Posts under Grammar

Is Not, Am Not, Are Not, No

Posted by Ginny
Oct
22
2009

Let’s say that you see a painting and you say ‘그 여자는 누구예요’? (그 = that. 여자 = girl. 는 = topic marking particle. 누구 = who. 예요 = copula meaning ‘is’.) In English this sentence would mean, ‘Who is that girl?’ As a response the artist of the painting could reply, ‘여가가 아니에요’ or ‘it’s not a girl’. Take a look at another example, 저는 한국 사람이 아니에요, (저 = I. 는 = topic marking particle. 한국 = Korean. 사람 = person. 이 = subject marking particle. 아니 = not. 에요 = means ‘am’.) which means ‘I am not a Korean person’. In this case, 아니에요 takes on the meaning of ‘am not’.

The word 아니에요 negates things. In the sentence above 아니에요 takes on the meaning of ‘not’. However 아니예요 can also take on the meaning of ‘no’. For instance in this sentence, 아니에요, 저는 미국 사람이에요, the 아니에요 takes on the meaning ‘no’ instead of ‘not’. (아니에요 = no, in the standard polite form. 저 = I. 는 = topic marking particle. 미국 = America. 사람 = person. 이 = subject marking particle. 이에요 = is.) In English the sentence means, ‘No, I am not an American person’. You can also say, 아니에요, 저는 한국 사람이 아니에요. 저는 미국 사람이에요, which emphasizes that you’re not a Korean person even more.

Generally when 아니에요 is placed at the beginning of the sentence, it takes on the meaning of ‘no’. When 아니에요 comes at the end of the sentence, it takes on the meaning of ‘not’. Also, the meaning ‘no’ and ‘not’ can also be expressed as 아닙니다. 아니에요 is the standard polite way of saying ‘no’ or ‘not’, but 아닙니다 is the deferential polite way of saying ‘no’ or ‘not’. For example you could say ‘저는 아닙니다’ or ‘it’s not me’. (저 = polite way to say ‘I’. 는 = topic marking particle after a vowel. 아닙니다 = deferential polite way of saying ‘not’.)

You can also use 아니에요 and 아닙니다 in the interrogative form. For example you could say, 승미 집이 아니에요? or 주나 씨 아닙니까? In English this would mean something like ‘It’s not Sungmi’s house?’ or ‘Are [you] not Mr. Juna?’ (승미 = Sungmi (a person’s name). 지 = house/home. 이 = subject marking particle used after consonants. 아니에요 = ‘not’. 주나 = Juna. 씨 = can mean Mr./Ms. 아닙니까 = deferential interrogative form of ‘not’.) You might have also noticed that 아니에요 is not spelled as 아니예요, the difference being that one has the 에 and the other has 예 even though 아니 ends in a vowel. That’s because 아니 is not a noun, and so it doesn’t follow the normal conventions for vowel and consonant endings.

 
Posted under Grammar, Korean Language
Tagged with , , , 		0 Comments | Post a Comment

Korean Demonstratives

Posted by Ginny
Oct
16
2009

In English demonstratives would be words like ‘this’, ‘that’, or ‘over there’. In Korean, the demonstrative prefix for ‘this’ is 이, that = 그, that over there = 저. To be more specific, 이것 is used when the object is close to the speaker. Therefore a sentence like 이것은 제 책이에요 would mean that the 책 is near the speaker. (이것 = this [object]. 은 = topic marking particle. 제 = ‘my’ polite form. 책 = book. 이에요 = copula meaning ‘is’ in the standard polite form.) In English this sentence would mean, ‘This is my book’. 그것 would mean that the book is far away from the speaker and close to the listener.

Therefore, if you replace 이것 with 그것 and keep everything in the sentence above, you get, 그것은 제 책이에요. The sentence would now mean, ‘That is my book’. Now change 그것 with 저것. The sentence would now be 저것은 제 책이에요. This time the sentence would mean, ‘That book over there is my book.’ 저것 is used for objects that are far away from both the speaker and the listener. Someone once asked me, what demonstrative would you use if the book is of equal distance between the speaker and the listener? I guess in this case you’ll have to use your subjective judgement as to whether to use ‘this’ or ‘that’.

