Spoken Korean

Karavinka
Spoken Korean

Postby Karavinka » 2009-03-07, 7:16

Spoken Korean: Lesson 1

This is my new attempt to write a course of Korean. The only requirement that I ask you is that you know Hangeul. I will try to minimise the use of the grammar jargons, and each lesson will not contain any more than two pages, if you copy and paste this into Microsoft Word, Times New Roman point twelve.

A few brief notes about the structure of the language are required. Korean is called an agglutinating language, that is, they glue little words called the particles to the other words. Learning how the particles work is crucial in understanding how a sentence works and also for you to form the new sentences. Another interesting feature of Korean is that the verbs are conjugated not according to any number or person, but according to the politeness. This can be quite challenging to master, but as a foreigner who learns the language, one can simply stick to one level of politeness that is generally usable and the least offensive. In the first lessons, a single form of the politeness will be used throughout.

When you want to introduce yourself, you need to know the word for “I”, that is “저.” But when you introduce yourself, you’re talking about yourself – that is, you are the topic of the sentence. This “topicality” is not marked in English, but it is in Korean. And this topicality, like other grammatical concepts, is introduced by a particle. We will call it the “topic marker” here, because it marks the topic. The marker is “는.” So far, it gives you a little phrase “저는.”

Still, you haven’t told anything about yourself. A sentence must contain a verb, and the verb for “to be” is “입니다”, pronounced “임니다.” Where would you put the contents? Certainly, you have to be something. And this something must come between the subject and the verb. In Korean, the main verb of the sentence always comes at the end. So, you want to say you are a student – a “학생.” You don’t have to worry about the article “a” because articles don’t exist in Korean. “학생” may mean a student, the student, or just student. How would you say it?

저는 학생입니다. (Pronounced: 저는 학생임니다.)

Now, it’s natural to move on to another personal pronoun, “you.” As mentioned above, politeness is not only cultural but a linguistic part of the Korean language, and it could be offensive to address someone directly using “you.” This is not an uncommon phenomenon, as in tu/vous distinction in French or du/Sie in German illustrates – in order to avoid the directness, they use plural forms in the formal situations. In English, thou was such a casual form which was dropped out of the language and replaced by the plural you. The second person pronoun given here is “당신”, literally means “your body.”

But we need to review our topic marker here. It’s hard to pronounce “당신는” because the two consecutive n’s make it sound unnatural, at least to a Korean speaker. In order to ease the pronunciation, you simply drop the ㄴ in 는. How would you say “you are a student”?

당신은 학생입니다. (Pronounced: 당시는 학생임니다.)

You may notice that in pronunciation that the ㄴ in 당신 gets elided to 은 and still yields you the same 는. 은 is used when the preceding word ends in a consonant.

Let’s turn this into a question. The word 입니다 has three parts, which can be recognised as 입-니-다. The other parts will be explained later on, but here we will focus only on the last one, “다.” This is used to form a declarative sentence, that you declare that you are something. When you ask a question, you’re not declaring something, you are interrogating and hence the interrogative has to be used. The interrogative is –까. Now, how would you ask “are you a student?”

당신은 학생입니까? (Pronounced: 당시는 학생임니까?)

Now, let’s try saying “The student is me.” The topic of your sentence is now “the student.” What would it be in Korean?

학생은 저입니다.

In corollary, “the student is you?”

학생은 당신입니다.

This is the end of the first lesson.

Karavinka

Re: Spoken Korean

Postby Karavinka » 2009-03-07, 7:40

Spoken Korean: Lesson 2

In the previous lesson, you learned to say that you are a student and to ask if someone is a student. How would you say them in Korean?

저는 학생입니다. 당신은 학생입니까?

You may want to specify you are a student of what. Let’s say, the Korean language, “한국어.” (Pronounced 한구거) Now, you are a student of Korean, and this “of” is called genitive. The genitive, as you may now expect, requires a particle, “의” (Pronounced 이). How would you say you are a student of Korean? Remember that the verb must come at the end of every sentence.

저는 한국어의 학생입니다.

Ask if someone is a student of Korean.

당신은 한국어의 학생입니까?

In spoken language, the “의” particle is often omitted altogether, because it is treated as if it is a noun compound. How would you say you are a student of Korean, and ask if someone is, without using the particle?

저는 한국어 학생입니다.
당신은 한국어 학생입니까?


Now, when you’re saying these sentences, you may want to put words like “too” or “as well” – “are you a student of Korean as well?” Not surprisingly, this requires a particle. You simply replace 은/는 with “도.” How would you say “I’m a student of Korean. Are you a student of Korean as well?”

저는 한국어의 학생입니다. 당신도 한국어의 학생입니까?

Now, imagine you’re being asked what you just said above. You want to respond that you too are a student of Korean. How would you do it?

저도 한국어의 학생입니다.

A student is someone who studies. And the word “study” is “공부” in Korean. In Korean, the nouns can be simply transformed into verbs by adding “-합니다” (pronounced 함니다), literally “to do.” So instead of saying “I study”, you’re saying “I study-do” in Korean. Try saying “I am a student of Korean as well. I study.”

