Posts from September 2009

ㄹ ending verbs

Posted by Ginny No Comments
Sep 14 2009

The verbs that we encountered so far were regular ending verbs like 가다 (to go), 운전하다 (to drive). These verbs were simple in the sense that all you had to do was drop the 다 and add 요 in the standard polite form. For example, 가다 turns to 가요 and 운전하다 turns to 운전해요. The verbs that we’re going to look at today are not so simple.

In particular, the new verbs will end in ㄹand will be a part of verbs that are considered irregular in conjugation. Let’s look at the verb 알다, which means ‘to know’ in English. In the present tense, this verb will be 알아요. Instantly, you can see that there are several things going on here: 1) the 다 is dropped (nothing new, we saw that with the regular verbs) 2) 요 is added to indicate the standard polite form (again, nothing new) 3) 아 is placed between 알 and 요 (this is what’s new).

Now that I’ve told you the process, try conjugating a verb like 놀다 (to play). If you follow the steps above, you should get 놀아요. Now try conjugating a verb like 만들다 (to make). Before you conjugate anything, I’ll give you a hint by saying that it’s not going to be conjugated like 놀다 and 알다. With 만들다 you’ll get 만들요 in the standard polite form. Notice that with 만들다 the ending changes to 어요 instead of 아요.

The reason why some ㄹ ending verbs end in 아요 versus 어요 has to do with the last vowel of the verb. With verbs like 놀다, you’ll see that the last vowel (and the only vowel) is ㅗ. Vowels like ㅗ, ㅛ, ㅏ, and ㅑ are called light/yang/positive/bright vowels. (There are more vowels that fall in this category, but for today, we’ll just cover the simple vowels.) The vowels in the verbs 알다 and 놀다 belong to this category. That’s why these verbs will be conjugated as 알아요 and 놀아요, with both verbs ending in 아요.

However vowels like ㅓ, ㅕ, ㅜ, and ㅠ are called heavy, ying/dark vowels. (Again, there are more vowels that fall in this category, but for today, this is all that’s necessary). You’ll see that verbs like 만들다, has the last vowel ending in ㅜ. Verbs that have the dark vowels will have the 어요 ending. That’s why 만들다 is conjugated as 만들어요 instead of 만들아요.

In the next post, I’ll clarify this in greater detail, but for today this is a good place to stop. 다음에 봐요! (See you next time!)

Answers to the Review

Posted by Ginny No Comments
Sep 11 2009

Hope you’ve had some time to look at the review questions. The answers are in parentheses.

1. What are the two subject marking particles? (이/가)

1a. Of the two subject marking particles, which one do you use after consonants? (이)

2. How would a verb like 가다 be conjugated in the deferential polite? (갑니다)

2a. How would a verb like 자다 be conjugated in the standard polite form? (자요)

3. If you want to express a vague sense of direction, which two particles do you use? (으로/로)

3a. Which of the two particles is used after vowels? (로)

3b. What is the exception to the rule above? (words that end in ㄹ like 설울)

4. Which particle is used to express an exact location? (에)

5. How would you construct a Korean sentence like, Minji (민지) drives (운전하다) from Seoul (서울) to Busan (부산). (민지가 서울에서 부산까지 운전해요.)

6. What are the two topic marking particles? (은/는)

6a. Which one is used after a consonant? (은)

6b. When is the topic marking particle used? (When there is a change in topic, theme, or subject of the conversation)

Copula Endings

Posted by Ginny No Comments
Sep 8 2009

For today’s post we’re going to look at some copula endings that are bound to come up in your quest to learn Korean.

The copula ending ~이에요 and ~예요 comes up a lot when you want to say, ‘it’s’ or ‘is’ in Korean. For example, the sentence, “It’s a present” would be 선물이에요. 선물 is the noun present, and 이에요 is equivalent to ‘it’s’. Whether you use 이에요 or 예요 depends on whether the noun ends in a consonant or a vowel. In this example the word 선물 ends in a consonant. Therefore, you’re going to use the 이에요 ending.

Through process of elimination, you’ve probably guessed that 예요 is used after words that end in vowels. If you’ve guessed this, you’re absolutely right. Take a look at the word 여자 which means ‘female/woman’ in Korean. If you want to say, “It’s a girl”, in Korean this is, 여자예요.

Now let’s add this knowledge to some other bits of grammar we’ve learned so far. Let’s say, “MInji is a girl” in Korean. This would be, 민지가 여자예요. (민지 = Minji, 가 = subject marking particle, 여자 = girl, 예요 = is.)

One piece of advice I’d give to beginners of Korean is to make a chart of all the Korean vowels and consonants in separate columns. If you’ve read some of the previous posts on Korean grammar, you’ll notice that there are different endings depending on whether the noun ends in a consonant or vowel. That’s why it’s important to have a solid grasp of the difference between consonants and vowels.

Review

Posted by Ginny No Comments
Sep 5 2009

I think it’ll be a good idea to do some review of the grammar we went touched upon within the last two months. Let’s see how many of these concepts you remember without looking these up. I’ll provide the answers in the next post.

1. What are the two subject marking particles?

1a. Of the two subject marking particles, which one do you use after consonants?

2. How would a verb like 가다 be conjugated in the deferential polite?

2a. How would a verb like 자다 be conjugated in the standard polite form?

3. If you want to express a vague sense of direction, which two particles do you use?

3a. Which of the two particles is used after vowels?

3b. What is the exception to the rule above?

4. Which particle is used to express an exact location?

5. How would you construct a Korean sentence like, Minji (민지) drives (운전하다) from Seoul (서울) to Busan (부산).

6. What are the two topic marking particles?

6a. Which one is used after a consonant?

6b. When is the topic marking particle used?

Topic Marking Particles

Posted by Ginny No Comments
Sep 2 2009

The topic marking particle will either be ~은 or ~는, depending on whether the noun or pronoun ends in a consonant or vowel. 미니 is a name ending in a vowel. Therefore the topic marking particle that will be used is ~는. 정민 is a name ending in a consonant. The topic marking particle that will be used with consonants is ~은. The topic marking particle always comes after the noun or pronoun, never before it.

When do you use the topic marking particle? You use it when you want to change the topic or subject of a conversation. For example, let’s say two women are talking about what their children are doing now.

Woman 1: 현빈이 지금 자요 (Hyunbin is sleep(ing) now)

Woman 2: 그래요? 준수는 지금 공부해요 (Oh really? Junsu is study(ing) now)

Words used in the conversation: 지금 = now, 그래요 = really? 자요 = sleep, 공부해요 = study.

The first woman used the subject marking particle after her son’s name 현빈. In her case, 현빈 was the subject of her conversation. (Subject marking particle is 이 because 현빈 ends in a consonant. For more on the subject marking particle, look back at the last month’s posts ). However, the second woman used the topic marking particle 는 after her son’s name 준수. The second woman wanted to change the topic of her conversation to her son and what he is doing. That’s why she used the topic marking particle instead of the subject marking particle.

So whenever you have a shift in the conversation, you’ll use the topic marking particle instead of the subject marking particle. When the topic of the particle hasn’t changed, you won’t use the topic marking particle, you’ll just continue to use the subject marking particle. However in reality, especially in conversation, the subject marking particle can be easily omitted. This is especially true when the subject of the conversation is obvious to both parties.

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