제주전문

a Korean studying sideblog

[hansuuki]

Commonly used Hanja idioms. 

Vocab under the cut. 

Keep reading

[study-korean]

Love Puns

[su-eop]

Bonus lesson 1: 조사, sentence particles and their uses

If you’ve ever even so much as glanced sideways at one Korean sentence I am sure you have noticed the 조사. There are a ton of different 조사 in Korean, and they each have their uses. Some of them are more subtle than others, but it’s important to know how to use 조사 in order for your sentences to sound natural. In this bonus lesson, we’ll be looking at some foundation 조사.

은/는 and 이/가

은/는 is a topic marker, so basically it’s only used when you’re introducing the topic that you’re talking about, and if the topic changes in the middle of the conversation/writing you’ll use it again. The best way to think of it is “As for…” or “In the case of…”. With that in mind, if you can translate what you’re writing into English and add “as for” without it sounding weird, generally you can get away with using 은/는.

은 follows a word ending in a consonant, and 는 follows words ending in a vowel.

저는 수예요. [As for me] I am Soo.

오늘은 비가 올 거라고 들었지만 내일은 비가 안 올 거라고 들었어요. I heard that today it will rain, but [as for] tomorrow I heard that it won’t rain.

은/는 are also used as comparison particles. Today and tomorrow in the above example are both new topics, but are also being compared to one another for the difference in the weather.

이/가 are subject particles. You would not use 이/가 in these cases above because there is no subject that is doing a verb onto an object. As a general rule, if you see a 을/를 attached to the object being acted on by the verb, the subject of the sentence will use 이/가.

이 follows a word ending in a consonant and 가 follows a word ending in a vowel.

켄이 아주 똑똑해요. Ken is quite smart.

학교가 어디에 있어요? Where is the school?

민규 씨가 테니스를 쳤어요. Mingyu played tennis.

A more polite form of 이/가 is 께서. They hold the same meaning, but using 께서 adds an additional level of politeness to the sentence.

을/를

을/를 are object particles. Object particles are attached to nouns to tell us what noun/object is being acting on by the verb. 을/를 are not used with adjectives. You would use 이/가 instead.

을 follows a word ending in a consonant and 를 follows a word ending in a vowel.

저는 어릴 때 일본어를 배웠어요. I learned Japanese when I was a child. In this sentence the object being acted on by the verb “to learn” (배우다) is “Japanese” (일본어).

수업 후에 친구를 만나고 찜닭을 먹을 거예요. After class I will meet my friend and eat jjimdak. In this sentence the objects “friend” (친구) and jjimdak (찜닭) are being acted on by the verbs “to meet” (만나다) and “to eat” (먹다) respectively.

과/와 and 하고

과/와 is similar to 하고 in that they both mean “and,” but 하고 is used mostly in speaking and 과/와 is mostly used in writing. Of course there are exceptions (mostly in that if you use 함께 instead of 같이 it almost ALWAYS is paired with 와/과).

They are also opposite of 이/가 and 은/는 in that the consonant is paired with the consonant, and the vowel with the vowel, like so: 

재환과 O 레오와 O       재환와 X 레오과 X

재환이 O 레오가 O 재환가 X 레오이 X

A more casual form of 하고 is (이)랑. For a more in depth look at these, check out Lesson 10.

한테 and 한테서 vs. 에게 and 에게서 vs. 에/에서

These all have the same meaning of “to” and “from,” but 한테/한테서 and 에게/에게서 are only used in the case of people and living things. Further, 한테/한테서 are used mainly in speaking, and 에게/에게서 in writing.

그녀가 친구한테 선물을 줬어요. She gave a present to her friend.

그녀가 친구한테서 선물을 받았어요. She received a present from her friend.

우리 엄마에게, Dear Mom (To Mom)

그 남자에게서 심한 체취가 났어요. A strong body odor came from the man.

So those are all cases of where a human or living thing was involved. In pretty much every other case where a “to” or “from” is needed, you’ll use 에 and 에서.

슈퍼주니어가 다음 달에 미국에 갈 거예요. Next month Super Junior will go to the US.

저기요… 통화가 칠레에서 왔어요. Excuse me, you have a phone call from Chile.