저도 한국어의 학생입니다. 저는 공부합니다.

Something is missing there. What do you study? You must study something, and this something is an object. The objects are, again, marked with a particle. The particle is “를.” Try saying “I study Korean.”

저는 한국어를 공부합니다.

Ask if someone studies Korean as well.

당신도 한국어를 공부합니까?

In Korean, you don’t say you “speak” a language, but you actually “do” a language. Instead of “I speak Korean”, you would say “I do Korean.” Try saying that. Remember that “Korean” is the object of the sentence.

저는 한국어를 합니다.

And ask if someone speaks Korean as well.

당신도 한국어를 합니까?

The word for “English” is 영어. –어 at the end is a suffix that marks a “language.” How would you ask if someone speaks English?

당신은 영어를 합니까?

And that could be a very useful sentence in travelling. This is the end of the second lesson.

Karavinka

Re: Spoken Korean

Postby Karavinka » 2009-03-08, 3:35

Spoken Korean: Lesson 3

In the previous lessons, we have learned how to say a simple sentence and make it a question. How would you say: “I am a student of Korean. Do you speak Korean?”

저는 한국어의 학생입니다. 당신은 한국어를 합니까?

Let us make the sentence more complex. Instead of saying “I speak”, how can you say “I can speak?” The words like can, should, will, etc are called auxiliaries or modals in English and they behave like verbs. But in Korean, you must say “There is a way for me to speak Korean” instead. This “way” is “수”, and “there is” is “있습니다.” Notice that the subject is often absent in Korean, and you don’t have to translate “there.”

The difference between “입니다” and “있습니다” can be confusing at the beginning stage. The verb “입니다” requires a predicate, that is, something has to be something. You are a student. The sky is blue. On the other hand, “있습니다” indicates the existence. A more literal translation can be: There exists.

Unlike in English, the main verb “speak” (or here, “to do”) comes before the final verb, “있습니다” and “합니다” changes to “할,” from its dictionary form “하다.” The mechanism will be explained in a greater depth in the later lessons, but here we will be treating “할 수 있습니다” as a whole. How would you say “I can speak Korean?”

저는 한국어를 할 수 있습니다.

Now, how would you ask someone if the person can speak Korean as well?

당신도 한국어를 할 수 있습니까?

But it could be as useful to know how to say that you can’t do something. In other words, you will have to negate the sentence. In English, there are two main ways to do this. You can say “I cannot speak Korean” or “I speak no Korean.” Likewise in Korean, there are two main ways you can negate this sentence. One is to negate the verb 있습니다(있다), the other is to negate 합니다(하다).

How do you say “I speak Korean?”

저는 한국어를 합니다.

In order to say “I speak no Korean”, you have to simply add the word corresponding to “no” – 못 (Pronounced 몯). 못 needs to come before the verb as it is a part of the verbal structure of the sentence. How would you say you speak no Korean?

저는 한국어를 못 합니다.

This word 못 negates the sentence in a sense that it is not possible for you to speak Korean. But what if you want to say: “I can speak, but I won’t speak Korean?” There is another general negation, “안” for unwillingness to do something. Try saying: “I cannot speak Korean. I will not speak English.”

저는 한국어를 못 합니다. 저는 영어를 안 합니다.

We have learned another way of saying it, that there is no way for me to speak Korean, using “할 수 있습니다.” The verb 있습니다(있다) is of a curious kind, that it shows a lexical negation – that is, instead of negating the verb, you use the word that means the opposite of the verb. In English, “to be full” and “to be empty” are antonyms, but being “not full” does not mean “empty” as there can be a continuum between fullness and emptiness, like half-full. But something has to either exist, or not exist. The verb for “not to exist” is 없습니다(없다). How would you say that you can’t speak Korean?

저는 한국어를 할 수 없습니다.

How did you say “I study Korean” in the previous lesson?

저는 한국어를 공부합니다.

공부합니다 is made of two parts, 공부 and 합니다. How would you say you don’t study, that is you’re not willing to study Korean?

저는 한국어를 공부 안 합니다.

This is the end of the third lesson.



Spoken Korean: Lesson 4

How did you say you don’t study Korean?

저는 한국어를 공부 안 합니다.

But what if you want to study, but the circumstances prevent you from studying?

저는 한국어를 공부 못 합니다.

Now, since you have learned Korean over the previous lessons, you may want to say that you “studied” Korean. In Korean, there is no direct past tense, and the perfect tense like “I have studied” is used instead. In English, you use “have” in order to form the perfect tense. In Korean, it is the infix -었-. The dictionary form, or the infinitive, of the verb “합니다” is “하다.” 하- is the stem, and –다 is the declarative ending. –었- is placed between them, yielding 하었다. But like any other languages, Korean has contractions in the spoken language, and it becomes simply 했다. What was the verb for “there exists?”

있습니다.