When you use the topic marking particle 은 with any demonstrative, Korean people tend to contract these forms. So ‘this, that, over there’ will be 이건, 그건, 저건 respectively. Using the sentence above, 이것은 제 책이에요 will be 이건 제 책이에요. You can use the contracted forms for both 그것 and 저것 as well. There is also a contraction when you use the subject marking particle 이 with these demonstratives. The non contracted forms would be 이것이, 그것이, 저것이. The contracted forms would be 이게, 그게, 저게. For the sake of saving time and ease of pronunciation, the contracted forms are preferred over the non contracted forms.

Notice that in English the sentence ‘this is my book’ would mean the same whether the sentence was 이것이 제 책이에요 or 이게 제 책이에요. The same goes for 이것은 제 책이에요 and 이건 제 책이에요. This is where Korean proves to have subtler nuances in a simple sentence like ‘this is my book’. Also, the demonstrative prefixes 이, 그 and 저 can be used to refer to people as well. 이분, 그분 and 저분 respectively mean this person, that person and that person over there. So you could say, 이분 알아요? Or, ”do you know this person?” (이분 = this person. 알아요 = verb to ‘know’ in the standard polite form.)

 
Posted under Grammar
Tagged with , , , 		1 Comment | Post a Comment

Possessive Particle 의

Posted by Ginny
Oct
13
2009

The particle 의 denotes possession. For example, the sentence 민지의 친구가 학생입니다 shows that Minji is doind the possessing. (민지 = Minji. 의 = possessive particle. 친구 = friend. 가 = subject marking particle. 학생 = student. 입니다 = copula ending in deferential polite form, in this sentence means ‘is’.) In English this sentence would mean, ‘Minji’s friend is a student’. (In Korean there are no indefinite or definite articles. The ‘a’ in the sentence is implied because there would otherwise be a plural marker attached to 친구 if the sentence were to mean ‘friends’ instead of ‘friend’.)

The possessor does not have to be human. You could say, 소라는 시험의 내용을 압니다. (소라 = Sora. 시험 = exam. 내용 = content. 을 = object marking particle. 압니다 = the verb ‘know’ in the deferential polite form, 알다 is the infinitive form.) In English, the sentence would mean, ‘Sora knows [about] the contents of the exam’. I inserted the word ‘about’ because if you translate the sentence literally, there is no word for ‘about’ in the sentence. This just shows how English and Korean are two different languages. Sometimes to the point where they don’t reconcile in translation in perfect harmony.

When you’re talking about yourself and the possessor, there’s a shortcut when a possessive particle is attached to the pronoun ‘I’. For example when you want to use the polite form of “I” with the possessive particle, you’re going to get 제. 제 이야기가 길어요. (제 = my. 이야기 = story. 가 = subject marking particle. 길어요 = verb ‘long’ in the standard polite form, 길다 is the infinitive form of the verb ‘to be long’. In English this sentence means, ‘My story is long’. Originally the polite term for ‘I’ was 저. However, when you add a possessive particle, Korean people shorten it to 제 instead of saying it as 저의.

When you’re using ‘I’ in the humble form with the possessive particle, it’s going to be 내. The humble word for ‘I’ without the possessive particle is 나. However, instead of saying the word ‘my’ as 나의 the word is abbreviated as 내. Take a look at a sentence like this, 아! 내 가방! (아! = Ah!/Oh! showing surprise. 내 = ‘my’ plain form. 가방 = bag.) In English this sentence would mean, ‘Ah! My bag’. I would use the polite ‘I’ in formal situations and the humble ‘I’ in informal situations. As for both the polite and humble forms for ‘I’, I would just memorize the contracted forms because they are used very often.

 
Posted under Grammar
Tagged with 		0 Comments | Post a Comment

Object Marking Particles

Posted by Ginny
Oct
10
2009

The object marking particles are 을 or 를 depending on whether the object is a word ending in a vowel or consonant. When the object ends in a vowel you’re going to use 를. Take a look at a sentence like this, 주니가 사과를 사요. 주니 = Juni. 가 = subject marking particle. 사과 = apple. 를 = object marking particle. 사요 = the verb ‘buy’ in the standard polite form. Altogether this sentence means, ‘Juni buys an apple’. The object marking particle 를 was attached to the word 사과 because the word ends in a vowel. The object marking particle marks the object of the sentence. In this case, the object was the apple.

