In this lesson you will learn
about 고 and how it can be used in sentences, also using the example of ~고 싶다. You will also
learn that some words (usually position-like words) play by different rules than most verbs in these
situations.
Connecting Particle ~고
When studying Korean, eventually your entire life becomes learning about the various connecting
particles and their respective meanings. There are so many of these things, whose functions are
essentially to connect two clauses, sentences, or ideas. These particles usually get attached to the
end (i.e. the adjective/verb) of one clause connecting it to the next clause. The simplest one of these
connecting particles is ~고, which can be attached to the stem of a verb/adjective.
The most basic usage of ~고 is to indicate that one action occurs, and then something happens after
that. The most common translation of this usage of “~고” is “then.” For example:
저는 밥을 먹고 갈 거예요 = I will eat then go

저는 자고 한국어를 공부했어요 = I slept then studied Korean
저는 책을 읽고 바로 잤어요 = I read a book then slept immediately
저는 10 분 동안 쉬고 갈 거예요 = I will rest for 10 minutes then go
애기가 1 분 동안 울고 배를 먹었어요 = The baby cried for 1 minute and then ate a pear
저는 당근을 칼로 자르고 냉장고에 넣었어요 = I cut the carrots with the knife then put (them) in the
fridge
우리는 서울에서 2 일 동안 머무르고 부산에 갈 거예요 = We will stay in Seoul for two days, then go
to Busan
If you really want to stress that you are doing something after doing something else, you can add
나서 after ~고. For example:
저는 숙제를 끝내고 나서 집으로 갈 거예요 = I will finish my homework and then go home
저는 친구를 만나고 나서 은행에 갈 거예요 = I will meet a friend and then go to the bank
In the sentences I presented so far, ~고 represents the meaning of ‘then,’ but it doesn’t always have
that meaning. It can also be used to simply connect two clauses that have a similar idea. For
example:
저는 과일도 좋아하고 야채도 좋아해요 = I like fruit, and I like vegetables too
*Notice that 도 can be added to both 과일 and 야채 in this example. In English, we would just say “I
like apples and vegetables too.” That sentence only has one “too,” but in Korean, 도 can be used
twice. That sentence before could also be said like this:

저는 과일과 야채도 좋아해요 = I like fruit and vegetables too
Essentially, ~고 is used to connect two sentences/clauses together. Korean people LOVE making
their sentences as short as possible – and using ~고 is one way of doing this. All of the sentences
above could be separated into two sentences. I don’t need to write all of them, but for example:
저는 밥을 먹을 거예요. 그리고 저는 갈 거예요

= 저는 밥을 먹고 갈 거예요
저는 잤어요. 그리고 저는 한국어를 공부했어요
= 저는 자고 한국어를 공부했어요
저는 과일을 좋아해요. 저는 야채를 좋아해요
= 저는 과일도 좋아하고 야채도 좋아해요
You can also use ~고 when you want to string together adjectives to describe something. Again,
while each of these sentences could be split into two separate sentences, you can use ~고 to
connect two clauses with a similar idea. For example:
그 사람은 착해요. 그 사람은 똑똑해요 = That person is nice. That person is smart.
= 그 사람은 착하고 똑똑해요 = That person is kind and smart
저의 여자 친구는 귀여워요. 저의 여자 친구는 예뻐요 = My girlfriend is cute. My girlfriend is pretty.
= 저의 여자 친구는 귀엽고 예뻐요 = My girlfriend is cute and pretty
오늘 고객이 많아요. 오늘 분위기가 좋아요 = Today there are a lot of customers. Today the
atmosphere is good
= 오늘 고객이 많고 분위기가 좋아요 = Today there are a lot of customers, and the atmosphere is
good
In a lot of Korean grammatical principles that connect sentences (which you will start learning a lot of
soon), you will notice that the verb/adjective in the first clause is not conjugated, and that the
grammatical principle is added directly to the stem of the word in the first clause. In these cases, the
tense is usually indicated in the final verb/adjective of the sentence and the tense of the first
verb/adjective can usually be implied by the context.
When attaching ~고 to the first clause, it is possible for the first verb/adjective to be conjugated. I
have noticed that there are two cases when you would do this:
1) When one action happens after another action (just like I introduced at the beginning of this
lesson), but when a considerable amount of time has passed between the two actions. The two
actions are often connected in a way in that the first clause led to the possibility of the second clause
to happen. For example:
저는 열심히 공부했고 의사가 되었어요 = I studied hard and (then) became a doctor
저는 영어 문법을 열심히 공부했고 시험을 잘 봤어요 = I studied English grammar hard and then did
well on the test
Notice that Korean people say “시험을 보다” to mean “to write/do a test”
2) When connecting two clauses that have a similar idea that both happened in the past tense. Here,
there is no real indication of one action happening after another. Instead, the person is just indicating
that both things happened. For example:
저는 방학 동안 영어 문법을 많이 공부했고 영어 신문도 많이 읽었어요 = During vacation I studied a

lot of English grammar, and I also read English newspapers
The sentences I provided at the beginning of the lesson (where one clause happens [right] after the
other clause) would sound awkward if the first clause was conjugated. For example
저는 잤고 한국어를 공부했어요
저는 책을 읽고 바로 잤어요
You started learning about the particles ~는/은 and ~이/가 in Lesson 2. I continue to discuss the
difference in purpose between these particles later in the lesson. Before that, I would like to
introduce you to usage of ~는/은 because it is commonly used in sentences with ~고.
In Lesson 2, I mentioned that ~는/은 has a comparative function. One way that it is often used is to
say “this thing is one way, and this other thing is another way.” For example:
이 산은 높아요. 저 산은 낮아요. = This mountain is high. That mountain is low.
문법은 어려워요. 단어는 쉬워요. = Grammar is difficult. Words are easy.
이 사람은 부자이에요. 저 사람은 가난해요 = This person is rich. That person is poor.
이분은 저의 아버지입니다. 이분은 저의 어머니입니다. = This person is my father. This person is my
mother
In these situations, it is common to use ~고 to connect the two sentences as they are expressing a
similar idea. In these cases, ~는/은 is attached to both things that are being compared. For example:
이 산은 높고 저 산은 낮아요 = This mountain is high, but that mountain is low

문법은 어렵고 단어는 쉬워요 = Grammar is hard, but words are easy
이 사람은 부자이고 저 사람은 가난해요 = That person is rich, but that person is poor
이분은 저의 아버지이고 이분은 저의 어머니입니다 = This person is my father, and this person is my
mother
I continue to talk about the use of ~는/은 and ~이/가 later in the lesson.
For now, let’s move on to applying this meaning to other verbs.

.
.
Using ~아/어서
Another way to indicate that one action happens after another action is to attach ~아/어서 to the verb
in the first clause. The verb before ~아/어서 is never conjugated to the past tense. For example:
저는 당근을 칼로 잘라서 냉장고에 넣었어요 = I cut carrots with a knife and then put them into the
fridge
You must be thinking, then: “What is the difference between using ~고 and using ~아/서.” For
example:
저는 당근을 칼로 잘라서 냉장고에 넣었어요 = I cut the carrots with the knife then put them in the
fridge
저는 당근을 칼로 자르고 냉장고에 넣었어요 = I cut the carrots with the knife then put them in the
fridge
Both sentences are effectively saying the same thing.
However, from my experience ~아/어서 is more likely to be used when the action of the first clause is
intricately linked with the action of the second clause.
The best way to explain this is to look at why specifically ~아/어서 is more commonly used with the
verbs 가다 and 오다 instead of ~고.
If you want to say that you go somewhere then do something, you should not say this:
저는 학교에 가고 공부할 거예요
Instead of ~고, you must add ~아/어서 here:
저는 학교에 가서 공부할 거예요 = I will go to school and then study

Likewise, if you want to say that you come somewhere and do something, you should not say this:
우리는 집에 오고 바로 잤어요
Instead of ~고, you must add ~아/어서 here:
우리는 집에 와서 바로 잤어요 = We came home and went to sleep immediately

The reason for this is simply due to the nature of the verbs 오다 and 가다. When connecting two
clauses with ~고 containing other verbs, (for example: 먹다), the first and second action, despite the
fact that one happened before the other one, have no real connection. For example, in an example I
presented previously:
저는 밥을 먹고 갈 거예요 = I will eat and then go
This sentence is implying that you will eat, and then finish eating, and then go somewhere. Aside
from the fact that one happened after another, the act of eating didn’t affect the act of going.
However, with “가다” and “오다,” the fact that you are “coming” or “going” is directly connected to the
next action; in that, in order to do the second action, you needed to have gone somewhere or came
from somewhere.
I drew a picture to express the image that I have in my brain about this explanation.
When you use 가서 … 먹다, the verb of “going” leads up to the verb of “eating.” However, when you
use 먹고 … 가다, even though the verb of “eating” happened before the verb of “going,” they aren’t
related to each other.
In this same sense, it is possible to attach ~아/어서 to verbs other than 가다 or 오다 to connect two
clauses. Below are some examples that show this being done:
우리는 맛있는 고기를 골라서 같이 먹었어요 = We chose delicious meat then ate together
문을 열어서 밖으로 나갔어요 = I opened the door and then went outside
While it is very important to know how to use “~고”, and how to use “~아/어서” with “가다/오다” at
this point, being able to fully understand the nuance of adding “~아/어서” to other words is beyond
your current ability. The usage of ~아/어서 is much more complex, and I will continue to discuss its
usage in Lesson 70. Also note that the sentence connector ~아/어서 has another meaning that will
be discussed in Lesson 37.

It is possible to connect ~고 to “가다” and “오다”, but only in situations where the speaker is
connecting sentences that have a similar idea, and not where one goes/comes to a place and does
something.
For example, I was in my office today and one of my coworkers was telling a current student about
all the former students who came to visit him the day earlier (it was Teacher’s Day). He said:
혜원도 오고… 슬기도 오고… 승하도 오고… 지혜도 오고… = 혜원 came, 슬기 came, 승하 came,
지혜 came, …
Position verbs
There are also many position verbs that usually act differently than regular verbs (not just in this
situation, but in many situations). The most common of these are to sit (앉다), stand (서다), and to
lie down (눕다).
The reason these are treated differently is because these are verbs of position. For example, if I just
said:
저는 먹고 공부했어요 = I ate and studied
In that sentence, aside from the fact that one action happened after another, 먹다 and 공부하다
have no relation to each other. However, if you were to say:
저는 눕고 책을 읽었어요 – That would mean “I lied down, and then read a book” – as in, I lied down,
stood up again, and then read a book. I guess technically you COULD do that, but nobody would
ever do that. Instead, what you wanted to say is that you lied down, and then, while lying down, you
read a book. In these situations with position verbs, the first action is related to the section action
(similar to how 가다 and 오다 are related to the upcoming verb). That is why they are treated
differently.
If you want to use these position verbs in this way, you need to add ~아/어서 to them:
저는 누워서 책을 읽었어요 = I lied down and read a book
나는 앉아서 쉴 거야 = I’m going to sit down and relax
저는 줄에 서서 순서를 기다렸어요 = I stood in line and waited for my turn
I want to: ~고 싶다
As I said earlier, ~고 is a verb that can connect two clauses/sentences together. However, there are
many other usages of ~고 when also combined with other words. What you are about to learn is SO
common (in Korean and English), and I almost want to apologize for waiting until lesson 17 to finally
introduce it to you. I just felt that there were other things you needed to learn before this.
Anyways, enough apologizing, lets get down to business.
Adding ~고 싶다 to the stem of a verb gives it the meaning of “I want to ____.” Very easy to use:
저는 한국어를 배우고 싶어요 = I want to study Korean

저는 캐나다에 가고 싶어요 = I want to go to Canada
저는 여자친구를 위해 편지를 쓰고 싶어요 = I want to write a letter for my girlfriend
저는 새로운 차를 사고 싶어요 = I want to buy a new car
저는 내일 쉬고 싶어요 = I want to rest tomorrow
저는 저의 친구를 파티에 초대하고 싶어요 = I want to invite my friend to the party
저는 방학 동안 책 두 권을 읽고 싶어요 = I want to read two books during vacation
It can be used with 되다 to indicate that you want to be/become something:
저는 선생님이 되고 싶어요 = I want to be/become a teacher

It can be used in the past tense as well:
저는 선생님이 되고 싶었어요 = I wanted to be a teacher

그 여자는 나랑* 결혼하고 싶었어 = that girl wanted to marry me
*Notice that when talking about ‘marrying’ somebody, ‘with’ must be used in Korean instead of
attaching ‘를/을.’ Because of this difference in English and Korean, many Korean people will
mistakenly say “I want to marry with you.”

Actually, you have come across this ~고 싶다 grammar concept before, but you probably didn’t even
realize it. In Korean, there are two ways to say “I miss ____.” One way is to use the word “그립다”
and is used when you “miss” something other than a person (I miss my hometown). The word for
missing a person in Korean is 보고 싶다. See anything funny about that word? 보고 – 싶다? Literally,
it means “I want to see:”

저는 친구를 보고 싶어요 = I miss my friend/I want to see my friend
~고 싶다 is not used with adjectives. In English, it is acceptable to say something like “I want to be
happy.” If you want to say something like this in Korean, you need to add an additional grammatical
principle that changes the meaning to “I want to become happy.” You will learn how to create this
meaning with ~아/어지다 in the next lesson.
One thing to note is that 싶다 actually acts as an adjective, and must be conjugated as one. This
means that:
나는 먹고 싶다 (I want to eat) would be a correct conjugation, however

나는 먹고 싶는다, would be an incorrect conjugation
Also, notice the difference between 원하다 and ~고 싶다. You can say 원하다 when you want an
object:
저는 그 책을 원해요 = I want that book

and you can use ~고 싶다 when you want to do a verb:
저는 그 책을 읽고 싶어요 = I want to read that book

You can also use “안” or attach “~지 않다” to 싶다 to indicate that one does not want to do
something. For example:
저는 술을 안 마시고 싶어요 = I don’t want to drink alcohol

저는 울고 싶지 않아요 = I don’t want to cry
나는 너를 파티에 초대하고 싶지 않아 = I don’t want to invite you to the party
저는 부자가 되고 싶지 않아요 = I don’t want to become a rich man
방학 동안 저는 학교에 있고 싶지 않아요 = I don’t want to be at school during vacation
Sometimes you will learn grammatical principles that are not used so much – but the concepts you
learned in this lesson are used all the time. Up until now, actually, it has been hard for me to
continue to create good example sentences without the use of ~고 and ~고 싶다.
The further and further you go along in these lessons, the more complicated the example sentences
will become!
Before you move to the next lesson, I would like to continue the discussion from Lesson 2 about
~이/가 and ~는/은.
~는/은 and ~이/가 Revisited
Now it is time to continue what was presented back in Lesson 2. In Lesson 2, you started learning
about the differences between ~이/가 and ~는/은.
Now that you have increased your understanding of Korean grammar, I can continue to explain the
nuances between ~이/가 and ~는/은. At this point, I encourage you to re-read Lesson 2 in order to
refresh yourself on what we talked about at that time.

One problem with both of these particles is that they both have many functions. Another specific
function of ~는/은 (in addition to the comparison function that you learned in Lesson 2 and the
examples I showed you earlier in the lesson) is to indicate a general fact or statement. For example:
Rocky (로키) 산은 높아요 = The Rocky Mountains are high (the Rocky Mountain is high)
This would be said as a general fact. Everybody would typically know that the Rocky Mountains are
high, so this could be said in a general way as seen as above.This can be contrasted with ~이/가.
Used this way, ~이/가 wouldn’t be used to describe a general fact about something. Rather, it would
be used to describe a specific situation that (usually) the speaker just realized or observed. For
example, if you were hiking with your friend, and suddenly got a glimpse of a nearby mountain, you
could say:
와! 산이 높다! = Wow! The mountain is high!

Note here that even though the speaker is talking about this one specific mountain, he or she is not
comparing it with something else (for example, another mountain), as this would require the use of
~는/은 (albeit, in its other usage)
Let’s look at more simplified versions of the sentences above:
산은 높다
산이 높다
Remember that the difference between ~이/가 and ~는/은 is more about nuance, and not about
creating a different translation in your head. If I attempted to make a translation that describes this
nuance for the two examples above, I could maybe write:
산은 높다 = In general, mountains are high

산이 높다 = This mountain that I’m looking at, which I’ve never seen or noticed before, is high
At the same time (and this is where people really get confused with these particles) is that ~는/은
could be used in this situation to have a comparing function. For example, I could say:
이 산은 높아요. 하지만, 저 산은 낮아요 = This mountain is tall. But that mountain is low (small)
This is precisely what causes the confusion amongst foreigners when trying to distinguish the
difference between ~이/가 and ~는/은. Both of them can be used to express different nuances than
seem to overlap each other. For example, if I say:

“산은 높다”
What am I trying to say? Am I trying to say…:
“In general, mountains are high”, or

“This mountain, in comparison to that other mountain (or maybe some other thing) is high”
The only way you can distinguish between the particular nuances being used is by understanding
the situation in which they are said.
Let’s look at another example. If I said:
여름 날씨는 좋다 = (in general) summer weather is good

The purpose of this sentence would be to express a general fact about summer weather. That is,
that summer weather is (in general) good. However, if you just walked outside and saw /experienced
that the weather is good, you would be more inclined to say:
날씨가 좋다 = The weather (right now that I am experiencing) is good
Here, the speaker is just indicating that the weather at the moment is good, and is not talking about
the weather being good all the time.
This doesn’t mean that “날씨는 좋다” is incorrect. You most definitely could use that sentence, but
only in an appropriate situation. This was the dialogue I had with a Korean person:
 Me: When would you be able to say “날씨는 좋다”. It clearly isn’t used as a general statement,
because weather (in general) isn’t always good. So when could I say this?
 Korean person: It sounds like you are comparing it with something. Like, you are saying that the
weather is good, but something else might be bad.
 Me: For example?
 Korean person: Maybe, “여기 음식이 맛이 없어요. 하지만 날씨는 좋아요.” (The food here isn’t
delicious, but the weather is good). Here, you’re saying that the weather is good, but the food is bad.
That’s the thing about ~이/가 and ~는/은. It’s not about understanding their meanings. Their
meanings can’t be translated into English. It’s about understanding the nuances they possess when
used in different situations.

