[Grammar] 왜? Question words

Question words for Beginners

You can also listen to the pronunciation here.

어느	which	어느 나라 사람이에요?	Where are you from?
		어느 학교 다녀요?	Which school are you attending?
누구	whom, whose	누구 거예요?	Whose thing is it?
누가	who(subject)	누가 안 왔어요?	Who didn’t come?
뭐	what	뭐 해요?	What are you doing?
무엇	formal word of ‘뭐’	무엇을 합니까?	What are you doing?
무슨+ N	what kind of N	무슨 음식을 좋아해요?	What food do you like?
		무슨 책을 읽어요?	What book do you read?
왜	why	왜 안 왔어요?	Why didn’t you come?
		전화 왜 안 받아요?	Why didn’t you answer my phone?
어디	where	어디에 가요?	Where are you going?
		어디에서 왔어요?	Where are you (coming) from?
언제	when	언제 한국에 왔어요?	When did you come to Korea?
		언제 집에 와요?	When are you coming home?
어떻게	how	부산에 어떻게 가요?	How do I get to Busan.
		이거 어떻게 해요?	How do I do this?
몇	how many, what	몇 개예요?	How many is this?
		몇 월이에요?	What month is it?
며칠	what date, how many days	오늘 며칠이에요?	What date is today?
		며칠 동안 여행해요?	How many days are you going to travel?

 

A lot of Koreans write ‘며칠’ as ‘몇일’, but ‘몇일’ is wrong.  If you see anyone(Korean) write it wrong, please correct them!

How to say “You” in Korean

I saw a lot of mistakes from my students’ conversations and writings about ‘you‘ in Korean.
I normally tell my students not to use ‘you’ if you are a beginner because ‘you‘ in Korean is very complicated.

Before I tell you how to say ‘you‘ in Korean, I want to tell you how Koreans become friends. Because it is very important for you to understand Koreans’ relationships.

When Koreans meet someone and we want to get to know more(personal relationship) about that person, we normally ask their age. It is very rude in a lot of cultures, but it is very normal thing in Korea.
After we figure it out, then we talk about what we should call each other. If someone is older than me, we don’t call them ‘a friend’, we call them “오빠/언니(if you are a woman)” or “형/누나(if you are a man)“, even if they are “one year” older than me. If someone is the same age as me, then we can call that person ‘a friend’ after we discuss “Let’s be friends!”

I know it is very complicated, but it is the KEY to know when you use ‘You’ in Korean. Now I can tell you the use of ‘You’ in Korean.

If you search for “you” in a dictionary, you can find ‘너’, ‘당신’, ‘그대’ .

1. 너 : You might hear this word in TV shows or songs. We use this to a person who is very close friend(the same age) or a person who is younger than you. You should not use this to your parents, teacher, boss, a person who you meet for the first time or you don’t know well.
If you use this, you also can use casual ending(반말 e.g: 먹어, 해, 가) instead of -요or -습니다.

2. 당신 : We use this to our spouse. Sometimes we also use this to someone you are fighting against 🙂 or in a song or poem that is very formal ‘you’.

3. 그대 : You can hear this only from a song or a poem. This is a poetic word, we don’t use it in normal conversations.

For all those reasons, Koreans usually DROP ‘subject’. For example,

1) A: 오늘 뭐 해요? What are (you) doing today?
B: 영화 봐요. (I) am going to watch a movie.

2) A: 사랑해.   (I) love (you).

As you can see, there are no subjects in this conversation, but we know who is the subject and the object.

So, the good way to avoid making mistakes about ‘You’ is “DO NOT SAY IT” until you totally understand, and use ‘their names‘ or ‘their occupation names like 선생님(teacher), ㅇㅇ 씨(polite name part)’.

[Grammar] Sports 운동

무슨 운동을 좋아해요? What is your favorite sport? Mine is 야구(baseball). Practice these and tell me about your favorite sport! Let’s go A’s!!!!!

You can also listen to the pronunciation here.

Noun	Verb	English
농구	하다	basketball
축구	하다	soccer
야구	하다	baseball
배구	하다	volleyball
수영	하다	swimming
테니스	치다	tennis
탁구	치다	table tennis
배드민턴	치다	badminton
볼링	치다	bowling
태권도	하다	Taekwondo
유도	하다	Judo
스키	타다	ski
스노우보드	타다	snowboard

[Voca] Seasoning 양념

Are you interested in cooking? When I cook the Korean food, I use these seasonings a lot.  What are you going to use tonight?
If you can’t you can also listen to the pronunciation here.

