UNIT 1

Lesson I-X
LESSON I
Nouns:
한국 = Korea, 도시 = city, 이름 = name, 저 = I, 나 = I, 남자 = man, 여자 = woman, 그 = that 이 = this, 저 = that (when object is
far away), 것 = thing, 의자 = chair, 탁자 = table, 선생님 = teacher 침대 = bed, 집 = house, 차 = car
Nouns:
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
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 (no complicated grammar construction)
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.
Korean Sentence Structure
One of the hardest things to wrap your head around in Korean is the alien-like sentence structure. Essentially, 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, 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 most common particles:
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
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:
나 = 나를, 저 = 저를
Use을 when the last letter of the last syllable is a consonant:
집 = 집을, 책 = 책을
We can now make sentences using the Korean sentence structure and the Korean particles.
1) I speak Korean = I는 Korean을 speak
는 is attached to "I" (the subject), 을 is attached to "Korean" (the object)
2) I like you = I는 you 를 like
는 is attached to "I" (the subject), 을 is attached to "you" (the object)
3) I wrote a letter = I는 letter을 wrote
는 is attached to "I" (the subject), 을 is attached to "letter" (the object)
4) I opened the door = I 는 door을 opened
는 is attached to “I” (the subject), 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 the
structure 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) I는 3pm 에 went
2) I는 park에 went
3) I는 hamburgers을 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 it is time to learn how to make actual sentences in Korean using ‘to be.’ English speakers don’t realize how difficult this
word actually 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 ‘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, there will not be an object:
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:
I는 man 이다 = I am a man
Now substitute the words for “man” and “I:”
나 = I, 남자 = man
나는 + 남자 + 이다
이다 is 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 ______이다 = I am a _______
(나는 _______ 이야 / 저는 _____이에요)
You can substitute any word 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. English learners are always confused with the difference between
"그" and "저." We use 그 when we are talking about something from a previous sentence. 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. Just like "이" we can place
"그" or "저" before a noun to describe "this" or "that" thing
저 사람 = That person. 이 사람 = This person. 저 남자 = That man. 저 여자 = That woman. 저 것 = That thing. 그 것 = That thing.
이 것 = This thing. 그 의자 = That chair. 저 탁자 = That table
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 can be used to say “am/is/are” So, if we want to say this: “That person is a doctor,” We can do that. First,
we can start by putting those words into the Korean structure:
That person 는 doctor is
And then change 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)
이 것은 탁자이다 = this thing is a table
(이 것은 탁자야 / 이 것은 탁자예요)
저 것은 침대이다 = that thing is a bed
(저 것은 침대야 / 저 것은 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)
그 것은 차이다 = that thing is a car
(그 것은 차야 / 그 것은 차예요)
이 것은 나무이다 = this thing is a tree
(이 것은 나무야 / 이 것은 나무예요)
Wow! That was an extremely difficult lesson. If you were to pick up another Korean textbook, 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 these
sentences are technically incorrect (or very very uncommon) because they have not been conjugated.

LESSON II
Nouns:
나라 = country, 가방 = 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
Nouns:
캐나다 = Canada, 호텔 = hotel, 학교 = school, 은행 = bank
Verbs:
있다 = to have, 있다 = to be at a location
Adverbs
안 = inside, 위 = on top, 밑 = below, 옆 = beside, 뒤 = behind, 앞 = in front, 여기 = 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 two distinct meanings – both of which are very common and important to an early learner of Korean. As
you can see in the vocabulary list of this lesson, the words have the following meanings:
있다 = to have
있다 = to be at a location
You learned in Lesson 1 that 이다 (to be) acts as an adjective in Korean. 있다 (to have) also acts an adjective in Korean. 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 ~를/을 attached to it if the predicating word in a sentence is an
adjective (because ~를/을 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
BUT, remember, 있다 acts as an adjective, so we cannot have an object in that sentence. Therefore, the use of ~을 on “펜” is
incorrect. To get around this, we can attach ~이/가 to the object instead of ~를/을 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 these lessons are not conjugated. While conjugations are provided (one formal and one
informal) 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 worrying about
conjugating sentences and using honorifics.