다이아몬드는 딱딱하다 = (in general) Diamonds are hard
(This is a statement that can be applied generally. Most people would know that diamonds are hard,
and this is not new information or anything like that)
However, if somebody picked up a diamond and felt it, and realizes exactly how hard that particular
diamond is, they would be more inclined to say:
다이아몬드가 너무 딱딱하다 = Diamonds are hard (due to the experience that I have right now with
this diamond, I can see/realize that this diamond is very hard!)
(Please try to ignore my attempt to translate this nuance. It would never actually be translated to
that.)
Now, if we changed the noun:
밥은 딱딱하다 = The rice is hard
This would not be expressed as a general statement. Why? Because rice is generally not hard.
However, if you were about to have dinner with the rice on your plate and you touched it, you could
say:
밥이 딱딱하다 = The rice is hard (due to what I am experiencing right now, I can say that this
particular rice is hard)
(Again, please ignore this ridiculous translation)
Now this:
밥은 딱딱하다 = The rice is hard
Again, this is not a general statement. Therefore… is it wrong?
No, because there are other purposes of ~는/은. Maybe here the speaker wanted express the
comparison function of ~는/은. Maybe to say that the soup is hot (and ready to eat), but the rice is
hard. Remember, all of this is situational.
Another example: (빨갛다= red, 노랗다= yellow. These words aren’t introduced until Lesson 23.
Sorry.)
사과는 빨갛다 = (in general) apples are red, or
사과는 빨갛다. 바나나는 노랗다 = Apples are red. Bananas are yellow
사과가 빨갛다 = the apple is red (the apple that I am looking at that I just noticed)
사과가 파랗다 = the apple is blue (this would not normally by the case and therefore would never be
used with ~는/은 to express a general statement meaning. However, ~이/가 is used here to
specifically describe the apple that the speaker is experiencing – which may or may not follow what
is typical of other apples)
의사들은 똑똑하다 = (in general), doctors are smart

그 의사가 아주 똑똑하다 = the doctor is smart (the one specific doctor who is in the room, for
example)
This is why, when you want to say “it is raining” you must use the following sentence:
비가 와요 = It’s raining
Instead of:
비는 와요… (incorrect)
The use of “비는 와요” would suggest that, in general, it rains; which wouldn’t make sense. Instead,
the fact that it is raining/rained/will rain would always fall into the particular situation that “이/가” is
used for.
I said this at the end of Lesson 2, but I’m going to say it again here. Your understanding of exactly
when to use ~는/은 over ~이/가 and vice-versa will progress with your general understanding of
Korean grammar.
Also remember that sentences (in every language, including Korean) are usually much more
complicated than what is presented in this lesson. In addition, very rarely are sentences said as just
‘one-off’ sentences. Rather, they are said in response to a question or statement, which is important
information in understanding the nuances of both ~이/가 and ~는/은.
I am sorry to do this again, but you still haven’t learned everything you need to know about ~이/가.
Once again, I need to send you along without having learned everything.
In order to understand the next explanation detailing the usages of ~이/가 and ~는/은, you need to
have some understanding of how questioning works in Korean. I will continue this explanation at the
end of Lesson 22.
Lesson 18: Present Progressive ~고 있다;

To be Getting ~아/어지다
Vocabulary
Nouns:
원숭이 = monkey
교과목 = subject in school
교과서 = textbook
소문 = rumor
충전기 = charger
청구서 = bill
계산원 = cashier
계산기 = calculator
출장 = business trip
밥솥 = rice cooker
소설 = novel
백과사전 = encyclopedia
전공 = major (in university)
가위 = scissors
팀 = team
부모님 = parents
피부 = skin
공 = ball
군대 = army
군인 = soldier
지도 = map
책상 = desk
어깨 = shoulder
백화점 = department store
대학생 = university student
중학교 = middle school
가수 = singer
공기 = air
새벽 = dawn
Verbs:
자르다 = to cut
요청하다 = to ask, to request
궁금하다 = to wonder
Adjectives:
안타깝다 = to be unfortunate
젖다 = to be wet
Adverbs and Other Words
주로 = mainly, mostly
내부 = in
외부 = out
저쪽 = in that direction
Present Progressive (I am __ing): ~고 있다

Attaching ~고 있다 to the stem of verbs gives it the meaning of “I am ____ ing,” – as in, I am
currently doing something. It is called the “present progressive” because the action is being done in
the present, and is currently “progressing” as time goes on.
This grammatical form is very common in Korean. Simply attach ~고 있다 to a verb stem:
As you know, 있다 has many usages and meanings in Korean. Sometimes 있다 is a verb, and
sometimes it is an adjective. When used as ~고 있다 as described here, 있다 is a verb. For now, this
is only important to you when conjugating in the plain form. In the future, there will be other times
when this distinction will be important.
나는 음악을 듣고 있어 = I am listening to music
저의 아버지는 자고 있어요 = My father is sleeping
여자들은 지금 영화를 보고 있어요 = The girls are watching a movie now
저는 사과를 자르고 있어요 = I am cutting the apple
저는 청구서를 지금 내고 있어요 = I am paying the bill now
This same form can be used in the past tense to mean “I was ___ing.”
저는 밥을 먹고 있었어요 = I was eating

학생들은 수업 시간 동안 자고 있었어요 = The students were sleeping during class
You learned previously that 동안 has the meaning of “for” when placed after an indication of time
(10 년 동안 = for 10 years). However, when placed after a noun, it has the meaning of “during” (방학
동안 = during vacation/수업 시간 동안 = during class)
However, using ~고 있다 in the past tense is slightly awkward in Korean. It can be used like this, but
it is often more natural to use the regular past tense conjugation instead. For example:
저는 밥을 먹고 있었어요 = I was eating
학생들은 자고 있었어요 = The students were sleeping
In most situations the sentences above could be said in the following way without any real difference
in meaning:
저는 밥을 먹었어요 = I ate
학생들은 잤어요 = The students slept
Nonetheless, if you really want to stress that you were doing something, you can use this form. More
examples:
저는 백화점에서 쇼핑했어요 = I shopped at the department store
대학생은 책상에서 공부를 했어요 = The university student studied at his desk
저는 백화점에서 쇼핑하고 있었어요 = I was shopping at the department store

대학생은 책상에서 공부를 하고 있었어요 = The university student was studying at his desk
~고 있다 can also be conjugated into the future tense. For example:
나는 다음 주에 시험 공부를 하고 있을 거야 = Next week, I will be studying for an exam

But, just like with the past tense of this form, the same meaning can be expressed by just using a
regular future tense conjugation. Therefore, although the sentence above is correct, the same
meaning can be expressed by saying:
저는 다음 주에 시험 공부를 할 거예요 = Next week, I will study for an exam
~고 있다 can usually be used very easily with most verbs, but there are some special situations that
we need to talk about before we move on.
1) 살고 있다
In English, we can say “I live in Canada.” You could also say “I am living in Canada,” but to me it
sounds more natural to say “I live in Canada.” In Korean, however, “살고 있다” is often used when
you want to say “I live in ________:” For example, both of these are acceptable:
저는 한국에서 살아요 = I live in Korea
살다 (to live) is a little bit strange because you can actually use ‘에서’ or ‘에’ to indicate the place that
you are living. For example, these are also correct, and have the same meaning as the previous
examples:
저는 한국에 살고 있어요 = I live in Korea

저는 한국에 살아요 = I live in Korea
Although they both sound natural to Korean speakers, I’ve heard that ~에서 is probably the correct
one.
2) 알고 있다
In English, almost every verb can go into the “I am ___ing” form. For example:
I am studying
I am praying
I am listening
I am walking
I am playing
However, one word that we would never say that way is
I am knowing
In Korean, however, it is very common to say “알고 있다.” Instead of translating this to “I am knowing”
it needs to be translated to “I know,” because we would never say “I am knowing” in English.
나는 그것을 알고 있어 = I know that

나는 그것을 알아 = I know that
While we are on the subject of “알다,” let’s talk about other ways that this word is commonly used.
When a person tells you something and you want to say “okay,” Korean people would use “알다” in
these situations. One common time you would want to say “okay” or “알다” in this respect is when
responding to a command. I haven’t taught you how to give commands yet (you will learn that
in Lesson 40), but for the moment just accept that “집에 빨리 와” means “come home quickly.”
Person 1: 집에 빨리 와! = come home quickly
Person 2: 알았어 = Okay
However, this doesn’t need to be used in response to a command. It could just be any piece of new
information that you want to say “okay” to. For example:
Person1: 우리는 내일 6 시에 출발 할 거야 = We will leave at 6:00 tomorrow

Person 2: 알았어 = Okay
In formal situations, it is possible to use “알았어요,” but it is also very common to use the future
tense formal conjugation of 알겠습니다. For example:
Person 1: 이 일을 내일까지 해야 합니다 = You have to finish this work by tomorrow
(You haven’t learned the grammar for this sentence yet, so don’t worry about the Korean sentence.
Focus more on the English sentence, because what I am trying to teach you here is the response to
that question in Korean)
Person 2: 네, 알겠습니다 = Yes, okay. (I got it)
3) 가지고 있다
A word that you learned in a previous lesson is “가지다.” 가지다 is a verb that means “to
have/posses.” You also know that you can use 있다 to state that you “have” something. For example:
나는 펜이 있다 = I have a pen (remember that this usage of 있다 requires that 이/가 be added to the
object, because 있다 is actually an adjective in this form).
When using 가지다, however, you would think that you could simply do this:
나는 펜을 가져 – I have a pen – But, it is not usually said like this. If you want to say that
you have something using 가지다, you should say “가지고 있다” instead of just “가지다.” For
example:
나는 펜을 가지고 있어 = I have a pen
Just like how we don’t say “I am knowing” in English, we also wouldn’t say “I am having.” Therefore,
when translating “~를/을 가지고 있다” into English, you need to say “I have ____.”
If you want to talk about ‘people’ that you ‘have,’ you should never use “가지고 있다.’ Instead, you
should use just ‘있다.’ For example:
나는 여자 친구가 있어 = I have a girlfriend

나는 여자 친구를 가지고 있어 – this technically means “I have a girlfriend,” but it’s meaning is more
similar to “I possess a girlfriend.” If you say something like this in Korean, Korean people will
probably understand you, but laugh at your mistake (similar to if somebody told me that they
possess a girlfriend in English).
Using 고 있다 with Position Verbs

In the previous lesson, you learned that you cannot add ~고 to position verbs. Examples of these
verbs were:
앉다 = to sit
서다 = to stand
Specifically, I said:
“These position verbs usually act differently than regular verbs (not just in this situation, but in many
situations).”
~고 있다 is another situation where these position verbs act differently than regular verbs.
First of all, adding ~고 있다 to these verbs can be done. For example:

저는 앉고 있다 = I am sitting – but note that this only means that you are actually in the process of
sitting; as in, you are currently bending your knees getting ready to sit.
“저는 앉고 있다” is grammatically correct, but you need to ask yourself when you would ever say this.
What you want to say, is “I am (in the state of) sitting”… as in, your butt is on the floor/on a chair, etc..
If you want to do this, you have to add ~아/어 있다 to these verbs instead of ~고 있다. For example:
나는 앉아 있어 = I’m sitting
나는 학교 옆에 서 있어 = I’m standing next to the school
나는 침대에 누워 있어 = I’m lying in bed
In theory, this is the same concept that you used when you added ~아/어 있다 to “state” like words
in Lesson 14. For example:

컴퓨터가 켜져 있어요 = The computer is (in the state of) on
TV 가 꺼져 있어요 = The TV is (in the state of) off
문이 잠겨 있어요 = The door is (in the state of) locked
One more time, for good measure:
나는 서고 있다 = This means that you are currently in the process of standing up – which probably
wouldn’t be said… especially since Korean people have a specific word for “getting up” – 일어나다.
나는 서 있다 = This means that you are in the state of standing (probably what you want to say in
almost every situation)
Another common word that this is used with is 살다. Earlier in this lesson, you learned how you can
use ~고 있다 with 살다. For example:

By adding “~아/어 있다” to 살다, you can create the meaning of “in the state of living” (as in, the
opposite of dead. For example:
그 돼지는 살아 있어요 = That pig is living (alive)

그 소는 살아 있지 않아요 = That cow isn’t living (alive)
Using ~고 있다 with Adjectives

You cannot attach ~고 있다 to adjectives. Adjectives, by their nature, are not able to “progress” as
verbs do. This is the same as in English. For example:

저는 행복해요 = I am happy – this is okay.
저는 행복하고 있어요 – I am… being happy? Doesn’t make any sense.
In English, you can say I am getting happy. The next section will teach you how to do that.
Adjective + ~아/어지다
Another powerful grammatical form in Korean is adding ~아/어지다 to the stem of an adjective. This
changes the meaning of an adjective from “be (adjective)” to “get/become (adjective).” For example:
행복하다 = to be happy
행복해지다 = to get/become happy
춥다 = to be cold
추워지다 = to get cold
비싸다 = to be expensive
비싸지다 = to get expensive
크다 = to be big
커지다 = to get/become big
따뜻하다 = to be warm
따뜻해지다 = to get warm
You can technically use these adjectives in the present tense, but just like with verbs, you only ever
really use the present tense conjugation to indicate common truths or to indicate the frequency of
something happening. For example, you would rarely every say:
I eat rice
But you might be more inclined to say:
I eat rice everyday
Same thing here:
날씨가 추워져 = The weather gets cold

날씨가 매일 밤에 추워져요 = The weather gets cold every night
It is more natural to use these types of words in sentences in the past/future tense:
날씨는 주말에 추워졌어 = The weather got cold over the weekend
기름 값은 비싸졌어요 = The price of oil got expensive
그 사람은 밥을 먹고 나서 행복해졌어요 = That person ate, and then became happy
우리 강아지는 지난 1 년 동안 많이 커졌어요 = Our puppy got a lot bigger in the last year
저는 군대에 갔고 똑똑해졌어요 = I went to the army and got smart
대학교 수업은 내년에 어려워질 거예요 = University classes will get difficult next year
When ~아/어지다 is added to an adjective, the entire construction is a verb. In practice, this is rarely
an issue because most times the conjugation of an adjective and a verb is the same. However, there
are some conjugation patterns (which you learned about in Lessons 5 and 6) that are different
depending on if the word is an adjective or verb. For example, when conjugating these using the
“diary form,” it should be conjugated as:
날씨가 매일 밤에 추워진다 = The weather gets cold every night, instead of:
날씨가 매일 밤에 추워지다 = The weather gets cold every night
Keep this on your mind when you reach Lessons 26 – 30, where I introduce the ~는 것 principle. In
those lessons, you will learn about another grammatical principle that is treated differently depending
on if it is added to verbs or adjectives. It also allows grammatical principles that otherwise wouldn’t
be able to be attached to adjectives to be attached to this new “verb” word.
As I mentioned earlier, you cannot attach ~고 있다 to an adjective. However, by attaching
~아/어지다 to an adjective, you can indicate that something “becomes” an adjective. It is then
possible to attach ~고 있다 to an adjective that has ~아/어지다 already attached. For example:
저의 여자 친구는 예뻐지고 있어요 = My girlfriend is getting pretty
집 값은 비싸지고 있어 = House prices are getting expensive
피부가 부드러워지고 있어요 = My skin is getting soft
In the previous lesson, you learned that you cannot add ~고 싶다 to an adjective. By attaching
~아/어지다, you can indicate that something “becomes” an adjective. It is then possible to attach ~고
싶다 to an adjective as with ~고 있다. For example:
나는 행복해지고 싶어 = I want to become happy (I want to be happy)

나는 예뻐지고 싶어 = I want to become pretty (I want to be pretty)
That’s it!
Okay, I got it, take me to the next lesson! Or,
Lesson 19: Korean Comparatives and

Superlatives: 더, 보다, 가장/제일
Vocabulary
Nouns:
한식 = Korean food
양식 = western food
키 = height
별 = star
태도 = attitude
월급 = pay cheque
도심 = downtown
시내 = downtown
추억 = memory
후보자 = candidate
라면 = instant noodles (ramen)
주년 = anniversary
자세 = body position/posture
Verbs:
걱정하다 = to worry
씻다 = to wash
확인하다 = to confirm, to check
모으다 = to gather, to collect
이야기하다 = to talk with, to have a conversation
수집하다 = to collect
추천하다 = to recommend
Adjectives:
키가 크다 = to be tall
좁다 = to be narrow
넓다 = to be wide
특별하다 = to be special
게으르다 = to be lazy
편하다 = to be comfortable
안락하다 = to be comfortable
더 = more
덜 = less
가장 = the most (superlative)
제일 = the most (superlative)
앞으로 = future
평소 = usual
여러 = many/various
옛 _____ = something old
옛 추억 = old memories
옛날 = old days
옛사랑 = old love
옛길 = old road/path
닥쳐 = shut up
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to make comparative and superlative sentences in Korean. Using
comparative sentences, you will learn how to make sentences like “I am more beautiful than you” or
“he is faster than his brother.” Using superlative sentences, you will learn how to make sentences
like “I am the most handsome person in the world.” In addition, we will take an in-depth look at the
word 더, which is commonly used in comparative sentences. Let’s get started.
Korean Word 더 (more)
Before we even get into using comparatives, I want to familiarize you with the
word ‘더,’ meaning “more” in English. The word ‘more’ (in English and Korean) is very commonly
used in sentences when comparing things (I am more handsome than you). But, in both languages,
you don’t necessarily need to be comparing something to use this word. Let’s look at some
examples of ‘더’ when not comparing. Look at the following two sentences: (더 is an adverb, so it
doesn’t need any particles attached to it.)

