#beginner korean grammar

[koreanstudyjunkie]

Easiest Korean Particles

N처럼, N같이

N마다

N쯤

N이나

N처럼, N같이 = Like [Noun]

Usage: Kind of like a “simile” in English and it corresponds to “like” or “as”. When you want to express that an action appears the same or similar to the noun you attach 처럼 or 같이 to.

Note: 처럼/같이 are often used metaphorically to compare characteristics by comparing them to other things.

Examples:

그 남자는 말처럼 빨리 달려요. He runs as fast as a horse.

지민 씨는 천사같이 노래해요. Jimin sings like an angel

그녀의 머리는 아이돌처럼 예뻐 보여요.

Her hair looks as pretty as an idol.

N마다 = Every [Noun]

Usage: This is attached to nouns that express a time - time nouns. To indicate the repetition of the same/similar situation or behavior over a set period of time. It can be translated as “every”, “each”, “once every“. It’s added directly next to the time noun being described.

Examples:

주말마다 여행을 가요. I go on a trip every weekend.

금요일마다 친구를 만나고 외식을 해요. Every Friday I meet my friends and (we) go out to eat.

우리 집에는 방마다 티비가 있어요. There’s a tv in every room in (our)my house.

Note: It can also be added to non time nouns - regular nouns.

Ex: 학생마다 달라요. Each student is different.

No need to add it to words that have 매 in them as it indicates “every ___”

매일 (everyday) → 매일마다 (X)

날 (day) → 날마다 (everyday)

N쯤 = About [Noun]

Usage: It’s added to nouns that represent numbers, times, and quantities. It indicates an approximation - “about” or “around”.

Examples:

넌 열다섯 살 쯤 되어 보여요. You look about 15 years old.

한시쯤 어때요? 수업이 열두시 오십분에 끝나요.

How’s around 1 o’clock? My class ends at 12:50.

우리는 일년쯤에 중국에서 중국어를 공부할 거예요. We will study Chinese In China for around a year.

Extra Notes:

When referring to approximate prices, ‘Noun쯤 하다’ is used more often than just ‘Noun쯤이다’.

Example:

사과는 세개에 이천원쯤 해요.

Apples cost about 2000 won for 3.

N이나 = Noun Or Noun

Usage: This actually has 3 usages, but we will focus on the main one which means “or”. It can only be attached to nouns. One of the two or more listed nouns will be chosen. (거나 means the exact same, but is attached to verbs instead)

Form:

Consonant - 이나

Vowel - 나

Examples:

목이 말라요. 물이나 차를 마시고 싶어요. I’m thirsty. I want to drink water or tea.

구두나 가방을 살 거예요. I’ll buy some shoes or a bag.

토요일에나 일요일에 운동해요. I exercise on Saturday or Sunday. (You can attach 나 to 에 or leave 에 out and just use 이나)

PRACTICE SECTION:

Something to keep in mind is that when you are using these particles you do not need to also attach the subject or object particles to them!

TRANSLATE EACH

1.) We go to Itaewon every Saturday night.

2.) I went to the hospital around 10:30 am.

3.) We talked for about 4 hours.

4.) My sister can dance like Jhope.

5.) Every 2 hours I drink water or tea.

[faithful-studies]

[studiousbees]

More or less with -보다

It's been a while since my last grammar post, hasn't it? I was going through my grammar directory and realized I had not yet written anything about this easy-to-use and super useful form!

Maybe you're comparing prices of two similar objects at the store, or maybe you're disagreeing with a friend which recent blockbuster was the best. In either case, you can use -보다 to indicate that one thing is more or less (adjective) than something else.

Function

As already stated, we use -보다 to make comparisons. For example, in English we might say something like:

This cell phone is more expensive than that one.

This movie is less exciting than that one.

Junho is smarter than Dani.

All of these are covered by -보다!

Usage

To form a sentence with -보다, you would use the basic format "Y는 X보다 (descriptive verb/adjective)" to mean "Y is more (adjective) than X." Note that this basic format only works when you want to say that something is more (adjective) than something else. If you want to specify "less than," you need to use the adverb "덜," which means "less."

이 핸드폰은 저것보다 비싸요. (This cell phone is more expensive than that one.)

이 영화는 그 영화보다 덜 재미있어요. (This movie is less exciting than that one.)

