Korean for Dummies (9 page)

2.
Next, if it is one of these two vowels, add a
ayo
(
a-yo;
no English translation) to the verb stem. If it isn’t, add
eoyo
(
uh-yo;
no English translation).

For example, from the dictionary forms
alda
(
al-da;
to know)
, batda
(
bat-da;
to receive),
eopda
(
uhp-da;
to not have) and
itda
(
it-da;
to have) their stems are
al, bat, eop and it
. The last vowel of the stems are
a, a, eo
and
i
respectively.

Hence, the informal polite forms are
alayo
(
al-a-yo;
to know),
batayo
(
bat-a-yo;
to receive),
eopseoyo
(
eop-ssuh-yo;
to not have) and
itseoyo
(
ee-ssuh-yo;
to have). Table 2-2 gives you some examples.

Table 2-2

Conjugating Dictionary Forms of Verbs

Korean

Pronunciation

English

boda
(dictionary)

bo-da

to see

bo
(verb stem)

bo

to see

bwayo
(informal polite)

bwa-yo

to see

doeda
(dictionary)

dwae-da

to become

doe
(verb stem)

dwae

to become

doeyo
(informal polite)

dwae-yo

to become

hada
(dictionary form)

ha-da

to do

ha
(verb stem)

ha

to do

haeyo
(informal polite)

hae-yo

to do

itda
(dictionary)

it-da

have or to

it
(verb stem)

it

be at some

iseoyo
(Informal polite)

ee-ssuh-yo

location

juda
(dictionary)

joo-da

to give

ju
(verb stem)

joo

to give

jwoyo
(informal polite)

jwo-yo

to give

Getting tense (past, present, and future)

Using verbs to modify nouns in English is a complicated ordeal. You need to pay attention to tense and agreement. In Korean, the only thing that you have to worry about is tense.

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In Korean, when it comes to tenses, all you really need is to know how to say things in the past and the present tense. Hence, you can say
oneul seoure
dochakhaeyo
(
o-neul suh-oo-rae do-chak-hae-yo;
I’m arriving at Seoul today), and
naeil seoure dochakhaeyo
(
nae-il suh-oo-rae do-chak-hae-yo;
I’ll be arriving at Seoul tomorrow) without having to worry about conjugating the verb.

Future tense is usually used when you are unsure of what will happen, or want to explicitly show intention.

Future: jeoneun naeil mannal salami iseoyo
(
juh-neun nae-il man-nal ra-ram-ee ee-ssuh-yo;
There is someone I will meet tomorrow).

Present: jeoneun jigeum mannaneun salami iseoyo
(
juh-neun jee-geum
man-na-neun sa-ram-ee ee-ssuh-yo;
There is someone I am meeting now).

Past: jeoneun eoje mannan salami iseoyo
(
juh-neun uh-jae man-nan saram-ee ee-ssuh-yo;
There is someone I met yesterday).

Changing a verb to a noun modifier is easy. You take the stem of the

dictionary form, check for whether the final syllable ends in a consonant or a vowel, then add the following markers or particles. Even when the verb modifying the noun is a part of a more complicated phrase, place it immediately to the left of the noun it modifies. For verbs whose action will and is going to happen: add a
l
for dictionary stems that end in vowels and
eul
for dictionary stems that end in consonants.

chareul tal saram iseoyo?
(
chareul tal-sa-ram ee-ssuh-yo?;
Is someone going to ride the car?) For example:
gachi georeul saram iseoyo?
(
ga-chee guh-reul
sa-ram ee-ssuh-yo?;
Is anyone going to walk with you?) For verbs whose actions are happening and are ongoing: Add
neun
to the dictionary stem regardless of what it ends in.

For example:
ganeun saram iseoyo?
(
ga-neun sa-ram ee-ssuh-yo?;
Is anybody leaving?) For example:
gachi geonneun saram iseoyo?
(
ga-chee
geun-neun sa-ra ee-ssuh-yo?;
Is someone walking with you?) For verbs whose actions have happened or took place : add a
n
to a verb stem whose final syllable ends in a vowel and
eon
for dictionary stems with consonant endings.