저는 밥을 먹고 싶어요 = I want to eat
나는 자고 싶어 = I want to sleep
Those are normal sentences without 더. By adding 더 you add the meaning of ‘more’:
저는 밥을 더 먹고 싶어요 = I want to eat more

나는 더 자고 싶어 = I want to sleep more
You can add 더 to a wide variety of sentences, including sentences with counters in them:
저의 여동생은 지난 주에 책 두 권을 읽었어요 = My sister read two books last week

저의 여동생은 지난 주에 책 두 권을 더 읽었어요 = My sister read two more books last week
사람 두 명은 올 거예요 = Two people will come
사람 두 명은 더 올 거예요 = Two more people will come
나는 펜 두 개가 있어 = I have two pens
나는 펜 두 개가 더 있어 = I have two more pens
Also in sentences with the counter 번 in them:
나는 어제 학교에 두 번 갔어 = I went to school two times (twice) yesterday

나는 어제 학교에 두 번 더 갔어 = I went to school two more times yesterday
You can also use 더 in sentences with verbs if you also include an adverb:
나는 열심히 공부했어 = I studied hard

나는 더 열심히 공부했어 = I studied harder
Or without an adverb if you just want to say that did you did a verb ‘more’:
나는 공부했어 = I studied
나는 공부를 더 했어 = I studied more
In these cases, the adverb 많이 can also be included:
나는 공부를 더 많이 했어 = I studied more
In a lot of cases, though, the word 더 is used in comparative sentences with ~보다. Now that you
know a little bit about 더, let’s look at how to use these two together.
Korean Comparatives – 보다
Though you can use 더 in sentences when not comparing (as taught in the previous section), it is
very commonly used in sentences when comparing. In English, comparing is really hard and
confusing. Look at these examples:
It is hotter than yesterday

It is more beautiful than yesterday
It is smellier than yesterday
In English, depending on the word that you are using to compare, the conjugation is different. I can’t
imagine how annoying this would be for an English learner. Luckily, comparatives in Korean are all
done using the exact same form every time!
All you need to do is add the particle ~보다 to the part of the sentence that is being compared to.
Lets look at it step by step:
나는 잘생겼어 = I am handsome
Notice here the example “잘생기다” (handsome) is conjugated into the past tense. When
conjugating 잘생기다 and 못생기다 it is always more natural to use the past tense conjugation.
나는 더 잘생겼어 = I am more handsome
To indicate that you are ‘more handsome than somebody’ you just insert a person + ~보다 in the

나는 아버지보다 더 잘생겼어 = I am more handsome than my father
More examples
선생님들은 더 똑똑해요 = Teachers are smarter

선생님들은 학생들보다 더 똑똑해요 = Teachers are smarter than students
한식은 더 매워 = Korean food is spicier
한식은 양식보다 더 매워 = Korean food is spicier than western food
오늘은 더 더워 = Today is hotter
오늘은 어제보다 더 더워 = Today is hotter than yesterday
저는 키가 더 커요 = I am taller
저는 남동생보다 키가 더 커요 = I am taller than my brother
You can use 보다 with verbs as well.
나는 밥을 더 먹었어 = I ate more

나는 남동생보다 밥을 더 먹었어 = I ate more than my brother
나는 어제보다 밥을 더 먹었어 = I ate more than yesterday
If you really want to get crazy, you can use counters in these sentences as well:
나는 내일 사람 두 명을 만날 거야 = I will meet two people tomorrow

나는 내일 사람 두 명을 더 만날 거야 = I will meet two more people tomorrow
나는 내일 어제보다 사람 두 명을 더 만날 거야 = I will meet two more people than yesterday
tomorrow
A common word that 보다 is connected to is 평소 meaning “usual”:
나는 평소보다 더 공부하고 있어 = I am studying more than usual

And finally, you can throw some adverbs into the mix if you like:
나는 평소보다 더 열심히 공부하고 있어 = I am studying harder than usual
You can, of course, use ‘보다’ with verbs to indicate that you do something better/worse than
somebody else (I play hockey better than my brother – which is true, by the way). Before you learn
that, however, you need to know how to use the words 잘/못, which will be taught in the next lesson.
There are two more words in particular that you should learn that deal with comparatives:
낫다 – Better
There are really two ways to say “better” in Korean. First of all, be aware that “better” in English is
actually just “more good,” but we don’t say that. We just say “better.” You can use the
word ‘좋다 (good)’ in these situations (or ‘나쁘다’(bad) to mean worse):
바나나는 사과보다 더 좋다 = Bananas are better than apples

The thing is, the meaning of this sentence is closer to “I like bananas more than apples,” and not
“bananas are better than apples.” Usually in Korean if you want to say “better”, the word 낫다 is used.
‘낫다’ literally means ‘better’ (more good) which means that you don’t need to put the word 더 in
those sentences:
바나나는 사과보다 나아 = Bananas are better than apples

*Note that the ㅅ irregular applies to 낫다.
낫다 is also very commonly used when you are talking about getting better after being sick. You can
say things like this:
병은 나았어 = I’m better (literally – the sickness/disease is better)

감기는 나았어 = My cold is better
덜 – Less
덜 has a few meanings, one of which is ‘less’ – as in – the opposite of more (더). You can use it just
like 더…although I feel that 더 is used much more frequently than 덜. For example, instead of saying:
“I am less handsome than my brother,”

It would be more natural to say
“My brother is more handsome than me”
Nonetheless, you can say:

나는 남동생보다 덜 잘생겼어 = I’m less handsome than my brother
한국에서 대학교는 고등학교보다 덜 어려워요 = In Korea, University is not as hard as high school
One more quick thing – it is kind of funny/cute slang to pronounce 덜 as 들. I suggest you try it out
sometime. Korean people often get a kick out of foreign people speaking in slang-like language.
They usually can’t get over the fact that we know Korean, let alone the fact that we know a bit of
slang.
Korean Superlatives – 가장/제일
Superlatives, just like comparatives are so much easier in Korean than they are in English. In
English, depending on the word you are using, you have to conjugate it differently:
She is the hottest girl

She is the most beautiful girl
She is the smelliest girl
In Korean, instead of mucking (I said “mucking”) around with different forms like in English, all you
need to do is add one word: 가장
예쁘다 = pretty
가장 예쁘다 = Prettiest
아름답다 = beautiful
가장 아름답다 = Most beautiful
A synonym of “가장” is “제일,” which is often used in speech.
You can then put these into sentences just like you would normal adjectives:
저의 여자 친구는 한국에서 가장 예쁜 여자예요 = My girlfriend is the prettiest girl in Korea

가족은 가장 중요해요 = Family is the most important
You can’t really use 가장 with verbs unless there is also an adverb included within the sentence. For
example, you can’t say this:
나는 가장 달려 = I run… most?… doesn’t make sense
In these cases, you need to add an adverb to the sentence:

나는 가장 빨리 달려 = I run the fastest
우리가 집에 제일 늦게 도착했어요 = We arrived home the latest (we were the latest people to arrive
at home)
However, you can add 가장 to 좋아하다 (to like) without an adverb to indicate that you ‘like
something the most.’ (This is also how you say “my favorite” in Korean).
나는 그 여자를 가장 좋아해 = I like that girl most (that girl is my favorite)

나는 수학을 가장 좋아해 = I like math most (math is my favorite)
Note here that in most real situations it is probably more natural [in English and in Korean] to say
something like:
I am the fastest runner – instead of – I run the fastest
Math is my favorite subject – instead of – Math is my favorite
To this point, you haven’t learned how to add this extra dimension to your sentences with verbs. This
concept is introduced in Lesson 26. That being said, it is essentially the same as making this change
to adjectives:
가족은 가장 중요해요 = Family is the most important
가족이 가장 중요한 것이에요 = Family is the most important thing
In order to express a negative superlative, of course, you can use a word that has a negative
meaning, for example:
저는 사과를 가장 싫어해요 = I dislike apples the most

저는 사과를 제일 싫어해요 = I dislike apples the most
You could technically add ~지 않다 or ~안 to the sentence to make it a negative superlative
그 여자는 우리 반에서 가장 예쁘지 않은 여자예요 = That girl is the least pretty in our class
그 여자는 우리 반에서 제일 예쁘지 않은 여자예요 = That girl is the least pretty in our class
수학은 가장 쉽지 않아요 = Math is the least easy
수학은 제일 쉽지 않아요 = Math is the least easy
However, those sentences would sound much more natural (in English and Korean) if you just used
a word with the opposite meaning. For example:
그 여자는 우리 반에서 제일 못생긴 여자예요 = That girl is the ugliest in our class
수학은 제일 어려워요 = Math is the hardest
In most of these superlative sentences, it would usually sound much more natural to add “Of all X”.
For example:
Of all subjects at school, math is the most difficult

Of all fruit, I dislike apples the most
The grammatical principle needed to add this extra level of complexity to your sentences is
introduced in Lesson 33.
Two adverbs that 가장/제일 are often used with are 잘 and 못, which will be talked about in the next
lesson.
That’s it for this lesson!
Lesson 20: Well and Poorly: 잘 and 못

Vocabulary
Nouns:
교수 = professor
주인 = master/owner/proprietor
잘못 = mistake/fault
기온 = temperature
거울 = mirror
가루 = powder
근육 = muscle
어둠 = darkness
기본 = basic/basics
사고 = accident
교통 = traffic
Verbs:
잘하다 = to do something well
못하다 = to do something poorly
수영하다 = to swim
대우하다 = to treat somebody
퇴직하다 = to retire
접수하다 = to receive (an application)
씹다 = to chew
통역하다 = to interpret
번역하다 = to translate
젓다 = to stir
늘리다 = to gain, to improve, to increase
빠지다 = to fall into
사랑에 빠지다 = to fall in love
빠져나오다 = to escape, to come out of
빠져나가다 = to escape, to go out of
Passive Verbs:
늘다 = to be gained, improved, increased
Adjectives:
둥글다 = to be round, to be spherical
헷갈리다 = to be confusing
어둡다 = to be dark
잘 = well
못 = poorly
~님 = adds respect to person’s position
또는 = or
~세 = years old
꼭 = surely/definitely
물론 = of course
그 동안 = during that time/meanwhile
이상 = more than
Introduction
Until now, you have not learned how to say “I am good at something/I do something well” or “I am
bad at something/I do something poorly.” In this lesson, you will learn about the words 잘하다 (to do
something well) and 못하다 (to do something poorly). 못하다 is very hard to understand perfectly, so
I will ease you in by introducing you to 잘하다 first.
잘하다: To do something well
The main meaning of 잘하다 is “to do something well.” To use 잘하다, simply place a noun in a
sentence with 잘하다 as the verb.
This is easy to do with 하다 verbs (for example, 수영하다 and 공부하다) because to make a noun all
you need to do is remove 하다 from those words. You don’t yet know how to make non-하다 verbs
into nouns (you will learn that in Lesson 26), but the principal is the same. All you would need to do
is:
나는 (noun form of verb)을/를 잘하다. For example:
나는 수영을 잘해 = I am good at swimming

저 학생은 공부를 잘해 = That student studies well
우리 애기는 말을 잘해요 = Our baby speaks well
저는 야구를 잘해요 = I play baseball well
잘하다 is a verb, but now we need to talk about “잘,” which is an adverb.
잘: Well
Just like 잘하다, you can use the word 잘 in sentences to indicate that one does something well.
Usually, when you remove 하다 from a word, the word without 하다 becomes a noun. In this case,
removing 하다 from 잘 does not make 잘 a noun. Instead, it is an adverb. The only reason this is
important is so that you know that you can use 잘 in sentences just like other adverbs, in this case to
mean “(to do something) well.” It is essentially the same as “잘하다,” but used slightly different. For
example:
그 주인은 고객님들을 잘 대우해요 = That owner treats the customers well

나는 어젯밤에 잘 잤어 = I slept well last night
When I first learned about 잘하다 and 잘, I was trying to understand if these two sentences were the
same:
나는 공부를 잘해 = I study well

나는 잘 공부해 = I study well
The answer: essentially, but not entirely.
The difference is so subtle that you don’t really need to worry about it. However, when I learned this,
I worried about it, so I think maybe you should worry about it too. The reason I say “don’t worry
about it” is because now when I speak I can’t really distinguish the difference in meaning. The only
way I could tell the difference is referring back to my old notes from 5 years ago. Nonetheless, there
is a subtle difference:
나는 공부를 잘한다 = I study well, or

“나는 (noun)을 잘한다” means that, in general, your ability to do something is good. However,
나는 잘 공부한다 = I study well, or

“나는 잘 (verb)다” means that you can study well because of some situation (for example, maybe
you have a test coming up and you are studying really hard because of that situation).
But really, don’t get too caught up on the difference between the two. Especially since sometimes
they look and sound almost exactly the same. If you separated 공부 and 하다 in the second example,
you would get:
나는 공부를 잘 해 = I study well, which sounds (and almost looks) exactly the same as:
나는 공부를 잘해 = I study well
Anyways, don’t worry about it too much.
You already know the word 잘생기다 means “handsome.” That word is actually 잘 and 생기다 put
together. 생기다 has a lot of meanings, but putting 잘 and 생기다 together, it sort of means “to come
out well.” The opposite is true for 못생기다 (to be ugly).
Always remember to not translate directly from English to Korean, as there are so many things that
are not 100% the same in both languages. For example, in English, we would never say “I don’t
know well,” but in Korean, it is very common to say:
저는 잘 모르겠어요* = I don’t know (well)

*Also notice that the future tense 모르다 is used here. Even though it is in the present, 모르겠다 is
used very commonly to indicate that you don’t know something – Even though it directly translates to
“I will not know.”
.
.
못하다: To do something poorly
Alright, this is where it gets hard. 잘하다 was easy. Let’s do this step by step.
First of all, 못하다 has the opposite meaning of 잘하다 – so it can be used to indicate that one
generally is poor at something. For example:
나는 수영을 못해 = I am bad at swimming

저 학생은 공부를 못해 = That student does not study well
The difference between 못하다 and 못 is the same as the difference between 잘하다 and 잘. When
you say a sentence like “나는 수영을 못해” it means that in general your ability to swim is bad.
Because of this, you need to be careful about the type of verb you are using in this situation. For
example, you couldn’t really use the verb “to eat” in this situation, because that would mean that “in
general, my ability to eat is bad.” Instead, what you would probably want to say is that “I CAN eat,
but because of some situation, I can’t really eat right now.” That is when you need to use 못 instead
of 못하다.
못: Poorly
Using 못하다 and understanding the meaning it creates is quite simple, especially if you can
understand how 잘하다 is used. If you use the adverb 못, the meaning depends on the situation.
Here are two simple examples we can look at:
저는 어제 못 잤어요
저는 어제 시험을 못 봤어요
This is where it gets unnecessarily confusing. Both of those sentences could have two meanings.
The first example:

