Korean for Dummies (10 page)

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Chapter 2: The Nitty-Gritty: Basic Korean Grammar and Numbers

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Dropping understood words

In spoken English, people drop words from

manna seo bangawoyo
(man-na-suh ban—

their sentences all the time. They will shorten

ga-wo-yo). (I) am glad to meet (you)

“Will you come over to my house today.” to

Led Zeppelinuen?
(Led Zeppeli-neun?)

“Come over.” “Are you leaving the office?” to

(What about) Led Zeppelin?

“Leaving?”, “Were you also a part of this,

Brutus?” to “Brutus?” We can see that we can

Charlesreul
? (Charlesreul?) (Who did what

drop huge parts of a sentence without a break—

to/ What happened to ) Charles?

down of communication. Of course, this is only

Saranghaeyo
(sa-rang-hae-yo). (I/you/he/

when the speakers can tell what is being said

she/it/they) love/ loves (something or

from the context of the conversation.

someone).

Koreans do the same thing. Only dropping

These examples might make you wonder if

words is a little more frequent in daily conver—

Koreans spend most of their days scratching

sation. Koreans are particularly fond of dropping

their heads trying to figure out what the other

personal pronouns and other words that they

person just said. Although it is fun to imagine,

anticipate their listeners will understand, as in

the truth is this happens less often than you

these examples:

would expect, but if it ever does, Koreans are

quick to ask what they just missed, so don’t be

ashamed to ask questions.

Korean gets around this problem by adding particles at the end of each noun that marks or indicates what role a word plays within the sentence. Here, the particle for the performer of the action is
-ga
, the subject marker, and the particle for the action receiver is
-reul
, the object marker. Hence, we can see that both of the following sentences mean Eric drinks juice: Eric-
ga
juice-
reul
drink-
haeyo

juice-
reul
Eric-
ga
drink-
haeyo

Sentence particles

Sentence particles are difficult to translate consistently into English because they mark what role a word plays within a sentence as opposed to having an explicit meaning. And hence, a single particle can be translated in more than one way given a different context. For example, the particle -
eseo
specifies when or where a verb takes place, hence, “Eric drinks juice at the market,”

“Oh, the dress is elegant,” and “I warm up in the swimming pool” are translated as “Eric-
ga
juice-
reul
market-
eseo
drink-
haeyo
,” “Oh~ dress-
ga
elegant-haeyo,” and “
juneun
swimming pool-
eseo
, warm-up-
haeyo
.”

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Common particles

Common particles include
i
/
ga
(subject market),
eun
/
neun
(subject marker),
eul
/
reul
(subject marker),
e
/
esu
(from),
kkaji
(to/until),
euro
(to),
buteo
(from) and
ui
(indicates possession). This list of common particles is by no means comprehensive, but much daily conversation can be made by using these particles alone. The role of particles is largely determined by what kind of sentence the particle is used in.

Asking Questions

To make an informal polite sentence into a question all you have to do is raise the tone of your voice in a rising intonation at the end of the sentence.

Think for a second of how you could turn “Asking a question in Korean is easy,” into a question in English. One way would be by moving the “is” to the beginning of the sentence, which would give you “Is asking a question in Korean easy?” The other would be by raising the tone of your voice at the end of a sentence, like asking “Asking a question in Korean is easy?”

If you were given the statement in informal polite Korean, such as
hangugeoro jilmuneul mandeuneun geosi swiwoyo
(
han-goo-guh-ro jil-moon-eul
man-deu-neun guh-shee shee-wo-yo;
Asking a question in Korean is easy) all you have to do is use the same tone of voice as when you would when you say “Asking a question in Korean is easy?”

Talkin’ the Talk

Chris and Jung are waiting for food at a restaurant.

Jung:

chrisssineun eoneu nara saram eeaeyo?

chris-sshi-neun uh-neu-na-ra sa-ram-ee-ae-yo?

Where are you from, Chris?

Chris:

ah, jeoneun meeguk saramieaeyo. jangnyeonae vir-

giniaeseo waseoyo.

oh, juh-neun mee-gook sa-ram-ee-ae-yo. jak-nyun-ae

virginia-ae-suh wa-ssuh-yo.

Oh, I’m an American person. I came from Virginia last

year.

Jung:

hangukeumsigi anmaewoyo?

han-goog-eum-shi-gee an-mae-wo-yo?

Isn’t Korean food too spicy?

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Chapter 2: The Nitty-Gritty: Basic Korean Grammar and Numbers

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Chris:

jogeum maewoyo. hajiman jeoneun hanguk eum-

sigeul jungmal joahhaeyo.

jo-geum mae-wo-yo. ha-jee-man juh-neun han-goog

eum-shi-geul jungmal jo-a-hae-yo.

It is a little spicy. But I really like Korean food.

Jung:

murihaji maseyo. pirohamyeon mul jom asyeoyo.

moo-ree-ha-jee-ma-sae-yo. pee-ryo-ha-myun mool-

jom-ma-syuh-yo.

Take it easy now. Drink some water if you need to.

Words to Know

chaesik juuija

chae-shik-joo-ui-ja

Vegetarian

gogi

goo-gee

Meat

eumsik

eum-shik

Food

jogeum

jo-geum

Little

nara

na-ra

Country

saranghaeyo

sa-rang-hae-yo

I love you

Counting Korean Style

To say you know how to count in Korean, you have to know two distinct

counting systems. One is of Korean origin, native Korean numbers, and the other is of Chinese origin, Sino-Korean numbers. These two systems are used to count different things, and unfortunately what number system you use depends on what you want to count. Let’s start off by learning Korean numbers then learn Chinese numbers.