For example:
i yeonghwa bon saram iseoyo
? (
ee young-hwa bon sa-ram
ee-ssuh-yo?;
Has anyone seen this film?) For example:
noriteoeseo nold-eon saramiseoyo
? (
noree-tuh-ae-suh nol-deun-sa-ram ee-ssuh-yo
?
;
Was anyone playing at the playground?) Making Korean verbs with English verbs and adjectives

Many Koreans will add
haeyo
(
~
hae-yo;
it is~) onto an English verb or adjective and use it as if it were a Korean word. Look at the following sentences.

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35

Oh~ dress
-ga
elegant
-haeyo
. (Oh the dress is elegant)

[Some situation in a Korean soap opera]-
ga
dramatic
-haeyo
. [Oh, (the situation in the drama) is dramatic]

Plato
-ga
Memorial gym-
esu
work-out-
haeyo
. (Plato works out at Memorial Gym)

Jeo-
neun
swimming pool-
esu
, warm-up-
haeyo
(I warm up in the swimming pool.)

In fact you can use English verbs and adjectives to make Korean ones. If you put
haeyo
after an English verb or adjective and incorporate it into a Korean sentence, you can speak a grammatically correct sentence that one of your Korean friends will most likely understand. So if you say something like, John-i television-
eul
living-room-
esu
watch-
haeyo
, or This meatloaf-
ga
rock-hard-haeyo, your Korean friends will be able to respond accordingly. Try practicing using particles, adjective, and verbs in this manner, and you’ll be speaking Korean in no time.

Talkin’ the Talk

Jason and Alice are friends. Jason is asking Alice if she’ll go to the movies with him.

Jason:

aelliseussi, gachi yeonghwa bol saram iseoyo?

al-li-sseu-sshi, ga-chi young-hwa bol sa-ram ee-ssuh-yo?

Alice, do you have someone to watch movies with?

Alice:

aniyo jeiseunssi gachi bolsarami eopseoyo

a-ni-yo, jei-son-sshi. ga-chi bol sa-ram-ee uhp-ssuh-yo

No, Jason. I don’t have someone to watch movies

with.

Jason:

geureom jeorang gachi bosillaeyo

geu-rum, juh-rang ga-chi bo-shil-lae-yo?

Then, would you like to watch a movie with me?

Alice: jeongmaryo?

geureom

jochyo

jungmal-yo? geu-rum jo-cho

Really? I’d like that.

Jason:

geureom naeil 12sie yeonghwagwan apeseo

mannayo

geu-rum, nae-il 12shi-ae young-hwa-gwan a-pae-suh

man-na-yo

Then, let’s meet in front of the movie theater at

12 noon.

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Alice:

gomawoyo jeiseunssi, naeil bwayo

go-ma-wo-yo, jei-son-sshi. nae-il-bwa-yo.

Thank you, Jason. See you tomorrow.

Words to Know

ap

ap

Front

eoje

uh-jae

Yesterday

gachi ga-chi

Together

jigeum

jee-geum

Now

maeil

mae-il

Everyday

naeil

nae-il

Tomorrow

pyo

pyo

Ticket

saram

sa-ram

Person/people

yeonghwa

young-hwa

Movies

yeonghwagwan

young-hwa-gwan

Movie theater

Adjectives

In English, adjectives can come before a noun and function as the “good” in

“good wine,” or they can function as the “is good” in “the wine is good.” Here in this section, let’s go over how to use adjectives as descriptive verbs and as noun modifiers.

Using adjectives like verbs

Korean adjectives have a dictionary form and conjugate just like verbs. Using adjectives in Korean may be strange at first because Korean adjectives mimic much of the behavior of verbs.

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37

aiga eoryeoyo
(
a-ee-ga uh-ryuh-yo;
child is young)

jeoneun bappayo
(
juh-neun ba-ppa-yo;
I’m busy)

doni manayo
(
do-nee ma-na-yo;
there is lots of money)

hwajangpumi bissayo
(
hwajang-poom-ee bee-ssa-yo;
make up is expensive)

Notice that there are only two Korean words in each sentence: the subject and the adjective.