저는 어제 못 잤어요 could mean either of the following:
I didn’t sleep well last night because of some situation, or
I didn’t sleep last night because something prevented me from sleeping
The second example:
저는 어제 시험을 못 봤어요 could mean either of the following:
I did poorly on the exam yesterday because of some situation, or
I didn’t write the exam yesterday because something prevented me from sleeping
(My translations of “… One didn’t … because something prevented him/her from …” is often simply
translated to “One couldn’t” or “One can’t.” These English terms are complex, and might be related
to one not doing something because something prevented them or related to one’s ability. Another
way to say “one couldn’t” or “one can’t” in Korean is by using ~ㄹ/을 수 없다 , which I discuss
in Lesson 45).
Confusing? Let me say again. When you put 못 in a sentence, it can indicate that one does
something poorly (or not well) OR that one does not do something because something prevented
him/her from doing it. When it has the second meaning (“I didn’t do”) it is the result of some situation
preventing you.
I want to take a minute to distinguish this from other negative sentences – specifically using 안 or
~지 않다 which you learned in Lesson 8. When you use 안 or ~지 않다, there is no deeper meaning
that “something prevented you from doing the action.” For example, if I said:
저는 어제 시험을 안 봤어요, or
저는 어제 시험을 보지 않았어요
I am just saying that I didn’t write the exam yesterday – as if yesterday specifically was not the day
that I was supposed to write the exam anyway (or something like that). Why would I write the exam
when it is not the exam day? Of course I wouldn’t. Nothing is preventing me from writing the exam.
It’s just not the day to write the exam. It’s also possible that I just didn’t do the exam because I didn’t
want to. Either way, nothing is preventing me from doing it, I just didn’t do it.
However, if I say:
저는 어제 시험을 못 봤어요
It probably was the day to write the exam, but something prevented me from writing it. The thing that
prevented me from writing it could be anything – it could have been that I had to go to a party with
my wife, or it could of been that I had explosive diarrhea. Either way, both of those things (especially
the latter) would prevent me from writing the exam.
——————–
In order to explain this further, I can explain a very common mistake that English speakers make
when speaking Korean.
You don’t know how to ask questions yet (you’ll learn that in the next lesson), but imagine if
somebody asks you
“Did you hear what I say?” (내 말을 들었어?)
English speakers learning Korean often respond with:
아니. 안 들었어.
However, if you say that, it’s kind of like you are specifically/purposely trying not to hear what the
person said. Instead, you obviously can hear, but something prevented you from hearing the person.
Maybe it was the loud TV, maybe it was the motorcycle driving by, or maybe it was your explosive
diarrhea. Either way, something prevented you from hearing the person, so you should say:
아니. 못 들었어. = No, I didn’t (couldn’t) hear (you)
——————–
But, how can you distinguish the difference between somebody saying “I did something poorly” and
“I didn’t do something”? There are three ways I can teach you:
잘못
If you really want to stress that you do something poorly, you can include 잘 before 못. This
specifically indicates that you “don’t do something well” and removes the ambiguity of “I didn’t”:
저는 어제 시험을 잘 못 봤어요 = I didn’t do good on the exam yesterday
The word being used

Sometimes, the word being used makes it clear which meaning you are trying to express. For
example, if I said:
저는 어제 학교에 못 갔어요, This could have two meanings:
1) I didn’t go to school yesterday because of some situation
2) I didn’t go to school well yesterday
Which one of those two makes sense? In situations like this, it is easy to figure out which meaning is
being used. Is it possible to “go somewhere well?” I don’t think so.
A perfect real-world example of this is something that my co-worker said to me once. The school I
work at was in the process of buying my plane ticket back home, and it happened to be really
expensive (like, really expensive). My co-worker always wanted to go to Canada, but when she
heard how much my plane ticket was, she said to herself “캐나다에 못 가겠다.” The meaning of this
sentence is not “she will go to Canada poorly” but rather “she can’t/won’t go to Canada because of
some situation” (the ticket being too expensive).
Situation
Sometimes you just need to think about the context of the sentence to understand the meaning
completely. For example, if you already knew for sure that a friend wrote the exam, and they later
said “시험을 못 봤어요” – the sentence could only have one meaning (because you already knew
that he/she wrote the exam).
Let’s look at some examples. If somebody said:

저는 밥을 못 먹어요
This could technically mean two things. It could mean:
1. That the person can’t eat (well)

2. That the person won’t eat because of some situation (most likely because he/she is full/doesn’t like
that particular food, etc…)
In this case, the first possibility does not make sense because everybody (99.9% of the time) has the
ability to eat. Therefore, this person is expressing that he/she is not going to eat because of some
situation that is causing him/her to not want to eat.
Another example:
저는 답을 잘 못 썼어요
This sentence could really only mean one thing. Because of the use of “잘,” we know that the
speaker is expressing that he/she did not do something well. Therefore, the sentence above
translates to “I didn’t answer well.
There is still another way that 못/못하다 can be used to have yet another similar meaning to what
has been described so far.
~지 못하다
One more thing about 못하다. Similar in structure to ~지 않다, you can also write ~지 못하다 to have
the same meaning as 못. For example:
저는 어제 못 잤어요 AND
저는 어제 자지 못했어요 have the same meaning (I didn’t sleep [well] last night)
Remember that 못 and ~지 못하다 have the same meaning, which is subtly different than 를 못하다:
저는 어제 못 공부했어요 = I didn’t study well yesterday/I couldn’t study yesterday

저는 어제 공부하지 못했어요 = I didn’t study well yesterday/I couldn’t study yesterday
저는 공부를 못해요 = I am bad at studying
잘못
To make all of this even more confusing, the word 잘못 (with no space between 잘 and 못) has a
different meaning. 잘못 means “mistake.” This word would normally be an easy word to deal with.
However, it is more difficult than it needs to be because 잘못 and 잘 못 have two different meanings.
잘못 can be used like this:
그것은 제* 잘못이었어요 = That was my fault/my mistake

(*Normally when you say “my _____” you use 저의 or 나의. However, some nouns prefer to
have 제 and 내 before them instead of 저의/나의. 잘못 is one of these nouns. Another example
is 제/내 생각 (instead of 저의/나의 생각) meaning “my thought/my opinion/what I think).
잘 and 못 with Comparatives and Superlatives

One final thing before I finish. In the previous lesson, you learned about using ~보다 and 가장/제일
to make comparative and superlative sentences. The concepts you learned in this lesson are very
commonly alongside ~보다 or 가장/제일 in sentences to say that somebody can do something
better/worse, or do something the best/worst. Some examples:
Comparative Sentences:
우리 아들은 친구들보다 축구를 더 잘해요 = Our (my) son is better than (his) friends at soccer
그 교수는 다른 교수들보다 수업을 더 잘해요 = That professor teaches classes better than other
professors
저는 수영을 작년보다 더 잘해요 = I am better at swimming than last year
Superlative Sentences:
우리 아들은 축구를 가장 잘해요 = Our (my) son is the best at soccer
그 교수는 수업을 제일 잘해요 = That professor teaches classes the best (is the best at teaching
classes)
저는 축구를 제일 못해요 = I play soccer the worst
저는 수영을 제일 못해요 = I swim the worst
Again, in most situations, these sentences would sound more natural with the use of other
grammatical principles. For example, to say “I am the one who plays soccer the worst” or “Of all
people, I play soccer the worst.” To be able to wrap your head around those sentences, you’ll need
to read/understand the grammar taught in Lessons 26 and 33 respectively.
That’s it for this lesson!
Lesson 21: Asking Questions in Korean:

Why, When, Where, Who
Vocabulary
Nouns:
소식 = news
엄마 = mom
아빠 = dad
결혼식 = wedding
우표 = postage stamp
신 = god
만화 = comics, cartoons
만화책 = comic book
예정 = schedule
코딱지 = booger, a small amount of something
논 = rice paddy
낮잠 (자다) = nap
의견 = opinion, feedback
수입 = income
Verbs:
축복하다 = to bless
사라지다 = to disappear
졸업하다 = to graduate
입원하다 = to check into a hospital
퇴원하다 = to check out of a hospital
이기다 = to win
지다 = to lose
후회하다 = to regret
타다 = to ride
Adjectives:
즐겁다 = to be pleasant
부족하다 = to not be enough, to be lacking
간단하다 = to be simple
누구 = who
왜 = why
언제 = when
어디 = where
역시 = also
미터 = meter
센티미터 = centimeter
몇몇 = some
나중에 또 봐요 = see you later
벌써 = already
이미 = already
특히 = especially
점점 = gradually
Asking Questions in Korean

Asking questions in Korean, at first glance, is very easy. For the most part, asking questions in
Korean without the use of a “question” word (who/what/when/where/why/how/how much/how many)
is incredibly simple.
Asking questions in English is unnecessarily complicated. If I asked you the question “Do you like
sports?” In English, what is the meaning of the word “do” in that sentence? In English, whenever we
ask a question (without a question word), we need to include the words did/do/will to make the
listener know that we are asking a question.
Did you go to the park?

Do you like sports?
Will you eat with us?
It is so confusing in English, and my two sentence explanation doesn’t really explain it very well.
Luckily, this is not an English learning website! You are here to learn how to ask questions in Korean.
Enough of this English nonsense.
In Korean, if you are asking a question that does not require the use of a question word (one more
time: who/what/when/where/why/how/how much/how many) you don’t need to do anything
structurally to make that sentence a question. All you need to do is raise the intonation of the end of
the sentence to make it sound like a question. For example, if you want to say “My mother ate” you
already know that you can say:
엄마는 먹었어요 = My mom ate
But if you want to ask somebody “did you eat?” You just raise the intonation of the end of the
sentence to make it sound like a question:
엄마는 먹었어요? = (literally means “did mom eat?”)

Remember that Korean people rarely say the word “you,” so if you ask a question to the person you
are talking toabout the person you are talking to, you can just omit the subject of the sentence.
밥을 먹었어? = Did (you) eat?
집에 갔어? = Did (you) go home?
소식을 들었어? = Did (you) hear the news?
If you are talking to somebody and the subject of the sentence is not the person who you are talking
to, you can just use the subject as normal. Also notice that regardless of the tense of the sentence
(past/present/future) you don’t need to do anything special other than raise the intonation at the end
of the sentence:
남동생은 울었어요? = Did your brother cry?

한국은 좋은 나라야? = Is Korea a good country?
엄마도 올 거야? = Will mom come too?
As I said, you don’t need to change anything structurally in these sentences to make them questions.
There are, however, a few ways that you can change the structure of a sentence to make the
sentence a question (if you want).
.
Korean Questions ~ㅂ/습니까

The formal high respect ~습니다 is never used as a question. When asking a question in this form,
instead of using ~습니다 you must use ~ㅂ/습니까. ~ㅂ니까 gets added directly to stems ending in a
vowel, and ~습니까 gets added after a stem ending in a consonant. You can do this with all tenses:
방학 동안 집에 안 갔습니까? = You didn’t go home during vacation?

그 사람을 만나고 싶습니까? = Do you want to meet that person?
내일 학교에 갈 겁니까? = Are you going to school tomorrow?
내일 학교에 갈 것입니까? = Are you going to school tomorrow?
I work at a school in Seoul. In the bathrooms, there are charts on the walls that the cleaning staff is
supposed to check once per day. Written on these charts is a list of questions about the state of the
bathroom.
While you will not understand most of the words on this list, notice that all of the sentences (except
for the last one) has the ending ~ㅂ/습니까?
Some of the words provided in the 10 sentences above
are fairly difficult. However, I would like to translate it for you:

1. Is the bathroom floor clean?
2. Is the sink clean?
3. Has the mirror been wiped clean?
4. Is there extra soap?
5. Is the toilet paper ready?
6. Is the bathroom’s garbage can empty?
7. Are there no toilets that haven’t been flushed?
8. Are any lights broken?
9. Is there any smell?
10. Are there any places, the doorknob, the faucet, etc that are broken?
There are other ways you can change a sentence to make it a question. ~ㅂ/습니까 is typically the
most formal. We will talk about the others in the upcoming sections.
Korean Questions ~니
When asking a question, instead of ending your sentences with ~아/어, you can end them with ~니.
This is an informal way to ask a question, and you can do this in all tenses. For example:
Past tense: 했니, 먹었니, 갔니, 이었니

Present tense: 하니, 먹니, 가니, 이니
Future tense (~겠): 하겠니, 먹겠니, 가겠니
Future tense (~ㄹ 것이다): 할 거니, 할 것이니, 먹을 거니, 먹을 것이니
However, note that using this form gives the sentence a slightly feminine feel to it (I’ve never once
used ~니). However, I work at a Korean high school, and I hear female Korean teachers use this
form all the time when asking questions to a student.
시험을 잘 봤니? = Did you write the exam well (did you do well on the exam)?
서울에 가겠니? = Are you going to go to Seoul?
몇 반이니? = What class are you in?
이미 졸업했니? = Did you already graduate?
Remember in Lesson 7 you learned about the ~ㄹ irregular. To refresh your memory, this irregular
applies to words that end in ㄹ, for example:
만들다 = to make
들다 = to enter
살다 = to live
Anytime you add something that starts with a “solid ㄴ” to a verb or adjective whose stem ends in ㄹ,
the ㄹ must be dropped. This is the first time you have had to use this irregular. For example:
만들다 + ~니 = 만드니
들다 + ~니 = 드니
살다 + ~니 = 사니
Examples of these words in use:

뭐 만드니? = What are you making?
마음에 드니? = Do you like it?
어디 사니? = Where do you live?
Korean Questions ~ㄴ/은가(요)

Just like ‘~니’ you can also end your questions with ~ㄴ/은가(요). Adding “요” to the end makes it
more formal. This form is less formal than the high-respect ~ㅂ/습니까 form.
~ㄴ/은가(요) gets added to the stem of adjectives. Using this form makes a question a little bit softer
than using the forms described previously. The exact difference cannot be translated perfectly, but
sort of like how “would it be okay if I go into the park?” sounds slightly softer than “can I go into the
park.”
You add ~ㄴ/은 to adjective stems just like you would when conjugating it to describe a noun:
예쁘다 + ㄴ/은 = 예쁜
작다 + ㄴ/은 = 작은
And then attach “가(요)” after that construction:

예쁜가(요)?
작은가(요)?
It is only conjugated into the present tense and therefore usually only used to ask about some sort of
present situation. For example:
그 여자는 예쁜가? = Is that girl pretty?

이것은 너무 작은가요? = Is this too small?
그 학교가 좋은가? = Is that school good?
일이 너무 복잡한가요? = Is this work/task too complicated?
~ㄴ/은가(요) is commonly added to 이다 as well. For example:
그 사람이 선생님인가? = Is that person a teacher?

그 사람이 우리 엄마인가? = Is that person our mom? (Is that our mom?)
아닌가(요)? Is very commonly used at the end of a full sentence to say “no?” when you are asking
yourself a question as if you are doubting yourself. For example:
그 여자는 한국에서 가장 예쁜 여자야. 아닌가? = That girl is the most beautiful girl in Korea…
no?/isn’t she?
너무 복잡해! 아닌가? = This is too complicated. Isn’t it?
Korean Questions ~나(요)

Using ~나(요) at the end of a sentence to ask a question has the same function of ~ㄴ/은가(요). That
is, it can be used to make a question sound slightly softer than the other ways to ask a question.
However, ~나(요) is more often used with verbs and with 있다 and 없다. For example:
Notice that the ㄹ irregular needs to be applied in appropriate situations again:

밥이 있나? = Is there rice?
사과도 여기서 파나요? = Do you sell apples here too?
소녀시대 콘서트를 여기서 하나요? = Is the Girl’s Generation concert here?
지하철을 타고 있나요? = Are you on (riding) the subway now?
This form can be used in the past tense as well. For example:
교통카드가 있었나요? = Did you have your bus (transportation) card?

그 소식을 들었나요? = Did you hear that/the news?
만화책을 샀나요? = Did you buy the comic book?
어제 병원에 입원했나요? = Did you go to the hospital yesterday?
It is possible to use this in the future tense, but it only sounds natural when applying it to the ~겠다
future conjugation. Adding ~나(요) to 이다 is typically not done, and therefore adding it to words that
are conjugating using ~ㄹ/을 것이다 is unnatural. For example:
내일 퇴원할 거나요? – unnatural

내일 퇴원할 것이나요? – unnatural
Using Question Words

Depending on which question word you are using, building a question can be really easy or really
confusing. I will teach you the easy examples in this lesson (who, when, where, why) and the more
confusing examples in the next lesson (what, how, how much/how many).
Why (왜)
Why (왜) is probably the easiest question word in Korean. ‘왜’ is an adverb, which means it can be
used/placed as an adverb in sentences. Many of the question words that you will learn in this lesson
(and the following lesson) are adverbs. As you know, adverbs can be used very freely in sentences
and do not have any specific location that they need to be used. However, the most common
position for these adverb-question words is before the verb. If there are other adverbs in the
sentence (including the negative “안”) the question word is usually placed first.
With these adverb-question words, you can typically just take a statement and change it into a
question by inserting the word into the sentence. For example:
만화책을 좋아합니까? = Do you like comic books?

만화책을 왜 좋아합니까? = Why do you like comic books?
(저는) 한국어를 공부하고 있어요 = I am studying Korean
한국어를 왜 공부하고 있어요? = Why are you studying Korean?
(저는) 너무 빨리 먹었어요 = I ate really fast
왜 너무 빨리 먹었어요? = Why did you eat so fast?
(저는) 어제 학교에 안 갔어요 = I didn’t go to school yesterday
어제 학교에 왜 안 갔어요? = Why didn’t you go to school yesterday?
왜 is also used to respond when somebody calls your name (because they want you for some
reason). In English, we would say “what,” but in Korean, they say “왜.” For example:
Person 1: 슬기야! = Seulgi!

Person 2: 왜? = Why/what do you want?
Notice that saying “why” in English is unnatural. This is how they say it in Korean.
When (언제)
The usage of ‘when’ (언제) is very similar to the usage of ‘왜’ in Korean. As an adverb, it can be
used to ask “when” something happens. For example:
집에 갔어? = Did you go home?