This verb is in the polite form. The infinitive of 있습니다 is 있다. How would you make the polite form of 했다?

했습니다.

How would you say “I studied Korean?”

저는 한국어를 공부했습니다.

How would you ask if someone studied Korean?

당신은 한국어를 공부했습니까?

Now, let us give more room for the language by adding another particle to say where you learned Korean. The word for “school” is “학교,” and you will know that the “where” part should come between the subject and the verb. Whenever you indicate what you do in a place, the particle is “에서.” How would you say that you studied Korean in school?

저는 학교에서 한국어를 공부했습니다.
저는 한국어를 학교에서 공부했습니다.

The two sentences above will be translated the same in English. The particles allow us to figure out what you did and where, and thus the word order is not important. The small difference between the two would be the matter of emphasis. How would you respond if someone asked you where you learned Korean?

저는 학교에서 한국어를 공부했습니다.

If someone asked you what you learned in school?

저는 한국어를 학교에서 공부했습니다.

You may have learned Korean at home. The word for “home, house” is 집. How would you say that you learned Korean at home?

저는 한국어를 집에서 공부했습니다.

Why did you do that? Maybe you were not in a circumstance to attend a school. How would you say you couldn’t study Korean in a school?

저는 한국어를 학교에서 공부하지 못 했습니다.
저는 한국어를 학교에서 공부할 수 없었습니다.

Or:

저는 학교에서 한국어를 공부하지 못 했습니다.
저는 한국어를 학교에서 공부할 수 없었습니다.

Students almost always say that they couldn’t do the homework, using 못 instead of they didn’t, using 안. This is the end of the fourth lesson.

Karavinka

Re: Spoken Korean

Postby Karavinka » 2009-03-08, 15:47

Spoken Korean: Lesson 5

How did you say that you studied Korean at home in the last lesson?

저는 한국어를 집에서 공부했습니다.

In Korean, the subject of the sentence is often omitted when the context makes it clear who is doing the action. How would you say the same thing without making the subject explicit?

한국어를 집에서 공부했습니다.

Now, let us recall that the infinitive form of the word for “to do” is “하다.” We used this form instead of the polite “합니다” to give us “했다” and “했습니다.” The –다 ending in the infinitive is the declarative ending, and it is used to end a sentence – you might have noticed that all declarative sentences ended with –다. The verb for “to eat” is “먹다” in the infinitive. If the polite form of “있다” is “있습니다”, what would be the polite form of “먹다”?

먹습니다.

You need to eat something. Let’s say, 밥. This word means two things: cooked rice and any kind of meal in general. How do you say that you have a meal?

밥을 먹습니다.

Let’s try making this past. Since the past tense proper doesn’t exist in Korean, we use the perfect, whose auxiliary is –었-. How would you do it?

밥을 먹었습니다.

You would say this if someone asked you what you did. If you were asked whether you had a meal, then you’re not talking about yourself, but you will be responding to a question on a topic – that is, you will be using the topic marker instead. How would you do this?

밥은 먹었습니다.

Let’s turn this into a question. You want to ask whether someone had a meal in general. That is, the meal is the topic.

밥은 먹었습니까?

What if you want to ask whether the person had rice?

밥을 먹었습니까?

The topicality involving 은/는 can be confusing to the learners, and they will be frequently revisited to give you a greater sense of the concept. It can be roughly translated as “as for” or “since we are talking about” something. How would you ask if someone learned Korean?

한국어는 공부했습니까?

What if you want to ask confirmation whether it was Korean that the person learned?

한국어를 공부했습니까?

The general words for “yes” and “no” are “네” and “아니요.” But the usage is different from English, that they are used to confirm whether the questioner’s expectation is right or wrong. How would you respond to this question: “밥을 먹었습니까?” if you did.

네. 먹었습니다.

How would you respond to the question “밥을 안 먹었습니까?” if you didn’t eat the meal? The questioner assumes that you didn’t, and hence the question is negative but his expectation is not correct.

아니요. 먹었습니다.

This may sound strange at first, as if “no, I did.” But what is conveyed is rather: “no, you’re wrong, I actually had it.” This is the end of the lesson five.

Karavinka

Re: Spoken Korean

Postby Karavinka » 2009-03-09, 5:43

Spoken Korean: Lesson 6

How did you answer to the question “밥을 안 먹었습니까?” if you had a meal?

아니요, 먹었습니다.

Let’s add some more words. How would you say you ate at home?

집에서 먹었습니다.

But say you didn’t have a meal yet. How would you say “let’s go to restaurant?” The word for the restaurant is 식당. But as you wouldn’t just say “let’s go restaurant”, you need to add something to indicate the direction. This is another particle, “-에.” The word for “to go” is 가다. If the polite form of “하다” is “합니다”, what would be the polite form of “가다”?

갑니다.

How would you say that you go to restaurant?

저는 식당에 갑니다.

That you go to school?

저는 학교에 갑니다.