있다: To be at a location
The thing that makes 있다 so difficult is that it can also mean “to be 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 somebody/something. For example: I am
at school
If we wanted to write this sentence with Korean structure and particles, we would write:
I는 school 에 am at
나는 + 학교에 + 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 학교 가 있다 = I have a school
This could be okay, but in most situations this is better what you would want to express:
나는 학교 에 있다 = I am at school
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/location.
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 (adverb) in a sentence:
나는 학교에 있다 = I am at school
나는 학교 앞에 있다 = I am in-front of the school
(나는 학교 앞에 있어 / 저는 학교 앞에 있어요)
Let’s make some more 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 있어요)
나는 캐나다에 있다 = I am in Canada
(나는 캐나다에 있어 / 저는 캐나다에 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’s the difference? Get ready to embark on the
most confusing grammatical principle to foreign learners of Korean. So difficult and confusing, I wish I could teach you this
concept in Lesson 100. Unfortunately, you will see ~이/가 used in almost every sentence – and thus – absolutely needs to be
described early. Let’s get started.
~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:
고양이 는 집 뒤에 있다 = The cat is behind the house
(고양이 는 집 뒤에 있어 / 고양이 는 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:
고양이 가 집 뒤에 있다 = The cat is behind the house
(고양이 가 집 뒤에 있어 / 고양이 가 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. This entirely depends on the situation of the conversation (what was said before, how it was said, etc…). The
reason why they could be identical:
고양이는 집 뒤에 있다 = The cat is behind the house
고양이가 집 뒤에 있다 = The cat is behind the house
~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:
고양이는 집 뒤에 있다 = The cat is behind the house
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:
고양이가 집 뒤에 있다 = The cat is behind the house
…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.

LESSON III
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 = we/us
Adverbs:
아주 = very, 매우 = very, 너무 = too (often used to mean ‘very’)
Verbs:
먹다 = eat, 가다 = go, 만나다 = meet, 닫다 = to close something, 열다 = open, 원하다 = to want (an object), 만들다 = make, 하다
= do, 말하다 = speak, 이해하다 = understand, 좋아하다 = to like (something)
Adjectives:
크다 = big, 작다 = small, 새롭다 = new, 낡다 = old (not age), 비싸다 = expensive, 싸다 = not expensive/cheap, 아름답다 =
beautiful, 뚱뚱하다 = fat/chubby, 길다 = long, 좋다 = good
Some Quick Notes about Korean Verbs and Adjectives
Now it is time to start learning things that you can apply to any verb or any adjective. 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”
I는 food를 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
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. 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 example:
Let’s look at more 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:
저는 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.)
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)
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 must 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
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:
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 already know (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 예쁘다 = That woman’s eyes are beautiful
(그 여자의 눈은 예뻐 / 그 여자의 눈은 예뻐요)
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 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.

LESSON IV
Nouns:
길 = street, 거리 = street/road, 손 = hand, 영어 = English, 택시 = taxi, 열차 = train, 역 = train/subway station, 버스 정류장 =
bus station, 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
Passive Verbs:
끝나다 = to be finished
Verbs:
오다 = come, 끝내다 = to finish something, 춤추다 = dance, 알다 = know, 걷다 = walk, 배우다 = learn 연습하다 = practice,
생각하다 = think, 살다 = to live
Adjectives:
위험하다 = dangerous, 잘생기다 = handsome, 못생기다 = ugly, 피곤하다 = tired, 다르다 = different 슬프다 = sad, 맛있다 =
delicious, 재미있다 = funny/fun, 많다 = many/a lot of, 행복하다 = 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. 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.
안녕히 가세요 = Goodbye (said to a person leaving)
안녕히 계세요 = Goodbye (said when you leave)
만나서 반갑습니다 = Nice to meet you
실례합니다 = Excuse me
죄송합니다/미안합니다 = Sorry
제발 = Please
이름이 뭐예요? = What is your name?
저의 이름은 ______이다 = My name is ______
어디에서 왔어요? = Where are you from?