집에 언제 갔어? = When did you go home?
집에 갈 거야? = Will you go home?
집에 언제 갈 거야? = When will you go home?
그 여자가 사라졌어요 = That girl disappeared
그 여자가 언제 사라졌어요? = When did that girl disappear?
낮잠을 잤어요? = Did you take a nap?
낮잠을 언제 잤어요? = When did you take a nap?
아빠가 왔어요? = Did dad come?
아빠가 언제 왔나요? = When did dad come?
Particles like ~부터 and ~까지, which are often used to indicate from/until when something happens
can be attached to 언제 to indicate that it is unknown “from/until when” something happens. For
example:
어제부터 아팠어요 = I have been sick since yesterday

언제부터 아팠어요? = Since when have you been sick?
Notice that 어제 and 언제 are not the same word.
한국에서 내년까지 있을 거예요 = I will be in Korea until next year
한국에서 언제까지 있을 거예요? = Until when will you be in Korea?
작년부터 한국어를 공부했어요 = I have been studying Korean since last year
언제부터 한국어를 공부했어요? = Since when have you been studying Korean?
언제 can also be attached to “이다” to ask “when” something is. In these cases as well, it replaces
the noun that would normally be attached to 이다. For example:
결혼식은 내일이야 = The wedding is tomorrow

결혼식은 언제야? = When is the wedding?
방학은 다음 주야 = Vacation is next week
방학은 언제야? = When is vacation?
The grammatical principle ~든지 is commonly attached to 언제 to form 언제든지. For now, you can
think of this simply as a word that means “whenever.” When you learn about the function of ~든지
in Lesson 106, you will understand how this meaning is formed.
Where (어디)
어디 works very much like 언제. It can be used to ask “where” something happened if the place is
unknown. For example:
집에 가고 싶어요= I want to go home
어디 가고 싶어요? = Where do you want to go?
한국에 살아요 = I live in Korea
어디 살아요? = Where do you live?
Just like 여기, ~에 is often omitted from “어디.” 어디에서 is often contracted to 어디서.
More examples:
그것을 집에서 하고 싶어요 = I want to do that at home
그것을 어디서 하고 싶어요? = Where do you want to do that?
한국에서 왔어요 = I came from Korea
어디에서 왔어요? = Where are you from (from where did you come?)
The particle ~까지 is commonly attached to 어디. ~부터 is not commonly attached to 어디 for the
same reason that ~부터 is not commonly attached to a place, as described in Lesson 12. For
example:
부산까지 가고 싶어요 = I want to go until Busan

어디까지 가고 싶어요? = How far/until where do you want to go?
지하철을 서울역까지 탈 거예요 = We will take/ride the Subway until Seoul Station
지하철을 어디까지 탈 거예요? = Until where will we ride the subway?
Like 언제, it can be used as the noun before 이다 to ask where something “is.”
Placing 어디 before 이다 is really only done if asking somebody directly where they are:
어디야? = Where are you?

Or when asking where a place is:
너의 집이 어디야? = Where is your house?
그곳이 어디야? = Where is that place?
학교가 어디예요? = Where is the/your school?
When asking where another person, or an object is, it is more natural to use 있다 in these sentence.
For example:
친구가 어디에 있어요? = Where is your friend?

엄마가 어디에 있어요? = Where is mom?
펜이 어디에 있어요? = Where is the pen?
아빠가 어디에 있어? = Where is dad?
그 만화책이 어디에 있어? = Where is that comic?
These would be unnatural:
아빠가 어디야?
그 만화책이 어디야?
Just like 언제, there are of course more complicated ways that 어디 can be used. For now, this is
good enough.
Who (누구)
In Korean, 누구 has the function of a pronoun.
Actually, some of the ways you say 언제 and 어디 being used were as pronouns in Korean. I chose
not to explain this to you because the definition of a pronoun in Korean and English is not exactly the
same. 언제 and 어디 can act as pronouns in Korean, but this same usage would be called an adverb
in English. I actually had an explanation typed out, but decided not to include it into this lesson
because it makes things more confusing than they actually are. However, knowing that 누구 is a
pronoun in English and Korean is helpful (if you know what pronouns are).
As a pronoun, 누구 can be used in the place of a noun in a sentence – that is, it can be used to
replace the object, the subject or as a noun before 이다.
This is the same in English – as you can see in the following three examples:
Who will study Korean tomorrow? – ‘who’ is the subject of the sentence
Who will you meet tomorrow? – ‘who’ is the object of the sentence -“you” is the subject
Who is that person? = ‘who’ is ‘that person’ in the sentence
However, this is confusing in English because in all three cases “who” is the first word of the
sentence regardless of its role.
In Korean, instead of always placing ‘who’ at the start of the sentence, it should be placed in the
location of the subject (usually the start of the sentence), the object (usually somewhere in the
middle of the sentence) or before 이다. I will show you an example of each:
In the third sentence below you can see an example of 누구 being used as a subject. The subject is
underlined in each case. When 누구 is used as the subject of a sentence, it is changed to 누가.
너는 내일 한국어를 공부할 거야 = You will study Korean tomorrow
너는 내일 한국어를 공부할 거야? = Will you study Korean tomorrow?
누가 내일 한국어를 공부할 거야? = Who will study Korean tomorrow?
In the third sentence below you can see an example of 누구 being used as an object. The object is
underlined in each case. The object particles can be used if 누구 is the object.
너는 내일 친구를 만날 거야 = You will meet a friend tomorrow
너는 내일 친구를 만날 거야? = Will you meet a friend tomorrow?
너는 내일 누구(를) 만날 거야? = Who will you meet tomorrow?
In the third sentence below you can see an example of 누구 being used before 이다:
그 사람은 너의 아버지야 = That person is your dad
그 사람은 너의 아버지야? = Is that person your dad?
그 사람은 누구야? = Who is that person?
That’s it for this lesson, but there is still lots for you to know about asking questions in Korean! This
lesson covered the first half of what you need to know, and the following lesson (Lesson 22) will
cover the rest!
Lesson 23: ㅎ Irregular: Korean Colors,

이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다
Vocabulary
Nouns:
초록색 = (the color) green
보라색 = (the color) purple
연두색 = (the color) light green
분홍색 = (the color) pink
갈색 = (the color) brown
회색 = (the color) grey
적색 = (the color) red
셔츠 = shirt
눈 = snow
눈보라 = blizzard, snow storm
뉴스 = news
전쟁 = war
작품 = a piece of work
날짜 = date
그릇 = bowl
등 = one's back
손등 = back of hand
손톱 = fingernail
독자 = readers
부부 = couple, married couple
Verbs:
변경하다 = to change
들르다 = to stop by
내려오다 = to come down
내려가다 = to go down
드러내다 = to reveal, to show
발표하다 = to announce
Passive Verbs:
드러나다 = to be revealed, to be shown
Adjectives:
푸르다 = to be sea blue
노랗다 = to be yellow
빨갛다 = to be red
하얗다 = to be white
까맣다 = to be black
파랗다 = to be blue
섬세하다 = to be delicate
이런 = this kind of
이렇게 = like this
그런 = that kind of
그렇게 = like that
저런 = that kind of
저렇게 = like that
대부분 = most
송이 = counter for “bunch” (flowers/bananas)
종류 = counter for a “type/kind of thing”
가지 = counter for a “type of thing”
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use colors in Korean by applying the ㅎ irregular. In addition, you
will learn about the words 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 and how the ㅎ irregular can be applied to
those words. Let’s get started.
Korean Irregular: ㅎ
Korean Colors
You learned all about the Korean irregulars in Lesson 7. On top of all of those irregulars, there is one
more that you should be aware of.
The reason I didn’t include this irregular in Lesson 7 is because it is an irregular irregular. Usually, if
the last consonant of a word stem ends in ㅎ, the word is not conjugated in any special way. For
example:
좋다 = 좋아
많다 = 많아
However, a lot of colors in Korean end with the final syllable ㅎ (see the vocabulary list for a good list
of these). When conjugating these words (which are adjectives) to allow them to describe an
upcoming noun, we can add ~ㄴ/은, just like it is done with other adjectives. However, in some
words (mostly colors) the ㅎ gets dropped and ㄴ gets added directly to the word stem. For example:
Word Word + ~ㄴ/은 Word + noun Translation
노랗다 = yellow 노란 노란 공 Yellow ball

빨갛다 = red 빨간 빨간 공 Red ball
하얗다 = white 하얀 하얀 공 White ball
까맣다 = black 까만 까만 공 Black ball
파랗다 = blue 파란 파란 공 Blue ball
You can use those color words to describe objects in sentences where appropriate. For example:
저 노란 집이 예뻐요 = That yellow house is pretty

빨간 사과는 가장 맛있어요 = Red apples are the most delicious
그녀는 빨간 셔츠를 입고 있다 = She is wearing a red shirt
나는 하얀 차를 사고 싶어 = I want to buy a white car
저는 보통 까만 양복을 입어요 = I usually wear black suits
파란 불이 제일 뜨거워요 = The blue flame is the hottest
If you want to use these words as nouns (as in, “the color white” or “the color red”), you can add
“색” after the adjective form of the color (색 means ‘color’):
노란색 = the color yellow

빨간색 = the color red
하얀색 = the color white
까만색 = the color black
파란색 = the color blue
Though these words are nouns, they are often placed before another noun to describe it. For
example
저 노란색 집이 예뻐요 = That yellow (colored) house is pretty

그녀는 빨간색 셔츠를 입고 있어요 = She is wearing a red (colored) shirt
나는 하얀색 차를 사고 싶어 = I want to buy a white (colored) car
저는 보통 까만색 양복을 입어요 = I usually wear black (colored) suits
파란색 불이 제일 뜨거워요 = The blue (colored) flame is the hottest
Here, each of these “color” nouns is describing an upcoming noun without being an adjective.
This is a good time to teach you about another usage of the particle “~의”. “~의” can be attached to
words that commonly describe nouns (like adjectives) but are inherently not adjectives. What I mean
by this, is that you will often find words that are always (or very commonly) placed before nouns to
describe them, but are technically classified as adverbs or nouns (and hence, don’t end with “~다”
like a typical adjective). It is acceptable to attach the particle “~의” to these adjective-like adverbs or
nouns when they describe an upcoming noun. The meaning is the same when using “~의” or not
using it, but in speech it is more common to not use it.
For example, all of the above could be written as:
저 노란색의 집이 예뻐요 = That yellow (colored) house is pretty

그녀는 빨간색의 셔츠를 입고 있다 = She is wearing a red (colored) shirt
나는 하얀색의 차를 사고 싶어 = I want to buy a white (colored) car
저는 보통 까만색의 양복을 입어요 = I usually wear black (colored) suits
파란색의 불이 제일 뜨거워요 = The blue (colored) flame is the hottest
Although acceptable and understandable, it would be slightly more natural to not use ~의 with these
color words. Therefore, I didn’t make audio recordings for the sentences above using ~의. In other
situations with other (non-color) words, you will more commonly see ~의 attached to a noun or
adverb being used to describe a noun.

For example, a common word that ~의 is attached to is “대부분,” which translates to “most.” Just like
in English 대부분 is usually placed immediately before a noun to say “most (noun).” For example:
대부분 사람들… = Most people…

대부분 부부들… = Most couples…
대부분 독자들… = Most readers…
In each case, it is also possible to attach ~의. For example:
대부분의 사람들… = Most people…

대부분의 부부들… = Most couples…
대부분의 독자들… = Most readers…
These constructions can now be used in sentences where appropriate. For example:
대부분의 사람들은 아침밥을 먹지 않아요 = Most people don’t eat breakfast (rice breakfast)
대부분 사람들은 아침밥을 먹지 않아요 = Most people don’t eat breakfast (rice breakfast)
대부분의 부부들은 같은 침대에서 자요 = Most couples sleep in the same bed
대부분 부부들은 같은 침대에서 자요 = Most couples sleep in the same bed
대부분의 독자들은 그 작품을 안 좋아해요 = Most readers don’t like that work
대부분 독자들은 그 작품을 안 좋아해요 = Most readers don’t like that work
Using ~의 here is in effect the same reason why we can attach ~의 to counters when placed before
a noun (as you learned in Lesson 10). To jog your memory, in that lesson I said it was acceptable to
place a counter before a noun you are counting followed by the use of “~의.”
For example:
나는 네 개의 펜을 샀어 = I bought four pens

나는 두 개의 햄버거를 먹었어 = I ate two hamburgers
나는 어제 다섯 명의 친구를 만났어 = I met five friends yesterday
The number-counter pairs in the above sentences are effectively describing the upcoming noun. Of
course, the number-counter pairs are not adjectives, so ~의 can be used.
I dig deeper into the use of “의” and specifically how it relates to “적” (which was introduced
in Lesson 16) later in the lesson. I want you to be aware of this usage of ~의 and how it can be
attached to adverbs and nouns when describing an upcoming noun. However, the main purpose of
this lesson is to talk about color words and the ㅎ irregular, so I will continue with that now.
Often, the most common way to describe a color is to use a word that only exists as a noun and
does not have an adjective form. For example, look at the following:
초록색 = (the color) green

연두색 = (the color) light green
보라색 = (the color) purple
분홍색 = (the color) pink
갈색 = (the color) brown
회색 = (the color) grey
The above are all color words, but they do not have a respective adjective form (like 빨갛다 and
빨간색). In order to use these words to describe the color of something, they can be placed
immediately before a noun (naturally) without ~의 and (slightly unnaturally) with 의 just as described
earlier. For example:
저는 초록색(의) 펜으로 쓰고 싶어요 = I want to write this with a green pen

연두색(의) 바지를 샀어요 = I bought green pants
대부분(의) 여자들은 분홍색(의) 가방을 골랐어요 = Most girls chose the pink bag
남자 친구가 보라색(의) 꽃 한 송이를 샀어요 = My boyfriend bought a bunch of purple flowers
When adding “~아/어” (or any of its derivatives) to color words where the stem ends in ‘ㅎ,’ an
irregular conjugation applies. For now, the only situation you know where you would add ~아/어 (or a
derivative like ~았/었) is when conjugating using the honorifics introduced in Lesson 6. Note that
there are other times when you would have to add ~아/어 to words, you just haven’t learned about
them yet.
When adding ~아/어 to these words, the ㅎ is dropped and the final vowel changes to either ㅐ or ㅒ.
If the final vowel is ㅏ or ㅓ, it changes to ㅐ, and if the final vowel is ㅑ, it changes to ㅒ. For
example:
Word Word + ~아/어 Word + ~았/었어
노랗다 노래 노랬어
빨갛다 빨개 빨갰어
하얗다 하얘 하얬어
까맣다 까매 까맸어
파랗다 파래 파랬어
Here are some of these used in sentences:
불이 노래요 = The light is yellow

얼굴이 왜 빨개요? = Why is your face red?
유럽 사람의 피부는 하얘요 = European people’s skin is white
그 여자의 머리가 까매요 = That girl’s hair is black
저 남자의 눈이 진짜 파래요 = That man’s eyes are really blue
In each case, it would also be acceptable to use the noun form of each of the words above and
conjugate the sentence with 이다. For example:
불이 노란색이에요 = The light is (the color) yellow

얼굴이 왜 빨간색이에요? = Why is your face (the color) red
유럽 사람의 피부는 하얀색이에요 = European people’s skin is (the color white)
그 여자의 머리가 까만색이에요 = That girl’s hair is (the color) black
저 남자의 눈이 진짜 파란색이에요 = That man’s eyes are really (the color) blue
A more advanced Korean speaker (or a Korean person) could argue that the two sets of sentences
are not completely identical. Their meanings and translations could be exactly the same, but they
could have a slightly different nuance. For example, “얼굴이 왜 빨개요?” would be more about a face
being red as a result of it blushing, whereas “얼굴이 왜 빨간색이에요?” would be more about a face
that is actually red from something like paint. This nuance is very subtle and not something you need
to worry about as a beginner. Even as an advanced learner, I find it very hard to articulate this
difference into words. In a way, I find the difference between the two similar to “why is your face red?”
and “why is your face the color red?”
The words 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 are not colors, but they also follow the ㅎ irregular. I will talk
about those in the section below.
이렇다/그렇다/저렇다
이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 are all adjectives. Each word is essentially the same – the only difference
being the difference between 이, 그 and 저. Remember the difference between these?
이 means “this”
그 means “that” when you are referring to something in a previous sentence. For example: “I went to
Canada last week. At that time I forgot about my test that I had to write.”
저 means “that” when something is far from you.
이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 are very important and common in Korean, so let’s look at them one by
one.
.
이렇다
이렇다 means “like this,” but (along with 그렇다 and 저렇다) is rarely used in its dictionary form. It is
generally used in two ways: as an adjective and as an adverb:
As an Adjective: 이런
By adding ~ㄴ/은 to the stem of 이렇다 we get 이런, which means “this sort of/this kind of/this type
of.” For example:

이런 일은 위험하다 = This type of work is dangerous
이런 차는 너무 커요 = This type of car is too big
As an Adverb: 이렇게
By adding ~게 to the stem of 이렇다 we get 이렇게, which means “like this.”
저는 이렇게 하고 싶어요 = I want to do it like this
왜 이렇게 일찍 가요? = Why are you going so early (like this)?
이 일은 왜 이렇게 어려워요? = Why is this so hard (like this)?
You’ll notice that in the last two examples, the words “like this” in English don’t necessarily need to
be in the sentence. It is hard to fully explain in words, as this is something that you really just pick up
after a while when learning Korean. When Korean people ask a “why” question, they often stress
“why” by using 이렇게.
*Also notice the usage of “일” in the sentence above. Although the best translation of the word “일” is
“work” (in noun form), it is very common for Korean people to use “일” to represent some sort of task
or thing that somebody has to do (regardless of if we would call it “work” in English). I am reluctant to
show you the most common example of this being used because you haven’t learned the grammar
within it yet. Nonetheless, you will often see “저는 할 일이 있어요” which translates to “I have
something to do.” As of now, you haven’t learned how “할” is being used, but try to focus on the
usage of “일” in this sentence. The sentence is essentially saying “I have a task that I will do.” The
sentence above could also be written as “이것은 왜 이렇게 어려워요.”
그렇다
Now that you know about 이렇다, learning about 그렇다 is simple. Like 이렇다, 그렇다 is usually
used as an adjective or an adverb:
As an Adjective: 그런
By adding ~ㄴ/은 to the stem of 그렇다 we get 그런, which means “that sort of/that kind of/that type
of.” For example:

저는 그런 사람을 믿지 않아요 = I don’t trust that type of person/those types of people
저는 그런 것을 좋아하지 않아요 = I don’t like that type of thing
As an Adverb: 그렇게
By adding ~게 to the stem of 그렇다 we get 그렇게, which means “like that.”
저는 그렇게 생각하지 않아요 = I don’t think like that
저는 그렇게 운동하고 싶어요 = I want to exercise like that
저렇다
저렇다 can be used the same way as 이렇다 and 그렇다; as 저런 and 저렇게. All you need to do is
to keep in mind the differences between 이, 그 and 저.
As an adjective: 저런
저는 저런 여자를 좋아하지 않아요 = I don’t like that kind of girl
저는 저런 차를 사고 싶어요 = I want to buy that type of car
As an adverb: 저렇게
아빠는 왜 저렇게 말하고 있어요? = Why is dad talking like that?
저 사람이 왜 저렇게 걸어요? = Why is that person walking like that?
Just like our color words presented earlier in this lesson, when ~아/어 (or a derivative) is added to
이렇다, 그렇다 or 저렇다, an irregular conjugation occurs. Let’s look at this next.
이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 As Predicating Words

이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 can also be used as the predicating word (i.e. the end) of a sentence.
These are usually only seen in relatively simple sentences asking or indicating if something is “like
this/like that.” For example:
이 학교도 그렇지 않습니까? = Is this school not like that as well?

네, 그렇습니다 = Yes, that is correct (that is the way it is)
The most common way that you will see any of these words being used, especially for a beginner, is
in the following form:
왜 이래?
왜 그래?
왜 저래?
Notice that the same ㅎ irregular applies to the words above. That is, when adding ~아/어 (or one of
its derivatives), the ㅎ is dropped and the ㅓ changes to ㅐ.
In each case, the speaker is asking “Why are you like this/that?” This is very common in Korean
conversation, as it essentially is like saying “what’s wrong?” or “what’s the matter” or “what the ****
are you doing?”
그렇다 specifically is also commonly used by people to express their content/agreement with some
sort of statement or situation. For example:
Person 1: 내일 공원에 같이 가고 싶어요? = Do you want to go to the park together tomorrow?

Person 2: 그래요. 같이 가요 = Sure (like that is fine). Let’s go together.
Person 1: 제가 지금 갈 거예요 = I’m going to go now
Person 2: 그래요! = Sure (like that is fine)
Person 1: 저는 내일 회사에 못 와요 = Tomorrow, I can’t come to work
Person 2: 그래요! 월요일에 봐요! = Sure (like that is fine). See you on Monday!
In this same respect, it is often used as a question to express one’s “disbelief” or “shock.” In reality,
the speaker isn’t actually “shocked” or “in disbelief” but is merely showing his/her interest in the
conversation. This would be akin to using the word “Really?!” in English. For example:
Person 1: 저는 지난 주에 캐나다에 있었어요 = I was in Canada last week

Person 2: 그래요? 어디에 갔어요? = Really!? (It’s like that?) Where did you go?
Person 1: 나는 보통 고기를 안 먹어 = I usually don’t eat meat
Person 2: 그래? 왜 안 먹어? = Really? (It’s like that?) Why don’t you eat it?
Person 1: 이 물이 맛이 없어 = This water doesn’t taste good
Person 2: 그래? = Really? (It’s like that?)
Many other grammatical principles can be added to 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 but these haven’t
been introduced yet.
Specifically, you will find that many grammatical principles can attach to 그렇다 to have their
respective meaning combined with the meaning of 그렇다. These will all be introduced in future
lessons (where the grammatical principle is introduced), but here is a quick taste of what I am
referring to. I suggest browsing through this list just to get an idea of:
a) How versatile 그렇다 is

b) The general meaning of 그렇다
c) How this meaning can be applied to many, many other grammatical principles.
This list is by no means exhaustive, but rather a small taste of some of the concepts that you will be
learning in the next 100 lessons or so.
그렇다 + ㅁ/음 (Introduced in Lesson 29)

그럼 = “Yes, like that.”
그렇다 + ~ㄴ/은지 (Introduced in Lesson 30)
왜 그런지 몰라요 = “I don’t know why it is like that”
그렇다 + ~ㄹ/을 것 같다 (Introduced in Lesson 35)
그럴 것 같아요 = “It is probably like that”
그렇다 + ~아/어서 (Introduced Lesson 37)
그래서 = “It is like that, so…” (Therefore)
그렇다 + ~기 때문에 (Introduced in Lesson 38)
그렇기 때문에 = “It is like that, so…” (Therefore)
그렇다 + ~(으)면 (Introduced in Lesson 43)
그러면 = “If it is like that…”
그렇다 + ~지만 (Introduced in Lesson 47)
그렇지만 = “Even though it is like that”
그렇다 + ~았/었으면 좋겠다 (Introduced in Lesson 61)
그랬으면 좋겠다 = “It would be nice if it is like that”
그렇다 + ~ㄹ/을까? (Introduced in Lesson 63)
그럴까? = “Do you think it is like that?”
그렇다 + ~ㄴ/은데 (Introduced in Lesson 76 and 77)
그런데 = “It is like that… so…”
그렇다 + ~구나 (Introduced in Lesson 82)
그렇구나 = “Oh! It is like that”
그렇다 + ~네(요) (Introduced in Lesson 83)
그러네 = “Oh! It is like that”
그렇다 + ~지/죠 (Introduced in Lesson 93)
그렇죠 = Sure, yep, it is like that
At this point, I hope you can understand how 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 can be used, and their
general meanings. In addition, I hope you can understand how color words can be used in
sentences. Just below, I will continue the discussion of the use of ~의 and how it is used on words
where ~적 is commonly attached.
I have had some people ask me about the difference between using “의” on a word to describe a
noun (like 흰색의 차) and using “적” on a word to describe a noun. The grammar below is a little bit
advanced, but this is the lesson that it belongs in (as I am already discussing the purpose of “~의”
attached to nouns or adverbs to describe an upcoming noun). It might be good to glimpse over this,
and then come back to it later when you have a better understanding of Korean grammar.
As you will recall from Lesson 16, “적” can be added to words to change them into a type of
adjective as well. As I mentioned in Lesson 16, the addition of “적” to a noun causes the word to
change a little bit. It’s hard to say exactly how the word changes, because it is a little bit different for
every word. The examples that are given in the lesson are:
경제 = economy/economics
역사 = history
과학 = science
문화 = culture
개인 = individual/personal
개인적 = individual
Some other examples that you might want to jot down, but not memorize at this point because they
are quite advanced:
열정 = passion
열정적 = passionate
체계 = system
체계적 = systematic
획일 = standardization
획일적 = standardized
세계 = world
세계적 = global
Before I start, I want to first mention that the “의” that we are talking about here is not the possessive
particle that is discussed in Lesson 3. Rather, it is a particle that is added to a word that is inherently
not an adjective, but allows it to describe an upcoming noun (like an adjective).
Most of the time, adding “적” literally changes the translation of the word. As you can see in the list
above, the word changes when “적” is added. For example, from “passion” to “passionate”. However,
when just “의” is added to the word, the translation would not change – and using “noun+의” only
makes sense if that word (the original word) can actually act as an adjective (without being an
adjective) to begin with.
The easiest examples to start with are ones that work with “적” but not with “의”. For example:
열정 means “passion.” I can say things like:

과학에 대한 학생의 열정은 놀라워요 = The student’s passion for science is surprising
“적” can be added to mean “passionate”. For example:

그는 열정적인 사람이다 = He is a passionate man
However, simply adding “의” to the noun (열정) does not change it from “passion” to “passionate”.
The meaning still stays as “passion”. Using this in a sentence would yield:
그는 열정의 사람이다 = He is a passion man – which doesn’t make sense
In the same way “과학” means “science”

과학적 means “scientific”
과학의 still means “science”
I can use “과학적” to describe a noun that would be natural being described by “scientific”. For
example:
과학적인 증거 = scientific proof
However, “과학의 증거” literally translates to “science proof” which wouldn’t sound right.
Now, just like everything in life, there are some exceptions. Specifically, the word “개인” (without the
use of “적” or “의” actually means personal. Therefore, just like how the word “대부분(의)” (most)
isn’t actually an adjective but feels like an adjective, “개인의” can be placed before a noun to
describe it.
“개인적” also works, as it also means “personal.”
My advice is to learn words with “적” as separate words. Don’t try to think of words with “적” as a
noun followed by a grammatical principle, but try to think of them as their own words with their own
translation. From what I can see – there are some words where the “-적” version of the word is the
same as the non-적 version of the word. In these cases, it appears that both “의” and “적” can be
used.
Lesson 24: Before, After, Since, Within

(전/후/이래로/이내)
Vocabulary
Nouns:
설탕 = sugar
경찰관 = policeman
경찰서 = police station
구름 = cloud
경쟁 = competition
경쟁자 = competitors
피 = blood
구두 = shoes, boots
목욕 = bath
번호 = number
전화번호 = phone number
열쇠 = key
수박 = watermelon
과자 = candy, cookies, snacks
양복 = suit
Verbs:
날다 = to fly
걷히다 = to clear up (in weather)
구경하다 = to sight see
뒤처지다 = to fall behind
앞지르다 = to pass, to overtake
감독하다 = to supervise
느끼다 = to feel
치우다 = to erase, to remove, to wipe off
두다 = to put, to set, to place something
Passive Verbs:
느껴지다 = to be felt
Adjectives:
달다 = to be sweet
깊다 = to be deep
조용하다 = to be quiet
뜨겁다 = to be hot
차갑다 = to be cold
친절하다 = to be nice, to be kind
전 = before/ago
직전 = just before
후 = after/later
직후 = right after
이래 = since
잠시 = a moment
잠깐 = a short time
이내 = within
Introduction
In Lesson 11, you learned a wide variety of different “time” words that you can use in sentences. In
that lesson, I said that there were two more words that were very important when talking about time
(전 and 후). In that lesson, I said that I would teach you those two words sometime later. Well, this is
now later.
In this lesson, you will learn how to use the words 전 and 후 as well as some other similar words.
Let’s get started:

.
Before/Ago (전)
The word ‘전’ translates to ‘before’ or ‘ago’ depending on where it is used. When placed after any
indication of time (2 seconds, 5 minutes, 10 hours, 4 days, 3 weeks, 2 years, etc…) it has the
meaning of “ago.” For example:
2 초 전에 = 2 seconds ago
5 분 전에 = 5 minutes ago
열 시간 전에 = 10 hours ago*
4 일 전에 = 4 days ago
3 주 전에 = 3 weeks ago
2 년 전에 = 2 years ago
*I typically write the word instead of the numeral when referring to an hour. To see why, check
out Lesson 10 and11.
Notice that ‘에’ gets added to ‘전’ because it is referring to a time.
You can now use those words in sentences very intuitively:
저는 2 주 전에 남동생을 만났어요 = I met my brother 2 weeks ago

구름은 5 분 전에 걷혔어요 = The clouds cleared up 5 minutes ago
When ‘전’ is placed after a verb, it translates to “before.” When you want to use 전 like this, you must
add ~기 to the verb stem of the preceding verb:
제가 먹기 전에 = before I ate
제가 가기 전에 = before I go
제가 오기 전에 = before I come
A few very important things before I say anything else:

There is a reason why ~기 is added to the stem of a verb. However, that grammar is a little bit too
difficult for you right now. If I were to describe the reason for adding ~기 to the stem of a verb, it
would take an entire lesson. This will be discussed in Lesson 29.

Another thing. You can essentially add any sentence to the (verb-stem)~기 전에 grammatical form
and it will have the meaning of “before (this happened).” You could say something like “the country
of Canada becomes a sovereign state 기 전에” and it would have the meaning of “before Canada
became a sovereign state”… Of course, that is a terrible example because in English the verb
doesn’t come at the end of the sentence.
This is also your first experience in creating sentences in Korean with two clauses. What do I mean
by this?
Every sentence you have learned how to read/write/say to this point has only been one clause. One
clause will only have one subject, one object, and one predicating verb or adjective. To show you
what I mean, the following sentences have their subjects colored red, objects colored blue, and
predicating verbs or adjectives colored green(adverbs and other parts of the sentences are not
colored):
나는 너를 사랑해 = I love you
아버지는 언제 왔어요? = When did dad come?
저와 엄마는 밥을 같이 먹었어요 = Mom and I ate (rice)
그 여자들은 예뻐요 = Those girls are pretty
저는 똑똑한 여자들만 좋아해요 = I only like smart girls
However, there are grammatical principles (in English and Korean) that allow us to create more than
one clause. Each clause is able to have a subject, object and also a verb/adjective. Creating a
sentence with more than one clause could therefore have more than one subject, object or
verb/adjective. For example:
When I go home, my mom will be waiting for me

When my mother ate a hotdog, I ate a hamburger
Before I eat, I want to wash my hands
After I saw the movie, my friend called me
I don’t want to meet him because he isn’t nice
The grammatical rules of a Korean sentence with two (or more) clauses are similar those with only
one clause. However, when a sentence has two (or more) clauses, the particle ~는/은 cannot be
placed on the subject of both clauses. Instead, it can only be attached to the subject of the main
clause of the sentence.
The main clause of a sentence is the clause that is expressing the main idea of the sentence. One
way to find the non-main clause (referred to as the “sub-clause” for the remainder of this lesson) is
by looking for the part of the sentence that tells us when/where/why/how the main idea is happening.
For example:
When I go home, my mom will be waiting for me

– Main clause: My mom will be waiting for me
– When will this happen: When I go home
When my mother ate a hotdog, I ate a hamburger
– Main clause: I ate a hamburger
– When will this happen: When my mother ate a hotdog
Before I eat, I want to wash my hands
– Main clause: I want to wash my hands
– When did this happen: Before I eat
After I saw the movie, my friend called me
– Main clause: My friend called me
– When will this happen: After I saw the movie
I don’t want to meet him because he isn’t nice
– Main clause: I don’t want to meet him
– Why does this happen: because he isn’t nice
Notice that if you eliminate the sub-clause, the main clause still makes sense. However, if you
eliminate the main clause, you are left with an incomplete sentence.
Let’s go back to ~기 전에 and see how these rules apply. In the following sentence:
“Before my mom came, I ate rice”
Which clause is the main clause? Which clause is the sub-clause?

“I ate rice” is the main idea of the sentence. It is a perfect sentence by itself.
“Before my mom came” describes when the action in the main clause takes place. It is also an
incomplete sentence by itself.
Therefore, this sentence in Korean can be written as:
엄마가 오기 전에 나는 밥을 먹었어 = Before my mom came, I ate (rice)
I am going to talk about how the particles ~는/은 and ~이/가 can be used in these sentences. I’m
going to separate this discussion with a line before and after it in an attempt to organize it a little bit.
———————————————————————-
Notice that ~는/은 is attached to the subject of the main clause of the sentence. The reverse would
be incorrect. For example:

엄마는 오기 전에 내가 밥을 먹었어 – incorrect
Placing ~는/은 on both subjects would also be incorrect:

엄마는 오기 전에 나는 밥을 먹었어 – incorrect
However, placing ~이/가 on both subjects is acceptable. That is, it is not necessary to place ~는/은
on the subject of the main clause of the sentence, just like how (as you learned in Lesson 2) it is not
necessary to place ~은/는 on the subject of the following sentence:
고양이가 집 뒤에 있어요 = The cat is behind the house
Placing ~는/은 on the subject of the main clause of a multi-clause sentence has the same effect of
adding ~는/은 to the subject of a sentence with one clause. That is, it could indicate that something
is being compared with something else. It could also have the exact same meaning as a sentence
with “~이/가” used as the subject particles. In both situations, the context is the only thing that can
determine if there is a subtle difference in meaning. For example:

친구가 오기 전에 저는 은행에 갔어요 = Before my friend came, I went to the bank, or
친구가 오기 전에 제가 은행에 갔어요 = Before my friend came, I went to the bank
There could be a difference between these two sentences. If the context allowed for it, the feeling is
that “I” is being compared to another noun. For example, “before your friend came, (maybe) your
girlfriend stayed home but you (I) went to the bank.”
Sometimes, the use of “~는/은” as the subject particle creates a different translation in English,
although the end result of the sentence is the same. Notice the difference between the following
possible English translations:
친구가 오기 전에 저는 은행에 갔어요 = Before my friend came, I was the person who went to the
bank (compared to my girlfriend who stayed home)
친구가 오기 전에 제가 은행에 갔어요 = Before my friend came, I went to the bank
If you are unsure of this distinction between ~은/는 and ~이/가 I encourage you to re-read the
distinction made inLesson 2.