But this is not enough yet. You may want to say you go to some place in order to do something. You go to restaurant to eat, you go to school to study, etc. In order to express this idea, we begin from the base form 먹다 and 공부하다 again. Which parts represent the declarative ending and thus need to be removed?

다.

The verb ending equivalent to “in order to” is “-러” which replaces “-다.” How would you say that you go to school to study?

저는 공부하러 학교에 갑니다.

That you go to restaurant to have a meal? “먹러” is hard to pronounce, so you add another syllable, making it “먹으러.” This happens when the stem ends with a consonant.

저는 밥을 먹으러 식당에 갑니다.

In both sentences, it is implied that you haven’t reached the place yet. You may also want to say “I study at school.” In English, the present tense may be used to express not only what you are doing now, but also a general habit. You take bus everyday, you study at home, you eat at restaurants, etc. The particle –에 is a direction to which your heading, and you will need another attachment, -서, giving us the familiar –에서. How would you say that you eat at restaurants?

저는 식당에서 밥을 먹습니다.

Unless the context demands that it is necessary to clarify whether you are talking about one thing or more, Korean uses singular forms throughout because the plural is implicitly understood. How would you say I study at school?

저는 학교에서 공부합니다.

Now, let’s combine the two sentences. You will need a word for “and.” In Korean, the word ending –다 must always come at the end of the sentence, and you cannot join two sentences ending with –다 with a conjunction like you do in English. Instead of –으러 which denotes “in order to”, the “and” is –고, which replaces –다 in the first clause. How would you say that you eat at a restaurant and go to school to study?

저는 식당에서 밥을 먹고 학교에 공부하러 갑니다.

Try saying the same sentence in the opposite sequence:

저는 학교에서 공부하고 식당에 밥을 먹으러 갑니다.

This is the end of the lesson six.


Spoken Korean: Lesson 7

How did you say you’re going home?

저는 집에 갑니다.

How did you say you’re studying at home?

저는 집에서 공부합니다.

In the second response above, you notice that the particle –에서 is actually a particle compound made of two smaller ones, -에 and –서. –에 expresses the direction and –서 gives you an idea where the action takes place. Try saying that you are studying here. The word for “here” is 여기, and since you are here, there is no further movement.

저는 여기서 공부합니다.

Ask if someone studies here as well:

당신도 여기서 공부합니까?

Imagine you are calling someone. How would you ask if someone studies there? The word for “there” is 거기.

당신은 거기서 공부합니까?

And the person may reply: “네, 여기서 공부합니다.” You may want to go there as well to study with the person. How would you say “I go there to study as well”?

저도 거기에서 공부하러 갑니다.

In the spoken language, many native speakers would omit the particle –에- in this case, saying “거기서” instead. However, I would not encourage the beginners to do the same because unlike the English contractions, omitting a particle can potentially change the meaning.

The use of –서 is quite limited, and you can replace –서 after location with –에서 and it can still be a correct Korean. For example, “여기서” and “저기서” can be said “여기에서” and “저기에서” and be understood perfectly. I introduced –서 here because it has another more important function, “and.”

In English, “and” can either link two sentences or simply link two words. I go and play, he comes and goes, etc. The two sentences you responded at the beginning of the lesson can be combined to “I go home and study.” First, you have to go home. This is simply directional and the expected particle would be:

저는 집에

The problem comes with 가다 with the ending –다. –다 always ends the sentence there, and it is this –다 that has to be replaced with –서. How would you say “I go home and…”?

저는 집에 가서

The rest can follow. Try saying the full sentence, “I go home and study.”

저는 집에 가서 공부합니다.

How would you say “I go to restaurant and have a meal”? Try using the same structure.

저는 식당에 가서 밥을 먹습니다.

Now, let us build upon this sentence even further. “To go to restaurant” and “to eat” are two necessarily related parts of the same action, and hence they are more likely connected with –서 rather than –고. But to have a meal at a restaurant and to go to school to study afterwards are not the integral parts of the same action, and they would be joined with –고. Try saying that you go to restaurant, have a meal and go to school to study.

저는 식당에 가서 밥을 먹고 학교에 가서 공부합니다.

This is the end of the lesson 7.

Karavinka

Re: Spoken Korean

Postby Karavinka » 2009-03-23, 20:38

Spoken Korean: Lesson 8
Let us review some of the particles that we have learned so far. Try saying that you are a student, and ask whether someone is also a student.

저는 학생입니다. 당신도 학생입니까?

As you can see, the two particles “는” and “도” express a single grammatical concept. This is the so-called analytic part of the language, where one little word expresses one grammatical concept. How did you say that you study Korean at home?

집에서 한국어를 공부합니다.

Again, there are three little pieces. –에, roughly corresponding to “at” in this case, tells you the direction and –서 further gives you where the action takes place. –를 signified that you study Korean, not the other way around – and so we know that we are not in Soviet Russia where Korean studies you.

Can you combine the three particles –에, -서 and –는? You perfectly can. The particle –는 would give you what you are talking about, and –에서 will tell where the action takes place. Try saying: “as for what I do at home, I study.”