고추장 (picture here)	red pepper paste
간장	soy sauce
된장 (picture here)	yellow bean paste
쌈장 (picture here)	brown sauce for Bulgogi wraps
소금	salt
설탕	sugar
고춧가루	red pepper powder
깨	sesame
참기름	sesame oil
마늘	garlic
생강	ginger
식용유 (picture here)	vegetable oil(usually from soy beans or sun flower seeds)

 

[Expression] Travel 여행

When you go to Korea, you need to say these a lot! Practice a lot before you go to Korea!

And if you have a question, reply to this post.

저……	Uh…..
실례합니다.	Excuse me.
저는 한국말을 몰라요.	I don’t speak Korean.
영어할 줄 알아요?	Do you speak English?
여기 어떻게 가요?	How do I get this place?
공항에 어떻게 가요?	How do I get to the airport?
화장실이 어디에 있어요?	Where is the bathroom?
다시 한번 말해 주세요.	Can you repeat one more time?
천천히 말해 주세요.	Can you speak slowly?
얼마예요?	How much is it?
이거 주세요.	I will take this. Please give me this.
여기 있어요.	Here it is.
어디에 가세요?	Where are you going?
공항에 가요.	I am going to the airport
도와 주세요.	Please help me.
알려 주세요.	Please tell me. Please let me know.

You can listen to the pronunciation here.

[Expression] Introduce yourself 자기 소개

How to Introduce yourself in Korean?

This lesson is for beginners who just have learned a little bit of Korean.  If you have not learn how to read Korean, you can go to “Korean Characters-한글” menu to learn how to read. You can also listen to the pronunciation here.

 

이름이 뭐예요?	What is your name?
저는 김유진이에요.	I am Kim Yujin
학생이에요?	Are you a student?
네, 학생이에요.	Yes, I am a student.
아니요. 영어 선생님이에요.	No, I am an English teacher.
어디에 살아요?	Where do you live?
샌프란시스코에 살아요.	I live in San Francisco.

 

If you want to learn more about grammar in the sentence, you can read this post.

[Expression] 뭐예요? What is~

—–이/가 ——예요/이에요

이름이 뭐예요? What is your name?

이것이 뭐예요? What is this?

선생님이 누구예요?  Who is the teacher?

이분이 누구예요? Who is this person?

마크 씨가 누구예요? Who is Mark?

이분이 선생님이에요. This person is the teacher. 

마크 씨가 선생님이에요. Mark is a the teacher.

<Vocabulary>

1) 이름 : name

2) 이/가 : subject marker

3) 뭐 : what

4) 예요/이에요 : am/are/is

5) 이것 this

6) 누구 who

7) 선생님 teacher

8) 마크 Mark

9) 이분 this person(honorific)

<Grammar>

1. Noun+이/가 : subject marker(also called particle)

Noun(consonant ending)+이

Noun(vowel ending) + 가

2. 뭐예요? What is/am/are ~

3. 누구예요? Who is/am/are~

4. 이것 : this => 이것+이(subject marker) => 이것이(only used as a subject) => 이게(informal form)

 

 

Flash cards for this chapter. => http://quizlet.com/29608472/chapter3-flash-cards/

[Grammar] 저는 폴이에요. I am Paul.

<words>
저 : I, me
는 : topic particle (click here to learn more)
폴 : Paul
이에요. : a sentence ending, it means “is/are/am”

N+예요/이에요

1. Use :  N(consonant ending) +이에요
                N(vowel ending) + 예요

2. Meaning : Be verb like is, are, am (Polite way and informal way(friendly))

• There is no space between noun and 예요/이에요
• In Korean, there is no difference between is/are/am, so you don’t need to think about the subject at this moment.
• Present tense

3. Example :  의사(vowel ending) +예요 -> 의사예요 ~is/are/am a doctor

카메라(vowel ending) +예요 -> 카메라예요   ~is a camera

미국 사람(consonant ending) + 이에요 -> 미국 사람이에요 ~is/are/am an American

선생님(consonant ending) +이에요 -> 선생님이에요  ~is/are/am a teacher

4. You can use this as a question.

eg) 엄마가 의사예요?  Is your mom a doctor?
이거 카메라예요?  This is a camera?
이름이 뭐예요? What is your name? 
이 사람이 누구예요? Who is this person?
친구가 선생님이에요?  Is your friend a teacher?
저는 고려대학교 학생이에요?  I am Korea University student.
민수 씨 형이에요? Is he your(Minsu) older brother?
어느 나라 사람이에요? Which country person are you? Where are you from?

 

For more sentences and audio files, please click here.