저는 _______에서 왔어요 = I am from ________
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:
1. All sentences must end with either a verb or adjective
2. 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:
나는 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 when describing a noun, the 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
배우다 = 배우 (stem) + 다
When you deal with a verb/adjective, you eliminate ~다 and add something to the stem. What you add depends on what you
are doing. When you want to make an adjective that can describe a noun, for example:
small boy
big boat
soft hand
delicious hamburger
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. For example:
Word Stem Adjective that can describe a noun Example Translation
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. For example:
Word Stem Adjective that can describe a noun Example Translation
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 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)
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:
저 도 한국어를 말하다 = I speak Korean as well (In addition to other people)
(나도 한국어를 말해 / 저 도 한국어를 말해요)
which is different from:
저는 한국어 도 말하다 = I speak Korean as well (in addition to other languages)
(나는 한국어도 말해 / 저는 한국어 도 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 (the subject or object) is the thing that is being expressed
as "too." More examples:
나도 그 것을 알다 = I know that, too
(나도 그 것을 알아 / 저도 그 것을 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)

LESSON V
Nouns:
동생 = younger sibling, 남동생 = younger brother, 여동생 = younger sister, 형 = older brother, when you are a man, 오빠 = older
brother, when you are a woman, 누나 = older sister, when you are a man 언니 = older sister, when you are a woman, 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:
보고싶다 = to miss a person, 기대하다 = to expect, 건너다 = to cross (a road/etc)
Adjectives:
지루하다 = boring, 마르다 = a person to be too thin, 멀다 = to be far away, 마르다 = to be dry, 비슷하다 = similar, 싫다 = to not
be good, 오래되다 = for a thing to be old
Adverbs and Other Words:
오늘 = today, 월요일 = Monday, 화요일 = Tuesday, 수요일 = Wednesday, 목요일 = Thursday, 금요일 = Friday, 토요일 = Saturday,
일요일 = Sunday, 어제 = Yesterday, 내일 = tomorrow, 모레 = the day after tomorrow, 년 = year, 일 = day, 시간 = time
Verbs:
싫어하다 = to not like, 떠나다 = to leave somewhere, 농담하다 = to joke, 던지다 = to throw
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
(I am purposely not providing example sentences because you still haven’t learned proper conjugations. You will finally learn
about conjugations in this lesson)
~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
(I am purposely not providing example sentences because you still haven’t learned proper conjugations. You will finally learn
about conjugations in this lesson) 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 the word “you” yet. I know this is weird, but the word ‘you’ is not said
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 common in Korean to refer to people you are close with as a family member. 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) The word “당신” means “you.” You may use this word when talking to anybody, but Korean people rarely use it. Most people
that say ‘당신’ are foreigners and only do so because they are so used to saying “you” in English.
Basic Conjugation: Past, Present, Future
As I have said 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 in the past, present and future tenses
Verbs
Present Tense
When the last syllable of a stem ends in a consonant, you add ~는다 to the stem:
a. 먹다 = 먹는다 = to eat (먹 + 는다)
b. 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
c. 배우다 = 배운다 = to learn (배우 + ㄴ다)
d. 이해하다 = 이해한다 = to understand (이해하 + ㄴ다)
e. 가다 = 간다 = to go (가 + ㄴ다)
Examples:
나는 친구를 만난다 = I meet a friend
나는 그 것을 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/어 야 하다 to mean “one must”
- ~아/어서는 안 되다 to mean “one shouldn’t”
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 먹다 = I eat (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 먹었다 = I ate (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:
저는 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 (and ~여) 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 “what if the last vowel in a stem is a more complicated vowel, 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 가았다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 았다 can merge with 가:
나는 갔다 = I went
오다 = to come
The last vowel in the stem is ㅗ. So we add 았다 to the stem.
나는 오았다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 았다 can merge with 오:
나는 왔다 = I came
배우다 = to learn
The last vowel in the stem is ㅜ. So we add 었다 to the stem.
나는 배우었다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 었다 can merge with 우:
나는 배웠다 = I learned
던지다 = to throw
The last vowel in the stem is ㅣ. So we add 었다 to the stem.