준호는 다니보다 더 똑똑해요. (Junho is smarter than Dani)

            --> Note: Just like we have "덜" to indicate "less," we also have "더" to indicate "more"! -보다 on its own automatically indicates "more than," but you can emphasize it a little by adding "더" after -보다.

We can also expand a little bit on the basic format and be more descriptive with our comparisons by using other grammatical structures that we know.

승현 씨는 엘리 씨보다 공부를 잘하지 못해요.  (Seunghyun is worse at studying than Ellie.)

이 회사는 전에 일하던 회사보다 월급이 더 높아요. (The salary at this company is higher than the salary at the company I worked at before.)

              --> Note that 더 is separated from -보다 here. A general rule of adverbs in Korean is to try to place them as close as you can to the verbs they modify.

보다 at the start of a sentence??

Sometimes you will see 보다 at the start of the sentence. In this case, it's similar to -보다 in the sense that they both indicate a comparison. However, 보다 at the start of a sentence (or somewhere not attached to a noun as previously shown) is an adverb that indicates something is more (insert descriptor here) than anticipated. For example:

A: 주혁 씨는 정말 묵묵하네요. (Juhyeok is pretty quiet.)

B: 좀 친해지면 보다 말이 많은데요. (If you become close with him, he talks more than you might think.)

As you can see, Juhyeok is not really being compared to some external thing. Rather, the comparison is expectation vs. reality.

Happy studying!

[ishouldreallystudymore]

Beginner Korean Grammar

A short list of the grammar that I’ve covered so far.  As for verb forms/conjugation that will have to be another post.

입니다/입니까 - Is/Are (most polite form) 

입니까 is the question form of 입니다

이에요/에요 - Is/Are (polite)

이것 - This/ This one (close to speaker)

그것 - That/ That one (close to listener)

저것 - That/ That one over there (not near the speaker or listener)

은/는 - Topic marking particle

[koreanstudyjunkie]

4 Easy Korean Grammar

자마자, 아/어야 되다, 네요, 뿐만 아니라

There are 2 intermediate and 2 beginner grammar, although I think they are almost all around the upper beginner/low Intermediate range. Depending on your level, these will be very easy to learn compared to some other (more complicated) Korean grammar.

~ 자마자 (beginner)

~ 아/어야 되다 (intermediate)

~ 네요 (beginner)

~ (으)ㄹ뿐만 아니라 (intermediate)

V-자마자 = as soon as, right away

Usage: to Indicate that something occurs immediately after the end of some other event or action. It’s added to verbs and translated as “right after” or “as soon as” in English. -자마자 can also be shortened to just -자.

Base form → -자마자 = Ex: 보다 → 보자마자 - as soon as I see, as soon as I look, as soon as I watch

Examples:

수업이 끝나자마자 학생들은 교실을 나갔어요.

The students left the classroom right after class ended.

상자를 열자 오래된 책들과 문서가 보였습니다.

When I opened the box, I saw old books and documents.

가게에서 보자마자 마음에 들어서 바로 산 거야.

I bought it right away because I liked it as soon as I saw it at the store.

Rules To Know:

The tense in not expressed with the first verb before 자마자, but is added in the second verb.

Example:

집에 갔자마자 쉬었어요 (X) → 집에 가자마자 쉬었어요 (O)

The subjects in the first and/or second clause can either be the same or different and it’s still fine

A/V -아/어야 되다 = have to, should

Usage: To express an obligation or necessity to do something. The form can end with 아/어야 하다 or 아/어야 되다 with no change in meaning, although of -아/어야 되다 is more commonly used than -아/어야 하다.

Forms:

Verbs ending in vowel ㅏ or ㅗ + 아야 되다/하다:

가다 → 가야 되다/하다 = have to go

Verbs ending in vowel other thanㅏ or ㅗ + 어야 되다/하다:

읽다 → 읽어야 되다/하다 = have to read

하다 verbs → 해야 되다/하다:

공부하다 → 공부해야 되다/하다 = have to study

Examples:

시간이 늦어서 이만 집에 가야 해.

It's late, so I have to go home now.

그는 여자 친구에게 줄 꽃은 꼭 빨간 장미이어야 된다고 했어.

He said the flowers for his girlfriend must be red roses.

비 오는 날 운전할 때는 평소보다 더 조심하여야 돼요.

You should be more careful than usual when driving on a rainy day.