When the object ends in a consonant, you use the 을 particle. For example in a sentence like this, 승미가 집을 사요. 승미 = Seungmi. 가 = subject marking particle. 집 = house. 을 = object marking particle. 사요 = the verb ‘buy’ in standard polite form. In English this sentence would mean, ‘Seungmi buys a house’. 집 ends in a consonant, so the object marking particle 을 is used. For more explanations on the subject marking particles and the standard polite form, scan through the previous posts. To find the previous posts, go to http://www.transparent.com/korean, look below this article under ‘posted under’ and click on grammar.

One thing I want to point out is that the 를/을 particle is used quite liberally, and not just for non living objects. For example, take a look at a sentence like this, 헤니가 세미를 사랑해요. 헤니 = Heni. 가 = subject marking particle after a vowel. 세미 = Semi. 를 = object marking particle after a vowel. 사랑해요 = the verb ‘love’ in the standard polite form. In English, this means Heni loves Semi. Semi is a person here, but the object marking particle is still attached to Semi. Therefore object marking particles aren’t necessarily restricted to ‘things’, people count as well.

Ok, so here’s a brief test and summary of what was discussed above. What object marking particle would you use in this sentence? “원주가 한국어_ 잘 알아들어요.” 원주 = Won Ju. 가 = subject marking particle. 한국어 = Korean language. 잘 = well, good. 알아들어요 = verb ‘understand’ in standard polite form. (Won Ju understands Korean well.) Since 한국어 ends in a vowel, you’ll need to use 를. How about this sentence, where and what object marking particle will you need? 지누는 지금 집 나가요. 지누 = Jinu. 지금 = now. 집 = house. 나가요 = verb ‘go out/leaves’ in standard polite form. (Jinu leaves the house now.) Here, the object marking particle is after the word 집 and since it ends in a consonant, 을 will be used.

 
Posted under Grammar
Tagged with 		0 Comments | Post a Comment

ㄹ Ending Verbs Continued

Posted by Ginny
Sep
20
2009

Hopefully you’ve had some time to think about the ㄹ ending verbs in detail (published on September 14th 2009). I’m going to go even further and show you how to conjugate these verbs in the deferential polite form.

In the first post on ㄹ ending verbs, the verb 놀다 was conjugated as 놀아요 in the standard polite form. Before we move on to the deferential polite form I just want to point out some pronunciation discrepancies in the standard polite form. Although 놀아요 is spelled as “nolayo”, it’s actually pronounced as “norayo”. So the way you should pronounce 놀아요 is by saying it as 노라요. The same goes for 알아요. It’s pronounced as 아라요. Just remember that the correct spelling is 알아요, but the way you pronounce it “arayo”. With 만들다 you should pronounce it as 만드러요, or “manduroyo”, even though it’s spelled as 만들어요.

Now in the deferential polite, a verb like 알다 is going to be 압니다. The ㄹ is taken off and ㅂ is attached in place of the ㄹ. After the ㄹ, 니다 is attached. So with 놀다 it’ll be 놉니다. Again, remove the ㄹ, and attach ㅂin place of the ㄹ and add 니다 after the ㄹ. Can you guess how to change 만들다 in the deferential polite form? It’s going to be 만듭니다. When these verbs are used in the spoken form in everyday speech, it’ll sound a little different from the way it’s spelled. 압니다 will sound like 암니다 when said quickly. So instead of the “p” sound in 압니다 (the bottom character ㅂ) it’ll sound like an “m” sound (ㅁ) in 암니다.

The thing you have to remember here is that the correct spelling is with the ㅂ in 압니다. Again the same “m” sound appears in 만듭니다 (만듬니다) and 놉니다 (놈니다). In other words, it’s going to be spelled as “mandupnida” (만듭니다) but pronounced as “mandupnida” (만듬니다). Although this may seem confusing right now, you’ll soon see that these pronunciation changes are much easier than reading the actual word as it is. Not to get linguistically technical, but it’s quite difficult to end a sound in a “p” and soon after make an “n” sound, and so instead of a “p” there’s a tendency to make an “m” sound instead.

I think I’ll do another post on ㄹ ending verbs, but this time, it’ll be more of an exercise and it’ll incorporate some old grammar points we went over. Until then, 다음에 또 봐요! (See you again next time!)

 
Posted under Grammar, Pronunciation
Tagged with 		1 Comment | Post a Comment