We're new to this community and wanted to see what it's all about. We've been practicing languages on and off for years but still have a long way to go!
📖 Studying:
German
Japanese
Korean
📖 Previously studied:
Spanish (some)
Mandarin Chinese (some)
📖 Want to study:
Japanese
🩷 Some info about us! 🩷
Pronouns: They/them
We're plural system and prefer the term "headmates" over alters, plz! Due to being a system we'll be using I/me and we/us interchangably
Hope to move abroad someday ✈️
Wanna become a polyglot but ADHD makes studying hard 💔
Writing in Korean can be quite complex when it comes to spacing (띄어쓰기), as it involves several factors like grammar, sentence structure, and even the type of words. In this article, I’ll share some of the most important rules I’ve learned with you.
1. Particles:
Korean uses particles to indicate grammatical relationships between words in a sentence. To ensure clarity, it is essential to separate these particles from the following words. Some commonly used particles in Korean include 은/는, 이/가, 을/를, 에, 에서, (으)로, 에게, 도, 와/과, and so on.
For example, in the sentence “저는 한국에서 떡볶이를 먹었습니다” (I ate Tteokbokki in Korea), there are three particles used: 는, 에서, and 를. To make it clear, it is essential to add spaces after each particle.
It is essential to note that particles are included as part of the preceding word. Therefore, particles are not standalone words and should be attached to the word they modify without spaces.
2. Independent Nouns:
In some sentences, there may be two or three nouns put together to form a noun phrase. In constructing such phrases, it is generally advisable to separate each independent noun with a space.
For example, “한국 음식” (Korean Food) and “경영 대학교” (Business University) both consist of multiple nouns that should be separated by spaces.
However, there are exceptions to this rule:
Compound Words: When words are combined to create a new meaning, they should be written without spaces. For example, “tear” in Korean is “눈물”, a compound word made up of 눈 (eyes) and 물 (water). This word should be written together as “눈물” without a space between them. The same applies to verbs such as “to visit,” which is “방문하다”, a compound word made up of “방문” (visit) and “하다” (to do).
Proper Nouns: If the noun phrase is a commonly used or official name, such “한국관광공사” (Korean Tourism Organization) or “국립중앙박물관” (National Museum of Korea), it is standard to write the entire phrase without spaces. Doing so makes it more easily recognizable as a specific entity or organization.
3. Person’s Name and Title
Korean personal names consist of a surname and a given name, both of which have independent meanings and can be used as separate words. Although it can be argued that they should be written separately, personal names are unique nouns, and Korean surnames are usually only one syllable, making them feel incomplete on their own. Therefore, it is customary to write personal names without spaces between the surname and given name.
For example, “Park Ji-min” is written as “박지민,” “Kim Min-seok” is “김민석,” and “Lee Min-ho” is “이민호,” all without spaces.
However, when titles or job names follow a personal name, they are separate units and should be written with a space between them.
For example: 박지민 씨 (Mr. Park Ji-min), 민수철 교수 (Professor Min Su-cheol), 김 의사님 (Doctor Kim) all have a space between the personal name and the title or job name.
4. Numbers and counters:
In Korean, spacing is used between every ten thousand when writing numbers. This means that if you have a number with five digits or more, you will use a space to separate the digits in groups of four.
For example:
이천이십삼 (2023)
구만 팔천칠백육십오 (98765)
일억 이천삼백사십오만 육천칠백팔십구 (123456789)
When it comes to combining numbers with counters, there are two cases to consider:
If you write the number in digits, there is no space between the number and the counter. For example, “1개” (one piece), “2번” (two times), and “3명” (three people) have no space between the number and the counter.
However, if you write the number in words, there should be a space between the written number and the counter. For example, “삼 학년” (third grade), “칠천 원” (seven thousand won), and “칠 개월” (seven months) have a space between the written number and the counter.