나는 던지었다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 었다 can merge with 이:
나는 던졌다 = I threw
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 어:
나는 길을 건넜다 = I crossed the street
Examples:
나는 친구를 만났다 = I met friends
나는 밥을 먹었다 = I ate rice
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. 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 earlier that you must add ~ㄴ/는다 to a verb stem in order to conjugate it to the present tense. In order to
conjugate an adjective to 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.
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
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
As with verbs, if the final letter of a verb/adjective stem is a vowel, 았다/었다 is merged to the actual stem itself:
이 것은 비쌌다 = This thing (it) 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
그 것은 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.
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
You learned in Lesson 2 that there are two meanings for the word 있다. One of the meanings is “to have” and is considered an
adjective. 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. But, the other meaning of 있다 is “to be in/at a location” and is considered a verb. 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
Because this 있다 is considered a verb, we follow the rule for conjugating a verb to the present tense – which is add ㄴ/는다
to the stem of the verb.
나는 은행 안에 있는다 = I am inside the bank
개는 집 안에 있는다 = The dog is in the house
고양이는 의자 밑에 있는다 = The cat is under the chair
Though this is true, you are more likely to see/hear 있다 (and all of the other verbs and adjectives from this lesson)
conjugated using one of the honorifics introduced in the next lesson. Knowing that 있는다 is correct in this usage becomes
more important when you learn more complicated grammatical principles. For example, quoted sentences (introduced in
Lesson 52) require the use of the diary/plain form. Don't worry about that kind of thing now, though. For now, you need to
focus on honorifics which will be introduced in the next lesson. 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 VI
Nouns:
신발 = shoe, 남방 = shirt, 질문 = question, 문제 = question/problem, 나이 = age, 화장실 = toilet 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 = water bottle, 병 = disease/sickness, 생선 = fish, 야채 = vegetable,
언덕 = hill, 선물 = present 기타 = guitar, 종이 = paper, 우유 = milk, 손목 = wrist, 시계 = watch/clock, 손목시계 = wristwatch 영화
= movie
Verbs:
노력하다 = try, 앉다 = sit, 만지다 = touch, 자다 = sleep, 보다 = see, 기다리다 = wait, 청소하다 = clean, 약속하다 = promise, 듣다 =
hear, 들어보다 = listen, 그만하다 = stop, 운동하다 = exercise
Adjectives:
놀라다 = surprised, 빠르다 = fast, 느리다 = slow, 착하다 = nice
Adverbs and Other Words:
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. 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 seniority, 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. 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. When talking with friends, people you are close with, younger people and family.
2) Informal high respect. Used in most situations, even in formal situations despite being called “informal.” This is usually the
way most people speak when they are trying to show respect.
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) 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. Okay, let’s
look at some conjugations.
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 be aware of.
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 너의 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 in Lesson 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 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:
먹다 = to eat (not conjugated)
나는 먹었다 = I ate (conjugated – past tense)
배우다 = to learn (not conjugated)
나는 배웠다 = I learned (conjugated – past tense)
The three new conjugations should be very simple for you now:
1) Informal low respect
Instead of adding 었다/았다/였다 to a word 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)
2) Informal high respect
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)
3) Formal high respect
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:
먹다 = to eat (not conjugated)
나는 먹겠다 = I will eat (conjugated – future tense)
배우다 = to learn (not conjugated)
나는 배우겠다 = I will learn (conjugated – future tense)
The three new conjugations should be very simple for you now:
1) Informal low respect
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)
2) Informal high respect
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)
3) Formal high respect
After겠 instead of adding 다 add 습니다:
저는 먹겠습니다 = I will eat (먹 + 겠습니다)
저는 배우겠습니다 = I will learn (배우 + 겠습니다)
Try looking at all the verb conjugations you know together in one table. This table will include the conjugation you learned in
Lesson 5, which I call the “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 when conjugating 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

LESSON VII
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), 저녁식사 = dinner 저녁시간 = evening time, 점심식사 = lunch, 점심시간 = lunch time, 옷 = clothes
Verbs:
찾다 = search for, 공부하다 = study, 가르치다 = teach, 일하다 = work, 짓다 = build 가지다 = own/possess, 잠그다 = to lock
something, 잊다 = forget, 돕다 = help, 주다 = give
Adjectives:
쉽다 = easy, 덥다 = hot, 그립다 = to miss (a thing), 귀엽다 = cute, 춥다 = cold, 어렵다 = difficult 더럽다 = dirty, 바쁘다 = busy,
같다 = same, 안전하다 = safe, 딱딱하다 = hard, 부드럽다 = soft 가능하다 = possible, 불가능하다 = impossible, 맞다 = correct
Adverbs and Other Words:
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 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/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
the stem and thus ㅅ does not get removed:
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. 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 (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. In addition, 걸다 means “to hang.” When conjugating, by adding a vowel it stays as 걸어
Confusing enough? Let’s look at all three:
걷다 = To walk 걷다 = To tuck 걸다 = 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) = 저는 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 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.