Almost all of the time, when you are making the sub-clause to go before “~전에,” ~이/가 will be
attached to the subject of that clause. The only time this isn’t the case is when the subject
of both clauses is the same. In these cases, it is acceptable to place “~는/은” on the subject of the
first clause, and eliminate it from the second clause. For example:
나는 오기 전에 밥을 먹었어 = Before I came, I ate
Instead of:
내가 오기 전에 나는 밥을 먹었어 = Before I came, I ate
Remember that Korean people love shortening their sentences. Every chance they get, they want to
eliminate something from their sentences. So, instead of saying “내가… 나는…” you only need to
say “I” once.
———————————————————————-
Also notice that (like a lot of things in Korean), no indication of tense is made before ~기 전에.
Instead, the tense is determined by the conjugation of the main clause:
엄마가 오기 전에 나는 먹었어 = Before mom came, I ate

엄마가 오기 전에 나는 먹을 거야 = Before mom comes, I will eat
Many more examples of ~기 전에:
한국에 오기 전에 저는 한국어를 배웠어요 = I learned Korean before I came to Korea
수박을 먹기 전에 사과를 먹었어요 = Before I ate a watermelon I ate an apple
양복을 입기 전에 목욕을 했어요 = Before putting on the suit I took a bath
구름이 걷히기 전에 비가 왔어요 = Before the clouds cleared it rained
집에서 나가기 전에 방을 치웠어요 = Before leaving the house I cleaned my room
제가 아내와 결혼하기 전에 우리는 2 년 동안 사귀었어요 = Before marrying my wife, we went
out/dated for 2 years
.
.
After/Later (후)
The word ‘후’ translates to ‘after’ or ‘later/from now’ depending on how it is used in Korean
sentences. When placed after any indication of time (2 seconds, 5 minutes, 10 hours, 4 days, 3
weeks, 2 years, etc…) it has the meaning of “later/from now:” For example:
2 초 후에 = 2 seconds later/from now

5 분 후에 = 5 minutes later/from now
열 시간 후에 = 10 hours later/from now*
4 일 후에 = 4 days later/from now
3 주 후에 = 3 weeks later/from now
2 년 후에 = 2 years later/from now
*I typically write the word instead of the numeral when referring to an hour. To see why, check
out Lesson 10 and11.
You can use these sentences intuitively just like sentences with “전.” For example:
두 시간 후에 갈 거예요 = I will go 2 hours from now

수업은 2 분 후에 끝날 거예요 = Class will finish 2 minutes from now
When ‘후’ is placed after a verb, it has the meaning of “after.” You learned earlier in this lesson that
you must add ~기 to the stem of a verb to make “~기 전에.” When using “후” after a verb, you do not
add ~기 to the stem of the word. Instead, you must add ~ㄴ/은 to the stem of the verb. ~은 gets
added to a stem where the final syllable ends in a consonant. ~ㄴ gets added directly to stems
ending in a vowel. For example:
내가 먹은 후에 = After I eat
내가 간 후에 = After I go
These can now go into sentences like “~기 전에”
숙제가 끝난 후에 나는 집에 갈 거예요 = After my homework is finished, I will go home

밥을 먹은 후에 친구를 만났어요 = After I ate I met a friend
과자를 많이 먹은 후에 배가 아팠어요 = After eating a lot of candy/snacks, my stomach was sore
구두를 신은 후에 의자에서 일어났어요 = After putting on my boots, I got up from the chair
방을 치운 후에 밖에 나갔어요 = After cleaning up my room, I went outside
It is also possible to substitute the word 다음 (which you learned about in Lesson 11) for 후 to create
the same meaning. For example:

숙제가 끝난 다음에 나는 집에 갈 거예요 = After my homework is finished, I will go home
밥을 먹은 다음에 친구를 만났어요 = After I ate I met a friend
과자를 많이 먹은 다음에 배가 아팠어요 = After eating a lot of candy/snacks, my stomach was sore
구두를 신은 다음에 의자에서 일어났어요 = After putting on my boots, I got up from the chair
방을 치운 다음에 밖에 나갔어요 = After cleaning up my room, I went outside
You can see in the vocabulary list that there are also these words:
직전 = just before
직후 = right after
These two can be used just like 전 and 후 respectively – the difference being that the addition of “직”
emphasizes that something was done immediately before or after the action or indication of time. For
example:
아들이 저녁 먹기 직전에 과자를 먹었어요 = Right before having dinner, he (the son) ate
candy/snacks
경찰관이 오기 직전에 그 사람이 갔어요 = That person left right before the police came
양복을 입은 직후에 밖에 나갔어요 = Right after I put on the suit, I went outside
전화번호를 받은 직후에 잃어버렸어요 = Right after I got his phone number, I lost it
One quick thing. In a lot of the example sentences above, I placed the ~기 전에 or ~ㄴ/은 후에
clauses before the main clause of the sentence. It is important to recognize something here – what
we are essentially doing is creating a unit that gives us an indication of time. For example:
친구가 오기 전에 저는 은행에 갔어요 = Before my friend came, I went to the bank
“친구가 오기 전에” can just be seen as one unit that can be placed elsewhere in a sentence, just like
other adverbs that give us an indication of time. For example:
저는 (at some time) 은행에 갔어요 =I went to the bank (at some time)
저는 (어제) 은행에 갔어요 = I went to the bank (yesterday)
저는 (친구가 오기 전에) 은행에 갔어요 = I went to the bank (before my friend came)
Therefore, although I often place this indication of time before the clause, it doesn’t always need to
be there, and it is the discretion of the speaker that will decide exactly where to place it. Being able
to create a single unit from a clause like this is a quick introduction to what you will begin learning
in Lesson 26 – where you will be able to manipulate entire clauses to describe nouns in the middle
of sentences.
Since: ~ㄴ/은 이래로
The word “since” in Korean (이래로) can be used in place of “후” in ~ㄴ/은 후에 to have the meaning
of “since I…”:
한국에 온 이래로 한국어를 배우고 있어요 = Since coming to Korea, I have been learning Korean
열심히 공부한 이래로 실력은 빨리 늘었어요 = Since studying hard, my skills have been quickly
increasing
Those two sentences are perfectly correct, but you should know that Korean people rarely use the
word 이래로. You can use it, and everybody will understand what you mean (they will probably be
impressed because 이래로 is a difficult word). Instead, it is more common for Korean people to use
~ㄴ/은 후에 to have the meaning of “since.” For example:
한국에 온 이래로 한국어를 배우고 있어요.. is better said like this:

한국에 온 후에 한국어를 배우고 있어요 = After coming to Korea, I have been learning Korean
열심히 공부한 이래로 실력은 빨리 늘었어요… is better said like this:
열심히 공부한 후에 실력은 빨리 늘었어요 = After studying hard, my skills have been quickly
increasing
Within/inside (안/이내)
Two other words that you can use in similar situations as 전 and 후 are 안 and 이내. You already
know the word “안” can be used in sentences to mean “inside:”
나는 집 안에 있다 = I am inside the house
If 안/이내 are placed after an indication of time, they have the meaning of “within” that time period.
For example:
나는 5 년 이내에 외국어 다섯 개를 배우고 싶어 = I want to learn five languages within 5 years

나는 5 년 안에 외국어 다섯 개를 배우고 싶어 = I want to learn five languages within 5 years
우리는 1 년 이내 결혼할 거예요 = We will get married within one year
우리는 1 년 안에 결혼할 거예요 = We will get married within one year
This was a bit of an easy lesson as well! This lesson and the one before it were pretty easy – but
don’t worry – you are almost at Unit 2, and the lessons in that unit will be really hard!
Lesson 25: Anybody, Everybody,
Somebody, Nobody, etc.
Vocabulary
The following words are kept in the order below because this lesson presents them in that order:
모든 = every
모든 것 = everything
어디나 = everywhere
언제나 = every time
누구나 = everyone
뭔가 = something
어딘가 = somewhere
언젠가 = sometime, some day
누군가 = somebody
아무나 = anybody
아무 거나 = anything
아무 데나 = anywhere
아무 때나 = anytime
아무도 = nobody
아무 것도 = nothing
아무 데도 = nowhere
마다 = each
모두 = all
다 = all
데 = place
언제든지 = anytime
Nouns:
젓가락 = chopsticks
혀 = tongue
지갑 = wallet, purse
기숙사 = dorm
주소 = address
메뉴 = menu
아시아 = Asia
동남아시아 = south east Asia
눈물 = tears
회의 = meeting, conference
고향 = hometown
휴일 = holiday
아기/애기 = baby, infant
Verbs:
산책하다 = to go for a walk
사귀다 = to go out with, to date
Adjectives:
무관심하다 = to be indifferent
심하다 = to be severe, to be extreme
하루 종일 = all day long
예전 = old days, past
관심이 있다 = to be interested in
이때 = at this moment
Introduction
Once again, the vocabulary list of this lesson is the lesson. While all slightly similar, these words are
very difficult to understand on their own, so I dedicated an entire lesson to making you understand
them. Here, you will learn how to say:
Every-
(everybody, every time, everywhere, etc…)
Any-
(anybody, anytime, anywhere, etc…)
Some-
(somebody, sometime, somewhere, etc…)
No-
(nobody, nowhere, nothing)
I left spaces in the vocabulary list between different sets of these words (for no reason other than to
make it organized).
Everything/Everywhere/Every time/Everyone
Everything/All
모든
The most common way to say “every _____” is to place the word ‘모든’ before a noun. 모든 looks,
sounds, and acts like an adjective, but it can not be used to predicate a clause or sentence. This
means that you won’t see the word “모든” at the end of a sentence, just like in English. For example,
you can’t say something like:
He is every…
Even though 모든 ends in ~ㄴ (which is the same as all adjectives when placed immediately before
a noun to describe them – 예쁜, 아름다운, 똑똑한), the dictionary form of 모드다 does not exist.
However, as I mentioned, (like an adjective), “모든” can be placed before a noun. If you place “모든”
before a noun, it has the meaning of “every _____.” For example:
모든 것 = everything
모든 사람 = all people/every person
모든 과일 = all fruits/every fruit
모든 선생님 = all teachers/every teacher
Those can now go in sentences very easily:
모든 아시아 사람들은 젓가락을 잘 쓴다 = All Asian people use chopsticks well

모든 학생들은 하루 종일 잤어 = All students slept all day
다
Another possible word to use in similar situations is 다. 다 is used as an adverb in sentences to
indicate that “all” of something is done.
One way this is done is to use it in a sentence with an object to indicate that some action was
completed without leaving anything behind. For example:
저는 라면을 다 먹었어요 = I ate all the ramen

저는 숙제를 다 했어요 = I did all of my homework
저는 소설을 다 읽었어요 = I read the whole book – or – I read all the books
저는 월급을 이미 다 썼어요 = I already spent all of my paycheque
In these situations using “모든” and “다” create a slightly different meaning. ‘다’ is more about doing
one action to completion and leaving nothing behind. 모든 is indicating that the action was
performed on all possible nouns after “모든”. For example, if I say:
저는 라면을 다 먹었어요 = I ate all of the ramen

In this sentence, I am indicating that I have completed the action of “eating ramen” and nothing was
left behind. In other words, there is no ramen left in my bowl because I ate it all.
However, in this sentence:
저는 모든 라면을 먹었어요 = I ate every ramen
This sentence is a little bit ambiguous and a little but unnatural because in most situations you
wouldn’t say this. However, bear with me as I use it to explain the difference in nuance. In this
situation, there might have been many different types of ramen at my house. I would use this
sentence to indicate that I ate/tried “every one of them.” It is ambiguous as to whether or not I
finished eating them, which means that there could still be some left – either in my bowl or in the
cupboard.
If you did actually eat every one of them and finished all of the ramen in your house, it would be
more natural to use “저는 라면을 다 먹었어요” because the action was completed and nothing was
left behind.
This is why I provided two translations for this sentence:
저는 소설을 다 읽었어요 = I read the whole book

저는 소설을 다 읽었어요 = I read all the books
Depending on the situation, that sentence could be translated to either of those English translations.
In the first sentence, the action of ‘reading’ was completed on the subject (one book) without leaving
any pages behind within that book. In the second sentence, the action of ‘reading’ was completed on
the subject (more than one book) without leaving any pages behind in any of those books.
However, by just saying:
저는 모든 소설을 읽었어요
I am more indicating that I have tried reading every book, but there is no indication on if I have
finished reading any of them.
다 can also be used to indicate that all the members/things that represent a subject do some action
(or are some adjective). For example:
사람들이 다 왔어요 = All the people have come

사람들이 다 죽었어요 = All the people died
부모님은 다 그래요 = All parents are like that
남자들은 다 게을러요 = All men are lazy
학생들은 다 공부하고 있어요 = All of the students are studying
애기들이 다 낮잠 자고 있어요 = All the babies are taking a nap
In these cases, I have noticed that there is effectively no difference between using 다 or 모든. For
example, each of these sentences would have the same meaning:
모든 사람들이 왔어요 = All the people have come

모든 사람들이 죽었어요 = All the people died
모든 부모님은 그래요 = All parents are like that
모든 남자들은 게을러요 = All men are lazy
모든 학생들은 공부하고 있어요 = All of the students are studying
모든 애기들이 낮잠을 자고 있어요 = All the babies are taking a nap
The only difference I can feel is that ‘모든’ is considering the subjects (although groups of people)
almost as unique individuals/things within the group, whereas ‘다’ is describing the subjects a groups.
At this point, this is not something you need to worry about. Understanding the precise nuance is
more about feeling (which you will develop with time).
The similarities in these usages allow them to be used in the same sentence. For example:
모든 사람들이 다 왔어요 = All the people have come

모든 사람들이 다 죽었어요 = All the people died
모든 부모님은 다 그래요 = All parents are like that
모든 남자들은 다 게을러요 = All men are lazy
모든 학생들은 다 공부하고 있어요 = All of the students are studying
모든 애기들이 다 낮잠 자고 있어요 = All the babies are taking a nap
All of these can also be used in negative sentences, for example:
사람들이 다 안 왔어요 = Not all the people have come

저는 라면을 다 안 먹었어요 = I didn’t eat all of the ramen
저는 숙제를 다 하지 못했어요 = I couldn’t do all of my homework
다 can also be used as a noun. In this form, it is usually placed before 이다 or 아니다 to indicate that
something is (or isn’t) “all.” For example:
그게 다야? = Is that all

이게 다가 아니야 = This isn’t all
모두
There is also another word that you should be aware of: “모두,” which has the meaning of “all.” It can
generally be used in the following ways:
As an adverb
In these cases, 모두 essentially has the same meaning as “다.” For example:
선생님들은 모두 똑똑해요 = All teachers are smart, which could also be written as:
선생님들은 다 똑똑해요 = All teachers are smart, or
모든 선생님들은 똑똑해요 = Every teacher is smart
In this adverb form, 다 can also be placed after 모두 in the same sentence. For example:
선생님들은 모두 다 똑똑해요 = All teachers are smart
In this adverb form, you would not see particles attached to it.
As a (pro)noun
In these cases 모두 typically means “everybody” or “everything.” Particles are usually attached to it.
For example:
모두가 이해했어요 = Everybody understood
모두가 산책하고 있어요 = Everybody is going for a walk
Here’s the part that is a bit confusing. Often times when the sentence structure is just Subject – 모두
– Verb, the ~를 is omitted from 모두. For example:
나는 모두를 이해했어 would be better said as:

나는 모두 이해했어 = I understood everything
And
저는 모두를 먹고 싶어요 would be better said as:

저는 모두 먹고 싶어요 = I want to eat everything
It took me a long time to come to this conclusion, but my explanation as to why this is done is
because in these cases 모두 is acting as an adverb. Therefore, it is not so much that the ~를 is
being omitted, but rather that the 모두 is serving a different function (and the sentence ends up
having the same meaning anyways).
Just like how you would not see ~를 attached to 다 in the following sentences:
나는 다 이해했어 = I understood everything
저는 다 먹고 싶어요 = I want to eat everything
Often times a word that represents a group of people is placed before 모두. In these cases, ~를 is
usually attached to 모두. For example:
저는 가족 모두를 사랑해요 = I love all of my family

저는 학생 모두를 가르쳤어요 = I taught all of the students
The same structure works when the group of people is the subject of a sentence. For example:
학생 모두가 기숙사로 갔어요 = All of the students went to the dorm