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Native Korean numbers

You can use Korean numbers to count from 1 to 99, and if you ever need to go beyond 99 you can start using Sino-Korean numbers. Although it isn’t the best thing to do, some Koreans will even use Sino-Korean numbers for numbers bigger than 20.

Table 2-3 lists Korean numbers.

Table 2-3

Korean Numbers

Number

Korean Name (Pronunciation)

1

hana
(ha-na) *han

2

dul
(dool) *du

3

set
(set) *se

4

net
(net) *ne

5

daseot
(da-sut)

6

yeoseot
(yuh-sut)

7

ilgop
(il-gop)

8

yeodeol
(yeodeol)

9

ahop
(a-hop)

10

yeol
(yuhl)

20

seumul
(seu-mool) *seumu

30

seoreun
(suh-reun)

40

maheun
(ma-heun)

50

swin
(sween)

60

yesun
(ye-soon)

70

ilheun
(il-heun)

80

yeodeun
(yuh-deun)

90

aheun
(a-heun)

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Chapter 2: The Nitty-Gritty: Basic Korean Grammar and Numbers

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Now, say you want to count a number larger than 10 using Korean numbers, let’s say you feel like saying the number 22. In Korean you would say
seumul-dul
(
seu-mool-dool;
22). Essentially, what you are saying is 20, 2, just like you would in English,
seumul
(
seu-mool;
20)
dul
(
dool;
2).

Although whether you use Korean numbers, or Sino-Korean numbers

depends largely on what things you are counting, as a general rule of thumb, Korean numbers are used for counting distinct things one by one. For example, the replicates of pushups and kicks you do in a
taekwondo dojangs
(
taekwon-do-do-jang;
Place where you learn Taekwondo), the number of people you meet, and the bottles of beer that you drink are counted using Korean numbers.

You might have noticed that five numbers (See Table 2-3 with *)
hana, dul,
set, net
and
seumul
have a second form that I have marled with an asterisk (*). You use this secondary form when you combine these numbers with counters with which to count things. For example, bottles as
byeong
(
byoung;
used to count bottles)
,
sheets as
jang
(
jang;
used to count paper), people as
myeong
(
myoung;
used to count people) and animals as
mari
(
ma-ree;
used to count animals). Aside from the five numbers that I have written, you can just use the numbers themselves in Table 2-4. Hence, you would say
seumu
myeong
(
seu-moo-myoung
) for 20 people and
seumulne byeong
(
seu-mool-nae-byoung
) for 24 bottles.

Sino-Korean numbers

Sino-Korean numbers are used just as often as Korean numbers so you need to know both number systems to say that you can count. Table 2-4 lists the Sino-Korean numbers.

Table 2-4

Sino-Korean Numbers

Number

Korean Name (Pronunciation)

0

yeong
(young)

1

il
(ill)

2

I
(ee)

3

sam
(sam)

(continued)

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Table 2-4 (continued)

Number

Korean Name (Pronunciation)

4

sa
(sa)

5

o
(oo)

6

yuk
(yook)

7

chil
(chil)

8

pal
(pal)

9

gu
(goo)

10

sip
(ship)

100

baek
(baeg)

1000

cheon
(chun)

10,000

man
(man)

100,000

shimman
(ship-man)

1,000,000

baengman
(baeg-man)

10,000,000

cheonman
(chun-man)

100,000,000

eok
(uck)

Although you read Sino-Korean a lot like you would numbers in English, there are two big differences. First, you don’t add “one” in front of numbers like one hundred, or one thousand, just say hundred,
baek,
or thousand,
chun,
The next thing is that you have to say explicitly ten,
sip,
after reading the number in the tenth place. Hence, you would say 17 in Sino-Korean numbers as
sipchil
(
ship-chil
) and 29 as
isipgu
(
ee-ship-goo
).

Counters

If you want to say the time, you need to use both the Sino-Korean and the Korean counting systems. The hour,
si
(
shi
), is told by using Korean counters.

And minutes,
bun
(
boon
), are read using Sino-Korean numbers. In Korean 6:45 is read
yeoseotsi sasibobun
(
yuh-suht-shi sa-ship-o-boon
). The counters are added after the numbers themselves.

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Chapter 2: The Nitty-Gritty: Basic Korean Grammar and Numbers

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When numbers are used in sentences, you have to add counters immediately after them. Suppose you wanted to say, “I’m meeting two colleagues.” In Korean, you would say, “I colleagues two people meet,”
jeoneun dongnyo
dumyeongeul mannayo
(
juh-neun dongnyo doo-myoung-eul man-na-yo;
I’m meeting two colleagues). You have to place who or what you are counting, the number of the things you are counting and finally the counter.

Now, what determines the number system you use? Well . . . the counter, be it plates of food, flocks of geese, and members of a team. Unfortunately Korean has no clear rules for defining which counter is tied with which number system.

Table 2-5 lists some common Korean counters and Table 2-6 gives you some common Sino-Korean counters.

Table 2-5

Counters That Use Korean Numbers

English

Korean

English

Korean

Things

gae
(gae)

Bowls

geureut
(geureut)

People (informal)

saram
(sa-ram)

Animals

mari
(ma-ree)

People (formal)

myeong
(myoung)

Books

gwun
(gwon)