집에서는 공부합니다.

This is useful when you contrast two different actions taking place in different locations. Try saying that you study at school, and another sentence that you rest at home. The verb to rest is “쉽니다” in the polite form.

학교에서는 공부합니다. 집에서는 쉽니다.

That sounds choppy. How would you combine the two sentences? Remember –고.

학교에서는 공부하고 집에서는 쉽니다.

Let us add some more words in the vocabulary. The words for “weekdays” and “weekends” are “주중” and “주말”, respectively. And you cannot just work in Korean, you should do work in Korean. The word for “work” is “일.” Try saying that you work in the weekdays and rest in the weekends. Of course, you wouldn’t add –서 because it tells you where the action takes place and weekdays and weekends are not locations.

주중에는 일하고 주말에는 쉽니다.

In English, the word “return” is made of “re-“ and “turn,” and this logic works in most languages, Korean not an exception. “돌다” is a verb for “to turn back” and “오다” is to come. The word for “to come back” is “돌아오다.” Try to guess what the polite form of this word would be. The polite form of “가다” was “갑니다.”

돌아옵니다.

Let’s talk about some weekend schedule. Try saying you’re studying at school in the weekdays and go to Seoul in the weekend.

주중에는 학교에서 공부하고 주말에는 서울에 갑니다.

And you may want to come back to your hometown during the vacations. The school vacation and the vacation from work are two different words in Korean, and the former is 방학. Say you come back home during the school vacation.

방학에는 집에 돌아옵니다.

Then what do you do during the semester? The word for “semester” is 학기, but the duration of the semester is 학기중. Say you study Korean at a school in Korea during the semester and come back home during the school vacation.

학기중에는 한국의 학교에서 한국어를 공부하고 방학에는 집에 돌아옵니다.

You may wonder why –의 after 한국의 instead of –에. We will see it in the next lesson. And if you said 방학중 instead, don’t worry – it is perfectly acceptable as well. For the last notes on this lesson, some Koreans may space between the words 학기중 or 돌아오다 and some will not. Spacing is often a problem for the native speakers as well, and it is permissible whether you space between the compound words or not. This is the end of Lesson 8.


Spoken Korean: Lesson 9

We will begin this lesson by adding another particle to your repertoire. This is –이/-가. The two forms are identical in meaning, but –이 is placed when the preceding word ends with a consonant and –가 when it ends with a vowel. How did you say “as for me” using the form –은/-는?

저는

Using –이/-가, you will know that you will have to use –가 because 저 ends with a vowel. But there is a slight irregularity and it becomes 제가. 저가 is right in some dialects, but in Standard Korean it is 제가. This marks the grammatical subject, and hence it is called the subject particle. Try saying you study Korean.

제가 한국어를 공부합니다.

How is it different from 저는? Using 저는, there was no grammatical subject. In Korean, grammatical subjects are often omitted and when it is used, it is for emphasis. The above sentence conveys the sense that it is you who study Korean, not someone else. Try saying that you speak Korean, using –은/는.

저는 한국어를 합니다.

But let’s say you’re with a friend who doesn’t speak Korean. Someone asks you which one of you two speaks Korean, and you would reply:

제가 한국어를 합니다.

The –이/-가 construction has another important function. In Korean, adjectives do not exist per se and they are formed as if they were verbs. For example, “to be blue” is a single word in Korean, “푸르다.” What would be the polite form of this verb?

푸릅니다.

These are the so-called “adjectival verbs” because they serve the function of the adjectives in other languages. The word for “sky” is “하늘.” Using –이/-가, try saying that the sky is blue.

하늘이 푸릅니다.

Another useful adjectival verb is 좋다, which means both “to be good” and “to like.” Try saying that the sky is good. The polite form is 좋습니다.

하늘이 좋습니다.

But what if you want to say you like the sky? The grammatical subject is already present as 하늘, because it is marked by –이. The person who likes it is not a subject in Korean, this is a topic, “as for my preferences…” Try saying that you like sky.

저는 하늘이 좋습니다.

This literally means: “as for me, the sky is good” or “the sky is good, as far as I am concerned.” What if the weather is good? The word for the weather is “날씨.”

날씨가 좋습니다.

Make it into a question. “Is the weather good?”

날씨가 좋습니까?

Then how would you say that you like Korean? Or literally, “as far as I am concerned, Korean is good.”

저는 한국어가 좋습니다.

But you may like something better. Say, English – “영어.” In order to express comparative, you simply add a little word “더” which literally means “more.” Say that you like English better.

저는 영어가 더 좋습니다.

This is the end of lesson 9.


Spoken Korean: Lesson 10.

We will start this lesson by reviewing the last. Say that you like Korean, and then in a separate sentence, that you like English better.

저는 한국어가 좋습니다. 저는 영어가 더 좋습니다.

Well, that sounds quite choppy and awkward. You would want a conjunction, “but” – You like Korean, but you like English better. What was the verb ending that was used to indicate “and”? Say that you eat a meal and study at home.