A/V/N - (이)네요 = really, certainly, wow

Usage: to express surprise when you learn something from an experience (not from another source) or agree with someone (experiencing the same thing)

Tense:

A/V -네요

N -(이)네요

학생 -> 학생이네요

의사 -> 의사(이)네요

Examples:

오늘은 날씨가 정말 좋네요.

Wow, the weather is really nice today.

백화점에 사람이 정말 많네요.

There are so many people at the store today.

가: 한국 음식을 잘 드시네요. = You eat Korean foods really well.

나: 네, 한국 음식이 아주 맛있어요. = Yes, Korea food is so delicious.

(으)ㄹ 뿐만 아니라 = not only A but also B

Usage: to express that “not only what you said in the first sentence, but also what you said in the first sentence”. This can be without the -만 part added in too.

Tenses:

A/V (past) - 았/었을 뿐만 아니라

A/V (present) - 을/ㄹ 뿐만 아니라

N이다 - w/ consonants - 일 뿐만 아니라

N - w/ vowels - 뿐만 아니라

Examples:

지수는 예쁠 뿐만 아니라 성격도 좋아서 인기가 많네.

Not only is Jisoo pretty, but her personality is also really good, so she’s very popular.

승규는 약속 시간에 나타나지 않았을 뿐만 아니라 이후에도 연락이 없었어요.

Seungyu not only didn’t show up to our date on time, but also didn’t even contact me after.

[studiousbees]

Making compound subjects, objects, and verbs with -하고 and -고

Hello again, everyone! This time we're going to look at how to form compound subjects, objects, and verbs in Korean. Sometimes we want to indicate that two subjects did something together, or that they had the same action enacted on them. We also might want to say that one or more subjects did multiple actions. We can make compound subjects, objects, and verbs very easily! Using 하고 and -고, you can start making more complex sentences in no time.

Compound subjects and objects

A compound subject in English would look like this:

Taehyung and Mina went to school.

The cat and the dog fought.

My friend and her younger brother are smart.

In these cases, both of the subjects do the action or are in the state of the verb.

Compound objects look like this:

I ate cake and ice cream.

Sohyeon drinks coffee and tea.

Both of the nouns in each sentence are receiving the action of verb.

To connect subjects and objects in Korean, just attach -하고 to the first of the two nouns.

태형 씨하고 미나 씨가 학교에 갔어요.

고양이하고 개가 싸웠어요.

제 친구하고 친구의 남동생이 똑똑해요.

저는 케이크하고 아이스크림을 먹었어요.

소현 씨는 커피하고 차를 마셔요.

To make a compound subject or object with more than two nouns, put -하고 only after the first noun and list the other items with commas in between.

저는 사과하고 배, 바나나, 레몬을 샀어요. (I bought apples, pears, bananas, and lemons.)

Compound verbs

We get a compound verb when we combine two or more verbs. In English, this is what it would look like:

We had dinner and saw a movie.

Sungmin made cookies and cleaned the house.

To combine these verbs in Korean, we simply add -고 to the end of the first verb. You should only conjugate the second verb for tense, though in speech you can fairly commonly hear tense markers on the first verb as well.

우리는 저녁을 먹고 영화를 봤어요.

성민 씨는 쿠키를 만들고 집 청소를 했어요.

To combine more than two verbs, attach -고 to the end of each verb but the final verb.

저는 샤워하고 옷을 입고 이를 닦았어요. (I took a shower, got dressed, and brushed my teeth.)

Making compound subjects, objects, and verbs using -하고 and -고 in Korean is easy because these endings do not cause the things to which they attach to undergo any changes. Try making a few sentences of your own!

Happy studying~

[studiousbees]

What’s the difference? — -고 있다 and -아/어 있다

This post was inspired by a question that someone asked on the /r/korean subreddit (I lurk around there sometimes; if you Reddit, please do check out that sub!). The question was why some verbs use -고 있다 and some use -아/어 있다. If you check the question link, you can see my short answer on the original question. Also, I’ve actually gone over these two in the past, in a post about the progressive tense. The purpose of this post is to sort of clarify the difference between the two with a bit more explanation and contrasting examples.

As I mentioned in my progressive tenses post, -고 있다 is used when an action is ongoing, and -아/어 있다 is used when someone or something is continuously existing in a certain state. So, we can think of -고 있다 as being active progressive and -아/어 있다 as stative progressive. To be active progressive, something must be putting forth some sort of effort into the action while stative progressive does not really require any sort of effort on the part of the subject. Let’s look at some examples:

앉고 있어요 (I’m sitting) vs 앉아 있어요 (I’m sitting).