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
그 것은 쉬워 = That thing is easy
어렵다 = to be difficult
어렵 + 어요 = 어려 + 우 + 어요 = 어려워요
그 것은 어려워요 = That was 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
그 것은 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, when pronouncing a syllable with the last letter ㅂ, you don’t really
pronounce the ‘B’ sound. 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. This is done to some words ending in ㅂ. Some common words where
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 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.
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 = 바빠요저는 바빠요 = I am busy
Let’s look at another example:
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
If the word ends in a consonant (for example: 긁다 = to scratch), you just add the ~아/어 as you would to a normal word and
nothing needs to merge. For example:
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! 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
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”.
저는 아주 슬퍼요 = I am very sad
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 만들었 습니다 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). For example:
다르다 = different
다르 + 아요 = 다 + ㄹ + 라요 = 달라요
그 것은 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 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.
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 “빠르다 (fast/quick – 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.
빠르다 = fast Past Present Future
Informal low 빨랐어 빨라 빠르겠어
Informal high 빨랐어요 빨라요 빠르겠어요
Plain form 빨랐다 빠르다 빠르겠다
Formal high 빨랐습니다 빠릅니다 빠르겠습니다
Adjective form 빠른 남자 = Fast man
ㄹ Irregular
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 must 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 ~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 ending 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 beautiful
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 honorific forms you have
learned so far. The irregular conjugations are in bold. Notice that this only 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, it does 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, 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 (which is included next) 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 futureI 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 VII
Nouns:
기계 = machine, 대학교 = college, 트럭 = truck, 검은색 = black, 흰색 = white, 음료수 = beverage/drink, 외국 = foreign country,
외국인 = foreigner, 고등학교 = high school, 여행 = travel, 도서관 = library
Verbs:
놀다 = play, 쓰다 = to use, 쓰다 = to write, 실수(하다) = (make a) mistake, 수리(하다) = (to) repair, 잡다 = catch/grab/grasp,
읽다 = read, 내다 = pay for something, 받다 = get/receive/acquire, 도착하다 = to arrive
Adjectives:
젊다 = young, 늙다 = old, 나이가 많다 = old, 완벽하다 = perfect, 아프다 = sick/sore, 똑똑하다 = smart, 중요(하다) = important
Adverbs and Other Words::
즉시 = immediately, 바로 = 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 from when/where something occurred,
until when/where, etc. For now, though, let’s just talk about 에. This is very important. Even though all places (park, house,
hospital, school, office, room, kitchen, etc) are also nouns, 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
저는가을에 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
For some reason, however, Korean people usually don’t add 에 whenever they say “today
(오늘), tomorrow (내일), and yesterday (어제):
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 하다 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 and 많이 essentially have the same meaning aside from the fact that one is an adverb and one is an adjective. With
most words, the difference between the adjective and adverb form is very clear, but with 많이/많다, the meaning is similar.