가족 모두가 고향에 갔어요 = All of the/my family went to the/our hometown
선생님 모두가 회의에 갔어요 = All of the teachers went to a meeting
Other particles can be attached to it as well, for example:
저는 선물을 모두에게 주었어요 = I gave a present to everybody
Everywhere/Every time/Everyone
~나 can be added to the words ‘where,’ ‘when,’ and ‘who’ to mean ‘everywhere,’ ‘every time,’ and
‘everyone.’ Particles are usually not added to these words. For example:
어디 = where
어디나 = everywhere
나는 한국에서 어디나 여행하고 싶어 = I (would) want to travel everywhere in Korea

우리는 동남아시아에 어디나 갈 거예요 = We will go everywhere in South East Asia
밥은 어디나 맛이 똑같아요 = Rice tastes the same everywhere
언제 = when
언제나 = every time/always
그녀는 언제나 늦게 와요 = She comes late every time
저는 언제나 똑같은 메뉴를 먹어요 = I always eat the same menu
저는 언제나 똑같은 시간에 일어나요 = I always wake up at the same time
누구 = who
누구나 = everyone
누구나 그 여자를 알아요 = Everybody knows that girl

누구나 우리 애기를 보고 싶어요 = Everybody wants to see our baby
누구나 한국을 좋아해요 = Everybody likes Korea
.
Something/Somewhere/Sometime/Somebody
~ㄴ가 can be added to the words ‘what,’ ‘where,’ ‘when,’ and ‘who’ to mean ‘something,’
‘somewhere,’ ‘sometime,’ and ‘somebody.’ For example:
뭐 = what
뭔가 = something
The subject and object particles in general can be omitted from any sentence (although I don’t
suggest omitting particles until you have a very deep understanding of Korean), but they seem to be
more commonly omitted from these types of sentences. Many examples:
나는 방금 뭔가(를) 봤어 = I just saw something a minute ago

등에 뭔가(가) 있어요 = There is something on your back
등에 뭔가(가) 있나요? = Is there something on my back?
저는 팔에 뭔가(가)느껴져요 = I feel something on my arm
저는 뭔가(를) 먹고 싶어요 = I want to eat something
저는 뭔가(를) 말하고 싶어요 = I want to say something
어디 = where
어딘가 = somewhere
By the nature of the word “somewhere,” you are most likely to use the particles ~에 or ~에서 in these
sentences. It would be acceptable to omit the particle ~에 from 어딘가 but less acceptable to omit
the particle ~에서. Many examples:
열쇠를 어딘가(에) 뒀어 = I left my keys somewhere

전쟁이 아시아 어딘가에서 났어요 = A war broke out somewhere in Asia
피가 어딘가에서 나오고 있어요 = Blood is coming out of somewhere
저는 그릇을 어딘가(에) 두었어요 = I put the bowl in some place
선생님들이 회의를 어딘가에서 하고 있어요 = The teachers are having a meeting somewhere
저는 휴일에 어딘가에 가고 싶어요 = I want to go somewhere on the holiday
저는 어딘가에서 커피를 마시고 싶어요 = I want to drink a cup of coffee somewhere
언제 = when
언젠가 = sometime/someday
~에 is typically not attached to 언젠가. Many examples:
그 날이 언젠가 올 거예요 = The day will come sometime

구름이 언젠가 걷힐 거예요 = The clouds will clear eventually/sometime
저는 언젠가 경찰관이 되고 싶어요 = I want to become a police officer someday
저는 언젠가 중국어도 배우고 싶어요 = I want to learn Chinese as well some day
저는 언젠가 고향에 돌아가고 싶어요 = I want to return (go back) to my hometown some day
When I first learned about this word, I wondered if particles like ~까지 or ~부터 could be attached to
it because 언젠가 represents a place. I kept bugging Korean people to try to make me example
sentences of these particles attached to 언젠가 and they always came up with nothing. I realized
that in both English and Korean, it isn’t logical to make sentences with “until somewhere” or “from
somewhere.”
누구 = who
누군가 = somebody
누군가(는) 너를 찾고 있어 = Somebody is looking for you

저는 누군가의 열쇠를 찾았어요 = I found somebody’s keys
경찰관들은 누군가와 얘기하고 있어요 = The policemen are talking with somebody
누군가가 지갑을 잃어버렸어요 = Somebody lost their wallet
누군가가 그 파일을 저에게 보냈어요 = Somebody sent that file to me
In Lesson 22, you learned about using 어느 in sentences. Another usage of 어느 is to reference a
vague place or point in time. I am including this explanation in this section of the lesson because of
the similarities with the sentences above.
You would often see this type of thing in stories, poetry or news reports where the specific location
does not need to be given. This would be similar to something like this at a start of a story in English:
A long time ago in a far-away castle, or

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away
In this usage, 어느 is commonly placed before a broad indication of time or place. For example:
어느 날 = some day (an ambiguous day)

어느 밤 = some night (an ambiguous night)
어느 겨울 = some winter (an ambiguous winter)
어느 여름 = some summer (an ambiguous summer)
어느 마을 = some village (an ambiguous summer)
어느 시장 = some market (an ambiguous summer)
Here, the person speaking/writing this way because he/she does not need to specifically reference
the time. Some example sentence:
어느 겨울 꽃이 다 사라졌다 = Some winter, all the flowers disappeared

어느 마을에서 애기 두 명이 태어났다 = Two babies were born in some village
그 다음 날, 할머니가 어느 시장을 구경하고 있었다 = The next day, the grandmother was browsing
around some market
Again, like I said, you would most likely see these types of sentences used in stories, often setting
up the scenario or something within a book.
It is also possible to use a question word to refer to an ambiguous time or place. This is most
commonly done with the following words:
어디
Person 1: 엄마가 집에 있어? = Is mom at home
Person 2: 아니요. 어디 갔어. = No, she went somewhere
뭐
우리가 이미 뭐 먹었어요 = We already ate something
누구
나는 내일 누구 만날 거야 = Tomorrow I’m going to meet somebody
Using these words like this is quite advanced, and is not something I learned until a few years of
exposure with Korean. What makes these usages even more confusing is that you can use these
words in sentences when you are asking a question. For example:
뭐 먹었어요? Could mean both:

– What did you eat? or
– Did you eat something?
어디 갔어요? Could mean both:

– Where did you go? or
– Did you go somewhere
누구(를) 만났어요? Could mean both:

– Who did you meet? Or
– Did you meet somebody
Distinguishing them, believe it or not, can be done quite easily if you train your ear correctly. When
using “뭐, 어디 or 누구” as the question word in the sentence, the stress of the sentence is on the
question word itself. Play close attention to the audio in the following examples:
뭐 먹었어요? = What did you eat?

어디 갔어요? = Where did you go?
누구 만났어요? = Who did you meet?
When using “뭐, 어디 or 누구” to refer to an ambiguous thing, place or person, the stress of the
sentence is on the verb. Again, play close attention to the audio in the following examples, and
specifically how they differ from the examples above:
뭐 먹었어요? = Did you eat something?

어디 갔어요? = Did you go somewhere?
누구 만났어요? = Did you meet somebody?
As I mentioned however, this is quite advanced. You might not be able to hear the difference at this
stage in your learning, but it is good to be aware of as you continue to progress through your studies.
.
.
아무
Anybody/Nobody
아무 is a pronoun that refers to “any” person. When using it in a sentence, the speaker is indicating
the person he/she is referring to is not a specific “set” person, but could actually be “anybody.”
It is most commonly used with ~나 attached to it. This particle (when attached to other nouns as you
will learn inLesson 58) often indicates the same indifference meaning that “아무” itself has.
When used together, it can almost be seen as one unit that means “anybody.” As ~나 is actually a
particle in itself, when used as the subject or object of a sentence, particles ~는 or ~가 are not
usually doubled up on top of ~나. For example:
아무나 그 책을 좋아할 거예요 = Anybody will/would like that book

이렇게 좋은 학교에서는 아무나 공부를 잘 할 거예요 = Anybody can study well at this school
However, particles can be added before ~나 if the word being used has other functions within a
sentence (other than the subject or object). Because 아무 refers to a person in this case, the most
common particles you would see here are particles meaning “to” (~에게/한테) and “with” (~와/하고).
For example:
나는 아무와나 사귀고 싶어 = I want to go out with anybody

저는 이 선물을 아무에게나 주고 싶어요 = I want to give this present to anybody
저는 아무하고나 축구를 하고 싶어요 = I want to play soccer with anybody
When ~도 replaces ~나 in these cases, we get the opposite meaning. 아무도 can be used as the
subject or object of a sentence to mean “nobody.” Just like 아무나, particles are not usually attached
to 아무도 as “~도” is actually the particle being used.
When using 아무도, the sentence must be conjugated in a negative way or end with some negative
word like 없다. This is counter intuitive for English speakers – because it makes us think we are
saying a double negative. For example, the following sentence:
집에 아무도 있어요 looks like it should mean “there is nobody at home.” However, as I said, a
sentence with “아무도” should end in a negative way. Therefore, this is correct:
집에 아무도 없어요 = There is nobody at home/There isn’t anybody at home
Because of the double negative in the Korean version, this creates a confusing translation for the
English version. In the English version, we can usually say either “anybody” with a negative
conjugation, or “nobody” with a positive conjugation.
For example:
저는 아무도 못 봤어요 = I didn’t see anybody/I saw nobody
저는 아무도 만나고 싶지 않아요 = I don’t want to meet anybody/I want to meet nobody
아무도 집에 가지 않았어요 = Nobody went home
아무도 나를 좋아하지 않아 = Nobody likes me
Particles can be added before ~도 if the word being used has other functions within a sentence
(other than the subject or object). Because 아무 refers to a person in this case, the most common
particles you would see here are particles meaning “to” (~에게/한테) and “with” (~와/하고). For
example:
저는 그 말을 아무에게도 안 했어요 = I didn’t say that to anybody/I said that to nobody

저는 아무하고도 얘기하고 싶지 않아요 = I don’t want to talk with anybody/I want to talk with nobody
It is very easy to be confused with these double negatives at first. To make it simple at the beginning,
just tell your brain to use “아무나” when you want to say something that ends positively, and to use
“아무도” when you want to say something that ends negatively. In theory, 아무나 and 아무도 are
the same word in Korean (with different particles attached). One just happens to be used with
positive sentences, and the other happens to be used in negative sentences.
아무 Used Before Other Nouns

Another function that 아무 has is to be placed before a thing/place/time to describe it. The most
common nouns you will see after 아무 are:
거 = short form of 것, meaning “thing”

데 = meaning “place”
때 = meaning “time”
When ~나 is attached to these nouns, the speaker is indicating that the thing/place/time is not a
specific “thing/place/time,” but could actually be “anything,” “anywhere” or “anytime.” For example:
저는 아무 거나 먹고 싶어요 = I want to eat anything (I’d eat anything)

아무 때나 좋아요 = Anytime is good
저는 아무 데나 가고 싶어요 = I want to go anywhere (I’d go anywhere)
In the example above, you can see that “데” is used to refer to a place. When the verb being used
requires “~에” to be attached to that place, “~에” is omitted. However, when the verb being used
requires “~에서” to be attached to that place “~에서” should be added before ~나.
For example, even though the same place is being used in both sentences below, because of the
nature of the verbs 가다 and 먹다, ~에 should be used in one case, and ~에서 should be used in the
other.
저는 공원에 가고 싶어요 = I want to go to the park

저는 밥을 공원에서 먹고 싶어요 = I want to eat in the park
The difference between these two sentences is the same as the difference between these two
sentences:
저는 아무 데나 가고 싶어요 = I want to go anywhere

저는 아무 데서나 먹고 싶어요 = I want to eat (at) anywhere
~도 can replace ~나 in these cases to have the meaning of “nothing” “nowhere.” For example:
저는 아무 것도 먹고 싶지 않아요 = I don’t want to eat anything/I want to eat nothing

아기는 아무 데도 가지 않았어 = The baby didn’t go anywhere/The baby went nowhere
“아무 때도” means “no time?” This doesn’t make sense. Instead, the word 전혀 (introduced
in Lesson 34) should be used.

It is possible to use other nouns after 아무. For example:
저는 아무 버스나 타고 갈 거예요 = I’m going to take any bus and leave

저는 아무 말도 하지 않았어요 = I didn’t say anything/I said nothing
저는 엄마랑 아무 관계도 없어요 = I don’t have any relationship with my mother/I have no relationship
with my mother
However, by far the most common three things to use after 아무 are 거, 데 and 때.
I would love to provide way more examples, but many of the examples I want to make with 아무 (and
the words it can create) use grammatical principles that you haven’t been introduced to you yet. The
two most common grammatical principles that you haven’t learned yet that would be used in these
situations are:
Making a command (introduced in Lesson 40), and

One can/cannot do (Introduced in Lesson 45)
Here are some quick examples using those two principles. The only reason I am showing you these
is because I think it is likely you have learned about these either by looking ahead or by using some
other resource.
Making a command
가방을 아무 데나 두세요 = Put your bag down anywhere
아무 거나 고르세요! = Choose anything!
아무 거나 먹자! = Let’s eat anything!
One can/cannot do
아무나 그것을 할 수 있어요 = Anybody can do that
It also might be helpful to take a peek at Lesson 58 to see how ~나 can be used when not used in
these specific cases of 아무나, 아무 거나, 아무 때나, etc. In theory, I should have presented these
words after I taught you about ~나, but in my opinion the use ~나 as it is used in this lesson is more
common (and therefore more important) than the general use of ~나 introduced later.
Each (마다)
마다 means “each” and is attached directly to the end of a noun:
날마다 = each day

학생마다 = each student
금요일마다 = each/every Friday
30 분마다 = each/every 30 minutes
When I first learned about this, I asked the following question to my grammar teacher:
“What is the difference between ‘모든 학생’, and 학생마다?”
The answer is so subtle, but there is a difference. The only way I can explain it is by saying the
following:
If you can explain the difference between “every student” and “each student” in English, then you
fully understand the difference between “모든 학생” and “학생마다.”
But really, can you explain the difference between “every student” and “each student?” There is a
difference. I know there is a difference. “Each” has something to do with ‘each individual student,’
whereas “every” has something to do with ‘all students.’… huh?
I don’t know. I always think I can explain the difference between “each” and “every” in English, but
it’s too confusing.
Just remember that 마다 means “each” and “모든” means “every.” That is more than enough.
그 버스는 10 분마다 와요 = That bus comes each/every 10 minutes

학생마다 달라요 = Each student is different
… and with that, you have finished Unit 1! You have come a really long way from our first lessons.
When you first started learning through our website, you were learning sentences like: “나는
선생님이다.”
Hopefully you enjoyed our first unit, and hopefully you didn’t get too confused – because in Unit 2
you will start learning Korean grammar concepts that will not only make your sentences much more
complex, but also make your head explode.

Korean Course (Unit 1)

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Korean Course (Unit 1)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lesson 1: Basic Korean Sentences

Notes: The formal name of the country is 대한민국

Sentence Word Order

Subject – Object – Verb (for example: I hamburger eat)

I went to the park

Korean Particles (~는/은 and ~를/을)

1) I speak Korean = I 는 Korean 을 speak

2) I like you = I 는 you 를 like

3) I wrote a letter = I 는 letter 을 wrote

4) I opened the door = I 는 door 을 opened

5) My mom will make pasta = My mom 은 pasta 를 will make

2) The movie was scary = The movie 는 was scary

3) I ate hamburgers at 3pm

3) I 는 hamburgers 을 3pm 에 ate

[noun 은/는] [another noun] [이다]

Now substitute the words for “man” and “I:”

Other examples of 이다 in use:

This and That (이/그/저)

However, it can also be a noun itself. For example:

I like that thing

Using This/That with 이다

That person is a doctor

We can start by putting those words into the Korean structure:

That person 는 doctor is

Okay, I got it! Take me to the next lesson! Or,

Lesson 2: Korean Particles 이/가

For example, in this sentence: “I ate a hamburger”

“I” is the subject of the sentence

책 ends in a consonant (ㄱ), so “~이” is added: “책이.”

these meanings into two forms or usages:

this point, this is important to you for one reason.

If this weren’t the case, we could do the following:

the location of something/someone.

sentence can drastically change the meaning. For example:

These constructions can now act as the location in a sentence:

나는 학교 앞에 있다 = I am in-front of the school

Let’s make some sentences:

is the difference? We will talk about this in the next section.

~이/가 as a Subject Marker

However the sentence above could also be written like this:

The reason why they could be subtly different:

Lesson 3: Korean Verbs/Adjectives

Some Quick Notes about Korean Verbs and Adjectives

adjective at the end of the sentence.

vocabulary from this lesson if you don’t believe me.

noun form of that verb/adjective.

Let’s look at some examples:

나는 케이크를 만들다 = I make a cake

role as ” ‘s” in English (for most examples). For example:

Can be written as the following:

나는 친구를 만나다 = I meet (my/a) friend

use it just like any other adjective:

like any other verb:

나는 이 음식을 좋아하다 = I like this food

We, Us, and Our (우리)

우리는 너를 좋아하다 = We like you

Okay, I got it! Take me to the next lesson! Or,

Lesson 4: Korean Adjectives ~ㄴ/은

Common Greeting Words

안녕히 가세요 = Goodbye (said to somebody going)

Using Adjectives ~ㄴ/은

 All sentences must end with either a verb or adjective

나는 배를 원하다 = I want a boat