앉고 있다 is what I call active progressive, meaning that the subject must be putting forth some sort of effort. If we think about the effort that goes into sitting, it would mostly include the physical motion of bending the knees to lower ourselves into the chair. But when do we say “I’m sitting” to mean “I’m currently bending my knees and lowering myself into my chair”? It sounds like a child back-sassing a teacher who wants him to stay in his seat during class:

TEACHER: “Kevin, sit down!”

KEVIN: (repeatedly doing a squatting-type motion over his chair, miming the action of sitting but never actually sitting down) “But look, I am sitting!”

When we say “I’m sitting,” we mean that our bottoms are planted on the seat and we aren’t exerting any effort to stay that way, other than perhaps keeping ourselves upright and balanced. So, the stative “앉아 있어요” is far preferable.

So, how do I answer the question?

Concerning the question of why some verbs use -고 있다 while some use -아/어 있다: Just like -고 있다 is strange with the verb 앉다, making -아/어 있다 preferable in that case, some verbs logically tend toward being active while others tend toward being stative (though you can make the unpreferred one work with a little mental gymnastic, more or less depending on the verb you choose). Let’s check out a few more examples:

민수 씨는 일어나고 있어요. (Minsu is getting up.)

한비 씨는 일어나 있어요. (Hanbi is up.)

Here we have both active and stative 일어나다 (to get up). In the first sentence, we can understand that Minsu is actively getting up—perhaps in his case, that involves a routine of turning off his alarm, stretching, and slowing getting out of bed. In the second sentence, we can understand that Hanbi is in the state of having already gotten up—she has already done the actual act of getting up, so now she is effortlessly in that state.

꽃이 피고 있어요. (The flowers are blooming.)

꽃이 펴 있어요. (The flowers have bloomed.)

Now we have active and stative 피다 (to bloom). We might use the active 피다 when it’s the time of year when the flowers are coming out, but not all of them are out yet, and the ones that aren’t out are not quite in full bloom. That is, the flowers are still actively blooming. Once we reach the peak bloom, we can use the stative, 펴 있다. Now the flowers are no longer actively blooming, but they are in the state that has resulted from that action.

일어나다 and 피다 are two verbs that can fit active or stative both fairly easily. However, it is a bit hard to think of other verbs that fit into both easily! When trying to decide if you need -고 있다 or -아/어 있다, just think about whether the subject of that verb is actually doing something, or if it is just existing in a certain way.

As always, happy studying~

[studiousbees]

What’s the difference?? ~처럼 and 같다

I wrote this post to answer a question that an anon asked! ~처럼 and 같다 do have similar meanings in translation but they function quite differently. How are they similar, and how are they different? Let’s take a look.

~처럼

~처럼 is a particle that attaches to nouns and is used to compare or equate things. In English, we could easily translate this as “like” or “X as Y,” like when making similies (Ex: As tall as a tree, as cold as ice). For example:

고양이처럼 조용히 따라갔다. (I followed as quietly as a cat.)

그 여자의 시선은 얼음처럼 차가웠다. (That woman’s gaze was as cold as ice.)

이 향수는 꽃밭처럼 향기로워요. (This perfume is as fragrant as a flower garden.)

As you can see, this is a fairly simple but useful particle! When you want to make simple comparisons, ~처럼 is there for you.

같다

같다 is a descriptive verb used to indicate that two things are similar or the same. Because it is a verb, it can be a lot more flexible than ~처럼 and, depending on how exactly it is used, the way we interpret it in English can change a bit. When used simply following a noun with an “and” particle (-하고, -[이]랑, -와/과; though it is often omitted), for example, we can interpret it as “A is like B”:

너 이렇게 울면 정말 아기 같아! (You really seem like a baby when you cry like this!)

엄마표 요리는 따뜻한 포옹하고 같아요. (Mom’s cooking is like a warm hug.)

여름에는 사막이 오븐과 같아요. (In summer, the desert is like an oven.)

While the verb 같다 itself means that two things are the same, it is often used in sentences in a way that can be interpreted as “seems like.” I already did a fairly extensive write-up on that usage of 같다, so please do check it out!

As always, happy studying~