For example:
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:
I ran really quickly = 저는 매우 빨리 달렸어요
I ate fast = 저는 빨리 먹었어요
I left immediately = 저는 바로 떠났어요
I often meet my friend on Thursday = 저는 저의 친구를 목요일에 자주 만나요
I eat too much sometimes = 저는 가끔 너무 많이 먹어요
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 쉽게 빨리 거리를 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:
By adding 안 (acting as an adverb in the sentence) before a verb/adjective
By adding ~지 않다 to the stem of a verb/adjective. 않다 then becomes the verb/adjective in that sentence and must be
conjugated accordingly. Both have the exact same meaning. When I learned this, I asking a Korean teacher how
can one know when to use 안 or ~지 않다?” His answer: “It is totally up to the speaker.” After saying that, however, he did
say that he thinks ~지 않다 is usually connected to words ending in 하다 whereas 안 is added to the sentence when the
verb/adjective just ends in 다. But don’t pay much attention that: they are exactly the same:
저는 안 공부했어요/저는 공부하지 않았어요 = I didn’t study
저는 안 행복해요/저는 행복하지 않아요 = I’m not happy
저는 내일 학교에 안 가겠어요/저는 내일 학교에 가지 않겠어요 = I’m not going to school tomorrow
저는 생선을 안 좋아해요/저는 생선을 좋아하지 않아요 = I don’t like fish
그 여자는 안 예뻐요 / 그 여자는 예쁘지 않아요 = That girl isn't pretty
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
아니다
이다 is usually conjugated and changed differently compared to normal verbs/adjective, and this case is no exception. The
negative form of 이다 is 아니다. If you want to say 이다 “I am not __” instead of using 이다, you must use 아니다 (essentially,
안 + 이다):
나는 선생님이 아니다 = I am not a teacher
(저는 선생님이 아니에요)
나는 너의 친구가 아니다 = I am not your friend
(저는 너의 친구가 아니에요)
나는 대학생이 아니다 = I am not a University Student
(저는 대학생이 아니에요)
Notice the difference between how 이다 and 아니다 are used. 이다 is always attached directly to the noun: (저는 선생님이다)
whereas 아니다 comes after a noun with the particle 이/가 attached. Also Notice that the examples above are not
conjugated. I haven't taught you how to conjugate 이다 yet, so I don't want to show you how to conjugate 아니다 either. You
will learn how to conjugate 이다 in Lesson 9.
없다
Just like how 아니다 is the opposite of 이다 - 없다 is the opposite of 있다. You learned that 있다 can be used to mean “to
have” or “to be in/at a location/for something to be there”:
To have: 저는 돈이 있다 = I have money
To be in/at a location: 저는 학교 안에 있어요 = I am inside the school 없다, then, can have the meanings of “to not have” or “to
not be in/at a location/for there to be none of”:
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
For there to be none of:
사람이 없었어요 = There was no people
When using this final usage of "없다" (to indicate that there was none of something) it is more natural to use the particle
"이/가" on the subject. The reason for this is actually because this specific meaning and the first meaning above ("to not
have") are actually the same type of sentence. The only difference is the fact that the "to not have" sentences also include a
subject that "does not have" whatever noun is being used. In the "for there to be none of" sentence - there simply isn't a
subject that "does not have" the thing in question. For example:
저는 돈이 없어요 = I don't have money
돈이 없어요 = There is no money
Those two sentences are essentially the same, except for that in the first example, there is a person that "does not have"
the money. Note that these two sentences can literally mean the exact same thing because often times the subject can be
omitted. Therefore “돈이 없어요” could mean either of the following: I don't have money, or There is no money
The context will make it clear specifically which one the speaker is trying to express. However, don't get too bent out of
shape about the difference between those two. I'm making it more complicated than it needs to be.