저는 집에서 밥을 먹고 공부합니다.

The little ending –고 was used to link the two phrases, “밥을 먹다” and “공부하다.” The politeness depends on the last verb in any given sentence and 먹고 is formed from the base form 먹다. In order to say “but” instead of “and,” all you need to do is to replace –고 with –지만. Try saying the first sentence again using this conjunction, and remember the base form of 좋습니다 is 좋다.

저는 한국어가 좋지만 영어가 더 좋습니다.

While this is perfectly understandable, it would still sound “foreigner” to most Koreans. Try saying “I like Korean as well, but I like English better.”

저는 한국어도 좋지만 영어가 더 좋습니다.

Ask someone whether he or she prefers Korean. Literally, whether Korean is better as far as the person is concerned.

당신은 한국어가 더 좋습니까?

Another useful word in making comparison is 보다. This is a homophone, as a verb it means “to see” but as a particle it means “than.” Since it is a particle, it would have to be attached after the noun it refers to. Ask if the person prefers Korean over English.

당신은 영어보다 한국어가 더 좋습니까?

Try to respond to this question by saying: “yes, I prefer Korean.”

네, 한국어가 더 좋습니다.

You may hear 예 instead of 네 as well. This is another way of affirming someone’s question, and both forms are equally right and quite interchangeable. Try saying the same sentence, using 예.

예, 한국어가 더 좋습니다.

What if you want to say no? Well, the word was “아니요.” Say: “no, I prefer English.”

아니요, 영어가 더 좋습니다.

In both cases, what you said literally means “Korean is better” or “English is better.” It is perfectly possible to omit 저는 or even 당신은 in the spoken conversations because the contexts clearly determines whose preference you are talking about. In a question, it has to be the second person. Otherwise, it is assumed to be yours. For example, the word for “head” is “머리” and “to ache” is “아프다.” Try saying “the head aches.”

머리가 아픕니다.

And Koreans will almost automatically assume that it is your head that you are talking about. The negative equivalent of “더” is “덜.” Now try to say that your head aches less.

머리가 덜 아픕니다.

Try saying that you like Seoul, but less than Pusan, another city in the southeast. Literally, “I like Seoul as well, but I like it less than Pusan.”

저는 서울도 좋아하지만 부산보다(는) 덜 좋아합니다.

Adding –는 is optional. While it is possible to drop it out, it is better to include it because the subject is still Seoul. This is the end of lesson 10.

Karavinka

Re: Spoken Korean

Postby Karavinka » 2009-04-07, 2:03

Spoken Korean: Lesson 11

The verb to express preference is “좋아하다.” There is a slight difference between “좋다” and “좋아하다” – the former states something is good for you, while the latter has a stronger sense that you like something. How did you say you liked Korean, using “좋다”?
저는 한국어가 좋습니다.

In the sentence above, the particle is –가 because you are saying it in an indirect way that something is good, as if “it pleases me.” But when you like something, it needs an object, marked with –을/를. The polite form of 하다 is 합니다. How would you say you like Korean?

저는 한국어를 좋아합니다.

But, be careful: when you use this latter form with respect to a person, that usually means you are in love in with the person. The formal form of “you” applicable here is “당신.” How would you say, “I love you?”
저는 당신을 좋아합니다.

Still, “좋아하다” literally means “to like.” Another word, a more equivalent with “love” is 사랑. “사랑” is a noun, so how would you make it a verb?

사랑하다.

Now, try to confess love in Korean:

저는 당신을 사랑합니다.

A few words are necessary with respect to the word 당신. The general rule is to avoid using it whenever it is possible, as Korean generally does so. The direct reference to the second person is very much avoided in all situations, and using this word to the superiors can often be perceived as rude. In the context above, it seems that it is quite necessary to say who you are in love with, but even here this can be omitted altogether. Try saying it without any pronouns.

사랑합니다.

And the personal pronouns are simply understood in the context. You should stop yourself rigidly translating the personal pronouns unless it can cause confusion otherwise, and this is one of the keys to sound idiomatic in Korean.

Let us try saying “I want.” The basic form is –고 싶다. The –고 form was discussed in the previous lessons, and you’re literally saying “I want and do something.” How did you say that you study at home and eat at a restaurant?

집에서 공부하고 식당에서 밥을 먹습니다.

Then, try saying that you want to study at home. The polite form of 싶다 is 싶습니다.

집에서 공부하고 싶습니다.

And that you want to eat at a restaurant?

식당에서 밥을 먹고 싶습니다.

There is no reason why you cannot say the two kinds of –고 in one sentence. Try saying that you want to study at home and eat at a restaurant. In English, the word “want” is employed only once and you will do likewise in Korean. Since this is the main verb, it has to be placed at the end of the sentence.

집에서 공부하고 식당에서 밥을 먹고 싶습니다.

Note that -고 as in 공부하고 is used to serialise two verbs, while the –고 in 먹고 is used in the construction “to want.” Try saying you want to speak Korean.