There is no linking verb such as
is
or
was
. To use an adjective all you need is the subject, and the conjugated form of the adjective placed at the end of the sentence. If you want to say “the apple is red,” in Korean, all you have to say is
sagwaga ppalgaeyo
(
sa-gwa-ga ppalgae-yo
) “apple red.”

Suffixes

Enhancing verbs and adjectives with suffixes is a lot like changing tenses because all you are doing is adding an additional suffix to an informal polite or dictionary stem. And, if you learn how to enhance verbs by using suffixes, you can use the same suffixes to a wide range of adjectives and verbs. Hence, your range of expression increases extremely quickly.

In Table 2-2, I use English nouns (refer to “Making Korean verbs with English verbs and adjectives,” earlier in this chapter) so you focus more on how the suffixes are used. Also, I write the endings of the suffixes in dictionary form so you can conjugate to whichever tense or form of politeness you need. And for suffixes that require minor changes according to whether the stem ends in a consonant or in a vowel, I first write the form of the suffix that comes after a consonant and then the one that comes after a vowel.

One final thing to remember is that you can “stack” suffixes. For example, you can add the suffix
eul geosida
(
eul-guh-shi-da
)/
reul geosida
(
reul-guh-shi-da
)

“to probably be” and
eul suitda
(
eul-soo-it-da
)/
reul suitda
(
reul-soo-it-da
)

“can” on the verb “eat” to get
meogeulsu isseul geosida
(
muh-geul-boo-ee-sseul-guh-shi-da
) “can probably eat.” So if you think that someone is using more than one suffix, you are most likely right.

Adverbs

You don’t need to worry about conjugating adverbs or worry about tinkering around with stems. Adverbs don’t conjugate.

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There are largely two types of adverbs in Korean. The first is the type of adverbs that are meant to modify the sentence as a whole such as accordingly, also, besides, however, and hence. These adverbs are placed at the beginning of a sentence of phrase. The other type of adverbs are those that that modify the adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs of a sentence or phrase.

A few examples are very, less, more, sometimes, and often. Although some of these adverbs can be placed almost anywhere within a sentence or a phrase, the safest way to use adverbs is to place them immediately to the left of the word they modify.

Two adverbs that are important are
mot
(
mot;
can’t) and
an
(
an;
won’t).
mot
and
an
implies that the subject of the sentence, usually the speaker, cannot do or be something. Both
mot
and
an
are placed to the immediate left of the verb or adjective they modify, and neither of them can be used to modify other adverbs.

mot,
can only be used with verbs and implies that the speaker cannot do something.

For example:
jeoneun gimchireul mot meogeoyo
(
juh-neun gim-chi-reul
mot muh-guh-yo;
I can’t eat Kimchee).
gimchi alleojiga iseoyo
(
gim-chi
al-luh-ji-ga it-ssuh-yo;
I have Kimchee allergies).

an,
when used with a verb, means that you choose not to do something.

For example:
adamssineun gogireul an meogeoyo
(
a-dam-sshi-neun go-gee-reul an-muh-guh-yo;
Adam won’t eat meat),
chaesikjuuijaeyo
(
chae-shik
joo-ui-ja-ae-yo;
He’s a vegetarian).

an,
can also be used with adjectives to mean that the thing spoken about does not have the quality of the adjective.

For example:
gimchiga an maewoyo
(
gim-chi-ga an mae-wo-yo;
The Kimchee isn’t spicy).

Particles

In Korean, the basic word order is subject-object-verb (refer to “Knowing the Basic Parts of Speech,” earlier in this chapter), but in most cases, even object-subject-verb is fine so long as the verb stays at the end of the sentence. If we were to say, Eric drinks juice, in Korean we could say Eric juice drinks, or juice Eric drinks. But you can immediately see a problem: How do you know what is being drunk and whot is doing the drinking?