Other Negative Words
Just like in English, there are many words that actually have a negative meaning. For example, "싫어하다" is a verb that
means to dislike something. There is also "싫다" which means "bad/to not like/to dislike." The difference between 싫어하다
and 싫다 is the same as the difference between 좋아하다 and 좋다. Because 싫어하다 is a verb, the
object particles (를/을) must be attached to the thing that one dislikes. For example:
저는 과일을 싫어해요 = I dislike fruit
싫 다, however (like 좋다) is an adjective. Therefore, if you want to use "싫다" to say that you dislike something, the particles
"이/가" must be attached to the thing that one dislikes. For example:
저는 과일이 싫어요 = I dislike fruit
Both of those are essentially the same as:
저는 과일을 안 좋아해요/저는 과일을 좋아하지 않아요
저는 과일이 안 좋아요 / 저는 과일이 좋지 않아요
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 VIII
Nouns:
기계 = machine, 대학교 = college, 트럭 = truck, 검은색 = black, 흰색 = white, 음료수 = beverage/drink 외국 = foreign country,
외국인 = foreigner, 고등학교 = high school, 여행 = travel, 도서관 = library
Verbs:
놀다 = play, 쓰다 = to use, 쓰다 = to write, 실수(하다) = (make a) mistake, 수리(하다) = (to) repair, 잡다 = catch/grab/grasp,
읽다 = read, 내다 = pay for something, 받다 = get/receive/acquire, 도착하다 = to arrive
Adjectives:
젊다 = young, 늙다 = old, 나이가 많다 = old, 완벽하다 = perfect, 아프다 = sick/sore, 똑똑하다 = smart, 중요(하다) = important
Adverbs and Other Words::
즉시 = immediately, 바로 = 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 from when/where something occurred,
until when/where, etc. For now, though, let’s just talk about 에. This is very important. Even though all places (park, house,
hospital, school, office, room, kitchen, etc) are also nouns, 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
저는가을에 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
For some reason, however, Korean people usually don’t add 에 whenever they say “today (오늘), tomorrow (내일), and
yesterday (어제):
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 하다 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 and 많이 essentially have the same meaning aside from the fact that one is an adverb and one is an adjective. With
most words, the difference between the adjective and adverb form is very clear, but with 많이/많다, the meaning is similar.
For example:
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:
I ran really quickly = 저는 매우 빨리 달렸어요
I ate fast = 저는 빨리 먹었어요
I left immediately = 저는 바로 떠났어요
I often meet my friend on Thursday = 저는 저의 친구를 목요일에 자주 만나요
I eat too much sometimes = 저는 가끔 너무 많이 먹어요
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 쉽게 빨리 거리를 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:
By adding 안 (acting as an adverb in the sentence) before a verb/adjective
By adding ~지 않다 to the stem of a verb/adjective. 않다 then becomes the verb/adjective in that sentence and must be
conjugated accordingly. Both have the exact same meaning. When I learned this, I asking a Korean teacher how can one know
when to use 안 or ~지 않다?” His answer: “It is totally up to the speaker.” After saying that, however, he did say that he
thinks ~지 않다 is usually connected to words ending in 하다 whereas 안 is added to the sentence when the verb/adjective
just ends in 다. But don’t pay much attention that: they are exactly the same:
저는 안 공부했어요/저는 공부하지 않았어요 = I didn’t study
저는 안 행복해요/저는 행복하지 않아요 = I’m not happy
저는 내일 학교에 안 가겠어요/저는 내일 학교에 가지 않겠어요 = I’m not going to school tomorrow
저는 생선을 안 좋아해요/저는 생선을 좋아하지 않아요 = I don’t like fish
그 여자는 안 예뻐요 / 그 여자는 예쁘지 않아요 = That girl isn't pretty
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
아니다
이다 is usually conjugated and changed differently compared to normal verbs/adjective, and this case is no exception. The
negative form of 이다 is 아니다. If you want to say
이다 “I am not __” instead of using 이다, you must use 아니다 (essentially, 안 + 이다):
나는 선생님이 아니다 = I am not a teacher (저는 선생님이 아니에요)
나는 너의 친구가 아니다 = I am not your friend (저는 너의 친구가 아니에요)
나는 대학생이 아니다 = I am not a University Student (저는 대학생이 아니에요)
Notice the difference between how 이다 and 아니다 are used. 이다 is always attached directly to the noun: (저는 선생님이다)
whereas 아니다 comes after a noun with the particle 이/가 attached. Also Notice that the examples above are not
conjugated. I haven't taught you how to conjugate 이다 yet, so I don't want to show you how to conjugate 아니다 either. You
will learn how to conjugate 이다 in Lesson 9.