한국어를 하고 싶습니다.

And you are getting there. This is the end of lesson 11.



Spoken Korean: Lesson 12

How did you say that you study Korean?

한국어를 공부합니다.

With what do you study Korean? This introduces another particle, -으로. It has two main functions, one of which is to denote the instrument. The word for “book” is “책”, and how would you say “with a book”, that is, “using a book”?

책으로

Now, try saying that you study Korean in a school using a book.

학교에서 책으로 한국어를 공부합니다.

What kind of book? Well, let’s just say a good book. As discussed above, the adjective proper does not exist in Korean and the so-called “adjectival verbs” will take a gerund form, equivalent to –ing in English. The word for “to be good” was 좋다, and the equivalent to –ing in Korean is –은. The infinitive ending –다 is dropped out and replaced by this gerund ending. Try saying “good book.” Adjectives come before the noun in Korean.

좋은 책

We had another adjectival verb of this kind before, 푸르다. Using the same logic, it should be “푸르은” but two “ㅡ” in sequence contract into one, yielding “푸른.” Try saying “blue sky”:

푸른 하늘
Try saying that you like blue sky, using the verb “좋다”

푸른 하늘이 좋습니다.

Try saying you want to study using a good book.

좋은 책으로 공부하고 싶습니다.

The Korean word for “under” is “아래”, and unlike the English which is a preposition, the Korean equivalent behaves like just like any other noun, and can take any particle. Try saying “under the blue sky”:

푸른 하늘 아래

If you mean something you do under the blue sky, then you would need a particle for the location. How would you do it?

푸른 하늘 아래에서

Let us combine the two sentences together. Try saying “I want to study with a good book under the blue sky” – remember that the word order is reverse in Korean.

푸른 하늘 아래에서 좋은 책으로 공부하고 싶습니다.

And this sentence represents a wish or a desire. How would you say that you like doing so? Before we get there, try to make a gerund form of 하다, equivalent to “doing”

하는

The word for “thing” is “것” in Korean, and this is used very often in many constructions in Korean. “Studying” as a noun in Korean is literally “study-doing-thing,” how would you say it?

공부하는 것.

And how would you like it? Try using “좋다.”

공부하는 것이 좋습니다.

And this expresses that you like the idea of studying in general. This is the end of lesson 12.



Spoken Korean: Lesson 13


Let us begin this lesson by constructing a rather long sentence. “I like studying with a good book under the blue sky”? Use the form “좋다.”

푸른 하늘 아래에서 좋은 책으로 공부하는 것이 좋습니다.

And the same sentence again, using the form “좋아하다.”

푸른 하늘 아래에서 좋은 책으로 공부하는 것을 좋아합니다.

The former with “좋다” means that you like the idea in general. You may never have done it, and given the choice you would do so. On the other hand, the latter expresses that you like doing so and you actually do so. Now, can you remember the past form of “하다”?
했다

The form is created by inserting “었” between the two syllables of “하다”, and “하었다” contracts to “했다.” The “었” adds the perfect aspect of the sentence, and the word above literally means “have done” – the simple past proper lacks in Korean. By reduplicating this, you can make it pluperfect: “had done.” Try it.

했었다.

Try saying that you have studied Korean:

한국어를 공부했습니다.

And since this is the equivalent to the present perfect in English, you are retaining what you have learned in your previous endeavour. Then try forming the same sentence using the pluperfect:

한국어를 공부했었습니다.

And as its equivalent with the past perfect in English, your results of your past endeavour may not continue to exist in the present time. This is what you would say that you once studied, but now largely forgot the language.

Let’s try to say something was good. Here, you would not use the familiar “었” but “았” instead. They are simply variants of one another, and this form appears mostly when the stem has the vowel ㅗ. 좋다 has this vowel, so the perfect form is:

좋았다.

By reduplicating this, we get the pluperfect. But since 았 does not contain the vowel ㅗ, we will be adding the normal 었 instead of 았. How would you do it?

좋았었다.

This would take a few practices to get used to it. Here are five verbs, some of which are already familiar to you: 보다 (to see), 하다 (to do), 먹다 (to eat), 있다 (to be, to exist) and 주다 (to give). Try forming the perfect forms of each.

보았다, 했다, 먹었다, 있었다, 주었다.

Some speakers would contract the first and the last ones as 봤다 and 줬다. The choice to do so is optional, but with 했다 it is mandatory. This is one (among others) of the problems which confuses the learners, as there is no clear rule to distinguish where the contraction is mandatory and where it is not.

You might have noticed that all of them took –었 except 보다, which contains the vowel ㅗ in its stem. Try making the pluperfect forms of them all:
보았었다, 했었다, 먹었었다, 있었었다, 주었었다.

To go back to the opening sentence of this lesson, try saying that you had liked studying with a good book under the blue sky:

푸른 하늘 아래에서 좋은 책으로 공부하는 것을 좋아했었습니다.

And it implies “not anymore.” This is the end of lesson 13.