5. Word modifiers:
When a modifier (such as an adjective, verb, or adverb) modifies a word, it should be separated from the word by a space. This helps to clarify the relationship between the two words and make the sentence easier to read.
For example:
유나는 예쁜 여자예요 (Yuna is a pretty girl)
한국 와서 처음 먹은 음식 기억나요? (Do you remember the first food that you ate in Korea?)
저는 일을 잘 해요 (I do my job well)
All use spacing to separate the modifier from the word.
Additional Notes:
– It’s worth noting that there are certain grammatical structures in Korean that require specific spacing. For example, “(으)ㄴ 적이 있다” (have done in the past), “(으)ㄹ 수 있다” (can/be able to), “아/어 보다” (try doing) and so on. It’s important to pay attention to these spacing rules when learning Korean to ensure that your writing is accurate and clear.
– Finally, when using “이다” (to be) or “아니다” (to not be), it’s important to note that “이다” is written immediately after a noun, while “아니다” is written separately from the noun due to the particle. This is important to keep in mind when writing sentences that use these verbs.
For example:
학생입니다 (I’m a student)
학생이 아닙니다 (I’m not a student.)
The preceding explanation outlines my current understanding of the spacing rules when writing in Korean. However, I also want to point out that there might be some special cases or exceptions to these rules that I’m not aware of. So, if you have any experience with these special cases, I’d love to hear about it! Let’s share our knowledge and learn from each other.
🌸 🌼 🌻
Support me at: https://koreanlanguageloving.my.canva.site/
-> These are some free resources I used or heard about a lot to learn Korean and what they include, there's probably way more! I'll make more parts in the future. There's also ratings and pesonal notes about each one, but again they're 'personal' so it might not be the same for everyone! That's why you should always try it yourself first.
-> These resources are or were fully free when I used them, if anything changed and they're no longer free I do not take any responsibility for possible accidental purchases, I recommend to always check first before processing with it.
Here we go:
GoodJobKorean — Full free Hangul Course, 12 Lessons, Videos (with pronunciation, etc) + Pdf Practice sheets (with some vocabulary) + Quizes to see if you understood each lesson.
Rating: 100/10 I tried and loved it, easy to understand and explained nicely. Really useful for beginners learning hangul!
A/N: You may have to rebuy it after a month (not sure because I finished it in less then a month and never logged back in) but It's still free (if not you can always just make another account to get it free again)
GoldenKeyKorean: Free Hangul course, pronunciation + 2H long master course (advanced and basic levels) with 2 pdf books
Rating: I personally did not try this one, but I'm pretty sure it's fully free (at least that's what I've seen), but he often does limited editions/limited time special free courses so it's better to check if the offer is still active and follow his instagram for future updates and courses.
Now Korean Class: Fully free 9 Korean courses with different levels (1-9) with multiple videos for each, explains sentence structures, grammar, counters, numbers, and way more.
Rating: 100/10, It really is free, multiple levels, sooo many different things to learn I absolutely loved it!!
A/N: You just have to rebuy it after a month but I'm pretty sure it's still free (if not you can always just make another account to get it free again). I recently lost acess to it, idk why I think my phone is lagging... It tells me something went wrong to try again later, lol, just in case some content changed etc I wouldn't know.
Koldoristudy: 3 different Free Korean PDF study sheets, 1 Hangul, 1 Vocabulary and 1 winter study, includes Grammar, stroke order guides and syllable blocks,
Rating: 10/10 Loved it, I thought it would be just some pdf files to boringly write hangul/words but It's actually way more! it explains grammar and some useful language rules!
Talk to me in korean: Multiple free podcasts on different platforms + PDF with grammar and vocabulary explained for different levels of learners, 7 days free trial with possible cancelation
Rating: 9/10 It's really good, I'm just not a big fan of podcasts as I have a short attention spawn LOL. I personally didn't try the 7-days free trial but they do have LOTS of different lessons and videos that seem to be amazing and useful.