Notice that even though the subject of the first sentence is a person or living thing, since the destination of the “to” is NOT a person or living thing, you’ll use 에 in that instance. The second sentence does not have a person or living thing involved at all, just a place where where the call is from, so you’ll use 에서.

에 is also used for time as well as locations. Let’s look at a few more examples.

학교가 어디에 있어요?  Where is the school? In this sentence is used to ask about the general “existence” of the school’s location so 에 is paired with words like 있다/없다/살다 in such sentences.

학교에 가요. I am going to school. In this sentence the school is the “destination” so 에 is paired with words like 가다/오다/다니다

4시에 만나요.  Let’s meet at 4. The sentence is referencing the “time” at which the action is occurring so 에 is used. Note: some time nouns such as 지금, 어제, 오늘, 내일, 매일, 언제, etc don’t add 에.

(으)로 vs. 에

Both have the meaning of “to,” but 에 is specific while (으)로 is more general.

(으)로 can best be translated as “towards” or “heading for.” 으로 is used with words ending in a consonant, and 로 is used for words ending in vowels.

매일 아침에 학교에 가요. I go to school every morning. This sentence is very specific in the location the “to” is describing, being the “school”.

저 쪽으로 가면 우체국이 오른쪽에 있어요. If you go that way [towards that direction], the post office is on the right.

Be careful, because (으)로 also has the meaning of “by means of.”

홍대에 쉽게 가고 싶으면 지하철로 가세요. If you want to get to Hongdae easily, take the subway [go by means of the subway].

일반석으로 가면 훨씬 싼가요? Is it a lot cheaper if I fly coach [by way of coach]?

에 vs. 에서

In this case, both of these mean “at” but one is a dynamic location and the other is not. It sounds complicated, but the best way to remember this is if you’re DOING something, if some kind of verb is involved, you’ll use 에서, while “at” in regards to time or general existence uses 에, like we covered above.

1시에 시간이 있나요? Do you have time at one o'clock?

도서관에서 책을 읽었어요. I read a book at the library. Because you are doing something at the library, you have to have the dynamic location particle 에서.

콘서트는 올림픽공원에 있을 거예요. The concert will be at Olympic Park.

콘서트는 올림픽공원에서 열릴 거예요. The concert will be held at Olympic Park.

So for these two sentences, the content is exactly the same, but since the second sentence uses the verb “to be held” instead of the general existence “to be” (있다) it becomes a dynamic action and uses 에서.

에서 + 까지 vs 부터 + 까지

The markers 에서 and 까지 are used together to express the idea of -from one place and -to another. These markers are attached directly to locations.

어제 학교에서 집까지 걸러서 갔어요 Yesterday I walked from school to my house.

그는 뉴욕에서 로마까지 비행기로 갔어요. He went from New York to Rome by plane.

Comparatively 부터 and 까지 is used with time. It expresses the idea of from one point in time to another.

법정은 금요일부터 월요일까지 휴정했어요. Court was adjourned from Friday until Monday.

영화가 처음부터 끝까지 아주 재미있었어요. The movie was quite interesting from start to finish.

까지 can also be used on it’s own, where it holds the meaning of “until”. It is still used with time in this instance.

저는 정오까지 기다렸어요. I waited until noon.

그 전통은 현재까지 계속되고 있어요. The tradition is being continued up until the present day.

That’s all for this lesson on basic 조사. :) There are many more we will be looking at going forward but I’m sure I’ve overloaded you enough for one lesson!

Questions? Send me an ask!

[fykorean]

This is quite a useful summary of some of the particles and their uses! It’s not an exhaustive list, however, there are more particles, and more uses to learn! :) Btw, follow @su-eop if you’re not doing so already, they explain things incredibly well, and they have A LOT of posts!

[koreanstudytrack]

Vocabulary 5: 학 words (한자: 學)

학 is related to “learning”, “studying” and “school”. The 한자 (Chinese characters for this word is 學).

학생 = student: 학 + 생 (person, member, participant) 학교 = school: 학 + 교 (school) 학원 = private institute: 학 + 원 (house, garden) 수학 = mathematics: 수( numbers) + 학 과학 = science: 과 (subject, class, species) + 학 어학 = language learning: 어 (word) + 학 언어학= linguistics: 언어 (word+word) + 학 학자 = scholar: 학 + 자 (person)  유학 = studying abroad: 유 (to stay) + 학 유학생 = student studying abroad: 유학 (studying abroad) + 생 전학 = to change schools: 전 (to roll, to move) + 학 전학생 = student who moved to another school: 전학 (to change schools) + 생 학년 = school year: 학 + 년 (year) 학기 = semester: 학 + 기 (period) 장학금 = scholarship :장(recommend) + 학 + 금 (money) 장학생 = student on scholarship :장 + 학 + 생 복학생 = student who has returned to school (usually) after a long break: 복(return) + 학 + 생 학습 = learning, studies: 학 + 습 (acquire) 한국어 학습  = Korean learning  독학 = self-study, studying by oneself: 독(alone) + 학 

[studiousbees]

[漢字 배우자! 3 ] Days of the week and dates

Welcome to another 漢字(한자) 배우자! Did you know that the days of the week in Korean are 한자 words? Each is named after an element or force in nature.

Before we get into the individual days, let’s take a look at the two characters each of the day words has in common. Those are 빛날 (to shine) 요 曜 and 날 (day) 일 日.

Now let’s check out the individual days.

Sunday—日曜日 (일요일)

The word for Sunday, 日曜日, starts and ends with the same character. As previously mentioned, the 훈(訓, the meaning of a 漢字 character that is written before the 음 [音] or pronunciation) of 日 is “날 (day),” but it also carries the meaning of “sun” as well. It is normal for 漢字 to have multiple meanings even if they only have a single 훈. So, “Sunday” in Korean is, quite literally, “sun” day!

Monday— 月曜日 (월요일)

The first character in the word for “Monday” is 달 (moon) 월 月. This is the same 월 as used in the names of the months! The months in Korean are simply the number the month is in order + 月. So, January would be 一月, February is 二月, and so on (check out this post if you’re unfamiliar with the number Hanja~).

Tuesday— 火曜日 (화요일)

Tuesday is fire day! It starts with the character 불 (fire) 화 火.

Wednesday— 水曜日 (수요일)

Next we have water Wednesday with 물 (water) 수 水.

Thursday— 木曜日 (목요일)

The first character in 목요일 is 나무 (tree, wood) 목 木.

Friday— 金曜日 (금요일)

”Friday” starts with the character 쇠 (metal) 금 金. More specifically, the metal that this character refers to is gold. Also, this character has a second 훈(訓) and 음(音) pairing. The pairing is 성씨 (family name) 김! If you ever have the chance to look at the government ID card of any of your Korean friends who have the family name 김, you will also see this character printed there.

Saturday— 土曜日 (토요일)

Finally, we have 흙 (earth, soil) 토 土!  

BONUS— 年 (년 [연]) and dates 

*NOTE: You’ll need knowledge of numbers in Hanja for this section!

We already know all the other parts of dates in 漢字, so why not learn the last piece of the puzzle and put it all together? This final one is 해 (sun, year) 년 年. Let’s check out how to write today’s date in a few formats. The readings of the month and day are consistent but the year’s reading has changed over time.

This first format was used up through the first half of the 20th century in Korea, though it’s no longer standard. In this case, instead of reading 2017 as “two thousand seventeen” or 이천십칠 (二千十七), you would read the year as “two-null-one-seven” or 이영일칠 (二 O一七). The  O is a stand-in for 떨어질 (to drop) 령(영) 零. So, written fully in 漢字, following this old standard today’s date would be:

二 O一七年 六月 十四日 (水)

The current format for writing the date fully in 漢字 would be to write it exactly as it is spoken. That is, the year would be 이천십칠.

二千十七年  六月 十四日 (水)

Or of course, you can just do things the easy way and write the number in Arabic numerals and just 년, 월, and 일 using 漢字!

2017年 6月 14一 (水)

Thank you for reading! I hope some of you have started taking an interest in the Chinese characters as used in Korean.

Happy studying~

[bitesizekorean]

작사가: Lyricist, lyric writer

[bitesizekorean]

잇따르다: To occur in succession, to happen one after another

[koreanstudytrack]

Vocabulary 5: 학 words (한자: 學)

학 is related to “learning”, “studying” and “school”. The 한자 (Chinese characters for this word is 學).

학생 = student: 학 + 생 (person, member, participant) 학교 = school: 학 + 교 (school) 학원 = private institute: 학 + 원 (house, garden) 수학 = mathematics: 수( numbers) + 학 과학 = science: 과 (subject, class, species) + 학 어학 = language learning: 어 (word) + 학 언어학= linguistics: 언어 (word+word) + 학 학자 = scholar: 학 + 자 (person)  유학 = studying abroad: 유 (to stay) + 학 유학생 = student studying abroad: 유학 (studying abroad) + 생 전학 = to change schools: 전 (to roll, to move) + 학 전학생 = student who moved to another school: 전학 (to change schools) + 생 학년 = school year: 학 + 년 (year) 학기 = semester: 학 + 기 (period) 장학금 = scholarship :장(recommend) + 학 + 금 (money) 장학생 = student on scholarship :장 + 학 + 생 복학생 = student who has returned to school (usually) after a long break: 복(return) + 학 + 생 학습 = learning, studies: 학 + 습 (acquire) 한국어 학습  = Korean learning  독학 = self-study, studying by oneself: 독(alone) + 학 

[hansuuki]

~거나...~거나

This grammar point is used to list off two or more alternative events, actions or states. It can be translated as ‘and’, ‘or’ and ‘whether …or’. It can be used to show that the result will/would be the same regardless of the preceding statements. 

거나 can be contracted to 건. 

그 사람은 마시거나 먹거나 하여 돈을 다 써 버렸다. 

비가 오거나 눈이 내리거나 하면 오지 마세요.

선물이 크건 작건 받을 때는 감사한 마음으로 받아야 한다.

일반 한국 사람들은 한국에사 살건 외국에서 살건 간에 대중 가요를 가장 많이 부른다. 

[bitesizekorean]

Sample Sentence #004

여기 앉아도 돼요? May I sit here?

Vocabulary

앉다: To sit 

여기: Here 

Particles

NA

Grammar

A/V ~아/어도 되다: Corresponds to, ‘may’ or ‘be allowed to.’ Expresses permission or approval for a behaviour.

[bitesizekorean]

끝없다: To be endless, boundless, eternal, never-ending

[su-eop]

Intermediate I Lesson 3: 으려면, if you intend to

-으려면 is a shortened form of “-으려고 하면” and it holds the same meaning as “if you intend to” or “if you want to”. This grammar point is used frequently when giving or requesting advice about an intended action. It’s usually paired with -아/어야 하다, -으세요, -이/가 필요하다, or -으면 되다.

-으려면 is used with verbs and attaches directly to the verb stem. -으려면 is used with verb stems ending in a consonant. -려면 is used with verb stems ending in a vowel.

Let’s look at some examples.

학생: 김 선생님 지금 계세요? 다른 선생님: 지금 안 계세요. 김 선생님을 만나려면 3시 이후에 오세요. Student: Is Kim teacher here now? Other teacher: She’s not here right now. If you want to meet Kim teacher, please come back after 3 o’clock.

레오: 미국에 여행 가고 싶어요. 켄: 미국에 가려면 비자가 필요해요. Leo: I want to go on a trip to America. Ken: If you intend on going to America you need a visa.

학생: 책을 빌리려면 어떻게 해야 해요? 선생님: 학생증을 가지고 도서관에 가면 돼요. Student: If I intend to borrow a book, what do I have to do? Teacher: Bring your student ID with you and go to the library.

벤: 건강해지려면 어떻게 해야 해요? 찬미: 많이 걸으세요. 그러면 건강해져요. Ben: If I want to get healthy, what do I have to do? Chanmi: Walk a lot. If you do that, your health will improve.

Now you’ll notice that in the above examples that “want to” is an acceptable translation for this grammar point. But we already know that “to want to do” something in Korean is -고 싶다. Paired with -면 (if), you can use -고 싶으면 to say “if you want to–”.

의사가 되려면 공부를 많이 해야 돼요. If you want to become a doctor, you have to study a lot.

의사가 되고 싶으면 공부를 많이 해야 돼요. If you want to become a doctor, you have to study a lot.

So you can see that these two grammar points can be used almost interchangeably.

However, there is a difference that exists. When you use -으려면, the 려 of the construction implies that an effort needs to be made to complete the desired action. You really need to make an effort to study a lot when you want to be a doctor, so using -으려면 in this case makes a lot of sense. But if you just wanted to go to the park, no effort beyond simply going to the park needs to be made so -고 싶으면 makes more sense in that situation, and cannot be used interchangeably with -으려면.

That’s all for this lesson. :) See you next time!

[funwithkorean]

편지 (pyeonji)  =  letter

[koreanstudyingonjeju]

봉투= package

엽서= postcard

우체국= post office

우체부= post office worker

쓰다= to write

우편= mail

우표- stamp

우체통= mailbox

[koreanstudyingonjeju]

문명 한자 웹. "명" 한자 도와주세요. 중국 "명" 맞지?

[koreanstudyingonjeju]

진실 헌자 웹

[su-eop]

Advanced II Lesson 2: -(으)ㅁ, changing verbs/adjectives into nouns

That’s right, you can change not only verbs and adjectives into nouns in Korean, but also the copula 이다. Being able to change verbs/adjectives into nouns enables you to make noun phrases, which function as subjects, direct objects and so forth within larger sentences. This grammatical form is used most often in writing.

Adding -(으)ㅁ can be used with verbs, adjectives, and noun+이다. It can be used in the past, present, or future tense. The tense is reflected in the verb/adjective being changed. -음 is added following consonants. -ㅁ is added following vowels.

Past tense verbs and adjectives use -았/었음 (nouns: 였음/이었음) Present tense verbs and adjectives use -(으)ㅁ (nouns: 임) Future tense verbs and adjectives use -겠음 (nouns: 이겠음)

인생의 행복은 돈의 많고 적음에 있지 않아요. The joy of life does not lie in having a lot of or the lack of money.

In this example, the use of 음 with 적다 turns the phrase into a noun that can be acted on by the functioning verb of the sentence, the negative form of 있다.

Let’s go back to our above example.

인생의 행복은 돈의 많고 적음에 있지 않아요. 

As I stated previously, the use of 음 is generally used only in writing (especially popular in poems!). However if you wanted to say the above sentence aloud, you would change the -음 to -는 것. Replacing this grammar form with -는 것 gives almost no change in meaning when used in speech, but its important to note that not every instance of -는 것 can be replaced with -음. To that end:

인생의 행복은 돈의 많고 적음에 있지 않아요. 인생의 행복은 돈의 많고 적은 것에 있지 않아요.

These sentences are identical, only one is better suited for writing, and one is better suited for speech.

This sort of thing is more common than you might think. You have probably already come across several words in Korean that were taught as nouns but are really verb/adjective + ㅁ. For example the word 꿈 (dream) is simply the noun form of 꾸다 (to dream).

Some other incredibly common instances of this are:

기쁘다 →  기쁨 아프다 →  아픔 슬프다 →  슬픔 추다 →  춤 웃다 →  웃음 믿다 →  믿음 얼다 →  얼음 어렵다 → 어려움 외롭다 →  외로움 살다 →  삶 알다 →  앎

한국에 처음 왔을 때는 한국말도 모르고 문화도 달라서 어려움이 많았어요. When I first arrived in Korea because I didn’t know Korean and the culture was different I had a lot of difficulties.

This sort of thing generally isn’t done to verbs that end in 하다 because if you simply remove the 하다 then what’s left of the stem of the verb is a noun in its own right.

Another way of turning verbs and adjectives into nouns is to use -기 however there are some fundamental differences between -음 and -기. Using -음, it’s generally for things that are already known or that have occurred and completed or been finalized. Using -기 is for things that are expected, but unfinished or currently in progress. When using -음 the 조사 particles cannot be omitted. You are required to use a subject/object particle when using -음. However when you use -기 the particles can be omitted without issue. -기 cannot be used as a sentence final form (very few exceptions exist). -음 can be used as a sentence final form, and when it is, it is used to convey facts or information generally via public announcements, notices, in dictionaries, reports, and so on. For example: 타에 모범이 되어 이 상장을 수여함. However both of them can be replaced with -는 것 in speech with no change of meaning. That’s it for this lesson! :) See you next time!

[bitesizekorean]

목적지: Destination