없다
Just like how 아니다 is the opposite of 이다 - 없다 is the opposite of 있다. You learned that 있다 can be used to mean “to
have” or “to be in/at a location/for something to be there”:
To have: 저는 돈이 있다 = I have money
To be in/at a location: 저는 학교 안에 있어요 = I am inside the school
없다, then, can have the meanings of “to not have” or “to not be in/at a location/for there to be none of”:
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
For there to be none of:
사람이 없었어요 = There was no people
When using this final usage of "없다" (to indicate that there was none of something) it is more natural to use the particle
"이/가" on the subject. The reason for this is actually because this specific meaning and the first meaning above ("to not
have") are actually the same type of sentence. The only difference is the fact that the "to not have" sentences also include a
subject that "does not have" whatever noun is being used. In the "for there to be none of" sentence - there simply isn't a
subject that "does not have" the thing in question.
For example:
저는 돈이 없어요 = I don't have money
돈이 없어요 = There is no money
Those two sentences are essentially the same, except for that in the first example, there is a person that "does not have"
the money. Note that these two sentences can literally mean the exact same thing because often times the subject can be
omitted. Therefore “돈이 없어요” could mean either of the following:
I don't have money, or There is no money
The context will make it clear specifically which one the speaker is trying to express. However, don't get too bent out of
shape about the difference between those two. I'm making it more complicated than it needs to be.
Other Negative Words
Just like in English, there are many words that actually have a negative meaning. For example, "싫어하다" is a verb that
means to dislike something. There is also "싫다" which means "bad/to not like/to dislike." The difference between 싫어하다
and 싫다 is the same as the difference between 좋아하다 and 좋다. Because 싫어하다 is a verb, the
object particles (를/을) must be attached to the thing that one dislikes. For example:
저는 과일을 싫어해요 = I dislike fruit
싫 다, however (like 좋다) is an adjective. Therefore, if you want to use "싫다" to say that you dislike something, the particles
"이/가" must be attached to the thing that one dislikes. For example:
저는 과일이 싫어요 = I dislike fruit
Both of those are essentially the same as:
저는 과일을 안 좋아해요/저는 과일을 좋아하지 않아요
저는 과일이 안 좋아요 / 저는 과일이 좋지 않아요
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 IX
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 discover, 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:
나는 선생님이다 = I am a teacher
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 in Lesson 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 must follow
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 their 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 alongwith 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 X
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, 처음 = the first time/beginning
Common Usages:
처음에 = at first
처음부터 = from the beginning
처음부터 끝까지 = from start to finish
오랜만에 처음으로 = for the first time in a long time
Notes: This can be used in sentences when you are talking about the first time something is being done. Or it can be used as
an adverb to have the meaning “in the beginning”
See below in this lesson for more information.
Examples:
저는 처음에 우리 학교가 좋지 않았어요 = I didn’t like our school at first
저는 어제 공항에 처음 갔어요 = Yesterday, I went to the airport for the first time
저는 내일 한국에 처음 갈 것입니다 = I will go to Korea for the first time tomorrow
그들은 저를 처음부터 싫어했어요 = They didn’t like me from the start
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
그녀는 처음으로 그녀의 감정을 드러냈어요 = She revealed her emotions from the 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 ninety (100 + 90), 구백 = nine hundred (9 x 100), 천 = one thousand (1000), 천구백 = 1900
오천 = 5000, 오천육백 = 5600, 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 (Korean) girlfriend
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 or people or 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 four 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 today
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 the next 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:
2시 = 2:00 (2 o’clock)
When talking about the minute, add 분 after the number:
2시 30분 = 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:
2시 30분 = 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.” Here, using the numeral or the
word is equally as common and acceptable. 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:
2시 30분
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:
3시 10분 = 3:10
세 시 십 분 = Three ten
12시 50분 = 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 5시에 먹을 거야 = I will eat at 5:00
나는 2시 30분에 왔어 = I came at 2:30
우리는 야구를 1시에 할 거예요 = We will play baseball at 1:00
우리는 7시 20분에 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 100th page
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
처 음 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 its 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
That’s it for this lesson!
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!