A/N: personally I find their website really confusing, to make things easier you can try things like just typing "Talk To me In korean (Pdf level _)" on google and the first link should be the free pdf file, etc etc.
Loescen Learn Korean Website: Free Interactive web-based learning, important vocabulary, pronunciation beginner to intermediate level, basic conversation courses and dialogues
Rating: 8/10, so good!! It surprised me, I just wish it went more in deep about things like sentence structures and grammar instead of blindly learning dialogue lines or words without breaking them into steps for deeper understanding of the language.
A/N: works for other languages too!!
Live Lingua: Multiple free ebooks and audio files lessons, grammar, vocabulary, hangul, etc, beginner to advanced,
Rating: 9/10 Covers up a lot of different things like I said, grammar, vocabulary, etc etc, but AGAIN each course covers many subjects and it quickly feels heavy and too long/complicated/takes too much time (personally for me, as an individual with ADHD)
How to study korean: LOTS of grammar and vocabulary, beginners to advanced, multiple lessons, linked YT videos to reinforce lessons, PDFs, etc
Rating: 100/10 explains really well, SO MUCH STUFF, different levels, it's really awesome! Lessons are available in multiple languages and not just English!! However again I find it a bit intimidating as it really has LOTS of things to learn which make it seem hard and heavy...
A/N: Personally I find the website complicated to navigate 😭 just type "how to study korean lesson _" for easier access if you want and It should be the top results
Udemy TOPIK grammar through 100 patters: TOPIK vocabulary, grammar and conversations, 100 grammatical patters koreans use a lot
Rating: 8/10 really good, well explained, but again personally it feels pretty heavy and long, videos in Korean with English subtitles, however there are no English subtitles for "example sentences" which sucks, you need to know some basic vocabulary to really understand the example sentences used there.
Tomi Korean: Free PDF with 430 basic korean vocabulary (words, verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc) with audio files, free PDF Worksheet for hangul learning
Rating: 8/0 Love it, really nice for useful vocabulary but you'll have to willingly study the words cause the pdf only makes you write it once and it's really just Korean-English translations, but it has images so its good for visual learners too! Personally I also found it takes a lot of storage to download everything lol.
A/N: I did not check the hangul worksheet as I can already write and read hangul but little personal opinion/tip; I think GoodJobKorean is the best option to learn Hangul here, specially compared to this one. Yes I did not try this Hangul Worksheet but I believe GoodJobKorean offers more variated content and help (videos, quizes, etc) than what a PDF sheet has to offer, that's my opinion.
That's all so far!
Many of these courses have social media accounts where they post different content and tricks to learn, I'll be making a post about those in the future too!!
If anything changed since I first used these resources or if there's any misinformation in this post, please let me know!
I almost want to give up on learning Korean. I was telling our dad about our dream to move abroad, and he basically shut it down immediately.
I'm an adult, I don't need his permission. But, still. I'm so used to being dependent on him, I don't have the confidence to do it on my own. It almost feels pointless now
He said, "Well it's cool you're learning it for fun". But I'm not just learning it for fun, I'm learning it for my future, and he knows that. It just felt so demeaning
Anyway, sorry to vent right after returning. I'm not giving up, but it definitely took a major hit to my self-confidence
10. Were there any new foods from your TL culture that you tried for the first time this year? :
I got to try mochi! I didn't really like it though unfortunately. Mostly just because of the texture
12. What are your language goals for next year?:
Honestly? Just being able to stay consistent is enough for me. I have a hard time keeping on track with my studies so if I can stay consistent enough to learn anything that's good enough for me
japanese is such a kind language. like you forget a character it will hold ur hand and tell u that everything will be ok and you can just write it in hirigana and everyone will understand :)
and then chinese is like oh im sorry you forgot a character? youre illiterate. you mispronounce a word? your mother is now a horse
only LOSERS learn languages by taking lessons and practicing. IM learning italian by reading my english version of dante’s inferno and comparing it to the original version and figuring out which words mean what. we are NOT the same