User avatar
Myeong
Posts:39
Joined:2009-03-02, 22:49
Real Name:Myeong
Gender:male
Country:FRFrance (France)
Contact:

Re: Spoken Korean

Postby Myeong » 2009-08-04, 18:48

I don't know if I can reply to this thread - split this message or erase it if not allowed - but... can we expect a sequel to this course? :D
I know the fact you relocated will certainly prevent you to keep on working on it right now, I'm just meaning to ask if you've given up on it completely or only postponed it until 2010-2011. :P

Karavinka

Re: Spoken Korean

Postby Karavinka » 2009-08-04, 19:01

Myeong wrote:I don't know if I can reply to this thread - split this message or erase it if not allowed - but... can we expect a sequel to this course? :D
I know the fact you relocated will certainly prevent you to keep on working on it right now, I'm just meaning to ask if you've given up on it completely or only postponed it until 2010-2011. :P


Yes, maybe I should have posted a notice, but I doubt I would be able to work on this (or any other projects in my sig) for another couple of months or so as I almost immediately got into the exam prep mode thanks to the awkward scheduling of Alliance française of Seoul.

User avatar
Myeong
Posts:39
Joined:2009-03-02, 22:49
Real Name:Myeong
Gender:male
Country:FRFrance (France)
Contact:

Re: Spoken Korean

Postby Myeong » 2009-08-04, 19:08

Karavinka wrote:Yes, maybe I should have posted a notice, but I doubt I would be able to work on this (or any other projects in my sig) for another couple of months or so as I almost immediately got into the exam prep mode thanks to the awkward scheduling of Alliance française of Seoul.


Oh, you're going to teach there? 8-)
This is the only possibility I can imagine as you're way above the highest level they teach there... :wink:

Karavinka

Re: Spoken Korean

Postby Karavinka » 2009-08-04, 19:09

Myeong wrote:
Karavinka wrote:Yes, maybe I should have posted a notice, but I doubt I would be able to work on this (or any other projects in my sig) for another couple of months or so as I almost immediately got into the exam prep mode thanks to the awkward scheduling of Alliance française of Seoul.


Oh, you're going to teach there? 8-)
This is the only possibility I can imagine as you're way above the highest level they teach there... :wink:


NO

I'm taking the exam there :p

Covered
Posts:142
Joined:2009-03-08, 21:47
Gender:male
Location:Porto Alegre
Country:PTPortugal (Portugal)

Re: Spoken Korean

Postby Covered » 2009-09-07, 15:43

thanks for that, very useful :D

thomasb
Posts:11
Joined:2009-03-02, 17:07
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: Spoken Korean

Postby thomasb » 2009-09-27, 17:50

I finally got around to reading these. They are really excellent lessons. They progress intuitively and very naturally - Bravo! :partyhat:





Karavinka wrote:Why did you do that? Maybe you were not in a circumstance to attend a school. How would you say you couldn’t study Korean in a school?

저는 한국어를 학교에서 공부하지 못 했습니다.
저는 한국어를 학교에서 공부할 수 없었습니다.

Or:

저는 학교에서 한국어를 공부하지 못 했습니다.
저는 한국어를 학교에서 공부할 수 없었습니다.


Could you also say:

저는 한국어를 학교에서 못 공부했습니다 ?

Or does that sound unnatural or awkward?

User avatar
モモンガ
Posts:1050
Joined:2009-12-20, 12:07
Real Name:Walery Smutas
Gender:male
Location:Konty Vrotsuafskaye
Country:PLPoland (Polska)

Re: Spoken Korean

Postby モモンガ » 2010-03-15, 16:59

thomasb wrote:I finally got around to reading these. They are really excellent lessons. They progress intuitively and very naturally - Bravo! :partyhat:





Karavinka wrote:Why did you do that? Maybe you were not in a circumstance to attend a school. How would you say you couldn’t study Korean in a school?

저는 한국어를 학교에서 공부하지 못 했습니다.
저는 한국어를 학교에서 공부할 수 없었습니다.

Or:

저는 학교에서 한국어를 공부하지 못 했습니다.
저는 한국어를 학교에서 공부할 수 없었습니다.


Could you also say:

저는 한국어를 학교에서 못 공부했습니다 ?

Or does that sound unnatural or awkward?

I think you need to use 못 before the verb 했습니다.
[flag]tr[/flag]Türkçe [flag]vi[/flag]㗂越[flag]lo[/flag]ພາສາລາວ[flag]tet[/flag]Prasa Tetun

Jessicap
Posts:1
Joined:2015-11-29, 21:04
Real Name:Jessica Peyton

Re: Spoken Korean

Postby Jessicap » 2015-11-29, 21:12

Spoken Korean: Lesson 1

Thank you so much for this lesson! It is perfect for the level I am currently at-I know a couple of words and phrases, can read Hangul, and follow basic conversations, but as far as composing sentences myself, I'm kind of at a loss. This lesson has helped me a lot, and I can't wait to read more!


Return to “Korean (한국어)”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests