Korean Language Full

Korean pronunciation is vastly different from English, and it takes a lot of practice to be able to
be able to pronounce words correctly. The biggest mistake you can make is assume that the
pronunciation of a Korean letter is identical to the pronunciation of that letters Romanization in
English. This is simply not the case and is a mistake that virtually all new learners of Korean
make.
Listen to some of the syllables in sequence so you can get a feel for what they should sound like:
, , , , , ,
, , , , , ,
, , , , , ,
, , , , , ,
In addition to the syllables above, continue listening to the audio files in Lesson 1 and Lesson 2
(Unit 0) in the tables presented in those lessons.
Korean pronunciation is entirely different in structure compared to English pronunciation. You
may have noticed this from listening to the recording files above. In English, whenever a word
ends in a consonant, we always make a little sound after saying that last letter. It is very faint and
difficult to hear for a person with a non-Korean ear to hear. But try to hear the difference.
In English, if I were to say ship, there is a tiny sound of breath following the p when our lips
open.
In English, if I were to say dock, there is a tiny sound of breath following the ck when your
throat opens.
In English, if I were to say cod, (or kod) there is a tiny sound of breath following the d when
your tongue is removed from the roof of your mouth.
In Korean, they do not have this final breath sound. This is hard to understand at first to English
speakers. Whatever position ones mouth is in when they make the sound of a final consonant in
a syllable it stays like that. Listen to the following differences in English and Korean
pronunciation of the same syllables:
In English: ship
In Korean: (meaning ten)
In English = dock
In Korean: (meaning poison)
In English = kod
In Korean = (meaning soon)
However
If a word has a consonant as its final sound, and the first letter on the following syllable is
(meaning that the first sound is a vowel) the breath from the final consonant from the first
syllable gets pronounced with the vowel from that syllable. It is confusing to write in a sentence,
so I will show you an example:
For example:
in Korean is pronounced the same way as described earlier (i.e. by cancelling out the lastbreath after the in . For example
If the following syllable is a consonant, nothing changes and the two syllables are pronounced as
usual:
However, if the next syllable starts with a vowel the breath after the k sound is made along
with this vowel. For example:
Technically, it sounds like:
Note that it is not actually written like this, but only sounds like this.
Also note that if these two syllables were pronounced separately ( and ), this phenomenon
would not happen.
+ (pronounced separately)
The most confusing of this rule is when or are the last letters in a syllable. When either of
these is the final letter of a syllable, they are NOT pronounced as S. Instead, they are
pronounced similar to a D sound. The reason for this is the same as I described earlier, that is,
Korean people dont allow that breath of air out of their mouth on a final consonant. As soon
ones tongue touches their teeth when making the S sound, the sound stops and no breath is
made after it.
Listen to the following syllables to train your ear:
, , , , ,
But, just like and , if syllables ending in or connect to another syllable where the first
sound is a vowel, that or is pronounced as S combined with the following vowel (I know, it
is very confusing).
Lets hear at some examples:
and (pronounced separately)
(pronounced together)
As with , if the following syllable starts with a consonant, it gets pronounced normally:
Explaining why different endings would come after a word (for example, vs. and
vs. ) is too difficult to explain in this lesson. In Lesson 5 and Lesson 6 of Unit 1, you will
be introduced to conjugation and when you would have to use these different pronunciation
rules.
There are also some variants to pronunciation when is the final consonant of a syllable and is
followed by a consonant in the next syllable. The reason for these changes in pronunciation is
simply because it is hard to move your tongue fast enough to make the sounds as if their written.
is a bit of an awkward sound in Korean, and is very rarely used to start a word (it is usually
only seen at the start of loan-words from English). Because it is such an awkward sound to make,
there are some exceptions to how it is pronounced:
When the final consonant of one syllable is and the first consonant of the next syllable is ,
the gets pronounced as :
Example:
Example:
Example:
Finally, when the final consonant of one syllable is and the first consonant of the next syllable
is , the gets pronounced as .
This one is not that hard mainly because it is usually only seen in one form (~)
.
The pronunciation of syllables that contain a fourth letter is a little bit different than above. If
you are a beginner, you definitely do not need to memorize these rules/sounds/concepts from the
very beginning. Being comfortable with Korean pronunciation takes years, and is not something
that you can wrap your head around in a day. The best thing you can do as a beginner is to
simply familiarize yourself with what is presented below (and above, for that matter). As you
progress through our lessons, you will eventually come across these words in our Vocabulary
Lists and in example sentences in our Lessons. Lucky for you, our vocabulary words and
example sentences have audio files attached to them so you can listen to them as they are
presented (if they dont have an audio link, they will eventually). Familiarizing yourself with
what is presented below will help you when you are introduced to these words later in our
lessons. Ill repeat my point one more time: While it is important to know how to pronounce
things in Korean this will not happen overnight. Use the concepts presented here to set yourself
off on the right foot, but dont get too bogged down on memorizing everything right now. It will
come with time.
If a syllable contains a fourth letter and is pronounced by itself, usually only one of the two final
consonants is audible.
For example, if you listen to the word , the is not audible and the word is actually
pronounced as
Another example is the word , where the is not audible and the word is actually
pronounced as
This is hard for me to explain because you probably havent learned very much (if any) Korean
grammar by this point. If I explain something that goes over your head in terms of grammar
dont worry about that too much and try to just focus on the pronunciation notes I mention.
The two words above are nouns.
For all intents and purposes, it would be rare to find a noun just sitting by itself in a sentence.
Rather, in Korean, one of many particles (or other things) would be attached to it. You havent
learned about these particles yet, but you will be introduced to them throughout our lessons.
For example:
etc
You will learn about the meanings of all of these in later lessons, but dont worry about that now.
Lets just focus on pronunciation.
If the thing that attaches to these words starts with a consonant, the same rule from above
applies, and only one of the two bottom consonants is pronounced. For example (There are two
separate examples in the audio file below. I thought it would be better to give two examples
instead of one in each case):

(This sounds closer to )
However, if the thing that attaches to these words starts with a vowel, the pronunciation of the
final consonant, in theory, should move to the upcoming syllable. For example:

(This should sound closer to but I admit it does sound like .)
That is a native Korean speaker pronouncing those words, and there probably is a reason why
she pronounced it that way. This is way beyond the scope of this lesson. Again, just try to
understand what is being presented here in theory. You will have thousands of audio files to help
you as you progress to later lessons.
is a noun, but various things are also attached to verbs/adjectives as well that change
pronunciation.
The following are three common verbs in Korean that have this fourth letter (All verbs end with
~ but dont worry about that for now):
= to sit
= to read
= to not have
Listen to the pronunciation of each of those words. You will notice that (just like the word
above), because each of the four-letter syllables is followed by a consonant (), only one of the
two final consonants is pronounced. As you can here, the letter that is not pronounced is not the
same is ever word.
In , is not pronounced (sounds like )
This is beyond your understanding right now, but various grammatical principles can replace
to have different meanings. You will learn about all of these in later lessons. For example:
etc
If the thing that replaces starts with a consonant, the same rule from above (with nouns)
applies, and only one of the two bottom consonants is pronounced. For example, if is
followed by a consonant:

However, if the thing that replaces starts with a vowel, the pronunciation of the final
consonant moves to the upcoming syllable. For example, if is followed by a vowel:

You can see the same phenomenon with all words that have this 4th letter. Lets listen to
when is replaced by something starting with a consonant compared to a vowel.
Followed by a consonant:

(Sounds closer to )
Followed by a vowel:

(Sounds closer to )
Lets do the same thing with

Followed by a consonant

(Sounds closer to )
Followed by a vowel

(Sounds closer to )
Lets do the same thing with (to scratch)

Followed by a consonant

(Sounds closer to )
Followed by a vowel

(Sounds closer to )
Again, explaining the difference in meaning and purpose between
vs. vs.
vs. vs.
vs. vs.
vs. vs.
Forget how to read? Dont worry! Take a look at the letters bellow and get them back into your
memory!
= b
= j
= d
= k
= s
= m
= n
= h
= r/l
= silent letter or -ng
= i
= a
= Romanized as eo but it sounds closer to uh in English
= eu
= u
= o
= kk
=k
= bb
=p
= jj
= ch
= dd
=t
= ss
= ya
= yeo
= yu
= yo
= ae (identical to )
= e (identical to )
= wi
= wo
= oe
= wa
= ui
= wae
= yae
= we
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Conjugating
Present Tense
Informal Low Respect
Informal High Respect
Formal High Respect
Past Tense
Plain Form
Formal High Respect
Conjugating Verbs/Adjectives USING
in the Future
Vocabulary
The vocabulary is separated into nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs for the purpose of
simplicity.
Click on the English word to see information and examples of that word in use (you probably
wont be able to understand the grammar within the sentences at this point, but it is good to see
as you progress through your learning).
A PDF file neatly presenting these words and extra information can be found here.
Nouns:
= factory
= fever
= theater
= company
= place/location
= a sign
= job
= class I taught a class
= meat
= pig
= pork
= cow
= beef
= money
= flowers
= price
= peanut
() = (play) soccer
() = (play) baseball
= passport
= towel
= physical education
= subway
Verbs:
= to become
= start
() = act(ion)
= introduce
= find
= visit
= to lose something
= to lose something
= taking off clothes
= laugh
Adjectives:
= shy
() = health(y)
= pretty
Adverbs:
= future
= now
= now/present
For help memorizing these words, try using our Memrise tool.
.
Conjugating
is conjugated differently than other verbs/adjectives. Not just when conjugating, but when
doing other things to , it usually behaves in another way (you will learn about those other
things later). As of now, the only conjugation you know for is the plain form in the present
tense:
= I am a teacher
If the last letter of the noun before ends in a vowel, you can eliminate . For example:
= I am a doctor
= I am a doctor
Both of the above can be seen as correct. Here, the pronunciation of is merging with the
pronunciation of the vowel in the noun. If you pronounce the two sentences above, you can see
that there is very little difference.
Conversely, if the last letter of the noun before is a consonant, this merging cannot happen.
For example:
= I am a teacher (correct)
incorrect
This merging of does not happen because it has nothing to merge with. Furthermore, if you
try to pronounce , it just doesnt flow properly. It is hard to get your mouth to move
from the sound immediately to the sound. This same principle occurs in other
conjugations of , but it is a little bit more complex.
In almost every case, you can conjugate differently depending on if the noun it is being
attached to ends in a vowel or consonant. The reason they are conjugated differently is similar to
the example above with vs. . Here, the pronunciation of is being merged
with something, and can therefore disappear. You will learn about each conjugation specifically,
but I will give you an example here to prepare you for all the future explanations. Try not to
worry about the meanings of these sentences, and just focus on what I am presenting.
As you will learn later, when conjugating into the past tense in the plain form, is
added to the stem of (). This is actually quite simple for you to understand, because
every other verb and adjective follows this same rule. For example:
However, the pronunciation of can merge to when the noun that it is being
attached to ends in a vowel. For example, both of these are correct:
Pronounce both of those, and listen to how little of a difference there is between the two. Not
only that, the pronunciation of both of those is very easy and it flows off the tongue.
Conversely, and cannot merge when the noun it is added to ends in a consonant. For
example:
correct
incorrect
Pronounce both of those and listen the difference. Not only that, is hard to
pronounce. It is difficult to move your mouth from the sound directly to the sound. It is
much easier to pronounce it like this: ---.
Although I am only talking about the past tense plain form in this example, this same rule applies
in many situations. If you keep this in mind when learning the conjugations in this lesson, they
will be much easier to grasp.
Present Tense
Conjugating to the present tense is relatively confusing compared to the past tense because
new syllables are added with no real logic behind them. Whereas past conjugations are simply
done by connecting the stem to the typical past tense addition of , present tense
conjugations have additions that are not seen with any other verb or adjective. Lets talk about
these first.

Add ~ to a word ending in a consonant, or ~() to a word ending in a vowel:
= I am a good student
= That thing is a book
= I am a teacher
= This is a passport
= That thing is an apple
= I am a doctor
= Baseball is a good sport
When conjugating in this respect, you simply add ~ to :
= I am not a student
= That thing is not a book

Add ~ to a word ending in a consonant, or ~ to a word ending in a vowel:
= That thing is a picture
= I am a teacher
= This (person) is my sister
= I am a doctor
= That thing is an apple
When conjugating in this respect, you simply add ~ to :
Note that Korean people will often add ~ instead of ~. Regardless of which one is
correct (my sources tell me ~ is correct), you will come across both of them.
Formal High Respect

Add ~ (~ + ~) to words ending in a vowel or consonant:
= I am a doctor
= That person is my brother
= I am a teacher
= This meat is pork
With words ending in vowels, you can eliminate ~ and attach ~ directly to the word.
This is more commonly done in conversation, and not usually written.
When conjugating in this respect, you must add ~ directly to . For
example:
= I am not a doctor
= That (thing) is not my job
= That (thing) is not my passport
= That building is not a theater
Past Tense
Conjugating to the past tense is simple, and is done by connecting ~ to ~~. When the
last syllable in a word ends in a vowel, ~ + ~ can combine to make ~.

Add ~ to all words. If the word ends in a vowel, ~ can contract to ~.
= I was a busy teacher
= I was a student
= I was a teacher
= I was a bad baby

= I was a bad doctor

This conjugation is the same as above (Informal Low Respect), except for that ~ is added to
the end of ~ or ~. That is, you should add ~ to all words. If the word ends in a
vowel, ~ can contract to ~.
= That was a big secret
= I was a teacher
= I was a doctor
= I was a bad baby
Plain Form
Same as above, but you should add the regular ~ ending instead of ~. That is, you
should add ~ to all words. If the word ends in a vowel, ~ can contract to ~.
= I was a teacher
= I was a doctor
Formal High Respect

add ~ to all words. If the word ends in a vowel, ~ can contract to ~
.
= I was a teacher
= I was a doctor
In all situations in the past tense, is conjugated just like any other word. An example of
each respect:

The weird thing is that Korean speakers sometimes would use these:

Just going by the rules of the language, Id have to assume that the first set is correct. I base this
on the fact that in no other word do we add ~~ to a stem. In other words, ~~ is created
from + , but it is never added as a stand-alone thing.
How to actually conjugate verbs/adjectives to the Future Tense

In Lesson 6, you learned how to conjugate words to the future tense by adding //
/ to the word stem. Though adding ~~ to a word stem is one way to conjugate
words to the future, there is a more common way to conjugate to do this!
Before learning how to do to this, you needed to learn more grammar first (namely, how to
conjugate properly). Either way, ~~ is still used in Korean, but not as much as the
method you are about to learn.
For verbs or adjectives, when conjugating into the future tense, you must first add ~/ to the
stem of the word.
When you add ~/ to a word stem, ~ gets attached directly to stems ending in a vowel, and
~ gets added onto stems ending in a consonant. For example:
ends in a vowel, so
+ =
ends in a consonant, so
+ =
There is also one irregular involved with adding / to a stem. You were introduced to this
irregular briefly in Lesson 7, but I could not teach it to you perfectly because you didnt know
about ~/ at that point.
If a stem ends in a final consonant that is , when adding ~/, you actually dont add
anything. That sounds weird, but it is true. Check it out.
is a word where the stem ends in a consonant, so you would normally add :
+ =
But saying this is weird. Try to pronounce that: .
Instead, it is way easier to just say .
Anyways, thats it for the irregular.
This is going to sound extremely complicated (and it is): adding ~/ to the stem of an
adjective changes it to a word that can describe a noun in the future tense. For example:
= happy person
= a person that will be happy
Similarly, (this is where it gets complicated) adding ~/~ to a stem of a verb turns it into a
word that can describe a noun in the future:
= the food that will be eaten.
If you cant understand the explanation between the lines dont worry. That level of grammar is
very difficult to grasp at this stage of learning. That grammar will be discussed very deeply in
Lessons 26 29. If you want to jump ahead to those lessons, feel free. However, the mechanics
within the grammar are not important to you yet.
Adding ~/~ to the stem of an adjective allows that adjective to describe a noun in the
future tense
Adding ~/~ to the stem of a verb allows that verb to describe a noun in the future tense
Because these newly formed words can describe nouns, they must be followed by a noun
What does all this have to do with conjugating into the future?
When Korean people conjugate to the future, they usually do so by adding ~/~ to a
verb/adjective.
This is essentially the same as adding / to an adjective stem which you already know: (
-> ).
You should know, however, that you cannot end a sentence like this:

Because is an adjective that modifies a noun, a noun must follow :

Now, to end the sentence, you need to add to the noun:
= I am a good person.
So, again, when Korean people conjugate verbs/adjectives to the future, they usually do so by
adding ~/~ to the word stem:

But this changes verbs/adjectives into an adjectives that describe nouns. Therefore, (just like
) a noun must follow these words. The noun that is always used in this situation is (thing):

Now, to end those sentences, you need to add to the noun:

If you try to directly translate these sentences to English, they have the meaning:
I am a thing who will be happy
I am a thing who will eat
I am a thing who will study
But there actual meanings are:
= I will be happy
= I will eat
= I will study
The can then be conjugated based on the level of politeness or formality. But keep in mind
that even though this sentence is conjugated into the future, the should stay in the present
tense. Because the ~/ creates a future sentence, does not need to be in the future.
is also sometimes shortened to , for no other reason than it is easier to say and creates a
shorter sentence. For example, these two are exactly the same:
= I will eat rice
= I will eat rice
Same with these:
= I will meet my friend tomorrow

= I will meet my friend tomorrow
More examples:
= I will go to school tomorrow
= I will study English
Irregulars come into play when adding ~/ to a verb or adjective because of the possibility of
adding a vowel to a stem. Lets look at the word as an example. has a consonant as
its final letter, which means that ~ must be added (instead of ~). Therefore, we end up with:
Because of this, we now have the final consonant followed by a vowel, which causes the
irregular to be applied. The correct conjugation of + ~/ is therefore
.
Below is a table that shows how ~/ effects each of the irregulars that you learned in Lesson
7.
Irregular
Irregular
Irregular
Irregular
Irregular
Irregular
Irregular
Example Word
(build)
(walk)
(easy)
(lock)
(call)
(open)
Does this apply?

YES
YES
YES
NO
NO
YES
Application

Here is one example sentence:

= I will open the door ( + = )
One more thing; just a minute ago you learned about the ~/ and ~/
future conjugations. Once again, for example:
= I will eat rice

= I will eat rice
Notice that these follow the same conjugation rule as , which is:
~ is added to a noun that ends in a consonant
~ is added to a noun that ends in a vowel
Though the respective uses of ~ and ~ might be grammatically correct, when
conjugating verbs/adjectives to the future tense it is more common to attach ~ instead of
to or . For example:
= I will eat rice
= I will eat rice
Other examples:
= I will go to school tomorrow
= I will study English
Future Using
Conjugating to the future tense is the same as is done above, but it is also possible to use
another verb; . is one of the hardest words in Korean, mainly because it has so many
meanings. You will be introduced to each of these meanings as you progress through our lessons,
but the first meaning of is to become which is slightly different than to be. Let me
introduce the word to you by showing you examples of it being used in the past tense:
(Note the way is used. ~/ is attached to the noun that the subject becomes instead of
~/)
= I became a teacher
Which is slightly different than:
= I was a teacher
Very similar, but the difference between to become and to be (which in this case is in the
past tense of was) is become suggests that prior to that time, the situation was different. Im
sure you get it, but let me describe it using English examples:
I became a teacher last year
I was a teacher last year
(The reason I am explaining this using English examples instead of Korean is because you
havent learned the word last year in Korean yet).
When you say I became a teacher last year, you are indicating that before last year you were
not a teacher but last year you became a teacher.
When you say I was a teacher last year, you are not specifying if you were a teacher before
that time as well, or even if you are still a teacher. All you are specifying is that you were a
teacher last year, and no other information is given.
can be used in the present tense as well (and again differs slightly from ), but most of
the natural sentences require the use of grammatical principles that you havent learned yet, so I
am not going to introduce them to you here.
Anyways, the whole purpose of this is to explain how this applies to the future tense. First off, it
is awkward to conjugate to the future tense using ~. For example, this sounds
awkward in Korean:

If you want to say that something will be something in the future, because of the nature of the
word there is no real difference if you use or . For example:
= I will become a teacher soon
= I will be a teacher soon
Other examples:
= I will become a doctor in the future
= I will be a doctor in the future
= Korea will become a good country soon
= Korea will be a good country soon
= This place will become a park
= This place will be a park
I just want to point out here that the you are seeing above is not the word . Rather it is
the future conjugation (using the conjugation taught in the lesson) of .
becomes + + ~/ .
At this point it is hard to create more example sentences because you dont know many words
that describe times in the future. Once you learn how to say words like next year or a few
months from now, you will be able to apply this same format of sentences to create sentences
like:
This place will become a park next year
I will become a doctor in a few months
However, introducing those words is a lesson in itself, and I dont want to overload this lesson
even more than I already have.
The sentences above using and in the future tense can be used to make negative
sentences as well. When making the negative form of a sentence, you can just add or ~
just like with any other verb or adjective. When making the negative form of an
sentence, you should use . You can change each pair of sentences above to a negative
sentence. For example:
= I wont become a doctor in the future
= I wont be a doctor in the future
= Korea wont become a good country soon
= Korea wont be a good country soon
= This place wont become a park
= This place wont be a park
Those sentences, while kind of ridiculous, are all grammatically correct. I cant think of any time
when you would actually want to say a sentence like that, but they are all possible if the right
situation came up. Most of the time, there would be a better way to say each of the sentences
above. For example, instead of saying:
= I wont become a doctor in the future
It would probably be more natural to say something like I dont want to become a doctor in the
future. You will learn how to say this, and other grammatical principles that can make your
speech more natural as you progress along with your studies. For now, try to understand what is
being done grammatically, and dont worry too much about when you would actually use a
sentence like that.
One other quick thing; and I really dont want to spend too much time on this because I have
already overwhelmed you with grammar in this lesson. However, the future conjugation of
is introduced in this lesson and I feel this needs to be talked about here. By using the future ~/
conjugation on , you can also create a sentence where the speaker is guessing
about a certain situation in the present tense. Look at some examples first:
= That person is probably/most likely a doctor
= That thing is probably/most likely a passport
= The problem is probably/most likely money
These sentences as well can be said using instead of :
= That person is probably/most likely not a doctor
= That thing is probably/most likely not a passport

= The problem is probably/most likely not money
Notice that in these cases the speaker is not talking about him/herself. Also, even though the
sentence is conjugated into the future tense, the speaker is guessing that something is the case in
the present tense. Thus, it is weird to include time indicators in these sentences (for example
next year or in a few months from now) because the speaker is not trying to create this
meaning.
The question then becomes how can I distinguish if somebody is saying one of these
guessing sentences or saying something will become something. You will learn continuously
throughout your Korean studies that understanding a Korean sentence is all about context and
the situation almost always makes it clear what the speaker wants to express.
At this point though, I dont want you to focus too much on these guessing-like sentences
because they are probably too advanced for you right now. I suggest focusing on how to use the
~/ form to conjugate verbs/adjectives into the future tense and realize that
can be used instead of when conjugating to the future tense.
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Korean Numbers
Sino-Korean Numbers
Pure Korean Numbers
Using Korean Numbers
Counters
Zero
Counter of Behavior or Action
Telling Korean Time
: First, Second, Third, etc
First Time
Vocabulary
The vocabulary in this section does not need to be separated. In my mind, they would all fall
under the category of Other.
= one
= two
= three
= four
= five
= six
= seven
= eight
= nine
= ten
= twenty
= thirty
= forty
= fifty
= one
= two
= three
= four
= five
= six
= seven
= eight
= nine
= ten
= one hundred
= one thousand
= ten thousand
= zero
= zero
Click on the English words below to see information and examples of that word in use. You
probably wont be able to understand the grammar within the sentences at this point, but seeing
words being used in sentences is very helpful for understanding how they can be used.
= the first time/beginning
= last
= counter for 1st/2nd/3rd/etc..
= first (1st)
= second (2nd)
= counter for things

= counter for behaviors/actions
= counter for people
= counter for automobiles
= counter for a glass of ____
= oclock
= minute
= second
= years old
Korean Numbers
Korean numbers are actually very easy once you get the hang of them. But, because they are so
different from English numbers, it is often hard for English speakers to fully understand them at
first.
First thing you need to know, there are two sets of numbers in Korean: The pure Korean numbers
and the numbers derived from Chinese (called Sino-Korean numbers). Lets look at the SinoKorean numbers first, because they are easier:
Sino-Korean Numbers
These are the Sino-Korean numbers as provided earlier:
= one
= two
= three
= four
= five
= six
= seven
= eight
= nine
= ten
= one hundred
= one thousand
= ten thousand
With only those numbers, you can create any number from 1 10 million. All you need to do is
put them together:
= one (1)
= ten (10)
= eleven (10 + 1)
= twenty (2 x 10)
= twenty one (2 x 10 + 1)
= twenty two (2 x 10 + 2)
= one hundred (100)
= one hundred and one (100 + 1)
= one hundred and two (100 + 2)
= one hundred and ninety (100 + 90)
= nine hundred (9 x 100)
= one thousand (1000)
= one thousand nine hundred (1000 + 9 x 100)
= five thousand (5 x 1000)
= five thousand six hundred (5 x 1000 + 6 x 100)
= ten thousand
= one hundred thousand
= one million
= ten million
The Sino-Korean numbers are used in limited situations. As each of these are taught throughout
the upcoming lessons, you will slowly learn when to use the Sino-Korean numbers over the
Korean numbers. For now, dont worry about memorizing when they should be used, as it will
come naturally.
When counting/dealing with money
When measuring
When doing math
In phone-numbers
When talking about/counting time in any way except the hour
The names of each month
Counting months (there is another way to count months using pure Korean numbers)
Pure Korean Numbers
These are the pure Korean numbers as provided earlier:

= one
= two
= three
= four
= five
= six
= seven
= eight
= nine
= ten
= twenty
= thirty
= forty
= fifty
Creating numbers 11-19, 21-29, 31-39 (etc..) is easy, and is done like this:
11: (10 + 1)
12: (10 + 2)
21: (20 + 1)
59: (50 + 9)
After 60, regardless of what you are doing, pure Korean numbers are rarely used. I was talking to
my (Korean) girlfriend about this once, and she said that she didnt think there was even a pure
Korean number for 60. I told her yes, there is: . To which she replied Oh yeah, I forgot.
When you get that high (even as high as 40-50) it is not uncommon to use the Sino-Korean
numbers instead.
The pure Korean numbers are used when:
You are counting things/people/actions
Talking about the hour in time
Sometimes used when talking about months.
Again, dont worry about memorizing each of those yet. Whenever I talk about numbers, I will
tell you which set you are expected to use.
Using Numbers
Counters
When counting anything in Korean, you need to use the pure Korean numbers. In addition, one
thing that is very hard for English speakers to wrap their head around is that, when counting most
things in Korean, you need to also include a counter. The most common counters are:
There are many more counters, but if you cant remember the specific counter of something, you
can usually substitute (the counter for thing) instead. You will learn the more difficult
counters as you progress through future lessons. For now, the goal is to get you accustomed to
using these three simple counters.
When counting in English, we usually dont use counters. Rather we just say: two people, as
in:
I met two people
But some things in English require the use of these counters. For example, you could not say I
bought two films (referring to the film in a camera, not a movie). Instead, you have to say I
bought two rolls of film. The word roll in that sentence is a counter, and is similar to the
counters in Korean. The main difference is that counters are used to count almost everything in
Korean.
The words 1, 2, 3, 4 and 20 change when adding a counter:
1 = ->
2 = ->
3 = ->
4 = ->
20 = ->
All counters can be written in 2 different ways with no difference in meaning:
OR = 2 people
OR = 1 person
OR = 5 pens
OR = 44 pens
All are normally written with the numbers instead of writing the word itself:
2 = 2 people
4 = 4 pens
4 pens or any other counted noun can now become the object of a sentence:
4 = I bought 4 pens
2 = I ate two hamburgers
5 = I met 5 friends yesterday
OR
4 = I bought 4 pens
Notice the difference in placement of ~/ in the first and second examples.
Although the placement of the particles is important for your initial understanding of Korean
grammar, eventually, you will become more comfortable with omitting particles altogether.
Omitting particles is not something I recommend for a beginner because it is very important that
you understand how to use them perfectly for more complex sentences. Nonetheless, most often
in speech, particles in this situation are often omitted. For example, you might hear something
like this:
4 = I bought 4 pens
But like I said, at this stage, it is crucial that you continue to use particles in all of your sentences
so you can continue to familiarize yourself with them.
Here are some more examples of counters in use:
4 = That person has 4 cars
2 = I bought two glasses of milk
2 = I ate two peanuts
Zero
I figure since I am talking about numbers, I should mention something about how/when the
number zero is used. Just like other numbers, there are two ways to say zero in Korea.
However, unlike other numbers, both ways of saying zero are of Chinese origin.
, which is (from what I understand), the way Chinese people say zero
, which is sort of like the meaning of nothing
That isnt really very important, but what is important is knowing which word to use in which
situation.
You should use when talking about:
Points that can be given or taken away, like in a game. For example, when saying the
score 2 0, you would say . Another example would be if you are in a quiz
show, and you ask your friend how many points she has, she could say
The temperature zero
When using numbers in math (which, if youre just learning Korean now, you probably
wont do for a long time)
Phone numbers. For example, when saying 010 5555 5555, all the zeros should be
read as . If you dont live in Korea, you probably wont know this, but 010 is the
typical area code for a cell phone (in Seoul, at least). Therefore, when giving your phone
number, you usually start out by saying --.

is a common counter that counts behavior or actions, and is not directly counted with a noun
in a sentence. Putting a number before creates an adverb that tells you how many times
something was done. It is an adverb, so / is usually not attached to it.
3 = I went to school three times yesterday
5 = I saw that movie five times
2 = I will exercise twice (two times) today
2 = I ate meat twice yesterday
4 = I will play soccer four times
This is fairly simple to use, but you will continue to learn about this word in the next lesson
when you learn how to say this time, next time, and last time.
Telling Korean Time
There are so many different ways to talk about time (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks,
months, years, etc). You will learn more about how to indicate when you did/do/will do
something using these time words in the next lesson. In this lesson, however, you will learn
about telling time, as in the time on a clock.
When talking about the hour, as in 2 oclock all you need to do is put after a number:
2 = 2:00 (2 oclock)
When talking about the minute, add after the number:
2 30 = 2:30
The pure Korean numbers are used when saying the hour number, whereas the Sino-Korean
numbers are used when saying the minute number:
2 30 ( ) = 2:30
3 10 = 3:10
12 50 = 12:50
These times can now go in a sentence as usual by adding to indicate a time:
5 = I will eat at 5:00
2 30 = I came at 2:30
1 = We will play baseball at 1:00
7 20 = We will start at 7:20
Age
When indicating how old a person is, you should use pure Korean numbers along with the word
which is a counter for ages. For example:
10 = I am 10 years old
26 = My girlfriend is 26 years old
It would sound weird to use the Sino-Korean numbers to indicate the age of somebody who is
under thirty. However, after thirty, it is not uncommon to use the Sino-Korean numbers instead of
the pure Korean numbers. The older the age, the more likely you will hear the Sino-Korean
number used instead of the pure Korean number. After 50, you are most likely to exclusively
hear the Sino-Korean numbers.
You havent learned how to ask questions yet, so it is difficult for me to explain how to ask about
a persons age. You will understand the following sentence better once you are confident with the
content introduced in Lessons 21 and 22. Nonetheless, it would be good to memorize this
sentence because of how common of a question it is:
() ? = How old are you?

can be used after a number like a counter to mean first/second/third/etc. When saying
first, replaces .
For example:
= first
= My first friend was nice
= I didnt like that first car
If you think that is confusing, explain how one gets changed to first, two gets changed to
second and three gets changed to third.
After first, you can use the regular Korean numbers. Just like with counters, the numbers 2 4
change when follows. For example:
= second
= That second teacher was smart
= I chose the second man
= third
= This is my third passport
= I opened the third door
= fourth
= I was the fourth person
= This person is my fourth son
After the number four, the words dont change when adding . For example:
= This is my tenth class today
= I read the 100th page
Sometimes you might see these numbers + counters used in the following way:
= = first
= = second
= = third
= = fourth
etc.
These shortened formed cant be used in as many situations as their longer counterparts. The
most common situation where these are used is when talking about your first/second/third/etc
children. For example:
= Our second son is a high school student
= Our third child likes baseball
= This (child) is our first son
In these cases, it is common to just refer to the child as ones first or ones second. We often
do the same thing in English. For example:
= Our second (child) is a high school student
= Our third (child) likes baseball
= This (child) is our first (child)
However, as I mentioned, it would be unnatural to use these words in sentences like this:
(very understandable, but awkward)
Another place you will see words like and is when making lists about things that need
to be done, and the speaker/writer is indicating Firstly and then secondly For example:
, = First, I will eat a lot of vegetables
, = Second, I will exercise everyday
I didnt make audio recordings for the above sentences because I feel they would more likely be
written than spoken.
Another useful word is which can be used in many ways. One way it can be used it to
talk about the last something. Note that there are two similar but different meanings for the
word last in English. is used for only ONE of those meanings. is used to talk
about something that is the last thing in the end of sequence as in first meal second meal
third meal fourth meal last meal. It is NOT used to talk about something in the past, as in
last night I went to bed late. Notice the difference between these two usages of last night:
Last night I went to the movies
The last night of our trip was the best
The second example would be where you could use , because you are talking about the
last night of a sequence of nights on a trip. In the first example, you are talking about the
previous night. Both usages of last can be used in the same sentence:
Last night I ate my last meal
Again, last night refers to the previous night and last meal refers to the last meal of a
sequence of meals. Lets confuse you one more time:
Last night was the last night of our trip.
Ha! Can you get that one?
Heres some examples of in use:
= This is my last class
= I didnt see the last thing (I didnt see that last one)
In these examples, is being used as an adjective, even though it is not an adjective in its
original form (it is not an adjective because it does not end in ). Words can be used in this
same way in English, as well. The word face is a noun. But in the sentence I put on face paint
last night, face acts as an adjective which describes what kind of paint you used. Similarly,
you could say that is a computer room, where the word computer is telling you about the
room.
First Time
is a very complex word that be used in many situations. I have been studying Korean for
years and I still dont know how to use it perfectly in all situations. It can be used in sentences
when you are talking about the first time something is being done. It can be used as a noun or an
adverb, depending on the situation (which adds to its complexity). The two most common
situations are:
1) (at first/in the beginning)
= I didnt like that girl at first
= At first I didnt like PE class
2) Put in a sentence as an adverb to indicate this is the first time something has happened:
= I met my teacher for the first time yesterday
= I will go to Korea for the first time tomorrow
Youve gotten this far! You cant stop now! Haha. The learning curve now is still fairly steep, but
it will get much easier in the future. As I keep saying, having a good solid base in the
fundamental grammar concepts of Korean will help you tons later on!
Okay, I got it! Take me to the next lesson! Or,
Click here for a workbook to go along with this lesson.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to make a post on our Forum!
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Korean Numbers
Sino-Korean Numbers
Pure Korean Numbers
Using Korean Numbers
Counters
Zero
Telling Korean Time
First Time
Vocabulary
The vocabulary in this section does not need to be separated. In my mind, they would all fall
under the category of Other.
= one
= two
= three
= four
= five
= six
= seven
= eight
= nine
= ten
= twenty
= thirty
= forty
= fifty
= one
= two
= three
= four
= five
= six
= seven
= eight
= nine
= ten
= one hundred
= one thousand
= ten thousand
= zero
= zero
= the first time/beginning
= last
= counter for 1st/2nd/3rd/etc..
= first (1st)
= second (2nd)
= counter for automobiles
= counter for a glass of ____
= oclock
= minute
= second
= years old
Korean Numbers
Korean numbers are actually very easy once you get the hang of them. But, because they are so
different from English numbers, it is often hard for English speakers to fully understand them at
first.
First thing you need to know, there are two sets of numbers in Korean: The pure Korean numbers
and the numbers derived from Chinese (called Sino-Korean numbers). Lets look at the SinoKorean numbers first, because they are easier:
Sino-Korean Numbers
These are the Sino-Korean numbers as provided earlier:
= one
= two
= three
= four
= five
= six
= seven
= eight
= nine
= ten
= one hundred
= one thousand
= ten thousand
With only those numbers, you can create any number from 1 10 million. All you need to do is
put them together:
= one (1)
= ten (10)
= eleven (10 + 1)
= twenty (2 x 10)
= twenty one (2 x 10 + 1)
= twenty two (2 x 10 + 2)
= one hundred (100)
= one hundred and one (100 + 1)
= one hundred and two (100 + 2)
= one hundred and ninety (100 + 90)
= nine hundred (9 x 100)
= one thousand (1000)
= one thousand nine hundred (1000 + 9 x 100)
= five thousand (5 x 1000)
= five thousand six hundred (5 x 1000 + 6 x 100)
= ten thousand
= one hundred thousand
= one million
= ten million
The Sino-Korean numbers are used in limited situations. As each of these are taught throughout
the upcoming lessons, you will slowly learn when to use the Sino-Korean numbers over the
Korean numbers. For now, dont worry about memorizing when they should be used, as it will
come naturally.
When counting/dealing with money
When measuring
When doing math
In phone-numbers
When talking about/counting time in any way except the hour
The names of each month
Counting months (there is another way to count months using pure Korean numbers)
Pure Korean Numbers

These are the pure Korean numbers as provided earlier:
= one
= two
= three
= four
= five
= six
= seven
= eight
= nine
= ten
= twenty
= thirty
= forty
= fifty
Creating numbers 11-19, 21-29, 31-39 (etc..) is easy, and is done like this:
11: (10 + 1)
12: (10 + 2)
21: (20 + 1)
59: (50 + 9)
After 60, regardless of what you are doing, pure Korean numbers are rarely used. I was talking to
my (Korean) girlfriend about this once, and she said that she didnt think there was even a pure
Korean number for 60. I told her yes, there is: . To which she replied Oh yeah, I forgot.
When you get that high (even as high as 40-50) it is not uncommon to use the Sino-Korean
numbers instead.
The pure Korean numbers are used when:
You are counting things/people/actions
Talking about the hour in time
Sometimes used when talking about months.
Again, dont worry about memorizing each of those yet. Whenever I talk about numbers, I will
tell you which set you are expected to use.
Using Numbers
Counters
When counting anything in Korean, you need to use the pure Korean numbers. In addition, one
thing that is very hard for English speakers to wrap their head around is that, when counting most
things in Korean, you need to also include a counter. The most common counters are:
There are many more counters, but if you cant remember the specific counter of something, you
can usually substitute (the counter for thing) instead. You will learn the more difficult
counters as you progress through future lessons. For now, the goal is to get you accustomed to
using these three simple counters.
When counting in English, we usually dont use counters. Rather we just say: two people, as
in:
I met two people
But some things in English require the use of these counters. For example, you could not say I
bought two films (referring to the film in a camera, not a movie). Instead, you have to say I
bought two rolls of film. The word roll in that sentence is a counter, and is similar to the
counters in Korean. The main difference is that counters are used to count almost everything in
Korean.
The words 1, 2, 3, 4 and 20 change when adding a counter:
1 = ->
2 = ->
3 = ->
4 = ->
20 = ->
All counters can be written in 2 different ways with no difference in meaning:
OR = 2 people
OR = 1 person
OR = 5 pens
OR = 44 pens
All are normally written with the numbers instead of writing the word itself:
2 = 2 people
4 = 4 pens
4 pens or any other counted noun can now become the object of a sentence:
4 = I bought 4 pens
OR
4 = I bought 4 pens
Notice the difference in placement of ~/ in the first and second examples.
Although the placement of the particles is important for your initial understanding of Korean
grammar, eventually, you will become more comfortable with omitting particles altogether.
Omitting particles is not something I recommend for a beginner because it is very important that
you understand how to use them perfectly for more complex sentences. Nonetheless, most often
in speech, particles in this situation are often omitted. For example, you might hear something
like this:
4 = I bought 4 pens
But like I said, at this stage, it is crucial that you continue to use particles in all of your sentences
so you can continue to familiarize yourself with them.
Here are some more examples of counters in use:
4 = That person has 4 cars
2 = I bought two glasses of milk
2 = I ate two peanuts
Zero
I figure since I am talking about numbers, I should mention something about how/when the
number zero is used. Just like other numbers, there are two ways to say zero in Korea.
However, unlike other numbers, both ways of saying zero are of Chinese origin.
, which is (from what I understand), the way Chinese people say zero
, which is sort of like the meaning of nothing
That isnt really very important, but what is important is knowing which word to use in which
situation.
Points that can be given or taken away, like in a game. For example, when saying the
score 2 0, you would say . Another example would be if you are in a quiz
show, and you ask your friend how many points she has, she could say
The temperature zero
When using numbers in math (which, if youre just learning Korean now, you probably
wont do for a long time)
Phone numbers. For example, when saying 010 5555 5555, all the zeros should be
read as . If you dont live in Korea, you probably wont know this, but 010 is the
typical area code for a cell phone (in Seoul, at least). Therefore, when giving your phone
number, you usually start out by saying --.

is a common counter that counts behavior or actions, and is not directly counted with a noun
in a sentence. Putting a number before creates an adverb that tells you how many times
something was done. It is an adverb, so / is usually not attached to it.
3 = I went to school three times yesterday
5 = I saw that movie five times
2 = I will exercise twice (two times) today
2 = I ate meat twice yesterday
4 = I will play soccer four times
This is fairly simple to use, but you will continue to learn about this word in the next lesson
when you learn how to say this time, next time, and last time.
Telling Korean Time

There are so many different ways to talk about time (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks,
months, years, etc). You will learn more about how to indicate when you did/do/will do
something using these time words in the next lesson. In this lesson, however, you will learn
about telling time, as in the time on a clock.
When talking about the hour, as in 2 oclock all you need to do is put after a number:
2 = 2:00 (2 oclock)
When talking about the minute, add after the number:
2 30 = 2:30
The pure Korean numbers are used when saying the hour number, whereas the Sino-Korean
numbers are used when saying the minute number:
2 30 ( ) = 2:30
3 10 = 3:10
12 50 = 12:50
These times can now go in a sentence as usual by adding to indicate a time:
5 = I will eat at 5:00
2 30 = I came at 2:30
1 = We will play baseball at 1:00
7 20 = We will start at 7:20
Age
When indicating how old a person is, you should use pure Korean numbers along with the word
which is a counter for ages. For example:
10 = I am 10 years old
26 = My girlfriend is 26 years old
It would sound weird to use the Sino-Korean numbers to indicate the age of somebody who is
under thirty. However, after thirty, it is not uncommon to use the Sino-Korean numbers instead of
the pure Korean numbers. The older the age, the more likely you will hear the Sino-Korean
number used instead of the pure Korean number. After 50, you are most likely to exclusively
hear the Sino-Korean numbers.
You havent learned how to ask questions yet, so it is difficult for me to explain how to ask about
a persons age. You will understand the following sentence better once you are confident with the
content introduced in Lessons 21 and 22. Nonetheless, it would be good to memorize this
sentence because of how common of a question it is:
() ? = How old are you?

can be used after a number like a counter to mean first/second/third/etc. When saying
first, replaces .
For example:
= first
= My first friend was nice
= I didnt like that first car
If you think that is confusing, explain how one gets changed to first, two gets changed to
second and three gets changed to third.
After first, you can use the regular Korean numbers. Just like with counters, the numbers 2 4
change when follows. For example:
= second
= That second teacher was smart
= I chose the second man
= third
= This is my third passport
= I opened the third door
= fourth
= I was the fourth person
= This person is my fourth son
After the number four, the words dont change when adding . For example:
= This is my tenth class today
= I read the 100th page
Sometimes you might see these numbers + counters used in the following way:
= = first
= = second
= = third
= = fourth
etc.
These shortened formed cant be used in as many situations as their longer counterparts. The
most common situation where these are used is when talking about your first/second/third/etc
children. For example:
= Our second son is a high school student
= Our third child likes baseball
= This (child) is our first son
In these cases, it is common to just refer to the child as ones first or ones second. We often
do the same thing in English. For example:
= Our second (child) is a high school student

= Our third (child) likes baseball
= This (child) is our first (child)
However, as I mentioned, it would be unnatural to use these words in sentences like this:
Another place you will see words like and is when making lists about things that need
to be done, and the speaker/writer is indicating Firstly and then secondly For example:
, = First, I will eat a lot of vegetables
, = Second, I will exercise everyday
I didnt make audio recordings for the above sentences because I feel they would more likely be
written than spoken.
Another useful word is which can be used in many ways. One way it can be used it to
talk about the last something. Note that there are two similar but different meanings for the
word last in English. is used for only ONE of those meanings. is used to talk
about something that is the last thing in the end of sequence as in first meal second meal
third meal fourth meal last meal. It is NOT used to talk about something in the past, as in
last night I went to bed late. Notice the difference between these two usages of last night:
Last night I went to the movies
The last night of our trip was the best
The second example would be where you could use , because you are talking about the
last night of a sequence of nights on a trip. In the first example, you are talking about the
previous night. Both usages of last can be used in the same sentence:
Last night I ate my last meal
Again, last night refers to the previous night and last meal refers to the last meal of a
sequence of meals. Lets confuse you one more time:
Last night was the last night of our trip.
Ha! Can you get that one?
Heres some examples of in use:
= This is my last class
= I didnt see the last thing (I didnt see that last one)
In these examples, is being used as an adjective, even though it is not an adjective in its
original form (it is not an adjective because it does not end in ). Words can be used in this
same way in English, as well. The word face is a noun. But in the sentence I put on face paint
last night, face acts as an adjective which describes what kind of paint you used. Similarly,
you could say that is a computer room, where the word computer is telling you about the
room.
First Time
is a very complex word that be used in many situations. I have been studying Korean for
years and I still dont know how to use it perfectly in all situations. It can be used in sentences
when you are talking about the first time something is being done. It can be used as a noun or an
adverb, depending on the situation (which adds to its complexity). The two most common
situations are:
1) (at first/in the beginning)
= I didnt like that girl at first
= At first I didnt like PE class
2) Put in a sentence as an adverb to indicate this is the first time something has happened:
= I met my teacher for the first time yesterday
= I will go to Korea for the first time tomorrow
A Quick Note
For a certain amount of time ()
Korean Hours ()
Korean Seconds ()
Last/Next (/)
Korean Days (//)
Korean Weeks ()
Korean Months (/)
Korean Years ()
This Week/This Month/This Time ()
Vocabulary
Months of the year:

1 () = January
2 () = February
3 () = March
4 () = April
5 () = May
6 () = June*
7 () = July
8 () = August
9 () = September
10 () = October*
11 () = November
12 () = December
*June (6 /) and October (10 /) should actually be and but, written like
that, they are difficult to pronounce. Because of this, their correct pronunciations are and
NOT and .
Nouns:
= chance/opportunity
= plans
= office worker
= a cook/chef
= a driver
Verbs:
= run
= to cook
= to drive (a car, etc)
= die
Adjectives:
= to be scared
= strange
Adverbs and Other words:
= for, during, while
= month
= month
= one day
= two days
= three days
= last week
= last month
= this week
= this month
= next week
= next month
= last year
= this year
= next year
() = in my whole life
= usually
.
Introduction
In this lesson, you will build on what you learned in Lesson 10 by learning how to use a variety
of different words of time in Korean. Using these words, you will be able to say I did X for 2
months or I didnt do Y last week. You will also learn whether you should use the pure
Korean or Sino-Korean numbers when using these different words of time.
The use of pure Korean or Sino-Korean numbers may seem random, but there is a reason for it.
Anytime the time word is of Chinese origin, the Sino-Korean numbers are used. For example
(month) is counted using Sino-Korean numbers, because is of Chinese origin and
has corresponding Chinese () characters. (also meaning month) is a Korean word, and
thus, counted using Korean numbers. A lot of Korean words are of Chinese origin and have
corresponding Chinese () characters. You will learn about those later.
This lesson is a little bit less organized than the previous lessons. It was difficult to teach
everything in this lesson together because you need to have a mutual understanding of all
concepts in order to understand one of them. In order to understand how to use , you need to
know how to use . But in order to understand how to use , you should understand how to
use . Around and around we go. Anyways, I made it as simple as possible. After this lesson,
any time you learn about other time grammar concepts, it should be really easy because this
lesson will give you a solid base to work from.
.
For a certain amount of time ()
is a very useful word that can be used to tell how long something is being done. It can also
be used to say While I was during the but you will learn about that application in Lesson
33 (the grammar is too complex for you right now). gets added after any indication of
length of time. For example:
2 = 2 minutes
2 = for 2 minutes
10 = 10 minutes
10 = for 10 minutes
= for two days
= for two days
Those can then be added into sentences to indicate how long one does something for. Notice also
that no additional particle is added to . One would think that should be added, but it is
not.
10 = I walked for 10 minutes

30 = I studied for 30 minutes
While the translation of in these examples is usually for, in essence, what you are
doing is stating for that period of time. Understanding this will help you understand later
usages of in future lessons. For example:
10 = I walked for (a period of) 10 minutes
30 = I studied for (a period of) 30 minutes
= I didnt sleep for two days
I want to show you more and more examples of , but at this point, the only time word you
are familiar with at this point is (minutes). Lets move on to hours.
Korean Hours ()
Talking about minutes is easy because you always simply use . For example:
3 20 means 3:20, and
20 means for 20 minutes
When talking about hours, however, is used when talking about the hour on a clock, whereas
is used when counting hours. Notice the difference between these two:
3 = 3:00
3 = for 3 hours
Remember that pure Korean numbers are used when talking about hours, but Sino-Korean
numbers are used with minutes. can be added just like it was to :
3 = I slept for 3 hours
1 = I ran for one hour
8 = I drove for eight hours
1 = I played baseball for an hour yesterday
2 TV * = I watched TV for 2 hours yesterday
*Notice that (to see) is used when watching something. You can also use when you
watch a performance or concert, or similar things. In English I saw a TV and I watched TV
have two different meanings, but Koreans simply say I see TV.
At this point you are probably asking saying Okay, I understand how to say that I have done
things for X hours or minutes, but what about if I want to say something like:
I will eat in three hours, or

I ate three hours ago
I will go in 10 minutes, or
I came 10 minutes ago
You will learn how to create those types of sentences when you learn about and in Lesson
24. For the moment, there is a ton of content in this lesson, so try to focus on what is presented
here.
Korean Seconds ()
When talking about seconds, you need to use the Sino-Korean numbers. For example:
1 ( ) = 1 second
2 ( ) = 2 seconds
2 = for two seconds
Examples in sentences:
2 = I ran for 2 seconds
10 = I met that person for 10 seconds
1 60 = One minute is sixty seconds
Last/Next (/)
and are two more very important words that you can use in many situations. In
Lesson 10, you learned about , which means the last thing in a sequence, as in: This is
my last chance ( ). Remember, Korean people use another word
for the other meaning of last, as in: I saw a movie last week.
In the first example, last is the final chance in a sequence of chances.
In the second example, last refers to a time in the past (last year, last month, etc.)
You already know that the word for last in the first example is . The word for last in the
second example is . can be added immediately before some words of time to mean
last ____. For example:
= I saw a movie last week
= I went to Canada last week.
= I didnt go to/attend the last class
In order to say attend a class, Korean people say , which literally translates to
listen to/hear a class. As such, you can see that the particle ~ is attached to
because the class is the noun that is being listened to. Korean learners are sometimes
confused as to why ~ is not attached to because they are accustomed to the English
way of saying I didnt go to the last class.
Also, note that this sentence is also correct, but is referring to a different class than above:
= I didnt attend the last class.
Remember the difference between and in the previous lesson.
can be added only before some words of time. For example, you couldnt say /
. These would mean last minute/second as in the last minute/second that just passed
which doesnt make any sense. Notice that they do not have the meaning of I handed in my
paper at the last minute. This meaning refers to the last minute in a sequence of minutes;
therefore, must be used in this case.
, however, means time in addition to being a counter for hours. So, can be
used to mean last time (but not last hour).
= I learned that (thing) last time
You can also use the word to refer to the last time something happened.
= I learned that (thing) last time
= We didnt have plans last time
= We ate pork last time
is used in the same way as , but it means next. For example:

= I will see a movie next week
= I will go to Canada next week
Like above, can be used with to mean next time, but not next hour.
= We will go to school next time
= We will go to school next time
= I will visit you next time
= I will visit you next time
Korean Days (//)
Days are very confusing in Korean because there are a few different words you need to be
acquainted with. You learned the names of the days of the week in the vocabulary section of
another lesson. You should have noticed that every day of the week ends in . means day
but it is never used alone (if it is used alone, it means work). Im looking at my Korean
calendar now, and see a variety of words ending in . Dont worry about these words now,
just recognize the importance of within them:
= general election
= the day of the general election (election day)
= Memorial day
is also the counter for days. You learned in Lesson 10 that you must use pure Korean numbers
when counting. When you count days, however, you use Sino-Korean numbers:
3 = I studied for 3 days
3 = I didnt go to school for 3 days
5 = I wont have plans for 5 days
6 = We didnt meet for 6 days
To make things more confusing, if you are counting days from 1 10 there is a word that
corresponds to one day, another word that corresponds to 2 days, another word that
corresponds to 3 days etc The most common of these words is which means one day.
is used much more than . But ////etc are used more than their
corresponding words.
= I traveled for 1 day
= I didnt eat rice for 3 days
= I didnt eat rice for 3 days
= We were in America for two days
10 = We will be in Korea for ten days
You can also place a (Sino-Korean) number before to refer to a specific day in a month. It
seems like it would be easy to confuse when one is talking about the day of a month (3 ) and
when doing something for a specific period (3 ). But, in sentences, these are easily
distinguishable:
3 = I went to class on the 3rd (day of the month)
3 = I went to class for three days
You can refer to a specific day and month by adding # after #:
3 2 = March 2nd
5 25 = May 25th
8 15 = I will arrive on August 15th

1 2 = I received my passport on January 2nd
is another word that means day and can be used as a stand alone word, but not counted. It is
used when talking about a specific day by itself. For example:
= I went on that day
= I have plans on that day
= I became a teacher on that day
= We will start on that day
If you want to talk about doing something on the first/second/third day, you can use (which
you learned in the previous lesson) with . For example:
= We went to Seoul on the second day
= We went to Seoul on the second day
= We didnt meet on the third day
= We didnt meet on the third day
= I have no plans on the fourth day
= I have no plans on the fourth day
is a word that specifically refers to the first day:
= I went to on the first day
= I met that girl on the first day
Korean Weeks ()
Weeks in Korean can be used in sentences just like (day) except that there are no other weird
words to worry about. You use Sino-Korean numbers when talking about weeks:
= I will go to the US next week
= I had a lot of plans last week
The word can also be used as a counter to counter weeks. When counting weeks, just like
when counting days, Sino-Korean numbers are used. For example:
2 = I didnt eat Korean food for two weeks

4 = I didnt meet my girlfriend for four weeks
The word can also be used as a counter for weeks. This is acceptable, but it sounds a bit
more natural to use as shown above. For example:
2 = I didnt eat Korean food for two weeks
4 = I didnt meet my girlfriend for four weeks
Korean Months (/)

First, notice that the names of each month correspond to the number of the month in the calendar
For example:
January = 1
February = 2
December = 12
When counting months, you can either use or . When using , you must use the pure
Korean numbers, and when using , you must use the Sino-Korean numbers. There is no
difference in meaning, and both are used frequently.
2 = I took a Korean class for 2 months
2 = I took a Korean class for 2 months
My Korean grammar teacher told me years ago that is actually incorporated into the
meaning of , which would mean that you wouldnt have to say after . Still, though,
most people use after .
Korean Years ()
Years are used just like weeks, which means that you must use the Sino-Korean numbers:
3 = I didnt meet my brother for 3 years
10 = I studied Korean for 10 years
However, if you want to say last/next year in Korean, you cant use / . Instead,
you must use separate words:
= last year
= next year, for example:
= I will go to Korea next year

= That person died last year
This Week/This Month/This Time ()

Finally, you can use just like / when talking about weeks or months to mean this
week/this month. You cannot say , instead you must use the separate word .
= I have no plans this week
= My mom will come to Korea this year
Note here that it is common to see omitted from the word . You can also see in the
section above that this is not the case with and .
You cannot use when talking about minutes/seconds/hours. I want to go to school this
hour doesnt make any sense. But remember, in addition to meaning hour also means
time. This means that you can, say to mean this time, which is usually used when
talking about this time in class. For example:
= We learned a lot this time
In most other cases, it is more natural to use instead of :
= I wont meet you this time
can also be added after / to mean last/next time
= I will go to the museum next time
= I went to the museum last time
Per
When talking about each of these units of time, you can add the particle ~ to indicate within
that unit of time, how much something was done. You can usually translate this to per in
English. For example:
2 = I eat (take) this medicine twice per day
1 1 = I meet that friend once per week
1 3 = I come here three times per month
1 2 = I go to America twice per year
Almost all the examples in this lesson used . There are other ways you can talk about these
time words without using (for example, I will go to Canada 3 days from now). However,
this lesson was reaching the 6 page mark, and I didnt want to overload you more than I already
have. I feel like the material in this lesson alone is enough to make your head spin for a while, so
I will end it here.
Korean Particle (and using with counters)

Korean Particle (only):
Korean Particle (from):
Korean Particles: (from and to) and
Korean Particle ()
Vocabulary
simplicity.
Nouns:
= store assistant
= actor
= neck/throat
= noise/sound
= voice
= meaning
= situation
= chicken
= sentence
= oil/grease/gasoline
= them
= lifestyle/life
Verbs:
= whisper
= review/re-study
= change
() = study abroad
= to fall
= read
= depart
= drink
= get off, go down, come down
= come out
= go out
= to cover one's head
= to not know
= apply
Adjectives:
= thin
= moderate
= young
= glad
= time, when
= at that time
__ = side/direction
= hard/well (study hard)
= perfectly, completely
= some ____, how many (used with a counter)
= floor
.
Introduction
As of now, you have learned a few different Korean particles. The particles you have learned so
far are: /, /, /, and . There are many more particles that you will need to learn
and this lesson will cover a lot of them. In this lesson, you will learn about ~, ~, ~, ~
, ~ and ~()! Lets get started!
An Important Note: Eliminating the Subject

One thing that I have yet to tell you is that Korean people often omit the topic/subject of the
sentence especially when the topic/subject is I. Korean people love making their sentences as
short as possible, and this is one additional way of doing it. In most cases, when the subject/topic
can be inferred by the situation, Korean people drop it entirely from the sentence. For example,
instead of saying:
= I didnt eat breakfast
They would say:
= I didnt eat breakfast
Both are perfect sentences and both can be used, but you should be aware that Korean people
often get rid of the subject/topic altogether when speaking. This will be done from time to time
throughout our lessons.
.
Korean Particle ~ and using with a counter
You have probably been asking yourself how can I make something plural? Up to now, I
havent mentioned anything about plural words in Korean. The reason for this is Korean people
rarely distinguish between singular and plural. For example, if I say:

This could mean I bought an apple OR I bought apples. This seems crazy to English
speakers, but this is just how it is done in Korean. In most cases, the context can make it clear if
you bought an apple or if you bought apples. If you really want to make it clear that you
bought one apple, you could say:
1 = I bought one apple
When dealing with the ambiguity of singular/plural sentences in Korean, you could also use the
word which can replace a number in these examples: 2 /2 /2 . When replaces a
number in these cases ( / / ), it has the meaning of some ____. For example,
instead of saying: 1 , you could say:
= I bought SOME apples
More examples (remember that 1 and 1 have the same meaning):
= I bought some pens
= I met some people
= I went to school a few/some times (not sometimes)
(remember, acts as an adverb so it doesnt need a particle to be attached to it).
Anyways, back to what I was trying to say earlier. ~ can be attached to a noun to make that
noun plural. However, adding ~ to a noun that is not referring to a person is usually unnatural.
Therefore, it would be unnatural to say something like this:

Instead, ~ is usually only attached to the word person () or other words with the
meaning of people (for example: actors, workers, doctors, etc).
= doctors have a lot of money

= The teacher will meet the students tomorrow
* = actors usually dont like their movies
*By adding the possessive particle to (them) it becomes (their)
Korean Particle ~ (only)

The particle ~ is very common and has the meaning of only. It can be attached directly to the
end of a noun to express only (that noun). For example:
= I only drink water
It can be attached to the subject or the object of a sentence, and in each case it replaces the
particle that would normally be attached there (~/ or ~/) or For example:
= Only I like that girl
= I only like that girl
= Only I bought apples
= I only bought apples
You could also stress that you only bought one apple (or any other number of things) by placing
~ on a counter:
1 = I only bought 1 apple
2 = I only have two cars
1 = I only met one friend
I said it once before in Lesson 3, but it is something that learners of Korean often forget: When a
verb ends in , the part before is usually a noun form of that verb. The examples I gave
before were:
= succeed
= success
= speak
= speech/words
= achieve
= achievement
With these verbs, the part before can be separated from to make a noun form of that
verb. Then, , meaning do can act on that noun (I do study = I study). It is hard to
explain, but look at the following example:
= I studied
= I studied
Those two mean exactly the same thing, even though in the second example, is used as a
stand-alone noun. But why is all of this important? It is important because now you can treat
as a regular noun, which means you can attach to it:
= I only studied
= Yesterday, I only worked
Note that just because a word ends in , doesnt mean you can do this. For example, many
adjectives end in (for example: : happy), but this:
= I am only happy doesnt really make a lot of sense
Also, many verbs dont end in and just end in (for example: , , ). The
way that you can change those verbs into a form that allows ~ to be attached will be discussed
in Lesson 29.
The examples above show ~ attached to nouns, but really it can be attached to a wide variety
of things including grammatical principles and other particles. We cant get into these right
now because you are still learning the basics of Korean.
When ~ gets attached to more complicated things, it usually doesnt replace something, but
overlaps it. What I mean is, when ~ is attached to the subject or object, ~/ or ~/ get
eliminated. However, when ~ is attached to something else, everything usually stays in place.
I can show you how it can be attached to ~, but I cant show you how this is done with other
particles because you havent learned them yet. Some examples:
= We only went to school
= The students are only in their classrooms
= I only exercise at night
= I only drink coffee during the day
= I only loved her at that time
When using , ~ is often omitted because it can be assumed.
Korean Particle ~
Foreign learners of Korean are often very confused as to when they should use ~ instead of
~, as they both denote places in Korean sentences. ~ is used to denote the location in
which the subject is doing something in.
For example:
= I will study at school
= I saw my friend at the hospital
= I will meet my husband at the park
= I learned Korean in Korea
In order to help you understand the purpose of ~, I would like to make a distinction between
~ and ~. As I said, ~ is used in indicate the location in which the subject is doing
something.
This does not mean the location that he/she is going to
This does not mean the location that he/she looking at
This does not mean the location that he/she places something on
This does not mean the location that he/she places something in
All of the locations from those examples above would require the particle ~ to denote the
location.
~, on the other hand refers the location in which the subject the acting agent of the
sentence is in when actually doing the action. Lets look at the following example:

In this sentence, where is the subject () when doing the action ()? ~ is not used in
this sentence, so it is unknown as to where the subject was when he/she saw the sign. It might be
known from context, but this specific sentence is not describing it. Therefore, the person is
saying that he/she saw the sign on the building as if he/she was walking by and saw the sign
attached to the building in some way. The action did not occur at/on/in the building, its just that
the location in which he/she was looking at.
Conversely, look at this sentence:

In this sentence, where is the subject () when doing this action ()? ~ is attached to
. Therefore, the subject was in the building and saw the sign.
Another example:

In this sentence, where is the subject () when doing the action ()? ~ is not used in
this sentence, so it is unknown as to where the subject was when he/she put the bottle on the
table. It might be known from context, but this specific sentence is not describing it. Therefore,
the person is saying that he/she put the bottle on the table.
Conversely, look at this sentence:

This sentence is nonsense. It is indicating that, the action actually occurred on/in the table. That
is, the subject somehow within the table placed the bottle somewhere. But the sentence is so
nonsensical that it is not even indicating where the bottle is placed. It could translate to
something like (While I was) in the table, I placed the bottle. Dont get too hung up on that
translation because its hard to translate a sentence that doesnt make sense.
However, because ~ can be used to indicate where the subject is acting, and because ~
can be used to in this sentence to indicate where the bottle is placed, both ~ and ~ can be
used in the same sentence. For example:
= I placed the bottle on the table in the room
This is the same reason that the particle ~ is placed on the location in which a person is going.
For example, if I said something like this:

(This sentence is correct, but it is stating that the person left from Korea because the action of
going () is occurring at/in Korea). This function is talked about a little bit later.
Instead, in order to indicate the place in which you are going (and, therefore, not currently in/at),
you must use ~. For example:
= I will go to Korea
~ can also be attached to a location where an adjective occurs. The word occurs is a bad
way to describe this (because adjectives dont really occur, but I cant think of a better word.
Just like how a verb can be used with a subject:
= I slept
and a location can be used in this sentence to indicate where that action occurred:
= I slept at home
In that same sense, adjectives can be used with a subject:

= Fruit is expensive
and a location can be used in this sentence to indicate where that adjective occurs:
= Fruit is expensive in Korea
Here are some other examples:
= I was cold at school
= High school is difficult in Korea
= Green Tea is famous in Korea
I dont want to provide a ton of examples for this because in order to make perfectly natural
sentences, it requires the use of other, more complicated grammar that you havent been
introduced to yet. For now, try to understand this specific function of ~ and how it can be
used to indicate where a verb or adjective occurs.
Also note that when you indicate where something is by using , you should use ~ instead
of ~. For example:
= Im at home
= Im in the car
The other main usage of ~ has the general meaning of from. In its most basic sense, it
can be used to indicate the place in which the subject is departing from. This is the usage I
mentioned earlier. For example:
= I will go from Korea
= The next bus will depart from that station
This same usage can be applied to more complicated scenarios that are similar to departing.
For example:
When you are getting off of something (bus/train):
= I will get off at (from) Seoul station
When something/someone is coming/going/being taken out of something:
= the student came out of the classroom
You can also use this to indicate the country (or any other place, for that matter) that you come
from. In English, we say I come from Canada/Im from Canada but in Korean the past tense of
come must be used:
= I come from Canada
I dont want to go on a rant here, but one of the things that bugs me is the textbooks that teach
___ in the first or second lesson before any of the grammar concepts
within the sentence have been taught. For example, when I first started learning Korean, I had a
textbook that taught me ____ on the very first page. Without explaining
why I was using instead of , why I was using , what meant, what meant,
how/why changes to , how/why changes to . But I digress
It is also important to know that when ~ is added to the words // (here, there,
there), it is common to write/say:
instead of
instead of
instead of
In addition to the examples provided, there are more ways in which can be used to mean
from, but the grammar/words that would be used in those sentences are too complex for you
right now. You wont understand these examples completely, but try to understand the role of
within these sentences:
= I live far from school
1 10 = Count from 1 to 10
= They chose me from many candidates
1 2 = Please come from 1:00 to 2:00
10 5 = Subtract 5 from 10
As you can see, from (in English) has many usages as well. When a word has a lot of meanings
in Korean and the corresponding English word also has a lot of meanings it is usually very
difficult to understand the usage completely.
Korean Particles ~ and ~

Two more important Korean particles you need to know are ~ and ~.
~ can be used in sentences with or without ~ to have the meaning of to/until a
place/time. For example:
3 = I will wait until 3:00

= I liked that girl until now
5 = I will work at that company until May
= I hadnt eaten Kimchi until that time
= Today, I read this book until here (this point)
= I ran until the Han River
~ is a particle that is often confused with ~ because both can translate to from and
have seemingly overlapping usages. You learned earlier that one usage of ~ is to indicate the
location from which an action is departing. For example:
= We will depart from home
~ is very similar, but is specifically identifying the place (or time) in which something starts
from. If we look at this sentence:
= I will depart from Incheon and go to (until) Seoul
The particle ~ identifies that the person departed from . In theory, this could also be
seen as the starting point. Therefore, this sentence could also be written as:
= I will go from Incheon to Seoul
These two sentences (despite the slight nuance of departing and starting) are essentially the
same. In both cases, the subject is going from Incheon to Seoul. They can both be seen as
correct, but most Koreans would rather use ~ when talking about the location in which
something starts/departs.
For example, I showed these two sentences to a Korean person and asked him to explain the
difference:
= The next bus will leave from that stop

He said: The first one sounds more natural. The second one sounds as if the place the bus is
leaving from is the bus garage like the absolute starting point of the bus. In most situations, it
would be most natural to say the first sentence.
Instead, ~ is commonly attached to a time to indicate when something starts. For example:
= I have been sick since (from) yesterday
= Im going to study Korean from tomorrow
= From next year, we will be living in Seoul
3 = I will be at school from 3:00
= I have been learning Korean since last year
It is very common to see ~ used in the same sentence as ~. Here, ~ indicates the
starting point and ~ indicates the end point. For example:
= I only studied from morning to night
1 8 = I will be in Canada from the 1st to the 8th
It is common to see attached to to translate to something like from the start or
from the beginning. For example:
= They didnt like me from the start
= We will start that job/task from the beginning
When used to say from start to finish, the word is often used to mean finish. For
example:
= I didnt know that situation from start to finish
= I reviewed that from start to finish
= I read that book from start to finish
Korean Particle ~()

The Korean particle ~() can be added to nouns with a few different meanings. One of the
main meanings is to indicate with what tool/device/method/material something is carried out.
The English equivalent varies depending on the usage:
Write with a pen
Go to the store by car
Go to school on foot
Make a house out of wood
This meaning of ~() can be used in so many situations it would be impossible to list them
all. As you get comfortable with the basic examples of this usage, you will slowly be able to
grasp when it should be used in all situations.
~ is added to words ending in a vowel, whereas ~ is added to words ending in a
consonant. ~ is also added to words ending in . The only reason for this difference is for
ease of pronunciation. If you say there is a split second where your tongue cannot go
directly from to ~ so it is changed to .
= I built our house out of wood

= I will go to Je-ju by boat
= I built that with my hands
In this same respect, ~() can be used to indicate the language in which something is spoken
in. Here, just like in some of the examples above, the language acts as the tool in which
something was communicated. For example:
= I said that sentence (using) in Korean
= I will say that (using) in English
It is also used to indicate what you ate for a specific meal:

= I ate rice for breakfast
= I usually only eat fruit for lunch
If somebody does an action in line with a bunch of other people, you can use ~() to indicate
the order something is done by attaching it to a number + . For example:
= I did that second (I was the second person to do that)
= I came to school second (I was the second person to come to
school)
= I will go (do it) first
The other main meaning of ~() is to indicate the direction that something is happening in.
This sometimes has the same meaning as .For example:
= I will go in the direction of home (simply I will go home), which
would be the same as:
= I will go home
~() is often added after ~ to make ~. ~ can be added after some nouns and
some direction words (above/below/East/West/etc) to mean the direction of ___.
= that way/direction
= upper direction
= the direction of the people, etc..
To make sentences like:
= My friend went that way
= Students walk towards/in the direction of their class
Notice the difference between these two:
= I ran inside the house
= I ran inside the house
In the first example, you are running into the house/in the direction of inside the house. In the
second example, you are running inside the house.
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Korean Particles (and) /, / and
Korean Particles (with) /, / and
Korean Particles (to) //
Korean Particles (from) /()
Do something for somebody (/ ())
About something ~
Vocabulary
simplicity.
Nouns:
= fact
= medicine
= music
= sky
= land
= underground
= bread
= trash/garbage
= accountant
= green tea
= teeth
= government
= personality
= temperature
= curtains
= breath
Verbs:
= congratulations
= to rise/get up
= to prepare/get ready
= to be familiar with something
= come in
= go in
= admit/admission
= breathe
Adjectives:
= interesting
= late
= cool/relaxing
= jealous
= spicy
= I am sorry
= I am sorry
= heavy
= light
= popular
= bad
Adverbs:
= these days
= together
Introduction
In the last lesson, you learned some important Korean particles that you can use in a wide variety
of situations. There are still a few more basic particles that you need to be aware of before you
can begin learning more complex grammar. Most of these particles are very common, so it is
hard to build sentences using more complex grammar without the use of what you learned in
Lesson 12, and what you will learn in this lesson. Lets get started!
.
Korean Particles (and): ~/, ~/ and ~

~/, ~/ and ~ can all be used interchangeably to mean and in Korean.
~ and ~ are the same. ~ is attached to words ending in a consonant, ~ is attached to
words ending in a vowel. Similarly, ~ and ~ are the same. ~ is attached to words
ending in a consonant, ~ is attached to words ending in a vowel. ~ can be attached to
words ending in a vowel or consonant. These can be added fairly simply to nouns. For example:
= We sell rice and bread
= I bought apples and bananas
The two examples above show ~//// placed between two nouns that together act
as the object of the sentence. Notice that although there are two nouns, both of them (together)
sort of act as the single object of the sentence.
Other particles can attach to the construction made by using ~//// as well. For
example:
= I will go to Seoul and Incheon
= My brother and dad saw a movie
= I only bought medicine and green tea
Korean Particles (with): ~/, ~/ and ~

Just when you thought this was going to be an easy lesson! Ha! This sounds crazy to an English
speaker, but the same particles are used to mean and and with in Korean. You can distinguish
them purely by the context of the conversation, which sounds like it would be difficult. However,
even though you probably think it is difficult, it is always clear (even to a beginner) if the
speaker is trying to express the meaning of and or with because of the sentence structure.
For example, when used to have the meaning of and, a noun will always follow //()/
: For example:
= I bought apples and bananas
After , another noun is used, which means you are talking about apples AND bananas. But if I
said this:
= I went with my friend

There is no additional noun after , which means it can only mean with. If ~ in that
sentence had the meaning of and, it would translate to:
I went, my friend and
which is just nonsense
Here are some examples:
= I went home with my friend
= I will go to the park with my dad
= The teacher went to the museum with the students
= These days, people dont eat spicy
food with their friends
Also notice that you can actually use these particles to mean both and and with within the
same sentence:
= I ate (rice*) with my mom and my friend
*Korean people often use (rice) to simply mean food. It stems from the fact that Korean
people eat rice with (almost) every meal so if you ate, it means that you ate rice. You can say
which can simply mean I ate.
Two adverbs that are commonly used in sentences with with are and . Both of them
mean together, and can be used in sentences even if the sentence doesnt have one of the
particles meaning with (////). For example:
= We ate bread together
= We ate bread together
= We went into the house together
= We went into the house together
= We listened to music together
= We listened to music together
The use of the word together in the same sentence as the word with in English is usually
unnatural. For example, it sounds unnatural for me to say something like this:
I ate bread together with a friend
Instead, in English, we would say one of the following sentences:
I ate bread with a friend
We ate bread together
In Korean however, it is okay to use or in either of these situations; that is with the
word with in the sentence, or without it. For example:
= I ate bread with a friend (together)
* = I ate bread with a friend (together)
= I ate bread with a friend
= I ate bread with a friend
Notice that I used ~ with instead of ~. Just like with the meaning of and, ~/
is more likely to be used in writing and in formal situations, whereas ~() is more likely to
be used is speech. This entirely depends on the person who is speaking/writing, but it is
generally true. Likewise, the use of is generally used in writing and formal situations.
Therefore, the use of is more likely to be paired with ~/ in these cases.
To add an additional level of complexity to this explanation is more commonly used than
( is probably one of the most common words in Korean, while would fall much
further down the list). However, when is used, it is more likely to be used with ~/.
These are just generalizations based on observations of years of speaking with Korean people.
More examples:
= I drank green tea with my mom
= I saw/watched a famous movie with my mom
= I studied with my teacher
= I watched a movie with my girlfriend
You can also use these particles to say that you are simply with somebody in a location. In
order to do this, you must use along with one of the adverbs meaning together. For
example:
= Im with my friend
= Im with a friend at home
Note that this meaning of with in Korean cannot be used like this:
I built a house with my hands
Remember, my hands are the method in which you did something, so, as you learned in Lesson
12 ~() should be used in those situations. For example:

Korean Particles (to) //

These three particles can all be used to indicate that you are doing (usually giving) something TO
somebody. , and all have the same meaning, but ~ is usually used in
conversation, ~ is usually written (although it is still said in conversation very often) and ~
is used when the person you are giving something to requires respect ( is the honorific form
of /).
= The father gives money to his son
= I taught Korean to the students
= I will tell that (fact) to my boss
In the sentence above using ~, a different verb () and grammatical form () would
more likely be used to conjugate the sentence. At this point, you havent learned either of those
words (or how they are used), so I refrained from using them in this example. These will be
introduced in Lesson 39. For now, focus on the use of ~ in this sentence.
Note that just because you use ~ doesnt mean that your sentence needs to end in a polite way.
~ is used when the person who is being given is of high importance, regardless of who you are
talking to. For example, if I was a teacher, talking to my student, talking about something being
given TO the principal, I could say:
= I gave the principal a book
Again, the word would most likely be used instead of here. For now, focus on the
use of ~ and we will continue to discuss this in Lesson 39.
Korean Particles (from): ~//()

You learned in Lesson 12 that ~ can be used to mean from in a wide variety of situations.
~/ can also have the translation of from, but they are used in a more restricted
way.
~/ has the meaning that is opposite of ~//, which means it is used
when somebody receives something from somebody. These particles are attached to the person
from whom one receives something from. For example:
= I received a letter from my girlfriend
The thing that is being received doesnt need to be something physical. It could be something
abstract like stories, explanations, or other things. For example:
= I learned Korean from my vice principal

= I heard that from my friend
A very similar particle is ~(). This particle can also be attached to the person from
whom one receives something from. For example:
= I received a letter from my girlfriend
= I learned Korean from my vice principal
= I heard that from my friend
= I received a lot of love from friends
= A present came from my father
~() can also be used when receiving something from a non-person thing (a
company/the government/etc). For example:
= I received money from the government (the recording
incorrectly says )
= I received this from the sky
However, you cannot use ~/~ to indicate that you received something from a nonperson.
To summarize, ~() can be used to indicate that one receives something from a person
or non-person. ~ and ~ have a similar meaning, but can only be used when one
receives something from a person.
Do something for somebody: ~/ ()

If you want to say that you are doing something FOR (the benefit of) somebody, you can add ~
/ to the person who you are doing something for, followed by ():
() = I bought flowers for my girlfriend
() = I wrote this for my boss (the recording incorrectly says
)
= I made bread for my friend
= I prepared cool water for my father
There doesnt seem to be a difference between and .
This form is usually used when you are doing something for a person, but can also be used
sometimes when you are doing something for a non-person:
= I will work hard for the company
The important thing is that the thing in which you are doing something for must be a noun (thats
a confusing sentence read it again if it went over your head). You can use to indicate that
you are doing something for the purpose of a verb (I am going there to/for the purpose of
see(ing) a movie) but you will learn about that in Lesson 32 once you have learned how to
change verbs into nouns.
Also make sure that you realize that for can have many meanings in English. Just because you
say for in English, doesnt mean that it can be translated directly to ~/ . In Korean, ~
/ means for the benefit of. For example, in this sentence:
I am waiting for the bus the bus is the object in which you are waiting for, so, in Korean, you
attach the particle ~/ to bus but not ~/ :

About something ~
~ can also be attached to nouns like / , but this has the meaning of about. Its
very easy to understand when used in simple situations:
= I was thinking about you
= I was talking about my father
= I will write a book about it
= That accountant said bad things about the
government
Just like with ~/ , there is very little (if any) difference between ~ and ~
. For example, the sentences above could all be written as:
= I was thinking about you
= I was talking about my father
= I will write a book about it
= That accountant said bad things about the
government
One way that you cannot use ~ is in the following sentence:
My favorite thing about you is your eyes.
Id love to teach you that sentence in Korean, but it is just a little bit too complicated for you
right now. Ah, what the heck Ill show you but dont expect to understand much of it:
.
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Korean Passive Verbs to
Korean Passive Verbs Non- verbs
Korean Passive Verbs and
Korean Passive Verbs Normal verbs
Vocabulary
simplicity.
Nouns:
() = smell
= vacuum cleaner
= face
= market
= body
= light/fire
= homework
= memory
= box
= wind
= tax
Verbs:
= to turn on
= to turn off
= to hide
= to hide an object
= to break
= laying an object down
= to lie down
= to respect
() = replacement (to replace)
= provide/offer
= include
= to make something come up/arise/occur
= fight
= to trick somebody
= impress
= to stand
Passive Verbs:
= state of being locked
= the state of being on
= the state of being off
= to have something you didnt have

= passive state of broken
= mad
= to be annoyed
= the state of an object lying
= the state of being open
= to be tricked
Adverbs:
= repeatedly
Introduction
This lesson contains a lot of boring, confusing grammar. I am warning you now.
If you looked at the vocabulary list of this lesson before reading this, you may have noticed
something strange with some of the words. A lot of the words look very similar to each other.
The reason for this is because today you will learn about passive verbs in Korean. Though I
studied passive verbs very early in my studies, it is something that actually took me a year to
fully grasp and not because it is incredibly difficult, but rather that I never received any proper
instruction regarding passive verbs.
What are passive verbs? A passive verb is a word that indicates that an action was done in the
past which results in something being in a non-active state after that action. Its hard to explain
with words and much better explained with examples. In this sentence:
I open the door:
The verb open is an active verb because the subject (I) is acting on an object (the door). But, in
the following sentence:
The door is open:
The subject is actually the door and it is in the passive state of opened. Though it is not
explicitly shown, we can infer from that sentence the fact that somebody previously opened the
door so now the door is open
If you are not good with languages (which I wasnt) it is difficult to understand the difference
between active and passive verbs at first. I will show you more examples:
Active: I turn the computer on
Passive: The computer is on (which means, somebody had previously turned the computer on
so now it is in the state of being on).
Active: I turn the computer off
Passive: The computer is off (which means, somebody had previously turned the computer off
so now it is in the state of being off).
Active: I lock the door
Passive: The door is locked (which means, somebody had previously locked the door so now
it is in the state of being locked).
In English, we add is/am/are before a verb to make it passive and usually attach ~ed to the end of
a verb:
lock
is locked
expect is expected
annoy is annoyed
In Korean, they usually use a different (but very similar looking) verb when saying a passive
verb instead of an active one. In this lesson, we will look at the different ways this can be done.
One thing that is absolutely essential in knowing before you start, however, is that in sentences
with passive verbs can NOT have objects in them. This means, that you can never use / in a
clause with a passive verb. For example, you cant say: The man me was found. In that
sentence me is an object so must be eliminated to say: The man was found. However, me
can be used if you want to use another particle on it. In English, we do this by using the particle
by: The man was found by me.
You will learn about all of this in this lesson.
This is probably the most important paragraph in the entire lesson; It is usually unnatural to use
passive verbs in Korean. Passive verbs are used (quite often, actually) but the main reason they
are used is because Korean has been so heavily influenced by English over the past 50 years. In
almost every situation, it is more natural to use the active form of a verb. For example, instead of
saying the house is built it is more natural to say somebody built the house (which implies
that the house is now built).
One more quick thing passive verbs are verbs not adjectives. People sometimes think that
they are adjectives because they look, sound and feel similar to adjectives and they never act on
objects. Look at the similarities between these two:
The house is beautiful (beautiful = adjective)

The house is built (built = passive verb)
Always remember that passive verbs are verbs. This is important because you must conjugate
them as verbs.
.

Ive told you twice before that verbs ending in can usually be separated from to create
a noun form of that verb. then has the meaning of do:
= I worked
which has the same meaning of:
= I did work/I worked
When dealing with verbs, most of the time you can simply exchange with , to
make that verb passive. For example:
= to understand
= to be understood
= to include
= to be included
= to provide
= to be provided
You can use these passive verbs in sentences, but remember, these sentences cannot act on
objects. For example:
= this price includes tax
= the tax is included
*Adding to creates either or with no difference in meaning. (For example, in
the past tense can either be or )
More examples:
Active:
Passive:
= I prepared (the) lunch

= (The) lunch was prepared
Active:
Passive:
= The company replaced the machine

= The machine was replaced
However, a lot of times you want to indicate by whom/what the lunch was prepared, or by
whom/what the machine was replaced. For example:
The lunch was prepared by the school
The machine was replaced by the company
In the examples above, although we are still using a passive verb, information about how the
passive verb occurred is given. This is an example of when it is much more common to use the
active form over the passive form in Korean. In Korean (and most likely in English as well), it
would be much more natural to say I prepared the lunch instead of The lunch was prepared by
me. Nonetheless, the grammar within these sentences is important, so I need to continue
teaching it to you here.
In order to create these sentences, you need to remember that sentences with a predicating
passive verb can NOT have an object which means that you CANNOT attach ~/ to the
school or the company. For example, the sentence below would be ridiculous and probably
wouldnt be understood at all:

In these types of sentences, in order to indicate how/by which means the passive verb occurs,
you need to use different particles. If this part of a sentence is a person, it is acceptable to attach
the particle to the noun. For example:
= it was understood
= It was understood by the students
= the house was cleaned
= the house was cleaned by my dad
Again, I highly suggest that you refrain from using this passive voice in Korean. I need you to
understand what is being introduced here so I can build on it in later lessons. The two sentences
above would be better said as:
= The students understood that
= My dad cleaned the house
The particle ~ can be used when this part of a sentence is a non-person. For example:
= The lunch was provided by the school
The particle ~ can also be attached to nouns that are non-people in these situations, but
the distinction between ~ and ~ at this point doesnt need to be discussed (it will only
confuse you, and it especially because I advise against using this passive form in Korean
anyways doesnt need to be taught until much later. In Lesson 78, I formally introduce ~
and its main function. I suggest not skipping ahead to that lesson, and focusing on the
information I am presenting here.
Also, remember the meaning of ~() which you learned in Lesson 12. You learned that ~()
can be used to indicate with what tool/device/method/material something is carried out. This
means that you can say something like:
= I cleaned the house with a vacuum cleaner
But, if you wanted to say that sentence by using the passive verb (to be cleaned), you would have
to again use ~() as the particle attached to because that was the method/tool that was
used for it to be cleaned:
= the house was cleaned by a vacuum cleaner, whereas:
= is not correct, although most Korean people would probably
understand you.
Wow. Confusing.
Its confusing for me, Im sure it is confusing to you, and it is actually confusing to Korean
people as well so dont get too hung up on the difference between ~/ /~() in these
situations because, as I said Korean people dont use passive verbs as much as they use active
verbs.
What do you need to take from all of this? Because it is so confusing, I wrote the main points
that you should know:
1. Clauses ending in a passive verb can never have a word with an object marker (/)
within the clause.
2. Passive verbs are conjugated just like active verbs, even though they feel like adjectives
3. Though clauses ending in a passive verb cannot have an object in the clause, other
particles can be attached to nouns to indicate how the passive action occurred. These
particles are usually:
1. to indicate that something occurred due to a non-person
2. to indicate that something occurred due to a non-person, but we havent
studied this specifically yet
3. to indicate that something occurred due to a person
4. ~() to indicate the tool/method in which something occurred

One other thing. Just because an noun in a passive sentence has the particle ~ (or ~, or ~
for that matter) attached to it, it doesnt necessarily mean that is the noun that caused the
passive verb to occur. ~ could also have its more familiar function of designating a place. For
example, we saw this sentence before:
= the tax is included
I could put the noun in the sentence to indicate the location of where the tax is included in.
= The tax is included in the price
Notice in the example above that the particle ~ is not denoting that the tax is included by the
price. Rather, it is included in the price. Being able to recognize things like this just takes
practice and your understanding of this will increase as you progress through your studies. For
now, try not to focus too much on the tiny parts of this lessons, and focus more on the bigpicture.

In addition to the usual way of switching with to make a passive verb there is
another (similar) way of making these verbs passive. This can only be done with certain verbs
(usually acting on people), and is done by switching with (to receive). For example:
= I respect my brother
= My brother is respected (literally-my brother receives respect)
The same rules apply with ~ and ~ as described previously:
= The principal is respected by the teachers
* = I was impressed with what you said
*Remember that means to speak. By removing , becomes the noun form of
speak, which is words/the thing you said/what you said/etc
Korean Passive Verbs Non- verbs

So far you have only learned how to change ~ verbs into the passive tense. There are, of
course many verbs in Korean that dont end in ~. When dealing with words not ending in
, there is often a separate (but very similar) word that can be used to indicate the passive voice.
These words will always be presented separately in the vocabulary lists. Here are some
examples:
= to turn on
= to be on
= to turn off
= to be off
= to close
= to be closed
You can treat these passive verbs just like the passive verbs you learned in the previous two
sections ( and verbs). Make sure you use the passive verb and not the active verb (for
example use instead of in a passive sentence)
= food is provided by the school
= food was provided by the school
= The door was closed by the wind
When dealing with these passive verbs however, you need to think about whether or not that
passive verb is in the state of something. For example, every passive verb you learned in the
previous two sections ( to and to ) were not passive verbs in the state of
something. For example, again:
= I was impressed with what you said
Simply means that you were impressed. It does not mean that you are in the state of being
impressed. But, in these sentences:
The computer is on.
The TV is off
The door is locked
All of those nouns are in the state of something. The computer is in the state of being on, the TV
is in the state of being off, and the door is in the state of locked. To indicate that something is in
the state of something in Korean, you must add ~/ to the passive verb:
= I turned the computer on
= The computer is (in the state of) on
TV = I turned the TV off

TV = The TV is (in the state of) off
= I locked the door
= The door is (in the state of) locked
Notice that when using these state words, / should be used instead of /.
I get a lot of people who are confused about this state nonsense of these passive verbs. I would
like to fully describe how these words can be used to describe that something is in a state and
compare them to the same passive verb that is not in that state. For example:
= I closed the door
This sentence is an active sentence. It has an active verb, and has an object. This should be no
problem.
= The door was closed
This is a passive sentence. It is indicating that at some point in the past, the door was closed by
something or something. This is the exact passive equivalent of the
only difference is that we have no idea who/what closed the door. Though you could assume that
the door (after that point) was in the state of closed this sentence does not specifically indicate
that.
= The door was closed by the wind
This is essentially the same sentence as above, but in this case we know how the door was
closed. Again, though you could assume that the door (after that point) was in the state of
closed this sentence does not specifically indicate that.
= The door was closed
This is another passive sentence, but notice the difference between this sentence and the two
examples above. Here, the sentence is specifically indicating that the door was in the state of
closed. Here, we have absolutely no idea if something/somebody had closed it recently; all we
know is that, at that time, the door was not open.
= I close the door
This is another active sentence with an active verb. Though it makes sense, it probably wouldnt
be said like this unless there was some sort of adverb or other information in the sentence (for
example, I close the door every day at 9:00pm)
= The door closes
While technically correct, you would need some other information to make this sentence more
natural (for example, the door closes every day at 9:00pm). This is the exact passive equivalent
of except for that in this example, there is no information given as to
who/what will close the door. The sentence is not referring to the door being in the state of
closed, but rather, indicating that door somehow closes.
= The door is closed
Notice the difference between this example and the one above. This sentence is not referring to
the door closing. It is only stating that the door is currently in the state of closed
= The door will close
Again, this example is referring to the door somehow closing. It is the exact passive equivalent
of except for that in this example, there is no information given as
to who/what will close the door.
= The door will be closed
This is a passive sentence that is indicating that the door will be in the state of closed in the
future. It does not indicate who/what will close the door; all we know is that, at that time in the
future, the door will be closed.
Just because an active verb has a passive equivalent, it does not mean you can attach ~/
to that word to describe that it is in the state of something. Typically this is only done for
words like on, off, open, closed, etc
A good example of this not working with a passive verb is with and .
= to trick somebody
= to be tricked
= I tricked my friend (the recording incorrectly says at the end)
This is an active sentence.
= I was tricked by my friend
This is a passive sentence

I am in the state of being tricked.
This doesnt make sense. Once youre tricked, youre tricked. You do not continue being in the
state of tricked like a door continues to be open once it is open.
Heres an example that I am including just because I have the audio for it. Im going to get more
example sentences for this lesson shortly with more audio clips:

= The pen was (in the state of) laying on the table
Korean Passive Verbs and

There are quite a few words in Korean that can either end in or .
These two play the same role as and , where a word ending in is passive and a
word ending in is active. For example:
= to finish
= to be finished
and can actually be used as standalone verbs as well as be attached to other words.
Both of their meanings are very complex and depend heavily on the situation, but their general
meanings are:
= for something to come up/arise/occur
= to make something come up/arise/occur
However, not all words ending in have an equivalent verb (and vice-versa). For
example, is a word (to be out of step with something) but is not a word. At
any rate, the two most common words ending in / are:
= to finish
= to be finished
= to break
= to be broken
It is very common to use the past tense conjugation of both of these words in the passive voice
even when the thing is currently broken/finished. In English, we would say these sentences in the
present tense, but in theory the task/thing was broken/finished in the past. For example:
= My homework is finished
= The computer is broken
It is possible to use the active voice to express these sentences, but the use of (as seen
above) is more common than the use of in these cases. Nonetheless, the following are
acceptable:
= I finished my homework
= I broke the computer
As I said before, itself means for something to come up/arise/occur which means it can
be used in a lot of sentences to indicate that some noun comes up. Three common ways to use
are with (a memory) with (a thought) and with (a smell):
! * ! = Ah! I remember that! (Literally my memory came up)
* ! = I have a good idea (Literally a good idea came up)
= That bag is smelly (A smell is coming out of that bag)
= That room is smelly (A smell is coming out of that room)
*Remember that is a passive verb and cannot act on an object. Therefore, the particle ~/
must be used on . You will learn more about this sentence structure in the next lesson.
Another common example of in use is in the following phrase:
!
Literally, this translates to a big thing/task/work came up! In Korean, this expression is used
similar to the expression Oh no! Something bad just happened! A more common expression
would probably be Oh crap!
You will see used with many other words throughout your Korean studies. The most
common examples of (or its active form) are the examples above. Other common
examples that you will learn shortly are provided below. I havent included these words in the
vocabulary list above, so you dont need to memorize them now. I am simply introducing them
to you at this point because they are related to this topic.
= sound
= the verb of a sound happening (for a sound to come up)
= anger, rage
= to be angry (for anger to come up)
= accident
= to get into an accident (for an accident to arise)
= sweat
= to be sweating (to sweat to come up)
= war
= for a war to start (for a war to come up)
= motion sickness
= for motion sickness to come up
In a lot of these cases, you will see conjugated into the past tense when we as English
speakers would think of the situation in the present tense. To explain this phenomenon, let me
bring up an example from before:
! ! = Ah! I remember that!
Notice here that is conjugated to the past but I have translated the English sentence into the
present tense. If you imagine your memory as a thing that can come up, in theory, the memory
had already came up before you said that sentence therefore making it in the past tense. Here,
the context of the conversation can inform you if the speaker is referring to something in the past
or present tense.
It is possible to use these words in the present tense, but that would mean that the noun is
currently coming up. A good example from that list above would be:
= Im sweating
Here again, you can see conjugated to the past tense but the English sentence is translated
into the present tense. Just by the nature of the word (to come out) in Korean, when
sweat has come out of your body it means that you now have sweat on your body which we as
English speakers would say as Im sweating.
When is conjugating into the present tense in these cases, it insinuates that the thing is
currently coming up. In most situations, the difference is negligible and distinguishing them
would really be splitting hairs.
However, lets split some hairs:
= Sweat was coming out of my body which means that there is currently sweat
on my body which means that I am wet from the sweat on my body that had previously come
out of my body.
= Sweat is literally currently coming out of my body
= I remembered that which means that I also currently remember

that fact which means that I know that fact that I had previously remembered
= That memory is literally currently just coming to my mind
Really, this whole past/present thing is quite advanced and it not something I developed an
understanding of until many years of exposure to Korean. As a beginner (you are still a beginner
if you are only at Lesson 14!) you probably dont need to worry about splitting these hairs.
However, when I was learning, I would have wanted this to be explained to me at some point, so
here I am explaining it to you.
I should point out that we dont see this same phenomenon when these words are used in
negative sentences. For example, if I say:

Does the fact of your memory not coming up mean that it is currently not up when you said the
sentence? Huh. I cant even wrap my head around that sentence.
This type of past-tense-conjugated negative sentence with would only be used to say that
you didnt remember something sometime in the past. If you want to say that you cannot
currently remember something, you can use the present tense conjugation. For example:
= I didnt remember (that) at that time
= I dont remember that
Korean Passive Verbs Normal verbs

So far, youve learned about dealing with // verbs, verbs that can be in a state (
/) and / verbs. Sometimes, however, a verb that fits none of these conditions
can be put into the passive voice. All that needs to be done in these cases is to add ~/ to
the verb stem to make it passive. Note that this cannot be done with all verbs, but some common
examples are:
= to give
= to be given
(Note that the word is and not )
= to build
= to be built ( + = ) + =
= I was given a chance
= that house was built in Korea
Thats it!
I warned you earlier, there was a lot of grammar in this lesson. Though all of the grammar in this
lesson is very important, and must be understood to continue your development of Korean keep
in mind that it is always more natural to use active sentences instead of passive sentences in
Korean.
Im sure you are very confused! But I did my best to describe everything somebody would need
to know when having to worry about the passive voice in Korean.
Introduction
Explanation of / to /
Subject Object Adjective Form
Korean Word:
Korean Compound Verbs
Different/Similar/Same in Korean (//)
Korean Homonyms
Being Sick in Korea
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= sleep
= hat
= line/string/rope/queue
= cold
= cough
= diarrhea
= flu
= sneeze
= a club (in school/university)
= hobby
= math
= family
= skills
= cousin
= life
= beer
= past
= ones heart/mind
Verbs:
= to lift, carry, hold something
= to enter/go into something/somewhere
= to bring something
= to take something
= turn/run a machine/hand out
= to be turning/rotating
= look back
= give back
= to hang
= order (at a restaurant)
= to get married
= to call out (a name)
= to choose/pick
= insert/put inside
() = (to) experience
() = explain(ation)
= to show off/boast
Passive verbs:
= to be hanging
= to be caught/stuck/trapped
= to catch a cold/sickness
= to take a certain amount of time
Adjectives:
= exactly the same
= to be proud
= another
= noisy/loud
= common
= rare
= maybe/might
= inside
Introduction
This lesson will have a very different feel than all the previous lessons you have learned. Most of
the words you have learned so far can be understood and used in sentences without much thought
or hesitation. For example, if you knew how to say this:
= I learned Korean
And then subsequently learned (to study), it would be easy to figure out that you
could also say:
= I studied Korean.
However, there are many words that you would not be able to pick up instinctively because they
follow different rules or patterns. In this lesson, I want to teach you about some of these words. I
also want to use this lesson as a means to teach you some small concepts in Korean that you
should know. These concepts are important, but are too small to have an entire lesson dedicated
to that one concept. So, I have included them in this miscellaneous lesson:
.
More about / to /
I have told you a few times that in most words ending in , you can remove the ~ and
the remaining word then becomes a noun of that verb. For example:
= speech/words/the thing that you say
= to speak
= an order
= to order
= marriage
= to marry
= respect
= to respect
This cannot be done with and . That is:
is not a noun that means likeness (or whatever), and
is not a noun that means dis-likeness (or whatever)
Note, however that and can be found in sentences, but only as conjugated forms of
/ and not as the noun form of and . You learned in previous lessons
that and are adjectives. As adjectives, they can describe an upcoming noun or
predicate a sentence. For example:
= I ate good kimchi
= Kimchi is good
Just a quick note. Only in rare cases would you actually say . In most cases if
you wanted to describe by saying it was good, you would use the word instead. You
would only really use this sentence if you/somebody was talking about something bad (like
maybe something bad for your health), and then you could say is bad, but Kimchi is good.
Nonetheless, it is grammatically correct, and I am specifically using this sentence to make a
point that you will understand later in the lesson.
is made by adding ~/ to the stem of . This changes from an
adjective (good) to a verb (to like). Likewise,
is made by adding ~/ to the stem of . This changes from an
adjective (not good) to a verb (to dislike).
It would be good to note that you can add ~ with some other adjectives as well.
and are the most common (and the most important) to worry about right now, but other
common examples are:
= shy (this is an adjective)
= shy (this is a verb)
= envious (this is an adjective)
= envious (this is a verb)
Aside from knowing that one is a verb and one is an adjective, you dont need to worry about
these other words right now. I talk more about this concept and how they are used differently, but
not until much later in Lesson 105. For now, lets just focus on and .
As a verb, can be used to indicate that one likes something. For example:
= Kimchi is good
= I like Kimchi
Likewise, can be used to indicate that one dislikes something. For example:
= Kimchi is bad/not good
= I dont like Kimchi
However, the use of and in these sentences is commonly used to say:
= I like Kimchi, and

= I dont like Kimchi
Or, other examples:
= I like school
= I dont like school
= I like beer
= I dont like beer
The mechanics to how this is done is talked about next.
Subject Object Adjective Form

One of the basic fundamentals of grammar (not just Korean grammar) is that an adjective cannot
act on an object. This means in Korean you can never have a sentence predicated by an adjective
that is acting on a word with the object particle ~/. This means that you cannot say this:
= I kimchi good
(this doesnt make sense in either language)
But, you can say any of these:
= I ate kimchi
An object predicated by a verb
= kimchi is good
A subject predicated by an adjective
= I ate good kimchi
An object being described by an adjective predicated by a verb
That being said, sometimes, Korean people actually DO make sentences that are predicated by
adjectives and also have an object. Remember though, you cannot (100% cannot) use an
adjective to act on an object. So how do Korean people say this? They do so by adding ~/ to
the object instead of ~/. This technically makes the grammar within the sentence correct
because there is not an adjective acting on an object. Take a look at the example:
= kimchi is good
= I like kimchi, which can also be said like this
= I like kimchi
What I am trying to get at here is that often times in Korean there is an adjective or passive
verb that acts on objects. However, these adjective/passive verbs must (of course) always be
treated as an adjective or passive verb.
Adjectives and passive verbs can never act on objects, so instead of using ~/ in these
situations, you have to use ~/. Another example where this is commonly done is with
:
= this word is translated as to miss, but is usually used when talking about missing a
non-person (it is sometimes used to say that you miss a person, but we will talk about how to say
you miss a person in Lesson 17).
is an adjective in Korean (because it actually describes the feeling rather than an action
verb). This means that if you want to say I miss Korean food you cannot say:
. Instead, you must say:
= I miss Korean food
More examples. Notice that the predicating word of each sentence in an adjective:
= I am proud of you
= I dont like that person
= I like Korea
You also saw this same phenomenon in the previous lesson with passive verbs. Remember, you
cannot have a passive verb act on an object. Therefore, we saw the following types of examples
in the previous lesson:
! = I remember that!
! = Im sweating!
= I was/I am angry
Korean Word:
The word in Korean is very difficult because it can be used in so many ways. Two of the
most common usages are:
= to carry/hold something
= to enter/go into something/somewhere
Both of these usages are overarching situations that most of the usages of can fit into. The
difficulty with is, because it can be used in so many different ways, it is often hard to come
up with a translation that fits all possible situations.
Right now, you dont have a good enough understanding of Korean grammar/vocabulary for me
to list all the possible ways can be used. However, let me show you three examples of how
can be used under the overarching situation of to enter/go into something/somewhere.
= I joined a club (I entered a club)
() = I fell asleep (I entered sleep)
= I like that picture (That picture enters my heart)
The definition of the word generally refers to ones heart/ones mind
Now, let me show you examples of how can be used under the overarching situation of to
carry/hold something.
= I raised my hand (I held up my hand/carried my hand)
= I carried the/my bag
Okay, so whats my point?
Well, I have three points actually.
1) First, I wanted to show you how can be used. As I mentioned, there are many other
possible ways that can be used that fit under those two overarching situations. Even though
I only showed you five example sentences, that represents a good percentage of the ways
can be used.
2) This is really crucial to your development of Korean and how it relates to the meanings you
have of words from your understanding of English. You have to realize that Korean and English
are fundamentally different, and it is very difficult to translate sentences sometimes. In cases like
these, you should try not to translate the meaning of a word directly into a specific definition.
Rather, you should be open to the fact that it can have many meanings depending on the context.
For example, imagine if you knew the following words and their definitions:
= I/me
= heat/mind
= enter
= picture
And you saw the following sentence:

Would you be able to understand its meaning if I had not explained it to you earlier? Many
learners of Korean might read that and say Well, it looks like that person has a picture entering
his heart/mind but Im not quite sure what that means.
This is the first of many times where I will encourage you to not translate/understand sentences
literally. Instead, try to understand what the meaning of a sentence could be based on your
understanding of the words within it. For example, if you come across the word in your
studies, realize that it can have many usages and just because it doesnt immediately look like
it will translate to enter or carry, an open mind might allow you to see things in different
ways.
3) I specifically wanted to teach you the meaning of because it is commonly used in
compound words, which I will talk about in the next section.
Korean Compound Verbs

You will notice (or may have already noticed) that many Korean verbs are made by combining
two verbs together. This is usually done by adding one verb to the stem of the other, along with ~
/. When this happens, the meanings of both of the words form to make one word. For
example:
= to enter something
= to go
+ = + +
= = to go into something
= My dad went into the bank
= to enter something
= to come
+ = + +
= = to come into something
= A man came into the room
= to arise out of something/come up/come out

= to go
+ = + +
= = to go out of something
= I went out of home (I left home)
= to arise out of something/come up/come out

= to come
+ = + +
= = to come out of something
= The student came out of school
= to own/have/posses
= to come
+ = + +
= = to bring something
= I brought my homework
= That student didnt bring his homework
= to own/have/posses
= to go
+ = + +
= = to take something
= I will bring my hat
You will come across many of these words when you are leaning how to speak Korean. It is not
something terribly difficult, but is something that you should be aware of (it helps to understand
the word if you realize that it is made up of two separate words).
Another word that you will see commonly in these compound words is :
= to turn/to spin/to rotate
Examples of compound words:
+ = = to turn around (and see)
+ = = to return/go back
+ = = to return/come back
+ = = to give back
9 1 = I will go back to Canada on September 1st
= I gave my friend back his book
Thats good enough for now, but you will continue to see these as you progress through your
studies.
Different/Similar/Same in Korean (//)

Three words that you have learned in previous lessons are:
= different
= similar
= same
Using these words isnt as straight forward as it would seem, so I wanted to spend some time
teaching you how to deal with them. Of course, in simple sentences, they can be used just like
any other adjectives. For example:
= That is similar
= We are so different
= We are the same*
The sentence above sounds unnatural in Korean. Although translates to the same, in
most cases (especially in cases like this where nothing is being compared), it is more natural to
use the word , which usually translates to exactly the same.
For example:
= We are exactly the same
When comparing things like this in English, we use a different preposition for each word. For
example:
I am similar to my friend
That building is different from yesterday
Canadian people are the same as Korean people
In Korean, the particle ~//// can be used to represent all of these meanings. For
example:
= I am similar to my friend
= That building is different from yesterday
= Canadian people are the same as Korean people
= This school is exactly the same as our school
The ability of ~//// to be used in all of these cases creates confusion for Korean
people when they learn English. You will often hear mistakes from Korean people like:
This school is the same to our school
Notice in the sentence above that the particle ~//// is used to denote that
something is different from, similar to, or the same as something else. In theory, you could
change the order of the sentences (to make the sentence structure similar to what you learned in
Lesson 13) to indicate that two things (this and that) are different, similar or the same. For
example:
= Our school and this school are exactly the same
As you can see with the English translation this doesnt create any difference in meaning. It
merely changes the wording of the sentences and the function of the particles slightly.
I talk about the usage of later in Lessons 35 and 36. Specifically, in Lesson 36 I talk about
how is more commonly used to say something is like something. I dont want to get into
this too much in this lesson, because the purpose of this section was for me to introduce you to
the grammar within these sentences so you could apply it to what I am about to next next.
Check this grammar out. This is probably an easy sentence to you now:
= I met a handsome man
Subject adjective (describing an) object verb
What about these next sentences?
= I met a similar man, or
= I met the same man
These sentences have the same structure as before:
Subject adjective (describing an) object verb
That should be easy for you too. But what about if you wanted to say I met a man who is similar
to your boyfriend. Seems too complicated, but lets break it down:
= similar to your boyfriend
is an adjective which means it can modify a noun:
= similar man
= A man (that is) similar to your boyfriend
( ) = I met
( ) = I met a man that is similar to your boyfriend
Easy! Actually, not very easy. This structure is essentially the base of THE most important
grammar concept in Korean. Youll learn more about that in Lesson 26 but for now, just try to
understand the structure I showed you.
The meaning of different in English has more than one nuance, which are possessed by
as well. Although the meaning of different in the two sentences below is similar, try to see
that they are slightly different:
I am different than him
I saw a different movie
The first one describes that something is not the same as something else
The second one has a meaning similar to other or another, where (in this case), the person
did not see the movie that was originally planned, but instead saw another or a different
movie.
can be used in both situations. For example:
= I am different from him
= I saw a different (another) movie
usually translates to another, while translates to other. However, in

the example above, replacing another with other makes it sound weird.
The function of is hard to explain, but it is easier to explain (and understand) if you
think of it as two separate words (which it actually is). It is a combination of the adjective
and the adverb , which is used when something happens again.
is used when one particular thing has already been described, and you are
explaining another thing. For example, imagine you are sitting in a meeting with your coworkers
discussing potential problems for a plan. People are all discussing the problems they see, and you
can point out:
= Another problem is that (that thing is) expensive
In this same respect, you can say the following sentence, and although the translation in English
is similar, try to understand the difference in adding :
= I saw ANother movie
In this, maybe the person saw one movie, and then again saw a different movie.
Words that are the same but have different meanings (Korean Homonyms)
This may be something that is obvious when learning any language, but I wanted to point it out.
In Korean, there are a lot of words that have more than one meaning. It is like this in English as
well, but most people never notice it until they stop to think about how many there actually are.
Whenever there is a word with many meanings in Korean, these different meanings will always
have a separate entry in our vocabulary lists (not necessarily in the same lesson, however). An
example of this is :
= to write
= to use
= to wear a hat
Each of these words has had a separate entry in our vocabulary lists. However, when a word has
many meanings, but most of those meanings can be combined into a few umbrella term
meanings only those umbrella term meanings will be shown. A good example we talked about
earlier is . has so many meanings, but most of which can be grouped into 3 or 4
groups.
Either way, be aware that many words have many meanings in Korean:
= I am going to write a letter for my friend

= I used that machine
= My father always wears a hat
Another word that has many common meanings is :
= to be (in the state of) hanging
= to catch a cold/sickness
There are more usages, but lets just focus on these four for now:
= to be hanging
Similar to the passive verbs you learned in the previous lesson, this verb can be used to indicate
the passive state of hanging:
= The picture is hanging on the wall
An active verb that can be used when something trips/gets caught/gets trapped:
= I tripped over the line (the recording incorrectly says at the end)
This is a very useful form that we will talk about in greater detail in a later lesson. You can use
this to indicate how long it takes to get from one place to another:
2 = It takes 2 hours to get from Seoul to Incheon
10 = It takes 10 minutes to get from our school to the
restaurant
Notice however, that even though each of these has a very different meaning in English (to be
hanging, to be caught, to take a certain amount of time) they are actually pretty similar. When a
picture is hanging on the wall, technically it is stuck/trapped on the wall. Similarly, if you go
from Incheon to Seoul, the time it takes (2 hours) is stuck/trapped. Haha, No? Well, thats just
the way I explained it to myself when I first learned some of these words.
Try to think outside of the English box. One word in Korean is often used to represent many
words in English. Usually these words arent actually very different, but the different translations
lead us to believe that they are in fact very different. Read these sentences again and see if you
can understand them this way:
The picture is caught on the wall

I was caught over the line
2 hours are caught to get from Seoul to Incheon
Obviously not natural in English but you can probably understand what these sentences mean.
My point? Just because it looks like a word has many meanings doesnt necessarily mean that
those meanings are vastly different from each other. Think about the example from earlier in this
lesson () one more time. has many meanings but most of which can be grouped into
only 2 or 3 different meanings. Always keep this in mind.
Being Sick in Korea

One of the things people often try to learn first when learning a new language is how to express
themselves in the event that they have to go to the doctor. This is something that wouldnt fit into
any specific lesson, so I want to cover it here:
You already know the word , which you can use to indicate that you are sick OR sore in
some place. In English sore and sick mean slightly different things. Because of this, Korean
people (who are learning English) often mistakenly say My arm is sick. Also note that
is an adjective and for some reason / are used instead of / when creating
sentences about a place on your body:
= My stomach is sore
= My arm is sore
= I was sick yesterday
Also, you can use the word to indicate that you have some sort of disease/sickness. You
learned a little bit about in the previous section. This usage of essentially has the
same meaning that was described in all the other examples of (I am caught in a sickness).
Korean people use this in the following way:
= I caught a cold/I have a cold
= I caught the flu/I have the flu
Notice how is used in these sentences due to having the nuance of being stuck IN
something
Also note that even though you have a cold in the present tense, Korean people use the past
to express that they currently have a cold.
(a cough) and (a sneeze), although not originally nouns of Chinese origin, are both
nouns where you can add to get the respective verb form (to cough and to sneeze). For
example:
= My son coughed loudly

(Probably more naturally translated to My son was coughing loudly. Korean people dont
really distinguish between simple and progressive past tenses as much as we do in English. You
will learn about the progressive tense in Lesson 18.)
Vocabulary
~/~/~
~
Vocabulary
Some of these words are too difficult for you at this level. However, I am introducing them to
you in this lesson so you can understand a specific grammatical concept. These words are
separate from the other words in the Vocabulary List below.
= economy/economics
= economical
= history
= historical
= science
= scientific
= impulse/shock
= impulsive
= culture
= cultural
() = democracy
= democratic
= individual/personal
= individual
= nature
= natural
() = disappointment(disappointed)
= to be disappointing
() = love/(to love)
= lovely
() = satisfaction/(to be satisfied)
= satisfactory
Nouns:
= relationship
= stress
= pencil
= color
= he, him
= she, her
Notes:
You should not use when she refers to somebody who deserves high respect.
Example:
= She went outside with her friends
= She looks really innocent
= result
= a dream
= world
= world
= conversation
= text message
= chest
= title of something (book, etc)
Verbs:
= to untie/unfasten/loosen
= to dream
= to be born
= to go somewhere frequently
= to believe, to trust
Adjectives:
= close/near by
= difficult to do something
= pure
Adverbs:
= a little
= close/near by
= later
= recently
= but/however
~//
~ is a common suffix that can be added after some nouns of Chinese origin ( () is of
Chinese origin). At first, there is no way to anticipate or expect which nouns this can be added to.
As you progress through your Korean studies, you can sort of start anticipating this, but still, the
only real way of knowing if ~ can be added to a particular noun is if you have specifically
learned that it can. The goal of this lesson isnt to teach you all of the words that ~ can be
attached to (that would take forever). Rather, the goal of this lesson is to show you how you can
recognize and use these words when you come across them.
Adding ~ to a noun changes it into a descriptive word that has the meaning of relating to, or
having the properties of the original noun. For example:
= culture
= relating to, or having the properties of culture
= economy
= relating to, or having the properties of economy
= history
= relating to, or having the properties of history
However, the translations above nonsense and a more accurate way to translate words with ~
is to add -al to the English word. For example:
= culture
= cultural
= economy
= economical
= history
= historical
Adding -al doesnt always work with the English word, though. For example:
= science
= relating to, or having the properties of science
= scientific
= impulse/shock
= relating to, or having the properties of impulse
= impulsive
The main point of this lesson is to teach you how you can understand the meaning of a word
ending in ~ even if you have never seen it before. This still happens to me fairly regularly I
will read something, and come across a word I have never seen before ending in ~.
For example, if you knew that the word meant democracy What do you think
would mean? A descriptive word that has the properties of democracy that would be
democratic.
= democracy
= democratic
Though these descriptive words can be used in sentences, it is easy for a beginner to understand
them when they are used by adding ~ or ~.
Adding
Adding to the end of ~ changes the word into an adverb. These adverbs usually have
the ending ly in English. Below are the most common examples of using ~ with
example sentences for each:
= culture
= cultural
= culturally
50 = Korea has changed a lot culturally in the
period of/during/for the past 50 years
= economy
= economical
= economically
= That isnt economically possible
= history
= historical
= historically
* = Historically, Korea and the US have had a
good relationship
Again, as I said in the previous lesson dont get too hung up on grammar especially when
reading/listening to a sentence and trying to understand its meaning when compared to English.
My Korean teacher grammar told me that once. I always asked him why isnt this sentence like
this? Why isnt this sentence like this? He eventually told me Dont get hung up on things like
that. In this sentence, you would think that it should be written as have
a good relationship. For whatever reason however, it is more naturally said with instead of
translating to something like they are in/have been in a good relationship. You just need to
let go of grammar sometimes and let your brain tell you what you think it should mean based on
the words around the grammar.
= science
= scientific
= scientifically
= They solved that problem scientifically
= impulse/shock
= impulsive
= impulsively
= I often buy clothes impulsively
= democracy
= democratic
= democratically
Any examples I can make using require me to use words that you havent learned
before. Forgive me:
= America elects its president democratically
Adding
Adding to the end of ~ turns the word into an adjective that can predicate a sentence or
describe an upcoming noun. The translation of these adjectives are usually are the same (in
English) as without adding . For example:
= culture
= cultural
= cultural
= Canada and the US have a cultural difference
( = difference)
= economics
= economical
= economical
= The US made an economical decision
= history
= historical
= historical
= That school is a historical building
= science
= scientific
= scientific
= This is a scientific problem
= impulsive
= impulsive
= impulsive
= Im too impulsive
Notice that when a word ending in ~ is used to predicate a sentence, is conjugated
as if it were actually .
= democracy
= democratic
= democratic
= The US is a democratic nation
A question that always comes up here is What is the difference between using ~ and
just using ~? For example, what is the difference between these two:
= economical
= economical
The difference between these is that ~ is a noun, whereas ~ is an adjective. Sometimes
however, nouns can technically be used to sound like adjectives. For example:
That is a big bag
Big describes the type of bag it is. Big is clearly an adjective which is telling us about the type
of bag that it is (that it is big). Book is clearly a noun.
However, in the following example:
That is a book bag
In this example, book acts as a descriptive word because it describes the type of bag it is (that it
is a book bag).
This is usually the only time that ~ (with nothing following it) is used in Korean. That is, when
it is actually a noun, but acting as a descriptive word within a sentence. Because it is usually used
as this type of descriptive word, you dont really need to worry much about the difference
between ~ and ~. Just be aware that ~ is more commonly used, and how they
are used within a sentence. That is, when using ~, should be conjugated, and
when using ~ nothing needs to be conjugated because it is a noun. For example:
= There is not a democratic government in North Korea
At this point, I dont want you to spend too much time dwelling over when you need to use ~
vs. . The purpose of this lesson was to introduce you to what ~(/) can do to a
word and how it can be used. Ive created four more examples of ~ vs. ~ that I would
like to show you, but please dont worry about these too much. If anything, just try to understand
the use of ~() in these sentences:
= There is a financial problem
= I quit the company due to personal reasons
(problems)
(problems)
( = to quit a job or school)
= This building is a historical building
In all cases above, I would rather use the ~ form to describe the upcoming noun. The native
Korean speaker beside me says the same thing. However, she also says that the first example of
each (the examples just using ~ instead of ~) are also acceptable. In my opinion, the use
of ~ instead of ~ is more common in speaking and in printed sources. However, you are
more likely to see ~ in print sources compared to hearing it in spoken Korean. (i.e. ~ is
more common than ~ in all cases. However, when compared only to itself, you are more likely
to find ~ in print than in speech).
Okay, enough of that for now. Lets talk about something else.
.
~
~ can also be added to some nouns to change them into an adjective, much like the
function of ~(). When doing this, ~ changes the noun into an adjective that has the
properties of that noun. The two easiest examples to explain this change are:
= love
= with the properties of love
= nature
= with the properties of nature
For example:
= That girl is something with the properties of love
= That girls hair color has the properties of nature
Of course, those translations are nonsense. A more accurate translation of these words would be:
= lovely
= natural
The only way of knowing if ~ or ~ can be added to a word is if you have specifically
learned that it can. Because one can never know which words ~ and ~ can be added to,
these words will always be presented as a separate entry in our vocabulary lists.
Anyways, ~ can be added to nouns to make that noun a descriptive word:
The two examples above are fairly straight-forward. However ~ is sometimes added to
words that seem to already have an adjective form. For example:
= disappointment
= to be disappointed
= with the properties of disappointment (disappointing)
Ill do the best I can to distinguish between and for you.
is used to describe a persons emotions. This could be referring to anybodys
emotions; not necessarily just the speakers emotions. For example:
= I was disappointed
= Our dad was disappointed yesterday
If you want to say that somebody is disappointed in a person using , you must attach
the particle ~/ to the person he/she is disappointed in. For example:
= I was disappointed in my friend
= Our dad was disappointed in me yesterday
If you want to say that somebody is disappointed in a non-person using , you must
attach the particle ~ to the thing he/she is disappointed in. For example:
= I was disappointed in the movie
= Our dad was disappointed in the restaurant
Hmmm Adding ~/ to a person, and adding ~ to a non-person. What does this

remind you of? Remember, you learned this same rule in Lesson 14 when predicating sentences
with passive verbs.
Well, is a verb. In English, it definitely feels like an adjective, but in Korean the
dictionary (and the use of the particles ~/ and ~) indicate that it is a verb. Here,
is a verb (much like passive verbs) that cannot act on an object. Other verbs like this are
(to sleep), (to die), etc. This really means very little, and the only thing you need to take
from this is:
In order to say one is disappointed, you can use :
In order to say one is disappointed in something/somebody, you can use along with the
use of the particles ~/ (for a person) or ~ (for a non-person). For example:
Now, usually is not describing ones emotions. Rather, it is describing something
that has the properties of disappointment. This usually translates to disappointing. For
example:
= The result was a little bit disappointing
= The movie was a little bit disappointing
That being said, you might sometimes hear being used like this:

In this case, what do you think this would mean?
I guess in theory this could sometimes mean I am disappointing. But very rarely would
somebody say that. Most of the time, this sentence would translate to I am disappointed.
Wait a second I thought the word to describe ones emotions as disappointed was
. In this sentence, why is being used to describe the persons emotions in this
sentence.
Its not.
If you heard the sentence in Korean, it would most likely be from a person
describing that something is disappointing, but they have omitted it from the sentence. For
example, using the adjective you can use the Subject Object Adjective form in
the following way:
= I am disappointed in my friend
(My friend is disappointing, and therefore I am disappointed)
= I was disappointed in the students
(My students were disappointing, and therefore I was disappointed)
(The movie was disappointing, and therefore I was disappointed)
If you just walked into a room and said:
~ = I am disappointed (in something.)
Whoever was listening to that sentence would probably say In what?
What the speaker has done when saying is they have simply omitted the
object that they are describing.
Wow thats a lot of stuff to wrap your head around. Lets break it down one more time:
is a verb that describes ones emotions of being disappointed:

cannot act on an object (like , , or any passive verb). Therefore, the

following is incorrect:

Instead, as with passive verbs, the use of ~/ should be used to indicate that you
are disappointed in a person:
~ can be used to indicate that you are disappointed in a non-person:

is an adjective that describes something which is disappointing:

The adjective can be used in the subject object adjective form to indicate
that you were disappointed in something:
= I was disappointed in that movie
In the sentence above, the object can be omitted from the sentence, in which case the
speaker is indicating that something was disappointing (and by virtue, he/she is
disappointed), but has omitted the noun that is disappointing:
= I was disappointed (something was disappointing)
I realize that is incredibly confusing.

This same phenomenon happens with the word . Look at the following three words:
= satisfaction
= to be satisfied
= with the properties of satisfaction (satisfactory)
Just like with , is used to describe a persons emotions. This could be
referring to anybodys emotions; not necessarily just the speakers emotions. For example:
= I am satisfied
= He is satisfied
Again, just like with , is not describing ones emotions. Rather, it is an
adjective that is describing something that has the properties of satisfaction. This usually
translates to satisfactory. For example:
= The results were satisfactory
can be used in the Subject Object Adjective form to indicate that one is satisfied
in something. For example:
= I was satisfied with the results
= I was satisfied with the food
In this Subject Object Adjective form, the object can be omitted and the speaker can indicate
that something was satisfactory (and thus he/she was satisfied). For example:
= I was satisfied (something was satisfying)
Dont worry too much about the difference between words like vs. and
vs. . Im really going deep into this, and it is not something you really
need to worry about as most Korean people wouldnt know the difference unless they really
think about it.
In other words with -, the difference is much less ambiguous because the - version
of the word is an adjective, but the version is a verb that can act on an object. For
example:
= I love that girl

= That girl is lovely
Another good example of is:
= to show off (verb)
= proud (adjective)
Here as well, is a verb that can act on a noun, so its usage is very simple:
= I showed off/boasted my Korean skills
is usually used in the Subject Object Adjective form to indicate who somebody
is proud of. For example:
= I am very proud of my daughter
= I am proud of the students
Its also good to recognize that because all of these ~ words are adjectives, they can also
describe an upcoming noun (just like any other adjective) by placing ~/ to the stem of the
word. For example:
= Our daughter is a loving/lovely girl
Also, ~ can be added to the end of the stem of to change the word into an adverb. For
example:
= he speaks Korean naturally
= I looked at him lovingly
= He acted disappointingly (in a disappointing way)
= I finished the work/job satisfactorily (in a satisfactory way)
Thats it!
Vocabulary
~/~/~
~
Vocabulary
Some of these words are too difficult for you at this level. However, I am introducing them to
you in this lesson so you can understand a specific grammatical concept. These words are
separate from the other words in the Vocabulary List below.
= economy/economics
= economical
= history
= historical
= science
= scientific
= impulse/shock
= impulsive
= culture
= cultural
() = democracy
= democratic
= individual
= nature
= natural
() = disappointment(disappointed)
= to be disappointing
() = love/(to love)
= lovely
() = satisfaction/(to be satisfied)
= satisfactory
Nouns:
= relationship
= stress
= pencil
= color
= he, him
= she, her
Notes:
You should not use when she refers to somebody who deserves high respect.
Example:
= She went outside with her friends
= She looks really innocent
= result
= a dream
= world
= world
= conversation
= text message
= chest
= title of something (book, etc)
Verbs:
= to untie/unfasten/loosen
= to dream
= to be born
= to go somewhere frequently
= to believe, to trust
Adjectives:
= close/near by
= difficult to do something
= pure
Adverbs:
= a little
= close/near by
= later
= recently
= but/however
~//
~ is a common suffix that can be added after some nouns of Chinese origin ( () is of
Chinese origin). At first, there is no way to anticipate or expect which nouns this can be added to.
As you progress through your Korean studies, you can sort of start anticipating this, but still, the
only real way of knowing if ~ can be added to a particular noun is if you have specifically
learned that it can. The goal of this lesson isnt to teach you all of the words that ~ can be
attached to (that would take forever). Rather, the goal of this lesson is to show you how you can
recognize and use these words when you come across them.
Adding ~ to a noun changes it into a descriptive word that has the meaning of relating to, or
having the properties of the original noun. For example:
= culture
= relating to, or having the properties of culture
= economy
= relating to, or having the properties of economy
= history
= relating to, or having the properties of history
However, the translations above nonsense and a more accurate way to translate words with ~
is to add -al to the English word. For example:
= culture
= cultural
= economy
= economical
= history
= historical
Adding -al doesnt always work with the English word, though. For example:
= science
= relating to, or having the properties of science
= scientific
= impulse/shock
= relating to, or having the properties of impulse
= impulsive
The main point of this lesson is to teach you how you can understand the meaning of a word
ending in ~ even if you have never seen it before. This still happens to me fairly regularly I
will read something, and come across a word I have never seen before ending in ~.
For example, if you knew that the word meant democracy What do you think
would mean? A descriptive word that has the properties of democracy that would be
democratic.
= democracy
= democratic
Though these descriptive words can be used in sentences, it is easy for a beginner to understand
them when they are used by adding ~ or ~.
Adding
Adding to the end of ~ changes the word into an adverb. These adverbs usually have
the ending ly in English. Below are the most common examples of using ~ with
example sentences for each:
= culture
= cultural
= culturally
50 = Korea has changed a lot culturally in the
period of/during/for the past 50 years
= economy
= economical
= economically
= That isnt economically possible
= history
= historical
= historically
* = Historically, Korea and the US have had a
good relationship
Again, as I said in the previous lesson dont get too hung up on grammar especially when
reading/listening to a sentence and trying to understand its meaning when compared to English.
My Korean teacher grammar told me that once. I always asked him why isnt this sentence like
this? Why isnt this sentence like this? He eventually told me Dont get hung up on things like
that. In this sentence, you would think that it should be written as have
a good relationship. For whatever reason however, it is more naturally said with instead of
translating to something like they are in/have been in a good relationship. You just need to
let go of grammar sometimes and let your brain tell you what you think it should mean based on
the words around the grammar.
= science
= scientific
= scientifically
= They solved that problem scientifically
= impulse/shock
= impulsive
= impulsively
= I often buy clothes impulsively
= democracy
= democratic
= democratically
Any examples I can make using require me to use words that you havent learned
before. Forgive me:
= America elects its president democratically
Adding
Adding to the end of ~ turns the word into an adjective that can predicate a sentence or
describe an upcoming noun. The translation of these adjectives are usually are the same (in
English) as without adding . For example:
= culture
= cultural
= cultural
( = difference)
= economics
= economical
= economical
= The US made an economical decision
= history
= historical
= historical
= That school is a historical building
= science
= scientific
= scientific
= This is a scientific problem
= impulsive
= impulsive
= impulsive
= Im too impulsive
Notice that when a word ending in ~ is used to predicate a sentence, is conjugated
as if it were actually .
= democracy
= democratic
= democratic
A question that always comes up here is What is the difference between using ~ and
just using ~? For example, what is the difference between these two:
= economical
= economical
The difference between these is that ~ is a noun, whereas ~ is an adjective. Sometimes

however, nouns can technically be used to sound like adjectives. For example:
That is a big bag
Big describes the type of bag it is. Big is clearly an adjective which is telling us about the type
of bag that it is (that it is big). Book is clearly a noun.
That is a book bag
In this example, book acts as a descriptive word because it describes the type of bag it is (that it
is a book bag).
This is usually the only time that ~ (with nothing following it) is used in Korean. That is, when
it is actually a noun, but acting as a descriptive word within a sentence. Because it is usually used
as this type of descriptive word, you dont really need to worry much about the difference
between ~ and ~. Just be aware that ~ is more commonly used, and how they
are used within a sentence. That is, when using ~, should be conjugated, and
when using ~ nothing needs to be conjugated because it is a noun. For example:
= There is not a democratic government in North Korea
At this point, I dont want you to spend too much time dwelling over when you need to use ~
vs. . The purpose of this lesson was to introduce you to what ~(/) can do to a
word and how it can be used. Ive created four more examples of ~ vs. ~ that I would
like to show you, but please dont worry about these too much. If anything, just try to understand
the use of ~() in these sentences:
(problems)
(problems)
( = to quit a job or school)
In all cases above, I would rather use the ~ form to describe the upcoming noun. The native
Korean speaker beside me says the same thing. However, she also says that the first example of
each (the examples just using ~ instead of ~) are also acceptable. In my opinion, the use
of ~ instead of ~ is more common in speaking and in printed sources. However, you are
more likely to see ~ in print sources compared to hearing it in spoken Korean. (i.e. ~ is
more common than ~ in all cases. However, when compared only to itself, you are more likely
to find ~ in print than in speech).
Okay, enough of that for now. Lets talk about something else.
.
~
~ can also be added to some nouns to change them into an adjective, much like the
function of ~(). When doing this, ~ changes the noun into an adjective that has the
properties of that noun. The two easiest examples to explain this change are:
= love
= with the properties of love
= nature
= with the properties of nature
For example:
= That girl is something with the properties of love
= That girls hair color has the properties of nature
Of course, those translations are nonsense. A more accurate translation of these words would be:
= lovely
= natural
The only way of knowing if ~ or ~ can be added to a word is if you have specifically
learned that it can. Because one can never know which words ~ and ~ can be added to,
these words will always be presented as a separate entry in our vocabulary lists.
Anyways, ~ can be added to nouns to make that noun a descriptive word:
The two examples above are fairly straight-forward. However ~ is sometimes added to
words that seem to already have an adjective form. For example:
= disappointment
= with the properties of disappointment (disappointing)
Ill do the best I can to distinguish between and for you.
is used to describe a persons emotions. This could be referring to anybodys
emotions; not necessarily just the speakers emotions. For example:
If you want to say that somebody is disappointed in a person using , you must attach
the particle ~/ to the person he/she is disappointed in. For example:
If you want to say that somebody is disappointed in a non-person using , you must
attach the particle ~ to the thing he/she is disappointed in. For example:
Hmmm Adding ~/ to a person, and adding ~ to a non-person. What does this
remind you of? Remember, you learned this same rule in Lesson 14 when predicating sentences
with passive verbs.
Well, is a verb. In English, it definitely feels like an adjective, but in Korean the
dictionary (and the use of the particles ~/ and ~) indicate that it is a verb. Here,
is a verb (much like passive verbs) that cannot act on an object. Other verbs like this are
(to sleep), (to die), etc. This really means very little, and the only thing you need to take
from this is:
In order to say one is disappointed, you can use :
In order to say one is disappointed in something/somebody, you can use along with the
use of the particles ~/ (for a person) or ~ (for a non-person). For example:

Now, usually is not describing ones emotions. Rather, it is describing something
that has the properties of disappointment. This usually translates to disappointing. For
example:
= The result was a little bit disappointing
That being said, you might sometimes hear being used like this:

In this case, what do you think this would mean?
I guess in theory this could sometimes mean I am disappointing. But very rarely would
somebody say that. Most of the time, this sentence would translate to I am disappointed.
Wait a second I thought the word to describe ones emotions as disappointed was
. In this sentence, why is being used to describe the persons emotions in this
sentence.
Its not.
If you heard the sentence in Korean, it would most likely be from a person
describing that something is disappointing, but they have omitted it from the sentence. For
example, using the adjective you can use the Subject Object Adjective form in
the following way:
= I am disappointed in my friend
(My friend is disappointing, and therefore I am disappointed)
= I was disappointed in the students
(My students were disappointing, and therefore I was disappointed)
(The movie was disappointing, and therefore I was disappointed)
If you just walked into a room and said:
~ = I am disappointed (in something.)
Whoever was listening to that sentence would probably say In what?

What the speaker has done when saying is they have simply omitted the
object that they are describing.
Wow thats a lot of stuff to wrap your head around. Lets break it down one more time:
is a verb that describes ones emotions of being disappointed:

cannot act on an object (like , , or any passive verb). Therefore, the

following is incorrect:

Instead, as with passive verbs, the use of ~/ should be used to indicate that you
are disappointed in a person:
~ can be used to indicate that you are disappointed in a non-person:

is an adjective that describes something which is disappointing:

The adjective can be used in the subject object adjective form to indicate
that you were disappointed in something:
= I was disappointed in that movie
In the sentence above, the object can be omitted from the sentence, in which case the
speaker is indicating that something was disappointing (and by virtue, he/she is
disappointed), but has omitted the noun that is disappointing:
= I was disappointed (something was disappointing)
I realize that is incredibly confusing.

This same phenomenon happens with the word . Look at the following three words:
= satisfaction
= to be satisfied
= with the properties of satisfaction (satisfactory)
Just like with , is used to describe a persons emotions. This could be
referring to anybodys emotions; not necessarily just the speakers emotions. For example:
= I am satisfied
= He is satisfied
Again, just like with , is not describing ones emotions. Rather, it is an
adjective that is describing something that has the properties of satisfaction. This usually
translates to satisfactory. For example:
= The results were satisfactory
can be used in the Subject Object Adjective form to indicate that one is satisfied
in something. For example:
= I was satisfied with the results
= I was satisfied with the food
In this Subject Object Adjective form, the object can be omitted and the speaker can indicate
that something was satisfactory (and thus he/she was satisfied). For example:
= I was satisfied (something was satisfying)
Dont worry too much about the difference between words like vs. and
vs. . Im really going deep into this, and it is not something you really
need to worry about as most Korean people wouldnt know the difference unless they really
think about it.
In other words with -, the difference is much less ambiguous because the - version
of the word is an adjective, but the version is a verb that can act on an object. For
example:
= I love that girl
= That girl is lovely
Another good example of is:
= to show off (verb)
= proud (adjective)
Here as well, is a verb that can act on a noun, so its usage is very simple:
= I showed off/boasted my Korean skills
is usually used in the Subject Object Adjective form to indicate who somebody
is proud of. For example:
= I am very proud of my daughter
= I am proud of the students
Its also good to recognize that because all of these ~ words are adjectives, they can also
describe an upcoming noun (just like any other adjective) by placing ~/ to the stem of the
word. For example:
= Our daughter is a loving/lovely girl
Also, ~ can be added to the end of the stem of to change the word into an adverb. For
example:
= he speaks Korean naturally
= I looked at him lovingly
= He acted disappointingly (in a disappointing way)
= I finished the work/job satisfactorily (in a satisfactory way)
Thats it!
Connecting Particle ~
Using ~/
Position-like Verbs
I want to: (~ )
~/ and ~/ Revisited
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= fruit
= alcohol
= umbrella
= leaf
= church
= river
= season
= weather
= kitchen
= homeroom teacher
= vacation
= pear
= carrot
= radish
= potato
= knife
= word
= grammar
= foot
= sea
= newspaper
= customer
= a rich person
= education
= feelings
= mountain
= turn (turn to go)/order
= exam/test
Verbs:
= stay
= to relax/rest
= send
= to come by walking
= to go by walking
= invite
= cry
= welcome
Adjectives:
= good/happy
= warm
= high
= poor
= new
= low
Other words:
= a counter for books/magazines/etc
= person high respect form, also a high-respect counter for people
Introduction
In this lesson, you will be introduced to your first (of very many) connecting particles in Korean.
You can usually use these particles to separate two ideas/phrases/sentences. In this lesson you
will learn about and how it can be used in sentences, also using the example of ~ . You
will also learn that some words (usually position-like words) play by different rules than most
verbs in these situations.
.
Connecting Particle ~
When studying Korean, eventually your entire life becomes learning about the various
connecting particles and their respective meanings. There are so many of these things, whose
functions are essentially to connect two clauses, sentences, or ideas. These particles usually get
attached to the end (i.e. the adjective/verb) of one clause connecting it to the next clause. The
simplest one of these connecting particles is ~, which can be attached to the stem of a
verb/adjective.
The most basic usage of ~ is to indicate that one action occurs, and then something happens
after that. The most common translation of this usage of ~ is then. For example:
= I will eat then go
= I slept then studied Korean
= I read a book then slept immediately
10 = I will rest for 10 minutes then go
1 = The baby cried for 1 minute and then ate a pear
= I cut the carrots with the knife then put (them)
in the fridge
2 = We will stay in Seoul for two days,
then go to Busan
If you really want to stress that you are doing something after doing something else, you can add
after ~. For example:
= I will finish my homework and then go home
= I will meet a friend and then go to the bank
In the sentences I presented so far, ~ represents the meaning of then, but it doesnt always
have that meaning. It can also be used to simply connect two clauses that have a similar idea. For
example:
= I like fruit, and I like vegetables too
*Notice that can be added to both and in this example. In English, we would just
say I like apples and vegetables too. That sentence only has one too, but in Korean, can
be used twice. That sentence before could also be said like this:
= I like fruit and vegetables too
Essentially, ~ is used to connect two sentences/clauses together. Korean people LOVE making
their sentences as short as possible and using ~ is one way of doing this. All of the sentences
above could be separated into two sentences. I dont need to write all of them, but for example:
.
=
.
=
.
=
You can also use ~ when you want to string together adjectives to describe something. Again,
while each of these sentences could be split into two separate sentences, you can use ~ to
connect two clauses with a similar idea. For example:
. = That person is nice. That person is smart.
= = That person is kind and smart
. = My girlfriend is cute. My girlfriend
is pretty.
= = My girlfriend is cute and pretty
. = Today there are a lot of customers. Today the
atmosphere is good
= = Today there are a lot of customers, and the atmosphere
is good
In a lot of Korean grammatical principles that connect sentences (which you will start learning a
lot of soon), you will notice that the verb/adjective in the first clause is not conjugated, and that
the grammatical principle is added directly to the stem of the word in the first clause. In these
cases, the tense is usually indicated in the final verb/adjective of the sentence and the tense of the
first verb/adjective can usually be implied by the context.
When attaching ~ to the first clause, it is possible for the first verb/adjective to be conjugated.
I have noticed that there are two cases when you would do this:
1) When one action happens after another action (just like I introduced at the beginning of this
lesson), but when a considerable amount of time has passed between the two actions. The two
actions are often connected in a way in that the first clause led to the possibility of the second
clause to happen. For example:
= I studied hard and (then) became a doctor
= I studied English grammar hard and
then did well on the test

Notice that Korean people say to mean to write/do a test
2) When connecting two clauses that have a similar idea that both happened in the past tense.
Here, there is no real indication of one action happening after another. Instead, the person is just
indicating that both things happened. For example:
= During vacation I
studied a lot of English grammar, and I also read English newspapers
The sentences I provided at the beginning of the lesson (where one clause happens [right] after
the other clause) would sound awkward if the first clause was conjugated. For example

You started learning about the particles ~/ and ~/ in Lesson 2. I continue to discuss the
difference in purpose between these particles later in the lesson. Before that, I would like to
introduce you to usage of ~/ because it is commonly used in sentences with ~.
In Lesson 2, I mentioned that ~/ has a comparative function. One way that it is often used is
to say this thing is one way, and this other thing is another way. For example:
. . = This mountain is high. That mountain is low.
. . = Grammar is difficult. Words are easy.
. = This person is rich. That person is poor.
. . = This person is my father. This
person is my mother
In these situations, it is common to use ~ to connect the two sentences as they are expressing a
similar idea. In these cases, ~/ is attached to both things that are being compared. For
example:
= This mountain is high, but that mountain is low
= Grammar is hard, but words are easy
= That person is rich, but that person is poor
= This person is my father, and this
person is my mother
I continue to talk about the use of ~/ and ~/ later in the lesson.
For now, lets move on to applying this meaning to other verbs.
Using ~/
Another way to indicate that one action happens after another action is to attach ~/ to the
verb in the first clause. The verb before ~/ is never conjugated to the past tense. For
example:
= I cut carrots with a knife and then put them
into the fridge
You must be thinking, then: What is the difference between using ~ and using ~/. For
example:
= I cut the carrots with the knife then put them
in the fridge
in the fridge
Both sentences are effectively saying the same thing.
However, from my experience ~/ is more likely to be used when the action of the first
clause is intricately linked with the action of the second clause.
The best way to explain this is to look at why specifically ~/ is more commonly used with
the verbs and instead of ~.
If you want to say that you go somewhere then do something, you should not say this:

Instead of ~, you must add ~/ here:
= I will go to school and then study
Likewise, if you want to say that you come somewhere and do something, you should not say
this:

Instead of ~, you must add ~/ here:
= We came home and went to sleep immediately
The reason for this is simply due to the nature of the verbs and . When connecting two
clauses with ~ containing other verbs, (for example: ), the first and second action, despite
the fact that one happened before the other one, have no real connection. For example, in an
example I presented previously:
= I will eat and then go
This sentence is implying that you will eat, and then finish eating, and then go somewhere. Aside
from the fact that one happened after another, the act of eating didnt affect the act of going.
However, with and , the fact that you are coming or going is directly
connected to the next action; in that, in order to do the second action, you needed to have gone
somewhere or came from somewhere.
I drew a picture to express the image that I have in my brain about this explanation.
When you use , the verb of going leads up to the verb of eating. However,
when you use , even though the verb of eating happened before the verb of
going, they arent related to each other.
In this same sense, it is possible to attach ~/ to verbs other than or to connect
two clauses. Below are some examples that show this being done:
= We chose delicious meat then ate together
= I opened the door and then went outside
While it is very important to know how to use ~, and how to use ~/ with /
at this point, being able to fully understand the nuance of adding ~/ to other words
is beyond your current ability. The usage of ~/ is much more complex, and I will continue
to discuss its usage in Lesson 70. Also note that the sentence connector ~/ has another
meaning that will be discussed in Lesson 37.
It is possible to connect ~ to and , but only in situations where the speaker is

connecting sentences that have a similar idea, and not where one goes/comes to a place and does
something.
For example, I was in my office today and one of my coworkers was telling a current student
about all the former students who came to visit him the day earlier (it was Teachers Day). He
said:
= came, came,
came, came,
Position verbs
There are also many position verbs that usually act differently than regular verbs (not just in this
situation, but in many situations). The most common of these are to sit (), stand (), and
to lie down ().
The reason these are treated differently is because these are verbs of position. For example, if I
just said:
= I ate and studied
In that sentence, aside from the fact that one action happened after another, and
have no relation to each other. However, if you were to say:
That would mean I lied down, and then read a book as in, I lied
down, stood up again, and then read a book. I guess technically you COULD do that, but nobody
would ever do that. Instead, what you wanted to say is that you lied down, and then, while lying
down, you read a book. In these situations with position verbs, the first action is related to the
section action (similar to how and are related to the upcoming verb). That is why they
are treated differently.
If you want to use these position verbs in this way, you need to add ~/ to them:
= I lied down and read a book
= Im going to sit down and relax
= I stood in line and waited for my turn
I want to: ~
As I said earlier, ~ is a verb that can connect two clauses/sentences together. However, there
are many other usages of ~ when also combined with other words. What you are about to learn
is SO common (in Korean and English), and I almost want to apologize for waiting until lesson
17 to finally introduce it to you. I just felt that there were other things you needed to learn before
this.
Anyways, enough apologizing, lets get down to business.
Adding ~ to the stem of a verb gives it the meaning of I want to ____. Very easy to
use:
= I want to study Korean
= I want to go to Canada
= I want to write a letter for my girlfriend
= I want to buy a new car
= I want to rest tomorrow
= I want to invite my friend to the party
2 = I want to read two books during vacation
It can be used with to indicate that you want to be/become something:
= I want to be/become a teacher
It can be used in the past tense as well:
= I wanted to be a teacher
* = that girl wanted to marry me
*Notice that when talking about marrying somebody, with must be used in Korean instead of
attaching /. Because of this difference in English and Korean, many Korean people will
mistakenly say I want to marry with you.
Actually, you have come across this ~ grammar concept before, but you probably didnt
even realize it. In Korean, there are two ways to say I miss ____. One way is to use the word
and is used when you miss something other than a person (I miss my hometown).
The word for missing a person in Korean is . See anything funny about that word?
? Literally, it means I want to see:
= I miss my friend/I want to see my friend
~ can be used with adjectives, for example:
= I want to be happy
But is generally not used like that. There is a way to use adjectives with ~ but you will
learn that in the next lesson.
One thing to note is that actually acts as an adjective, and must be conjugated as one. This
means that:
(I want to eat) would be a correct conjugation, however
, would be an incorrect conjugation
Also, notice the difference between and ~ . You can say when you want
an object:
= I want that book
and you can use ~ when you want to do a verb:
= I want to read that book
You can also use or attach ~ to to indicate that one does not want to do
something. For example:
= I dont want to drink alcohol
= I dont want to cry
= I dont want to invite you to the party
= I dont want to become a rich man
= I dont want to be at school during vacation
Sometimes you will learn grammatical principles that are not used so much but the concepts
you learned in this lesson are used all the time. Up until now, actually, it has been hard for me to
continue to create good example sentences without the use of ~ and ~ .
The further and further you go along in these lessons, the more complicated the example
sentences will become!
Before you move to the next lesson, I would like to continue the discussion from Lesson 2 about
~/ and ~/.
~/ and ~/ Revisited
Now it is time to continue what was presented back in Lesson 2. In Lesson 2, you started
learning about the differences between ~/ and ~/.
Now that you have increased your understanding of Korean grammar, I can continue to explain
the nuances between ~/ and ~/. At this point, I encourage you to re-read Lesson 2 in
order to refresh yourself on what we talked about at that time.
One problem with both of these particles is that they both have many functions. Another specific
function of ~/ (in addition to the comparison function that you learned in Lesson 2 and the
examples I showed you earlier in the lesson) is to indicate a general fact or statement. For
example:
Rocky () = The Rocky Mountains are high (the Rocky Mountain is high)
This would be said as a general fact. Everybody would typically know that the Rocky Mountains
are high, so this could be said in a general way as seen as above.This can be contrasted with ~/
. Used this way, ~/ wouldnt be used to describe a general fact about something. Rather, it
would be used to describe a specific situation that (usually) the speaker just realized or observed.
For example, if you were hiking with your friend, and suddenly got a glimpse of a nearby
mountain, you could say:
! ! = Wow! The mountain is high!
Note here that even though the speaker is talking about this one specific mountain, he or she is
not comparing it with something else (for example, another mountain), as this would require the
use of ~/ (albeit, in its other usage)
Lets look at more simplified versions of the sentences above:

Remember that the difference between ~/ and ~/ is more about nuance, and not about
creating a different translation in your head. If I attempted to make a translation that describes
this nuance for the two examples above, I could maybe write:
= In general, mountains are high
= This mountain that Im looking at, which Ive never seen or noticed before, is high
At the same time (and this is where people really get confused with these particles) is that ~/
could be used in this situation to have a comparing function. For example, I could say:
. , = This mountain is tall. But that mountain is low
(small)
This is precisely what causes the confusion amongst foreigners when trying to distinguish the
difference between ~/ and ~/. Both of them can be used to express different nuances
than seem to overlap each other. For example, if I say:

What am I trying to say? Am I trying to say:
In general, mountains are high, or
This mountain, in comparison to that other mountain (or maybe some other thing) is high
The only way you can distinguish between the particular nuances being used is by understanding
the situation in which they are said.
Lets look at another example. If I said:
= (in general) summer weather is good
The purpose of this sentence would be to express a general fact about summer weather. That is,
that summer weather is (in general) good. However, if you just walked outside and saw
/experienced that the weather is good, you would be more inclined to say:
= The weather (right now that I am experiencing) is good
Here, the speaker is just indicating that the weather at the moment is good, and is not talking
about the weather being good all the time.
This doesnt mean that is incorrect. You most definitely could use that sentence,
but only in an appropriate situation. This was the dialogue I had with a Korean person:
Me: When would you be able to say . It clearly isnt used as a general
statement, because weather (in general) isnt always good. So when could I say this?
Korean person: It sounds like you are comparing it with something. Like, you are saying
that the weather is good, but something else might be bad.
Me: For example?
Korean person: Maybe, . . (The food

here isnt delicious, but the weather is good). Here, youre saying that the weather is
good, but the food is bad.
Thats the thing about ~/ and ~/. Its not about understanding their meanings. Their
meanings cant be translated into English. Its about understanding the nuances they possess
when used in different situations.
Lets look at another example:
= (in general) Diamonds are hard
(This is a statement that can be applied generally. Most people would know that diamonds are
hard, and this is not new information or anything like that)
However, if somebody picked up a diamond and felt it, and realizes exactly how hard that
particular diamond is, they would be more inclined to say:
= Diamonds are hard (due to the experience that I have right now
with this diamond, I can see/realize that this diamond is very hard!)
(Please try to ignore my attempt to translate this nuance. It would never actually be translated to
that.)
Now, if we changed the noun:
= The rice is hard
This would not be expressed as a general statement. Why? Because rice is generally not hard.
However, if you were about to have dinner with the rice on your plate and you touched it, you
could say:
= The rice is hard (due to what I am experiencing right now, I can say that this
particular rice is hard)
(Again, please ignore this ridiculous translation)
Now this:
= The rice is hard
Again, this is not a general statement. Therefore is it wrong?
No, because there are other purposes of ~/. Maybe here the speaker wanted express the
comparison function of ~/. Maybe to say that the soup is hot (and ready to eat), but the rice
is hard. Remember, all of this is situational.
Another example: (= red, = yellow. These words arent introduced until Lesson
23. Sorry.)
= (in general) apples are red, or
. = Apples are red. Bananas are yellow
= the apple is red (the apple that I am looking at that I just noticed)
= the apple is blue (this would not normally by the case and therefore would
never be used with ~/ to express a general statement meaning. However, ~/ is used here
to specifically describe the apple that the speaker is experiencing which may or may not follow
what is typical of other apples)
= (in general), doctors are smart
= the doctor is smart (the one specific doctor who is in the room, for
example)
This is why, when you want to say it is raining you must use the following sentence:
= Its raining
Instead of:
(incorrect)
The use of would suggest that, in general, it rains; which wouldnt make sense.
Instead, the fact that it is raining/rained/will rain would always fall into the particular situation
that / is used for.
I said this at the end of Lesson 2, but Im going to say it again here. Your understanding of
exactly when to use ~/ over ~/ and vice-versa will progress with your general
understanding of Korean grammar.
Also remember that sentences (in every language, including Korean) are usually much more
complicated than what is presented in this lesson. In addition, very rarely are sentences said as
just one-off sentences. Rather, they are said in response to a question or statement, which is
important information in understanding the nuances of both ~/ and ~/.
I am sorry to do this again, but you still havent learned everything you need to know about ~/
. Once again, I need to send you along without having learned everything.
Introduction
Korean Word (more)
Korean Comparatives
Better
Less
Korean Superlatives /
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= Korean food
= western food
= height
= star
= attitude
= pay cheque
= downtown
= downtown
= memory
= candidate
= instant noodles (ramen)
= anniversary
= body position/posture
Verbs:
= worry
= wash
= confirm/check
= gather/collect
() = talk with/conversation
= collect
= recommend
Adjectives:
= tall
= narrow
= wide
= special
= lazy
= comfortable
= comfortable
= more
= less
= the most (superlative)
= the most (superlative)
= future
= usual
= many/various
_____ = something old
= old memories
= old days
= old love
= old road/path
= shut up
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to make comparative and superlative sentences in Korean.
Using comparative sentences, you will learn how to make sentences like I am more beautiful
than you or he is faster than his brother. Using superlative sentences, you will learn how to
make sentences like I am the most handsome person in the world. In addition, we will take an
in-depth look at the word , which is commonly used in comparative sentences. Lets get
started.
Korean Word (more)

Before we even get into using comparatives, I want to familiarize you with the
word , meaning more in English. The word more (in English and Korean) is very
commonly used in sentences when comparing things (I am more handsome than you). But, in
both languages, you dont necessarily need to be comparing something to use this word. Lets
look at some examples of when not comparing. Look at the following two sentences: ( is
an adverb, so it doesnt need any particles attached to it.)
= I want to eat
= I want to sleep
Those are normal sentences without . By adding you add the meaning of more:
= I want to eat more
= I want to sleep more
You can add to a wide variety of sentences, including sentences with counters in them:
2 = My sister read two books last week
2 = My sister read two more books last week
2 = Two people will come
2 = Two more people will come
2 = I have two pens
2 = I have two more pens
Also in sentences with the counter in them:
2 = I went to school 2 times (twice) yesterday
2 = I went to school 2 more times yesterday
You can also use in sentences with verbs if you also include an adverb:
= I studied hard
= I studied harder
Or without an adverb if you just want to say that did you did a verb more:
= I studied
= I studied more
In these cases, the adverb can also be included:

= I studied more
In a lot of cases, though, the word is used in comparative sentences with ~. Now that you
know a little bit about , lets look at how to use these two together.
.
Korean Comparatives
Though you can use in sentences when not comparing (as taught in the previous section), it is
very commonly used in sentences when comparing. In English, comparing is really hard and
confusing. Look at these examples:
It is hotter than yesterday
It is more beautiful than yesterday
It is smellier than yesterday
In English, depending on the word that you are using to compare, the conjugation is different. I
cant imagine how annoying this would be for an English learner. Luckily, comparatives in
Korean are all done using the exact same form every time!
All you need to do is add the particle ~ to the part of the sentence that is being compared to.
Lets look at it step by step:
= I am handsome
Notice here the example (handsome) is conjugated into the past tense. When
conjugating and it is always more natural to use the past tense conjugation.
= I am more handsome
To indicate that you are more handsome than somebody you just insert a person + ~ in the
= I am more handsome than my father
More examples
= Teachers are smarter
= Teachers are smarter than students
= Korean food is spicier
= Korean food is spicier than western food
= Today is hotter
= Today is hotter than yesterday
= I am taller
= I am taller than my brother
You can use with verbs as well.
= I ate more
= I ate more than my brother
= I ate more than yesterday
If you really want to get crazy, you can use counters in these sentences as well:
2 = I will meet two people tomorrow
2 = I will meet two more people tomorrow
2 = I will meet two more people than yesterday
tomorrow
A common word that is connected to is meaning usual:
= I am studying more than usual
And finally, you can throw some adverbs into the mix if you like:
= I am studying harder than usual
You can, of course, use with verbs to indicate that you do something better/worse than
somebody else (I play hockey better than my brother which is true, by the way). Before you
learn that, however, you need to know how to use the words /, which will be taught in the
next lesson.
There are two more words in particular that you should learn that deal with comparatives:
Better
There are really two ways to say better in Korean. First of all, be aware that better in English
is actually just more good, but we dont say that. We just say better. You can use the
word (good) in these situations (or (bad) to mean worse):
= Bananas are better than apples
The thing is, the meaning of this sentence is closer to I like bananas more than apples, and not
bananas are better than apples. Usually in Korean if you want to say better, the word is
used. literally means better (more good) which means that you dont need to put the
word in those sentences:
= Bananas are better than apples

*Note that the irregular applies to .
is also very commonly used when you are talking about getting better after being sick. You
can say things like this:
= Im better (literally the sickness/disease is better)
= My cold is better
Less
has a few meanings, one of which is less as in the opposite of more (). You can use it
just like although I feel that is used much more frequently than . For example, instead
of saying:
I am less handsome than my brother,
It would be more natural to say
My brother is more handsome than me
Nonetheless, you can say:
= Im less handsome than my brother
= In Korea, University is not as hard as high
school
One more quick thing it is kind of funny/cute slang to pronounce as . I suggest you try it
out sometime. Korean people often get a kick out of foreign people speaking in slang-like
language. They usually cant get over the fact that we know Korean, let alone the fact that we
know a bit of slang.
Korean Superlatives /
Superlatives, just like comparatives are so much easier in Korean than they are in English. In
English, depending on the word you are using, you have to conjugate it differently:
She is the hottest girl
She is the most beautiful girl
She is the smelliest girl
In Korean, instead of mucking (I said mucking) around with different forms like in English, all
you need to do is add one word:
= pretty
= Prettiest
= beautiful
= Most beautiful
A synonym of is , which is often used in speech.
You can then put these into sentences just like you would normal adjectives:
= My girlfriend is the prettiest girl in Korea
= Family is the most important
You cant really use with verbs unless there is also an adverb included within the sentence.
For example, you cant say this:
= I run most? doesnt make sense
In these cases, you need to add an adverb to the sentence:
= I run the fastest
= We arrived home the latest (we were the latest people to
arrive at home)
However, you can add to (to like) without an adverb to indicate that you like
something the most. (This is also how you say my favorite in Korean).
= I like that girl most (that girl is my favorite)
= I like math most (math is my favorite)
Note here that in most real situations it is probably more natural [in English and in Korean] to
say something like:
I am the fastest runner instead of I run the fastest
Math is my favorite subject instead of Math is my favorite
To this point, you havent learned how to add this extra dimension to your sentences with verbs.
This concept is introduced in Lesson 26. That being said, it is essentially the same as making this
change to adjectives:
= Family is the most important
= Family is the most important thing
In order to express a negative superlative, of course, you can use a word that has a negative
meaning, for example:
= I dislike apples the most

= I dislike applies the most
You could technically add ~ or ~ to the sentence to make it a negative superlative
= That girl is the least pretty in our class
= That girl is the least pretty in our class
= Math is the least easy
= Math is the least easy
However, those sentences would sound much more natural (in English and Korean) if you just
used a word with the opposite meaning. For example:
= That girl is the ugliest in our class
= Math is the hardest
In most of these superlative sentences, it would usually sound much more natural to add Of all
X. For example:
Of all subjects at school, math is the most difficult
Of all fruit, I dislike apples the most
The grammatical principle needed to add this extra level of complexity to your sentences is
introduced in Lesson 33.
Two adverbs that / are often used with are and , which will be talked about in the
next lesson.
: To do something well
: Well
: To do something poorly
: Poorly
~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= professor
= master/owner/proprietor
= mistake/fault
= temperature
= mirror
= powder
= muscle
= darkness
= basic/basics
= accident
= traffic
Verbs:
= to do something well
= to do something poorly
= to swim
= to treat somebody
= retire
= to receive
= chew
= interpret
= translate
= stir
= to gain/improve/increase
= to fall into
= to fall in love
= to escape/come out of
= to escape/get out of
Passive Verbs:
= to have gained/improved
Adjectives:
= round/spherical
= confusing
= dark
Adverbs and Other Words:
= well
= poorly
~ = adds respect to persons position
= or
~ = years old
= surely/definitely
= of course
= during that time/meanwhile
= more than
Introduction
Until now, you have not learned how to say I am good at something/I do something well or I
am bad at something/I do something poorly. In this lesson, you will learn about the words
(to do something well) and (to do something poorly). is very hard to
understand perfectly, so I will ease you in by introducing you to first.
.
: To do something well
The main meaning of is to do something well. To use , simply place a noun in a
sentence with as the verb.
This is easy to do with verbs (for example, and ) because to make a
noun all you need to do is remove from those words. You dont yet know how to make non verbs into nouns (you will learn that in Lesson 26), but the principal is the same. All you
would need to do is:
(noun form of verb)/ . For example:
= I am good at swimming
= That student studies well
= Our baby speaks well
= I play baseball well
is a verb, but now we need to talk about , which is an adverb.
: Well
Just like , you can use the word in sentences to indicate that one does something well.
Usually, when you remove from a word, the word without becomes a noun. In this
case, removing from does not make a noun. Instead, it is an adverb. The only reason
this is important is so that you know that you can use in sentences just like other adverbs, in
this case to mean (to do something) well. It is essentially the same as , but used
slightly different. For example:
= That owner treats the customers well

= I hear you well
= I slept well last night
When I first learned about and , I was trying to understand if these two sentences were
the same:
= I study well
= I study well
The answer: essentially, but not entirely.
The difference is so subtle that you dont really need to worry about it. However, when I learned
this, I worried about it, so I think maybe you should worry about it too. The reason I say dont
worry about it is because now when I speak I cant really distinguish the difference in meaning.
The only way I could tell the difference is referring back to my old notes from 5 years ago.
Nonetheless, there is a subtle difference:
= I study well, or
(noun) means that, in general, your ability to do something is good. However,
= I study well, or
(verb) means that you can study well because of some situation (for example,
maybe you have a test coming up and you are studying really hard because of that situation).
But really, dont get too caught up on the difference between the two. Especially since sometimes
they look and sound almost exactly the same. If you separated and in the second
example, you would get:
= I study well, which sounds (and almost looks) exactly the same as:
= I study well
Anyways, dont worry about it too much.
You already know the word means handsome. That word is actually and
put together. has a lot of meanings, but putting and together, it sort of means
to come out well. The opposite is true for (to be ugly).
Always remember to not translate directly from English to Korean, as there are so many things
that are not 100% the same in both languages. For example, in English, we would never say I
dont know well, but in Korean, it is very common to say:
* = I dont know (well)

*Also notice that the future tense is used here. Even though it is in the present,
is used very commonly to indicate that you dont know something Even though it directly
translates to I will not know.
: To do something poorly
Alright, this is where it gets hard. was easy. Lets do this step by step.
First of all, has the opposite meaning of so it means to do something poorly/to
be bad at something. Which means it can be used in the same way:
= I am bad at swimming
= That student does not study well
The difference between and is the same as the difference between and .
When you say a sentence like it means that in general your ability to swim
is bad. Because of this, you need to be careful about the type of verb you are using in this
situation. For example, you couldnt really use the verb eat in this situation, because that
would mean that in general, my ability to eat is bad. Instead, what you would probably want to
say is that I CAN eat, but because of some situation, I cant really eat right now. That is when
you need to use instead of .
: Poorly
Just like , you can use the word in sentences to indicate that one does something poorly, but
remember the difference between and . Using give the sentence the meaning I am
physically capable of doing _____, but because of some situation, I cant do it well. For
example:
= I didnt sleep well yesterday (Even though you ARE capable of sleeping
(of course), some situation made it so that you couldnt sleep well).
= I did poorly on the exam yesterday
This is where it gets unnecessarily confusing. Both of those sentences could have two meanings.
The first example:
could mean I didnt sleep well last night OR I didnt sleep last
night, which is also / .
The second example:

could mean I did poorly on the exam yesterday OR I didnt
write the exam yesterday, which is also /
Confusing? Let me say it one more time. When you put in a sentence, it indicates that you
did/do/will do something poorly (because of some situation) OR that you did not/are not/will not
do something. When it has the second meaning (I didnt do) it is usually the result of some
situation. For example, if you wrote:
to have the meaning I didnt write the exam yesterday implied
in the meaning is that you didnt write the exam because of some situation (for example, I was
sick, so I didnt write the exam). So:
= I didnt sleep well last night, OR
= I didnt sleep last night because of some situation
= I did poorly on the exam yesterday, OR
= I didnt write the exam yesterday because of some situation
But, how can you distinguish the difference between somebody saying I did something poorly
and I didnt do something? There are three ways I can teach you:
If you really want to stress that you do something poorly, you can include before . This
specifically indicates that you dont do something well and removes the ambiguity of I
didnt:
= I didnt do good on the exam yesterday
The word being used
Sometimes, the word being used makes it clear which meaning you are trying to express. For
example, if I said:
, This could have two meanings:
1) I didnt go to school yesterday because of some situation
2) I didnt go to school well yesterday
Which one of those two makes sense? In situations like this, it is easy to figure out which
meaning is being used. Is it possible to go somewhere well? I dont think so.
A perfect real-world example of this is something that my co-worker said to me once. The school
I work at was in the process of buying my plane ticket back home, and it happened to be really
expensive (like, really expensive). My co-worker always wanted to go to Canada, but when she
heard how much my plane ticket was, she said to herself . The meaning
of this sentence is not she will go to Canada poorly but rather she cant/wont go to Canada
because of some situation (the ticket being too expensive).
Situation
Sometimes you just need to think about the context of the sentence to understand the meaning
completely. For example, if you already knew for sure that a friend wrote the exam, and they
later said the sentence could only have one meaning (because you already
knew that he/she wrote the exam).
Lets look at some examples. If somebody said:

This could technically mean two things. It could mean:
1. That the person cant eat (well)
2. That the person wont eat because of some situation (most likely because he/she is
full/doesnt like that particular food, etc)
In this case, the first possibility does not make sense because everybody (99.9% of the time) has
the ability to eat. Therefore, this person is expressing that he/she is not going to eat because of
some situation that is causing him/her to not want to eat.
Another example:

This sentence could really only mean one thing. Because of the use of , we know that the
speaker is expressing that he/she did not do something well. Therefore, the sentence above
translates to I didnt answer well.
There is still another way that / can be used to have yet another similar meaning to
what has been described so far.
~
One more thing about . Similar in structure to ~ , you can also write ~
to have the same meaning as . For example:
AND
have the same meaning (I didnt sleep [well] last night)
Remember that and ~ have the same meaning, which is subtly different than
:
= I didnt study well yesterday/I didnt study yesterday
= I didnt study well yesterday/I didnt study yesterday
= I am bad at studying
To make all of this even more confusing, the word (with no space between and ) has a
different meaning. means mistake. This word would normally be an easy word to deal
with. However, it is more difficult than it needs to be because and have two different
meanings. can be used like this:
* = That was my fault/my mistake
(*Normally when you say my _____ you use or . However, some nouns prefer to
have and before them instead of /. is one of these nouns. Another example
is / (instead of / ) meaning my thought/my opinion/what I think).
and with Comparatives and Superlatives

One final thing before I finish. In the previous lesson, you learned about using ~ and /
to make comparative and superlative sentences. The concepts you learned in this lesson are
very commonly alongside ~ or / in sentences to say that somebody can do
something better/worse, or do something the best/worst. Some examples:
Comparative Sentences:
= Our (my) son is better than (his) friends at
soccer
= That professor teaches classes better than
other professors
= I am better at swimming than last year
Superlative Sentences:
= Our (my) son is the best at soccer
= That professor teaches classes the best (is the best at teaching
classes)
= I play soccer the worst

= I swim the worst
Asking Questions in Korean

~
~
~/()
~()
Using Question Words
Why ()
When ()
Where ()
Who ()
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= news
= mom
= dad
= wedding
= postage stamp
= god
= comics/cartoons
= comic book
= schedule
= booger, a small amount of something
= rice paddy
() = nap
= opinion/feedback
= income
Verbs:
= bless
= disappear
= to graduate
= check into a hospital
= check out of a hospital
= win
= lose
= regret
= ride
Adjectives:
= pleasant
= lack of/not enough of
= simple
= who
= why
= when
= where
= also
= meter
= centimeter
= some
= see you later
= already
= already
= especially
= gradually
Asking Questions in Korean

Asking questions in Korean, at first glance, is very easy. For the most part, asking questions in
Korean without the use of a question word (who/what/when/where/why/how/how much/how
many) is incredibly simple.
Asking questions in English is unnecessarily complicated. If I asked you the question Do you
like sports? In English, what is the meaning of the word do in that sentence? In English,
whenever we ask a question (without a question word), we need to include the words did/do/will
to make the listener know that we are asking a question.
Did you go to the park?
Do you like sports?
Will you eat with us?
It is so confusing in English, and my two sentence explanation doesnt really explain it very well.
Luckily, this is not an English learning website! You are here to learn how to ask questions in
Korean. Enough of this English nonsense.
In Korean, if you are asking a question that does not require the use of a question word (one
more time: who/what/when/where/why/how/how much/how many) you dont need to do
anything structurally to make that sentence a question. All you need to do is raise the intonation
of the end of the sentence to make it sound like a question. For example, if you want to say My
mother ate you already know that you can say:
= My mom ate
But if you want to ask somebody did you eat? You just raise the intonation of the end of the
sentence to make it sound like a question:
? = (literally means did mom eat?)
Remember that Korean people rarely say the word you, so if you ask a question to the person
you are talking to about the person you are talking to, you can just omit the subject of the
sentence.
? = Did (you) eat?
? = Did (you) go home?
? = Did (you) hear the news?
If you are talking to somebody and the subject of the sentence is not the person who you are
talking to, you can just use the subject as normal. Also notice that regardless of the tense of the
sentence (past/present/future) you dont need to do anything special other than raise the
intonation at the end of the sentence:
? = Did your brother cry?
? = Is Korea a good country?
? = Will mom come too?
As I said, you dont need to change anything structurally in these sentences to make them
questions. There are, however, a few ways that you can change the structure of a sentence to
make the sentence a question (if you want).
.
Korean Questions ~/
The formal high respect ~ is never used as a question. When asking a question in this
form, instead of using ~ you must use ~/. ~ gets added directly to stems
ending in a vowel, and ~ gets added after a stem ending in a consonant. You can do this
with all tenses:
? = You didnt go home during vacation?

? = Do you want to meet that person?
? = Are you going to school tomorrow?
? = Are you going to school tomorrow?
I work at a school in Seoul. In the bathrooms, there are charts on the walls that the cleaning staff
is supposed to check once per day. Written on these charts is a list of questions about the state of
the bathroom.
While you will not understand most of the words on this list, notice that all of the sentences
(except for the last one) has the ending ~/?
Some of the words provided in the 10 sentences

above are fairly difficult. However, I would like to translate it for you:
1. Is the bathroom floor clean?
2. Is the sink clean?
3. Has the mirror been wiped clean?
4. Is there extra soap?
5. Is the toilet paper ready?
6. Is the bathrooms garbage can empty?
7. Are there no toilets that havent been flushed?
8. Are any lights broken?

9. Is there any smell?
10. Are there any places, the doorknob, the faucet, etc that are broken?
There are other ways you can change a sentence to make it a question. ~/ is typically
the most formal. We will talk about the others in the upcoming sections.
Korean Questions ~
When asking a question, instead of ending your sentences with ~/, you can end them with ~
. This is an informal way to ask a question, and you can do this in all tenses. For example:
Past tense: , , ,
Present tense: , , ,
Future tense (~): , ,
Future tense (~ ): , , ,
However, note that using this form gives the sentence a slightly feminine feel to it (Ive never
once used ~). However, I work at a Korean high school, and I hear female Korean teachers use
this form all the time when asking questions to a student.
? = Did you write the exam well (did you do well on the exam)?
? = Are you going to go to Seoul?
? = What class are you in?
? = Did you already graduate?
Remember in Lesson 7 you learned about the ~ irregular. To refresh your memory, this
irregular applies to words that end in , for example:
= to make
= to enter
= to live
Anytime you add something that starts with a solid to a verb or adjective whose stem ends
in , the must be dropped. This is the first time you have had to use this irregular. For
example:
+ ~ =
+ ~ =
+ ~ =
Examples of these words in use:

? = What are you making?
? = Do you like it?
? = Where do you live?
Korean Questions ~/()

Just like ~ you can also end your questions with ~/(). Adding to the end
makes it more formal. This form is less formal than the high-respect ~/ form.
~/() gets added to the stem of adjectives. Using this form makes a question a little bit
softer than using the forms described previously. The exact difference cannot be translated
perfectly, but sort of like how would it be okay if I go into the park? sounds slightly softer than
can I go into the park.
You add ~/ to adjective stems just like you would when conjugating it to describe a noun:
+ / =
+ / =
And then attach () after that construction:
()?
()?
It is only conjugated into the present tense and therefore usually only used to ask about some sort
of present situation. For example:
? = Is that girl pretty?
? = Is this too small?
? = Is that school good?
? = Is this work/task too complicated?
~/() is commonly added to as well. For example:
? = Is that person a teacher?
? = Is that person our mom? (Is that our mom?)
()? Is very commonly used at the end of a full sentence to say no? when you are
asking yourself a question as if you are doubting yourself. For example:
. ? = That girl is the most beautiful girl in
Korea no?/isnt she?
! ? = This is too complicated. Isnt it?
Korean Questions ~()

Using ~() at the end of a sentence to ask a question has the same function of ~/().
That is, it can be used to make a question sound slightly softer than the other ways to ask a
question. However, ~() is more often used with verbs and with and . For example:
Notice that the irregular needs to be applied in appropriate situations again:
? = Is there rice?
? = Do you sell apples here too?
? = Is the Girls Generation concert here?
? = Are you on (riding) the subway now?
This form can be used in the past tense as well. For example:
? = Did you have your bus (transportation) card?
? = Did you hear that/the news?
? = Did you buy the comic book?
? = Did you go to the hospital yesterday?
It is possible to use this in the future tense, but it only sounds natural when applying it to the ~
future conjugation. Adding ~() to is typically not done, and therefore adding it to
words that are conjugating using ~/ is unnatural. For example:
? unnatural
? unnatural
Using Question Words

Depending on which question word you are using, building a question can be really easy or
really confusing. I will teach you the easy examples in this lesson (who, when, where, why) and
the more confusing examples in the next lesson (what, how, how much/how many).
Why ()
Why () is probably the easiest question word in Korean. is an adverb, which means it can
be used/placed as an adverb in sentences. Many of the question words that you will learn in this
lesson (and the following lesson) are adverbs. As you know, adverbs can be used very freely in
sentences and do not have any specific location that they need to be used. However, the most
common position for these adverb-question words is before the verb. If there are other adverbs in
the sentence (including the negative ) the question word is usually placed first.
With these adverb-question words, you can typically just take a statement and change it into a
question by inserting the word into the sentence. For example:
? = Do you like comic books?
? = Why do you like comic books?
() = I am studying Korean
? = Why are you studying Korean?
() = I ate really fast
? = Why did you eat so fast?
() = I didnt go to school yesterday
? = Why didnt you go to school yesterday?
is also used to respond when somebody calls your name (because they want you for some
reason). In English, we would say what, but in Korean, they say . For example:
Person 1: ! = Seulgi!
Person 2: ? = Why/what do you want?
Notice that saying why in English is unnatural. This is how they say it in Korean.
When ()
The usage of when () is very similar to the usage of in Korean. As an adverb, it can be
used to ask when something happens. For example:
For example:
? = Did you go home?
? = When did you go home?
? = Will you go home?
? = When will you go home?
= That girl disappeared

? = When did that girl disappear?
? = Did you take a nap?
? = When did you take a nap?
? = Did dad come?
? = When did dad come?
Particles like ~ and ~, which are often used to indicate from/until when something
happens can be attached to to indicate that it is unknown from/until when something
happens. For example:
= I have been sick since yesterday
? = Since when have you been sick?
Notice that and are not the same word.
= I will be in Korea until next year
? = Until when will you be in Korea?
= I have been studying Korean since last year
? = Since when have you been studying Korean?
can also be attached to to ask when something is. In these cases as well, it
replaces the noun that would normally be attached to . For example:
= The wedding is tomorrow
? = When is the wedding?
= Vacation is tomorrow
? = When is vacation?
The grammatical principle ~ is commonly attached to to form . For now, you
can think of this simply as a word that means whenever. When you learn about the function of
~ in Lesson 106, you will understand how this meaning is formed.
Where ()
works very much like . It can be used to ask where something happened if the place
is unknown. For example:
= I want to go home
? = Where do you want to go?
= I live in Korea
? = Where do you live?
Just like , ~ is often omitted from . is often contracted to .
More examples:
= I want to do that at home
? = Where do you want to do that?
= I came from Korea
? = Where are you from (from where did you come?)
The particle ~ is commonly attached to . ~ is not commonly attached to for
the same reason that ~ is not commonly attached to a place, as described in Lesson 12. For
example:
= I want to go until Busan
? = How far/until where do you want to go?
= We will take/ride the Subway until Seoul Station
? = Until where will we ride the subway?
Like , it can be used as the noun before to ask where something is.
Placing before is really only done if asking somebody directly where they are:
? = Where are you?
Or when asking where a place is:
? = Where is your house?
? = Where is that place?
? = Where is the/your school?
When asking where another person, or an object is, it is more natural to use in these
? = Where is your friend?
? = Where is mom?
? = Where is the pen?
? = Where is dad?
? = Where is that comic?
These would be unnatural:
?
?
Just like , there are of course more complicated ways that can be used. For now, this is
good enough.
Who ()
In Korean, has the function of a pronoun.
Actually, some of the ways you say and being used were as pronouns in Korean. I
chose not to explain this to you because the definition of a pronoun in Korean and English is not
exactly the same. and can act as pronouns in Korean, but this same usage would be
called an adverb in English. I actually had an explanation typed out, but decided not to include
it into this lesson because it makes things more confusing than they actually are. However,
knowing that is a pronoun in English and Korean is helpful (if you know what pronouns
are).
As a pronoun, can be used in the place of a noun in a sentence that is, it can be used to
replace the object, the subject or as a noun before .
This is the same in English as you can see in the following three examples:
Who will study Korean tomorrow? who is the subject of the sentence
Who will you meet tomorrow? who is the object of the sentence -you is the subject
Who is that person? = who is that person in the sentence
However, this is confusing in English because in all three cases who is the first word of the
sentence regardless of its role.
In Korean, instead of always placing who at the start of the sentence, it should be placed in the
location of the subject (usually the start of the sentence), the object (usually somewhere in the
middle of the sentence) or before . I will show you an example of each:
In the third sentence below you can see an example of being used as a subject. The subject
is underlined in each case. When is used as the subject of a sentence, it is changed to .
= You will study Korean tomorrow
? = Will you study Korean tomorrow?
? = Who will study Korean tomorrow?
In the third sentence below you can see an example of being used as an object. The object
is underlined in each case. The object particles can be used if is the object.
= You will meet a friend tomorrow

? = Will you meet a friend tomorrow?
() ? = Who will you meet tomorrow?
In the third sentence below you can see an example of being used before :
= That person is your dad
? = Is that person your dad?
? = Who is that person?
Korean Irregular:
Korean Colors
//
, and As Predicating Words
A Discussion about the Use of ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
() = (the color) green
= (the color) purple
= (the color) light green
= (the color) pink
= (the color) brown

= (the color) grey
= (the color) red
= shirt
= snow
= blizzard/snow storm
= news
= war
= a piece of work
= date
= bowl
= one's back
= back of hand
= fingernail
= readers
= couple/married couple
Verbs:
= change
= stop by
= come down (ascend)
= go down (descend)
= to reveal/to show (active)
= announce
Passive Verbs:
= to be revealed/be shown
Adjectives:
= sea blue
= yellow
= red
= white
= black
= blue
= delicate
= this kind of
= like this
= that kind of
= like that
= that kind of
= like that
= most
= counter for bunch (flowers/bananas)
= counter for a type/kind of thing
= counter for a type of thing
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use colors in Korean by applying the irregular. In
addition, you will learn about the words , and and how the irregular
can be applied to those words. Lets get started.
Korean Irregular:
Korean Colors
You learned all about the Korean irregulars in Lesson 7. On top of all of those irregulars, there is
one more that you should be aware of.
The reason I didnt include this irregular in Lesson 7 is because it is an irregular irregular.
Usually, if the last consonant of a word stem ends in , the word is not conjugated in any
special way. For example:
=
=
However, a lot of colors in Korean end with the final syllable (see the vocabulary list for a
good list of these). When conjugating these words (which are adjectives) to allow them to
describe an upcoming noun, we can add ~/, just like it is done with other adjectives.
However, in some words (mostly colors) the gets dropped and gets added directly to the
word stem. For example:
Word
Word + ~/
Word + noun
Translation
= yellow
Yellow ball
= red
Red ball
= white
White ball
= black
Black ball
= blue
Blue ball
You can use those color words to describe objects in sentences where appropriate. For example:
= That yellow house is pretty
= Red apples are the most delicious
= She is wearing a red shirt
= I want to buy a white car
= I usually wear black suits
= The blue flame is the hottest
If you want to use these words as nouns (as in, the color white or the color red), you can add
after the adjective form of the color ( means color):
= the color yellow
= the color red
= the color white
= the color black
= the color blue
Though these words are nouns, they are often placed before another noun to describe it. For
example
= That yellow (colored) house is pretty
= She is wearing a red (colored) shirt
= I want to buy a white (colored) car
= I usually wear black (colored) suits
= The blue (colored) flame is the hottest
Here, each of these color nouns is describing an upcoming noun without being an adjective.
This is a good time to teach you about another usage of the particle ~. ~ can be attached
to words that commonly describe nouns (like adjectives) but are inherently not adjectives. What I
mean by this, is that you will often find words that are always (or very commonly) placed before
nouns to describe them, but are technically classified as adverbs or nouns (and hence, dont end
with ~ like a typical adjective). It is acceptable to attach the particle ~ to these
adjective-like adverbs or nouns when they describe an upcoming noun. The meaning is the same
when using ~ or not using it, but in speech it is more common to not use it.
For example, all of the above could be written as:
= That yellow (colored) house is pretty

= She is wearing a red (colored) shirt
= I want to buy a white (colored) car
= I usually wear black (colored) suits
= The blue (colored) flame is the hottest
Although acceptable and understandable, it would be slightly more natural to not use ~ with
these color words. Therefore, I didnt make audio recordings for the sentences above using ~.
In other situations with other (non-color) words, you will more commonly see ~ attached to a
noun or adverb being used to describe a noun.
For example, a common word that ~ is attached to is , which translates to most.
Just like in English is usually placed immediately before a noun to say most (noun).
For example:
= Most people
= Most couples
= Most readers
In each case, it is also possible to attach ~. For example:
= Most people
= Most couples
= Most readers
These constructions can now be used in sentences where appropriate. For example:
= Most people dont eat breakfast (rice breakfast)
= Most people dont eat breakfast (rice breakfast)
= Most couples sleep in the same bed
= Most couples sleep in the same bed
= Most readers dont like that work
= Most readers dont like that work
Using ~ here is in effect the same reason why we can attach ~ to counters when placed
before a noun (as you learned in Lesson 10). To jog your memory, in that lesson I said it was
acceptable to place a counter before a noun you are counting followed by the use of ~.
For example:
4 = I bought 4 pens
The number-counter pairs in the above sentences are effectively describing the upcoming noun.
Of course, the number-counter pairs are not adjectives, so ~ can be used.
I dig deeper into the use of and specifically how it relates to (which was introduced in
Lesson 16) later in the lesson. I want you to be aware of this usage of ~ and how it can be
attached to adverbs and nouns when describing an upcoming noun. However, the main purpose
of this lesson is to talk about color words and the irregular, so I will continue with that now.
Often, the most common way to describe a color is to use a word that only exists as a noun and
does not have an adjective form. For example, look at the following:
= (the color) green
= (the color) light green
= (the color) purple
= (the color) pink
= (the color) brown
= (the color) grey
The above are all color words, but they do not have a respective adjective form (like and
). In order to use these words to describe the color of something, they can be placed
immediately before a noun (naturally) without ~ and (slightly unnaturally) with just as
described earlier. For example:
() = I want to write this with a green pen
() = I bought green pants
() () = Most girls chose the pink bag
() 1 = My boyfriend bought a bunch of purple flowers
When adding ~/ (or any of its derivatives) to color words where the stem ends in , an
irregular conjugation applies. For now, the only situation you know where you would add ~/
(or a derivative like ~/) is when conjugating using the honorifics introduced in Lesson 6.
Note that there are other times when you would have to add ~/ to words, you just havent
learned about them yet.
When adding ~/ to these words, the is dropped and the final vowel changes to either
or . If the final vowel is or , it changes to , and if the final vowel is , it changes to
. For example:
Word
Word + ~/
Word + ~/
Here are some of these used in sentences:

= The light is yellow
? = Why is your face red?
= European peoples skin is white
= That girls hair is black
= That mans eyes are really blue
In each case, it would also be acceptable to use the noun form of each of the words above and
conjugate the sentence with . For example:
= The light is (the color) yellow
? = Why is your face (the color) red
= European peoples skin is (the color white)
= That girls hair is (the color) black
= That mans eyes are really (the color) blue
A more advanced Korean speaker (or a Korean person) could argue that the two sets of
sentences are not completely identical. Their meanings and translations could be exactly the
same, but they could have a slightly different nuance. For example, ? would
be more about a face being red as a result of it blushing, whereas ?
would be more about a face that is actually red from something like paint. This nuance is very
subtle and not something you need to worry about as a beginner. Even as an advanced learner, I
find it very hard to articulate this difference into words. In a way, I find the difference between
the two similar to why is your face red? and why is your face the color red?
The words , and are not colors, but they also follow the irregular. I
will talk about those in the section below.
//
, and are all adjectives. Each word is essentially the same the only
difference being the difference between , and . Remember the difference between these?
means this
means that when you are referring to something in a previous sentence. For example: I
went to Canada last week. At that time I forgot about my test that I had to write.
means that when something is far from you.
, and are very important and common in Korean, so lets look at them one
by one.
.
means like this, but (along with and ) is rarely used in its dictionary
form. It is generally used in two ways: as an adjective and as an adverb:
As an Adjective:
By adding ~/ to the stem of we get , which means this sort of/this kind of/this
type of. For example:
= This type of work is dangerous
= This type of car is too big
As an Adverb:
By adding ~ to the stem of we get , which means like this.
= I want to do it like this
? = Why are you going so early (like this)?
? = Why is this so hard (like this)?
Youll notice that in the last two examples, the words like this in English dont necessarily
need to be in the sentence. It is hard to fully explain in words, as this is something that you really
just pick up after a while when learning Korean. When Korean people ask a why question,
they often stress why by using .
*Also notice the usage of in the sentence above. Although the best translation of the word
is work (in noun form), it is very common for Korean people to use to represent
some sort of task or thing that somebody has to do (regardless of if we would call it work in
English). I am reluctant to show you the most common example of this being used because you
havent learned the grammar within it yet. Nonetheless, you will often see
which translates to I have something to do. As of now, you havent learned how is
being used, but try to focus on the usage of in this sentence. The sentence is essentially
saying I have a task that I will do. The sentence above could also be written as
.
Now that you know about , learning about is simple. Like , is

usually used as an adjective or an adverb:
As an Adjective:
By adding ~/ to the stem of we get , which means that sort of/that kind of/that
type of. For example:
= I dont trust that type of person/those types of people
= I dont like that type of thing
As an Adverb:
By adding ~ to the stem of we get , which means like that.
= I dont think like that
= I want to exercise like that
can be used the same way as and ; as and . All you need to
do is to keep in mind the differences between , and .
As an adjective:
= I dont like that kind of girl
= I want to buy that type of car
As an adverb:
? = Why is dad talking like that?
? = Why is that person walking like that?
Just like our color words presented earlier in this lesson, when ~/ (or a derivative) is added
to , or , an irregular conjugation occurs. Lets look at this next.
, and As Predicating Words

, and can also be used as the predicating word (i.e. the end) of a sentence.
These are usually only seen in relatively simple sentences asking or indicating if something is
like this/like that. For example:
? = Is this school not like that as well?
, = Yes, that is correct (that is the way it is)
The most common way that you will see any of these words being used, especially for a
beginner, is in the following form:
?
?
?
Notice that the same irregular applies to the words above. That is, when adding ~/ (or
one of its derivatives), the is dropped and the changes to .
In each case, the speaker is asking Why are you like this/that? This is very common in Korean
conversation, as it essentially is like saying whats wrong? or whats the matter or what the
**** are you doing?
specifically is also commonly used by people to express their content/agreement with

some sort of statement or situation. For example:
Person 1: ? = Do you want to go to the park together tomorrow?
Person 2: . = Sure (like that is fine). Lets go together.
Person 1: = Im going to go now
Person 2: ! = Sure (like that is fine)
Person 1: = Tomorrow, I cant come to work
Person 2: ! ! = Sure (like that is fine). See you on Monday!
In this same respect, it is often used as a question to express ones disbelief or shock. In
reality, the speaker isnt actually shocked or in disbelief but is merely showing his/her
interest in the conversation. This would be akin to using the word Really?! in English. For
example:
Person 1: = I was in Canada last week
Person 2: ? ? = Really!? (Its like that?) Where did you go?
Person 1: = I usually dont eat meat
Person 2: ? ? = Really? (Its like that?) Why dont you eat it?
Person 1: = This water doesnt taste good
Person 2: ? = Really? (Its like that?)
Many other grammatical principles can be added to , and but these
havent been introduced yet.
Specifically, you will find that many grammatical principles can attach to to have their
respective meaning combined with the meaning of . These will all be introduced in future
lessons (where the grammatical principle is introduced), but here is a quick taste of what I am
referring to. I suggest browsing through this list just to get an idea of:
a) How versatile is
b) The general meaning of
c) How this meaning can be applied to many, many other grammatical principles.
This list is by no means exhaustive, but rather a small taste of some of the concepts that you will
be learning in the next 100 lessons or so.
+ / (Introduced in Lesson 29)

= Yes, like that.
+ ~/ (Introduced in Lesson 30)
= I dont know why it is like that
= It is probably like that
+ ~/ (Introduced Lesson 37)
= It is like that, so (Therefore)
+ ~ (Introduced in Lesson 38)
= It is like that, so (Therefore)
+ ~() (Introduced in Lesson 43)
= If it is like that
= Even though it is like that
= It would be nice if it is like that
+ ~/? (Introduced in Lesson 63)
? = Do you think it is like that?
+ ~/ (Introduced in Lesson 76 and 77)
= It is like that so
= Oh! It is like that
+ ~() (Introduced in Lesson 83)
= Oh! It is like that
= Sure, yep, it is like that
At this point, I hope you can understand how , and can be used, and their
general meanings. In addition, I hope you can understand how color words can be used in
sentences. Just below, I will continue the discussion of the use of ~ and how it is used on
words where ~ is commonly attached.
I have had some people ask me about the difference between using on a word to describe a
noun (like ) and using on a word to describe a noun. The grammar below is a
little bit advanced, but this is the lesson that it belongs in (as I am already discussing the purpose
of ~ attached to nouns or adverbs to describe an upcoming noun). It might be good to
glimpse over this, and then come back to it later when you have a better understanding of Korean
grammar.
As you will recall from Lesson 16, can be added to words to change them into a type of
adjective as well. As I mentioned in Lesson 16, the addition of to a noun causes the word to
change a little bit. Its hard to say exactly how the word changes, because it is a little bit different
for every word. The examples that are given in the lesson are:
= economy/economics
= economical
= history
= historical
= science
= scientific
= impulse/shock
= impulsive
= culture
= cultural
= individual
Some other examples that you might want to jot down, but not memorize at this point because
they are quite advanced:
= passion
= passionate
= system
= systematic
= standardization
= standardized
= world
= global
Before I start, I want to first mention that the that we are talking about here is not the
possessive particle that is discussed in Lesson 3. Rather, it is a particle that is added to a word
that is inherently not an adjective, but allows it to describe an upcoming noun (like an adjective).
Most of the time, adding literally changes the translation of the word. As you can see in the
list above, the word changes when is added. For example, from passion to passionate.
However, when just is added to the word, the translation would not change and using
noun+ only makes sense if that word (the original word) can actually act as an adjective
(without being an adjective) to begin with.
The easiest examples to start with are ones that work with but not with . For example:
means passion. I can say things like:
= The students passion for science is surprising
can be added to mean passionate. For example:
= He is a passionate man
However, simply adding to the noun () does not change it from passion to
passionate. The meaning still stays as passion. Using this in a sentence would yield:
= He is a passion man which doesnt make sense
In the same way means science
means scientific
still means science
I can use to describe a noun that would be natural being described by scientific. For
example:
= scientific proof
However, literally translates to science proof which wouldnt sound right.
Now, just like everything in life, there are some exceptions. Specifically, the word
(without the use of or actually means personal. Therefore, just like how the word
() (most) isnt actually an adjective but feels like an adjective, can be placed
before a noun to describe it.
also works, as it also means personal.
My advice is to learn words with as separate words. Dont try to think of words with
as a noun followed by a grammatical principle, but try to think of them as their own words with
their own translation. From what I can see there are some words where the - version of the
word is the same as the non- version of the word. In these cases, it appears that both and
can be used.
Introduction
Before/Ago ()
After/Later ()
Since ()
Within/inside (/)
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= sugar
= policeman
= police station
= cloud
= competition
= competitors
= blood
= shoes/boots
= bath
= number
= phone number
= key
= watermelon
= candy/cookies
= suit
Verbs:
= fly
= clear up (in weather)
= sight see
= fall behind
= pass/overtake
= supervise
= to feel
= erase/remove/wipe off
= put/set/place something
Passive Verbs:
= to be felt
Adjectives:
= sweet
= deep
= to be quiet
= to be hot
= to be cold
= nice/kind
= before/ago
= just before
= after/later
= right after
= since
= a moment
= a short time
= within
Introduction
In Lesson 11, you learned a wide variety of different time words that you can use in sentences.
In that lesson, I said that there were two more words that were very important when talking about
time ( and ). In that lesson, I said that I would teach you those two words sometime later.
Well, this is now later.
In this lesson, you will learn how to use the words and as well as some other similar
words. Lets get started:
.
Before/Ago ()
The word translates to before or ago depending on where it is used. When placed after
any indication of time (2 seconds, 5 minutes, 10 hours, 4 days, 3 weeks, 2 years, etc) it has the
meaning of ago. For example:
2 = 2 seconds ago
5 = 5 minutes ago
10 = 10 hours ago
4 = 4 days ago
3 = 3 weeks ago
2 = 2 years ago
Notice that gets added to because it is referring to a time.
You can now use those words in sentences very intuitively:
2 = I met my brother 2 weeks ago
5 = The clouds cleared up 5 minutes ago
When is placed after a verb, it translates to before. When you want to use like this, you
must add ~ to the verb stem of the preceding verb:
= before I ate
= before I go
= before I come
A few very important things before I say anything else:
There is a reason why ~ is added to the stem of a verb. However, that grammar is a little bit
too difficult for you right now. If I were to describe the reason for adding ~ to the stem of a
verb, it would take an entire lesson. This will be discussed in Lesson 29.
Another thing. You can essentially add any sentence to the (verb-stem)~ grammatical
form and it will have the meaning of before (this happened). You could say something like the
country of Canada becomes a sovereign state and it would have the meaning of before
Canada became a sovereign state Of course, that is a terrible example because in English the
verb doesnt come at the end of the sentence.
This is also your first experience in creating sentences in Korean with two clauses. What do I
mean by this?
Every sentence you have learned how to read/write/say to this point has only been one clause.
One clause will only have one subject, one object, and one predicating verb or adjective. To
show you what I mean, the following sentences have their subjects colored red, objects colored
blue, and predicating verbs or adjectives colored green (adverbs and other parts of the sentences
are not colored):
= I love you
? = When did dad come?
= Mom and I ate (rice)
= Those girls are pretty
= I only like smart girls
However, there are grammatical principles (in English and Korean) that allow us to create more
than one clause. Each clause is able to have a subject, object and also a verb/adjective. Creating a
sentence with more than one clause could therefore have more than one subject, object or
verb/adjective. For example:
When I go home, my mom will be waiting for me
When my mother ate a hotdog, I ate a hamburger
Before I eat, I want to wash my hands
After I saw the movie, my friend called me
I dont want to meet him because he isnt nice
The grammatical rules of a Korean sentence with two (or more) clauses are similar those with
only one clause. However, when a sentence has two (or more) clauses, the particle ~/ cannot
be placed on the subject of both clauses. Instead, it can only be attached to the subject of the
main clause of the sentence.
The main clause of a sentence is the clause that is expressing the main idea of the sentence. One
way to find the non-main clause (referred to as the sub-clause for the remainder of this lesson)
is by looking for the part of the sentence that tells us when/where/why/how the main idea is
happening. For example:
When I go home, my mom will be waiting for me
Main clause: My mom will be waiting for me
When will this happen: When I go home
When my mother ate a hotdog, I ate a hamburger
Main clause: I ate a hamburger
When will this happen: When my mother ate a hotdog
Before I eat, I want to wash my hands
Main clause: I want to wash my hands
When did this happen: Before I eat
After I saw the movie, my friend called me
Main clause: My friend called me
When will this happen: After I saw the movie
I dont want to meet him because he isnt nice
Main clause: I dont want to meet him
Why does this happen: because he isnt nice
Notice that if you eliminate the sub-clause, the main clause still makes sense. However, if you
eliminate the main clause, you are left with an incomplete sentence.
Lets go back to ~ and see how these rules apply. In the following sentence:
Before my mom came, I ate rice
Which clause is the main clause? Which clause is the sub-clause?
I ate rice is the main idea of the sentence. It is a perfect sentence by itself.
Before my mom came describes when the action in the main clause takes place. It is also an
incomplete sentence by itself.
Therefore, this sentence in Korean can be written as:
= Before my mom came, I ate (rice)
I am going to talk about how the particles ~/ and ~/ can be used in these sentences. Im
going to separate this discussion with a line before and after it in an attempt to organize it a little
bit.
Notice that ~/ is attached to the subject of the main clause of the sentence. The reverse
would be incorrect. For example:
incorrect
Placing ~/ on both subjects would also be incorrect:
incorrect
However, placing ~/ on both subjects is acceptable. That is, it is not necessary to place ~/
on the subject of the main clause of the sentence, just like how (as you learned in Lesson 2) it
is not necessary to place ~/ on the subject of the following sentence:
= The cat is behind the house
Placing ~/ on the subject of the main clause of a multi-clause sentence has the same effect
of adding ~/ to the subject of a sentence with one clause. That is, it could indicate that
something is being compared with something else. It could also have the exact same meaning as
a sentence with ~/ used as the subject particles. In both situations, the context is the only
thing that can determine if there is a subtle difference in meaning. For example:
= Before my friend came, I went to the bank, or
= Before my friend came, I went to the bank
There could be a difference between these two sentences. If the context allowed for it, the feeling
is that I is being compared to another noun. For example, before your friend came, (maybe)
your girlfriend stayed home but you (I) went to the bank.
Sometimes, the use of ~/ as the subject particle creates a different translation in English,
although the end result of the sentence is the same. Notice the difference between the following
possible English translations:
= Before my friend came, I was the person who went to
the bank (compared to my girlfriend who stayed home)
If you are unsure of this distinction between ~/ and ~/ I encourage you to re-read the
distinction made in Lesson 2.
Almost all of the time, when you are making the sub-clause to go before ~, ~/ will be
attached to the subject of that clause. The only time this isnt the case is when the subject of both
clauses is the same. In these cases, it is acceptable to place ~/ on the subject of the first
clause, and eliminate it from the second clause. For example:
= Before I came, I ate
Instead of:
= Before I came, I ate
Remember that Korean people love shortening their sentences. Every chance they get, they want
to eliminate something from their sentences. So, instead of saying you only
need to say I once.
Also notice that (like a lot of things in Korean), no indication of tense is made before ~ .
Instead, the tense is determined by the conjugation of the main clause:
= Before mom came, I ate
= Before mom comes, I will eat
Many more examples of ~ :
= I learned Korean before I came to Korea
= Before I ate an apple I ate watermelon
= Before putting on the suit I took a bath
= Before the clouds cleared it rained
= Before leaving the house I cleaned my room
2 = Before marrying my wife, we
went out/dated for 2 years
After/Later ()
The word translates to after or later/from now depending on how it is used in Korean
sentences. When placed after any indication of time (2 seconds, 5 minutes, 10 hours, 4 days, 3
weeks, 2 years, etc) it has the meaning of later/from now: For example:
2 = 2 seconds later/from now
5 = 5 minutes later/from now
10 = 10 hours later/from now
4 = 4 days later/from now
3 = 3 weeks later/from now
2 = 2 years later/from now
You can use these sentences intuitively just like sentences with . For example:
2 = I will go 2 hours from now
2 = Class will finish 2 minutes from now
When is placed after a verb, it has the meaning of after. You learned earlier in this lesson
that you must add ~ to the stem of a verb to make ~ . When using after a verb,
you do not add ~ to the stem of the word. Instead, you must add ~/ to the stem of the
verb. ~ gets added to a stem where the final syllable ends in a consonant. ~ gets added
directly to stems ending in a vowel. For example:
= After I eat
= After I go
These can now go into sentences like ~
= After my homework is finished, I will go home
= After I ate I met a friend
= After eating a lot of candy, my stomach was sore
= After putting on my boots, I got up from the chair
= After cleaning up my room, I went outside
It is also possible to substitute the word (which you learned about in Lesson 11) for to
create the same meaning. For example:
= After my homework is finished, I will go home
= After I ate I met a friend
= After eating a lot of candy, my stomach was sore
= After putting on my boots, I got up from the chair

= After cleaning up my room, I went outside
You can see in the vocabulary list that there are also these words:
= just before
= right after
These two can be used just like and respectively the difference being that the addition of
emphasizes that something was done immediately before or after the action or indication of
time. For example:
= Right before having dinner, he ate candy
= That person left right before the police came
= Right after I put on the suit, I went outside
= Right after I got his phone number, I lost it
One quick thing. In a lot of the example sentences above, I placed the ~ or ~/
clauses before the main clause of the sentence. It is important to recognize something here
what we are essentially doing is creating a unit that gives us an indication of time. For example:
can just be seen as one unit that can be placed elsewhere in a sentence, just
like other adverbs that give us an indication of time. For example:
(at some time) =I went to the bank (at some time)
() = I went to the bank (yesterday)
( ) = I went to the bank (before my friend came)
Therefore, although I often place this indication of time before the clause, it doesnt always need
to be there, and it is the discretion of the speaker that will decide exactly where to place it. Being
able to create a single unit from a clause like this is a quick introduction to what you will begin
learning in Lesson 26 where you will be able to manipulate entire clauses to describe nouns in
the middle of sentences.
Since: ~/
The word since in Korean () can be used in place of in ~/ to have the

meaning of since I:
= Since coming to Korea, I have been learning
Korean
= Since studying hard, my skills have been
increasing
Those two sentences are perfectly correct, but you should know that Korean people rarely use the
word . You can use it, and everybody will understand what you mean (they will probably
be impressed because is a difficult word). Instead, it is more common for Korean people
to use ~/ to have the meaning of since. For example:
.. is better said like this:
= After coming to Korea, I have been learning
Korean
is better said like this:
= After studying hard, my skills have been
increasing
Within/inside (/)
Two other words that you can use in similar situations as and are and . You already
know the word can be used in sentences to mean inside:
= I am inside the house
If / are placed after an indication of time, they have the meaning of within that time
period. For example:
5 5 = I want to learn 5 languages within 5 years
5 5 = I want to learn 5 languages within 5 years
1 = We will get married within one year
1 = We will get married within one year
Introduction
Everything/Everywhere/Every time/Everyone
Something/Somewhere/Sometime/Somebody
: Any, No
Each ()
Vocabulary
The following words are kept in the order below because this lesson presents them in that order:
= every
= everything
= everywhere
= every time
= everyone
= something
= somewhere
= sometime
= somebody
= anybody
= anything
= anywhere
= anytime
= nobody
= nothing
= nowhere
= every
= all
= all
= anytime
Nouns:
= chopsticks
= tongue
= wallet/purse
= dorm
= address
= menu
= Asia
= south east Asia
= tears
= meeting/conference
= hometown
= holiday
/ = baby/infant
Verbs:
= to go for a walk
= to go out with/date
Adjectives:
= indifferent
= severe/extreme
= all day long
= old days/past
= to be interested in
= at this moment
Introduction
Once again, the vocabulary list of this lesson is the lesson. While all slightly similar, these words
are very difficult to understand on their own, so I dedicated an entire lesson to making you
understand them. Here, you will learn how to say:
Every(everybody, every time, everywhere, etc)
Any(anybody, anytime, anywhere, etc)
Some(somebody, sometime, somewhere, etc)
No(nobody, nowhere, nothing)
I left spaces in the vocabulary list between different sets of these words (for no reason other than
to make it organized).
Everything/Everywhere/Every time/Everyone
Everything/All
The most common way to say every _____ is to place the word before a noun.
looks, sounds, and acts like an adjective, but it can not be used to predicate a clause or sentence.
This means that you wont see the word at the end of a sentence, just like in English. For
example, you cant say something like:
He is every
Even though ends in ~ (which is the same as all adjectives when placed immediately
before a noun to describe them , , ), the dictionary form of does
not exist.
However, as I mentioned, (like an adjective), can be placed before a noun. If you place
before a noun, it has the meaning of every _____. For example:
= everything
= all people/every person
= all fruits/every fruit
= all teachers/every teacher
Those can now go in sentences very easily:
= All Asian people use chopsticks well
= All students slept all day

Another possible word to use in similar situations is . is used as an adverb in sentences to
indicate that all of something is done.
One way this is done is to use it in a sentence with an object to indicate that some action was
completed without leaving anything behind. For example:
= I ate all the ramen
= I did all of my homework
= I read the whole book or I read all the books
= I already spent all of my paycheque
In these situations using and create a slightly different meaning. is more about
doing one action to completion and leaving nothing behind. is indicating that the action was
performed on all possible nouns after . For example, if I say:
= I ate all of the ramen
In this sentence, I am indicating that I have completed the action of eating ramen and nothing
was left behind. In other words, there is no ramen left in my bowl because I ate it all.
However, in this sentence:
= I ate every ramen
This sentence is a little bit ambiguous and a little but unnatural because in most situations you
wouldnt say this. However, bear with me as I use it to explain the difference in nuance. In this
situation, there might have been many different types of ramen at my house. I would use this
sentence to indicate that I ate/tried every one of them. It is ambiguous as to whether or not I
finished eating them, which means that there could still be some left either in my bowl or in the
cupboard.
If you did actually eat every one of them and finished all of the ramen in your house, it would be
more natural to use because the action was completed and nothing
was left behind.
This is why I provided two translations for this sentence:
= I read the whole book
= I read all the books
Depending on the situation, that sentence could be translated to either of those English
translations. In the first sentence, the action of reading was completed on the subject (one book)
without leaving any pages behind within that book. In the second sentence, the action of
reading was completed on the subject (more than one book) without leaving any pages behind
in any of those books.
However, by just saying:

I am more indicating that I have tried reading every book, but there is no indication on if I have
finished reading any of them.
can also be used to indicate that all the members/things that represent a subject do some
action (or are some adjective). For example:
= All the people have come
= All the people died
= All parents are like that
= All men are lazy
= All of the students are studying
= All the babies are taking nap
In these cases, I have noticed that there is effectively no difference between using or .
For example, each of these sentences would have the same meaning:
= All men are lazy
The only difference I can feel is that is considering the subjects (although groups of
people) almost as unique individuals/things within the group, whereas is describing the
subjects a groups. At this point, this is not something you need to worry about. Understanding
the precise nuance is more about feeling (which you will develop with time).
The similarities in these usages allow them to be used in the same sentence. For example:

= All men are lazy
All of these can also be used in negative sentences, for example:
= Not all the people have come
= I didnt eat all of the ramen
= I couldnt do all of my homework
can also be used as a noun. In this form, it is usually placed before or to indicate
that something is (or isnt) all. For example:
? = Is that all
= This isnt all
is a shortened form of
There is also another word that you should be aware of: , which has the meaning of all.
It can generally be used in the following ways:
As an adverb
In these cases, essentially has the same meaning as . For example:
= All teachers are smart, which could also be written as:
= All teachers are smart, or
= Every teacher is smart
In this adverb form, can also be placed after in the same sentence. For example:
= All teachers are smart
In this adverb form, you would not see particles attached to it.
As a (pro)noun
In these cases typically means everybody or everything. Particles are usually attached
to it. For example:
= Everybody understood
= Everybody is going for a walk
Heres the part that is a bit confusing. Often times when the sentence structure is just Subject
Verb, the ~ is omitted from . For example:
would be better said as:
= I understood everything
And
would be better said as:
= I want to eat everything
It took me a long time to come to this conclusion, but my explanation as to why this is done is
because in these cases is acting as an adverb. Therefore, it is not so much that the ~ is
being omitted, but rather that the is serving a different function (and the sentence ends up
having the same meaning anyways).
Just like how you would not see ~ attached to in the following sentences:
= I understood everything
= I want to eat everything
Often times a word that represents a group of people is placed before . In these cases, ~ is
usually attached to . For example:
= I love all of my family
= I taught all of the students
The same structure works when the group of people is the subject of a sentence. For example:
= All of the students went to the dorm
= All of the/my family went to the/our hometown
= All of the teachers went to a meeting
Other particles can be attached to it as well, for example:

= I gave a present to everybody
Everywhere/Every time/Everyone
~ can be added to the words where, when, and who to mean everywhere, every time,
and everyone. Particles are usually not added to these words. For example:
= where
= everywhere
= I (would) want to travel everywhere in Korea
= We will go everywhere in South East Asia
= Rice tastes the same everywhere
= when
= every time/always
= She comes late every time
= I always eat the same menu
= I always wake up at the same time
= who
= everyone
= Everybody knows that girl
= Everybody wants to see our baby
= Everybody likes Korea
Something/Somewhere/Sometime/Somebody
~ can be added to the words what, where, when, and who to mean something,
somewhere, sometime, and somebody. For example:
= what
= something
The subject and object particles in general can be omitted from any sentence (although I dont
suggest omitting particles until you have a very deep understanding of Korean), but they seem to
be more commonly omitted from these types of sentences. Many examples:
() = I just saw something a minute ago
() = There is something on your back
() ? = Is there something on my back?
() = I feel something on my arm
() = I want to eat something
() = I want to say something
= where
= somewhere
By the nature of the word somewhere, you are most likely to use the particles ~ or ~ in
these sentences. It would be acceptable to omit the particle ~ from but less acceptable
to omit the particle ~. Many examples:
() = I left my keys somewhere
= A war broke out somewhere in Asia
= Blood is coming out of somewhere
() = I put the bowl in some place

= The teachers are having a meeting somewhere
= I want to go somewhere on the holiday
= I want to drink a cup of coffee somewhere
= when
= sometime/someday
~ is typically not attached to . Many examples:
= The day will come sometime
= The clouds will clear eventually/sometime
= I want to become a police officer someday
= I want to learn Chinese as well some day
= I want to return (go back) to my hometown some day
When I first learned about this word, I wondered if particles like ~ or ~ could be
attached to it because represents a place. I kept bugging Korean people to try to make me
example sentences of these particles attached to and they always came up with nothing. I
realized that in both English and Korean, it isnt logical to make sentences with until
somewhere or from somewhere.
= who
= somebody
() = Somebody is looking for you
= I found somebodys keys
= The policemen are talking with somebody
= Somebody lost their wallet
= Somebody sent that file to me
In Lesson 22, you learned about using in sentences. Another usage of is to reference a
vague place or point in time. I am including this explanation in this section of the lesson because
of the similarities with the sentences above.
You would often see this type of thing in stories, poetry or news reports where the specific
location does not need to be given. This would be similar to something like this at a start of a
story in English:
A long time ago in a far-away castle, or
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away
In this usage, is commonly placed before a broad indication of time or place. For example:
= some day (an ambiguous day)
= some night (an ambiguous night)
= some winter (an ambiguous winter)
= some summer (an ambiguous summer)
= some village (an ambiguous summer)
= some market (an ambiguous summer)
Here, the person speaking/writing this way because he/she does not need to specifically reference
the time. Some example sentence:
, = The next day, the grandmother was
browsing around some market
= Some winter, all the flowers disappeared
2 = Two babies were born in some village
Again, like I said, you would most likely see these types of sentences used in stories, often
setting up the scenario or something within a book.
It is also possible to use a question word to refer to an ambiguous time or place. This is most
commonly done with the following words:
Person 1: ? = Is mom at home

Person 2: . . = No, she went somewhere

= We already ate something
= Tomorrow Im going to meet somebody

Using these words like this is quite advanced, and is not something I learned until a few years of
exposure with Korean. What makes these usages even more confusing is that you can use these
words in sentences when you are asking a question. For example:
? Could mean both:
What did you eat? or
Did you eat something?
? Could mean both:
Where did you go? or
Did you go somewhere
() ? Could mean both:
Who did you meet? Or
Did you meet somebody
Distinguishing them, believe it or not, can be done quite easily if you train your ear correctly.
When using , or as the question word in the sentence, the stress of the sentence is
on the question word itself. Play close attention to the audio in the following examples:
? = What did you eat?
? = Where did you go?
? = Who did you meet?
When using , or to refer to an ambiguous thing, place or person, the stress of the
sentence is on the verb. Again, play close attention to the audio in the following examples, and
specifically how they differ from the examples above:
? = Did you eat something?
? = Did you go somewhere?
? = Did you meet somebody?
As I mentioned however, this is quite advanced. You might not be able to hear the difference at
this stage in your learning, but it is good to be aware of as you continue to progress through your
studies.
.
.
Anybody/Nobody
is a pronoun that refers to any person. When using it in a sentence, the speaker is
indicating the person he/she is referring to is not a specific set person, but could actually be
anybody.
It is most commonly used with ~ attached to it. This particle (when attached to other nouns as
you will learn in Lesson 55) often indicates the same indifference meaning that itself has.
When used together, it can almost be seen as one unit that means anybody. As ~ is actually a
particle in itself, when used as the subject or object of a sentence, particles ~ or ~ are not
usually doubled up on top of ~. For example:
= Anybody will/would like that book
= Anybody can study well at this
school
However, particles can be added before ~ if the word being used has other functions within a
sentence (other than the subject or object). Because refers to a person in this case, the most
common particles you would see here are particles meaning to (~/) and with (~/
). For example:
= I want to go out with anybody
= I want to give this present to anybody
= I want to play this game with anybody
When ~ replaces ~ in these cases, we get the opposite meaning. can be used as the
subject or object of a sentence to mean nobody. Just like , particles are not usually
attached to as ~ is actually the particle being used.
When using , the sentence must be conjugated in a negative way or end with some
negative word like . This is counter intuitive for English speakers because it makes us
think we are saying a double negative. For example, the following sentence:
looks like it should mean there is nobody at home. However, as I said, a

sentence with should end in a negative way. Therefore, this is correct:
= There is nobody at home/There isnt anybody at home
Because of the double negative in the Korean version, this creates a confusing translation for the
English version. In the English version, we can usually say either anybody with a negative
conjugation, or nobody with a positive conjugation.
For example:
= I didnt see anybody/I saw nobody
= I dont want to meet anybody/I want to meet nobody
= Nobody went home
= Nobody likes me
Particles can be added before ~ if the word being used has other functions within a sentence
(other than the subject or object). Because refers to a person in this case, the most common
particles you would see here are particles meaning to (~/) and with (~/).
For example:
= I didnt say that to anybody/I said that to nobody
= I dont want to talk with anybody/I want to talk
with nobody
It is very easy to be confused with these double negatives at first. To make it simple at the
beginning, just tell your brain to use when you want to say something that ends
positively, and to use when you want to say something that ends negatively. In theory,
and are the same word in Korean (with different particles attached). One just
happens to be used with positive sentences, and the other happens to be used in negative
sentences.
Used Before Other Nouns

Another function that has is to be placed before a thing/place/time to describe it. The most
common nouns you will see after are:
= short form of , meaning thing

= meaning place
= meaning time
When ~ is attached to these nouns, the speaker is indicating that the thing/place/time is not a
specific thing/place/time, but could actually be anything, anywhere or anytime. For
example:
= I want to eat anything (Id eat anything)
= Anytime is good
= I want to go anywhere (Id go anywhere)
In the example above, you can see that is used to refer to a place. When the verb being used
requires ~ to be attached to that place, ~ is omitted. However, when the verb being used
requires ~ to be attached to that place ~ should be added before ~.
For example, even though the same place is being used in both sentences below, because of the
nature of the verbs and , ~ should be used in one case, and ~ should be used
in the other.
= I want to go to the park
= I want to eat in the park
The difference between these two sentences is the same as the difference between these two
sentences:
= I want to go anywhere
= I want to eat (at) anywhere
~ can replace ~ in these cases to have the meaning of nothing nowhere. For example:
= I dont want to eat anything/I want to eat nothing
= The baby didnt go anywhere/The baby went nowhere
means no time? This doesnt make sense. Instead, the word (introduced in
Lesson 34) should be used.
It is possible to use other nouns after . For example:
= Im going to take any bus and leave
= I didnt say anything/I said nothing
= I dont have any relationship with my mother/I have no

relationship with my mother
However, by far the most common three things to use after are , and .
I would love to provide way more examples, but many of the examples I want to make with
(and the words it can create) use grammatical principles that you havent been introduced to you
yet. The two most common grammatical principles that you havent learned yet that would be
used in these situations are:
Making a command (introduced in Lesson 40), and
One can/cannot do (Introduced in Lesson 45)
Here are some quick examples using those two principles. The only reason I am showing you
these is because I think it is likely you have learned about these either by looking ahead or by
using some other resource.
Making a command
= Put your bag down anywhere
! = Choose anything!
! = Lets eat anything!
One can/cannot do
= Anybody can do that
It also might be helpful to take a peek at Lesson 55 to see how ~ can be used when not used in
these specific cases of , , , etc. In theory, I should have presented
these words after I taught you about ~, but in my opinion the use ~ as it is used in this
lesson is more common (and therefore more important) than the general use of ~ introduced
later.
Each ()
means each and is attached directly to the end of a noun:

= each day
= each student
= each/every Friday
30 = each/every 30 minutes
When I first learned about this, I asked the following question to my grammar teacher:
What is the difference between , and ?
The answer is so subtle, but there is a difference. The only way I can explain it is by saying the
following:
If you can explain the difference between every student and each student in English, then
you fully understand the difference between and .
But really, can you explain the difference between every student and each student? There is
a difference. I know there is a difference. Each has something to do with each individual
student, whereas every has something to do with all students. huh?
I dont know. I always think I can explain the difference between each and every in English,
but its too confusing.
Just remember that means each and means every. That is more than enough.
10 = This bus comes each/every 10 minutes
= Each student is different
and with that, you have finished Unit 1! You have come a really long way from our first
lessons. When you first started learning through our website, you were learning sentences like:
.
Vocabulary
Introduction
~ : Modifying Nouns with Verbs
Past Tense (~/ )
Future Tense (~/ )
~ : A Wider Application
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= middle aged/ older woman
= thing/stuff
= hall/hallway
= purpose/aim/goal
= destination
= nation/country
= neighborhood
= tuition
= weapon
= right/correct answer
= youth
= this area/region
= match or game
= grade/score
= player (in sports)
= life
= mosquito
= waist
= moon
= greeting
= salt
= tobacco/smoke cigarettes
= patients
= hanger
= international
= usual/normal/typical
= space, gap
= out/outside
Verbs:
= peel/cut/trim/shave
= to recognize, to try to know
= overcome
= adjust/fix/set
= to pass, to get accepted

= decide
() = divorce
= ask
= smoke/light a fire of some sort
= blow
= continue
= to injure, to get hurt
= answer/respond
Adjectives:
= incorrect
= clean
= to be remaining/left over
= clear/clean/pure
= free
= business hours
Introduction
Okay, it is time to kick it up a notch.
Most of what you learned in Unit 1 was taught simply to be a foundation to what you will learn
here in Unit 2 (and later in Units 3, 4, 5 etc). Of course, the content you learned in Unit 1 was
very important (foundations are important) but here in Unit 2 it will be slightly different.
When learning Korean, you eventually reach a point where the only thing you are learning is
other ways to end sentences. There are hundreds upon hundreds of different things that you can
add to the end of sentences (to end them or to connect them to other sentences) to give a sentence
a different meaning. Im not going to lie: most of what you will learn from here on out (aside
from vocabulary) will be these sentence enders/connectors.
Not today, though. Today you will learn the most important aspect (in my mind) of Korean
grammar. It took me months to fully grasp this concept but not because it is terribly difficult,
but rather because I did not have good enough explanations when learning it. That is why I am
here. I am going to break down this concept for you like crazy spanning four lessons.
I am talking, of course, of ~ .
Understanding this concept will literally make your ability to create sentences increase
dramatically. Lets get started.
This lesson is long. Very long. Please read the entire lesson to fully understand everything. If
something is confusing, it will more than likely be resolved later in the lesson.
.
.
~ : Modifying Nouns with Verbs
Adjectives (in Korean and in English) get placed before nouns to describe them. You learned this
a long time ago in Lesson 4. You learned that when you want to use an adjective to describe a
noun, you must add ~/ to the stem of the adjective. For example:
=
=
=
To describe nouns in the following way:
Pretty girl:
Smart student:
Young teacher:
Simple enough.
But, what you dont know is that verbs can also describe nouns in this same way. It is the exact
same premise with adjectives, but it is very difficult for English speakers to understand.
This same thing (verbs describing nouns) is also done in English, but is done differently than in
Korean. As you know, In English and Korean, when an adjective describes a noun, the adjective
comes before the noun:
However, In English, when a verb describes a noun, the verb comes after the noun. For example:
The girl who walks
The student who studies
The teacher who eats
The word who was added in all three examples, but it doesnt necessarily need to be who in
English. For example:
The girl that walks
The student that studies
The teacher that eats
In those three examples, that was added, and each example essentially has the same meaning
as when who was written instead. You dont need to worry about if it should be who/that or
whatever because you are not learning English you are learning Korean.
The point I am trying to get at here, is that verbs can also describe nouns. In English, verbs are
placed after the nouns to describe them.
The next sentence is the most important sentence of the entire lesson:
In Korean, verbs are placed before nouns to describe them very similar to how it is done with
adjectives.
How is this done? Like this:?

Are those correct? Haha. No. Not by a long shot.
When you adjust adjectives to describe nouns, you know that you should add ~/ to the stem
of the word.
When you adjust verbs to describe nouns, you must add ~ to the stem of a verb:
=
=
=
These are all verbs that can now be placed before a noun to describe it:
= the girl who walks
= the student who studies
= the teacher who eats
Now, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking Okay, that is great, but when would I ever
say the girl who walks in a sentence?
That is a good question. Really, you would never (or very rarely) say something like that in a
sentence but understanding that sentence is the foundation for understanding everything else
about ~ .
Remember, in regular sentences (in English and Korean), it is very rare to just use the present
tense conjugation. For example, are these natural?:
= The girl walks
= The student studies
= The teacher eats
Are those natural? Yes, they are natural, but who would ever just say the girl walks. Usually in
every-day sentences, you would add more information or conjugate the sentence in other tense:
= The girl walked to school
= The girl will walk to school
= The girl walks fast
etc
You can use the same information to describe the noun (the girl):
The girl who walked to school
The girl who will walk to school
The girl who walks fast
Lets stick to the one in the present tense for now:
The girl walks:
The girl who walks:
The girl walks fast:
The girl who walks fast:
Okay, so whats the point? When would I ever want to say The girl who walks fast?
The thing is, now that you have made the noun the girl who walks fast/ you
can now place that noun in sentences that:
end in an adjective
end in a verb
end in
You have been doing the exact same things with adjectives since Lesson 4.
= Pretty girl
= The pretty girl is young
= I met a pretty girl
= I am a pretty girl
= The girl who walks fast
= The girl who walks fast is young
= I met a girl who walks fast
= I am a girl who walks fast
Those sentences may not be that common/natural in English/Korean, but that is the basis of this
entire lesson. It is important to realize that entire clauses (or multiple clauses) can be put before
this ~ form, including clauses with subjects in them. Remember (from Lesson 2), when the
subject of the clause is not subject of the entire sentence, you must attach ~/ to that subject.
The subject of a clause describing a noun using ~ should always have the particle ~/
attached to it (unless the subject of the main clause is the same in which case, one can be
omitted). For example:
= The person I meet
= The movie I watch
= The food I eat
All more naturally said like this:
= The person I am meeting
= The movie I am watching
= The food I am eating
Again, now that you have those nouns, you can do whatever you want to them:
= The person I am meeting is pretty
= The movie I am watching is funny
= The food I am eating is delicious
More examples:
= The place I often go
= I am going to the place I often go to
= My friend is going to the place I often go
Actually, I feel like this is getting a little bit too complicated. I want to break this down one more
time.
This sentence should be simple to you:
= My friend is going to school
Simple enough. Subject place verb.
If you want to describe that school, you could do so with adjectives:
= big school
= small school|
= bad school
or verbs:
= The school I go to often
Then, it is simply a matter of putting those nouns into sentences:
= My friend is going to the big school
= My friend is going to the small school
= My friend is going to the bad school
= My friend is going to the school that I go to
often
Incredibly complicated at first, incredibly simple once you get the hang of it. The only problem
is that it is difficult for English speakers to get used to because we describe a noun with a verb
after the noun.
Many more examples:
= the/a girl that likes science

= I like girls that like science
= The exam I am writing
= The exam I am writing is difficult
= The girl who I am going out with
= The girl who I am going out with went to the US
= The food that my mother cooks
= The food that my mother cooks is always delicious
= students who do not study
= Students who do not study are not smart
= the day(s) I go to the park
= I am always happy on the days I go to the park
= children who are good at playing soccer in this
neighborhood
= There are a lot of children who are good at
playing soccer in this neighborhood
Actually, Korean people have the same problem with this concept when translating to English. If
you meet a Korean person who cant speak English well, they will always say sentences like this
in their Korean style.
Instead of saying: girls that like science, they say:
like science girls
Instead of saying the exam I am writing, they say:
I write exam
Instead of saying the girl I am going out with, they say:
I go out with girl
Instead of saying the food my mother cooks, they say:
my mother cooks food
Anyways, enough of what Korean people say.
It is hard to translate the definition of this concept directly in English, but it sometimes translates
to who, when, or that. These words however dont need to be in the sentence in English, as
you will see in the following examples. Each of the following pairs of sentences have the same
meaning in English:
My friend is going to the school I go to often
My friend is going to the school that I go to often
The exam I am writing is difficult
The exam that I am writing is difficult
The girl I am going out with went to the US
The girl who I am going out with went to the US
The girl that I am going out with went to the US
The food my mother cooks is always delicious
The food that my mother cooks is always delicious
Students that do not study are not smart
Students who do not study are not smart
I am always happy on the days I go to the park
I am always happy on the days that I go to the park
I am always happy on the days when I go to the park
That can be used in most situations. If the noun you are using is a person, who can be
exchanged for that. If the noun you are using is a time, when can be exchanged for that.
Im going to say this one more time. Read it a few times to make sure you understand it
completely (it is complicated). The noun that you create by describing it with a verb can be
placed anywhere that other nouns can be placed!
Lets describe one more noun and see where it can be placed:
= the students that I teach
Placed as the subject of a sentence:

= The students that I teach dont want to
come to class
Before :
= That person is a student that I teach (I teach that student)
Placed in any clause within a sentence:
= Before the students that
I teach came to class, I cleaned the classroom
.. okay, I think you get it.
So far in this lesson you have learned how to describe nouns using verbs in the present tense:
The place I go
The food I eat
The student I teach
But what about the past tense?
The place I went
The food I ate
The student I taught
Or the future tense?
The place I will go
The food I will eat
The student I will teach
Lets talk about those now.
~ Past Tense (~/ )

You can also describe nouns with verbs in the past tense to make nouns like:
The place I went

The food I ate
The student I taught
To do this, instead of adding ~ to the stem of a verb, you must add ~/. You must add ~
to stems ending in a consonant ( = ), and ~ should be added directly to stems ending
in a vowel ( = ):
= The place I went
= The food I ate
= The student I taught
The general idea is the same as the present tense; the verb is simply conjugated into the past.
More examples:
= The food my mom cooked is delicious
= I ate all the food my mom cooked
= The person I met yesterday wants to meet
me again
= I want to pack up the food that is left over
1 = One of the students I taught last year
has already become a doctor
= On the day I didnt go to work, I went to the
hospital
= The teacher answered the question that the
student asked
= There are a lot of patients who smoked a lot a long
time ago
~ Future Tense (~/ )

You can also describe nouns with verbs in the future tense to make nouns like:
The place I will go
The food I will eat
The student I will teach
To do this, instead of adding ~ to the stem of a verb, you must add ~/. You must add ~
to stems ending in a consonant ( = ) and ~ should be added directly to stems ending
in a vowel ( = ):
= The place I will go
= The food I will eat
= The student I will teach
Many more examples:
= The place I will go is Jeju-do
= I have something/work to do
= I dont want to accept the gift that that
person will give me
= The score I will receive is important
Actually, you know this concept already sort of.
In Lesson 9, you learned how to conjugate verbs into the future by adding / to verbs and
adjectives. When I explained that concept, I also explained that you wouldnt be able to
understand the grammar behind the reasoning for doing so. I just said memorize it you will
be able to understand it eventually.
Well, now is eventually. Adding / to the stem of a verb to describe a noun in the following
example:
(the food I will eat)
Has the exact same grammar (but not the same meaning) as:
(I will eat)
Remember, is a noun that means thing. Saying breaks down to:
= a thing I will eat
+
= is
=
This literally translates to I am a thing that I will eat.. but you cannot translate it like that.
Whenever a sentence ends in ~ , you need to just think of that as a future conjugation
despite what the grammar within it suggests.
All incredibly complicated, but you dont really need to worry about the intricacies of ~
. Just know that it is a future conjugation.
. All of this brings me to the last point of this lesson:
So Whats the Point?: ~

The name for everything you learned in this lesson is ~ (or ~ for past tense and ~
for future tense). So far, I have shown you many examples of other nouns in place of :
= The food I eat
= The food I ate
= The food I will eat
= the student I teach
= the student I taught
= the student I will teach
= the day I go
= the day I went
= the day I will go
Question:
So why is the grammar concept called ~ ?
Answer: (This answer is ridiculously important)
If you ever want to change a sentence (or any part of a sentence) into a noun, you must do so by
adding ~ to the clause. which leads to the next question:
Question:
Why on earth would I want to change a sentence into a noun?
Answer:
Look at the following example:
You know this already:
= I want apples
Very simple sentence. Subject object verb,
But what if you wanted to say the following:
I want my friend to bring apples.
The structure is actually identical in the two sentences:
I want apples
I want my friend to bring apples
In both cases, I will put the thing that you want in brackets:
I want (apples)
I want (my friend to bring apples)
In Korean:
(apples)
(my friend to bring apples)
The first one is easy, you already know:

But the second one? How would I say this in Korean?:
How can you say my friend brings apples in Korean?
= My friend brings apples
But! You need to change that sentence to a noun. THIS is the situation when you will need to
change clauses/sentences to nouns. Lets change that sentence into a noun:

This is very hard to translate into English. means thing. The rest of it is an adjective
describing that thing. If I had to translate it, I would say the thing of my friend bringing
apples... but, again, it cannot really be translated.
So, if we look at our sentences again:
I want (apples)
I want (my friend to bring apples)
Apples =
My friend brings apples (noun form) =
(apples)
()
( )
= I want apples
= I want my friend to bring apples
Wow, complicated.
Lets look at another example.
I like movies.

Simple sentence. Subject object verb
But what if you wanted to say
I like making movies, or
I like watching movies
Again, I will put the things that you like in brackets:
I like (movies)
I like (making movies)
I like (watching movies)
Movies:
I make movies:
I watch movies:
Into noun form?:

(movies)
(making movies)
(watching movies)
()
( )
( )
= I like movies
= I like making movies
= I like watching movies
I didnt realize this when I first learned this grammar concept. In almost every sentence you will
ever say, you need to put this concept into use whether you realize it or not.
Think about it, how often do you simply say I want to eat food? You usually make it more
complex by saying:
= I want to eat what that person is eating
= I want to eat what we ate last time
= I want to eat my moms cooking
Etc
Or, if you wanted to talk about what your dream is. Before this lesson, you could have said this:

but that translates to My dream is teacher. Is that natural? My dream is teacher? Instead,
it would sound more natural if you said:
= My dream is becoming a teacher

Below are many more examples of a verb (with a clause before it) describing a noun being used
in sentences. The following sentences specifically use the vocabulary that is introduced at the
beginning of this lesson. In addition, these sentences are slightly more complex than the simple
sentences I have used to describe the ~ concept up until this point. As such, in addition to
providing the English and Korean sentence, I have also indicating the noun (being described by a
verb) below each respective sentence:
= Our schools goal is becoming an

international school
= It is not healthy to eat a lot of salt
= It is unhealthy to smoke cigarettes
= My goal is to pass that exam
= It will be difficult to overcome this problem
= It is difficult to recognize students wearing hats
= (the thing that) What you are saying not is incorrect
= I couldnt recognize that my friend cut his hair
= It is dangerous to run in the hallway
= The older lady who fell in
the hospital and broke her arm received free medicine
Just one more quick note specifically about translating from English to Korean or vice-versa.
You dont need to worry about this too much, but it does help if you understand it:
As I said earlier, when you translate ~ (noun) the meaning becomes the (noun) that or
the (noun) who or the (place) where as in:
= The man who ran/The man that ran
= The place where I went/the place that I went
This would also include if the noun you are talking about is thing:
= The thing that I am bringing is rice
= The thing that I want most is a car
However, when you want to turn an clause into a noun by using ~ it usually
translates to to or ~ing :
= I want my friend to bring apples

= My dream is becoming a doctor/My dream is to become a
doctor
= I like watching movies/I like to watch movies
Very complicated, but not overly important to be aware of right now. The rest of the lesson,
however very important. Please, if you cant understand something, let us know. I cannot stress
the importance of the content in this lesson enough.
Lesson 27: Using ~/ to Describe Past Tense

Click here for a Workbook to go along with this lesson.
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Describing Nouns with Adjectives in the Past-Tense (~ and ~/)
~ or ~/ with verbs
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= reason
= a way, method
= art/the arts
= artist
= contents
= employee, server, worker
= technology, skill
= notebook
= calendar
= juice
= post office
= embassy
= toilet paper
= hamburger
= soap
= spoon
= nurse
= pharmacy
= community
= shock/impact
= law
= citizen
= sweat
= insurance
= differences(between two things)
= guest/visitor
= passenger
= president (of country)
= member
= an orange
Verbs:
= put something in/on/onto/into
= to sign something
= draw
= to lighten something, to reveal
= pronounce
= give up
= pass/go by
= fail
= working at
= transfer on a bus, subway
= stop
Passive verbs:
= to be put in/on/onto/into
Adjectives:
= lonely
= significant/precious
= hungry

= separately/privately
= forever
Introduction
In the previous lesson, you learned about the ~ principle and how you can
turn clauses/sentences into nouns to make sentences like this:
, and
use verbs to describe nouns to make sentences like this:
.
In this lesson, you will build on what you learned in the previous lesson by learning other ways
that you can apply the ~ principle.
.
Describing Nouns with Adjectives in the Past-Tense

As of now, you have learned a lot about describing nouns with adjectives, for example;
= pretty girl
= smart student
= bad teacher
In the previous lesson,you learned how to describe nouns with verbs in the present tense:
= the student that/who is studies
= the teacher that/who teaches
and the past/future tenses:
= the student that/who studied

= the student that/who will study
= the teacher that/who taught
= the teacher that/who will teach
You know that whenever you use verbs to describe nouns, in English we usually need to say
that or who or where: the girl that/who the student that/who .
These same words can also be applied to adjectives as well. Even though these are all okay:
= pretty girl
= smart student
= bad teacher
We could also say these:
= the girl that/who is pretty
= the student that/who is smart
= the teacher that/who is bad
However, we dont need to say them like that. Instead, we can just say pretty girl/smart
student/bad teacher.
But (in English) when we describe nouns with adjectives in the past/future tense, we need to
use the the girl that/who form. Do these make sense?:
The prettied girl
The will be pretty girl
No. Those dont make sense. In these cases, when describing nouns with adjectives in the
past/future tense, we need to use the that/who/where method:
The girl that/who was pretty
The girl that/who will be pretty
The student that/who was smart
The student that/who will be smart
The teacher that/who was bad
The teacher that/who will be bad
Lets look at how we can describe nouns with adjectives like this in Korean.
Past Tense
When you want to describe nouns with adjectives in the past tense, you can add ~ OR ~/
to the stem of a word. Adding ~ is simple:
When adding ~/, you need to conjugate the stem by adding ~/ first, then add ~
after that. For example:
+ ~/ =
+ ~/ =
+ ~/ =
If you put these before nouns, they have the meaning of:
/ = a thing that was good
/ = a thing that was pretty
/ = a thing that was happy
These are not used nearly as much as adjectives in the present tense, but there are some
occasions where you might have to use them. Some examples:
= That was a good day
= Im thinking about happy memories
Notice that in English we wouldnt actually say Im thinking about memories that were happy.
We would just simply say that they are happy memories. This is the same in Korean, in that it
is usually more natural to just use the present-tense form of the adjective when describing nouns.
Nonetheless, this is an important grammar concept that you should be aware of because there are
obviously some occasions when you need to describe a noun with a past-tense adjective.
I can share an example from the song
Songs are very complex grammatically and include a lot of poetry-like grammatical structures,
but you might be able to understand this one line:

means precious
usually means a beautiful ocean-like/natural blue/green color but in this case it would
mean nice in the same way that an ocean-like color is nice.
means us or our (our should be but sometimes the is omitted)
Its a little bit confusing because they are using two adjectives (which you arent familiar with
yet) before the noun. Actually, its not usually done like that in speech, so its probably
something that you dont even need to worry about.
But either way:
= the day that was precious
= the day that was nice
= our day that was precious and beautiful
, you know means remember
You dont yet know the grammar concept of ~. You will learn about it later but an
oversimplified translation for now would be as:
= as I remember
= as I remember our precious, beautiful day(s)
Another example from later in the same song:

~
= lonely
= the thing that was lonely
= the last time, which was lonely (remember the difference between and
!!)
Future tense
Just like the past tense, you can use adjectives in the future tense to describe nouns. However,
(also like the past tense) it isnt used as often as the present tense. Again, there are some
occasions where you would have to say the ____ that will be ____. But, even in English, it is a
little bit awkward. Think about it, how often do we say the girl who will be pretty?
Nonetheless, if you absolutely must use a future tense adjective to describe a noun, you can add
~/ to it just like you would to verbs:
= a person that will be happy
= a person that will be smart
Although rare in the form above, adding ~/ to adjectives is done within many grammatical
principles. Therefore, while uncommon in the form above, it is important to understand the
meaning that could be derived from this type of construction so you can apply this understanding
to more complex principles when you learn them. You will learn about all of these in later
lessons, but here are some examples:
(The use of ~/ is introduced in Lesson 45)
(The use of ~/ is introduced in Lesson 85)
(Also note that the future tense conjugation of is technically using this form).
~ or ~/ with verbs
Early in this lesson you learned about adding ~ or ~/ to adjectives to allow them to
describe nouns in the past tense. You can also add ~ or ~/ to verbs to describe nouns in
the past tense, but their meanings are more complex than simply saying past tense.
You already know how to change verbs to be able to describe adjectives in the past tense:
= the person who ate
= the student who studied
Adding ~ or ~/ to a verb is slightly different than those two examples of adding ~/
.
One of the hardest things for anybody to do in Korean (regardless of how good you are with
grammar) is distinguishing the difference between adding ~ to a verb and adding ~/ .
With adjectives, there doesnt seem to be a difference. With verbs, there is a slight difference.
~
Adding ~ to the end of a verb allows you to describe nouns. Adding ~ gives the verb the
implication that something occurred repeatedly over time in the past. Because of this, ~ cant
be used to describe something that only occurred once in the past. If you were to say:
you would think that this would mean the book that I bought, but the act of
buying that book only occurred once and thus is not something that occurred repeatedly in
the past. Instead you could say something like:
= The book that I read (repeatedly over a time)
Similarly, you shouldnt say:

, because the act of buying clothes only occurred once
Instead, you could say something like:
= the clothes that I wore (repeatedly over a time)
Notice however that you could simply use the simple past tense ~/ in any of those
situations:
= the book that I bought
= the book that I read
= the clothes that I bought
= the clothes that I wore
Adding ~/ to verbs is more of an umbrella term that can be used in all past situations, but if
you want to make your sentence a little bit more specific (and grammatically complicated), you
could say ~. The specific translation of ~ is something like the ___ that I was ___ing:
= the book I was reading
= the clothes I wore
But you dont need to get hung up on exact translations. The better thing to do is to realize that
~ means something happened in the past repeatedly.
= the book I was reading wasnt funny
~/
Whereas ~ can be added to verbs to describe something that happened in the past repeatedly,
adding ~/ to verb stems allows you to describe nouns with a very similar meaning to ~/
. I have asked many native Korean speakers, they all say that these are identical:
= the book I bought
= the book I bought
For all intents and purposes, ~/ and ~/ seem to be almost exactly the same. It may be
slightly more complicated than that, but that is all you really need to worry about. Heres an
example:
= I want to eat at the place that we ate at last
time
Would essentially be the same as:

Diving just a little bit deeper into the exact difference between ~/ and ~/ causes a
whole lot of headaches to learn something that will literally never come up. Ask a Korean
person, this is how the conversation would go:
English person: What is the difference between and ?
Korean person: Well, sounds like you read the book many times and that it is
progressing, but with , you could have only read it once. Its not clear.
English person: Ahh, I see then what about the difference between and ?
Korean person: huh?
English person: What is the difference between and ?
Korean person: They have exactly the same meaning to me.
English person: Really? The thing is, Im really picky with Korean grammar I would like to
know the difference.
Korean person: Forget it Korean people cant tell the difference.
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Irregulars with ~
Present Tense
Past and Future Tense
My Favorite Thing:
Words that seem like verbs but are adjectives
Using (and other smaller words) in ~ sentences
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= adult
= child, children
= princess
= influence
= some sort of writing
= literature
= district, local area
= neighbor
= environment
= farm
= parts/sections
= advertisement
= basketball
= volleyball
= earth
= fart
= head
= direction
= abroad, overseas
= itself, its own
= times
= caution
Verbs:
= research
= concentrate
= divide
= use
= register
= carry something on ones shoulder
= to stand up/line up/erect
= move
= arrange
= cancel
= protect/defend
= to miss (a train/buss/opportunity)
Adjectives:
= few
= strong
= uncomfortable
= enough
= sleepy
= honest, frank
= exact
= become familiar with/be close with
= eventually
= throughout a time
= finally/at last
= only/just
= slightly/a little bit
= thoroughly
Irregulars with ~
Present Tense
In Lesson 7 you learned all about Korean irregulars. In that Lesson, I wrote:
As with all languages, there are some irregular conjugations that you need to
know. The irregulars apply at times when you add ~// (or another
vowel/consonant) to a verb/adjective stem (aside from conjugating, you
have yet to learn other times when you must add a vowel to a word. You will
learn about these later).
Irregulars can act differently depending on what vowel/consonant you are adding to them. Up to
now, you have learned a lot about adding ~/ to verbs/adjectives and how irregulars change
as a result of this addition. For example:
+ / =
+ / =
However, adding ~ to the stem of or does not change them.
The only irregular that comes into play when adding ~ in the present tense is the
irregular.
The irregular from Lesson 7 stated:
If the final vowel of a stem ends in AND you add ~/~ to that stem, the
is removed and the / get added on directly to the stem. However, if
you are adding or something starting with to the stem the is
removed and ~/~ is added directly after the stem.
Here is a table showing how ~ should be added to the stem of a verb from each respective
irregular. Notice that the irregular is the only case where the stem changes as a result of ~
.
Present Tense Addition of ~
Irregular
Word
Application
Here are some example sentences:

= I saw my friend opening the door
? = Do you have a part/section that you like?
= I only want to do things that I know
= The neighbor who lives next to me is too loud
= The area we live in is a little bit dangerous
= I dont want to (dont like to) live on a farm
= I am getting close to the person who lives next
door
.
Past and Future Tense

Four irregulars come into play when adding ~/ and ~/ :
irregular
If the last letter of a word stem ends in , the gets removed when adding a vowel.
irregular
If the last letter of a word stem ends in , the gets changed to when adding a vowel.
irregular
If the last letter of a word stem ends in , the gets changed to when adding a vowel.
irregular
When adding ~/ or ~/ to the stem of a verb or adjective where the stem ends in , ~
or ~ replaces the in the stem.
The first two follow essentially the same rule. In each case, the stem of the word originally ends
with a consonant. For example:
Therefore, when we have to decide if we add ~ or ~, we much choose ~:
However, each of the respective rules indicates that the placement of a vowel immediately
following the stem causes it to change. The above should be changed to:
When adding ~/ to a verb that ends in , the same rule applies as if you were adding it to
an adjective. For example:
+ ~/ =
+ ~/ =
Remember that the in changes to only when ~/ (or one of its derivatives) is
added to it. When any other vowel is added, changes to .
When adding ~/ to a verb that ends in , the same rule applies as if you were adding it to
an adjective. For example:
+ ~/ =
+ ~/ =
Here is a table showing how ~/ should be added to the stem of a verb from each
respective irregular. Notice that this applies to the , , and irregulars:
Past Tense Addition of ~/
Irregular
Verb
Application
The exact same thing is done for each respective future tense conjugation but with, ~/
replaced with ~/.
Here is a table showing how ~/ should be added to the stem of a verb from each
respective irregular. Notice that this applies to the , , and irregulars and is exactly the
same as the table above except for that ~/ is used instead of ~/:
Future Tense Addition of ~/
Irregular
Word
Application
Here are some example sentences:

irregular:
? = Who is the person that built that house?
= I will build a house
Remember that the future tense conjugation of ~/ is actually just the future ~ .
irregular:
= That person was the first person
who walked from Seoul to Busan
irregular
? = Is there something I can help you with?
is often contracted to in speech.
irregular:
= He is the person who will open the doors
Im not sure when you would say that sentence, but its difficult to think up of a sentence
where I can apply this irregular and make it sound natural. This irregular is often applied when
conjugating to the future tense by adding / to the end of a sentence:
= I will sell apples at the market tomorrow
= The person who made this advertisement did a
really good job
My Favorite Thing:
This is one of the first sentences that people learn whenever they learn any language. In Korean
however, the grammar within this sentence is a little bit difficult (you only just learned it), so that
is why you are just learning about it now.
In Korean, they dont have a word for favorite. Instead, they just use to like most
. You have known how to make these sentences for a long time:
= I like our school
= I like our school most
But you havent yet learned how to specifically say My favorite ____ is
Lets look at adjectives first. These should all be easy to you:
= the biggest thing
= the smallest thing
= the most difficult thing
However, in those sentences, only adjectives are describing the noun. Now that you have learned
how to describe nouns with verbs, you can now say:
= the thing that I like most (which is also my favorite thing)
Notice that it is not . Really, you are not saying my favorite thing
you are saying the thing that I like most. So even though in English we say my, in Korean
you shouldnt use / in place of / in these sentences.
You could take out to simply mean the thing that I like
= the thing that I like
Or change the subject:
= The thing that my friend likes most
Now that you have created the noun of the thing that I like most you can place it in sentences:
= My favorite thing is food
= Food is my favorite thing
You can also replace with any other noun:
= My favorite food is kimchi
= My favorite day is Friday
As I said before, people often dont realize the power of the ~ principle. Now that you can
you can describe nouns with verbs, you can say much more complicated (and natural) sentences.
= My favorite thing is movies
Is that natural? It would probably sound more natural if you were to say my favorite thing is
watching movies or making movies. You learned in Lesson 26 how to make those nouns:
= watching movies
= making movies
= My favorite thing is watching movies
The easiest mistake to make in that sentence is (incorrectly) not changing the latter part of the
sentence to a noun. Many learners of Korean would just say the following:

But that just translates to My favorite thing watches movies. You need to say My favorite
thing is watching movies which requires you to change the second clause of the sentence to a
noun and then add (is).
= My friend is a teacher
= My favorite thing is watching movies
heh, complicated. Thats why I waited until this lesson to teach it to you.
If you specifically want to say that your favorite thing about X is Y you need to use another
grammatical principle. By attaching ~ to a noun in a sentence, you can indicate that
your favorite thing about that particular thing is something. For example:
= My favorite thing about Korea is Korean

food
Not only can you do that, but now that you have learned about the ~ principle, you can
create more complex nouns throughout the sentence. For example, instead of saying the sentence
above, you could say:
= My favorite part about
living in Korea is Korean food
= My
favorite part about living in Korea is eating Korean food every day
Words that seem like verbs but are adjectives

There are a few words that seem a lot like verbs but are actually adjectives. The most common of
these words is , which you have learned how to use in a few different situations.
To indicate that one has something (introduced in Lesson 5). For example:
= I have a pen
= I have a car
To express the present progressive (introduced in Lesson 18). For example:
= My father is sleeping
= The girls are watching a movie now
In both usages above, is an adjective.
Another common word that feels like a verb but is an adjective is , which you learned in
Lesson 17:
= I want to study Korean
= I want to go to Canada
When I first introduced these words to you, I told you that they were adjectives. I also told you
that this pretty much means nothing to you right now, but there will be some times when you
will need to know that these words are adjectives. Well, now you need to know.
Lets look at ~ first.
is an adjective, so you must treat it as any other adjective when describing a noun. This
means that if you want to describe nouns in the present tense using you must add ~/:
= beautiful person
= smart person
= the person (who/that) I want to meet
Examples:
= The person who I want to meet most is
= There isnt anybody who wants to play volleyball

? = Is there anybody who wants to play
basketball during PE class?
= There arent many people who want to register for
this class
= There arent enough people who want to
register for this class
?= Do you want something to eat?
(literally do you have something that you want to eat?)
When you want to use to describe nouns in the past tense, you also must treat it as an
adjective by adding ~ or ~ to it:
= That was what I wanted to say
Dealing with is a little bit more complicated when describing nouns.
As I said earlier, is an adjective when using it in these two ways:
= I have a pen
= I am eating
When using adjectives to describe nouns in the present tense, you know that you should add ~/
to the stem of the adjective. For example:
= beautiful person
= smart person
= the person (who/that) I want to meet
Grammatically it should be correct to do this with as well:
= the pen that I have

= The thing I am eating
But these are incorrect. For whatever reason, when using to describe a noun in the present
tense (even though it is an adjective) you must treat it as a verb. Which means that instead of
adding ~/ to it you must add ~ :
= the pen I have
= The thing I am eating
= There arent any students who are concentrating on
the class
= There are a lot of people who are cancelling their
order
= It is uncomfortable to sit like this
= The person who has the key eventually came
= The government will give money
to the company who is researching that disease
The same thing happens with :
? = Is there anybody who doesnt have a spoon?
? = Is there anybody who doesnt have a pen?
Actually, when speaking a large group of people (for example, a teacher speaking to a group of
students), it is common to ask is there anybody who has (or doesnt have) x? by using this
form without a predicating word. That is, it is common to say:
!? = Does anybody have a pen? (Is there anybody who has a pen)?
!? = Does anybody not have a pen? (Does everybody have a pen)?
There are only a few times in all of the grammar in Korean when using (or ) would be
correct. One of which is when you add / to verb stems to say after I . as you
learned in Lesson 24.
Anyways, what is weird is that if you want to use to describe nouns in the past tense, you
must treat it as an adjective. This means that if you want to describe a noun with in the past
tense you can attach ~/ to it:
= All the people there died
All that is kind of weird, Ill say it one more time step by step:
Adjectives can describe nouns. You know this. You can add ~/ to the stem
of an adjective to describe a noun: . Just like you learned in Lesson 3.
You can also use verbs to describe nouns: like you learned in
Lesson 25.
is an adjective, which means you have to add ~/ to it to describe a

noun:
is also an adjective, but when using to describe a noun in the

present tense, you must treat it as a verb ( ). However, when
describing a noun in the past tense, you should treat as an adjective (
).
Using (and other smaller words) in ~ sentences

One thing that I want to mention before this lesson ends is how to include words like //
/ in sentences. Its hard to describe what I mean without examples (its not really a
concept so I better show you some examples.)
In English, we could say:
The person who I met. Translated into Korean would be easy:
However, in English, we could also say something like that person I met. Almost the same
meaning, but not exactly the same. If you were to translate that directly, it would come out like
this:

But in Korean, they always place those small words that can go before nouns (////
) immediately before nouns. So, instead of saying:
you should say:

Its hard to translate some of these sentences into Korean. Look at next example. You will
probably be able to understand it completely, but translating it to English is very difficult:

It would translate to something like my movie that the teacher watched but that sounds a little
bit unnatural in English. When these sentences come up, you should realize that the noun being
described ( movie) is being described by two different things:
= my movie, and
= the movie that the teacher watched
Introduction
Changing Verbs to Nouns ~
Practical Uses for ~
~
~
Actual Words
Making Lists
Buttons
Changing Verbs/Adjectives to Nouns ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= a fight
= happiness/gladness
= help
= step
= death
= a feeling
= administration
= zone/area
= pedestrian
= seat
= dictionary
= language
= the Korean language
= laborer
= musician
= capabilities
= data
= products
= business
= emotion
= uncooked rice
= broadcast
= plate
= role
= information
= shape
= village/town
= legal
= illegal
= effects
= moment/second
Verbs:
= expand/enlarge
= search for/browse/surf the net
= steal
= enjoy oneself
= change
= stick/stamp/label/attach
= stare
= gather/congregate
= give birth
= cross over/climb over
= park (a car)
= protect
= express
Passive Verbs:
= to be stuck

= modern times
= directly (heard it from her directly)
= for oneself/by oneself
Introduction
In the past few lessons, you have learned a lot about adding ~ (or / for past tense and /
for future tense) to verb stems to turn them into descriptive words that can describe nouns.
One more time, for example:
= to eat rice
= the person who eats rice
= to go fast
= the place I am going to fast
A lot of times, the noun following the descriptive verb is , which allows an entire sentence to
be turned into a noun:
= I bring apples is a sentence
is the same sentence as above, but in noun form. This noun can now
be placed in other sentences just like other nouns:
= My girlfriend wanted me to bring
apples
So thats what you already know. What you dont know is that in addition to the ~
principle, there are other ways that you can modify verbs to change them into nouns. We will
look at this today.
Changing Verbs to Nouns ~
Adding ~ to the stem of a verb changes that verb into a noun. The noun can technically be
used like any other noun:
= to go
= the noun form of to go
= to read
= the noun form of to read
= to eat
= the noun form of to eat
So the million dollar question is, what is the difference between ~ and ~?
Well, first, notice exactly what ~ is. Adding ~ to a verb stem allows you to describe
nouns (, , , etc). Adding ~ to a verb stem does not allow you to describe
anything. It just turns verbs into nouns.
But, turning verbs into nouns is one of the functions of ~ . Remember, there are two main
functions of ~ :
1) To change verbs into things that can describe nouns:
= the person who is eating rice
2) To change a clause into a noun
= the noun form of to bring apples bringing apples
Adding ~ is essentially the same as the second function described above. That is, you can use
~ to turn a clause into a noun but you cannot use ~ to describe nouns. So this:
and essentially have the same meaning, being
the noun form of to bring apples.
Which means you can use ~ in sentences like:
= My girlfriend wants me to bring apples
Technically you can say it that way, but I very rarely hear verbs turned into nouns using ~ in
that way. If you ask a Korean person, they will say that sentence sounds fine, but somebody like
me who analyzes grammar will notice that it is not used as much as
.
However, there are certain times when using ~ is more natural than (or equally as natural as)
using ~ . Lets look at these.
.
Practical Uses for ~

As I said, it is not very common to use ~ over ~ in most situations. However, in some
situations it is okay (or even preferred).
~
One of the most common uses of ~ comes before (to start). This is a really good
grammar construction that you can use in a lot of situations to say start to ____
= to start to eat
= I already started to eat
= I will start learning Korean next month
Strangely, when you want to say that you stop something, it is more common to use the ~
form:
= I will start learning Korean next month
= I will stop learning Korean next month
~
It is also very common to put verbs before ~ to indicate that you dont want to do
something. Literally, this translates to I dont like _____
= I dont want to eat
= I dont want to go
= I dont want to wash the rice
It is possible to use this with the word (the opposite of ), however, it is not that
common in Korean. Instead, it sounds more natural to use ~ .
Actual Words
There are also a handful of words where it is common to use the ~ form as an actual word.
For example, if you are going for a run, I could use the word
= I will go for a run
The word for skipping (jump-rope skipping) is the word (rope) combined with the word
(going over) with ~:
= Im bad at skipping
When writing a language test, there will often be many sections. For example, there might be a
writing section, a reading section and a listening section:
Writing =
Reading =
Listening =
Heres an example of these actually being used in a sentence:
Person 1: ?
Person 2: . .
Person 1: How was the exam?
Person 2: The writing and listening (parts) were really hard. But the reading (part) was really
easy.
Making Lists
When making a list of things that you are going to do, it is also common to end the phrase by
using ~. This essentially makes the entire phrase a noun, which is similar to what we do in
English. For example, if I made a to-do list, I could write:
= Make coffee
= Organize my desk
= Clean my room
= Buy rice
= Look for data on the internet
Another example; if I made a list of goals for myself for the year, I could write:
= Enjoy every day
= Clean the house every day
= Do my homework every day
= Show my emotions
= Read books every day
= Register at a gym (to exercise)
Buttons
On a computer, if you wanted to zoom in on a picture, you would press the zoom button. In
Korean, the verb zoom is . On Korean computers, they usually dont put verbs on
buttons on the screen instead they put the noun form of the verb. For ~ verbs, the noun
form is easy to find. The noun form of is . Simple.
But, what is the noun form of ? (to see)
What about ? (to open)
If you wanted to see something on a Korean screen, or click on the view button at the top of
every screen, you would have to press .
If you wanted to open something, you could press the button
Want to close something? Press .
Want to search? You might see a button or which is the noun form of
also meaning search/find.
Want to send an e-mail? You would have to press
There are a lot of applications for ~, they just might not seem apparent at the moment. As you
learn more and more Korean grammar, you will see that there will be more applications where
you can use ~. In later lessons, you will see ~ paired up with other grammatical principals.
Up to now, the applications you should be aware of are:
1) Turning any verb into a noun: ,
2) Put before :
3) Put before :
4) Making Lists:
5) On buttons:
Before we go any further, lets look at another way you can turn verbs (or even adjectives) into
nouns.
Changing Verbs/Adjectives to Nouns ~/

Adding / to verbs or adjectives to turn them into noun. get added to stems ending in a
vowel, and gets added after stems that end in a consonant.
This form can be used to change entire sentences into noun forms, just like with ~ :
= I knew you were eating
sounds wrong to a Korean person, but would look correct to a
foreign learner of Korean
= I knew you were eating
Like I said earlier. You can use / to turn entire sentences into nouns, but this is rarely done
in speech. It is done much more commonly in books/poems (for whatever reason).
The main usage of / is to turn single words (verbs or adjectives) into nouns, and not full
sentences. Some of these you may have already come across:
= to fight
= a fight
= to dream
= a dream
= to be sore/sick
= pain
= to be happy/glad
= happiness/gladness
= to help
= help
= to die
= death
= to walk
= a step
= to feel
= a feeling
Adding / to verbs/adjectives is usually done to words that dont end in . The reason for
this is because there is already a very simple way to make a verb/adjective a noun by
removing the from the rest of the word ( = to explain = an explanation).
These noun form words can then be added to sentences as usual:
= I won in a fight with my brother
= I didnt forget the death of my father
In Lesson 23, you learned about the word . ~/ is commonly added to this word
when somebody asks a question and you just say yeah, of course. This is basically the same as
saying yes, but it would be more like Yes, it is like that. For example:
? = Do you exercise every day?
= Yes (it is like that)
?
= Yes (it is like that)
Notice that you can add to make the response formal. In informal situations, this can be
removed.
This is one of the usages of . actually has other usages, but these are actually a
contraction of a grammatical principal that you have learned yet, so I will not introduce you to
these here.
Vocabulary
Introduction
A Clause of Uncertainty:
with Adjectives
If or not
Attaching ~ to ~
I Have Been Doing X for Y: ~/ Y
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= delivery
= price
= allowance
= part-time job
= light
= poet
= subject
= group
= fare/price
= position/location
= the coast
= family
= materials, ingredients
= freedom
= responsibility
= enter and exit
= surgery/operation
= training
= emergency
= steps, stairs, staircase
= tradition, culture, heritage
= a subway line
= a period of time
Verbs:
= take out/remove something
= convey, deliver
= set
= reduce, decrease
= to bring a person (coming)
= to bring a person (going)
= obstruct, block
= allow, permit
= throw away
= forget
= earn
= raise (a child, pet), to cultivate (a plant)
= to act carefully
= manage, administer
Passive Verbs:
= to be decreased/diminished
= to be broke, cracked, smashed
Adjectives:
= chilly
= bright
= thirsty
= detailed, concrete, specific
Introduction
Up to now, you have learned a lot (probably too much!) about using ~ (or one of its
derivatives) with a clause to describe an upcoming noun. For example:
= the place I am going
= the person I met
= the food I will eat
In this lesson, you will learn about adding ~ to indicate that the preceding clause is a guess
or something uncertain. Lets get started.
A Clause of Uncertainty: ~
I didnt know what title to give to ~, but I came up with the clause of uncertainty which
I feel describes it well. By placing ~ at the end of a clause, you can indicate that the clause
is some sort of guess, question or uncertainty.
A common situation where there is uncertainty is when there is a question word in a sentence.
For example:

If we break that sentence down into more simple pieces, we get:
() = I dont know (-)
What dont you know? You dont know the noun within the brackets:
( )
So the sentence reads:
= I dont know where my friend is going

However, because is uncertain, ~ should be added to the clause
instead of ~ . For example:
It is also worth pointing out here that the future tense ~ is commonly added to in
these types of sentences. When is used like this (as ), it is does not have a
future tense meaning. Rather, it is just a common (and slightly more polite) way to say that one
does not know something. Therefore, it would be more common to see the sentence above
written/spoken as:
You will continue to see used instead of a present tense conjugation of in
the rest of this lesson and throughout your Korean studies.
By default, if a clause contains a question word (, , , , , etc) ~ is
usually added due to the uncertainty that it contains. For example:
= I dont know who mom is eating with
= I dont know what mom is eating
= I dont know where mom is eating
= I dont know why mom is eating
However, a question word does not need to be included in order to use ~. All that is needed
is that there is uncertainty in the sentence. When there is no question word in a sentence that
includes ~ the English word if is usually used. For example:
= I dont know if mom is eating now
Below are more examples. Also notice that the final word of the sentence does not need to be
. Any verb or adjective that makes sense along with the preceding uncertain clause can be
used. For example:

= I asked him why he is bringing that person

= We found where the emergency exit is

= I asked how to get to the beach/coast

= I dont know what ingredients mom is using

= I dont know why the government is decreasing the budget for foreign teachers

= Students dont know how much money teachers earn
()
= I dont remember which university that student attends
Past tense:
The same concept can be used to indicate a guess, question or uncertainty in the past tense. In
order to express this, ~/ should be added to the verb at the end of the uncertain clause,
followed by ~. For example:
= I dont know why mom ate
= I dont know what mom ate
= I dont know when mom ate
= I dont know where mom ate
= I dont know if mom ate
The form above (using ~/) is officially correct in Korean. However, in speech, it is very
common to hear ~/ being used instead. For example:
= I dont know why mom ate
= I dont know what mom ate
= I dont know when mom ate
= I dont know where mom ate
= I dont know if mom ate
There really isnt any difference between the two sets of sentences, especially in speech. Both
sets of sentences sound natural to a Korean speaker. However, the correct grammatical form is to
use ~/, and the use of ~/ is more used in spoken Korean.
Other examples:
= I dont remember when I threw away that shirt
= I forget where I put my keys
= I dont know when we set it
= I dont remember what that person told me
(conveyed to me)
Future tense:
The same concept can be used to indicate a guess, question or uncertainty in the future tense. In
order to express this, ~/ should be added to the verb at the end of the uncertain clause,
followed by ~. For example:
= I dont know when the delivery will come
= I dont know how much allowance I should give
= I dont know if it will rain in the afternoon
= It is not certain if I will get surgery
= I dont know if I will go to the park tomorrow
= I dont know if I will see a movie tomorrow
When the uncertain clause doesnt have a question word in it, it is common to use the word
might in the English translation. For example
= It might rain in the afternoon tomorrow
= I might get surgery
= I might go to the park tomorrow
= I might see a movie tomorrow
English speakers are often confused about how the same Korean sentence can seemingly
translate to different things in English. My answer is: They dont translate to different things. The
Korean usage of ~/ just indicates that something may or may not happen. Both
translations above (I dont know if and might) indicate that something may or may not
happen. Remember that sometimes it is difficult to translate a Korean sentence perfectly into
English. As such, I always suggest that you understand the general meaning of the Korean
sentence, and try to focus less on the given English translations. The nuance of using ~/
can translate to many things in English, all which (as a result of being a completely
different language) cannot perfectly describe this nuance.
Using ~ with Adjectives

It is also possible to attach ~ to an uncertain clause that is predicated by an adjective.
However, instead of adding ~, ~/ should be added. Notice that the difference in ~
and ~/ is the same as the difference when attaching ~ or ~/ to verbs and
adjectives to describe an upcoming noun. For example:

Below are some examples of ~/ being used with adjectives:
= I dont know if the thing that I gave is good
= I dont know if this light is bright enough
= I dont know if the job I found is good
= I dont know if I brought enough materials
= I dont know if I want to raise a puppy
= I dont know how long that book is
To use this form with adjectives in the past or future tenses, you can add the same thing as with
verbs. For example:
= I didnt realize that era was so long
= I dont know if that work will be difficult
= I dont know if tomorrows weather will be chilly
If or not
In all of the above examples, only one situation is indicated in the sentence. It is possible to
indicate more than one situation by using more than one verb or adjective connected to ~ in
the sentence. The simplest way to do this is to include the opposite situation, followed by ~.
For example:
= I dont know if I will see a movie tomorrow or not

= It is not certain if I will get surgery or not
= I dont know if he was listening to me or
not
= I dont know if mom ate or not
= I dont know if the job I found is
good or not
When you are dealing with non- verbs (like ), you need to write out the verb again to
indicate I dont know if mom ate or not. However, when dealing with verbs, the sentence
can usually be shortened by eliminating the word before ~ when you say the verb the
second time. For example, instead of saying:

You could just say:
= I dont know if mom studied or not
Remember that Korean people love shortening their sentences, and taking out the redundant
the second time around is more natural in Korean.
In all of the above examples, two possibilities are listed, and the speaker is indicating that he/she
doesnt know which one will happen amongst the two. The examples above simply use the
positive and negative outcomes of the same situation. It is also possible to list two (or more)
outcomes that are unrelated to each other. For example:

= I dont know if I will see a movie or go to the park tomorrow

= I dont know if the (part-time) job I found is good or bad

= It is not certain if I will get surgery or just treat it with medicine
You can also use ~ to form a question. For example, if you are asking somebody if they
know how to do something. The most common word that finished the sentence would be
For example, you can say:
? = Do you know how to get to Seoul?
? = Do you know how to pronounce that word?
? = Do you know why that student threw out his book?
? = Do you know how to block the water?
I call clauses with ~ clauses of uncertainty, but that it just a name I gave it because it
describes it well it most situations. There are times when represents something certain. For
example, the answers to those questions would be:
= I know how to get to Seoul
= I know how to pronounce that word
= I know why that student threw out his book
In those examples, technically doesnt represent something uncertain. so why do we use
? In these cases, the use of the question word in the sentence makes it more natural to use
as the noun instead of .
Also note that there is another way to say that one knows how to do something (which is more
based on ability than knowing something). This other way is discussed in Lesson 85.
Attaching ~ to ~
It is common to find ~ attached to ~. Adding ~ to ~ can have two meanings:
1) To have the too or also or either meaning that ~ usually has. For example:
= I ate rice too
= I also ate rice
= I didnt eat rice either
This first meaning of ~ will be discussed in a later lesson. This usage is more about the use of
~ and not really related to the usage of ~. I will just show you one example sentence so you
can understand what I mean:
= You dont even know how to open the door
Lets focus on the more ambiguous meaning of ~, which will be talked about in #2:
2) To have very little meaning or purpose in a sentence. Look at the two sentences below:
= It might rain tomorrow
Assuming ~ isnt being added to have the meaning described in #1 above (which is possible),
the use of ~ does not really change the sentence. Same goes for these two sentences:
For seven years, Ive been curious about the specific nuance that ~ adds to these types of
sentences (again, assuming that ~ is not the ~ from #1 above). All of my research, all of my
studying, and all of my exposure to the language has lead me to believe that they are essentially
the same. Ive always thought to myself they cant be exactly the same the ~ must have
some purpose right?
Recently, I had discussions with many people to try to better understand this nuance. I want to
show you conversations I had with two people because I think it will not only help you
understand how subtle this difference is, but it will also show you that even Korean people dont
really know what the difference is.
My first conversation was with a Korean person who is a fluent English speaker. Below is how
our conversation went.
Me: Explain the difference in nuance that you feel between these two sentences:
Her: The use of ~ makes it seem like you dont know if it will happen or not. Its possible that
it will happen, but it is also possible that it wont happen.
Me: But isnt that sort of implied in the first sentence as well?
Her: Technically yes, but its just two different ways to say the same meaning. It would be like
saying I dont know if it will rain tomorrow or not and It might rain tomorrow.
Me: I feel like that first sentence that you just said would be better written as
.
Her: Ah, yes. I feel like these two sentences mean exactly the same thing:

.
I feel like the use of ~ adds that extra nuance that something might happen or not.
After speaking with that person, I discussed this problem with a teacher who teaches Korean
grammar to Korean high school students. I can only assume that her understanding of Korean
grammar is excellent, although sometimes it is hard for somebody to understand the grammar of
their own language. Either way, she cannot speak English and our entire conversation was in
Korean. This is how it went:
Me: Explain the difference in nuance that you feel between these three sentences:

Her: The first two sentences are identical. In the third one, you are indicating the two
possibilities of it might rain or it might not rain.
Me: I just talked with another Korean person, and she said that the use of ~ in the second
sentence sort of implies those two possibilities as well. She said that the second and third
sentences had the same meaning. What do you think about that?
Her: I dont feel that way when I hear it. I feel the first two are the same, and the third one is
listing more possibilities.
So here I had two Korean people one with excellent English and the other with a lot of Korean
grammar knowledge, and they gave me opposing answers. My conclusion from this and all of
my studying, researching and exposure to the language is:
~/ and
~/
Have the same, or effectively the same meaning.
Let me take a minute to explain when you would use ~ in this case.
~ is added to uncertain clauses that are conjugated in the future tense to express ones
uncertainty of if something will happen in the future (or not). You will typically not see ~
added to an uncertain clause in the past or present tense unless it is being used to have the
meaning as discussed in #1 above.
~ is not added to uncertain clauses where there is a question word in the clause. For example,
it would be unnatural to say something like this:

This rule leads me to believe that the purpose of ~ is somewhat closer to having the if or
not meaning as it was described by the English speaking Korean person in our conversation.
Just like how adding or not would be unnatural to add to the following English sentence, it
would be unnatural to add ~ to its Korean translation:
= I dont know when it will rain or not
Again, this usage is not the usage of ~ from #1 above. In that usage, ~ can be added to ~
, ~/ or ~/ to have the meaning that ~ usually possesses when it is added to
nouns. It can also be added to uncertain clauses that have question words. I will discuss this
meaning in a future lesson.
Wow. All of that work to understand one syllable.
Were not done yet. That syllable () has another meaning one that is easier to dissect.
I have been doing X for Y

Up to this point, this lesson has explained the meaning of ~ as a grammatical principle that
is attached to its previous clause. For example:
When ~ is added to , notice that there is no space between , ~ or . In this
usage, ~ is not a noun but instead just a part of a larger grammatical principle that can be
attached to verbs or adjectives.
has another meaning, and it is completely unrelated to the meaning of ~ that was described
earlier in this lesson. I would like to talk about this other meaning in this lesson as well.
In this other meaning, you will see ~ used after a verb with ~/ attached to the verb.
Notice that ~/ is the same addition that is added to verbs in the past tense of ~
For example, you will see:
+ / =
+ /
I want to take a moment to explain what you are seeing here.
Remember that ~/ (just like ~ in the present tense and ~/ in the future tense) is added
to verbs when they will describe an upcoming noun. For example:
= The food we ate
= The food we eat
= The food we will eat
In this same respect, is also a noun. However, this is the type of noun that I like to call a
pseudo-noun. A pseudo-noun is a noun (like above) that can replace (as the noun) in the ~
principle. However, these pseudo-nouns only have meaning in specific sentences and
cannot be applied to other situations.
You will eventually learn more pseudo-nouns in your Korean studies. Below are some of the
pseudo-nouns that you will come across shortly:
in ~/ | Introduced in Lesson 32
(For example: = Ive done that)
For example: = I can do that)
(For example: = I know how to do that)
Let me explain the situation where you can use the pseudo-noun .
Again, when placed after a verb with ~/ attached:

and when followed by an indication of time:
6
5
and then followed by (usually in the past tense):
6
5
You can use in these constructions to indicate how long you have been doing something.
You can only say this when you are still doing the action that describes . For example, if I
use the constructions above I can say:
6 = I have been going out with my girlfriend for 6 months
5 = I have been eating for 5 minutes
You cannot use this to say how long you had been doing something. If you want to say
something like that, you would have to simply say I did X for Y amount of time. For example:
2 = I ate for two hours

English speakers will quickly point out that I ate for two hours and I had eaten for two
hours do not have exactly the same meanings. Korean people usually dont distinguish between
these two meanings in their sentences and instead rely on context to make the specific meaning
clear.
Many more examples using :
25 = I have been living in Korea for 25 years
10 = I have been raising a dog for 10 years
5 = That group has been receiving training for 5 hours
2 = Ive had this (part-time) job for 2 weeks
2 = I have been in Korea for 2 years
Notice in this last example that this literally translates to I have been coming to Korea for 2
years but it actually means I have been in Korea for 2 years. When indicating how long you
have been at a location, it is common to use . You should remember that in these cases the
speaker is not referring to the actual act of coming but rather how long it has been since
arriving at the location.
It is also possible to use this form to indicate how long it has been since youve last done
something. To do this, you use the negative form of the verb which (when combined with )
indicates that one still hasnt done the action since the specified time. For example:
2 = We havent met in 2 weeks
9 = I havent eaten in 9 hours
1 = I havent received (an) allowance in a year
You can also use this same form to ask questions to people about how long they have been doing
something by using or words like :
? = How long have you been studying Korean?
? = Have you been exercising for a long time?
It is common to use the construction to indicate that you havent been doing
something for very long. For example
= I havent been living in Seoul for very long
= I havent been working at our school for very
long
Vocabulary
Introduction
Using ~ with
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= smile
= delivery
= ring
= lips
= art
= necklace
= earrings
= bathing suit
= snacks
= goal
= forest
= pocket
= blackboard/chalkboard
= strawberry
= lettuce
= construction
= class
= religion
= city hall
Verbs:
= get along with
= tell
= cherish, to save
= leave something
= shave
= lend
= shower
= cover
= disappear
= follow
= to be followed
= go pass/go by
= raise/train/develop
= hold back/endure
= choose
Passive Verbs:
= to be written on
Adjectives:
= envious
= positive
= negative
= a certain way/method
= same age
= earlier
= tightly
Introduction
I keep saying this, but you have learned a lot about using the ~ principle. Dont think that
youre out of the woods yet because there is still a lot to know. In this lesson, you will learn
how to use ~ with .
Lets get started.
.
Using ~ with
Youve learned a lot about how to add ~ to any verb (and technically adjectives as well by
using ~/ ), but you have yet to learn about how to add it to .
You are probably asking yourself: When would I ever want to add ~ to ?
(I just want to point out that this is actually the same thing as adding ~ to ~ words,
which you learned in Lesson 16.)
Lets remember what ~ does:
If you want to just say a noun, you can just say a noun. For example:
Person =
If you want to describe that noun, you can use adjectives:
= smart person
Or verbs:
= the person who is eating
But now think about this for a second what if you want to describe a noun with a noun?
Look at the difference (or similarities) between the three following sentences:
= the smart person (or person who is smart)
_____________= the person who is a teacher
How would you do that? Remember that is conjugated as an adjective. Using the ~
principle with is really no different than adding ~/ to an adjective to describe an
upcoming noun. Because is conjugated as an adjective, the following would not be correct:

Instead, gets conjugated as ~. For example:
[] = People who[se jobs] are teachers are popular
(It sounds slightly more natural to say in this case instead of just
. Remember here that the entire clause before ~ is describing the
upcoming noun. In this case, the clause is which would unnaturally
translate to something like the job is a teacher. However, when put in the place of describing
an upcoming noun, it can translate to = people whose jobs are
teachers. At any rate, try not to worry about the use of (as I realize it might be difficult)
in that sentence and focus more on the big picture of what adding ~ to accomplishes.
The thing is, as you can see with my big blurb above, this may not be as simple as it should be.
Most of the time, there would be a better way using another word or something to accomplish
the same sentence. For example, in the sentence above

, is the meaning not exactly the same (in English) if we just say Teachers are popular?
For example:
= Teachers are popular
Here, we are accomplishing the same thing but dont need to use as a descriptor in the
sentence.
Another great example would be if you wanted to say something like:
Students who are girls wear skirts
That would translate to something like:

But, that sentence sounds ridiculous (in both English and Korean). In Korean, it would sound
much better if you just used the word , which literally means female students. For
example:
= female students wear skirts
(I would much rather say female students must wear skirts, but you havent learned how to do
that yet, and I try not to use examples that use a concept you havent learned)
Despite this, there will be some times where you will find the need for using ~ with .
Some times this happens when you come across a noun that has the feeling of an adjective. For
example, the word literally means rich person. In English, if we wanted to say that
person is rich, the word rich acts as an adjective. However, in Korean, they would say:
= That person is (a) rich (person)
Here, acts as a noun, and the whole sentence is predicated by . In this case, you might
find it useful to use + ~ to describe an upcoming noun. For example:
= My friend boasted about/was showing off his rich
father
Another example using the word which, as a noun, translates to illegal:
= Seulgi is doing something illegal
It is also common to see this form attached to somebodys job title to describe their name. Sort of
like saying He is Rob, the CEO of Samsung. For example:
Titanic Leonardo Dicaprio = Leonardo Dicaprio, who is an actor in
Titanic is handsome
At this point, you might be saying all of this sounds really complicated and I cant even really
understand when I would use this form. I agree with you, this looks complicated. The thing is,
the foundation of many other (more complicated) grammatical principles have ~
incorporated within them. These grammatical principles, in addition to being able to attach to
verbs and adjectives, are able to attach to as well.
Here are some other sentences using other grammatical principles that you have not learned yet.
Im including these just so you can see that attaching ~ to is important to your Korean
studies as you progress:
= That person acted like a poor person
( is introduced in Lesson 67)
= He runs as well as a soccer athlete/player
= I didnt know that person is your father
In each case above, ~ is attached to to form . You can see in each example that
is used to describe an upcoming noun. There are many more examples of how can be used
to describe an upcoming noun like this, but I dont need to include them all here, as you will
learn about them as they become important.
~ is also added to in this same way. Again, because acts as an adjective ~/
should be added to it ( + / will always be ~). For example:
= I dont know if that person is a teacher
= I dont know if that person is a teacher or not
= I didnt know that we were the same age
? = How do you know that this is my mothers
necklace?
Often times is attached to a question word to predicate a sentence. In this same sense, you
will often see ~ attached to question words. For example:
Note that the pairs of sentences below are not dialogues. I organized them this way to show you
the similar format that you can see between using ~ and using to predicate a sentence.
? = Where is the emergency exit?
= I dont know where the emergency exit is
? = What time is it now?
= I dont know what time it is now
? = What is your goal?
? = Do you know what my goal is?
? = Who is the manager of this job?
? = Do you know who the manager of this job is?
? = How much is this?
= I dont know how much the price is
It is also possible, as it is with attaching ~ to a verb or ~/ to an adjective, to turn an
entire clause into a noun, and then predicate the sentence using a verb. Just like how you learned
how to write this sentence in Lesson 26:
I am only including the brackets below to show you that we are still using the same basic
sentences of subject object verb.
() = I want apples
( ) = I want my friend to bring apples
You can do the same thing but with here:
( ) = I realized that I didnt bring my keys
( ) = I realized that my actions (what I did) is/was a mistake
Introduction
With the intention of doing: ~()
~()
To Come/Go for the purpose of: ~()
~/
The Noun of Experience:
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= miracle
= vehicles
= audience
= contact
= dentist
= psychiatrist
= performance, show, concert
= work to do for business
= change room
= ticket
= soy sauce
= hard time/hard life
= appointment/reservation
= hand phone
= meaning
= sale
= resume/c.v.
= secretary
= celebrity
= exit (way out)
= evaluation/assessment
= event/function
Verbs:
= to order a person to do smth
= pull out/extract
= volunteer for/apply for
= putting on shoes/socks
= putting shoes/socks on smbdy
= pour/fill a glass, etc.
= fill (fill a bag/box) w/ something
= to empty/drain (verb)
= to break contact/to cut off
= break up
= save a life/spare from dying

= chop/slice/dice
= purchase in advance
= make a judgment/decision
= solve/resolve a problem
= searching for worker/job
= control
Passive Verbs:
= to be cut off
= to be congested
Adjectives:
= weak
= detailed
= to be drunk
= to be bored
= full
= regular/usual day (weekday)
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about how to use ~ and ~ in sentences to have the meaning
of for the purpose of/in order to. You will also learn how to add ~/ to verbs to have
the meaning of attempt/try to, which is often used with the noun . Lets get started.
With the intention of doing: ~()

Adding ~() to the stem of the verb gives it the meaning of with the intention of or in
order to. ~ gets added to stems ending in a vowel and ~ gets added to stems ending
in a consonant. For example:
With the intention of going outside/in order to go outside

With the intention of saving that person/in order to save that person
The constructions we have created above are not full sentences they are just clauses that we
can put into sentences. We can create full sentences by adding a clause to the end of them. For
example:
= I did my homework fast in order to go out early
= I sat down for a minute in order to put on my shoe
The translation of to, so that, or with the intention are also usually appropriate, as they all
describe the same thing. For example:
= I did my homework fast so that I could go out early
= I did my homework fast to go out early
= I did my homework fast with the intention of going
out early
Here are many more examples:
= I called the police officer in order to save that
person
= I am studying hard to become a
psychiatrist
= In order to solve that problem, we met for a
little bit
2 = In order to understand that meaning, I read the book
twice
= In order to evaluate the students, they will do
an exam tomorrow

= I worked hard/suffered in order to teach that much content to the students

= I submitted my resume to that company with the intention of applying for that job

= I submitted my resume to that company with the intention of applying for that job
You can specifically use ~() at the end of a sentence when the remainder of that sentence
can be assumed. When used like this, it typically indicates what the speaker is just about to do. It
is usually used in response to a question. For example:
? = Have you gone to the store?/Did you go to the store?
~ = No, but Im going right now/Im just about to go
? = Have you finished the work/Did you finish the work?
= Im doing it right now/Im just about to do it/finish it
Notice that these constructions look like incomplete sentences because ~() is usually used
between clauses (as you can see in the examples provided earlier in the lesson), and not to end a
sentence. However, the language has evolved to allow the above constructions to be correct. Also
notice that you can add the honorific to () when used at the end of a sentence to
make the sentence more formal. You will learn many other grammatical principles throughout
your Korean studies that typically connect two clauses, but can be used at the end of a sentence
like this if the context allows for it. In most of these cases, it is acceptable to attach to make
it polite, even though it is not an actual conjugated word.
The clauses that you can add after ~() are, for all intents and purposes, endless as long as
the situation makes sense. However, one verb that is very commonly used after ~() is
, which means to put effort into. We will talk about this next.
To try to: ~
If you want to say I try to ___ you can use the verb after ~(). For example:
= I try to meet that friend every weekend
= I am trying to learn Korean
itself means to try/put effort into something. So literally, the sentences means
In order to meet that friend every weekend, I try, and
In order to learn Korean, I am trying
But neither of those sentences (in English) sound natural. It is more natural to just say I try
You could also add this to a long line of other words. Its hard to explain, and you would never
really need to say something like this, but understanding it will help you with grammar (a little
bit). When I first started learning things like this, I always asked how I would say I think I want
to start to try to learn Korean. Perfect sentence, but nobody would ever really say anything that
ridiculous. You know everything in that sentence except I think, so with what you learned
today, you should know how to say I want to start to try to learn Korean:
= I learn Korean
= I try to learn Korean
= I start to try to learn Korean
= I want to start to try to learn Korean
Heh, like I said saying something that complex is unnecessary, but understanding it is
always good grammar practice.
To Come/Go to ~()
The clause connector ~() is very similar to ~(), but is specifically used when one is
going to or coming from a place in order to do something. To distinguish it from the
sentences earlier, these two would not be appropriate:
= I did my homework fast in order to go out early
= I sat down for a minute in order to put on my shoe
Instead, ~() should be used when one is going to or coming from a place in order to do
something. This usually means that the predicating verb of the whole sentence should be either
or , but other variations of those verbs are also acceptable (for example: , to
go down; , to come down; , to go in; , to come in). Here are some
examples:
= I came (here) to meet my friend

= Im going to school to study
= I am going to the theater to buy the tickets (in advance)
= I went to the event to see that celebrity
= I came to apply for that job
= He went to the change-room to change his clothes
= I want to go out to see a movie
As you saw before, you cannot use ~() instead of ~(). That is, while this sentence is
okay:

The following sentence is not correct because it does not use , , or a similar come/go
verb:

However, the opposite can be done. That is, ~() can be used instead of ~(). For
example, all of the sentences below are okay:

In Lesson 13, you learned about adding ~/ to nouns to have the meaning for. For
example:
() = I bought flowers for my girlfriend
You can also use to say that you do something for (the purpose of) a verb. To do this,
you attach ~ to a verb, just like you did with ~() or ~(). For example:
= I came here to meet a friend
It is important to notice that in all of these cases the tense is indicated in the final clause of the
sentence. That is no indication of tense is to be made before ~ /~()/~(). For
example, notice how the tense in indicates in the final clause of the following sentences:
= I went to school to meet a friend
= I am going to school to meet a friend
= I will go to school to meet a friend
= I went to the event to see the performance
= I am going to the event to see the performance
= I will go to the event to see the performance
Before we finish this lesson, lets look at another grammatical principal that is often translated
similarly to the ones above.
To attempt: ~/
Adding ~/ to the stem of a verb gives it the meaning of to attempt/try. The
translations to English are very similar if not identical to ~()/~()/~ but the
meanings are very different. Notice the similarities in the English translations of the following
sentences:
= I tried to eat rice
= I tried to eat (the) rice
I would like to describe the meaning of ~/ by distinguishing it from the use of try in
the translation of ~()/()/ .

Means that you tried to eat rice in the sense that you put effort into eating. A less ambiguous (but
less natural) translation would be I put effort into eating the rice.

Means that you tried rice, similar to the meaning that you tried something out. This meaning is
not related to the effort of eating the rice, but instead the experience of the test or trial or
attempt of trying the rice. Another good way to translate that sentence would be to say I gave
the rice a try.
It is a little bit confusing at first because the best translations of both sentences above is to use
try, which can be very ambiguous. In my examples below, I prefer to use the simple translation
of try when using ~/ because it is usually the most natural way to express that
meaning. When reading the English translations below, keep in mind that the usage of try is
not related to effort, but instead related to a trial/test/attempt. Lets look at some examples:
? = Did you try the food mom cooked?
= In order to get married, I tried meeting a lot of men
= I tried on the shoes
= I tried contacting an old friend
= I tried on that shirt in the change room
= I will look for the emergency exit
= I tried that work for the first time
= I am going to try to apply to that company
= I tried giving my resume to the secretary
who works at that office
One of the most common usages of ~/ is when you are telling somebody to do
something. In essence, telling somebody to try/attempt something. I have yet to teach you
about the imperative mood (this will be discussed in Lesson 40), so you wont understand these
example sentences completely. Regardless, examine the following example sentences to try to
understand how ~/ is being used.
!! = Check that! (Try checking that!)
! = Eat this! (Try eating this!)
= Come here (Try coming here)
= Sit down (Try sitting down)
= Open the door (Try opening the door)
= Go first (Try going first)
= Look at this (Try looking at this)
= Eat this (Try eating this)
= Drink this tea (Try drinking this tea)
Another common usage of the ~/ grammatical form is used in conjunction with the
pseudo-noun , which we will talk about next.
The Noun of Experience:

In Lesson 30, you learned about the pseudo-noun . For example:
5 = I have been eating for 5 minutes
In that lesson, you learned that is one of a handful of nouns that have no meaning when used
on their own. However, when used in connection with a describing verb or adjective, they have a
special meaning.
is another one of these nouns which cannot be used on its own. However, if you add ~/
to a verb stem and place after ~/, has the meaning of experience. Notice that ~/
is the same addition that is added to verbs when the past-tense form of ~ is added.
So, lets go through this step by step. First, you need a verb:
Add ~/ to the verb stem. ~ gets added to words ending in a consonant,

~ gets added directly to words ending in a vowel: So we get:
Add :
If I were to say:

It would mean the experience of eating kimchi. Remember that is a noun that means
experience when used this way.
But, you cant end sentences with nouns, so you need to finish the sentence with or to
mean to have the experience of eating kimchi or to not have the experience of eating kimchi.
For example:
= I dont have the experience of eating kimchi
which is translated naturally to I have never eaten kimchi
= I have never gone/been there/I havent been there
= I have never met that girl/I havent met that girl
= I have never met anybody famous
= I have never done this type of work before
= I have never seen a performance like this on a weekday
? = Have you seen that movie?
Because refers to an experience, it is common to attach ~/ to the preceding verb to
indicate that the particular experience was tried/attempted.
= I have never been there (tried going there)
= I have never met that girl (tried meeting her)
= I have never (tried going to) been to the dentist
= I have never tried making a resume before
? = Have you tried seeing that that movie?
Notice that even in the final example, the word (to see/watch) is not the same as the in
the ~/ grammatical principle. Therefore, it is not unnatural to say twice in a row.
Vocabulary
Introduction
Present Progressive: ~
While :
Of/Among:
By Sometime:
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= movie scene
= pot/pan
= outside appearance
= cheque
= ruler
= eraser
= geography
= the Korean flag
= flag
= furniture
= meeting
= warranty/guarantee
= warranty period
= lecture
= electricity/power
= printer
= price of houses
= excuse
= rule/regulation
= wrinkle
= garlic
= exchange student
= a group of stores in a building
= contract/agreement
= drive/morale
= laughter/smile
= semester
= outside appearance of person (face)
= something without limit
Verbs:
= consult
= ask/request
= to raise something
= edit
= film (a movie or something)
= store
= raise/lift
= blow (a wind instrument)
= restore/recover
Adjectives:
= sensitive
= damaged/bruised
= right/proper/correct
= emotional
= complex/crowded
= for a long time
= of those things
= originally
= worth of (1000 )
= on purpose
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use , which is a very important word in Korean. By itself,
it has the meaning of middle but it is never really used on its own. Combined with other words
or grammatical principles, this one word can have a lot of meanings most of them similar to the
meaning middle. The Chinese (Hanja) character for this word is one of the easiest to know and
recognize, as it is one of the few characters where the character actually represents the meaning
of the word: (the strike down the middle.). Lets look at how we can use in Korean.
Present Progressive: ~
is a noun, which means it can replace in the ~ principle. When this is done, it gives
the sentence the meaning of I am ing (I am in the middle of). For example:

Notice however, that is a noun and you cant just end a sentence with a noun like that.
Therefore, if you want to make those sentences perfect, you need to conjugate the noun using
.
For example:
= I am eating
= I am studying
Notice that these sentences would have the same meaning if ~ (which you learned in
Lesson 18) was used instead. For example:
= I am eating
= I am studying
Below are many more examples:
= We are filming that emotional scene now
= The man is restoring the printer
= Im looking at myself in the mirror
= My brother is on a meeting (a group blind date)
= I am editing that video now
= Im looking for the right path in my life
= I am explaining a very important rule
Sometimes you will see being used immediately after the noun form of a verb without the
use of ~ . The nouns used in these situations are usually ~ nouns (that is, verbs that we
can remove ~ from to form nouns). For example:
= I am studying
= I am thinking
Many more examples:
= That building is under construction

= All the teachers are in a meeting
= That teacher is giving a lecture
= The doctor is have a consultation with a patient
= Im storing all of my furniture
It is common to see this usage of on signs that inform people what is happening in a certain
place.
For example, outside of a construction site, you might see a sign that says:
= Under construction
Outside of a classroom in a University, you might see a sign that says:
= Class in progress, or
= Class in progress
Outside of a doctors office or some other business office where people need consulting you
might see a sign that says:
= Consultation in progress
Outside of an office meeting room, you might see a sign that says:
= Meeting in progress
Outside a set for a TV show or movie, you might see a sign that says:
= Filming in progress
Before you learn more about how to use , lets first look at how you can use ~ .
While: ~
You learned in Lesson 11 that you can place after a unit of time to describe the duration of
that time. The usual translation for that usage is for. For example:
10 = I walked for 10 minutes
30 = I studied for 30 minutes
You can also place as the noun in ~ , similar to how you use in this situation. When
used like this, the second action occurs during the duration of the first action. This usually
translates to while For example:
= I talked with a friend while I walked home
You typically wont see verbs that happen instantly (and dont continue) used before ~ .
For example, when you study, that action continues for a long time, and other actions could
happen while you are studying. However, you wouldnt usually see something like this:
= While I was standing up
The action of standing up occurs almost instantly and it is rare for other actions to occur while
standing up occurs.

= I used a pencil, eraser and a ruler while I was studying

= I was starring at the older ladys wrinkles while she was talking

= I wasnt listening when the worker was explaining about the warranty

= While (the power on) my phone was dead, I couldnt answer my phone

= I couldnt hold in my laughter when I was looking at that guy

= While I was eating I realized that I forgot my keys
(the recording incorrectly says at the end of the sentence)

= While I was watching the movie, the other people were really loud
Pretty simple grammatical principle that can be used in a lot of applications. Now that you know
that, lets move on to learn more about .
Of all: ~
In this usage, is placed after a list of two or more things. For example:

It could also be placed after one noun that represents two or more nouns. For example:
3

Placing after some representation of two or more things, you can create the meaning of of
(those things) or among (those things). For example:
= Among rice and bread
3 = Among/of my three younger brothers
= Among/of my friends
Notice the meaning of these constructions. The examples above are not complete, but you can fill
in the latter part of the sentences as you please. The latter part of the sentence usually describes
something about one of those things. For example:
= Among rice and bread, rice is more delicious
3 = Of all my younger brothers, he is the smartest
= Of all my friends, I like Seulgi the most
It is slightly easier to grasp the meaning of this concept if you remember the meaning of is
middle. Essentially, by making these sentences, you are saying in the middle of all my
friends. Heh, not sure if that helps you, but it helped me understand it.
Many more examples:
= Of all classes, I like Geography the most
= Between boys and girls, girls are more emotional
2 = Between the two contracts, this one is better
= Among all the printers, this one is the cheapest

? = Who is the most handsome among us?
? = Where do you want to go between Seoul and Busan?
= Of all the requested that Ive received, that
one is the strangest
(Notice in the first example that the noun is singular. When followed by , it can
be assumed that you are talking about more than one thing because of always refers to
more than one thing.)
The structure of sentences where is placed after a simple noun (as shown in the examples
above) is very easy. However, can also be placed after nouns that have been created
through the use of ~ . For example:
.. would mean of all the movies
But if you wanted to specifically say of all the movies (that) I have seen, you need to use the ~
principle to describe . For exampl
= The movie I saw/The movies I have seen
of all the movies I have seen
With people, as was described earlier, you use a simple noun, like this:
= Of all my friends
You could also use the ~ principle to express Of all my friends (that) I have
In these cases, you shouldnt use to talk about people because you cant really possess
friends. When you want to express Of all my friends (that) I have you should use to
change the meaning to Of all the friends (that) I have met
incorrect
= Of all the friends I have met (of all the friends I have)
= Of all of my friends (that I have
met), you are my favorite
When talking about places you have gone, or things you have eaten or tried, ~/ (which
you learned about in Lesson 32) is usually attached to the verb before .
For example:
= Of all the food I have eaten

= Of all the places I have been
Below are many examples:
= Of all the pens I have, I like this one most
= Of all the places Ive been, the US was the
scariest
= Of all the things that I have
(tried) eating in in Korea, the most delicious thing was
Often times the choices/options are given in a previous sentence and they are being referred to in
a different sentence or clause. When this is the case, you can use to mean among
those things previously mentioned. For example:
. ?
= I bought bananas and apples. Among those two, which one do you want to eat?
In Lesson 22 you learned how to ask questions using and . Specifically, you learned
that these words are often used when the listener has a list of options to choose from when
answering. For example:
? = Which skirt did you buy?
? = Which skirt did you buy?
? = Which (thing) do you want to eat?
? = Which (thing) do you want to eat?
In the examples above, the options that the listener has would have to be assumed from context.
However, we can use to give the listener options. For example:
?
?
= Between this skirt and that skirt, which one did you buy?
?
?
= Between bread and rice, which one do you want to eat?
Other examples:
?
?
= Between the Canadian flag and the Korean flag, which flag is more pretty?
(Which one is prettier? The Canadian or Korean flag?)
?
?
= Between Geography and Math, which class is more difficult?
(Which is more difficult? Geography or Math class?)
?
?
Between cash and a cheque, which one is better?
(Which is better? Cash or cheque?)
1 1 5 ?
1 1 5 ?
= Between the 15,000,000 won car and 10,000,000 won cars, which one did you like more?
(Which did you like more? The 15,000,000 won car or the 10,000,000 won car?)
By sometime:
can also be used to indicate a limit of time for when some action will be done by. This is
probably the most advanced usages of , but it is still good to know at this point. It is typically
placed after an indication of time with attached to . For example:
= I will do all of it by tomorrow
When used like this, the exact time that the action will be done is ambiguous, so it is common to
use the word sometime in the translation:
= I will do all of it by sometime tomorrow
Other examples:
= We will finish the filming of that scene by
sometime tomorrow
= The warranty period will finish by sometime next
month
= We originally wanted to do all of the
editing by sometime tomorrow
Jump to:
Introduction
Vocabulary
~
and
Still
Words that need negative endings
= much more
and
= Around the circumference
= Once
Weight Words
Introduction
This lesson is focused entirely on difficult vocabulary; where I will teach you about some words
that need to be explained before we can move on to more complex grammar. Specifically, you
will learn how to to use: /, , /, , , /, words
dealing with weight, and words ending in ~. Lets get started.
First, lets look at the vocabulary I want you to know:
= shake
= wave hands
= look around
= to hesitate
= oneself
= oneself
= still/yet
= still
= not very (only negative sentences)
= not at all (only negative sentences)
= much more
= about ( )
= related to/regarding
= around the circumference
= once (once I study)
= body weight
= body weight
= weight
= to gain weight
= to lose weight
Lets look at each word (or groups of words) individually.
~
You will often see ~ at the end of a word. Sometimes, you will see ~ at the end
of a word that can also end another way. For example, means to shake/swing/wave.
But you could also say . What is the difference between the two?
When a word ends in ~, it means that whatever is being done, is being done repeatedly.
So:
= to shake
= to continually shake
Note that you cant just add ~ to every word to give it the meaning of being repeated.
Only certain words can use this ending, and you should consider words ending in ~ as a
separate word, not just a normal word with a special ending.
In addition, some words only end in ~ that is other than their ~ form, there is
no other way that they can be used. For example:
= to continually hesitate
= to continually look around.
While the two examples above are words, and are not words.
.
and
Two more very important and very difficult words are and . Lets start with
first. I will try to explain this word the best I can, but it will help for you to look in the dictionary
for a lot of examples.
Whenever you say a sentence and you are talking about somebody in the third person, you can
use to refer to that person the second time in the sentence. That sentence I just wrote is
crazy hard to understand, but it makes sense. I will show you what I mean with some examples.
= He likes Korea
In that sentence, you are talking about somebody in the third person (he/). But you dont talk
about that person again. However, in this next sentence:
He likes his appearance.
From what you have learned before this lesson, you would probably translate that to:

This is right, but you could also say it like this:
() = He likes his appearance
So, like I said: you can use to replace the person you are talking about the second time you
mention that person. Some examples (with and its translation in bold):
() = Our son always wants to do his work
alone
= My wife usually doesnt eat the food she
cooks
is used in the same way, but is usually done when saying words like oneself, himself,
herself, themselves, yourself or myself:
= He doesnt know anything about himself
When using to mean himself/herself you can place before it with no difference in
meaning:
= He doesnt know anything about
himself
You can also place other words before have special meanings:
= myself (low respect)
= myself
= yourself (low respect)
= themselves
= Young people dont love themselves
= I learned a lot about myself in Korea
Still
Seems like a simple word, but a lot of very similar (but slightly different) words in Korean make
this a very difficult word to understand.
means still which means you can use it like this
= I still havent eaten/ate
= I am still waiting
When used in the past tense (as shown above), the translation could also be yet. For example:
= I havent eaten yet
That is simple. What makes the word still in Korean difficult is the following words:
= still
= still
= still
All with the same meaning in English, buy slightly different meanings in Korean. Ill explain the
subtle nuisances between each one:
is used when you are emphasizing that something is still the case. For example:
= I STILL havent exercised (putting emphasis on the
still meaning that you should have exercised by now, but havent)
is used when you are saying that you havent done something yet, but you have plans to
do it soon (or will do it soon). For example:
= I still havent exercised (but I will exercise soon)
is used when the action that is still being done/still hasnt been done will continue into
the foreseeable future. For example:
= I still havent exercised (and I dont think I will exercise
soon).
But, the simple word of will cover you in all situations but if you ever wanted to be more
specific, you could use , or .
Words that need negative endings

When you learned about using the words , , and , you
learned that the sentences in which those words are in must always have a negative ending. For
example, instead of saying:
(incorrect)
You would have to write:
or = nobody likes me
There are a handful of other words that require this negative ending. Today, I want to teach you
about and .
and both have very similar meanings but is more extreme. has the
meaning of really or that in these types of sentences:
Im not really/that hungry
I dont really want to go
Hes not that handsome
To say those sentences in Korean, you can use as an adverb within the sentence, and then
(like I said) put a negative ending on the sentence:
= Im not really hungry
= I dont really want to go outside
= Hes not that handsome
You should know by now that usually does not attach to adverbs. is an exception, as it
is very common for Korean people to use this construction to describe their indifference towards
something. The most common way you would here this is in response to a question. For
example:
A: ? = Is the food delicious?
B: = Meh, not really
A: ? = Do you like these pants?
If it is being used in a formal setting, it is more common to just attach to it:
A: ? = Do you want to go to Hong Kong?
It can also be used in the past tense. In these cases, the past tense conjugation of is used for
both formal and informal situations. For example:
A: ? ? = Did you have lunch? How was it?
B: = Meh, it wasnt that good
A: ? ? = Did you meet that man? Was he handsome?
B: . = Nah, not really.
It can also be used immediately after a noun, almost as if it were an adjective. This allows it to be
used by a speaker even if there was not a soliciting question. For example:
= The pizza we ate wasnt that good
This sentence is essentially the same as:
= The pizza we ate wasnt that delicious, or
The only difference is that using in these cases is very colloquial and more common
in speech.
has a similar meaning, but it is more extreme. has the meaning of at all in the
following sentences:
Im not hungry at all
I dont want to go outside at all
Hes not handsome at all
For example:
= Im not hungry at all
= I dont want to go outside at all
= Hes not handsome at all
Another way to express a similar meaning to is to attach ~ to . Like and ,
this is commonly used in negative sentences. Technically, this would translate to something like
not even one, for example:
= I dont even have one friend
= I didnt even take one picture
= That grandfather doesnt even have one wrinkle
However, even though the word is used, it can be used even in situations where nothing
is countable. In this case, it is better translated to something like not at all like . For
example:
= I didnt eat at all

= School isnt fun at all
= That girl didnt laugh at all
= much more
is a little bit easier to explain than the other words in this lesson, but it still needs to be
mentioned briefly. You can use in sentences just like the word (when comparing things,
for example), but the meaning is stronger than . For example:
= I am way/much smarter than my brother
= Korean is much more difficult than English
You can also put in the sentence after with no difference in meaning:
= I am way/much smarter than my brother
and
You learned how to use ~ ( ) in Lesson 13 to make sentences like this:
= I was thinking about you a lot
= I saw a movie about Korean history
I would say that using ~ ( / ) is more common that using ~ ,
but my native Korean speaker beside me is saying that they both sound 100% natural. That is:
= I saw a movie about Korean history, and
= I saw a movie about Korean history
However, this sounds awkward:

The best translation for would be regarding. So, in English, this would be okay:
I saw a movie regarding Korean history ( )

But this wouldnt be okay:
I was thinking regarding you a lot ( )
So, the best advice I can give you, is that ~ means regarding but you can use ~
instead of ~ if you like. However, you cannot always do it the other way
around (that is, using ~ instead of ~ ).
A word that is similar in form is ~ . It is used in the same way as ~ and ~

. Notice the difference in meanings:
= About the environment
= A thing about the environment
= About/regarding the environment
= A thing about/regarding the environment
= Relating to the environment
= A thing relating to the environment
So, the best translation is relating to but a few things you should know.
~ is usually written/spoken as . Remember that is actually the shortened
form of , and is much more common. In some formal situations, instructions, and signs you
might find used more often than , but other than that, is less commonly used.
However, is more common than .
Also, ~ is usually written as ~ . So, the two examples I showed above should
be written as:
= Relating to the environment
= A thing relating to the environment
Some examples:
= There are a lot of movies relating to the environment
= There will be a meeting relating to this problem
Around the circumference

is also a fairly simple word, but a little bit of explanation will probably help you understand
it better. In Lesson 2, you learned various words of position, like inside, outside, beside,
etc For example:
= in-front of the school
= behind the school
= inside the school
You can use in the same way, but to mean around. For example:
= I like walking around the school
= Once
Throughout your studies, you will learn a variety of adverbs that can be placed in sentences that
have no real meaning. The purpose they serve is more to add feeling to a sentence rather than to
change the meaning in any drastic way. This is hard to describe in English because (to my
knowledge) we dont have similar words in English. The most common of these words is
which you have yet to learn about at this point (you will learn about it in Lesson 43).
The purpose of these words (or the feeling that they give off) is to allow the listener/reader to
expect the type of sentence that is about to be said. So, for example, when somebody says
, you know that he/she will be mentioning that one thing will happen before another.
You will usually see the translation of once for , although it is hard to correctly decide on
a translation for a word whose meaning is more about feeling.
In Lesson 24 you learned about how to use ~/ to say sentences like this:
= After I eat, I will go outside
You can put the word in a sentence like this. For example:
= Once I eat, I will go outside
Notice that the two sentences essentially have the same meaning. The only reason I translated
them differently is to try to account for the fact that was used in the second example.
The word is often used instead of when using in these situations:

= Once I start, I wont stop
In addition to this, you will often see placed at the beginning of a sentence that has the
particle ~ attached to a noun later on in the same clause. For example:

You learned about the particle ~ in Lesson 12. Although the translation ~ is slightly
different, the usage shown above is essentially the same as the usage introduced in that earlier
lesson.
When added to a noun like this (as in the example above) preceded by one is indicating
that one action should happen before another action. The construction above (which is not a
complete sentence yet) means that the speaker wants to eat first, and then, after finishing eating,
another action can take place. For example:

Again, this sentence implies that the speaker wants to eat, and then after finishing eating, wants
to go out(side). This sentence could translate to many different things in English:
= I will eat first, and then go outside
= I will start by (from) eating, and then go outside
= After I eat, I will go outside
= Once I am finished eating, I will go outside
Notice that it doesnt matter what you translate the sentence to. In the end, the result is the same
in each translation, and the purpose of is merely there to give feeling to the sentence.
Weight Words
There are a lot of words that relate to weight/body weight that arent very easy to understand. I
want to take some time to explain these words to you.
First things first, the word for weight is
You already know that the word for body is . If you specifically want to say body weight
you can say .
You can also use the word to talk about your body weight. The word can also be applied
to meat/flesh of other animals.
There are two ways that you can say I weigh ____ kilograms. Also note that in Korea, they
dont use pounds so indicating that you weigh 150 pounds wouldnt be the best way to
express this situation. Instead, you should express how much you weigh in kilograms.
The first way to indicate how much you weigh is like this:
___ = I weigh ____ kilograms
Or you could say it like this:
____ = I weigh X kilograms
I cant really explain the grammar within those sentences as the grammar concepts being used
dont apply to any other sentences. The best thing you can do is just remember those sentences.
If you want to ask how much do you weigh? you can turn those two sentences into questions:
? = How much do you weigh?
? How much do you weigh?
The other common sentences that you can use when talking about weight are when you are
talking about losing weight or gaining weight.
The most common way to do it is to use instead of :
The verbs you should use are (to gain) and (to lose). The thing is, and
have many other meanings. Therefore, you shouldnt think that the definitions of these words are
gain weight and lose weight. Instead, when you come across these words, realize that they
can be used in many situations. Usually, is used in situations when something is
rising/increasing, and is used when something is falling/decreasing.
Both of these words are actually passive verbs, so they cannot act on objects within a sentence.
In practice, all this means is that you cannot put ~/ in a sentence/clause that ends in /
. The best way to use these words in situations of gaining and losing weight is:
= I gained a lot of weight last year
= I lost a lot of weight
When you want to lose weight, you should use the word . an active verb, so it can act
on an object:
= I want to lose weight
Vocabulary
Introduction
To seem like/to be likely to: ~
+ ~
Expressing Possibility with ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= swimming pool
= preservation of health
= pine tree
= floor
= answer a letter/text/etc
= pervert
= flood
= shrimp
= outcast
= fishing
= ones junior
= public service
= honey
= inner thigh
= horse
= holiday/vacation
= break (from walking or whatever)
= intermediary
= somebody licensed to do something
= to try/attempt something
Verbs:
= overflow
= avoid
= to unfold/unroll
= leave somebody out
Passive Verbs:
= unrolled (passive of )
Adjectives:
= proper/right/fair
= stuffy
= peaceful
= marvelous/wonderful
= stylish
= on the contrary
Introduction
Over the past 10 lessons, you have been learning a lot about how to use ~ and things related
to ~ in Korean. We have just about reached the extent to what you need to know about ~
and how to use it. In this lesson (as well as in Lesson 36), you will learn a variety of
grammatical forms that can be used to say to seem like or to look like. After this lesson, we
wont be focusing so much on ~ anymore instead, we will be looking into a word that
will take a series of lessons to explain because.
.
To seem like/to be likely to: ~
In Lesson 15, you learned how to use in sentences by placing after a noun connected
with ~/ or ~/. For example:
= That restaurant is the same as this one
Since then, you have been learning a lot about ~ and how to use it. Here, you will learn
about how to use this ~ principle with the word .
Actually, the principle itself isnt that hard to learn as it is in a form that you are already
familiar with. The difficultly of this lesson is understanding the specific meaning imposed when
using this grammatical principle. I will do my best, as always, to describe it. In order to create
this (I will show you how to create it and then teach you the meaning), you need to write a
sentence in the future tense using the ~ method:
= I will eat rice
Remember again what the ending of this sentence is made up of. The ending is actually made up
of ~ in the future tense (~ ) followed by (~ + ). If we remove the
we are left with ~ :
This is an incomplete sentence, so it is hard to translate, but it loosely
translates to the thing of me eating rice. Remember again that is a noun (thing). If we
place after that noun, it gives the sentence a special meaning:

This sentence means something similar to I might eat rice
Whenever you finish a sentence using ~/ , the meaning changes to something that
might happen. This meaning is quite similar to ~/ , which you learned in Lesson
30:
= I will eat rice
= I will probably eat rice
= I dont know if I will eat rice
You can use ~/ to express that you or another person might/will probably do
= I will probably go fishing with my friends

tomorrow
= Dad will probably not like that
= The teacher probably wont do (teach) that lesson
Although the previous examples used a person as the subject, the subject of the sentence can be
anything as long as the rest of the sentence makes sense. For example:
= It will probably rain/it seems like it will rain
= The door will probably be open
You can also use this same form on adjectives:
= We will probably be late
= The shrimp will probably be too expensive
When conjugating the word before ~ to the future tense, the speaker is indicating that
something might happen or will probably happen. It is also possible to change the
conjugation of the word before ~ to express that something may have happened in past
or might be happening in the present. For example, instead of using the future conjugation of ~
/ , you can use the past (~/ ) or present (~ ) conjugations.
When ~ follows these past or present conjugations, I feel that the translation is better
stated as it seems as though instead of X may have happened or X might be happening.
When using these forms, you are stating what you think might have happened (or what you think
is happening) based on your observations. For example:
= this would literally translate to you (teacher) probably
studied hard. However, I would say this to a teacher if he was telling me about his/her
university days and how hard it was to complete everything at which point, you could say
something like oh, you must have studied hard back in the day! or it seems like you studied
hard!
More examples:
= It seems like the boss already did all that work
= It seems like that person still hasnt responded
= It seems like the person who lives in
the house next door cut the pine tree
= It seems like mom is waiting

= It seems like students probably arent
exercising these days
All of this seems logical, but for whatever reason the future tense conjugation of ~/ can
actually be used with these present and past tense situations as well. For example, this sentence
above is conjugated to the present tense:
= It seems like mom is waiting
But it could also be written as:
= Mom is probably waiting (It seems like mom is waiting)
I translated the two sentences differently just to keep the translations of future tense conjugations
consistent across all of my examples. However, assuming the context is the same, the two could
have the same meaning.
For example, saying could refer to the present tense or the
future tense. As with many things in Korean, only the context of the conversation can tell you if
the speaker is intending it to mean Mom is probably waiting or Mom will probably be
waiting.
For example, if your brother asked you:
? = Is mom waiting now?
If you thought she was currently waiting for you guys, you could respond with:
, , or
,
However, if your brother asked you:
If we dont go now, do you think she will be waiting? (I cant translate this sentence into
Korean because you havent learned the grammar yet)
If you thought that she will (probably) be waiting for you if you didnt go, you could respond
with:

In this case however, the present tense conjugation would not be appropriate because you are
referring to the future tense.
Lets wrap this up for a second:
Although the future tense conjugation of ~/ can be used in situations in the present
tense and past tense (as you will learn next) to indicate probability, the reverse cannot be done.
That is, the present tense ~ cannot be used to refer to something that might happen in
the future. However, the future tense ~/ can be used to indicate that something
might happen in the future, might be happening in the present, or might have happened in the
past (as you will see next).
In addition, the sentences I presented earlier that used the past ~/ can also be
conjugated to the future. When doing this, instead of adding ~/ , you conjugate the
verb using ~/ and then add ~ . For example:
= It seems like the boss already did all that work
= It seems like that person still hasnt responded
= It seems like the person who lives in
the house next door cut the pine tree
The sentences above have the same meaning as the following sentences:

The fact that those sentences are the same was quite surprising to me. I tried arguing with Korean
people that the use of ~/ was stressing that something probably had happened
in the past perfect type of way, and that ~/ was indicating that something simply
happened in the past. I realize that is kind of a confusing description but what I thought was:
= It seems like the boss already did all of that work
= It seems like the boss already had done all of that
work
If youre not too big on grammar (in English, or any language), you might not be able to
distinguish the two sentences in English. They are very similar, but the first is indicating that
something had been done, and there is no real indication of when it was done (aside from it was
done in the past). However, the second is indicating that the work was done prior to some other
point in time in the past.
Either way, I was trying to argue with Korean people that the purpose of ~/ was
to indicate that something had happened prior to some point like I am trying to describe
above but they all disagreed with me. They all disagreed and said that in Korean, those two
sentences are exactly the same, and they dont need to be distinguished.
More examples showing this phenomenon in the present tense (using ~ and ~/
) and past tense (using ~/ and ~/ ):
Present tense:
= That person is probably avoiding us
= That person is probably avoiding us
Past Tense:
= Dad probably already paid
= Dad probably already paid
= I probably did well on the exam
= I probably did well on the exam
Heres an example of how I used this grammatical form in my real life.
A few days ago, I was waiting in line to get into a restaurant. There were a lot of people waiting,
and some people were getting fed up with the ridiculous wait time. The wait was so long, that
some people just got up and left, which would have bumped us up on the wait list. One couple
got up and left, and my girlfriend said:
? = Are those people just leaving?
My response was:
= Yes, they are probably leaving/it seems like they are leaving
Also remember that the present tense conjugation ~ for an adjective is actually ~/ .
The example below can show how it would be important to distinguish this difference:
= It seems like my friend is hurt
If you were to incorrectly assume that referred to the past tense, the translation would
incorrectly be It seems like my friend was hurt somewhere. Remember that the past tense
conjugation of adjectives in this cases is ~/ . For example:
= Your dad was probably very happy (it seems like your
dad was very happy)
More examples:
= That problem is probably very important to
the health of the citizens
= Mom probably doesnt want to talk to me
= That food is probably unhealthy
Also remember that is conjugated as an adjective. Therefore, the ~/ form
should be added to it. For example:
= That student is probably an outcast at school
= The thing we received is probably that
persons response
+
Also, in Lesson 23 you learned a lot about the word , and how its meaning is similar to
like that. You can treat like a regular verb/adjective, but remember that when
conjugating this word you need to remove the . So, by adding ~ to you get
.
Literally means it is probably like that. It is used very often in Korean to
indicate that something might be the case or is probably true. For example:
? ? = Where is mom? Did she go to the hospital?
= Probably/I think so/It is probably like that
? = Is next Thursday a holiday?

Here as well, you should consider the tense and apply the appropriate conjugation to .
Also remember that is an adjective, so the present tense conjugation in this case is
, and not . For example:
? = Did dad go fishing?
? = Did all the water overflow out of the pool?
Expressing Possibility with ~

It is also very common to hear ~ (which you learned as a future conjugation way back in
Lesson 5) used in a way that is similar to expressing possibility. Youll most commonly hear this
used with some simple adjectives; the most common of all being:
!
It is hard to translate that directly into English. People dont usually saying this when theyre
eating food instead, they say it when theyre looking at (or hearing about food) and want to
express that it would be delicious if they ate it. You could argue that this is technically the
future tense conjugation, but its not really about expressing an idea that is occurring in the
future.
A better way to describe this is to look at another example.
Imagine you were talking with your friend and he was telling you how he hasnt eaten in 12
hours. In English, you would respond by saying:
You must be hungry! or You are probably hungry! In Korean, you could say either of these:
! = You are probably hungry!

! = You are probably hungry!
Here, you can see that the speaker is not saying you will be hungry, as your friend is definitely
hungry in the present. Here, we can see how ~ can take on this function of possibility in the
present. Ive noticed (and you can see from the examples above) that this form is most
commonly used when you see something or here some fact, and are stating that something must
be the case based on that evidence your saw or heard. Other good words that this is commonly
used with:
! = That must hurt!
! = You must be full!
! = That must be difficult!
Other examples:
! = (I guess) I cant go to Canada
You would most likely say this if you just found out (evidence that shows you) how difficult it
would be to get to Canada for example, because the price is too high or because it was too far
or something like that.
! = (I guess) there wont be enough money
You would most likely say this if you were trying to figure out how much money you need, and
you just found out (evidence that shows you) that you probably wont have enough money.
Vocabulary
Introduction
To Look Like: ~
To Smell/Taste Like: /
To Look (Adjective): ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= fire station
= knee
= ice
= smoking
= calf
= desk/office work
= management fees
= treatment/cure
= medical fees
= storage fees
= land prices
= one room apartment (studio)
= entrance fees
= tuition/registration fee
= transportation fees
= makeup
= firefighting
= elementary school
= first bus
= price tag
= fox
Verbs:
= moving (moving houses)
= return to your home country
= to save something
= explode
= lean against
= gain
= to get pregnant
Adjectives:
= one sided
= salty
.
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use ~ to say that something/somebody looks
like something. For example, You look like a monkey! The same pattern can be used to say
that something smells/tastes like something. For example, You smell like a monkey! or You
taste like a monkey! In addition, you will learn how to use ~/ to say that somebody
looks like an adjective for example You look happy!
.
To Look Like: ~
One of the most common words in Korean is which means to see. In Lesson 14, you
learned the difference between passive and active verbs in Korean (and English). The word
is actually the passive form of and is used to indicate that something can or
cannot be seen. For example:
TV = I cant see the TV
(literally the TV cannot be seen)
= I cant see the mountains from here
(literally the mountains cannot be seen from here)
= I cant see the fire station
(literally the fire station is not seen by me)
Aside from this application, you can use the word in sentences to create the meaning of
look like Ill show you how to build the sentences first, and then describe the meaning:
The first thing you need is a noun: (monkey)
Then place (the adverb form of ) after the noun
Then place the passive verb after .
One more time:
(noun) +

Writing a sentence like that means to look like a monkey. Throw in a subject and you have a
full sentence: = You look like a monkey
Other examples:
= My boyfriend looks like a professor
= You look like a high school student
Notice a few things: First, there is no particle attached to the word before . As I said,
is a passive verb, so if any particle would be attached to it, it would either be / or .
Nonetheless, neither of those are placed on the object of that sentence . Secondly, essentially
any noun can be placed before ~ even nouns being described with ~ . For
example:
= He looks like he doesnt want to go to the
performance
= You look like you won the game
The sentences above explain how you can say that one looks like something, but in practice, it
is often more common to say that something is just like something. For example:
You look like a monkey
You are like a monkey
Within the meaning of you are like a monkey is the inherent meaning that that person (along
with other traits like acting like a monkey, smelling like a monkey) would also look like a
monkey.
You actually learned how to do this in Lesson 15, where you first learned how to use words like
, , and . In that lesson, you were presented with this sentence:
= This school is the same as our school
I mentioned in that lesson that even though the word means same, when you want to
indicate that something is the same as something else in Korean, it is more common to use the
word . The sentence above is probably better translated to:
= This school is like our school
This is often the way that Korean people express the meaning of something is like something.
Instead of specifically saying that something looks like something, it is often more natural to just
use this grammar instead. For example:
= He is like a fox
= He is like a monkey
= Canada is like the US
= Youre like an elementary school student
It is common, especially in speech to drop the particle //()) from the noun that is
being compared to. For example:
= He is like a fox
= He is like a monkey
= Canada is like the US
= Youre like an elementary school student
= Youre really like a doctor
= Youre like a girl
And finally, it is very common, especially in speech to pronounce () as (). This
is not only true just when using as it is presented in this lesson, but also in other
grammatical principles like ~/ that you learned in the previous lesson.
Next, lets talk about how you can say something tastes or smells like something?
To Smell/Taste Like: /
The word is a noun which means taste. You often see this word as , which means
delicious, but literally translates to to have taste. The word is a noun which means
smell. In the previous section you learned how to say:
___ looks like ____.
In this section, you will learn how to say
___ tastes like ____. and
___ smells like ____.
The grammar within these principles is similar, but not identical to what you were learning
previously. What you need to do is place a noun (that has a taste or smell) before or ,
followed by . For example:
____ = tastes like ____
____ = smells like ____
For example:
= Tastes like Kimchi

= It smells like Kimchi Jjigae
Throw in a subject and youve got a full sentence:
= This tastes like garbage
= tastes like bacon
Pretty simple, but I thought you should know because I always wanted to know how to say these
sentences when I was learning Korean.
To Look (Adjective): ~/
At the start of this lesson, you learned how to express that something looks like a noun.
However, there are many times when you would want to say somebody looks (adjective). For
example:
You look happy
You look sad
You look strong
In order to do this, you need to add ~/ to an adjective, and then place after it. For
example:
= to look happy
= to look sad
= to look strong
Some examples:
? = Why do you look so happy?
= My girlfriend looked really sad yesterday
= That persons calf looks very strong
Very easy, but very common grammatical principle that you should take some time to memorize.
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Because/Therefore: V/A + /
/ in the Past Tense
Adding / to
/ in the Future Tense
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= highway
= Buddhist monk
= authorities
= lunch box
= traveler
= damage ()
= plastic surgery
= continuous holidays
Verbs:
= jump
= forget
= suck
= to open ones eyes
= to close ones eyes
= to fight verbally (verbal argmt)
= compete/fight/vie for
= develop(ment)
= to excite/arouse
= establish/open/start
Passive Verbs:
= to have ones eyes open
= to have ones eyes closed
Adjectives:
= heart beating fast
= because
= therefore
= sometimes
() = the latest _______
() = sincerely/truly/seriously
= general
= generally
= on the other hand
= on the other hand
Introduction
Okay, now it is time to get really serious. Up until now, you have not been taught how to say one
of the most common words in the English language: because. Its not that I didnt want to teach
you this word, but rather that you didnt have the knowledge to fully understand this word up
until this point. In Korean, because is not generally said as a word. Okay, that is slightly untrue.
There is a word in Korean for because: . However, is not nearly used as
much as the grammatical principle that has the meaning of because in Korean. For example,
Korean people would never say something like this:

In fact, that sentence makes no sense (I was trying to write it in a way that didnt make any
sense).
You could technically write something like this:
. = I ate. Because I was hungry.
However, that wouldnt sound natural at all in Korean. Instead, (as I said) Korean people use a
grammatical principle to have the meaning of because. This grammatical principle is ~/
, which is added to verbs/adjectives at the one of a clause to connect it to the upcoming clause.
We will talk about this principle in this lesson.
Because/Therefore: V/A + ~/
In order to create the meaning of because in a Korean sentence, you need to add ~/ to a
verb or adjective stem. You should know by now that ~ gets added to words where the last
vowel is or , and ~ gets added to words where the last vowel is anything else.
First, lets look at how because sentences are formed in English. When saying a sentence with
because, there are two clauses:
I want to eat
I am hungry
Both are independent clauses that can be sentences on their own. However, if we insert
because between the two clauses, we can make:
I want to eat because I am hungry
Or:
I want to go to the park because I am bored
The hardest part about saying these sentences in Korean is that the order is reversed. So, instead
of saying:
I want to eat because I am hungry
I want to go to the park because I am bored
In Korean, we say:
Because I am hungry, I want to eat
Because I am bored, I want to go to the park
Now lets look at these sentences in Korean. We have our two clauses again:
= I want to eat
= I am hungry
Same as in English; both are independent clauses and can be sentences on their own. However,
by inserting ~/ between the two, we can create the meaning of because. For example:
(+~)
Remember from Lesson 24 that ~/ should be added to the subject of any clause that is not
the main clause of a sentence. ~/ or ~/ can be added to the subject of the main clause of
the sentence, depending on the specific meaning you are trying to create (although they both
essentially have the same meaning). I encourage you to re-read Lesson 2 and Lesson 24 to
remind yourself how changing these particles can slightly change the feeling of a sentence.
Therefore, the sentence above could be written as:
= Because I am hungry, I want to eat
However, remember in Korean that when the subject of both (or multiple) clauses in a sentence
is the same, you only need to include the subject once. Therefore, the sentences above sounds
more natural as:
I always found it easier to remember the meaning of ~/ as Therefore. For example:
= I am hungry, therefore I want to eat
The other example from above:
= I am bored, therefore, I want to go to the park (because I
am bored, I want to go to the park)
Another example:
= That girl is very pretty, therefore, I want
to meet her (because that girl is very pretty, I want to meet her)
Remember that this same addition (~/) can also be added to and to express that
one does something after going/coming from/to a place. This concept was taught in Lesson 17,
and examples from that lesson were:
Note that those sentences technically could mean Because I go/went to school, I will study and
Because I came home, I went to sleep immediately. However, 99.9% of the time the meaning
you will want to express using and will be the meaning talked about in Lesson
17. Think about how often you would want to say: The reason I went to sleep immediately is
because I came home or The reason I will study is because I came to school. I had this same
question when I first learned of these two identical looking grammatical principles. At the time, I
asked Koreans why these sentences couldnt mean because and they all looked at me with a
weird face and said because nobody would ever say something like that.
= We cant go into our house because it was
damaged
= I want to get plastic surgery because I am so
ugly
= I will take the normal road because the highway is
blocked up
= I will do everything
for my daughter because I (truly love her/) love her from the bottom of my
= I dont want to talk with him because
I argued with him yesterday
= It is difficult for Seulgi to come to the
office because she is pregnant
= I cant eat anymore because my stomach is (like it is)
about to explode
So far, we have only looked at using ~/ in the present tense. In the next few sections, we
will look at how to use it in the past and future tenses:
~/ in the Past Tense

The weirdest thing about this grammatical principle is that you cannot add ~/ to a clause
in the past tense. Instead, the past tense is inferred by the final clause. For example, instead of
saying:
, you should say:
= I was hungry, so I ate
When I first learned this, I was really confused. I thought my sentences would never make sense
without having the past tense on the first clause. Even though it goes against the grammatical
understanding you have from English trust me, it makes sense in Korean.
Other examples:
= The students were too loud,
so I couldnt hear the professor
= I didnt study, therefore, I didnt do well on the
exam
= I didnt see that because my eyes were closed
= I look ugly because I didnt do my makeup
= I wont be able to eat lunch because I didnt
bring my lunch box
Again notice how in those examples, the past tense is only indicated on the final clause.
Before you learn how to add ~/ to verbs/adjectives in the future tense, you need to learn
how to add it to .
Adding ~/ to
When adding ~/ to , the same principle as before applies. Again, lets look at two
clauses:
I want to go to the park =
It is Sunday =
Again, both are independent clauses that can be sentences on their own. However, if we insert
I want to go to the park because it is Sunday
Which, in Korean, would be written as:
(+ ~/)
Which is done like this:
= It is Sunday, so I want to go to the park
However, notice that ends in a consonant. Whenever you add ~/ to if the
noun ends in a consonant, you do it like this:
etc
(it is always and never when adding / to because the last vowel in
() is not or )
However, if the noun that is being added to ends in a vowel, the following must be done:
which is a combination of + .
There is a difference simply because of ease of pronunciation. If you were to say
it is hard to pronounce because it is hard to move your tongue from the sound to the sound
right away.
So yeah, to summarize: when adding ~/ to , you must first look at the noun that
is attached to. If the noun ends in a consonant, you can add ~. If the noun ends in a
vowel, you can add ~.
Adding ~() or ~() have the exact same meanings of ~ and ~ respectively.
That is, you can add ~() to nouns ending in a consonant and () to nouns ending in a
vowel. There is no difference in adding to in any of those examples.
Lets look at some examples:
= It is Sunday, so I want to go to the park
= She is a pretty girl, so she is probably not smart
= She is a pretty girl, so she is probably not smart
= This weekend is a long weekend, so I will
go to our moms house
= This is a studio apartment, so it is too small
= This school is an elementary
school, so there are a lot of children playing in this neighborhood
Now that you know this, you can add ~/ to clauses which are in the future tense.
~/ in the Future Tense

When adding ~/ to a verb or adjective in the future tense, it is the same as adding ~/
to . Again, lets look at two clauses:
My friend will come here =
I wont leave/I wont go outside =
Again, both are independent clauses that can be sentences on their own. However, if we insert
(~/)
Remember that the future tense conjugation is actually just ~ + . Because of this, you
can just use the same rule that you learned earlier (about adding ~/ to ). Any of the
following would work:

Remember that can be shortened to . So you can choose if you would rather use
or (and remember that is added when the noun ends in a consonant and
is added when a noun ends in a vowel).
More examples:
= There will not be any food later, therefore,
I want to eat now
= Many of my friends will be there,
so/therefore I want to go to that party
= The price of admission will be so expensive,
so I am not going to go
All very confusing, but you really only need to know how to say one of the future ~/
conjugations (and then just be aware of the other ones). I personally only ever say ~() or
~() and never say ~ or ~.

In Lesson 23, you learned that the meaning of the word is close to the meaning of like
that. One of the most common words in Korean is , which is a combination of
and ~/. Literally, the meaning is therefore, it is like that or that is why it is like that
but it is generally just translated as therefore. Using this word, you can make sentences like
this:
. = I ate all the food. So/Therefore, I am full
now
However, as you know, Korean people love shortening their sentences. The example I just wrote
would usually be shortened into:
= I ate all the food, so/therefore, I am full now
is used in other sentences (as the meaning of therefore) very often in Korean, usually
at the beginning of a sentence:
Person 1: ? = Is it raining?
Person 2: , = Yeah, thats why/therefore I dont want to go out
This lesson may have been a little difficult, but everything in this lesson is very important. In the
following lesson, you will continue to learn about how to give the meaning of because using
the word .
Vocabulary
Introduction
Because/Therefore: ~
Past Tense: ~
Future Tense: ~
Other Uses of
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= investor
= stocks
= stock market
= crowds of reporters
= entrance
= school uniform
= to clean ones face
= popularity (usually combined )
= goddess
= nickname
= enterprise
= reality
= posture
= praying to ancestors on a holiday
Verbs:
= to drop*
() = proposal/propose
() = invest(ment)
= deny
= distribute
= to report a story
= backtrack/retrace steps
= reminisce about the past
= realize
= hesitate
Passive Verbs:
= to be dropped*
Adjectives:
= crowded/packed
= annoying
= evenly/flatly
= to think hard about

= the distant future
Words With *
Introduction
In the previous lesson, you learned about how to use ~/ to create the meaning of
because in Korean sentences. There are actually many ways you can create the meaning of
because in Korean the most common of those being by connecting two clauses with ~/
.
In this lesson however, you will learn another very common way to say because in Korean,
which is pretty much interchangeable with ~/. Lets get started.
.
Because/Therefore: ~
Look up the word in the dictionary and the translation will be reason or something
similar to that. This word technically can be used in sentences by itself to have the meaning
reason but it is much more commonly used as the grammatical principle ~ . By
connecting two clauses with ~ , you can create the same meaning as ~/. For
example, if I were to say:
= Im hungry, therefore, I want to eat (I want to eat because I
am hungry)
You could also say:
= I want to eat because I am hungry
The two are exactly the same. You can add ~ to adjectives or verbs:
= I dont want to die because I am happy

= I dont want to talk with you on
the phone because Im studying now
= We will do it another way because
there are no investors
= I dont want to walk because my knee is sore
= I dont know how much this shirt costs
because there is no price tag
= All the students wore exactly the
same clothes because they wear uniforms
or :
= I like those kinds of movies because I am a man
Pretty simple. Lets look at the past and future tenses.
Past Tense: ~
When adding ~/ to connect two clauses, you should always remember that you do not
conjugate the verb/adjective that ~/ is being added to in the past tense. For example, you
should never do this:

Instead, you know that you should say this
= Because I already ate, I dont want to eat now
However, when you add ~ to a clause in the past tense, you can/should conjugate it as
such. For example:
= Because I already ate, I dont want to
eat now
More examples:
= Because I did bad on the test, I wont be able
to go to university
= Because I didnt have my phone, I couldnt
contact you
= I dont have any money because I bought a lot of

stocks
= Because I
hesitated a lot about going to university or not, I missed the opportunity to go to university
Again, pretty simple but make sure you remember that you can conjugate the clause into the
past tense when adding ~ but not when adding ~/.
Now lets look at how you can add ~ to the future tense.
Future Tense: ~
As you know, a common future tense conjugation is actually just made up of ~ + .
Therefore, if you want to add ~ to a clause in the future tense, you should do so as if you
were adding ~ to :
Just like the example I showed you earlier with :
= I like those kinds of movies because I am a man
in the underlined portion of that sentence, there is a noun () followed by , followed
by ~ . The very same steps are done with this sentence:
= Because I am going to eat later, I
dont want to eat now
again, in that sentence, there is a noun () followed by followed by ~ .
Another example:
= Because I will be
going to university next year, I am studying hard now
Other Uses of
Aside from using ~ to connect two clauses, there are a few other uses of the word
() that I would like you to be aware of.
The first is just adding after a noun without a verb/adjective. This can be done in some
situations if you just want to say because of (noun) For example:
= Because of work, I probably wont be able to meet you
= Because of my boyfriend, I cant meet
another(/new) man
= I wont be able to go to university because of the
admission/registration fees
= We went to our grandfathers house because of
Another good usage of the word is putting it at the end of a sentence as a noun. If I were to
write this:

You would think that would mean because there were too many people but that is an
incomplete sentence. Why is it an incomplete sentence?
Can you end a sentence in a noun?
No you cannot.
Therefore, you must add to to make it a full sentence:
= Because there were too many people
The best part about that sentence (and this is where this lesson starts to get really hard/confusing)
is that turns into a noun of [because there were too many people]. I put that noun
into [brackets] because Im going to show you what you can do with it. Look at the following
example:
= translates to the reason I didnt go in the room
Because is a noun (being described by ) we can make this the
subject of our sentence:
= The reason I didnt go into the room
Now if I wanted to say what the reason is, I would need to say:
The reason I didnt go into the room is (something):
______
What could I put in the place of that blank? I need to put a noun in there. How about the noun we
made before: [because there were too many people]:
The reason I didnt go into the room is [because there were too many people].
In Korean:
[ ]
Without the brackets:
= The reason I didnt
go into the room is because there is too many people
Which would make more sense if it said:
The reason I didnt go into the room is because there were too many people.
To fix this, we need to change from the present tense to the past tense:
= The reason I
didnt go into the room was because there were too many people
More examples:
= The reason I went to Korea was
because I wanted to learn Korean
= The reason I want to
work here is because I want to have a new experience
All of which are technically the same as these:

= Because there were too many
people, I didnt go into the room
= Because I wanted to learn Korean, I went to Korea
= Because I want to have a new experience, I
want to work here
You might be comfortable using ~ in sentences by now, but you are probably still a
little bit confused about how to use :~ ____~ right now. Dont worry
about that. When you become more and more comfortable not only with but also with
Korean grammar in general, using sentences like that will become more and more natural. In the
mean time, keep studying and get ready for our next lesson!
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Honorific Addition: ~()
Special Words:
and ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= you
= age/peer group
= cheek
= cleaner/cleaning material
= appearance from behind
= waterfall
= paper bag
= national (national park, etc)
= oxygen
= bell
= kitchen
Verbs:
= formal
= formal
= formal
= formal
= formal
= formal
() = pee
() = answer/reply
= to tap
= spoil/ruin/screw up
= watch over ( + )
= approach
= approach
( ) = (have an) affair
Adjectives:
= steep
= as much as you like
= the day before yesterday
() = later
= combined with nothing but*
Words With *
Introduction
In this lesson, you are going to learn something that we havent specifically looked at in a very
long time. Way back in Lesson 6, you learned how to apply Korean honorifics to the endings of
verbs and adjectives. In addition to what you learned in that lesson, there is still more that you
must know in terms of adding respect to Korean sentences. We will cover more of that here,
starting with the use of ~() in sentences.
Honorific Addition: ~()

This one is hard for English speakers to understand. Before you learn specifically when to add
~() to your sentences, lets remember when you should use honorifics in the first place.
Remember, if you are talking to somebody who deserves a high level of respect, you should use
honorifics. These types of people can be: bosses, parents, people older than you, guests,
customers, etc If you are talking to your boss, you should say:
/ = I worked really hard
But, if you are talking to your friend (for example) you can use the lower form:
= I worked really hard
Therefore, the use of those honorifics solely depends on the person you are speaking to.
The use of ~() is a little bit tricky at first. You should add ~() to verbs/adjectives in
which the acting person deserves respect, regardless of who you are speaking to. You can add ~
to word stems ending in a vowel and ~ to stems ending in a consonant. Once ~()
is added, the verb/adjective gets conjugated as usual as if the stem ended in ~().
The following table shows how ~() can be added to words, and then how other
conjugations can be added on top of it. I specifically chose words that follow irregulars so you
can see how the ~() addition can affect the stem of a word. Make sure to check out Lesson 7
to brush up on your irregulars if you forget about this.
Original Word
+ ~()
+ ~/
+ ~/
+ ~/
(go)
(study)
(know)
(find)
(walk)
(select)
(to be at)
(build)
Lets look at an example of when you would use this ~() addition.
If I am talking to my friend and the person I am talking about is that friends mother the mother
deserves respect. Therefore, I should not say this:
? = Did your mother give you money?
Remember, the mother (who deserves respect) is the person acting in that sentence. Therefore,
~() should be added to the verb. This would be more correct:
? = Did your mother give you money?
You should always keep the information you learned in Lesson 6 in mind as well because
depending on who you are speaking to, the form can change based on what you learned in that
lesson. If I were to say a sentence where I was talking to somebody who deserves respect (your
boss, for example) about somebody who deserves respect, I should say:
? = Did your mother go to the beauty salon?
Again, notice the situation of this sentence. You are talking to somebody of high respect, about
somebody of high respect. Notice all of the situations that can take place:
Situation: To somebody of low respect, about somebody of high respect
? = Did your friend go to the beauty salon?
Situation: To somebody of low respect, about somebody of low respect
? = Did your friend go to the beauty salon?
Situation: To somebody of high respect, about somebody of low respect
Situation: To somebody of high respect, about somebody of high respect
More examples:
= Our teacher taught us really well
= Our boss wants to make that house using only
wood
= The teacher responded quickly
= That teacher works at a public school
Now that youve got all that under your belt, there are certain words that change completely
when the acting person in the sentence deserves respect. We will look at those one by one:
.
and ~
You should use the word in place of the word when one gives something to
somebody who deserves high respect. Also, remember the formal version of ~/ is ~.
Therefore,~ should be attached to the person that you are giving something to. Confusing.
Lets look at an example:
= I want to give my grandfather a present
If you are also saying this sentence to somebody who deserves respect, you can also end the
sentence using honorifics as well:
= I want to give my grandfather a present
I wasnt sure, so I had to ask my Korean friend. It seems like nobody would ever say
which I thought would be used when somebody of high respect is giving something to
somebody of high respect. It appears, though, that is formal enough to cover both the
person acting and the person receiving.
Now on to a less confusing word:
You should use in place of when the person speaking deserves high respect.
For example:
= Everybody was waiting for the
professor to start talking
/
(which is actually just + ) and are both ways to say (to eat)
when the acting person deserves high respect. instead of also works as well, but
shows more respect. Using shows a ridiculous amount of respect, and saying it
to anybody other than people who deserve that amount of respect will most likely just make
people laugh. When I first met my girlfriends parents, I used and they both thought
it was funny. I usually only reserve that word for the rare time that I have dinner with my
girlfriends grandparents in which case, after the meal, I ask them ?
is the formal equivalent of the word . Pretty simple:

= I didnt know you were here, grandpa
is the formal equivalent of the word (to sleep). If you ever happen to be in a
situation where you are waking up in the same house/place as your significant others parents
house (doesnt happen very often in Korea), it would be much appreciated if you asked the
mother or father ? (did you sleep well?)
The Imperative Mood

Verb stem + ~/()
Verb stem + ~()
Verb stem + ~/
Verb stem + ~
Negative Imperative Mood: ~

~
Giving Directions
The Imperative Mood with ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= urine
= propel/push ahead (on a plan)
= (when object) momentum/thrust
= (when person) drive/initiative
= power/authority
= level/standard (high level)
= level of education
= employee/staff member
= permission
= security
= ones eyes (looking at/attention)
= object
Verbs:
= work hard
= do not do
= to go straight
= go up
= come up
= look up
= shake/tremble
= abuse (power and drugs)
() = surveillance/watch
Adjectives:
= to be shy
= to be sad
= equal (equal rights)
= pleasant/delightful/enjoyable
= gentle
= first/in advance
() = right (side)
() = left (side)
= continuously/constantly/all the time
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to tell people to do things. If you are a grammar buff, you
know this as the Imperative Mood. If youre not so into grammar, this mood is used when
giving people commands/telling people what to do. You will learn how to do this in Korean,
often in conjunction with the word , which we will talk about in the next lesson.
The Imperative Mood

There are many (many!) ways to end a sentence. Depending on who you are speaking to (and a
whole bunch of other factors) the way you end a sentence can vary tremendously. If you just
wanted to say I will eat rice, some of the ways you can say this are:

All of those mean exactly the same thing. In the imperative mood as well, there are many
different ways you can give a command to somebody. Lets cover these from the least formal, to
the most formal.
Imperative mood: Verb stem + ~/()

The easiest (and least formal) way to give a command in Korean is simply by adding ~/ to a
verb stem. For example:
= Eat your food slowly
! = Study hard!
Notice that in both English and Korean, the subject isnt usually used in a sentence when giving
a command. This is because the person you are giving the command to is usually the subject, so
it is omitted.
You can use this form when you are giving a command to somebody who is younger than you or
the same age as you, or somebody who you are close with. Saying something like ! to
your superior would most likely warrant a slap in the face.
As you probably guessed, adding ~ to the ends of the sentences above make them more
formal. For example, more polite versions of the sentences above would be:
= Eat your food slowly
! = Study hard!
In that same respect, the formal addition of ~() could be added to the construction as well.
In these cases, ~/() is added to ~(). For example:
Original Word
+ ~()
+ ~() +~/
Remember that each of the imperative conjugations you have learned so far is also a regular
sentence-ending conjugation (learned in Lesson 6). , , and could all be used as a
regular conjugation for the present tense. For example:
= I exercise every Monday
! = Study Korean hard!
= My grandmother doesnt come here often
In these cases, distinguishing the difference between a regular sentence and an imperative
sentence is done through context. When you first learn this, you think it would be impossible to
do, but trust me; it is easy to distinguish by considering the situation.
Notice that the same phenomenon happens in English as well. In the two sentences above, the
word study is used in the same form.
Here are some examples using everything presented so far:
= Look at this
= Look at this
= Look at this
= Come up quick
= Come up quick
= Come up quick
= Go straight on this road
Although they differ in their respective levels of politeness, all of the above are acceptable ways
to make a command. That being said, each of the last examples (the one using ~()) is less
common. Instead, the construction of ~() is often pronounced and written as ~(),
which we will discuss next.
Imperative Mood: Verb stem + ~()

If you have been studying Korean for a while (and if you are here on Lesson 40 you probably
have been), you are probably already quite familiar with the ~() form. This is one of the
first things people learn when they study Korean, but I waited until Lesson 40 to teach it to you.
Trust me, there is a method to my madness.
In the previous section, you learned how to use ~() as a formal way to make a command.
These days, especially speech but also in basically all forms of Korean, it is much more common
to pronounce and write ~() as ~(). This can only be done when you see ~()
and not with any other form that ~() can create. For example, each of the following are
the same:
=
=
However,
can not be said as
cannot be said as
can not be said as
I will say it again: Only when you see ~() can you use ~().
As you learned previously, one of the reasons why you would add ~() to a word is if
you were making a command. For example:
= Look at this
= Come up quick
This means that ~() can replace ~() in each of the examples above. For example:
= Look at this
= Come up quick
More examples:
! = work hard! (A common greeting when people leave a place of business)
! = work out hard!
! = Go first
This is where the expression comes from. As you learned from the previous
lesson, the formal word for is . When ~/ is added to , we create
the construction , which you now know can be presented as .
The majority of Korean learners dont know this. To be honest, you dont really need to know
this. The use of ~() in Korean is much more common when making a command so as an
early learner of Korean it isnt immediately important. For now, I would suggest using the ~()
form when giving a command to a person who deserves respect, but at the same time be
aware of the ~() form in case it comes up.
Now this brings us to another problem.
~() can be added to make a command.
~() is also a regular present tense conjugation. For example, these sentences are
acceptable:
= My mother exercises every day
But by adding ~(), the following is also acceptable:
I will say it again: when you see ~() can you use ~().
Therefore, the sentence above could also be used as:
This can be applied to any situation. For example:
, = Yes, that is possible
, = Yes, that is possible
(The above sentences are often heard when you ask if you can do something [like use a
particular card or combine multiple coupons] at a store/restaurant)
= This person is my mother
= This person is my mother
, ? = Teacher, where are you going?
, ? = Teacher, where are you going?
? = When is that person coming?

? = When is that person coming?
Adding ~() (or ~() for that matter) to a stem can create irregulars. If it is added to
a word that follows the irregular, the following occurs:
= to walk
+ ~() = + +
+ + =
= walk!
If ~() is added to a word that follows the irregular, the following occurs::
= to build
+ ~() = + +
+ + =
= build!
Refer back to Lesson 7 on irregulars to review these concepts.
One weird thing, is that people rarely (if ever) say ~() connected to (to eat). Instead,
it is much more natural to add ~() to (which is a more formal way to say eat).
Another change occurs when adding ~() to verbs that follow the irregular:
= to eat (formal)
+ ~() = +
+ =
= Eat!
I love tables! Lets look at another table that shows how words change when ~() is added
to them. I specifically chose irregular words:
Irregular Verb
+ ~/
+~()
(build)
(walk)
(listen)
(lock)
(choose)
(make)
(open)
(sell)
(lay down)
Lets look at how we can use another form to make a command.
Imperative mood: Verb stem + ~/

Another way to give a command in Korean is by adding ~/ to a verb stem. The formality
is similar to the ~/ form you learned previously. Some examples:
! = Go fast!
! = Do it like that
However, the ~/ form is generally used by much older people (parents or grandparents)
when they are giving orders to younger people. As I said, the formality is very similar (if not the
same) as using ~/, but I would much prefer to use ~/ over ~/. One time I said
something to my girlfriend like and she just laughed and said Who are you? My
grandfather?
If you want to give a command to somebody in a formal way, check out the next section.
Imperative Mood: Verb stem + ~()

Adding ~() to a verb stem is done in the same manner as when adding ~(). That
is, the same irregulars come in to play. However, adding ~() to a verb stem allows you
to give a command very formally. You will most likely only use this form in a few circumstances,
as it is usually reserved for times when speaking to people who deserve a ridiculous amount of
respect. If you were to meet your girlfriend/boyfriends grandparents for the very first time, you
might use this ending. You will also see it sometimes in government buildings/stores/restaurants
on signs telling you to come again or stuff like that.
For example:
= Get off here (I think this is the message that is broadcasted in the Seoul
subway at every stop, telling you to get off)
Now that you know how to say do this, it is time to learn how to say dont do this
Negative Imperative Mood: ~

If you want to say dont do ___ you need to use a very special word, . technically
means to not do, but it is only ever used when connected to another verb with ~. It would
look like this:

However, those examples above do not mean anything. You should only use when telling
somebody not to do something. If you want to give a command to somebody to say dont do
_____ you need to use the ~ form in addition to using the imperative mood forms I
taught you earlier in the lesson.
Very confusing, lets look at some examples.
Lets choose the word (to go). If you wanted to tell somebody to go, you should take that
word and remove (to get: ). Once is removed, you could add one of many
imperative mood endings to it. You could say (in order of formality):
!
!
!
!
!
The same is done when telling somebody not to do something. Lets start with our word first:
(to not go). If you wanted to tell somebody to not go, you should take that word and
remove (to get: ). Once is removed, you could add one of many imperative
mood endings to it. You could say (in order of formality):
1) ! ! (or )
2) !
3) ! ! (or )
4) !
5) !
Notice that numbers 1 and 3 go against the normal grammatical rules of Korean. Instead of
saying and/or , (or ) and/or are used.
The two examples that you were hear 99% of the time are examples 1 and 4 from above.
Remember that the ~ form is only used when giving somebody negative commands in
the imperative mood. It is not a substitute for ~ or .
Some examples of this negative imperative mood being used:
= Dont eat your food too fast!
= Dont be shy!
! = Dont do it like that!
! = Dont go home!
! = Dont sit down!
Before we finish this lesson, there is still one more thing you should know about .
~
You already know the connector ~ is used to connect two clauses in Korean. It is possible to
use ~ with to say dont do this, but/and. For example:
= Dont do the same exercise every day, and get lots

of rest
= Dont do it like that, and listen to what I have to say
Giving Directions
Now that you know how to give people commands, you are able to give people directions. Check
out the following list for commonly used direction-like sentences:
= Go right
= Go left
= Go straight
= Go past the building, then go right
= Go past the building, then dont
turn right, but keep going straight
The Imperative Mood with ~/

In Lesson 32, you learned how to add ~/ to words to create a meaning that is similar to
attempt/try. For example, you learned these sentences:
? = Did you try the food mom cooked?
= In order to get married, I tried meeting a lot of men
Just because of the meaning of attempt, it is very common to see an imperative ending
attached to ~/ . For example:
!! = Try checking that
! = Try eating this!
Although the typical translation of ~/ in these cases is try it is often eliminated.
For example, this sentence:
! Could be translated as: Try eating this! or just Eat this!

Especially when used in the least formal imperative form (~/ ), it is very common to see
this used simply as a command without any meaning of try/attempt. Nonetheless, the meaning
of try/attempt is often very subtle and doesnt really change the meaning of much in the
sentence.
Here are some more examples:
= Come here (Try coming here)
= Sit down (Try sitting down)
= Open the door (Try opening the door)
= Go first (Try going first)
= Look at this (Try looking at this)
= Eat this (Try eating this)
= Drink this tea (Try drinking this tea)
= to give
Verb stem + ~/
Using with Negative Imperative Sentences
Thank You For
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= rival
= general
= colleague
= intersection
= day care center
= roots (literally and figuratively)
= trade (in commerce
= chin
= left foot
= left hand
= right foot
= right hand
= palm
= voice
= forehead
= cheek
= toe
= ankle
= butt
= body
= prison
= cheek
Verbs:
= come to visit
= deal with people
= go crazy
= far/far away (adverb)
= extremely
= the first person to do something
() = beginning of a time period
= put with negative sentences to stress
Introduction
In the previous lesson, you learned how to give commands to people using the imperative voice.
In this lesson, you will learn how to use , often in conjunction with the imperative voice to
give these commands. In addition, you will learn how to use in other sentences when
people do something for you (or for other people). Lets get started.
.
= to give
means to give and you already know how to use it in a wide variety of sentences when
you are talking about somebody giving you (or somebody else) something:
= I gave my friend money
= Dad gave me food
However, what if you want to tell somebody to give something to you? This would involve using
the imperative mood that you learned in the previous lesson. If you want somebody to give you a
book, you can attach any imperative forms you learned to :
() = Give me that book
() = Give me that book (usually pronounced as )
Other examples:
1 = Give me one bottle of beer (please)
= Give me that spoon (please)
= Give me lots of rice
The thing is, those sentences only involve somebody giving you some sort of an object. What if
you wanted somebody to do something for you?
Verb stem + ~/
You learned in the previous lesson how to add imperative mood endings to verbs. You can use
those endings to tell somebody to do something. However, if you want somebody to do
something for you, you could also include ~/ in that ending.
Notice the difference between the two following sentences:
= Come quick
= Come quick (for me)
Notice that both sentences essentially have the same meaning. However, while the first sentence
is simply a command, the second sentence (because of the nature of the word ) implies
that the desired action is beneficial to the speaker. Almost as if the action is a favor that the
speaker would like to happen.
Therefore, adding ~/ to a verb stem gives the sentence the meaning of do __ for me.
This often translates more simply to Please, .. For example:
! = Please, make me lunch

= Please, make this for me
The two examples above have almost the same meaning as the following sentences.
= Make lunch
= Make this
Those two sets of sentences essentially have the same meaning. The only difference being that
when using you are specifically asking for some sort of service. When you do not
include , you are just telling somebody to do something. However, by saying , you
are indicating that the person is doing something for you.
More examples:
= Put that book back in its place
= Please put that book back in its place (for me)
is an interesting word that is commonly used in Korean especially in speech. One way that
it is used is as a shortened version of . As such, it can replace in sentences where
appropriate, but this is usually reserved for speaking or dialogue in print. For example:
= The weather got a little bit cold
= Im going to go a little bit higher
= My forehead is a little bit sore
= The stocks I bought were a bit expensive
It is also common to find used in imperative sentences. When asking somebody to do
something for you, using makes the request sound a little bit softer. This is almost
impossible to translate to English, as its addition simply adds a feel to the sentence. For example:
There are other ways to ask for something in Korean that dont need the imperative mood. For
example, you could also say Can you do this for me? It would also be appropriate to use
in sentences like this as well. This grammar has not been introduced yet, so I do not want to talk
about it here. It will be talked about in Lesson 45.
Note that sentences dont necessarily need to be in the imperative mood for you to add ~/
to the ending. You can also add ~/ to normal sentences (i.e. sentences not in the
imperative mood) to indicate that some form of service was done/will be done/is being done, for
example:
= That teacher taught me Korean
Which is essentially the same as:
You can use both sentences in that situation. As I said, by adding , it puts more emphasis
on the fact that the teacher provided some sort of service by teaching you.

Just like you learned in the previous lesson, you can tell people not to do something by adding ~
to the stem of a verb. You can also add ~/ after ~ to have the same
effect as described previously. The same grammatical principal applies as before ( + ~
+ / + = ):
= Please dont say that
= Dont say that
Thank You For

This is where everything starts to come together. You can use the concepts you learned in this
lesson, the previous lesson, and in Lesson 37 (all together) to say thank you for.
If you wanted to say, thank you for listening you would have to use multiple concepts.
First off, a word: (to listen)
By adding ~/ to , we get: , which can mean many things
depending on how you end the sentence:
= He listened to me
= Listen to me, please
But, if you take and add ~/ (because), you get:

which means something like because you listene(d).
If you add (thank you) after ~/, you get:
= Because you listened, thank you (thank you for listening)
Okay, one more time.
1) Take a verb: (to cook)
2) Add ~/ :
3) Add ~/:
4) Add = = thanks for cooking
It seems really confusing because there are so many concepts wrapped in one sentence. More
examples will help you get the hang of it:
= Thanks for studying hard
= Thanks for teaching that to me
= Thanks for opening the door for me
To make it even more confusing, often time the formal addition ~() is added to ~/
in these situations (because, usually when you are thanking somebody, you are trying to be
formal):
( + ~/ + ~() + ~/ + )
= to give
Verb stem + ~/
Thank You For
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= rival
= general
= colleague
= intersection
= day care center
= roots (literally and figuratively)
= trade (in commerce
= chin
= left foot
= left hand
= right foot
= right hand
= palm
= voice
= forehead
= cheek
= toe
= ankle
= butt
= body
= prison
= cheek
Verbs:
= come to visit
= deal with people
= go crazy

= far/far away (adverb)
= extremely
= the first person to do something
() = beginning of a time period
= put with negative sentences to stress
Introduction
In the previous lesson, you learned how to give commands to people using the imperative voice.
In this lesson, you will learn how to use , often in conjunction with the imperative voice to
give these commands. In addition, you will learn how to use in other sentences when
people do something for you (or for other people). Lets get started.
.
= to give
means to give and you already know how to use it in a wide variety of sentences when
you are talking about somebody giving you (or somebody else) something:
= I gave my friend money
= Dad gave me food
However, what if you want to tell somebody to give something to you? This would involve using
the imperative mood that you learned in the previous lesson. If you want somebody to give you a
book, you can attach any imperative forms you learned to :
() = Give me that book (usually pronounced as )
Other examples:
1 = Give me one bottle of beer (please)
= Give me that spoon (please)

The thing is, those sentences only involve somebody giving you some sort of an object. What if
you wanted somebody to do something for you?
Verb stem + ~/
You learned in the previous lesson how to add imperative mood endings to verbs. You can use
those endings to tell somebody to do something. However, if you want somebody to do
something for you, you could also include ~/ in that ending.
Notice the difference between the two following sentences:
= Come quick
= Come quick (for me)
Notice that both sentences essentially have the same meaning. However, while the first sentence
is simply a command, the second sentence (because of the nature of the word ) implies
that the desired action is beneficial to the speaker. Almost as if the action is a favor that the
speaker would like to happen.
Therefore, adding ~/ to a verb stem gives the sentence the meaning of do __ for me.
This often translates more simply to Please, .. For example:
! = Please, make me lunch
The two examples above have almost the same meaning as the following sentences.
= Make lunch
= Make this
Those two sets of sentences essentially have the same meaning. The only difference being that
when using you are specifically asking for some sort of service. When you do not
include , you are just telling somebody to do something. However, by saying , you
are indicating that the person is doing something for you.
More examples:
= Put that book back in its place

is an interesting word that is commonly used in Korean especially in speech. One way that
it is used is as a shortened version of . As such, it can replace in sentences where
appropriate, but this is usually reserved for speaking or dialogue in print. For example:
= The weather got a little bit cold
= Im going to go a little bit higher
= My forehead is a little bit sore
= The stocks I bought were a bit expensive
It is also common to find used in imperative sentences. When asking somebody to do
something for you, using makes the request sound a little bit softer. This is almost
impossible to translate to English, as its addition simply adds a feel to the sentence. For example:
There are other ways to ask for something in Korean that dont need the imperative mood. For
example, you could also say Can you do this for me? It would also be appropriate to use
in sentences like this as well. This grammar has not been introduced yet, so I do not want to talk
about it here. It will be talked about in Lesson 45.
Note that sentences dont necessarily need to be in the imperative mood for you to add ~/
to the ending. You can also add ~/ to normal sentences (i.e. sentences not in the
imperative mood) to indicate that some form of service was done/will be done/is being done, for
example:
You can use both sentences in that situation. As I said, by adding , it puts more emphasis
on the fact that the teacher provided some sort of service by teaching you.

Just like you learned in the previous lesson, you can tell people not to do something by adding ~
to the stem of a verb. You can also add ~/ after ~ to have the same
effect as described previously. The same grammatical principal applies as before ( + ~
+ / + = ):
= Please dont say that
= Dont say that
Thank You For

This is where everything starts to come together. You can use the concepts you learned in this
lesson, the previous lesson, and in Lesson 37 (all together) to say thank you for.
If you wanted to say, thank you for listening you would have to use multiple concepts.
First off, a word: (to listen)
By adding ~/ to , we get: , which can mean many things
depending on how you end the sentence:
= He listened to me
= Listen to me, please
But, if you take and add ~/ (because), you get:

which means something like because you listene(d).
If you add (thank you) after ~/, you get:
= Because you listened, thank you (thank you for listening)

Okay, one more time.
1) Take a verb: (to cook)
2) Add ~/ :
3) Add ~/:
4) Add = = thanks for cooking
It seems really confusing because there are so many concepts wrapped in one sentence. More
examples will help you get the hang of it:
= Thanks for studying hard
= Thanks for opening the door for me
To make it even more confusing, often time the formal addition ~() is added to ~/
in these situations (because, usually when you are thanking somebody, you are trying to be
formal):
( + ~/ + ~() + ~/ + )
And that is why I waited until Lesson 41 to teach you about this concept. There would have been
no way that you would have been able to grasp everything I taught in this lesson if I had taught it
earlier. It took us so long to get to the point where I was comfortable teaching concepts like ~/
and ~(), and now we are using both of those concepts together in addition to what
you learned in this lesson.
Introduction
When/If ~()
If ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= long distance
= Cola
= scientist
= sign/signal
= wing
= eggplant
= hot pepper
= bride
= lesson moral
= habit
= the rays of the sun
= laundry
= dew
= rainstorm
= humidity
Verbs:
= based on
= preserve/conserve(ation)
= pray
= serve also treat
Adjectives:
= unnatural
= even(ly) ( when distributing)
= awkward
= unfamiliar
= suspicious
= put in sentences with if
= calm down
? = what am I going to do?
= both sides
Introduction
In the previous lesson, you learned how to make sentences like when I eat by adding ~/
to words. You can create a similar meaning with the use of ~(), which you will learn in
this lesson. Lets get started.
.
When/If ~()
By adding ~() to the end of verbs/adjectives, you can create the meaning of when as
described in the previous lesson with ~/ . ~ gets added to stems ending in a
consonant, and ~ gets added to stems ending in vowel. The meaning is very similar, if not
identical to ~/ . For example:
TV = When I study, my mother turns off the TV
TV = When I watch TV, my mother doesnt like it
The confusing thing about ~() is that it also has the meaning of if This sounds crazy,
because technically in English When I. and If I seem to have distinct meanings.
However, if you look at the two sentences side by side, they actually have very similar meanings.
Look at these:
TV = When I study, my mother turns off the TV
TV = If I study, my mother turns off the TV
TV = When I watch TV, my mother doesnt like it
TV = If I watch TV, my mother doesnt like it
In each example, the meaning is so similar in English, and this is why the ~() ending can
take on both meanings in Korean. More examples:
= When/If I eat pizza, I usually drink cola
= When/if you dont sleep well, the next day you
will be tired
~() can also be added to adjectives and simply by adding it to the stem of each:
= When/If I am happy, I do my homework well

= If/When I am a teacher, I would teach students
well
Notice the use of would in this example. In English, when something is not 100% certain in the
future (usually preceded by an if clause) we need to use the word would to indicate this
hypothetical situation. However, this is not done in Korean, and the simple future tense is
sufficient.
There is actually another way to specifically express if without also carrying the meaning of
when. We will talk about this next.
If ~/
If you want to specifically express the meaning of if without the meaning of when you can
add ~/ to verbs/adjectives.
~ gets added to verb stems ending in a consonant. ~ gets added directly to verb
stems ending in a vowel. The easy way to remember how this is added to words, is to remember
the plain form ending for verbs. Remember these:
=
=
=
All that you need to do to add ~/ to verb stems is conjugate the verb in this form, and then
instead of finishing it with finish it with . For example:
These can then replace the following:
to explicitly express the meaning of if instead of when. For example:

= If you dont eat, you will probably be hungry
This is the first you have learned about this, but there are a handful of Korean words that have
absolutely no meaning, but are put into sentences for feeling and to help the listener expect what
the speaker will say. Probably the most common of these words is (), which is put at
the beginning of if sentences:
() = If you study, you will succeed
() = If you go to school, let me know
When adding ~/ to adjectives, you should remember how the plain form conjugation
works. Remember, you cannot write these:
Instead, the proper conjugations for adjectives (in this form) would be to just leave them as the
infinitive version of the word:
This has implications on what we are learning today as well. When adding ~/ to
adjectives, you actually only need to add ~ after the infinitive version of every adjective. One
more time, instead of doing this:
You should use:
Some examples:
= If I am happy, I will work harder

= If I am sad, Im not going to meet my friend
If you want to add ~/ to , you need to do the following:
Add ~ to nouns ending in a vowel:
Add ~ to nous ending in a consonant:
Examples:
= If I were a doctor, I would earn a lot of money
= If I were a teacher, I would
want to be respected by students
All of the examples so far in this lesson talk about using if in the present tense, but nothing
was mentioned about how to say it in the past/future tenses.
If you want to say if in the future in Korean, it can be done, but it is not very common. When
you say if, it automatically makes a hypothetical sentence and usually a hypothetical situation
in the future. Because of this, conjugating it into the future is rarely done in Korean. The same
effect occurs in English. For example, if I were to say:
If you will come, I will eat
The first clause of that sentence is more naturally said as:
If you come, I will eat
I know that I have never once said if in the future tense in Korean, and I cant recall any time
that I have heard it spoken or seen it written. Nonetheless, you could write:
or
or technically:

Vocabulary
Introduction
~() in the Past Tense
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= hope/desire
= idiom
= funeral
= training for skills
= rules/regulations
= stage (a place to perform)
= punishment (/)
= message ( )
= refund
Verbs:
= memorize
= back out on plans/promise
= recruit
= duplicate/replicate
= to be vibrating
= a bell ringing
= hope/wish
() = measurement (measure)
= turn/turn on
=make(list)/fill out/draw/writeup
= delay/put off
= tease
() = enforce/conduct/implement
Passive Verbs:
= get used to/accustomed to
Adjectives:
= fair
=(adj) strict/severe (punishment)
= fluent

= these days
= naked
= naked
Introduction
In the previous lesson, you learned about adding ~() and ~/ to verbs/adjectives/
in the present tense, but not in the past tense. In this lesson, I will show you how to add these
to words conjugated to the past tense, as well as how to say I would have
.
And that is why I waited until Lesson 41 to teach you about this concept. There would have been
no way that you would have been able to grasp everything I taught in this lesson if I had taught it
earlier. It took us so long to get to the point where I was comfortable teaching concepts like ~/
and ~(), and now we are using both of those concepts together in addition to what
you learned in this lesson.
Vocabulary
Introduction
~() in the Past Tense
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= hope/desire
= idiom
= funeral
= training for skills
= rules/regulations
= stage (a place to perform)
= punishment (/)
= message ( )
= refund
Verbs:
= memorize
= back out on plans/promise
= recruit
= duplicate/replicate
= to be vibrating
= a bell ringing
= hope/wish
() = measurement (measure)
= turn/turn on
=make(list)/fill out/draw/writeup
= delay/put off
= tease
Passive Verbs:
= get used to/accustomed to
Adjectives:
= fair
=(adj) strict/severe (punishment)
= fluent
= these days
= naked
= naked
Introduction
In the previous lesson, you learned about adding ~() and ~/ to verbs/adjectives/
in the present tense, but not in the past tense. In this lesson, I will show you how to add these
to words conjugated to the past tense, as well as how to say I would have
.
Introduction
I can do: ~/
I cant do: ~/
Adding particles to
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= suit/formal dress
= time limit/deadline/time period
= ethics/morals
= entire body
= poison
= a waterway/watercourse
= personal experience
= vacancy
= human rights
= curriculum
= point (a place)
= scene of the _______ field
= election
= laundry
Verbs:
= self teaching
=occurred/happened/come up
= slip
=move aside/step out of the way
= move/step aside for someone
= refer to/consult
= turn around
Passive Verbs:
= to be able to hear/hear
= isolated
Adjectives:
= slippery
= urgent
= same/identical to
= smoothly
= at first sight
= etc
= long term
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to say I can and I cant in Korean by using ~/
/. This grammatical principle is incredibly important in Korean, as it is used all the time
in conversation. Lets get started.
.
One can do: ~/
By adding ~/ to the end of a clause/sentence (attached to verbs/adjectives), you can

create the meaning of I can. ~ gets added to stems ending in a vowel, and ~
gets added to words ending in a consonant.
is what I like to call a pseudo-noun. You have already learned a few of these pseudo-nouns
in other lessons. For example, is a pseudo noun in the following sentence:
is also a pseudo-noun in the following sentence:
= I have never eaten kimchi
In both of the sentences above, the pseudo-noun follows a descriptive word, and thus, must be a
noun. However, these pseudo-nouns cannot be placed anywhere but these specific locations,
and therefore, are not true nouns. in ~ is also a pseudo-noun. If you look it up in
the dictionary, its meaning is something similar to ability or something like that. Then, if we
describe that ability noun with a verb, we can get:
: the ability to study
However, it is never written like that, and is always followed by /:
= I have the ability to study (I can study)
More examples:
= I can do that too
= I cant believe that fact
= I can do laundry at home
= I can speak Korean better than
some Korean people
You can also use this form to ask if another person can do something. For example:
? = Can you meet tonight?
? = Can you do it quickly?
Anytime an action is being done for the speaker, it would also be appropriate to attach ~/
to the verb before ~/ . For example:
? = Can you do it a little bit faster (for me)?
? = Can you open the door (for me)?
As mentioned in Lesson 41, it would also be acceptable to use the word in these types of
sentences because the speaker is asking for some kind of a favor. For example:
? = Can you do it a little bit faster (for me)?
? = Can you open the door (for me)?
I cant do: ~/
The exact same thing can be done to express I cant by changing to . By using
, you are essentially saying that one does not have the ability to do something. For
example:
= I cant concentrate here because it is too
loud
= I cant eat much because I am very sick
= The person cant speak Korean
One specific phrase that is difficult to translate directly to English is:

I dont understand, or
I cant understand
In English, those two phrases essentially mean the same thing however, there is a subtle
difference. We would use I cant understand when you are talking about a general topic
specifically something that you dont get at all and will never understand. For example:
I cant understand Chemistry
I cant understand Korean
To say those in Korean, you can use the ~ form. For example:
= I cant understand Chemistry
= I cant understand Korean
However, if we say I dont understand, it could mean that although you cannot understand
something right now you will probably be able to understand it if somebody (depending on the
situation) explains it to you better. This is more likely to be used in specific things that somebody
can teach you over a short period of time or something that you can grasp if somebody explains
it to you quickly. In order to create this meaning, you should attach ~ to .
For example:
= I dont understand that question/problem
(notice that the future tense conjugation of ~ is used when talking about something you
currently dont understand)
= I didnt understand this question/problem
= I dont understand what you are trying to
say (like, I dont understand the point you are trying to make)
Theyre essentially the same thing ( vs. ), and you dont
really need to worry about distinguishing them too much. However, it is something that I learned
when I was studying, so it might be something that you should consider as well.
Both ~/ and ~/ can be expressed in the past and future tenses. Note
that the verb/adjective before or does not get conjugated. For example:
= I couldnt see that girl
= I will be able to do better next time
Adding particles to
Because is a noun, particles can be attached to it. The three most common particles that are
attached to are ~, ~ and ~.
In all cases, adding these particles does not change the meaning of the sentence significantly.
When trying to understand when it would be appropriate to add these particles to , you
should think about the individual meanings of each particle and the function each one has.
Explaining the nuances of these usages is quite complex and is something that needs to be
addressed in a later lesson. For now, I suggest not going ahead and studying these complex
usages. Instead, I suggest sticking to the order of the lessons that I have them presented. If you
are dying to see how these particles can be used in this case, you can check out Lesson 107,
where I talk about the usage of ~/ . Heres an example:
= If you do it like this, it is dangerous and it is
possible that you could die
Introduction
To have to: ~/ / / /
To need:
To need to: ~ /
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= exception
= photocopier
= freshman
= fate
= vision
= shell fish
= character
= hero
= myth
= queen
= in place/in the right place
= fence
= diet
= terminal box
Verbs:
= show
= agree
= review/examine
= take using some sort of force/power
= pull smth out of smth
() = succeed (success)
() = connection/connect
() = cooperation (cooperate)
Adjectives:
= vivid/graphic(mostly memory)
= mature
= actual
= actually
= closely
= fatefully
= casual speaking
= so/very
Introduction
Just like the grammatical concepts you learned in the previous lesson, the two concepts you will
learn in this lesson are incredibly common. The two concepts you will learn in this lesson are
very similar to each other, but (just like in English) they are two different ways to essentially
express the same thing. In this lesson, you will learn how to say:
I need to, and
I have to.
Which, again, are almost identical to each other in meaning. There is a way to express each one
specifically in Korean. Lets get started.
To have to: ~/ / / /
By adding / to the stem of a verb/adjective at the end of a sentence, you can create
the meaning of I have to. The verb/adjective that / gets connected to does not
get conjugated and instead, the at the end of / gets conjugated.
Some examples:
= to have to study
= to have to eat
= to have to go
= I have to eat
= I had to eat
These constructions can then be used in sentences. For example:
= I have to go now to meet my friend

= If you want to go to university, you have to
study hard
= I was late because I had to eat
Using instead of can be done with absolutely no difference in meaning:
= We have to go fast
One thing that you might often hear is the use of ~ instead of / at the end of ~/
/.For example:
= I have to go
Instead of:
/
Using like this is only ever done in conversation, and it very informal (Korean people say it
to their friends, or younger people). Using ~ this way creates the same meaning of or
. For example:
! = We have to go fast!
! = you have to eat!
However, note that ~ (or the formal version ~) has another usage, which will be
introduced in Unit 4. You should treat the usage of ~ in this lesson and the usage of ~/ in
the later lesson as separate grammatical principles.
To English speakers, the words must/have to and should have different meanings. However,
in Korean, the use of ~/ // can be translated to one must/have to or one
should. Learners of Korean are often confused at how this one grammatical principle can
represent two seemingly different meanings in English. In reality however, the difference in
English between those two words isnt very big. For example:
I should go
I must go/I have to go
Really, you are expressing the same thing with those sentences and while must might feel
stronger to an English speaker, the end result of all those sentences are the same.
Therefore, sentences like this:

Could be translated as:

If you want to go to University, you must study
If you want to go to University, you have to study
If you want to go to University, you should study
You will also hear replace or at the end of / /. While
the following three sentences can be seen as identical:

Using instead of // has a slightly different meaning. When using
, the feeling is that one has not completely decided that he/she must do the action said. This
often translates in English to I guess I should For example:
= I guess I should go
Other examples:
= I guess I should break up with my boyfriend tomorrow
= I guess I should tell the boss (about) that fact
= I guess I should buy her a present
Also note that there are no spaces between the syllables of ~/, and that there are
spaces between the syllables of / /.
Introduction
One does not have to:
May I: ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= western culture
= western civilization
= grass
= security/guard (not a verb)
= security guard
= animal
= line
= sense/feeling
= limit (reaching the limit)
= pain
= sun
= wound
Verbs:
= stick/stretch smth out of smth*
= to sign something
= freeze
= shout/scream
= to give someone an anesthetic
= local anesthetic
= log in
() = roll up sleeves
= joke (or play around)
= appear/come in view
= circulate/move through
= sign up
Passive Verbs:
= appear/come in view
= indicates something is unknown*
(/) = beyond/over*
= first/priority*
Words With *
Introduction
This lesson will have two more common grammatical concepts that you need to learn. Two
concepts that look very similar (they look like they should be exact opposites of each other), but
their meanings arent connected at all. Lets look at the meaning of :
One doesnt have to:

In the previous lesson, you learned about adding ~/ to the ends of sentences to
express the meaning of One has to. However, you never learned how to say One does not
have to, which would be the opposite of ~/ . The reason I waited until this
lesson to teach you about this grammatical principle, is because of its similarities (in appearance)
to the concept you will learn later in this lesson.
If you add before a verb/adjective, and then add ~/ to the stem of that word, you
can create the meaning of one does not have to. For example:
= Dont have to go
= Dont have to eat
or = Dont have to study
These can then be put into sentences where you want to express that you do not have to do
something:
= I dont need to eat because I already did
= You dont need to sign here
= You dont need to put salt on this food
With this concept as well, the verb before ~/ should not be conjugated, and instead,
should be conjugated to reflect the desired tense. For example:
= I didnt need to study to pass that test
This grammatical principle looks very similar to the concept that will be presented next.
However, there meanings are completely different.
.
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Lets: ~ and ~/
Shall we: ~/()
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= garden
= baby animals
= mother for animals
= half price
= victory/defeat (outcome)
= individual/ly
= architecture
= architect
= area around the river
= youngest person in the family
= witch
= cave
= treasure (rubies and diamonds)
= cart
= typhoon
= a fair/exhibition
= lake
= area around the lake
Verbs:
= purchase
= exchange
= face to face talk
= delay
= hug
Adjectives:
= sweet (in a cute way)
= ashamed
= urgent
= in advance/beforehand
() = one on one
= regularly
= urgently
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn three common sentence endings that will allow you to speak Korean
with more fluency. All three of these endings are fairly simple to use, and have simple meanings,
but their meanings are less important than the grammar that you have learned thus far. Thus, I
waited until Lesson 48 to introduce them to you. In addition, as I continually told you as you
were working your way through the earlier lessons because the grammar you have been
leaning to this point has been so difficult, it paved the way for you to make learning future
grammar (like the concepts in this lesson) much easier.
Anyways, enough nonsense. In this lesson, you will learn about ~ and ~/, which are
two common endings that you can use in similar situations. In addition, you will learn how to use
~() which has a similar meaning to ~ and ~/. Lets get started.
.
Introduction
Even though: ~
Regardless of how much: ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= charm
= supervisor
= heart
= beautiful person
= handsome man
= facial hair
= honor
= billiards
= zebra
= table tennis
= game/match/competition
= humanities/liberal arts
= qualification
= certificate
= memory
= prey/food
= meat diet
= predator/carnivore
= prison
= prisoner
= girls middle school
= girls high school
Verbs:
= understand/grasp/figure out
= revive-person/economy
= accompanied with (/)
=restore/recover
Adjectives:
= convenient/handy
= unpleasant/nasty
= solidly
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use ~ and ~/, two similar clause connectors that
have the meaning of even though and regardless of. You will also learn about adding these
endings to to make and .
Even though: ~
One of the most common words in Korean is , which means but. This word (in
English and Korean) is usually used at the beginning of a sentence. For example:
. = I want to eat. But, I am not hungry.
Although those are two perfectly good sentences, there are a lot of syllables that you can
eliminate from them. You should be aware by now, that Korean people always want to make
their sentences as short as possible. Lets look at how we can do this.
The origin of the word (but) probably came from using the stem of () and then
simply adding ~ to it. Im not a Korean language history scholar, but that is the way it feels.
Regardless of where came from, by connecting ~ to the stem of any verb or
adjective, you can create the meaning of one does something, but. This often translates to
even though in English. Notice how the following two sentences in English are exactly the
same:
Even though I want to eat, I am not hungry.
I want to eat, but I am not hungry.
Essentially, by adding ~ to the stem of a word, that clause gets negated, and the opposite is
usually described in the latter clause. To look at the example we saw before:
. = I want to eat. But, I am not hungry.
This could also be (and is more naturally) written as:
= Even though I want to eat, I am not hungry
More examples:
= Even though I am
studying Korean hard these days, I still cant speak well
= Even though I want to go to Busan, I cant go
because I dont have a car
This form can also go in the past tense:
= Originally I wanted to go to
Korea to travel, but because I didnt have any money, I couldnt go
= Even though I ate, I am hungry
Or the future tense, using both the ~ /~ or ~ forms:
= Even though I will not go to
Korea, I still want to learn Korean, or:
= Even though I will not go to Korea, I
still want to learn Korean, or:
= Even though I will not go to Korea, I
still want to learn Korean, or:
There is actually another grammatical form that is very similar to ~, but translates to
something slightly different in English. Lets look at this next.
.
Introduction
I am scheduled to : ~/
I have plans to: ~/
To be ready: ~/
Vocabulary
= grape
= skin/bark/peel
= peach
= oriental melon
= race/people/ethnic group
= the Korean SAT
= high fever
= tuna
= can
= judge (the person)
= lawyer
= the right to do something right
= vegetarian
= vegetarian (person)
= symptom
= boots/rubber boots
= scale/size
= island
Verbs:
= roast/grill/bbq
= to bend your body
= to bend something
= defend
= stop/quit (job/school)
= undress smby/take off/peel
Passive Verbs:
= to be curved/bent
Adjectives:
= old/beaten up
= pitiful
Adverbs and Other Verbs:
= small scale
= large scale
= in-front of my eye
Introduction
Though we havent specifically talked about ~ in the past few lessons, there are still a few
more concepts that you should know that are related to it. In this lesson, you will learn how to
use three nouns (, and ) as the noun in the future tense conjugation of (~
/ ). By using these three nouns after this grammatical form, you will be able to say a wide
variety of common sentences. Lets get started.
To be scheduled to :~/
You should remember the function of adding ~ to verb stems from previous lessons. Just to
review briefly, adding ~ to a verb stem turns the verb into a word that can describe an
upcoming noun.
This can be done using ~/ to describe the noun in the past tense:
= The thing I ate
Or using ~ to describe the noun in the present tense:
= The thing I eat
Or using ~/ to describe the noun in the future tense:
= The thing I will eat
If you use the future descriptor ~/ and the word instead of , you get:
, or

As you should know by now, and are not perfect sentences,
as they do not have a conjugating verb or adjective at the end of them. In order to do this, we
should add to . For example:

By doing this, you create the meaning of One is scheduled to
Some examples:
10 = We are scheduled to meet at 10:00
4 = The class is scheduled to start at about 4:00pm
9 = The plane is
scheduled to depart at 9:00, but it probably wont because it is snowing a lot.
.
~ ~
Sometimes I, Sometimes I
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= accent
= debt
= comb
= chemistry
= philosophy
= leather/animal skin
= crocodile
= invention
= brush
= toothpaste
= toothbrush
= style
= perfume
= nostril
= onion
= socks
= crack
= facilities
Verbs:
= comb ones hair
= compare
= invent
= to boil (active)
= brush
= enter a school
= count
= apologize
Passive Verbs:
= to be boiling
Adjectives:
= endless
= subtle
= unfortunately
Introduction
At the very start of Unit 2, you learned about the ~ principle over the course of many
lessons. In these lessons, you learned how to make sentences/verbs/adjectives into noun form by
adding ~ , ~ or /. In this lesson, you will learn more about adding ~ to words by
learning about adding ~ ~ to words to emphasize verbs in sentences with
the word too.
.
~ ~
You learned in one of our very first lessons how to use the particle ~ to give the meaning of
as well or too to the noun it is attached to. For example:
= I want to eat that, too, Or
= I want to eat that too
Adding ~ to a noun is something that is very easy, and I am sure you are comfortable doing it
by now. However, it is also possible to add ~ to verbs and adjectives as well. Of course, doing
so involves changing these verbs into noun form first. This is usually done by using ~ instead
of ~ . Lets look at how we can do this:
The first thing you should do is add ~ to a verb or adjective:

Once you have added ~, you should finish the sentence with :
= She is beautiful too
= I ate too
However, you must make sure that you are aware of the differences when placing ~ in
different places. Remember that only the noun that ~ is added to is the noun that is being
emphasized as too. Look at these examples:
= She too is beautiful (in the sense that other people are beautiful, but she is too)
= She is beautiful too (in the sense that she may also be smart, and
funny, but she is beautiful too)
= I too ate rice (in the sense that other people ate rice, but I did too)
= I ate rice too (in the sense that I ate other things, but I ate rice too)
= I ate rice too (in the sense that I did other things, but I also ate rice).
It looks very confusing, but all you need to remember is that (like I said) only the noun that ~
is added to is the noun that is being emphasized.
Okay, weve got that out of the way.
Now, the two sentences that we looked at before:
= She is beautiful too
= I ate rice too
are perfect sentences, but would never be said on their own. In order for both of these
sentences to make sense, they would have to be prefaced (by you, or by somebody else) with
somebody describing the other action that was occurring (or description).
Think about it, you could never just randomly say a sentence like:
She is beautiful too
without somebody talking about other traits that she may possess. For example:
Person 1:
= She is smart and kind
Person 2: ,
= Yeah, she is also pretty
If you wanted to create a sentence like this without having to preface it by a previous situation,
you would need to talk about two things in the sentence. If you want to do this (and this is where
this lesson gets confusing), you need to use the form ~ ~ . Lets break this
down step by step.
If I wanted, I could simply say:
, which would mean, she is pretty and smart.
But if you wanted to say she is pretty, and smart too you would need to use the ~ ~
form:
= She is pretty, and smart too
Very confusing at first, but the sentence is essentially this:
(she is pretty too)
and this:
(she is smart too)
connected with in the middle.
You cannot do the following:

, as the second adjective needs to have ~ attached to it.
Again, notice the difference between that sentence, and this one:
= She is pretty and smart
More examples to differentiate:
= I read a novel, and read a comic book
too
= I read a novel, and then read a comic book
= I read a novel and a comic book
= I ate rice, and ate some bread too

= I ate rice, and then ate some bread
= I ate rice and bread
There is actually another usage to this form, which we will talk about next
Sometimes I, Sometimes I : ~ ~
Using this form can also translate to the meaning of sometimes I do this, and sometimes I do
that You already know how to add verbs into this form, as it is the same as was taught earlier:
= On Tuesdays, sometimes
I play tennis, and sometimes I play badminton
You would think that this usage of ~ ~ and the one described earlier in this
lesson would be hard to distinguish, but they are actually very distinguishable by the context.
Not only that, usually when people are trying to express the meaning of sometimes I
sometimes I they include the word or some other description of time to indicate that
on this day, sometimes I sometimes I
Introduction
Quoting with Verbs: ~/
Quoting with Adjectives: ~
Quoting with : ~()
Other Uses of ~/
Using Quoted Sentences with ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= long term
= democracy
= somebody who eats a lot
= fish
= length
= rope
= main character/hero
= novelist
= dissatisfaction
= car/automobile
= water current
= free food from stores (tasting)
= input
= output
= cash
= ATM
Verbs:
= turn around
= to make longer
= point (literally)/indicate
() = imagination (imagine)
= plant (a plant)/instill (knowledge)
= sprinkle
= console (/)
Adjectives:
= same/identical to
= little/tiny
= vast difference in degree/exceptional
= on the hour
= heavily/badly/really bad
= gradually/slowly
= until now
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn something that hasnt been presented at all up to this point. Here,
you will learn how to quote people (including yourself) when making sentences. After learning
this, you will understand how important it is to know how to quote people in speech, as you will
realize how often it comes up. Anyways, here we go, lets learn how to quote.
.
Quoting with Verbs: ~/

Quoting in Korean is counter-intuitive for an English speaker. With some Korean knowledge
most people would assume that quoting would be done using the ~ principle. For example,
if I was going to say:
I knew (that) he went to the park
I could use the ~ principle to create this sentence in Korean:
= I knew (that) he went to the park
If I changed the word knew to said, one would think that I could write this:

However, this is not how quoting is done in Korean. The ordering of the quoted sentences is still
the same as ~ sentences, but ~ is not used. So, lets take out ~ in that sentence:
????
In quoted sentences, the actual quoted part gets conjugated into the plain form. Remember, the
basic conjugation form for verbs is:
//
//
//
So, you actually conjugate the quoted part of a sentence as if it were its own sentence into this
form. After the sentence is conjugated to the most basic form, you must place at the end of
it. For example:
Lets look at the example we were looking at before. Instead of writing this:

I need to say:
= I said that he went to the park
Notice that in the quoted portion of the sentence is conjugated to the past tense. This is
done because the sentence is I said that he went to the park. In other situations, the quoted part
of the sentence could be conjugated to the future and present tenses. If we wanted, we could also
write:
= I said that he goes to park
= I said that he will go to the park
Lets look at another verb.
= The teacher said that the students arrived late
= The teacher said that the students arrive late
= The teacher said that the students will
arrive late
Some more examples. Also notice that you can change to the present or future tenses to
say say or will say:
= Im going to tell my dad that I wont go home
= I told the teacher that I studied hard
= I said that we have to go together
= I said that I didnt eat (rice)
Actually, because adding ~/ in these sentences already indicates that the sentence is
quoted, you do not necessarily need to say and instead, you can just say .:
= He said that he didnt study
= I said that I didnt eat (rice)
Quoting with Adjectives: ~

Doing the same thing, but with adjectives is even easier. Remember, when conjugating adjectives
into the most basic form in the present tense, it is done like this:
(NOT )
(NOT )
(NOT )
etc
When conjugating adjectives in this form into the past tense, it is done just like with verbs in the
past tense:
So, when quoting a sentence that ends in an adjective, we use this same basic conjugation. Lets
look at some examples:
= My dad said that he was very
happy when he was younger
= When we were eating, I said I wasnt
hungry
The thing you must also remember is that / (to have/to not have) and act as
adjectives, and thus, must be conjugated as such. For example:
= I said that I want to buy a new car
= I said I was at home, but nobody came
Also remember that when using ~ / (I can/cant) / mean to have/to not
have where is ability. Therefore, this form must also be conjugated as an adjective:
= The student said he cant understand
= I said I cant go to school
= He said that he will be able to travel next

Thursday
Quoting with : ~()

Conjugating when it is quoted is slightly different than quoting with other verbs and
adjectives. When quoting with in the past tense, it is done simply by adding ~ to the past
conjugation of in the most basic form:
= He said he was a teacher
= The policeman said that the
people on the street were protestors
When quoting in the present tense, replaces when writing . For example:
= is incorrect
= He said he is a teacher
= is incorrect
= Our teacher said I am a bad student
This is also how you can quote a sentence in the future tense using the ~ form.
Remember, when using this form is simply a noun and the sentence is conjugated using
. Therefore, in the following sentence:

can be quoted by doing the following:
= I said that I will eat, or
= I said that I will eat
Remember that can be shortened to , and is often done when using this future
conjugation form. Also notice that gets eliminated if the noun it attaches to (in this case,
) ends in a vowel.
More examples:
= I said I cant go outside/wont be able to go outside
= I told my family that this person

is my girlfriend
= I already told you that that is
something you have to do
= I said that the thing I want to do most is
eat
= My name is
In the last example, this is a more common/natural way of introducing yourself, instead of using
, which is an English-style way of introducing yourself. In most
cases, you add something before your name to describe yourself even more. For example:
, = Hi, my name is , and I come
from Canada (I am , from Canada)
, 2 3 = Hi, my name is ,
and I am in class 3, in the second grade of high school.
I would like to take a moment to explain the ambiguity of when in can be removed
when attaching a grammatical principle.
First of all, whenever is attached to a noun that ends in a consonant, should be
included when attaching another grammatical principle to . For example, here are some
grammatical principles being added to , when added to a noun that ends in a consonant.
You have learned these before:
You havent learned these grammatical principles yet, but the concept is still the same:
When adding any of these grammatical principles to when it is attached to a noun ending in
a vowel, the can be omitted. For example:
or
or
or
or
In these examples, it is not so much that is being omitted, but rather the is blending
with the pronunciation of the noun and grammatical principle. When the noun ends in a vowel,
your tongue can flow immediately to the upcoming grammatical principle, and the pronunciation
isnt altered if is included or not. Because of this, including and not including are
both seen as correct.
However, if we did the same thing with nouns ending in a consonant, not only can your tongue
not flow properly from the noun to the grammatical principle, the pronunciation is significantly
different. Therefore, omitting in cases where the noun ends in a consonant would be incorrect.
Try pronouncing and and listen to how small the difference is
Try pronouncing and listen to how large the difference is (and also
realize that it is hard to say)
I touched on this way back in Lesson 9 when I first introduced and its conjugations, as this
same idea can be applied to the past tense conjugation of as well. When conjugating
to the past tense and then attaching an additional grammatical principle, the pronunciation of
can merge with the pronunciation of the grammatical principle if the noun ends in a vowel.
For example:
(or )
(or )
(or )
(or )
However, cannot merge with the pronunciation of an upcoming grammatical principle if the
noun ends in a consonant. For example:
(not or )
(not or )
The reason I am mentioning this in this lesson is because the same phenomenon happens when
we are quoting with . While you may have been able to figure out the quoted
sentences because they are so similar to the regular conjugations of , adding ~ might
have be more difficult. When adding ~ to , if the noun ends in a vowel, it can be either:
or .
However, if adding ~ to and the noun ends in a consonant, it can only be
(and not )
Here is a table that I made that breaks it down:

conjugation as
Examples
Informal low
or
Informal high
or
Plain form
or
Formal high
or
+~
or
+ ~()
or
Quoted
or
Past quoted
or
Past + ~()
or
conjugation as
Examples
Informal low
Informal high
Plain form
Formal high
+~
+ ~()
Quoted
Past quoted
Past + ~()
An exception to all the stuff I talked about with being merged is when the upcoming
grammatical principle begins with something like ~ or ~. In these cases, can merge
with the upcoming grammatical principle. The similarity of this with the previous examples is
that is not omitted when a noun ends in a consonant.
For example:
+ + ~ =
+ + ~ =
Other Uses of ~/
Though you can use ~/ when you are saying a quoted sentence, there are other times
when using this grammatical form is appropriate.
1) When saying I think:
= I think that girl isnt pretty
= I dont think Canada and the US are similar
2) When saying I believe:
= I believe that our team will win
3) When talking about what something is called:
= That building is called Korea tower
= In Canada, we call that type
of food Poutine
Using Quoted Sentences with ~

Most of the first part of Unit 2 (Lessons 26 33) focused on the purposes of ~ . In those
lessons, you started to see things like this:

You may have noticed by now (not on our website, but Im sure you are supplementing your
studies with various resources) that these are sometimes written/said like this:

Before we get into what it means notice how it is written.
The verb that ~ is being added to has been conjugated into the plain form. To refresh your
memory, the present tense (for verbs) of this conjugation would be:
=
=
Past tense would be:
=
=
Future tense would be:
=
=
Adding ~ after any of these plain form conjugations is an abbreviation of a quoted clause.
is abbreviation of
is an abbreviation of
is an abbreviation of
By describing an upcoming noun with a verb that is conjugated (and abbreviated) this way, the
clause describing the noun is a quotation, which means that it was once said. Its better to explain
with examples in this case, so lets look at one:
= I know that he doesnt like me
= I know that (it is said that) he doesnt like me
While the two examples above have a very similar meaning (in both examples, the end result is
that the speaker knows that the person does not like him), in the second example, the speaker is
pointing out that somebody said he doesnt like me. Specifically who said that clause is
ambiguous, and would have to be understood by context. In this case it could be the person
himself who said that quote (the person who doesnt like him) or some other third party. I would
never translate that sentence above to the following, but just to show you what I mean:
= I know that he said that he doesnt like me
= I know that somebody said that he doesnt like me
Nonetheless, as I mentioned earlier, the translation and result of these sentences and the sentence
above without a quoted clause is the same, and a separate translation doesnt necessarily need to
made in English because it is often very hard to accurately describe the situation.
In place of in these cases, it is quite common to find the words (fact) and
(rumor). These are often used because these are nouns whose meaning inherently implies that
something was said. For example:
= There is a rumor that that woman
has a baby with another man
= There is a rumor that that
womans husband is having an affair with his secretary
Instead of:
= There is a rumor that that womans
husband is having an affair with his secretary
This same principle can be used in the past tense as well (remember to use the plain form):
= I heard a rumor that she failed the test
= She hid (the fact that) her child died
= I forgot (the fact) that the boss went to
America last year
You can actually use this principle in this future tense as well, but fasten your seat belts
because it gets tricky. Remember the best way to conjugate to the future tense. Instead of saying
it is more common to say . Well, in these cases, notice that the final
word is . This means that you need to added the quoted conjugation onto (which you
learned how to do in this lesson).
It would break down like this:
+ + ~ =
or
+ + ~ =
For example:
= I forgot (the fact that) that she will be
getting married soon
= There is a rumor that the president will leave
Korea soon.
Also remember how to conjugate adjectives using this plain form (in the present tense).
Remember once again that, for example, when conjugating verbs, you need to do:
=
=
But with adjectives in the plain form, you just leave them as they are:
=
=
So, using an adjective before ~/ would look like this:
= I forgot (the fact that) that your girlfriend was
pretty
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
I said Lets: ~
Quoting Questions: ~
Quoting Questions with : ~()
Direct Quotes
Ending a Sentence without a Conjugated Word
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= freezer
= T shirt
= daughter in law
= son in law
= bib
= spit/saliva
= other people/stranger
= gentleman
= lady
= earthquake
= mob/rioter
= riot
= heat
= both families
Verbs:
= cry/sweat/drool/spill
= spit out
= treat (to treat somebody well/bad)
= complain
= kids pestering parents for something
= destroy
Adjectives:
= comfortable/peaceful
= pleasant/nice
() = trustworthy
= warm
= Celsius
= places
= disrespectfully/carelessly
= by chance
= future/new life
Introduction
In this lesson, you will add to your knowledge of what you learned in the previous lesson by
learning more about making quoted sentences. In this lesson, we will look at how to quote
sentences of suggestion (~) and sentences of question (~). In addition, you will learn
how to form direct quotes. Lets get started.
I said Lets: ~
In Lesson 48, you learned how to add ~ to the stems of verbs in order to have the meaning
Lets. For example:
! = Lets eat!
! = Lets go to the park
Putting a quote on these sentences is done very easily, and all you need to do is add after
in the quoted part of the sentences:
= He said Lets eat!
= He said Lets go to the park
= The teacher said lets study hard
during class time
More examples:
= My friend said
lets travel together, but I had no money, so I couldnt go (more naturally translated to: My
friend wanted to go traveling together, but I didnt have any money, so I couldnt go)
= My girlfriend said lets go
for a walk, but I was too tired, so I didnt go
.
Introduction
Quoted Imperative Sentences: ~()
Negative Quoted Imperative Sentences: ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= basic/foundation
= basic training
= medicine/medical knowledge
= communication
= piece/slice
= vice president
= guidance counselor
= native speaker
= complaint/dissatisfaction
= subtitles
= food poisoning
= honorific speaking
= character (personality character)
Verbs:
= feed
= run
= hire
= manage/run/operate
= renewing (a contract)
= throw up
= exaggerate
= analysis/analyze
= get on (a bus/plane/boat)
= attend (a meeting)
Adjectives:
= strict/severe (punishment)
= free
= years/time
= all kinds of
= in a long time
= drastically/sharply
= meanwhile (sort of like )
Introduction
You have learned a lot about quoted sentences in the past two lessons, but there is still one more
principle that you should be aware of before we move away from this for a while. In this lesson,
you will learn how to quote sentences in the imperative mood: that is, sentences where somebody
is giving a command or order to somebody else. This is probably the hardest of all three
principles, but Ill break it down as simply as I can.
Quoted Imperative Sentences: ~()

When you learned about the imperative mood, you learned that there are many ways to end a
sentence when giving somebody a command. Aside from the differences in politeness, these
would all have the same meaning:
!
!
!
!
If I was going to put a word in there:
! = work hard!
! = work hard!
! = work hard!
! = work hard!
However, when quoting words/sentences in the imperative mood, you dont use any of those
endings. When doing so, you use an ending that is similar to the second one presented (
).
That ending () is composed of the word and adding the imperative ending
/ to it. For example:
However when quoting these sentences, you attach () to stems, not /. ~ gets
added to word stems ending in a consonant, and ~ gets added to stems ending in a vowel.
Notice the difference:
Also notice that in some instances (, for example), there is no difference between the quoted
and non-quoted versions.
Once we have added ~() to the stems, we must add to it, to indicate that it is a quoted
sentence:
And then we can actually create sentences:
= My dad told me to eat fast

= The teacher told the students to study
hard
= I told the baby to drink his milk
= The mother told her son to come to
eat
Now that we know all of this, we can look at how to quote negative imperative sentences.
.
Introduction
(Noun) or (Noun): ~()
(Verb) or (Verb): ~
If not:
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= arcade
= summary/plot
= gymnasium
= organization
= style/mode/pattern/way
= form (to fill out)
= final exam
= midterm exam
= halfway point
= the rest/the remainder
= an agreement/treaty/pact
= public opinion
Verbs:
= record/write down
= going to school
= leaving school
= worry
= activity/do an activity
= correct/modify/revise
= take a person somewhere
= adding one more thing
= tie up
= to see/watch closely
= kick
= fix/repair
() = fall in love at first sight
Adjectives:
= diligent
= dim/faint/vague
= empty handed
= unexpectedly
= middle time period
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about the grammatical principles ~(), and ~. Both of these
can be used in sentences to mean or in Korean, but they cannot be used interchangeably. ~()
can be attached to nouns, and ~ can be attached to verbs. Lets look at ~() first.
(Noun) or (Noun): ~()

This is really a simple connector that can be added to nouns to mean or. The only difficulty
comes with grasping the difference in formation compared to English grammar. In English, we
write the word or as a separate word. However, in Korean, when you want to say or you
must attach~() to the first noun. ~ gets added to a noun ending in a consonant and ~
gets added to a noun ending in a vowel. For example:
= I want to eat dduk or kimchi

? = Shall we go to the arcade or park?
? = Shall we see this movie, or that movie?
You can actually add it to a noun without having another noun come after it. When you do this,
the meaning changes a little bit; since there is no second noun to follow or it gets translated to
or something or a similar meaning. For example:
= Im going to go home and eat rice (or something)
= Im going to study (or something)
. Vocabulary
Introduction
To make/To let: ~
~
~So that, to allow for: ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= minor (in university)
= form/formality/format
=path that somebody/something takes
= process
= festival/carnival
= list/inventory
= store
= vision/field of vision
= the number of
= tools
= living room
= sun light
= model/mockup/miniature
= tinfoil
Verbs:
= to surprise
= discover
= finish a course of study
= arrive/reach
= to load
= look around
= look into
= look out of/look into the future
= knock
= accomplish(ment)
= wrap up
= guess correctly
= put on sunglasses
Passive Verbs:
= to be wrapped up
Adjectives:
= slim/slender (for a woman)
() = more and more
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to say I make or I let somebody to do something. Just like
with a lot of other Korean grammatical principles, this one doesnt make sense at first to English
speakers, simply because the construction is so different from English grammar. As always, I will
break it down for you step by step. Lets get started.
To make/To let: ~
Before we begin, note that make has many meanings in English. In this lesson, we are not
talking about the definition of make as in to make a cake (). Instead, we are talking
about the definition of the word make in the following sentence:
I make my mom happy

Note here that this definition of make has nothing to do with actually making an object.
Rather, it is about influencing/telling somebody what to do. More examples of this definition in
English:
I made him study
I want to make my friend go
I will make him sleep
It sounds weird, but the grammatical principle used to say make (in this definition) is also used
to mean to let in English. For example:
I let him study
I want to let my friend go
I will let him sleep
If I were to write those three sentences down in Korean, they would appear identical to the three
sentences I presented earlier. This is confusing at first, but the context always makes it clear
which one you are trying to mean.
Now that you know all of that, lets look at how we can construct this grammatical principle. In
Korean, there is no actual word for make or let in this definition. Instead, you must add ~
to the verb that you are making/letting somebody do. The object particle / gets
attached to the person that you are making/letting. For example:
= I make/let him study
= I want to make/let my friend go
= I will make/let him sleep
This grammatical form can be attached to both verbs and adjectives. When attached to an
adjective, it has the meaning of to make somebody (adjective). More examples:
= I made my girlfriend happy
If you want to say that you surprised somebody, you can use this grammatical form. The word
for to be surprised is . Because this is an adjective, if you want to say that you
surprised somebody it is the equivalent of saying I made somebody surprised. So, we can do
this:
= Because I can speak

Korean, I always surprise Korean people
= Because my mother gave me a present,
she surprised me
Sometimes, there might be the need for two objects in a sentence. If you were going to make
somebody do something, sometimes another noun needs to be added. For example:
1 noun: I made him study
2 nouns: I made him study Korean
1 noun: I made him read
2 nouns: I made him read a book
In these situations, the subject particle / can be attached to the person you are making do
something, the object particles / can be attached to the object you are making them do, and
the grammatical form ~ can be attached to the verb you are making them do. Confused
yet? Lets take a look:
= I made him study
= I made him study Korean
= I made him read
= I made him read a book
Another example:
= I made the students listen (sounds a little bit awkward because of
the ambiguity of what you made the students listen to. It sounds more natural with the inclusion
of another object, as shown in the next example).
= I made the students listen to me
~
You learned all about the word and ~/ in Lesson 41. After adding ~ to a
verb/adjective, you could also connect / to . For example, instead of writing:
= I let the students study
You could write:
= I let the students study

The meaning is the same, but because you are adding ~/ to the end of the word, it
implies that you are performing some sort of service (essentially giving something to them).
Therefore, if you want to add / after adding ~ , it must go in a sentence where
somebody is being made to do something positive/beneficial for that person. For example:
= I made the students happy, could also be written as:
= I made the students happy
however, this sentence:
= I made the students sad, could not be written as:
this is incorrect because making somebody sad is not
positive.
.
Introduction
To make: ~
To remind somebody of something:
as a Stand-Alone Verb
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= confusion/chaos/mess
= cage for animals
= squirrel
= snake
= design
= unemployment
= unemployed person
= doorbell
= the majority
= baby blanket
= drinking
= carriage
= typhoon
Verbs:
= stimulate/stimulus
= apply (to a situation)
= link arms with somebody
= preparing food/the table to eat
() = to regain consciousness
= to order (food)
= to remind
=catch some sort of infectious disease
= to move/shift/transfer/transmit
Passive Verbs:
= conflicting
Adjectives:
= unclear/uncertain
= after school
() = at somebodys side
= generally/overall
= right now/for the time being
= as much as one likes
Introduction
In the previous lesson, you learned how to add ~ to words to create the meaning of
making or letting somebody do something. In this lesson, we will look at another way you
can express that you are making somebody do something by using the ending ~.
Using ~ is similar to using ~ , but we want you to look at this lesson so you can
understand the differences between the two.
To make: ~
You can replace some words in Korean that end in ~ with ~ to create the meaning of
to make somebody. Three easy examples I can show you are:
= to be impressed
= to impress (to make somebody impressed)
= to be aroused/excited
= to arouse/excite (to make somebody aroused/excited)
= to disappoint (to make somebody disappointed)
Examples of these specific words in use:
= Because I didnt do well on the test, I
disappointed my parents
? = What is the best way to impress ones
girlfriend?
= That news excited the public/citizens
There are other examples of when can be attached to words like that in order to create
the meaning of to make somebody but knowing these three examples are good for now. The
importance of this lesson isnt for you to know every word that ~ can attach to. Rather, it
is important for you to know at this point that by adding ~ to a word changes it from a
word that cannot act on an object (i.e. an adjective):
= I am impressed
= I am aroused
= I am disappointed
(all three of those are rarely used in the present tense)
to a word that can act on an object:
= I impressed my friend
= I aroused my friend
= I disappointed my friend
Also (as you can see from the previous examples), most of the words that ~ can be added
to end in ed in English when presented in their forms:
= impressed
= aroused
= disappointed
It addition to changing words into those that can act on objects ( to ) it can
also be used to replace ~ in situations with other verbs. Again, the goal of this lesson is
not to show you every single example of when this can be done, but rather show you examples of
when it is done so you can infer the meaning when you do come across again. Some
examples of when you can use ~ instead of ~ :
= I made that person work
= I made that person work
= I made the student understand that problem
1 = One of my friends introduced me to a girl
To remind somebody of something:
One weird verb that doesnt really fit within the rules that I described earlier is .
Though is a word as well, it is rarely used in that form. Rather, it is used in the
form. The rarely used means to recall/to remember therefore, by saying
, the meaning changes to to make somebody recall/remind. This is usually more
naturally translated to remind.
If you are talking about something reminding you of something, you do not need to include
yourself in the sentence, as the meaning is inferred from context. For example:
= Korea reminds me of Canada
= That man reminds me of my boyfriend from a
long time ago
Notice, that you can also use (or to make somebody think)
to express the same meaning as these types of sentences:
= Korea makes me think (reminds me) of Canada
= That girl makes me think (reminds me) of
my girlfriend from a long time ago
If you are talking about reminding somebody else, you can attach the particle to the
person you are reminding:
= I remind my
girlfriend that I love her every day
= The teacher reminded the
students that they have to do their homework
as a Stand-Alone Verb
In addition to the usages I have shown you so far, you can also use as a stand-alone verb.
The most common usage of when it is used by itself is when you talk about ordering
food. For example:
? = Did you order food?
? = What do you want to order?
= I ordered
. Quoted Imperative Sentences with : ~

Favor:
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= generation
= government person/civil servant
= disturbance/ruckus/uproar ()
warehouse
= survey
= (photo) album
= high quality, advanced
= housing
= somebody hoping for something
= disappointment
= moving in to a house/apartment
= business/sales
= sales
= school grades
= alliance
= correction/revision
= temple/mosque
= member of staff/employee
= new employee
= counter for books/movies/TV shows
= movement/motion
Verbs:
= leave alone
= twist
= cut/divide/pass through
= try to/effort
= hold a meeting/host an event
Passive Verbs:
= to be untied
Adjectives:
= to be exhausted/tired/worn out
= plentiful/bountiful/abundant
= unexpectedly
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about adding ~/ to the ends of words. In earlier lessons,
you learned how to make quoted sentences. This ending is added to words when you are quoting
an imperative sentence ending with (to give). What does that mean? Well cover this in
detail in this lesson.
Quoted Imperative Sentences with : ~
In Lesson 40, you learned about how to create imperative sentences. For example:
! = Eat!
! = Study hard!
! = Work hard!
In Lesson 52, you learned about how to make quoted sentences. For example:
= I said I want to go to the park
= I said I wont be able to go to Korea
And finally, you learned in Lesson 54 how to make quoted imperative sentences:
= I told that person to eat
= I told that person to study
= I told that person to work hard
However, when making imperative sentences (as you know), you can also add ~/ to
the ends of words to stress that the thing you are suggesting is something that you want done for
yourself. For example:
! = Eat!, compared to:
= Please eat!
! = Study hard!
! = Please study hard
Now, when quoting sentences that end in / , you would think you could do:
= I said please eat!
= I said please study
However, these sentences are not correct. Instead, when quoting imperative sentences that end in
/ , you must change ~/ to / . For example:
= I said please eat!
= I said please study
More examples:
= I told them to please
be quiet, but they are still very loud
= I told my mom please make a lunch box

for me
In fact, whenever you are simply saying give me a noun and using ~ (not ~/ ),
you need to use ~ as well. Therefore, you can say:
! = Please give me a tissue
! = Please give me one bottle of beer
but when you quote those sentences, because they end in , instead of saying ~,
you must say ~. For example:
= I said please give me a tissue!
= I said please give me one bottle of beer!
Note however that using ~ is only done when the acting agent in the sentence is also the
receiving person. Its very confusing, but if I was quoting a sentence where I told Person 1 to tell
Person 2 to give Person 1 something, I would use ~ as normal. Look at this example:
= I told my dad to tell my mom to give him rice.
Again, like I said, its confusing. Whenever you are quoting a sentence where you are asking
somebody to give something to you, or when you are quoting a sentence when somebody is
asking to give something to him/her, you can use ~. That is, where the person receiving
something is also the person who is speaking, you should use ~/ . However, in the
rare cases where the speaker is quoting a sentence where he/she tells somebody to give
something to another person, you should use .
Now that you are completely confused, lets move on.
Favor:
The word can be used as a noun in sentences to mean favor. For example:
= I have one favor
In English, however, when we ask for a favor, we usually express it in one of two ways:
Can I ask you a favor? Or,
Can you do me a favor?
In Korean, they use two strange ways of expressing that you would like a favor.
The first way that they do this, is by attaching ~ to the noun . This then creates the verb
of to request a favor. For example:
= I asked for a more clear explanation.
The weird thing about that translation in English, is that the word favor isnt in it. Technically,
the sentence should be written like this is English:
I asked a favor for the explanation to be more clear
But that doesnt sound as natural as I asked for a more clear explanation
The reason why it is weird is that (as I mentioned), even through means to
request/ask for a favor it often doesnt get translated as such when translating a sentence into
English.
In the sentence I showed you earlier, came after a noun. However, if the favor you
are asking for is a verb, you must attach the ~ ending to the verb, followed by .
For example:
= I asked him to explain it more clearly
One more peculiar thing about the word is that it is often said as . You
learned in a previous lesson that the word is used just like but when the
receiving person deserves respect. When using the word the person receiving the favor is
you, and you should never use when talking about yourself. However, adding to
is the one exception to this rule, and it is very common to say instead of
when finishing these sentences:
= I asked my mother to buy that for me
Introduction
In this lesson, instead of learning a few grammatical principles, you will learn a number of
difficult words that dont fit into one particular lesson or another. There have been a few lessons
like this up to this point, and the goal is to introduce you to difficult words that you wouldnt
otherwise understand if you just saw them in a vocabulary list. Just like I do when I teach you
grammatical principles, I will explain each word and how it can be used in every day Korean
conversation. Lets get started with the list of words.
Vocabulary
= maybe/perhaps
= probably
= to grow/cultivate crops
= to make oneself look nice
= age
= to see (high respect)
() = to be wearing
= i.e./in other words
Perhaps:
In a few different lessons, you have learned about some words that can be placed in sentences
that dont have any real meaning. Two specific examples that you have already learned are
and . You learned in Lesson 43 that you can add the word to sentences that
have if in them, even though doesnt really have any meaning. Furthermore, in Lesson
49 you learned about the word and how it can be added to sentences that have /
in them. Both of these words dont have much meaning, and are placed in sentences
specifically for feeling.
is another one of these words. If you look up in the dictionary, you will
probably see a definition of maybe/perhaps (just like you would see the definition if if you
looked up the word ). However, can be taken out of sentences without any real
change of meaning.
gets placed specifically in sentences that end in ~/ () , which you
learned about in Lesson 30.
By placing at the beginning of sentences, you can emphasize to the listener/reader that
the ending ~/() will be coming. For example:
= She might come/I dont know if she will come/Perhaps she

will come
= Her boyfriend might buy her
a present/I dont know if her boyfriend will buy her a present/Perhaps her boyfriend will buy her
a present
Perhaps:
is just like the word that you learned about in the previous section.
However, instead of being placed at the beginning of sentences that end in ~/()
, the word gets placed at the beginning of sentences that have the ending ~
. You learned all about ~ in Lesson 35.
By placing at the beginning of sentences, you can emphasize to the listener/reader that
the ending ~ will be coming. For example:
= She probably wont come to meet us
= He probably already left
When using both of these words ( and ), they can just as easily be omitted and
the sentence will have the same meaning. As I mentioned, using these words is more about
feeling than it is about meaning.
To grow/To make look pretty:

isnt all that hard of a verb, but a word I felt needed more explanation nonetheless. It has
two fairly distinct meanings:
To grow/cultivate some sort of crops
To dress yourself up/make yourself look pretty
When used in as the first definition, it usually acts on the word (garden) or some sort of
fruit/vegetable. For example:
= When you get older, doing gardening
is good exercise
= Along time ago we used to grow vegetables at

our house
When used as the second definition, it usually acts on the word or some similar word
meaning body or appearance. For example:
= Because I have a date in a
week, I have to make myself look nice
.
Introduction
Just like in the previous lesson, this lesson will teach you some difficult words that you would
not otherwise understand. These are all words that you wouldnt otherwise understand if you just
saw them in a vocabulary list. Ill break each word down step by step as I always do.
Vocabulary
= full
= filled (adverb)
= for some reason/somehow
= surely not
= take picture/hack/stamp/dip/dot/print
() = thankful
~ = At some point in a month
To be full:
The word has many meanings, but one of the most common of those meanings is to be
full. Note that this meaning is not to fill but rather the passive form of to be full/filled.
is usually used in the past tense to describe that something is full:
= The classroom is completely full
= The restaurant is completely full
You can indicate what the area is filled with by using the particle () after a noun. Actually,
these upcoming sentences are more common than the previous two:
= The classroom is completely filled with students
= The restaurant is completely filled with customers
However, whenever you want to indicate that something is full/filled in Korean, it sounds
more natural to also include the adverb before the verb . For example:
= The classroom is filled with students
= The restaurant is filled with customers
has no real meaning on its own, although most people will tell you that it means
filled/full, simply because it is very commonly used in combination with . There might be
some times where you see as an adjective describing that something is full, but it is
generally more natural to use instead.
Somehow/For some reason:

After looking at it again, doesnt appear to be that difficult of a word. However, it has
always been a strange adverb to me, so I felt like presenting it separately in this lesson.
As I mentioned, is an adverb, which means it can really go anywhere in a sentence
(except the end, of course). You can use it in sentences to mean somehow or for some
reason. The best way to understand this word is to see some examples of it:
= My girlfriend broke up with me for some reason
= She wanted to learn Korean for some reason
= Somehow I dont want to go to school today
Surely:
The word is another word that isnt that hard to understand, but still warrants a separate
explanation. Just like it is hard to describe the meaning of , and getting used to its
usage only happens once you have been exposed to it a number of times.
At any rate, by putting the word in a sentence, it creates a rhetorical question that
typically begins with the word Surely Again, its hard to describe it in English like this, let
me show you some examples:
? = Surely you arent still sleeping?/Dont tell me you are still sleeping?
? = Surely he didnt eat all of the food?/Dont tell me he ate all
of the food?
As you can see, its pretty hard to give a specific definition for the word, as the word sort of
changes the whole meaning of a sentence. The most common definition of in English is
Surely as I described above. All you can do with this word is try getting used to hearing it and
using it, and then you will be fine. More examples:
? = Surely it is not that cold?
= Surely you are not going there by yourself?
? = Dont tell me the student responded like that, did he?
? = Surely youre not still sick, are you?
? = Surely we dont have to go to school tomorrow, do
we?
.
To take a picture and other usages:
is another one of those words that has a lot of meanings. Though all meanings are sort of
similar, I want to show you how many different ways you can use . The general umbrella
meaning of is to touch something to something (or something along those lines. Lets
look at the wide variety of usages. You can use this word when:
You are taking a picture:
= I took a picture
You are stamping something:
= I stamped a stamp on a letter
You are dipping something in something:
= You need to dip the meat in the sauce
You put a dot or period on paper:
= When you are done writing a sentence, you need to put a
period
Those four usages are the four most common ones, but is used in more situations. However,
all the other situations are fairly similar to the examples given above, and you can generally infer
the meaning of simply by context.
Thankfully: ()
The word means luck or fortune but is generally used in one specific way. Korean
people usually put at the end of a sentence that ends in / (because) to indicate the
meaning of Thankfully For example:

However, because the sentence cannot end with a noun like that, is placed after :
= Thankfully I came
= Thankfully it didnt rain
= Thankfully the water isnt too hot
= Thankfully its not too expensive
At some point in a month: ~

When you want to say that something will be done on a specific day of a month, you know
already that you can say:
5 10 = Im going to Korea on May 10th
6 20 = Because I have to
write an exam on June 20th, I need to study really hard now
However, if you ever dont know the exact day in a month that something will occur, you can
attach the particle ~ to the name of the month to have the meaning of some time in ____.
For example:
5 = Im going to Korea some time in May
6 = Im going to write an exam some time in June
Introduction
To hope:
Please ~
I hope/I wish: ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= twins
= supplement
= swan
= interior
= policy
= currency
= question
= protein
= fat
= carbohydrate
= amount
= night
Verbs:
= swim
= fire (a person from a job)
= notice/notification
= notice/notification
= hand-over/pass to somebody
() = clean (cleanliness)
= explain/explanation
= the best one can do
/ = pick up
Adjectives:
= intentional/deliberate
= unrelenting/tireless/steady

() = prior/beforehand/ahead of time
= pair (counter)
= leisurely
= exactly/perfectly/precisely/just
= unconditionally
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about adding ~/ to the end of sentences to have
the meaning of hope. In addition to this, you will learn about the word and how this
could also mean hope in Korean as well. Lets get started.
To hope:
Lets start off with the less common (and more difficult) of the two. The word in
Korean means to hope, and can be used after a sentence (that one is hoping for) in the ~
form. For example:
= I want my girlfriend to like me
= I hope my girlfriend likes me
Heres a confusing one: For some reason, sort of acts as an irregular. Im not sure how
this evolved, but Korean people usually pronounce + (which would happen if you are
conjugating into the high respect informal and low respect informal honorific
conjugations) as . Even though I think would originally/historically be correct,
people these days often right or instead of and . For example:
Another confusing thing is that is often used with ~() to make the preceding
sentence into a noun instead of ~ . For example:
= I hope I do that job well
= I hope there isnt a lot of homework
If you want to say that you hope something happened in the past, keep conjugated in the
present tense, but conjugate the verb/adjective before ~ into the past tense (as you would
when adding ~ ), and add ~. For example:
= I hope I did that job well
= I hope we didnt make a mistake
More examples from both tenses:
= I hope the girl I am meeting now is pretty
= I hope dad comes home soon
= I hope he gives me a lot of money
You can actually use this same grammatical form to say please in Korean. I will show you
how to do that in the next section.
Please ~
You learned in Lesson 40 that you can say Please by adding ~/ to the end of a
verb or adjective. For example:
= Please do that for me
= Please take the chicken out of the fridge for me
You can actually use the ~ grammatical form to say Please as well. When you do
this, the formal ending ~ is usually added to to make . For example:
= Please do that
= Please take the chicken out of the fridge for me
Notice that these directly translate to I hope that you do that and I hope that you take the
chicken out of the fridge, which could technically mean Please do that and Please take the
chicken out of the fridge.
When adding just ~ to sentences to mean please, to Korean people, it sounds as

though the person who is speaking has authority. For example, if a boss was telling his workers
to get their work done, he would say . Implied in this meaning is that
the work technically should/ought to be done, and that the boss is ordering them to do it.
You can remove that authoritative feel by adding / after the verb that you are hoping
is done. For example:

To make those sentences more formal, the honorific is often added to :
= Please do that/I hope that you do that
= Please take the chicken out of the fridge/I hope
that you take the chicken out of the fridge
Asking somebody to do something by using this form is very formal, and is most often heard in
overhead announcements made to large crowds of people instructing them to do something. For
example, if you take the subway in Seoul, the announcement might say:
. . KTX
= This is Seoul Station. Riders wanting to take the Airport Railroad or the KTX,
please transfer at this station.
If you need to tell somebody what to do, and you were to climb the figurative ladder of
politeness, it would look something like this:

Heh. In English, all mean Please go now.
There is another way that you can say I hope in Korean, which we will talk about next.
.
I hope/I wish: ~/
By adding ~/ to the end of a verb/adjective, you can create the meaning of I
hope or I wish. This is one of the grammatical forms where the whole is larger than the sum
of the parts meaning that if you break down the grammar within it, it doesnt work out to be I
hope or I wish. Notice that the past tense conjugation is used before ~ and the future
tense conjugation is used on . With these conjugations, it looks like sentences using this
form should be translated to it would be good if X happened.
Despite the use of these past and future conjugations within the grammatical form itself, it is
usually best translated to wish or hope. Some examples:
= I wish I didnt have work tomorrow
= I hope it doesnt rain
= I hope it is delicious
= I hope we go together with that girl
It is really a simple grammatical form to use and understand, it is just weird at first because (as I
said) it looks like it shouldnt mean what it means.
You also may see other words (usually ) used instead of , and you also may see these
words (including ) be conjugated in the present tense as well. For example:
= I wish we could meet soon, it would be nice if we could meet soon
Nonetheless, the most typical usage of this grammatical principle is the ~/
form presented earlier.
Personally, I use the ~/ form significantly more than the ~ form.
I would say that the ~/ form is better to use but my Korean source tells me
both are common and acceptable.
Vocabulary
Introduction
To do something at the same time as: ~()
Using Words of Position with ~()
While: ~()
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= schedule
= front door
= package/parcel
= souvenir
= monument
= studies
= issue/matter
= secret process
= formal way to refer to older male friend
= foreign brand
Verbs:
= change/replace (a tire/diapers)
= grind/rub/sharpen (a knife)
= pinch
= build up/stack up
() = commemorate
= follow/run after
= pull a person in to hug them
= progress
= press a button/oppress people
= beat/defeat in a game/ oppress
Passive Verbs:
= to be stacked/build up
Adjectives:
= bright (a womans style)
= proper/suitable/appropriate
= somewhat/a little bit
= oh my god!/oh no!
= in addition to
= the first half of the year
= the second half of the year

= doing something without permission
= suddenly
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to say that you are doing something at the same time as
something else. The simplest way to say this is to use the grammatical form ~(), but of
course, there are many peculiarities depending on the word. Lets get started.
To do something at the same time as: ~()

By adding ~() to the verb/adjective at the end of a clause, you can indicate that you did
that action while doing something else. This form is pretty simple when used with typical verbs:
= I ate while studying

= I drank cola while watching a movie
= My girlfriend
always stares at other guys when she is exercising
Notice that (as is common with Korean connecting particles) the first verb is not conjugated.
Rather, only the final verb is conjugated, and tense is implied from that final verb.
What is important to know is that you must use this form whenever you want to say I grew up
doing _____. For example:
I grew up watching TV
I grew up playing hockey
Or simply,
I grew up in Canada
When doing this, you need to use the word to grow up () after the (verb) ~()
portion of the sentence. For example:
TV = I grew up watching TV
= I grew up playing hockey
= I grew up playing hockey with my dad
While more commonly used with verbs, you can also use this grammatical form with adjectives
as well. My girlfriend sometimes likes to make fun of me when I make her mad, sometimes she
says:
= You stink, while being short at the same time
I personally rarely use this form with adjectives, although the dictionary (and my girlfriend)
clearly state that it can be done. If you are ever in a case where something is one adjective while
also another adjective, feel free to use it.
This is all pretty easy, but you cannot use the ~() form when using words of position (
, , , etc). I will talk about this in the next section.
.
Using Words of Position with ~()
You learned way back in Lesson 17 that you cannot usually attach the connecting particle ~
to position-like verbs.
I could describe what I said in Lesson 17 again, but really, the explanation from that lesson is
perfect. I will simply re-iterate what was written in that lesson:
There are many position verbs that usually act differently than regular verbs. The most common
of these are to sit (), stand (), and to lie down ().
The reason these are treated differently is because these are verbs that indicate a static state of
position. For example, if I just said:
= I ate and studied
In that sentence, aside from the fact that one action happened after another, and
have no relation to each other. However, if you were to say:
That would mean I lied down, and then read a book as in, I lied
down, stood up again, and then read a book. I guess technically you COULD do that, but nobody
would ever do that. Instead, what you wanted to say is that you lied down, and then, while lying
down, you read a book. In these situations with position verbs, the first action is related to the
section action. That is why there are treated differently.
Getting back to this lesson you shouldnt really use ~() with these position verbs. You
could technically, but the meaning would be different than what you expect. For example, you
could say:

But you have to remember that means to sit (as in, going from a standing position to a
sitting position, and NOT the static position of sitting). Therefore, this sentence actually means
that you studied while going from a standing position to a sitting position. Again, technically you
could do (and say) that, but 99.9% of the time, that would not be the meaning that you are going
for.
Instead, what you want to say is that while you were sitting, you studied. This is done using the
same grammatical form as described in Lesson 17. You simply add ~/ to the position-like
verb (instead of ~(). For example:
= I studied while sitting (in a sitting position)
TV = I lied down and watched TV
Something that you dont really need to know, but if you are a Korean grammar nerd (like me)
you might want to read this. If you wanted to say I was lying down you would say:
= I was lying down (NOT ).
So, technically, you can say:
= I studied while lying down
But this is (as Korean people often do) shortened to:
() :
I studied while lying down
There is another similar grammatical form that you should know about before moving on to the
next lesson.
While: ~()
By adding ~() in the same position as () you can create the same meaning of
while doing I did. For example:
= I ate while studying
I personally never say ~() and I always say ~(). Korean learners often try to
find the minute difference between these two grammatical forms. However, they are essentially
the same (if not exactly the same), and they do not need to be distinguished. Only native speaker
of Korean with a deep understanding of Korean grammar (much more than a regular person)
would be able to describe the very subtle difference between the two. My advice: treat them as
one and the same.
Vocabulary
Introduction
Asking a question to oneself
Asking a question to a listener
Shall we/Should we
Shall I
~/() vs. ~/()
Asking about possibility
Adding ~/ to
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= guidance/teach/lead
= attendance/absence
= booklet/leaflet/pamphlet/brochure
= wheel
= energy/vitality/vigor
= group
= identity
= teacher
= murder
/ = murderer
Verbs:
() = exceed/excess
()() = personal develop/ment
= to make somebody cry
= approval (approve)
= leave work
= trickle out of
= to exchange
= hire
= announce
= act
Passive Verbs:
= to be comprised
= for a wish/dream to come true
= to be smashed into pieces
= to be broken in half
Adjectives:
= dangerous/risky/critical
= rich
= cumbersome/inconvenient
= a counter for sip breath drag
= first come first served
Introduction
This lesson, along with Lesson 64 and Lesson 65 will focus on the use of ~/. Originally, I
wanted to introduce all of the usages of ~/ in one lesson, but there is simply too much
content. Therefore, I have separated the general usages and will introduce them to you over the
next three lessons. The usages will be generally divided into the following:
Lesson 63: ~/ used to ask a question
Lesson 64: ~/ used to express intent
Lesson 65: ~/ used to express worry
~/ can have a variety of meanings depending on the context, and my goal for the
upcoming lessons is to explain the context in which they are typically used.
In this lesson, you will learn about how ~/ can be used to ask a question. The topics in
this lesson will further be divided into separate sections:
~/ being used to ask a question to oneself
~/ being used to ask a question to a listener

o
Shall we/Should we
Shall I
~/() vs. ~/()
Adding ~/ to
Asking a Question to Oneself

The first (and simplest) way you will hear ~/ being used is at the end of a sentence where
the speaker is directing a question towards himself. This would happen when somebody is
wondering something and just expressing their thoughts out loud and not directing their speech at
any person in particular.
When ~/ is added to a verb or adjective where the subject of the sentence is the speaker,
this type of question has a nuance that does not exist in the regular form of that question. For
example:
() ? = Will I eat rice? (This is illogical if directed to yourself)

() ? = Should I eat rice?
Because the speaker is directing the question to himself, the translation of Will I eat rice? is
illogical and would not describe the subtle nuance of this sentence. It is illogical because the
speaker is asking himself about his own free will something that nobody knows except for
himself. Rather, the speaker is asking himself if he should go (or not). Therefore, a better
translation would be Should I eat rice?
Another example:
() ? = Will I do it like this? (This is illogical if directed to yourself)
() ? = Should I do it like this?
Again, because the speaker is directing the question to himself, the translation of Will I do it
like this? is illogical because the speaker is asking himself about his own free will. Rather, the
speaker is asking himself if he should do it like that (or not). Therefore, a better translation would
be Should I do it like this?
You can see this same nuance when a question word is used as well. For example:
() ? = What will I eat? (This is illogical if directed to yourself)
() ? = What should I eat?
() ? = When will I go? (This is illogical if directed to yourself)
() ? = When should I go?
Here are many more examples of ~/ being used by the speaker to ask a question to
himself:
? = Should I meet my friend?
? = Should I go to see the performance?
? = Where should I go?
? = Should I just put the pamphlet down and leave?
? = Should I leave work now?
? = How should/can I change the wheel?
When you look at these sentences by themselves, there is really no way to know if the speaker is
talking to himself or speaking to another person. However, real-life conversation has context and
only through this context can the specific usage of these sentences be clear.
In all of the examples above, you can see that the speaker is not only asking a question to
himself, but also about himself. In all of the examples above, the speaker is the acting agent of
the sentence. It is possible to ask a question to oneself about another person, but I will talk about
that usage later in the lesson when I talk about ~/ being used to ask about possibility.
In Lesson 93, you will learn another common ending that can be used to ask questions to
yourself.
.
Asking a Question to a Listener

Shall we/Should we
In the previous section, you learned that ~/ can be added to ask a question to oneself,
about oneself. For example:
() ? = Should I eat rice?
() ? = What should I eat?
This same idea and structure can be used to ask a question to another person about you and the
listener. Here, both the speaker (you) and the listener (the person you are talking to) are the
acting agents of the sentences.
We see a very similar translation as the sentences above, for example:
() ? = Should we eat rice?
() ? = What should we eat?
The typical English translation for sentences like this is Shall For example:
() ? = Shall we eat rice?
() ? = What shall we eat?
In Lesson 48, you learned about ~/() and how it can be used to have this meaning as
well. For example:
? = Shall we eat rice?

? = What shall we eat?
Below are many more examples of ~/ being used to have this meaning.
Note that ~ can be added to ~/ in these cases and anytime a sentence ends with ~ to
make it more formal. I didnt introduce this at the beginning of the lesson because ~ would not
be added if the question is directed at the speaker himself:
? = Shall we go now?
? = Shall we watch a movie?
? = Shall we order now?
? = Shall we take the bus?
? = Where shall we go?
? = Shall we exchange phone numbers?
? = Shall we hire that person?
? = Shall we drink one more sip?
? = Its so cumbersome, so shall we stop now?
? = Shall we give the opportunity to people on a firstcome first-served basis?
Shall I
In the above example sentences, the speaker is asking for the listeners opinion about something
they (the speaker and the listener) will both do.
This same idea and structure can be used to ask a question to another person about what you (the
speaker) will do. Here, only the speaker (you) is the acting agent of the sentence, and the speaker
is asking for the listeners opinion.
This form is most commonly used immediately before giving/offering something to somebody.
In a way, the speaker is asking if it is okay if he/she gives/offers something to the listener. For
example:
? = Shall I give you rice?
Though this often translates in English to Shall it is more a statement of what you will be
doing in the very near future, and you are slightly asking for permission to do that action. For
example, both of these could be acceptable:
? = Shall I give you rice?
? = Im going to give you rice, if that is okay with you?
It is also possible to use the honorific or combine a verb with (which you learned
about in Lesson 41). Below are many examples:
? = Shall I open the door for you?
? = Shall I turn of the light for you?
? = Shall I explain my situation in detail?
? = Shall I post the announcement for you?
? = Shall I block the water that is flowing out for you?
? = Shall I read you a book?
~/() vs. ~/()

By using ~/ as introduced in the section immediately above, you can create sentences
where the speaker is asking permission to help/service the listener. If you use ~/ as in the
examples above, the sentence is in the form of a question.
A very similar grammatical principle is ~/(). Despite having a very similar meaning
and usage, sentences ending in ~/() are not questions. Rather, they are statements of
what the speaker will be doing unless the listener objects/interjects in some way. Aside from one
being a question and the other one not being a question, their translations and meanings are
essentially the same. For example:
? = Shall I open the door for you? (Is it okay if I open the door for you?)
= Im going to open the door for you (if that is okay with you)
In a way, using ~/() is very similar to a regular future tense conjugation. The difference
is that a regular future tense conjugation (for example, ~/ ) is more blunt and direct
but using ~/() softens the sentence a little bit. When using ~/(), you are
checking with the listener before you perform the action. For example:
= I will open the door
= I will open the door (if that is okay with you)
The usage of ~/() to ask for permission (as described earlier) is typically used when
giving something or doing something for the listener. As such, it is more common to find ~/
() used with , or in other situations where the speaker is servicing or giving
something to the listener.
On the other hand, the usage of ~/() is more broad and the speaker does not need to be
directly giving something to (or doing something for) the listener. Rather, any action can be used
as long as the speaker is the acting agent of the sentence.
Below are many examples:
= I will eat now (if that is okay with you)
= I will turn on the air conditioner (if that is okay with you)
= I will go now (if that is okay with you)
= I will give you rice/food (if that is okay with you)
= I will order now (if that is okay with you)
= I will send a message to all of the teachers (if that is okay
with you)

When speaking to a listener, you can also use ~/() to ask about the possibility of
something. Below are some simple examples:
? = It is possible that it will rain tomorrow?
? = It is possible that the exam will be difficult?
? = Is it possible that the teacher will go too?
Notice in the examples above that the acting agent in each sentence is not the speaker. The
sentences above could be said either to oneself (as I mentioned earlier) or said to a listener. The
context makes it clear if the speaker is speaking to himself or to a listener. If these types of
sentences are said to a listener, I often prefer the following translations:
? = Do you think that it will rain tomorrow?
? = Do you think that the exam will be difficult?
? = Do you think that the teacher will go too?
Here are some more examples:
I wrote these sentences and their translations to be appropriate for the context of a dialogue
between a speaker and s listener. The following questions could be asked to oneself if the context
allowed for it. Note that this would result in a slightly different English translation.
? = Do you think that girl will be pretty?
? = Do you think this shirt will be expensive?
? = Do you think it will get approval?
? = Do you think that person will be able to act well?
? = Do you think that person will reveal his/her identity?
? = If I drink alcohol, do you think I will get energy?
I would like to take a moment to describe the difference in meaning between two similar
sounding (English) sentences:
Look at the following two sentences:
? = Do you think that girl is pretty?
? = Do you think that girl will be pretty?
There is a subtle difference between the two sentences, even though they appear similar in
Korean and English.
When you say the first sentence, the feeling is that the girl is there, and you can see what she
looks like. However, in the second sentence, the speaker and listener have probably never met
the girl and the speaker is wondering if the listener thinks it is possible that the girl is pretty.
Therefore, when you say the second sentence, you are not asking about whether or not the girl is
pretty. Rather, you are asking if it is possible that she will be pretty whenever you meet her, or
see her for the first time, or whatever.
Questions words are often used in this form as well. When using a question word, the meaning is
quite similar to the example sentences above, but notice how the translation changes slightly:
Again, I wrote these sentences and their translations to be appropriate for the context of a
dialogue between a speaker and a listener. The following questions could be asked to oneself if
the context allowed for it. Note that this would result in a slightly different English translation.
? = Who do you think that person could be? (Who could he be?)
? = What do you think this could be? (What could it be?)
? = When do you think dad will come? (When could dad be coming?)
? = Where do you think dad is going? (Where could dad be going?)
You can ask about possibility in past situations by conjugating the verb/adjective into the past
before attaching ~. For example:
? = Do you think our friend came late?
? = Do you think dad paid?
? = Do you think the student finished all his homework
already?
? = Do you think that student will do well on the exam?
The speaker could also be asking about possibility about himself or the listener (instead of a third
person), but these types of sentences usually reference ones ability (or some other variable) to
do something. For example:
?
If asked to oneself: Would I be able to do it?
If asked to a listener: Do you think I could do it?
?
If asked to oneself: Would I be allowed to do it?
If asked to a listener: Do you think I would be allowed to do it?
? = Do you think you will be able to do it?
? = Do you think you will be allowed to do it?
Adding ~/ to
In Lesson 22, you learned that can change to () and is used to ask about
somebodys opinion about something. For example:
? = How is your boyfriend?
() ? = How about this picture? (is this picture okay)?
() can also be used to ask about somebodys opinion about an event that hasnt happened
yet. In order to do this, you can describe some event in the future and then turn the clause into a
noun. The word () can then be placed after the clause. For example:
? = How about going now?
? = How watching a movie?
Those are perfect. However, can (and often is) shortened to . Those two sentences
above would be more likely heard/seen as:
? = How about watching a movie?
In these situations, it is acceptable to replace () with + /(). For example:
? = How about watching a movie?
More examples:
? = How about meeting again?
? = Next time, how about eating ?
? = How about going tomorrow?
As you can see, the meaning that is created is very similar (if not identical) to simply using ~/
() at the end of a sentence to mean shall. For example:
? = How about meeting again?
? = Shall we meet again?
Thats it for this lesson!
Although you have learned a lot about how ~/() can be used, there are still more usages
that you need to study. We will continue this discussion in the next two lessons.
Introduction
I intend to/I am thinking of ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= physics
= prevent/prevention
= fountain
= cancer
= video
= weather conditions
= name of a place
= crowd
= drizzle/sprinkle of rain
= trademark
= fall foliage/autumn colors
= disaster
= crime
= criminal
= measures/steps
Verbs:
= inhale
= complete/completion
= change ones name
= nominate/designate
Passive Verbs:
= duplicated/overlapped
= dozens of/scores of
= number of times
= the day of
= counter for nights
= eastern part
= southern part
= western part
= northern part
Introduction
In the previous lesson, you learned how to use the Korean ending ~/() to ask a
question. In this lesson, you will learn about how ~/ can be used to indicate the intention
of the speaker. Lets get started.
.
.
I intend to/I am thinking of ~/
In the previous lesson, you only saw how ~/() can used at the end of sentences.
However, by placing after ~/, a speaker can indicate his or her intention of doing
= I intend to go to the movies
I usually prefer the translation of I am thinking of simply because I rarely say I intend to in
English. Regardless, the meaning and effect is the same:
= I am thinking about going to the movies
~/ is often connected to the grammatical principle ~/ (introduced in Lesson
37) or other similar grammatical principles to create the meaning I was thinking of so For
example:

= I was thinking of watching that movie, so I went to the theater

= I am thinking about studying physics in University

= I am thinking of nominating that teacher as the boss for the international department

= I am thinking about going to the eastern part of Seoul tomorrow

= I am thinking about buying dozens of onions because they are very cheap

= I am thinking about setting up measures to avoid this kind of disaster again

= I am thinking of showing this video to the students
1 2
= I am thinking about traveling in the west part of Daugu for 1 night and two days

= Im thinking about registering a trademark for this item
1 2 4
= I am thinking about raising the number of times we do disaster prevention training per year
from 2 times to 4 times

= I am thinking of going outside to see the autumn leaves, so Im going to check the weather
forecast

= I am thinking about swimming in the ocean on the day we arrive in Busan, so we should leave
early

= I was thinking about asking that girl to go eat dinner together with me so I didnt eat lunch
Instead of using after ~/ in these examples, it is also possible to use . The

conjugations of and are very commonly used in these situations, and you will rarely see
other conjugations like or here. For example:

= I am thinking about studying physics in University

= I am thinking of nominating that teacher as the boss for the international department

= I am thinking about going to the eastern part of Seoul tomorrow

= I am thinking about buying dozens of onions because they are very cheap

= I am thinking about setting up measures to avoid this kind of disaster again

= I am thinking of showing this video to the students
1 2
= I am thinking about traveling in the west part of Daugu for 1 night and two days

= Im thinking about registering a trademark for this item
1 2 4
= I am thinking about raising the number of times we do disaster prevention training per year
from 2 times to 4 times
Using ~/ is okay at the end of a sentence, but it would be unnatural to attach ~/
to it and use it in the middle of a sentence. For example, should replace in all of
the following:

It is also possible to conjugate when it is used at the end of a sentence to indicate that you
were thinking about doing something. For example:
= I was thinking about watching the movie
When is conjugated like this, although the speaker intended/thought about doing the action,
the action did not occur (it was only thought about). Therefore, I usually add more to the English
translation to describe the meaning more precisely:
= I was thinking about watching the movie, (but I didnt see it)
= I was thinking about meeting a friend (but I didnt meet him)
= I was thinking about naming my daughter (but
didnt)
= I was thinking about going to drink alcohol on the
day of the exam (but didnt)
Thats it for this lesson! I know the amount of content in this lesson was vastly different
compared to the previous lesson. I wish I could have divided the content more evenly, but I felt
that the lessons would be more understandable (and organized) if I divided it by usage instead of
just randomly dividing it into thirds.
In the next lesson, you will learn another usage of ~/ .
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
I am worried about/that: ~/
I am worried that/about, so: ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= tiger
= historian
= landlord
= refreshments
= job/work/operations
= budget
= disinfectant
= pace/step
= apparatus/appliance/utensils
= roof
= corner/nook
= width
= length
= thesis
= waves
Verbs:
= find out/discover
= shoot/sting
= to distract
= pay for
= disinfect
Adjectives:
= great/huge/tremendous
= colorful/fancy/splendid
= light (not dark)
= rude
= a long time before
= well/let me see
Introduction
In the previous two lessons, you learned about a variety of situations where you can use ~/
(). In this lesson, you will learn another way that you can use this grammatical form. In this
lesson, you will learn about adding ~/ to sentence to indicate that the speaker is
worried about something. Lets get started.
I am worried about/that: ~/
Before we get into anything, lets talk about the word . This is actually a weird verb
because there doesnt seem to be any meaningful difference between and
. Because ends in , you would think that it would have the active meaning
of to worry (as in, I am worrying my brother). Conversely, because ends in ,
you would think that it would have the meaning of to be worried (as in, I am worried about my
brother). The weird thing about this word, is that it appears that both and forms have
the passive meaning of to be worried and not to (make) worry.
Though it appears you can use and to mean essentially the same thing,
personally, whenever I talk about myself being worried, or somebody else being worried, I
always say .
The most common time you will see being used is when telling somebody not to be
worried.
For example:
! = Dont worry!
Using in this case awkward:
!
Anyways, now that we know that, lets talk about the grammatical form ~/ . When
putting this at the end of a sentence, the speaker is indicating that he or she is worried about the
clause before ~/ occurring.
is usually placed after ~/ in this usage. For example:
= Im worried that I wont do well on the exam
= Im worried that it will rain
= Im worried that she wont like me
If you want to say that you are worried about something in the past, you can conjugate the
verb/adjective before ~/ . For example:
= I am worried that I didnt do well on the exam
= I am worried that it rained
= I am worried that she didnt like me
You can also conjugate into the past tense to indicate that you were worried:
= I was worried that I didnt do well on the exam
= I was worried that it rained
= I was worried that she didnt like me
Often you will see omitted in these types of sentences, and the sentence just ends with
~/ . Usually when is omitted, the meaning of it being there is implied in the
= Im worried that it will rain
= Im worried that she wont like me
In the previous lesson, you saw how ~/ can be added to the end of a sentence to
indicate intention. You can see how one might be confused between these meanings because the
grammar within these sentences is identical. For example:
= I intend to go to the movies
Just like many other things in Korean, the context can clarify the specific meaning. For example,
what would happen if you heard the sentences above and confused their meanings
= I am worried that I will go to the movies
= I am thinking about doing bad on the exam
As you can see, the sentences above (with their meanings changed) are (for the most part)
illogical. By paying attention to the context and the information within the sentence, it is usually
clear what meaning is being implied.
= Im worried that there isnt enough budget
= Im worried that there wont be enough refreshments
= Im worried that we wont be able to finish the job
= Im worried that the sound will distract the
students
= I was worried that the police officer would shoot
me
= Im worried that the landlord will find the

shattered mirror
In each of the examples above, the word can be removed with no real difference in
meaning. These types of constructions are more likely to be used in the middle of a conversation.
For example, if somebody asks you Why are you worried? you can eliminate from
the sentence because it can be assumed. However, when walking into a room and starting a
conversation, you will be more likely to hear used in these sentences.

So far, you have only ~/ can also be used as a connector between two clauses. We will
talk about how to do this in the next section.
.
I am worried that/about, so: ~/
In the previous section, you learned about adding ~/ to the end of sentences. You
learned that these sentences can end with the word or simply end with ~/ .
By placing another clause after ~/ , you can create the meaning of I am worried
about/that, so. For example:

= I was worried that it would rain, so I brought an umbrella

= I am worried that it will rain, so I will bring an umbrella
Notice that the tense of the sentence is determined by the final verb and not the verb that ~/
is added to. Below are many more examples:

= I am worried that my girlfriend will be sad so I bought her flowers

= Im worried that it will be too expensive, so I brought more money

= The landlord was worried that water would flow in, so he fixed up (repaired) the roof

= I was worried that my hands were dirty, so I disinfected them

= I was worried that that person would think I am rude, so I apologized to him

= I was worried that the waves would be too big, so I didnt go into the water
Hopefully by now you are comfortable with the various usages of ~/() in Korean. If
you are confused about anything, feel free to review or ask us questions!
Introduction
Almost:
Almost: ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= planner/pocketbook
= rebel (person)
= ghost
= spider
= whale
= wolf
= degree (in universities)
= bachelors degree
= masters degree
= Ph. D
= knowledge
= criticism/criticize
= rating/grade/class
= essay
= button
= cosmetics
= fire extinguisher
= chalk
= motive
= everyday life/daily life
= the number of people
Verbs:
= pay attention to
= hang
= stop/halt
= imitate/mimic
= perform (duties)/performance
= rebel(ion)
= guarantee
Passive Verbs:
= hanging
=dislocated/out of step
Almost:
The word () in Korean is a very common adverb, and is used very similar to how it is used
in English. In can be used in sentences to mean almost, for example:
= We have no money
= We almost have no money
= We are there (we have arrived)
= We have almost arrived
= The US is the same as Canada
= The US is almost the same as Canada
= I finished all of my homework
= I almost finished all of my homework
Using in these kinds of sentences isnt all that complicated or difficult as it is used just
like any other adverb in Korean. However, in certain sentences, the use of a special grammatical
form must be used in combination with the word . I will talk about this in the next section.
Almost: ~/
This is very difficult to describe without showing examples immediately, but I will try to
describe it the best I can without showing examples so you can understand what I mean.
Whenever an action almost happens, where the action that almost happens had not started in
any way before it almost happens, you must use a different grammatical form.
That sentence is very convoluted, but try reading it again to understand it completely.
= I almost ate all the food
In that sentence, the action that almost happened was eating (all the food). However, even
though you didnt eat all of the food, you were in the state of eating prior to not being able to
eat all of the food. Therefore, that sentence is perfect, and there is no need to use any other
words or grammatical forms.
Another example:
= I am almost finished exercising
Again, in that sentence, the action that almost happened was being finished exercising.
However, even though you are almost finished exercising, you are still in the state of exercising.
Therefore, that sentence is perfect, and there is no need to use any other words or grammatical
forms.
= I almost fell
In that sentence, (it is assumed that) you were walking, and then you almost fell. The action that
almost happened was you falling and prior to it almost happening, the action never started.
Whenever an action almost happens where the action had never even begun to start previously,
you need to use the following grammatical form:
~/ .
For example:
= I almost fell
Again, the action that almost happens (to fall) never actually happened, and prior to it almost
happening, it was also not happening.
More examples:
= I almost hit that car (before the fact that you almost hit the car,
you were not doing the action of hitting the car, so this form must be used)
= Because I was so mad, I almost punched my
friend (before the fact that you almost punched your friend, you were not doing the action of
punching your friend, so this form must be used).
Also note that these sentences dont necessarily need to have the word in them. The
meaning of almost is already imbedded within the meaning of ~/ , so it doesnt
need to be used. However, it is not uncommon to find them used together in Korean sentences.
= I was so mad I almost hit my friend
= I almost hit that car
The word is another one of those pseudo-nouns that actually has no meaning outside of the
grammatical form (like in and in ).
Using the ~/ grammatical form is simple once you get the hang of it, but it
just takes a few minutes to wrap your head around when it should be used over simply using
. Ill explain it one more time for good measure:
When an action that had not started in any way, shape or form almost happens (but doesnt), you
should use the ~/ grammatical form. For example:
= I almost died
However, when you are talking about an action that had already started, and you are saying that
that action is almost at a certain point, you shouldnt use ~/ . For example:
= We are almost finished eating
As Ive said: Its confusing, but just takes a little bit of practice to wrap your head around.
Introduction
Like (a noun): ()
As if: ~()
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= childbirth
= childcare
= common sense
= deadline for submission
= whole/pit
= current state/present condition
= career/work experience
= official document
= founding/establishment
= movie theater
= physical strength
= physical checkup/health screening
= public corporation
= children/sons and daughters
Verbs:
= responsibility/take charge of
= delete files/name from a list
= lose your job
= experience/undergo
= nag
= produce/production
= discuss/consult
= leave
= leave the room/office
= pull
= rub/mix
= dig
= possess
= become a member/join a club

= automatic(ly)
= under this amount
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about the meanings of ~ and ~. Both of these have similar
meanings that describe that something is similar to another thing, but are distinctly different. We
will go over the meanings of each one, and describe the differences in this lesson.
Like (a noun): ()
By attaching the word ~ to a noun, you can create the meaning of Like (that noun). For
example:
= like old times
= like/as usual
= like me
= like a monkey
= Like before
These constructions can then be placed in sentences similar to adverbs to say that something is
done like something:
= We watched movies at our house like old
times
= I have to study today, as usual
= That person, like me, doesnt have much money
= Our son eats like a monkey
= I want to do it like before
In the examples above, ~ is always attached to a noun. ~ can also be attached to nouns
in the ~ construction. When this is done, it has the same meaning as the sentences above
but you are just able to create more complex nouns with the ~ form. For example, these two
sentences essentially have the same meaning:
= I want to do it like old times

= I want to do it like we used to do it a
long time ago
When using ~ with a noun in the ~ principle, the final verb in the sentence is often
and the whole sentence has the meaning of it looks like For example:
= It looked like you were going to fall
= It looks like a problem will come up if we do it like
that
You already learned in Lesson 36 how to say a person looks like something else:
= My girlfriend looks like a celebrity
The ~ construction is usually used when saying that an object looks like something,
whereas the ~ is usually used when saying that a person looks like
something/somebody.
There is another grammatical form that is similar to ~, but has its differences. I will cover
this in the next section.
As if: ~()
By adding ~() in the place of the noun in ~ , you can create the meaning of as if
For example:
= As if he didnt recognize him
= As if he didnt understand
= As if he didnt want to leave
= As if he was dead
= As if one doesnt want to go
These constructions can then be put in sentences similar to adverbs:
= He looked at his father
and walked past him as if he didnt recognize him
= He acted as if he didnt understand
= He cried as if he didnt want to leave
= He lied on the ground as if he was dead
= I said
lets go, but the baby kept sleeping as if he didnt want to go
~ can also be placed directly to the stem of a verb/adjective to have a very similar meaning
to the sentences above. However, there is a difference between using after a descriptive
word (as shown above) and adding ~ directly to a verb/adjective. Assuming the verb is
the different forms would look like this:
~
~
In general, the translation of both is as if which makes distinguishing the two very difficult
for foreigners.
In the sentences above (where is not attached directly to the stem), the nuance is that the
clause before is somewhat of a guess. For example:
and walked past him as if he didnt recognize him
(I guess/it looks he didnt recognize him).
= He acted as if he didnt understand
(I guess/it looked like he didnt understand)
= He cried as if he didnt want to leave
(I guess/it looked like he didnt want to leave)
= I said
lets go, but the baby kept sleeping as if he didnt want to go
(I guess/it looked like the baby didnt want to go)
When used like this, the two clauses (the clause before , and the clause after) have a direct
relationship with each other. For example, in the first example above, the fact that the son
couldnt recognize his father explains/describes why he walked right past him.
However, when adding ~ directly to a stem of a verb or adjective, one is indicating that the
two clauses (the one before ~, and the one after) are exactly the same (there is no guessing
involved). However, the clause before ~ is usually some ridiculous metaphor that is
completely unrelated to the situation in the second clause. For example:
= He cried (water flowed from his eyes) as if it was a

waterfall
= His heart was racing, as if a horse bucking
= He used money as if it was water
(Notice that adding something that starts with causes no irregulars to come into play, so it
is very easy to add this to stems).
(Also notice that I deliberately used the plain form conjugation in these three examples because
the most common place you would find these sentences would be in novels. In novels (in Korean
and in English), authors often create these metaphors to create imagery for the reader. Very
rarely would one use these ridiculous metaphors in everyday conversation).
As you can see from the three examples above there is no real connection between the first and
second clauses. Their only relation is that they are linked by the feeling of the metaphor being
described in the first clause. For example, in the first example above, the waterfall has no
relation to the actual situation, and is only used to create a feeling inside the listener/reader.
However, in the examples discussed previously:
and walked past him as if he didnt recognize him (I guess/it looks he didnt recognize him)
there is no metaphor that is being described. The speaker is simply saying that the person
looked at his father and walked past him and it appeared/seemed like he didnt recognize him.
In all cases above, the can be removed from and the sentence will have the same
meaning. However, I personally always say it as , so I presented it that way in this lesson.
I feel that it is hard to end the clause with and it flows off my tongue better when I say
.
There is also a word which can be placed at the end of a sentence to mean it seems
like. The weird thing about this, is that the word immediately preceding it is conjugated in the ~
form. For example:
= The teacher seems if he doesnt understand this
= It seems as though he didnt go
The word is another one of those words in English that has no meanings. You have
already learned about how the word goes in sentences with if:
= If you are not going, I am not going
And in sentences with /, you learned that you can use the word :
= Regardless of how pretty that girl is, I dont
like her
The word is a similar word. That is, it has no real meaning, other than the feeling that it
gives in a sentence. Putting this word in a sentence gives the listener/reader the feeling that ~
or ~ will be coming. For example:
= He ran like a horse
= He lied on the floor as if he was dead
Introduction
Only:
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= regular costumer
= brand
= hostage
= leisure time
= rabbit
= gloves
= donkey
= eagle
= lizard
= elephant
= giraffe
= lion
= frog
= goat
= shark
= gun
= a mark
= share/portion
= field/area of something
= raindrop
= clothes
Verbs:
= run to
= run back
= to come running
= to go running
= cheat on
= change clothes
= transmit/send over computer
= combine/join together/unite
Adjectives:
= selfish
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about the word which can be used to create the meaning
of only in Korean. Though you learned that the particle ~ can be used to mean only in an
earlier lesson, the word is not entirely the same. I will spend this lesson teaching
you how to use . Lets get started
Only:
First and foremost, the word is an adjective that means the only/the sole. Whereas
the particle ~ gets added on to nouns to indicate that something is the only one:
= only bananas
= only money
= only me
describes nouns:
= the only banana
= the only money (doesnt make sense in English or Korean)
= the only thing
etc
can be put in sentences to describe when something is the only thing. The difficult
thing is that is usually used when there is another descriptive word (usually a verb in
~ form) in the sentence.
Lets go back to the ~ principle for just a second. Remember that you can describe a noun
using verbs with ~ :
= I am the person who is eating
= I am the person who is studying
You also learned that you can also add an adjective to these sentences to describe the noun even
further. Remember, these adjectives are placed after the describing verb:
= I am the happy person who is eating
= I am the smart person who is studying
Now, I dont know exactly when you would use those specific sentences, but the grammar within
them is very important. Using the word is most commonly used like this as an
adjective to describe a noun when there is also a verb describing that noun as well.
If we break it down:
= the happy person who is eating
= the only person who is eating
= the person who is studying
= the smart person who is studying
= the only person who is studying
These nouns can then be placed in sentences just like any other noun:
= I am shy because I am the only person
who is still eating
= I am the only person who is listening to

the teacher
Many more sentences:
= The only person I want to marry
is my girlfriend
= The only thing I want to eat is
= The only thing I want to do right now is
eat
The weird thing about these sentence constructions with , is that in most cases, you can
use as an adverb instead of an adjective. For example:

In addition, must be used in cases when there is already another adjective in the
sentence describing the noun. It would be weird to say:

Because it is weird to have two adjectives in that form describing a noun, it is better to change
to . For example:
= happy person
= the only happy person
= delicious Korean food
= the only delicious Korean food
= pretty girl
= the only pretty girl
These nouns can also be used in sentences just like any other noun. For example:
= I am the only happy person in my family
= KimChi is the only delicious Korean food
= The only pretty girl in this room is that girl
Introduction
Nothing but/only: ~
There is nothing I can do but: ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= weight
= Korean cabbage
= trend/fashion trend
= epidemic
= field/area of interest/branch/realm
= list/register/directory
= Korean drum ()
= a play (on a stage)
= answer sheet
= galaxy
= milky way galaxy
= armpit
= the minority
= statement/testimony
= supplies
= reason/cause
= audience
= advice
Verbs:
= visit to observe
= prevent/ion
= direct
= tickle
() = (to) coach
= consume/burn/use up
=do practical work/training
= step on
Passive Verbs:
=applicable/corresponds/equivalent
Adjectives:
= sticky (acts like a verb)
= completely (in negative sentences)
() = in a row/consecutively
Introduction
In the previous lesson, you learned how to use the word , which has the meaning of
the only/the sole. In this lesson, you will learn about another word (particle, actually) that has
the meaning of only but is used in a different way and to emphasize a different meaning. In
this lesson, you will learn how to use the particle ~ with the meaning of nothing but or
only. Lets get started.
Nothing but/only: ~
You learned in an earlier lesson that means outside. Because outside is often used in
sentences as a location, the particle is usually attached to . Some examples that you
should already know with this meaning:
9 = Im going outside at 9 oclock
? = Is it raining outside?
The word () can be used in the way of the previous examples as a noun(/place). However, ~
can also be used as a particle that can be attached to nouns to have a specific meaning. This
meaning may translate to something different, but the meaning when used as a particle like this is
actually quite similar to the meaning when used as a noun.
By attaching the particle ~ to a noun, you can create the meaning of nothing but (that
noun) for example:
= nothing but friends

= nothing but rice
= nothing but 10,000 won
This meaning is similar, but slightly different than the particle ~ which simply means only.
When you use ~ you are emphasizing that there is nothing but a particular noun. For
example:
= only friends
= only rice
= only 10,000 won
Whenever you attach ~ to a noun in a sentence, the final verb/adjective must be a negative
word. Usually sentences that contain ~ end in . For example:
= I have nothing but friends
= We have nothing but rice to eat
= I want to buy that, but I only have 10,000
won, so I cant buy it
You can see the similarity with the meaning of outside if you translate those sentences slightly
different. For example:
= I have nothing outside of friends
= We have nothing to eat outside of rice
= I want to buy that, but I have nothing outside
of 10,000 won, so I cant buy it
~ can also be used with counters or with the word :
3 = I have nothing but three friends
= I have nothing but one credit card
1 = I only have nothing but one cell-phone
The examples above all show sentences ending in , but it is possible to end a sentence with
other actions. Even though the (noun) construction translates to nothing but (noun), the
sentence should end with a negative conjugation. This often makes it look like there is a double
negative in the sentence for English speakers. For example:
= The coach gave us nothing by one piece

of advice
This would be awkward in English if it were: The coach didnt give us nothing but one piece of
advice
? = (you say that) your boyfriend gave you nothing
but money?
This would be awkward in English if it were: your boyfriend didnt give you nothing but
money?
Also, notice that this sentence is like a quoted sentence. You learned in Lesson 52 that it is
possible to omit the word or after these types of sentences. It is common to finish a
sentence like this when somebody says something, and you cant believe (or hear) what they say.
Before the sentence above was uttered, another person would have had to had say

= Dad ordered nothing but one (head of) cabbage
This would be awkward in English if it were: Dad didnt order nothing but one (head of)
cabbage
Also, you might be thinking that this is probably a sentence that would never be uttered.
However, Korean people make kimchi every year (out of ) and store it in their houses all
winter. This means that they have to make a ton of kimchi and order a ton of . Ordering 100
heads of it isnt uncommon.
3 = I have eaten oranges nothing but three
times in my life
This would be awkward in English if it were: I havent eaten oranges nothing but three times in
my life.
It is also commonly used to emphasize that an action will take a short amount of time. For
example:
30 ! = It only takes 30 minutes (It takes nothing but 30 minutes)
1 = It only takes 1 hour (It takes nothing but 1 hour)
In order to say a sentence like this:
It only takes 30 minutes to get from Seoul to Incheon
You need to learn how to use ~ , which will be introduced in Lesson 76 and Lesson 77.
Before you move on, lets look at one specific usage of ~ that is common.
There is nothing I can do but: ~/
In Lesson 45 you learned about the endings ~/ and ~/ . Even though
these grammatical principles can/should be thought of as one unit, the is actually a noun.
Even though it is not necessary, I want to make sure that you understand the meaning of . I
would describe it again, but the description from Lesson 45 is perfect. To reiterate what I said
before:
is what I like to call a pseudo-noun. You have already learned a few of these pseudo-nouns
in other lessons. For example, is a pseudo noun in the following sentence:
is also a pseudo-noun in the following sentence:
= I have never eaten kimch
In both of the sentences above, the pseudo-noun follows a descriptive word, and thus, must be a
noun. However, these pseudo-nouns cannot be placed anywhere but these specific locations,
and therefore, are not true nouns. in ~ is also a pseudo-noun. If you look it up in
the dictionary, its meaning is something similar to ability or something like that. Then, if we
describe that ability noun with a verb, we can get:
: the ability to study
However, it is never written like that, and is always followed by /:
= I have the ability to study (I can study)
Because is a noun, we can attach ~ to it. By attaching ~ to in ~

you can create the meaning of nothing to do but For example:
= We have nothing to do but eat

= Im sorry, but I cant do anything but fire
you
= We have no choice but to do the play in a
different place

= Our friend said he will come late, so we have nothing to do but wait for him

= I have no choice but to completely clean the room because it is so dirty

= I have no choice but to move/switch fields because my work is so boring

= I have no choice but to add/find my friends contacts one by one (now that I) because I lost my
contact list
4
= I have no choice but to give up because I didnt write the exam well four times in a row
Introduction
Clause Connector: ~/()
To learn from something:
To hurry:
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= effort/devotion
= analyst
= gymnastics
= beauty treatment
= composite
= backpack
= drawer (of desk)
= missing person
= globe
= scab
= label/sticker/traffic ticket
= helping hand
= relief/aid
= a speech
Verbs:
= to die by drowning
= to captivate
= to flow through/to move through
= to crouch over/to squat
= to smell
= betray
= betray
=putting stuff together-synthesize
= capture/captivate
= to try ones best
= finish off/wrap up
/ = give/receive a traffic ticket
Passive Verbs:
= a person going missing
Adjectives:
= plain/ordinary
= end of something
= teachers day
Clause Connector: ~/()
In Lesson 17, you learned about the grammatical principle ~ and how it can be compared to ~
/() in sentences where one clause happens after the other. For example, in Lesson 17 you
saw the following simple example:
in the fridge

in the fridge
In addition to its cause-and-effect meaning (which you learned about in Lesson 37), connecting
two clauses with ~/() can have different meanings. Lets look at each meaning
individually:
An Intrinsic Temporal Relationship: ~/()

When ~/() is used to connect two clauses, the action in the first clause and the action in
the second clause occur in the order in which they are said. When ~ is used, there doesnt need
to be a direct connection between the actions in the two clauses.
For example:
= I will eat then go
= I slept then studied Korean
In the above examples, aside from the fact that the first action and the second action occurred
one after another, there is no direct relationship between the two actions. However, ~/() is
more likely to be used if there is an intrinsic relationship with the two clauses used. What I mean
by this is not only did the second action happen after the first action, but the second action
happened because the first action allowed it to.
In its simplest form, this is why ~/() is added to and . The section action of the
clause occurred only after/because the first clause allowed it to happen.
For example:
Below are some examples where you can see ~/() being used to connect two clauses:
The meaning of ~/ and ~/ is identical in all of the following examples:

= I bought a new computer, and then did my work (using that computer)

= I made a cake, and then gave it (that cake) out to my friends

= I opened the drawer and then found the money (in the drawer)

= The police officer found the missing person and then contacted the house (of the missing
person)

= He lifted his head and starred at her

=He was captivated by its beauty, and then he eventually drowned in the lake.
.
. = If you have something (a job) that you want to do, meet lots of people, and
develop relationships, and search for a mentor. Another opportunity will be open.
In all of the cases above, ~ can replace ~/(). As I mentioned, you are more likely to
find ~/() being used if you feel there is an intrinsic connection between the two clauses.
At this point, I would like to introduce you to a usage of ~/ that you havent learned about
yet.
An Action Happens Through the Means of Another Action: ~/

~/ can be attached to a verb to indicate how or through what means a second action
takes place. The simplest example you will find would be:
= I went home by walking (I walked home)
Here, ~/ is added to to indicate that the second action (going home) occurred by
walking. In these types of sentences, where ~/ is being used to indicate a method or
means, is not optional. The sentence above is not the same as this sentence:

Here are two examples that are similar to examples introduced in the previous section, but
modified to fit the usage of through instead of and then:

= I solved the problem through/using a new computer

= The police found the missing person through/by gathering (and looking for him/her together)
Below are many other examples. Notice how the first action is the method in which the second
action occurs through.

= Seulgi bent over and smelled the (fragrance of) the beautiful flowers

= This is a food that I made for you by putting all of my love/effort into it

= The president captivated the audience through/with a speech

= I will use all of my power and try to finish this work by tomorrow

= I explained it through many times of examples

= He used the globe to draw a map
Although I mentioned that is not optional, you could also see sentences like this:

Whats going on? I thought you said that the was not optional? If it has to be included, why
has it been omitted from the examples above?
There is a lot of overlap between the usages of ~/ and ~/(). The first one (where
is not optional) is used to indicate a method in which an action occurred. The second one (where
is optional) is used to indicate a direct temporal relationship.
The problem here is that the examples immediately above (which show a temporal relationship
between two clauses) can also include with no difference in meaning. For example:

Here, we have an incredibly ambiguous situation. What meaning is the speaker intending to
make? I have had many discussions with Korean people about these types of sentences. For
example, I would ask them about the specific meaning of this sentence:

I asked:
Did the police find the person through working/gathering together?,Or
Did the police meet/gather together and then find the missing person?
The answer: The specific meaning is up to the speaker to make clear or for the listener to
interpret. It may be unclear in the situation, or the context might be able to indicate the specific
meaning. Either way, the result is the same.
There is a lot of overlap between these two usages. However, in some situations you will find
that a meaning expressed by ~/ cannot be expressed by ~/(). This is an example
that was presented above:
= I went home by walking (I walked home)
This sentence can only mean that the person went home by walking. It cannot mean that the
person walked, and then went home. As such, the following sentence is incorrect:

Used to combine the meanings of two words: ~/

You will often see two words combined with ~/ to connect two words directly and to
combine their meanings. This compound word (or whatever you want to call it) can then be used
anywhere in sentence that a normal verb could be used.
One good easy example to start off with is
The word means to go/walk around a place, and the word means to run. By
combining these two words with the use of ~/, we create a word that combines the
meaning of the two. In theory, you have already been exposed to a number of these compound
verbs before. Technically, all of these follow the same principle:
= to go by walking ( + )
= to come by walking ( + )
= to turn and look ( + )
= to go and then come back ( + )
= to let somebody know ( + )
= to place something hanging/to hang up ( + )
The words above are all stand-alone verbs (albeit, originally created using the +/ principle
we are talking about). However, sometimes you will see a space between the first verb+/
and the next verb (like in our example with ). You dont really need to distinguish
between the two, but when there is a space it means that you are looking at two verbs separated
by the ~/ grammatical principle and the function of ~/ is to combine their meanings.
Some good examples of this would be:
= to walk around an area
= to run around an area
= to be made through combining something
= to send something back
= to pick up and collect
= to open and leave open
= to run over something
= to take out and put down
As I said, you can use these types of constructions in sentences where their combined meanings
would be appropriate. For example:
= the kids were running around the playground
= water is made from combining oxygen and
hydrogen
= leave the door open please!
= Pick up and collect all of the toys in your room
Before we finish, there are two specific words that often get connected to ~/, which I want
to talk about.
The many meanings of

The word has many meanings depending on the situation. Most of these meanings
somehow relate to two things being connected, and there being a passageway or flow between
those two things. When I first studied the meanings of , I always envisioned some sort of
tube connecting the things being talked about. Although kind of ridiculous, I found that it always
helped me piece together what was trying to be said.
Here are some of the many meanings can have:

For something to be flowing (i.e. not blocked)
= Air doesnt flow well in this room
For two places to be connected:
= There is a road/passage that connects this
restaurant with the restaurant next door
To be able to understand what one is saying (usually )
= I couldnt understand that person
because I didnt know what he was trying to say (couldnt communicate with him)
To be known as some sort of position
= That girl is known as the pretties singer in
Korea
To have nothing to talk about/not talk very often:
= Since our dad died, I havent had much to
talk about with my mother (havent talked with my mother)
Okay so why am I introducing in this lesson?
has some usages where it is common to see it being used attached with ~/() to
form (). In these cases, usually translates to through. The following are some of
these usages.
When you go through a place:
= A fire started, and because the door
was blocked, I escaped through the window
When you obtain (learn) something through some object:
= I learned that fact through (from) that book
When you obtain (learn) something through some process:
= I started to be interested in science
through (from) doing experiments in person
Notice that each of these sentences could be expressed using other particles instead of using
(). For example:
= A fire started, and because the door

was blocked, I escaped through the window
= I learned that fact through (from) that book
= I started to be interested in science
through (from) doing experiments in person
One of the most common ways () is used is to indicate that one learns/receives/hears
something through/from a person. Here are many examples:
= I heard a rumor from my friend
= I learned Korean from (through) my
girlfriend
= I learned Korean from (through) my
Vice Principal
= I got that mans phone number from
(through) a friend
As with above, each of those sentences could also be used using other particles:
= I heard a rumor from my friend
= I learned Korean from my girlfriend
= I learned Korean from my Vice
Principal
= I got that mans phone number from a
friend
Lets move on and talk about another word.
To hurry:
The verb means to hurry and can be used as a stand alone verb. For example:
? = Why are you rushing like this?
= If we didnt rush, we would have been late
The weird thing is, is that this word is more commonly used in the middle of a sentence, and not
at the end almost as if it were an adverb. It is, in fact, not an adverb rather, it is the verb
plus the connecting form ~/(). I cant really explain it that well without showing
examples first:
= We hurried outside
= The teacher hurried to teach his students
the class
= I went outside and hurried to my car
because it was raining
As you can see, the word doesnt necessarily need to be in those sentences. All of those
previous sentences would have essentially the same meaning if I were to write them as:

which is why I recommend thinking that , when used in these types of situations, is
more of an adverb than a verb (even though it is a verb).
There are many ways that you can add ~/ to a verb to create this simple sentence
connector, but there is no need to exhaust every example. The important thing is that you are
aware of the subtle meaning of adding ~/ to a verb connected to another clause and that
you know about and .
Introduction
To Include:
To exclude:
In addition to:
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= confidence
= tattoo
= gesture (body language)
= reflexes
= butterfly
= camel
= deer
= dolphin
= dirt/mud
= lower body
= upper body
= lighting
= alcohol
= wine
= hard liquor
= membership
= drug
= drug dealer
= ambulance
Verbs:
= to include
= to exclude (except)
= take a drug
= agree/same feeling
= pound away on something
= sprain
= beat/hit
= yield
Adjectives:
= flat
____ = early (time)
= in addition to
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about two opposite words that are very common in Korean. By
using the word , you will learn how to say including, and by using the word
, you will learn how to say except/excluding. Lets get started.
To Include:
Just like almost every other verb, can be placed at the end of a sentence. For
example:
= This buffet price includes drinks
= My monthly income includes insurance
You can also use the passive form of (). Using the passive verb has the
same meaning, but you should know that the passive sentences cannot contain an object (thus,
they cannot contain the particle ~/). For example:
Notice in the above examples the particle / needed to be changed to / because there is
no active verb in the sentence.
Though / can be used at the end of sentences like this, it is usually used in the
middle of a sentence to indicate what is or isnt included in something. You learned about the
simple connectors ~/ in the previous lesson and how they can be used to connect two
clauses without any real meaning. You can use that same grammatical principle when using
in sentences. For example:
= including me
= including my friend
= including tax
These constructions can then be placed in sentences where appropriate. For example:
4 = There are 4 people including me
10 = 10 people will go travel together,
including my friend
20 = including taxes, this house is 20
When using in these situations, there doesnt appear to be any difference in meaning if
you also attach ~ to :

Now that you know how to say including in sentences, it is time to learn how to say
excluding in sentences. I will talk about this in the next section.
To exclude:
Just like , and many other verbs, the verb can be placed at the end of a
= The teacher excluded the
student from the trip because of his bad grades
It can also be used in the passive voice as well:
= The student was excluded from the trip
because of his bad grades
However, just like the word is used to have the meaning including, is
often used in the middle of a sentence to say except/excluding. In order to do this, you
simply place OR after the noun you want to exclude. For example:
() = Including my mother
= Excluding/except for my mother
Note that while ~/() is used with (to make ) to indicate what is
included, it is not added to to indicate what is excluded. If this was done, it would be
understandable, but strange
Conversely, while adding ~, or ~ to (to make or ) is natural, it
would sound slightly unnatural to attach either of these to .
These constructions can then go in sentences where appropriate, for example:
, or:
= Except for my mother, I hate all
women
If the thing that you are excluding is a noun, you can use either of the forms above ( or
). More examples:
10 = Except for 10 people, everybody died, or

10 = Except for 10 people, everybody died
= I like all sports except for soccer
Notice the grammatical principles that are being used in the sentences above with vs.
. When using the sentences are essentially split into two clauses:
10 = except for 10 people
= everybody died
However, when is used, (through the use of the ~ principle) is
describing the upcoming noun. Just like any other noun being described by a preceding clause,
we can take out that noun (and its descriptors) to analyze it. For example:
= the food I eat
= the food I am eating
= the person I will meet tomorrow
When (used as ) describes a noun, the translations are usually awkward in
English:
10 = the people except for 10 people
= all sports except for soccer
Those (described) nouns can then be placed in a sentence just like any other noun, for example:
One confusing this is that if the noun that is being described by is also being described
by another verb, it is better to use . For example, if the sentence above said:
10
Notice how far the descriptive word () and the noun () are from each other.
Because there is another clause that is also describing the noun in the sentence (
), we essentially have two verbs describing the same noun and it sounds weird in Korean.
In these cases, although both sentences would be understood, it would be more natural to use
instead of . For example:
10 = Except for 10 people,
everybody working at that factory died
In essence, what you are doing is changing the noun so it is only being described by one clause.
In this case, our noun is (where the bolded part is the clause that is describing the noun):
10 = the people working at that factory except ten
In addition to that, when you want to exclude an adverb (in these cases, usually a place, time,
day, month, etc) you must use and not . For example:
= Except for Sunday, I work every day
= Except for next month, I will be
in Korea for the entire year
You can also use the ~ or ~/ grammatical principles when you use the word
. This literally just translates the sentence into if you exclude:
= If you exclude me, everybody is going
Though I have covered everything I would like to cover regarding and ,
there is one more word I would like to talk about before finishing this lesson.
Outside of:
The word could be talked about in another lesson, but I felt this lesson would be fitting
because of the similarities with how the words and are used. Im not sure if
you have been brushing up on your Hanja (Chinese characters), but the character in Hanja is
. This character means to be outside and is used in a lot of Korean words.
Early in a sentence (or referred from another sentence) some noun will be mentioned. Placing
after that noun creates the meaning of outside of X or Other than X. For example:
= outside of that teacher (other than that teacher)

= outside of that girl (other than that girl)
When something is being referred to from another sentence, it is very common to use
before . For example:
= outside of that (other than that)
I spent a few minutes trying to figure out if the meaning of this was more similar to or
. Are we excluding something here? Or are we including something here? The answer
in my mind is; neither. Were not including or excluding anything. allows the speaker to
talk about all other things outside of what was mentioned before, regardless of if it was included
or excluded (as per the rest of the sentence). You could find a natural way to translate to
in addition to or except for depending on the situation. For example:
= I bought food in addition to Ginseng
Better translated to:
= Other than food, I bought Ginseng
= Except for that teacher, there is nobody
who can do this job
= Outside of that teacher, there is nobody
who can do this job
Heres an example that shows how both in addition to and except for can both be used on the
same sentence:
? = In addition to that, do you need something else?
? = Except for that, do you need something else?
Both better translated to:
? = Outside of that, do you need something else?
Anyways, you probably dont need to think that deeply into this problem. I just find it interesting
that the word seems similar to both and but neither of them reflect the
meaning accurately.
Heres another good example sentence; one that shows that the noun before can be
described by a clause using the ~ principle:
= Outside of speaking with

Korean people, I didnt do any other studying
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
As much as: ~
Degree:
/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= surprise party
= convenience
= training
= path for an object
= student body/council
= actress
= liver
= side of somebodys body
= belly button
= formula
= diplomacy/diplomatic ______
= nutrition/nourishment
= nutrients
= nutritionist
= groceries
= side dish
= sleep (little things in your eyes)
Verbs:
= body part going numb
= to make fly (balloon/kite/etc)
= board (a plane)/embark
= transplant
= vote
= brush against/touch
Adjectives:
= meaningless/pointless
= belated/after the fact
= adverb for surprised
= occasionally
= brief/roughly/general idea/approx
= not the slightest bit
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about two particles that typically have the same meaning. By using
the particles ~ and ~ you can create the meaning of as much as. However, there is
much more to these particles than that simple meaning. Lets get started.
As much as: ~
First and foremost, ~ can be attached directly to a noun to mean as much as (that noun).
For example:
= as much as me
= as much as rice
= as much as a Korean person
This particle acts similar to the particle ~ but with the meaning of as much as instead of
like. These noun-particle combinations can now go in sentences:
= He plays soccer as well as me (he plays soccer well, as much as
me)
= Fruit is as healthy as rice is (fruit is good for your health as

much as rice)
= I can speak Korean as much as a Korean person
can
Of course, because ~ can be attached directly to nouns, it can also be attached directly to
nouns being described by a verb or adjective (using the ~ form). The same translation of
as much as is usually used in these situations. For example:
= If you work as much as you play
games, you can succeed
= one should eat vegetables as much as they eat
meat
= I want to speak
Korean as (much/) well as a Korean person speaks
can also act as the noun being described by a clause conjugated using ~ (that is, as
~ and not necessarily as ~ ). When it is used like this, the translation is often
different, but it essentially has the same meaning as was described previously. The most common
translation of this usage is to the point/extent that.
The clause before can be conjugated to the past, present and future tenses. For example, it
can be described by a clause that is conjugated in the past tense:
= I hope you enjoyed the party to the
extent that we enjoyed it (notice the past tense of describes makes to the extent
that we did or enjoyed)
= I am going to use money to the extent that I earned
yesterday (again, ( + ~/) is in the past tense which describes in the past
tense which is to the extent that I earned
The present tense:
(The most common way to see described by a clause in the present tense is when the
previous clause ends with to make constructions like as much as you want.)
= Eat to the extent that you want
= Our son cant learn to the extent
that his classmates can
All of these sentences given above where is being described by a preceding clause the
from can be used as well. Therefore, the following sentences are also acceptable:
= I hope you enjoyed the party as much
as we enjoyed it
= I am going to use as much money as I earned
yesterday
= Eat as much as you want
= Our son cant learn as much as
his classmates can
The only reason I separate these two usages (that is, the usage of ~ compared to ~
) is because my Korean-Korean dictionary separates them into two usages. I have asked
multiple Korean people and they all say that the usages above using ~ and ~
However, ~ cannot be exchanged with ~ when the describing clause is
conjugated into the future tense. For example, while these are correct:
= He is sick to the point that he wont go to school
= That thing is scary to the point that I cant look
? = Is there space for all of us to go into the car?
The following would all sound unnatural in Korean:

?
is also often described by a clause that is ridiculous and that will not happen. The speaker
uses these types of sentences as a metaphor to describe to what extent something is happening.
The easiest example of this would be something like:
= I love you to the point that I am going to die
In this case, obviously the speaker wont die from loving the person to much. However, the
speaker wants to express some sort of hyperbole in describing how much something is being
done. In these cases, the clause describing should be in the future tense. Other examples:
= He is so poor he cant even buy rice

= He betrayed me to the point that I cant
trust him for the rest of my life
= This cake is delicious to the point
that I could eat it everyday
= Im impressed from the students to
the point that I cant express myself (I cant express how much I am impressed from my
students)
Before I go any further, I want to briefly mention two idiom-type words related to .
First, the word is a noun that means the bits of crust that people get in their eyes. I guess
the common word for them is sleep, but Ive heard people call them eye boogers or
whatever. Either way, is the word for that in Korean and this word is often used to
describe something very small. The particle ~ is often attached to , and is used in
sentences to mean not in the slightest bit. For example:
= I dont like you in the slightest bit
Note that his literally translates to I like you as much as the sleep in my eyes.
Another idiom that you might want to use is . The words and mean
sky and land respectively, but when you want to explain how much you love somebody, it is
a cute way of saying that you love somebody thiiiiiiiiiiiiis much. The literal meaning is
something like I love you from the earth to the sky or something like that. If you happen to
have a Korean significant other, he or she would be very impressed (and happy!) if you told
him/her something like .
Though that is it for the particle (~), I would still like to talk about the word , which
can sometimes be similar to (~).
Degree:
In its most literal sense, the word means degree; and can be used in a variety of
situations. One way it can be used is by replacing in the cases where it is not attached
directly to a noun. That is, in sentences where it is being described by a preceding verb or
adjective, you can replace with . For example:
When placed directly to a noun:
= doesnt make sense
= doesnt make sense
When being described by a preceding verb or adjective:

Notice that the particle is usually placed after in these cases.
It is typically used in the same place as in the cases where it is used as a hyperbole.
Therefore, (aside from the examples that I will discuss later), you will most commonly see
() being described by a clause conjugated in the future tense.
= He is so poor to the degree that he cant even buy rice
= He betrayed me to the degree that I
cant trust him for the rest of my life
= This cake is delicious to the
degree that I could eat it everyday
= Im impressed from the students
to the degree that I cant express myself (I cant express how much I am impressed from my
students)
Regardless of what the specific translation is (the use of usually means the sentence
translates to degree instead of point, the meaning is the same as ~ in these cases)
As the literal meaning of (which is a noun) is degree, you can find it in many different
places in a sentence, including as the noun in the ~ principle (which is really what was
done when we saw it as ~/ above anyways). When used like this, the sentence
commonly ends with the word to indicate that something is not to a certain degree.
In its simplest form, you might see sentences like this:
(/) = Not that much/Not to that extent/Not to that degree
Which would most commonly be used in response to something:
? = Do you really like that man (to the extent that youre going
to die?)
= No, not that much (not to that extent)
Its also possible to use / in a more complicated sentence.
For example:
= This work isnt at the point
(degree) that we can call it finished already

= The disease/sickness getting worse isnt (to the extent that it is) something you need to
worry about it, but we need to start treatment (from) today
is also often placed after some sort of number or counter to mean about. For example:
40 = We still have to go about 40 minutes
10 = About 10 people will take the class
= That book is about 10,000 won
/
In Lesson 22, Lesson 25 and Lesson 33 you learned about the word . can also be used
in sentences with and .
When used with or to form a question, the speaker is asking to what extent
something happened. For example:
? = How sore (to what extent) is your side?
Note that is often used instead of For example:
? = How much (to what extent) do you believe the nutritionist?
When used as a statement, the speaker is indicating that something is done to some extent. For
example:
= I can make to some extent

= I understand what he is trying to say
to some extent
to some extent
to some extent
= That student can speak English to a certain
degree
degree
degree
Instead: ()
Instead: ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= arcade
= cold sweat
= wife
= condition/state
= hairband
= hairpin
= skull
= season
= relatives
= talent
= hour hand (on a clock)
= minute hand (on a clock)
= second hand (on a clock)
= volume
= address book
= doorknob
= housewife
= dust
= traffic signal
= bubble
= sauce
= evidence
Verbs:
= kidnap
= threaten
=pour/spill
= hold with your hands
Adjectives:
= wonderful/marvelous
= midnight
= around that time
= summer
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how about the word , which can be used in a few different
ways to have the meaning of instead. In addition to this, you will learn a few other concepts
and words that have the same or similar meaning to . Lets get started.
Instead: ()
If you look up the word in the dictionary, you will see instead as the English
translation. Though there are times when no particle needs to be attached to it (I will get to those
later), ~ is usually attached to when it is used. The simplest way to use this word is
immediately after a noun with no additional grammar. For example:
= instead of rice
= instead of a pencil
= instead of milk
Each of these can then go into a sentence conveying that meaning. For example:
= Instead of eating rice, I ate bread
= Instead of using a pencil, I will use a pen
= The baby wants to drink water instead of milk
These noun + combos get treated as if there were adverbs, meaning they dont need to be
placed in a specific location in a sentence. All of these would also be fine:

Pretty simple when you are just talking about nouns, but if you want to express that you DO an
action instead of another action, there are two ways you can do this. Both ways involve using the
~ principle.
If you want to say instead of eating rice you could do either of the following:
1)
2)
In the first example, you are using ~ to change into a clause that describes a
noun. acts then as the noun and can be used after it. For example:
= instead of rice
= instead of eating rice
In the second example, replaces and acts as the noun.
Regardless of what word acts as the noun, and regardless of the slightly different appearances
between the two sentences they have exactly the same meaning.
The only difference between using the ~ principle and not using it would be the same as
expressed in English. Notice the slightly difference nuisance between the first sentence and the
second and third:
= instead of rice
Any of these grammatical forms could then go into sentences:
= Instead of living in Ansan, I want to live
in Uijeongbu
= Instead of working in a high

school, I want to work in an elementary school
! = Instead of just sitting here, lets go to
the gym and exercise!
Notice that in all examples, the present tense of ~ is always used. Even if you are talking
about something in the past or future, you should always use ~ (or ~ )
and neither of the the following:
= incorrect
= incorrect
.
The word is another one of those words that actually has no meaning. Like the word
, is used in sentences to convey a feeling rather than a meaning. is
used in sentences when you are talking about doing one action over another (in that, you prefer
one action over another action). Because of this usage, the word is often used in
sentences with . For example:
! = Instead of going to school, lets go to the
arcade
The beauty of using is that you dont always need to waste your time saying instead
of. Follow the following written conversation, for example:
? = Shall we go to school?
! = Instead of going to school, lets go to the arcade!
That second sentence could be shortened to:
! = Lets go to the arcade!
But that sentence is missing something when written like that. When written like that, the two
sentences dont have any logical connection between them. However, by using you
can create the connection between the two sentences:
() ! = (Instead of doing that) Lets (I would rather) go to the arcade!
In fact, can serve that same purpose. In that same example, by using (without ),
instead of , you can create the same meaning:
! = Instead, lets go to the arcade!
Another example. The answer to this:
? = Shall we go outside?
Could be any of these answers:
= Instead of going outside, lets stay here
= Id rather stay here
Pretty simple once you hear the word said in conversation a couple of times. It is actually
a very common word, but not one that foreign people learn very early.
There is one more concept that can have a similar meaning to all this that I would like to talk
about before I finish.
Instead: ~
In Lesson 40 you learned about the negative imperative mood. At the end of that lesson, you
learned that you could make sentences like this:
= Dont exercise every day, and get lots of rest
Technically, those sentences could also translate to:
= Instead of exercising every day, get lots of rest
= Instead of doing it like that, listen to what I have to say
In these sentences, ~ doesnt have the exact same meaning of ~ but it

is very similar. However, you can also just use (instead of using ~ with a verb) to
have a very similar meaning to just using with a noun. For example:
? = Instead of rice, shall we eat bread?
However, when using to have to meaning of instead, I think it sounds natural when you
are suggesting something at the end of the sentence (by using ~ or ~()).
Some accents in Korea (usually older people who grew up in the countryside somewhere) change
the pronunciation of to . If you want to sound funny, you can try pronouncing it
like that. I do it sometimes just to mess with people and people often look at me with the face
like he doesnt look like an older person who grew up in the countryside somewhere
Vocabulary
Introduction
It doesnt matter if:
Regardless of.:
Despite: ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= luck
= luggage/load/baggage
= injured person
= pain/ache/agony
= digestion/digest
= digestive organs
= blanket
= thickness
= plants
= discount
= bare foot
= wilderness
= countryside
= school credit
= drivers license
= some sort of ordeal/hardship/problem
Verbs:
= turn over/turn inside out
= to charge (money)
= write
= to act enthusiastic about
= react
= run away from home
Passive Verbs:
= to be broken up with, to get kicked
= to be written on
Adjectives:
= swollen/to be swollen
= thick
= poor/faulty
= as one likes/pleases
= one by one
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use the word in sentences, both as a word that
can be placed at the end of a sentence (like any other verb/adjective) and as an adverb than can
be placed in the middle of a sentence. In order to use this word, you will draw from previous
grammatical principles that you have learned in previous lessons (~, /), and learn a
new one as well (~). Lets get started.
It doesnt matter if:

The word literally translates to relation, and by saying , you are in a way
indicating that there is no relation between two things. The most common way you will see/hear
this being used is by itself to indicate that something doesnt matter or is irrelevant. For
example:
Person 1: ? = When do you want to go tomorrow?
Person 2: = It doesnt matter/I dont care
Person 1: ? = Where should I put the/my luggage?
Person 2: = It doesnt matter/I dont care
can be used to predicate a sentence to say things like:
It doesnt matter if you are hungry (it is irrelevant if you are hungry)
It doesnt matter if we go there (it is irrelevant if we go there)
It doesnt matter if it is expensive (it is irrelevant if it is expensive)
When predicating a sentence with , it is common to attach ~/ (which you
learned about in Lesson 49) to the clause that is irrelevant. For example:
= It doesnt matter if you are hungry
= It doesnt matter if we go there
= It doesnt matter if it is expensive
Some more examples:
= It doesnt matter if you eat that
= It doesnt matter if your foot is swollen
= It doesnt matter if you dont buy a present
= It doesnt matter if I dont get a discount
= It doesnt matter if I live in the countryside
There might be situations where you might want to include a question word to make the sentence
a little bit more complex. For example, to say:
It doesnt matter when we go

It doesnt matter where we go
It doesnt matter who I go with
If you want to use question words like this in your sentence, you cannot attach ~/ to the
clause prior to . One way you can do this is to use ~, which you learned about in
Lesson 30. For example:
= It doesnt matter when we go
= It doesnt matter where we go
= It doesnt matter who I go with
Another option is to attach ~, which isnt introduced as a grammatical principle until Lesson
106. There is no need to jump ahead to Lesson 106 at this point. I will mention ~ briefly
here, but you will dive deep into the specific meaning of ~ in Lesson 106. When used to
separate two clauses (as you will see in Lesson 106), it generally translates to whether. Forget
about that for now, and just see how it can be used in this lesson with .
The three sentences above can also be written like this:
Other examples:
= It doesnt matter when you get your drivers license
= It doesnt matter how the students react
Regardless of.:
By using in the middle of sentences (at the end of a clause), you can create the
meaning of regardless of The easiest and most common way this is done is by saying
regardless of (noun). In order to do this, you should attach ~//// to the noun,
followed by . For example:
= regardless of my health
= regardless of the cold
These compositions can then go into sentences. For example:

= Regardless of my health, I want to meet my girlfriend

= Regardless of the cold, I am going outside

= Regardless of the weather, we need to go now

= Regardless of the pain, you will have to get up soon
Whenever I learned a new grammatical principle or word, I always tried to apply it to
complicated sentences. When I first learned about , I tried to apply it to sentences like
this:
Regardless of how much money I have, I need to buy an expensive present for my girlfriend
Regardless of how much you love me, I have to break up with you
Here, an entire clauses precedes not just a noun. To translate this, it is possible to use
~ much like the sentences with . For example:

= Regardless of how much money I have, I need to buy an expensive present for my girlfriend

= Regardless of how much you love me, I have to break up with you
You might be thinking here what about if I use ~/ or ~. The thing is, when you use
~/ or ~ in the middle of two clauses, they themselves have the meaning of
regardless of or whether. Therefore, including the adverb in a clause that is
already separated by ~/ or ~ is redundant. For example, the following sentences
dont need because this meaning is already implied:

= Regardless of how much you love me, I need to break up with you

= Whether you love me a lot (or not), I need to break up with you

= Regardless of how much food I eat I never gain weight

= Whether I eat a lot of food (or not) I never gain weight
At this point, I would like to introduce you to another grammatical principle that is commonly
(and naturally) used to have a similar meaning.
Despite: ~/
Another word that functions to have a similar meaning in sentences as is .
You will rarely see it by itself as it is almost exclusively used in the middle of sentences.
Just like , it can be used after a simple noun. When it is used like this ~ is
typically attached to the noun that precedes it. The typical translation for this in English is
despite which can essentially be seen as the same as regardless of. The only distinction I can
make (in meaning) is that ~ is more likely to be used with some sort of difficult
hardship whereas is more likely to be used in any general situation. For example:
= Regardless of the weather
= Despite the weather
= Regardless of the pain
= Despite the pain

= The fans watching the game live were enthusiastic despite the weather

= Despite the pain, he had surgery on his digestive organs without anesthesia

= I finished that work despite the hardship/problems
When used after a verb or adjective ~/ (which you learned about in Lesson 29) is used to
change the verb or adjective into a noun. Following this, ~ is usually attached to the newly
created noun. Also notice that the verb or adjective can be conjugated to the past tense before ~
is attached to it. For example:

= In spite of that, you cant get credit because your scores were too low

= In spite of being broken up with (dumped) yesterday, I have a lot of confidence today

= The game/match continued despite the accident that arose
Although common and useful, (and ~/ ) is most commonly used in
written Korean. It is not completely unreasonable to hear this or to say this, but you are more
likely to see this in some form of written Korean.
Vocabulary
Introduction
To Include:
To exclude:
In addition to:
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= confidence
= tattoo
= gesture (body language)
= reflexes
= butterfly
= camel
= deer
= dolphin
= dirt/mud
= lower body
= upper body
= lighting
= alcohol
= wine
= hard liquor
= membership
= drug
= drug dealer
= ambulance
Verbs:
= to include
= to exclude (except)
= take a drug
= agree/same feeling
= pound away on something
= sprain
= beat/hit
= yield
Adjectives:
= flat
____ = early (time)
= in addition to
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about two opposite words that are very common in Korean. By
using the word , you will learn how to say including, and by using the word
, you will learn how to say except/excluding. Lets get started.
To Include:
Just like almost every other verb, can be placed at the end of a sentence. For
example:
You can also use the passive form of (). Using the passive verb has the
same meaning, but you should know that the passive sentences cannot contain an object (thus,
they cannot contain the particle ~/). For example:
Notice in the above examples the particle / needed to be changed to / because there is
no active verb in the sentence.
Though / can be used at the end of sentences like this, it is usually used in the
middle of a sentence to indicate what is or isnt included in something. You learned about the
simple connectors ~/ in the previous lesson and how they can be used to connect two
clauses without any real meaning. You can use that same grammatical principle when using
in sentences. For example:
= including me
= including my friend
= including tax
These constructions can then be placed in sentences where appropriate. For example:
10 = 10 people will go travel together,
including my friend
20 = including taxes, this house is 20
When using in these situations, there doesnt appear to be any difference in meaning if
you also attach ~ to :
Now that you know how to say including in sentences, it is time to learn how to say
excluding in sentences. I will talk about this in the next section.
.
To exclude:
Just like , and many other verbs, the verb can be placed at the end of a
= The teacher excluded the
student from the trip because of his bad grades
It can also be used in the passive voice as well:
= The student was excluded from the trip
because of his bad grades
However, just like the word is used to have the meaning including, is
often used in the middle of a sentence to say except/excluding. In order to do this, you
simply place OR after the noun you want to exclude. For example:
() = Including my mother
Note that while ~/() is used with (to make ) to indicate what is
included, it is not added to to indicate what is excluded. If this was done, it would be
understandable, but strange
Conversely, while adding ~, or ~ to (to make or ) is natural, it
would sound slightly unnatural to attach either of these to .
These constructions can then go in sentences where appropriate, for example:

, or:
= Except for my mother, I hate all
women
If the thing that you are excluding is a noun, you can use either of the forms above ( or
). More examples:
10 = Except for 10 people, everybody died, or
Notice the grammatical principles that are being used in the sentences above with vs.
. When using the sentences are essentially split into two clauses:
10 = except for 10 people
= everybody died
However, when is used, (through the use of the ~ principle) is
describing the upcoming noun. Just like any other noun being described by a preceding clause,
we can take out that noun (and its descriptors) to analyze it. For example:
= the food I eat
= the food I am eating
= the person I will meet tomorrow
When (used as ) describes a noun, the translations are usually awkward in
English:
10 = the people except for 10 people
= all sports except for soccer
Those (described) nouns can then be placed in a sentence just like any other noun, for example:
One confusing this is that if the noun that is being described by is also being described
by another verb, it is better to use . For example, if the sentence above said:
10
Notice how far the descriptive word () and the noun () are from each other.
Because there is another clause that is also describing the noun in the sentence (
), we essentially have two verbs describing the same noun and it sounds weird in Korean.
In these cases, although both sentences would be understood, it would be more natural to use
10 = Except for 10 people,
everybody working at that factory died
In essence, what you are doing is changing the noun so it is only being described by one clause.
In this case, our noun is (where the bolded part is the clause that is describing the noun):
10 = the people working at that factory except ten
In addition to that, when you want to exclude an adverb (in these cases, usually a place, time,
day, month, etc) you must use and not . For example:
= Except for Sunday, I work every day
= Except for next month, I will be
in Korea for the entire year
You can also use the ~ or ~/ grammatical principles when you use the word
. This literally just translates the sentence into if you exclude:
= If you exclude me, everybody is going
Though I have covered everything I would like to cover regarding and ,
there is one more word I would like to talk about before finishing this lesson.
Outside of:
The word could be talked about in another lesson, but I felt this lesson would be fitting
because of the similarities with how the words and are used. Im not sure if
you have been brushing up on your Hanja (Chinese characters), but the character in Hanja is
. This character means to be outside and is used in a lot of Korean words.
Early in a sentence (or referred from another sentence) some noun will be mentioned. Placing
after that noun creates the meaning of outside of X or Other than X. For example:
= outside of that teacher (other than that teacher)
= outside of that girl (other than that girl)
When something is being referred to from another sentence, it is very common to use
before . For example:
= outside of that (other than that)
I spent a few minutes trying to figure out if the meaning of this was more similar to or
. Are we excluding something here? Or are we including something here? The answer
in my mind is; neither. Were not including or excluding anything. allows the speaker to
talk about all other things outside of what was mentioned before, regardless of if it was included
or excluded (as per the rest of the sentence). You could find a natural way to translate to
in addition to or except for depending on the situation. For example:
= I bought food in addition to Ginseng
= Other than food, I bought Ginseng
= Except for that teacher, there is nobody
who can do this job
= Outside of that teacher, there is nobody
who can do this job
Heres an example that shows how both in addition to and except for can both be used on the
same sentence:
? = In addition to that, do you need something else?
? = Except for that, do you need something else?
Both better translated to:
? = Outside of that, do you need something else?
Anyways, you probably dont need to think that deeply into this problem. I just find it interesting
that the word seems similar to both and but neither of them reflect the
meaning accurately.
Heres another good example sentence; one that shows that the noun before can be
described by a clause using the ~ principle:
= Outside of speaking with
Korean people, I didnt do any other studying
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
As much as: ~
Degree:
/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= surprise party
= convenience
= training
= path for an object
= student body/council
= actress
= liver
= side of somebodys body
= belly button
= formula
= diplomacy/diplomatic ______
= nutrition/nourishment
= nutrients
= nutritionist
= groceries
= side dish
= sleep (little things in your eyes)
Verbs:
= body part going numb
= to make fly (balloon/kite/etc)
= board (a plane)/embark
= transplant
= vote
= brush against/touch
Adjectives:
= meaningless/pointless
= belated/after the fact
= adverb for surprised
= occasionally
= not the slightest bit
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about two particles that typically have the same meaning. By using
the particles ~ and ~ you can create the meaning of as much as. However, there is
much more to these particles than that simple meaning. Lets get started.
As much as: ~
First and foremost, ~ can be attached directly to a noun to mean as much as (that noun).
For example:
= as much as me
= as much as rice
= as much as a Korean person
This particle acts similar to the particle ~ but with the meaning of as much as instead of
like. These noun-particle combinations can now go in sentences:
= He plays soccer as well as me (he plays soccer well, as much as
me)
= Fruit is as healthy as rice is (fruit is good for your health as
much as rice)
= I can speak Korean as much as a Korean person
can
Of course, because ~ can be attached directly to nouns, it can also be attached directly to
nouns being described by a verb or adjective (using the ~ form). The same translation of
as much as is usually used in these situations. For example:
= If you work as much as you play
games, you can succeed
= one should eat vegetables as much as they eat
meat
= I want to speak
Korean as (much/) well as a Korean person speaks
can also act as the noun being described by a clause conjugated using ~ (that is, as
~ and not necessarily as ~ ). When it is used like this, the translation is often
different, but it essentially has the same meaning as was described previously. The most common
translation of this usage is to the point/extent that.
The clause before can be conjugated to the past, present and future tenses. For example, it
can be described by a clause that is conjugated in the past tense:
= I hope you enjoyed the party to the
extent that we enjoyed it (notice the past tense of describes makes to the extent
that we did or enjoyed)
= I am going to use money to the extent that I earned
yesterday (again, ( + ~/) is in the past tense which describes in the past
tense which is to the extent that I earned
The present tense:

(The most common way to see described by a clause in the present tense is when the
previous clause ends with to make constructions like as much as you want.)
= Eat to the extent that you want
= Our son cant learn to the extent
that his classmates can
All of these sentences given above where is being described by a preceding clause the
from can be used as well. Therefore, the following sentences are also acceptable:
= I hope you enjoyed the party as much
as we enjoyed it
= I am going to use as much money as I earned
yesterday
= Eat as much as you want
= Our son cant learn as much as
his classmates can
The only reason I separate these two usages (that is, the usage of ~ compared to ~
) is because my Korean-Korean dictionary separates them into two usages. I have asked
multiple Korean people and they all say that the usages above using ~ and ~
However, ~ cannot be exchanged with ~ when the describing clause is
conjugated into the future tense. For example, while these are correct:
= He is sick to the point that he wont go to school
= That thing is scary to the point that I cant look
? = Is there space for all of us to go into the car?
The following would all sound unnatural in Korean:

?
is also often described by a clause that is ridiculous and that will not happen. The speaker
uses these types of sentences as a metaphor to describe to what extent something is happening.
The easiest example of this would be something like:
= I love you to the point that I am going to die
In this case, obviously the speaker wont die from loving the person to much. However, the
speaker wants to express some sort of hyperbole in describing how much something is being
done. In these cases, the clause describing should be in the future tense. Other examples:
= He is so poor he cant even buy rice
= He betrayed me to the point that I cant
trust him for the rest of my life
= This cake is delicious to the point
that I could eat it everyday
= Im impressed from the students to
the point that I cant express myself (I cant express how much I am impressed from my
students)
Before I go any further, I want to briefly mention two idiom-type words related to .
First, the word is a noun that means the bits of crust that people get in their eyes. I guess
the common word for them is sleep, but Ive heard people call them eye boogers or
whatever. Either way, is the word for that in Korean and this word is often used to
describe something very small. The particle ~ is often attached to , and is used in
sentences to mean not in the slightest bit. For example:
= I dont like you in the slightest bit
Note that his literally translates to I like you as much as the sleep in my eyes.
Another idiom that you might want to use is . The words and mean
sky and land respectively, but when you want to explain how much you love somebody, it is
a cute way of saying that you love somebody thiiiiiiiiiiiiis much. The literal meaning is
something like I love you from the earth to the sky or something like that. If you happen to
have a Korean significant other, he or she would be very impressed (and happy!) if you told
him/her something like .
Though that is it for the particle (~), I would still like to talk about the word , which
can sometimes be similar to (~).
Degree:
In its most literal sense, the word means degree; and can be used in a variety of
situations. One way it can be used is by replacing in the cases where it is not attached
directly to a noun. That is, in sentences where it is being described by a preceding verb or
adjective, you can replace with . For example:
When placed directly to a noun:
= doesnt make sense
= doesnt make sense
When being described by a preceding verb or adjective:

Notice that the particle is usually placed after in these cases.
It is typically used in the same place as in the cases where it is used as a hyperbole.
Therefore, (aside from the examples that I will discuss later), you will most commonly see
() being described by a clause conjugated in the future tense.
= He is so poor to the degree that he cant even buy rice
= He betrayed me to the degree that I
cant trust him for the rest of my life
= This cake is delicious to the
degree that I could eat it everyday
= Im impressed from the students
to the degree that I cant express myself (I cant express how much I am impressed from my
students)
Regardless of what the specific translation is (the use of usually means the sentence
translates to degree instead of point, the meaning is the same as ~ in these cases)
As the literal meaning of (which is a noun) is degree, you can find it in many different
places in a sentence, including as the noun in the ~ principle (which is really what was
done when we saw it as ~/ above anyways). When used like this, the sentence
commonly ends with the word to indicate that something is not to a certain degree.
In its simplest form, you might see sentences like this:
(/) = Not that much/Not to that extent/Not to that degree

Which would most commonly be used in response to something:
? = Do you really like that man (to the extent that youre going
to die?)
= No, not that much (not to that extent)
Its also possible to use / in a more complicated sentence.
For example:
= This work isnt at the point
(degree) that we can call it finished already

= The disease/sickness getting worse isnt (to the extent that it is) something you need to
worry about it, but we need to start treatment (from) today
is also often placed after some sort of number or counter to mean about. For example:
40 = We still have to go about 40 minutes
10 = About 10 people will take the class
= That book is about 10,000 won
/
In Lesson 22, Lesson 25 and Lesson 33 you learned about the word . can also be used
in sentences with and .
When used with or to form a question, the speaker is asking to what extent
something happened. For example:
Note that is often used instead of For example:

When used as a statement, the speaker is indicating that something is done to some extent. For
example:
to some extent
to some extent
to some extent
degree
degree
degree
Introduction
Instead: ()
Instead: ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= arcade
= cold sweat
= wife
= condition/state
= hairband
= hairpin
= skull
= season
= relatives
= talent
= hour hand (on a clock)
= minute hand (on a clock)
= second hand (on a clock)
= volume
= address book
= doorknob
= housewife
= dust
= traffic signal
= bubble
= sauce
= evidence
Verbs:
= kidnap
= threaten
=pour/spill
= hold with your hands
Adjectives:
= wonderful/marvelous
= midnight
= around that time
= summer
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how about the word , which can be used in a few different
ways to have the meaning of instead. In addition to this, you will learn a few other concepts
and words that have the same or similar meaning to . Lets get started.
Instead: ()
If you look up the word in the dictionary, you will see instead as the English
translation. Though there are times when no particle needs to be attached to it (I will get to those
later), ~ is usually attached to when it is used. The simplest way to use this word is
immediately after a noun with no additional grammar. For example:
= instead of rice
= instead of a pencil
= instead of milk
Each of these can then go into a sentence conveying that meaning. For example:
= Instead of eating rice, I ate bread
= Instead of using a pencil, I will use a pen
= The baby wants to drink water instead of milk
These noun + combos get treated as if there were adverbs, meaning they dont need to be
placed in a specific location in a sentence. All of these would also be fine:

Pretty simple when you are just talking about nouns, but if you want to express that you DO an
action instead of another action, there are two ways you can do this. Both ways involve using the
~ principle.
If you want to say instead of eating rice you could do either of the following:
1)
2)
In the first example, you are using ~ to change into a clause that describes a
noun. acts then as the noun and can be used after it. For example:
= instead of rice
In the second example, replaces and acts as the noun.
Regardless of what word acts as the noun, and regardless of the slightly different appearances
between the two sentences they have exactly the same meaning.
The only difference between using the ~ principle and not using it would be the same as
expressed in English. Notice the slightly difference nuisance between the first sentence and the
second and third:
= instead of rice
Any of these grammatical forms could then go into sentences:
= Instead of living in Ansan, I want to live
in Uijeongbu
= Instead of working in a high
school, I want to work in an elementary school
! = Instead of just sitting here, lets go to
the gym and exercise!
Notice that in all examples, the present tense of ~ is always used. Even if you are talking
about something in the past or future, you should always use ~ (or ~ )
and neither of the the following:
= incorrect
= incorrect
The word is another one of those words that actually has no meaning. Like the word
, is used in sentences to convey a feeling rather than a meaning. is
used in sentences when you are talking about doing one action over another (in that, you prefer
one action over another action). Because of this usage, the word is often used in
sentences with . For example:
! = Instead of going to school, lets go to the

arcade
The beauty of using is that you dont always need to waste your time saying instead
of. Follow the following written conversation, for example:
! = Instead of going to school, lets go to the arcade!
That second sentence could be shortened to:
! = Lets go to the arcade!
But that sentence is missing something when written like that. When written like that, the two
sentences dont have any logical connection between them. However, by using you
can create the connection between the two sentences:
() ! = (Instead of doing that) Lets (I would rather) go to the arcade!
In fact, can serve that same purpose. In that same example, by using (without ),
instead of , you can create the same meaning:
! = Instead, lets go to the arcade!
Another example. The answer to this:
? = Shall we go outside?
Could be any of these answers:
Pretty simple once you hear the word said in conversation a couple of times. It is actually
a very common word, but not one that foreign people learn very early.
There is one more concept that can have a similar meaning to all this that I would like to talk
about before I finish.
Instead: ~
In Lesson 40 you learned about the negative imperative mood. At the end of that lesson, you
learned that you could make sentences like this:
= Dont exercise every day, and get lots of rest
Technically, those sentences could also translate to:
= Instead of exercising every day, get lots of rest
= Instead of doing it like that, listen to what I have to say
In these sentences, ~ doesnt have the exact same meaning of ~ but it
is very similar. However, you can also just use (instead of using ~ with a verb) to
have a very similar meaning to just using with a noun. For example:
However, when using to have to meaning of instead, I think it sounds natural when you
are suggesting something at the end of the sentence (by using ~ or ~()).
Some accents in Korea (usually older people who grew up in the countryside somewhere) change
the pronunciation of to . If you want to sound funny, you can try pronouncing it
like that. I do it sometimes just to mess with people and people often look at me with the face
like he doesnt look like an older person who grew up in the countryside somewhere
Vocabulary
Introduction
The Difference Between and

~ vs. ~
The Most Common Meaning of ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= grandson
= only son
= adult
= salmon
= rest/recess
= grave
= shade
= shadow
= space (outer space)
= moonlight
= satellite
= grassland/meadow
= elbow
= mushroom
= heaven
= big city
= resident
= mother in law
= father in law
= wife
= granddaughter
Verbs:
= to bury
= to completely bury
= praise
= attend
= to smoke a food
Passive Verbs:
= to be buried
= to be completely buried
= to get a sun burn
Adjectives:
= hot and humid
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about a grammatical principle that, by now, you probably hear all
the time in Korean. Probably one of the most common grammatical forms in Korean is the usage
of ~. So why did it take until Lesson 76 to finally be introduced to this principle? Well, the
meaning is incredibly difficult to understand, especially when the learner hasnt quite mastered
some form of intermediate Korean grammar. If you do completely understand the usage of ~
after my two lessons describing it, you either owe it to yourself for having a good grasp of the
Korean language, or you owe it to me for being a good teacher. Lets get started.
The Difference Between and

First things first, I need to simply describe the difference between the word (the word you
learned about in Lesson 42) and the word . , as you know, has the meaning of when
placed after the ~/ grammatical form. For example:
= when I met my friend, we ate together
= When I studied, I only studied grammar
Used this way, acts as a noun, just like many other nouns that can be placed as the noun in
the ~ grammatical principle.
To make it incredibly confusing, (pronounced very similar to ) is another noun that can
be placed as the noun in the ~ grammatical principle. This noun has the meaning of
place/location. Look this word up in the dictionary and you will find that synonyms of this
word are and which you should be familiar with by now. The difference between
and / is that (in this form) is always placed as the noun in the ~
principle. For example:
? = Do you want to go anywhere? (do you have a place that you
want to go to?)
= He had nowhere to go because he had no money
= We went to the place that we met for the first time
In Lesson 25, you learned about a variety of words that have the meaning: anybody, nobody,
anytime, anywhere, nowhere, etc As you recall, the words for anywhere, and nowhere
respectively are:
= anywhere
= nowhere
The in those words is the same that you are learning about in this lesson.
This meaning of is pretty easy to understand, the only confusion is distinguishing the
difference between (meaning place) and (meaning time/when).
The confusion begins when you start learning about ~ and ~.
~ vs. ~
As you just learned, can be placed as the noun in the ~ principle. This means that you
will often see sentences that have the construction ~ . For example:
= She lives a little bit far (The place that she lives is a little far)
Notice the space between and . The space signifies that is a noun and the clause before
is describing the noun.
However, ~ (without the space) is one of the most common grammatical principles in
Korean speech.
Placing ~ between two clauses creates many different meanings all of which are very
difficult to describe. I will describe one of these meanings in the remainder of this lesson.
The Most Common Meaning of ~
The most common meaning of ~ when placed between two clauses is very similar (but
subtly different) than the English equivalent of even though. In English, when we use even
though, we do so to negate the upcoming clause, for example:
Even though I dont like meat, I will try some.
In that sentence, you are negating the fact that you dont like meat, and the second clause (I will
try some) indicates something opposing the first clause.
In Korean, you would use the grammatical principle ~ to create this meaning. For example:

You could ask 100 Korean people, and look in 100 Korean dictionaries for a concrete definition
of ~ and never get a straight answer. My personal definition of this principle (after
constantly using/hearing it in Korean conversation) is:
A meaning that is slightly less strong than even though, and/or often times setting up the
situation for the upcoming clause.
Lets work on the first part of that definition: A meaning that is slightly less strong than even
though. You can use this grammatical principle to mean even though, but when doing so, the
first clause isnt completely negated, and the second clause doesnt necessarily need to be the
exact opposite of the first clause. This sentence works, however:
= Even though I dont like meat, I will try some
The second part of the definition provided above (often times setting up the situation for the
upcoming clause.) is the key to using the principle. Instead of separating your thoughts into two
sentences you can use ~ to join two thoughts together. For example, instead of saying:
. , you could more naturally say:

In these cases, the first clause sets up the scenario for the second clause. The meaning within this
sentence also has a slight meaning of even though. For example, the meaning of that sentence
is somewhere between:
I am eating, and I dont really like it
Even though I am eating, I dont really like it
But even those translations are debatable and could change depending on the situation.
Translating ~ directly into English is very hard because not only is there no direct
translation, the meaning is very variable.
While sometimes the meaning it takes on might have this slight even though feeling (as you
have seen in the examples above), depending on the situation, it might not have that feeling at
all. The key to understanding this grammatical principle is understanding the context of the
conversation.
For example, if you wanted to ask a question to your teacher, you could do it like this.
. ? = I have a question. Until when do we
have to finish this work?
(When does this work need to be finished?)
However, while perfectly correct, that sentence could sound awkward in a lot of situations. Ive
had the opportunity to speak to many foreigners who are studying Korean, and the number one
mistake that they often make is not connecting their sentences with ~. Using ~ really
makes sentences flow of your tongue, and the more comfortable you are with it, the more natural
your speech will sound. The sentences above could very naturally be connected as:
? = I have a questionuntil when do we have to
finish this work?
I think that the best way to understand how this principle can be used is to see it in a lot of
examples. Lets get you on the right path right now with a bunch of examples right here:
= Even though we are/were
supposed to do this (work), I dont want to do it because it is too complicated
? = I have to go now; can you
give that to me tomorrow?
= I went to the beach yesterday, and
even though I put on a lot of lotion, I got a sun burn
If the first clause occurred in the past, you can conjugate the first clause into the past tense, just
like you do with other grammatical principles like ~ . For example:
5 = Im originally from
Canada, but Ive been living in Korea for 5 years now
20 = Even though we ordered our food

20 minutes ago, it still hasnt arrived
= I asked the professor, and he
said that we have to solve the problem this way
= I woke up early, but Im not tired yet (even though I
woke up early, Im not tired)
This form can also be used with adjectives as well. Instead of using ~, you must use ~/
, where ~ comes after an adjective that ends in a consonant, and ~ attaches directly
to an adjective that ends in a vowel. Remember that and both act as adjectives. For
example:
= That girl is pretty, but she is not my style
7 = The person in that
picture is my dad, but I havent seen him in 7 years
= I want to do it like that, but I dont
have anybody to do it with
= Toronto is a big city, but there is nothing
to do there
= There probably wont
be a problem, but if one comes up, call me
The following is an example of a sentence that a person said to me at school. The person is in
charge of preparing the science lab for us whenever we do experiments. She said it like this:
? = You (teacher) are going to be
doing an experiment starting from tomorrow (as in, in your classes this week), what (ingredients)
do you need?
You might be confused with the use of in that sentence. The above example is identical to:
?
Notice that although first clause in the above sentence is conjugated to the future tense, it is using
the ~/ form. Therefore, it can be treated just like any other example of ~ being
added to .
As you know, can be changed to . In speech, it is common to attach ~ directly to
instead of saying .
Honestly, the best thing about this grammatical principle is that it is so versatile and makes your
Korean sound very natural. The usage is a little hard to get used to, but by adding ~ into
your repertoire of Korean you will very quickly discover its specific usage. I suggest using this
principle very often, especially (as I mentioned earlier) to join two clauses together where the
first can give the background scenario for the upcoming clause.
~ has a few other meanings that you need to know about, but these will be described in
the next lesson. Until then start using ~ in real life!
Introduction
The Meaning of
Finishing a Sentence with ~
Another ~ meaning: It took me ____ to do that
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= articles/goods/stuff
= rainbow
= commerce/business
= rag (also used as slut)
= broom
= a lock
= belt
= ordinary workers
() = original idea/originality
Verbs:
= discipline ()
= working outside the office
= dust off/shake off
= convince/persuade
= stick into (key/bookshelf/plug in)
= to put your hands on something
= worry/concern
=welcome/greet/receive-guests
= to pick up
= wind/coil up/wrap around
=select(ion)/pick out/single out
= examine
= acknowledge/admit/concede
= suffer from/be ill with
Adjectives:
= cloudy/blurry/muggy
= upset/regrettable/disappointed
= practical
= very urgent
= simple/convenient
= the worst
= very
Introduction
In the previous lesson, you were introduced to the ~ principle. You learned that you can use
this grammatical form to express a lighter version of even though, while at the same time
prepping the scenario for the second clause of the sentence. In this lesson, you will continue to
learn about ~ (without the space) and ~ (with the space). Lets get started!
The Meaning of
In the previous lesson, you learned that you can use ~ between two clauses. When used like
this, ~ has a meaning that is slightly less strong than the expression even though, where
the first clause will often prepare the scenario for the second clause.
One word that is very common in Korean is . Look up that word in the dictionary and
you will find that the English translation of this word is by the way. In my opinion, by the
way is NOT what translates to.
Look at the example sentences provided by the dictionary with in use. Do any of those
sound natural? I always see examples like this:
?
In English, we would use by the way to sort of introduce a new topic that wasnt previous
being discussed. I picture by the way being used in the following scenario:
Imagine you are talking with a friend about learning Korean. A few minutes go by, and you both
eventually run out of things to say about that topic. Things start getting a little awkward, and then
you remember that you bumped into your friends mother yesterday. You might say:
Oh, by the way, I bumped into your mother the other day.
That is not at all how is used in Korean. I dont know who the first person was who
translated into English, but the meaning of by the way has stuck with Korean people
for some reason.
So all this talk about what doesnt mean. You must be asking yourself okay, when is
he going to tell me the proper translation for ?
Heres the kicker: I cant tell you a proper translation for it.
I have a perfectly good understanding in my head of what means, but the meaning
cannot be explained. Instead of being able to give you a word that translates to , I will
tell you how to understand the translation. In order to understand the translation, you need to
understand the grammar within the word.
is made up of the word and the ending ~ (instead of ~ because
is an adjective).
First, think about what you know about the word . You see this word all the time, but
rarely in its original form of . Instead, you often see this word used as one of the
following:
Each of those is made up of the following respective grammatical couplings:

+ ~ (used to make an adverb) meaning like that
+ ~/ (used to make an adjective) meaning that kind of
+ ~/ (used to mean because) meaning because of that
+ ~ (used to mean but/even though) meaning even though it is like that
means very little by itself, but has a lot of meaning when attached to other
grammatical principles. It has a similar meaning to that, but like I said the meaning depends
on the form that it takes (either , , , etc).
Now think about what could mean. Again, ~ has a meaning very similar to
even though, and also leading up to the next clause. is therefore used in sentences
where the subject that was being talked about previously is slightly negated, and you are going to
say something new about a situation.
But even that sounds weird.
Honestly, even though I understand what means in my head the only translation I can
give for the word is: the sum of the meanings of and ~.
The meaning is very subtle and doesnt really need to be used. I just wanted to give you a lesson
on this word because it does come up very often in conversation.
Examples of this word could be:
? = (the subtle meaning of ) but when did you do it?
= (the subtle meaning of ) but when I
went to my mothers house, she wasnt there.
Okay, that was a lot of work to not really get anywhere. From all of that, I would like you to
walk away with the following:
1) The translation of is not by the way

2)
Its translation is very difficult to describe, but is essentially the sum of the meanings of
and
In addition to this, you will also hear the word being used by Korean people. I
specifically presented the meaning of first because I wanted to show you how it was
formed by connecting and ~. However, is not the obvious result of a Korean
word and a grammatical principle. Rather, I can only assume that simply evolved from the
pronunciation of , as they sound very similar.
If you look up in the dictionary, you will usually see that they provide two definitions,
which are:
1)
2)
By the way
Again, there is the terrible translation of by the way, which I feel is incorrect. Notice that it
also indicates that the definition of is the same as , which I agree with.
Whenever I see the translation by the way for or , I get so annoyed. I do not
know who the incompetent person in charge of Korean-to-English translations is, but this is so
incorrect. Just to stress my point one more time, check out the Naver Dictionary and look at the
example sentences at the bottom of the page:
Although the translation at the top says by the way, NONE of the example sentences at the
bottom have by the way in the sentence.
Though I presented first, I think that is actually more common especially in
speech
As if you werent confused enough, I would like to introduce another meaning of ~.
.
Finishing a Sentence with ~
~ is often added to the end of a sentence. The meaning isnt completely different than
what was described in the previous lesson, but its usage is slightly different so I am presenting
separately. When used like this, the sentence acts as if it were an incomplete sentence (because
nothing is getting conjugated). A similar example (with a different meaning) would be the use of
/ in the following dialogue:
Person 1: ?
Person 2:
In that example, ~ ends the sentence, but only because the remainder of the sentence can
be assumed by context. Similar to how Because I like it is not a perfect sentence in English
is not a perfect sentence in Korean.
So, in that same way, ~ can end a sentence where the remainder of the sentence can be
assumed. Imagine this dialogue between myself and my girlfriend that actually happened a few
weeks ago:
Me: = Im going to open the window because Im so hot
Girlfriend: . ( but Im cold)
This meaning of ~ (when used at the end of a clause followed by nothing) creates a similar
meaning to But.. For example:
= But I dont want to go
= But its not delicious
Using But to translate these constructions into English works in a pinch (pun intended), but
it doesnt fully describe how and when these types of constructions would be used. These types
of constructions are most commonly used when you are disagreeing with what somebody says
and your response is indicating your feelings towards what was said (directly or indirectly). For
example, you can see in the example , my girlfriend wasnt directly telling me
Hey, dont open the window, Im cold! Instead, she was trying to point out that she is cold
and therefore, I shouldnt open the window.
The same could be said for the other two examples above. For example:
Person 1: ! = lets go!
Person 2: = but I dont want to go
= Eat all your vegetables
= But its not delicious
I should point out, if you havent already guessed, that responding this way might be a little bit
rude. Responding this way feels like you are talking back to the listener but that would depend
on the context and the tone that you said it in.
Lets look at more examples:
= But there probably wont be enough time

= But shes not that pretty
= But its too big
As you can see, these sentences would never be used on their own. They would always have to
be part of a longer string of dialogue one that would give the speaker something to disagree
with.
I love giving you ways that allow you to make your Korean sound even more Korean, and the
above usage is definitely one of them. Want to sound even more Korean? A lot of people from
the south of (South) Korea (for example, in ) pronounce the in ~ as .
This is not specific to just using ~ at the end of a sentence as you just learned, but also in the
middle of a sentence (separating two clauses) as you learned in the previous lesson. Pronouncing
~ like this would be the equivalent to a foreigner living in America learning English, but
randomly busting out a thick British Cockney accent. You dont want to do it often, but it will
definitely make people laugh if you do it sometimes. For example, the next time your Korean
friend tells you to do something, you can say something like:
, (but, Ive already done it) or
(but, I dont want to do it)
There is still another meaning of ~ that you need to know. I will introduce this in the next
section.
Another ~ meaning: It took me ____ to do that

Even after learning about the many different meanings ~ can have, there is still more to
learn. There is another grammatical form that uses ~ (with the space) instead of ~.
By putting ~ between two clauses, you can indicate that it takes you a certain amount of
time to complete an action. The action you do is placed in the first clause, and the time it takes is
placed in the second clause. For example:
5 = It took 5 minutes for me to get
from my house to my friends house
= It took a long time for me to come here
1 = It took an hour to eat all the food
Notice that the verb is often used when indicating that an action took a certain amount of
time.
You can also use this same form to indicate that doing an action took a certain amount of money,
energy, or something else. For example:
= It cost a lot to have this house built (literally: I put a lot of
money into making this house)
2 = It takes two people to lift that
Alright! I think that is enough about ~ (and ~ ).
~ (and ~ ) are very confusing at first. A few years ago, when I started to get better at
understanding Korean people speak, I always heard ~ but never knew exactly what it
meant. I spent weeks upon weeks, and searched website upon website trying to understand the
myriad of meanings this grammatical form can take. Hopefully by now you have a much better
idea of what these grammatical forms mean, but dont get discouraged if you are still confused.
~ (and ~ ) are two grammatical principles that take a lot of practice (using and hearing)
to fully understand. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start practicing!
Introduction
According to/Due to: ~
Due to: ~()
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= impression (//)
= first impression
= distance
= gum (of teeth)
= referee
= field
= corn
= herbs
= cucumber
= pumpkin
= sack
= sharp
= sunset
= discrimination
= sexual discrimination
= race
= racism
= a type of traditional chicken soup
= taxi driver
= torrential downpour
Verbs:
= judge
= drop out of school
= clean up after you are done
= perform an instrument
= to mean
Adjectives:
= stubborn
= official ________
= counter for pencils/knives/guns
= counter for piece of music
= side by side
Introduction
In the previous two lessons, you were subject to the confusing explanations of the ~/~
grammatical principle. Now that those two difficult/confusing lessons are finished, I can go easy
on you and describe some grammatical principles that arent as difficult to understand. In this
lesson, you will learn about ~ and ~() which, aside from looking very
similar, sometimes have similar meanings. Lets get started.
Attaching to a noun in a sentence can create two different meanings, depending on

how it is done.
The first (and easier) meaning requires you to change ~ to ~ . ~ attaches
to the noun, and the entire formation creates the meaning according to (the noun). For
example:
= according to the newspaper
= according to rumors
= according to that person
These constructions can now be placed in sentences where appropriate:
= According to the newspaper, it will rain tomorrow
= According to rumors, he divorced his wife
= According to that person,
we need to go that way to get to the store
Notice that the grammatical principle ~ is attached to . In Lesson 43 you learned that ~
has the meaning of if or when. When attached to ~ , ignore this meaning, and
simply think about ~ as a single unit that has the meaning of according to
The second meaning of ~ is a little bit more complicated, but still nothing to worry
about.
Attaching ~ to nouns creates the meaning of due to. Notice that changes to
by the addition of ~/, and changes to by the addition of ~.
You were first introduced to ~ way back in Lesson 14.
As you learned in that lesson, you can attach to nouns in passive sentences.
Remember that passive sentences cannot have an object. This means that you can never attach
the particle / to a noun in a passive sentence. For example:
= food is provided
= the food was cooked
Though there can never be an object in a passive sentence, there can be other nouns. In English
we use words like by to attach to these words to have the following meanings:
food is provided by the school

the house was cleaned by my father
the food was cooked by the chef
In Korean, when something is done by a non-person, you can attach to that word.
For example:
= food is provided
= food is provided by the school
Also remember that is the particle that has the same role of in these cases, but is
used when the passive act is done by a person. For example:
= the house was cleaned by my dad
= the house was cleaned by the vacuum cleaner
Also, remember that Korean sentences are usually not natural when said in the passive voice. I
personally never use in sentences because I very rarely make passive sentences.
However, it is important to know because you will come across it from time to time.
~ can also be used in active sentences. When used in active sentences, the most common
translation for is due to. For example:
= due to the accident
= Due to the accident (that
occurred) on the road, people couldnt cross
Because of the translation, the use of ~ in active sentences appears to be completely
different than the use of it in passive sentences. However, if you think about, essentially, they are
doing the same thing. In English, we might use different words, so it sounds like they are
different, but Korean would use ~ in both of these situations:
Passive:
Active:
The door was opened _____ the wind

People couldnt cross ______ the accident
If I told you to fill in the blanks of those two sentences, what would you write. Assume I also
told you to not use the word because of, because we have already talked about how to say that
in Korea.
The most natural way to say those two (in my mind) would be:
Passive:
Active:
The door was opened by the wind

People couldnt cross due to the accident
But the thing is, in both sentences the words by and due to have the same role. In both
situations, we have a noun that is causing the predicating verb to occur; regardless of if it is
active or passive.
Even more so, in some situations the same sentence could use by or due to in the English
translation without sounding awkward.
For example:
= Due to the construction, this road is blocked
= This road is blocked by the construction
Or, in this situation:
= The door was opened by the wind
= The door was opened due to the wind
Here is another example of being used:
= due to the fog
= The plane couldnt take off due to the fog.
As I mentioned earlier in my description, in each situation what we have is a noun that is causing
the predicating verb to occur. You might be wondering then, what is the difference if I use
in these situations? Really, nothing and the usage of is much more common in
these cases especially in speech. For example, the above sentences could also be written as:
= The plane couldnt take off because of the fog
= The road is blocked because of the construction
Which one would sound more natural in speech?
The plane couldnt take off due to the fog. Or,
The plane couldnt take off because of the fog
Of course, the second one would be much more common in speech, as I cant think of any time
in English when I would say due to. However, in print (newspapers or signs on the road, for
example), you might see due to. The same can be said for the Korean that is,
while somewhat common in various forms of print, it would rarely be spoken.
Also note that ~ can also be used can be used like ~ (about) to describe an
upcoming noun. For example, you should know that ~ can be used like this:
= We talked about the movie
But you should also recall that ~ can also be used to describe an upcoming noun by
applying the ~ principle. For example:
= This is a movie about history
~ can also be used in this same way. That is, you can use ~ to describe an
upcoming noun. When used like this, the typical translation is _____ due to ______ For
example:
= deaths due to smoking
= deaths due to smoking are increasing
That is all you need to know about , but I would like to also introduce you to another
similar grammatical principle before this lesson finishes.
Due to: ~()
Attaching ~() to a noun creates a very similar meaning to ~ . I have never
heard or read anything that would suggest that their meanings are different enough to distinguish
between them. Like , the typical translation for () is due to, but if
you are pressed for trying to find a different English translation to distinguish them, you could
use as a result of but you dont really need to worry about that.
= That person died from (due to/as a result of) a car
accident
= I cancelled the meeting outside due to/as a result of
the rain
= the concert was cancelled due to/as a result of the
weather
Just like ~ and ~ , ~() can be used with the ~ principle to
describe a noun. For example:
= a flood due to heavy rain
= damage due to an earthquake
These described nouns can then go into sentences where appropriate.

As I mentioned, the meanings of ~() can be thought of as very similar (if not
identical to) ~ , much like how due to and as a result of would be almost identical
in English. Just to show you, all of these sentences from previous part of the lesson have the
same meaning with ~ replaced as ~() :
= This road is blocked as a result of the construction
= The plane couldnt take off as a result of the fog
= The door was opened as a result of the wind
Lesson 79: Difficult words: (), , , ,

Its time for another difficult word lesson! In this lesson, instead of learning about some Korean
grammatical principles, the vocabulary is the lesson. As with previous difficult word lessons, I
will teach you some words that cannot be understood by simply looking up the translation in a
dictionary. Rather, these words need a detailed description to be fully understood. You will learn
about the following words in this lesson:
()
And the construction: ~
Lets get started.
As it is: ()
The exact translation of is hard to describe. I think it is best to show you examples of it
first, and then talk about the meaning after. is often placed after the words (to
guess), (to expect), (to expect) and (to think). When used with ~
, these verbs are usually conjugated using the past tense ~ principle of ~/ or ~
/. For example:
/ = As I expected
/ = As I guessed
/ = As I expected
/ = As I thought
Notice that even though ends in , (signifying that it might be an adverb) because it is
placed after the ~ principle, it must be a noun. (My handy Korean-Korean dictionary
confirms this in fact, it is a special type of noun like in ~ that is bound to a
grammatical form).
As you can see, when used in this bound form, the translation of is something like As
I thought/expected/guessed The constructions above can be placed in sentences as appropriate,
for example:
= As I expected, that movie was funny, or
= As I expected, that movie was funny
There is no difference in meaning or feel between the two above.
While the past tense conjugations of ~/ or ~/ are used more commonly in-front of ~
, there are times when you can use the present tense ~ conjugation behind it as well. In
these cases, the nature of the sentence has to imply that your expectations are still being made (in
the present tense). For example:
= The movie is progressing (along) as I
expect
Another example:
= As I expected, that man is handsome
= As I expected, that man is handsome
is also commonly placed after . Again, giving a precise definition of the word
is tough, as it usually depends on the context of the sentence. However, my advice to you is
to use your knowledge of and and couple their meanings together.
I first learned about this word while drinking my favorite milk brand in Korea. One the box of
the GS 1974 Milk carton, it says:
, which would translate to as it was at the start or just like the beginning
In most cases, you need to consider the whole sentence to be able to translate properly.
However, in all cases as you can see placing after a word signifies that the state of that
word is being maintained. Some example sentences with :
= Dont move, and stay the way you are
= Just accept the situation as it is
= Dont touch anything, just leave it.
Popular:
isnt that hard of a word its meaning (popular) is usually the same in all situations.
However, a variety of verbs are used with that you would not expect. The easiest (and most
intuitive) word you can use with is to indicate that somebody/something has a lot of
popularity. For example:
= That teacher is popular amongst students

because he is tall
Notice that the group that something is popular with should be attached to //.
A common word that is used with is , which means to pull. Using this word in
sentences with has the same meaning of , even though is an adjective and
is a verb. However, when using in the present tense, it should not be used in the simple
present tense, and should only be used in the present progressive (~ , ~ ).
= That teacher is getting popular
amongst students because he is tall
= That teacher was popular amongst
students because he is tall.
Notice that the particle / is used instead of / because is a verb.
Also notice that the sentences literally translate to that teacher pulls popularity amongst students
because he is tall. This is why I think the word is difficult the verbs used with it arent
as intuitive as they should be.
If something increases in popularity, you should use the verb (to gain):
= That workers popularity increased

because he got promoted
If something decreases in popularity, you should use the verb (to drop):
= That songs popularity dropped
In addition to all of this, you could also use / to say that something is/isnt popular:
= That movie isnt popular
= That movie is popular
Obvious/Correct/Natural:
The translation of is another difficult one. Though this translation doesnt appear in
the dictionary as much as natural or correct, I like to think of the definition as obvious.
This word is often used as an adverb using ~. By showing you examples of this first, I think
you will better understand the word:
= He obviously came (meaning, Of course he came, why wouldnt he
come?)
= I am obviously going tomorrow (meaning of course I am going
tomorrow!)
The translation in the dictionary is usually natural, which I guess could be used as well. Notice
the similarities in the English translations of the following:
= Naturally, he came yesterday
= Naturally, I will go tomorrow
The meanings are very similar, but I like to think that obvious(ly) is a better translation for
. In my mind, natural/y is more appropriate for the word /.
Also, if somebody asks you a question, and you want to respond by saying Of course!! or
Obviously!, you can use this word:
? = Are you going tomorrow?

!! = Of course!!
You have yet to learn the meaning of attaching ~ (informal) or ~ (formal) to the end of a
word (they will be introduced in Lesson 93). It doesnt matter, because you dont need to know
the meaning of ~ or ~ to use them with . In cases where you are answering a
question to say Of course! or Obviously! you can attach ~ or ~ to . The
meaning doesnt change it is just done for effect.
!! = Of course!!
Kids these days often replace with which actually means carrot as a joke:
!! = Of course!! (which would literally translate to carrot, carrot!)
I guarantee that if you use in this situation while talking to a Korean person, you will
make them laugh.
can also be used as an adjective. Now that you know what the word actually means,
you should have no problem figuring out the meaning of the following sentences:
= It is obvious that he likes that girl
? = isnt it obvious? (It is not an obvious thing?)
Appropriate/Suitable:
I first learned the words and at the same time, and I found them very difficult
to tell apart. Now that you have a good base of what means, you should have no
problem distinguishing the two.
is only about two (or more things) going well with each other either in looks, taste,
smell, or something similar. For example:
= that desk looks good in this room.
= that picture looks good in that frame
The whole __:

is a noun that means the whole thing, and is typically placed after another noun to
indicate the whole (noun) for example:
= the whole school
= the whole city
= the whole company
These constructions can then go in sentences where appropriate:
= The whole school is closed
= We walked around the whole city
= The whole
company was nervous because the boss said he is going to fire some workers
That is why :
When I was at this stage of learning Korean, for some reason, I really wanted to know how to
say That is why. For example, in English:
That is why I want to go!
That is why I like her!
That is why I am learning Korean!
At that time, I asked people, and the best answer I could get was this:
~ .
In order to use this construction, you need to turn the part of the sentence after that is why into
a noun, for example:
I want to go =
I like her =
I am learning Korean =
Then, place ~ after each of these nouns:
= That is why I want to go

= That is why I like her
= That is why I am learning Korean
Though you can use this type of construction in Korean (and will find them in books, etc), I
have since stopped using this form. Instead, the easier way to say that is the reason is to
simply place before the sentence. For example:
= that is why I want to go (therefore, I want to go)
= that is why I like her (therefore, I like her)
= that is why I am learning Korean (therefore, I am learning
Korean)
Lesson 80: One should/must not: ~/ , ~()

Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Another meaning of
One should not: ~/
One must not: ~()
Suggesting that one should: ~()
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= finance/financial affairs
= electric fan
= enemy
= diesel fuel
= challenge
= challenger
= sign/indication
= nosebleed
= a subject in a sentence
=obstacle/barrier
= disabled person
= emotion/feeling
= emotional disorder
= small/little child/toddler
= early childhood period
= death rate
= pollution
= rubber
Verbs:
= get lost
= participate
= to carry on your back
= to collapse/tear down
= blame
= save a file/store an item
= omit/omission/to be omitted
Passive Verbs:
= collapse
= accidentally
= future
= hundreds of
= etc/and so on
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about two similar grammatical principles and their (similar)
respective meanings. In this lesson, you will learn how to use ~/ to mean one
should not and ~() to mean one must not. We will also look at the meaning of
as a stand-alone word again, and the positive meaning of using ~() , which is a
very natural expression but usually one that foreign learners of Korean cannot understand
properly. Lets get started.
Another meaning of
You have learned that the word can be used in a variety of ways. It can be used as a
stand-alone word ( ) or also be used in passive sentences (
). One specific meaning of that you may have come across by this point, one
that I havent specifically introduced to you yet, is the meaning of to be working or to be
going well. One can typically place after a noun to indicate that a noun (or sentence in
noun form) is working or going well. The word is often included in these sentences as its
nature to mean well: For example:
? = Is your business going well?
= I wish my work would go well
? = Has the work that you are starting been going well?
WiFi = The Wifi here works well
? = Did the wedding go well?
This same usage is often used to say that something has finished doing whatever it should be
doing, for example
= Is the rice ready?/Has the rice finished cooking?
You can also use this word (in this meaning) to tell somebody to stop giving you something. For
example, if somebody is filling up a glass of water for you, and you want to say Okay! Thats
enough!, you can just say ()!
If you wanted to say the opposite that is that something did not go well or is not finished (or
something like that), you should use the word (even though the usual opposite of is
). can also be included in these sentences along with (just like how can be
used along side [ () ]) For example:
= The rice still isnt ready
WiFi () = The WiFi doesnt work (well) here
? = Shall we go to see a soccer game tomorrow?

= I want to go, but I cant go tomorrow (tomorrow wont
work for me)
There are many situations where you could hear a Korean person say , one of them
being the situations above (to say that something isnt ready, not going well, or not working).
You will also commonly hear it at the end of a grammatical principle with an entirely different
meaning.
.
One should not: ~/
By this point, at Lesson 80, your understanding of Korean grammar must be getting very good.
So much that you can probably understand how a new grammatical principle works just by
looking at the title. This one is fairly easy to understand, but I still need to explain it nonetheless.
Attaching ~/ to the end of a sentence or clause creates the meaning of one
should not. This clause immediately before this grammatical principle is always in the present
tense.
For example:
= You shouldnt run that fast
= You shouldnt ignore your teacher
= You shouldnt eat a lot
= You shouldnt judge somebody on their looks
= You shouldnt judge somebody you
meet for the first time on their first impression
1 = You shouldnt sit at a
computer for an hour without any movement
Even though these sentences are always used in the present tense, the actions they are referring
to typically happened in the past (unless somebody is just making a general statement that one
should not do some action. For example, in the first example above:
= You shouldnt run that fast
Immediately before that sentence was said, somebody was probably running too fast which
caused somebody to say the sentence .
This one is fairly straightforward. Lets move on to the next one.
One must not: ~()

By attaching ~() to the end of a sentence or clause, you can create the meaning of
one must not. This meaning is very similar to the meaning learned above (~/
), but I like to think that the meaning is slightly stronger when you use ~() . Some
examples:
= you must not do it like that
= you must not say that in English
One slightly confusing thing about this grammatical principle is that it is often used in the form
of a question. When you use this form as a question, you are asking the person are you able
to? or cant you?. For example:
? = cant you do it like this?/are you able to do it like this?
? = cant you do it faster?/are you able to do it faster?
This form is actually a very polite way to ask for something to be done. I would say that it is
equally as polite as using / . In fact, / (or just ) is often used with
the question form of ~() . For example:
With :
? = cant you give me a little more?/are you able to give me a little
more?
? = cant you give me that paper?/are you able to give me that
paper?
With / :
? = are you able to buy me rice?/cant you buy me rice?
? = are you able to charge my subway card?
If you ask somebody a question like this (or any other question asking if something can be done),
the answer that is typically given when it cannot be done is . For example:
? = are you able to charge my subway card?

= No/I cant do it here/It wont work here
You can also use the form ~() without to create a different meaning. I will talk
about this form next.
Suggesting that one should: ~()

By adding ~() to the end of a sentence or clause, you create a meaning that is very
similar to ~/ , which you learned about in Lesson 46. This form has the meaning of
you must or you should depending on the situation. For example:
= you must/should get off at Seoul station
Using ~() creates a similar meaning, but the sentence is more of a suggestion. For
example:
= you should get off at Seoul station
Because this form is more of a suggestion, its meaning is very soft and is often used by people
when they are asked for advice. For example, one time a woman asked my girlfriend how to get
to station, to which my girlfriend replied:
= you can/should get off at the next station
More examples:
? = Where is the university?
= Just keep going up a little bit further
? = How much more salt should I put in?
= Just put a little bit more in
Lesson 81: Because (of): ~() and ~()

Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Because of: ~()
~()
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= ratio/percentage
= instructor/lecturer
= prime minister
= engine
= peninsula
= sky/in the air
= firefly
= pajamas
= the room next door
= bus that goes on the freeway
= brothers/siblings
= teeth
= tooth decay/cavity
= customs
= color
= knot
Verbs:
= help/aid
= detect
= publish
= break something in half (branch)
= turn (breaking a straight line)
= lean on (people/friends)
= bet
Adjectives:
= tender/soft
= loose/slack
= soft smell/light/sound (faint)
= unfair
= underprivileged
= one time use (disposable)
= a one-time thing
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use ~() and ~() between two clauses to create a
meaning that is similar to ~/. Of course, just like every other grammatical principle, there
are some subtle nuances that you should know about. Lets get started.
Because of: ~()

In Lesson 37 you learned that you can place / between two clauses to create the meaning
of because, so or therefore. For example:
= I dont want to eat anymore because I am full or I am
full so/therefore I dont want to eat anymore
= I want to cry because I did poorly on the exam
Actually, you can use ~() to have the same meaning as ~/. For example:
= I dont want to eat anymore because I am full
Though this sentence works with both ~/ and ~(), not every sentence will. The
subtle difference between these two grammatical principles is that ~() is commonly used
when the first clause is an excuse as to why the second clause occurs (usually an excuse as to
why something cant be done.) For example:
= I need to go to school, so I wont be able to meet
= Although I want to buy that, I have no
money, so I cannot
Unlike ~ /, the clause preceding ~() can be conjugated into the past tense. For
example:
= I couldnt go yesterday because I was so busy
= I broke up with you because I didnt like you
What is also interesting is that you can actually end a sentence with ~(). This is similar to
ending a sentence with ~/, in that you are actually creating an incomplete sentence
where the end of the sentence can be assumed from context. In practice, this is typically used to
answer a question, where the answer starts with because. For example:
Person 1: ? = Can you meet now?
Person 2: ~ . = No, (I cant meet) because I have to
go to school
Person 1: ? = Are you going to buy that?
Person 2: ~ . = No, (I cant buy that) because I have no
money
Person 1: ? = Why did you break up with me?
Person 2: = (I broke up with you) because I didnt like you
Notice here that you can add ~ to end of ~() when used at the end of a sentence to
make it more formal. I would assume that the language at first only allowed honorifics to be used
at the end of an actual sentence, but eventually evolved to the point where people were
shortening their speech and adding to incomplete sentences as well. I looked this
grammatical form up in a Korean-Korean dictionary, and one of the usages it provided was the
usage at the end of a sentence as shown above. My Korean speaker is telling me that, even with
the use of ~, the use of ~() at the end of sentences like this sounds a little bit
informal, almost as if you are talking back to somebody.
I said earlier that ~() is commonly used instead of simply using / when the
first clause is an excuse to why the second clause cant happen. I feel that this is true most of the
time, although it doesnt always have to be like that. For example:
= I am finished my homework, therefore,

I can see a movie now
It is also common to use the ~() form when you are making a suggestion. The same
translation of because still used in these sentences as well:
! = Lets take a taxi because the bus is so crowded!
? = Lets eat something cool because it is so hot
! = Lets eat Ramen because there is no rice
You can actually drop the ~ from ~() to create the grammatical form ~(). We
need to talk about this in a separate section.
.
Because or Giving Background Information: ~()

Remember first that you have already learned about adding ~ to words in Lesson 21. In that
Lesson, you learned many ways that you can change your Korean sentences to ask questions; one
of which was by adding ~ to the end of a sentence. For example:
? = How old are you?
? = How old are you?
? = Have you arrived at home?
? = Have you arrived at home?
In addition to this meaning, the grammatical form () has two other meanings that you
should be aware of at this point. The first is simply the same as the meaning described above
with ~(). That is; to create the meaning of because or therefore just like the many
other grammatical forms that have the same function. Although ~() typically isnt used at
the end of a sentence, it can be used instead of ~() in all the other cases, for example:
= I dont want to eat anymore because I am full
= I need to go to school, so I wont be able to meet
= Although I want to buy that, I have no
money, so I cannot
= I couldnt go yesterday because I was so busy
= I broke up with you because I didnt like you
= I am finished my homework, therefore, I

can see a movie now
! = Lets eat Ramen because there is no rice
The main difference between this usage of ~() and ~() is that ~() is used much
more frequently in writing, whereas ~() is much more common in speech.
The other meaning of () is similar to one of the meanings of ~, which you learned
in Lesson 76 and Lesson 77. I provided the following confusing definition of ~ in Lesson
76:
~ often sets up the situation for an upcoming clause. That is, instead of separating your
thoughts into two sentences you can use ~ to join two thoughts together.
In these cases, the first clause sets up the scenario for the second clause. The meaning within this
sentence also has a slight meaning of even though.
I would say that ~() has this same function, except for that there is a slight meaning of
because instead of even though. I know that sounds confusing, but that is the easiest way I
can explain it. Maybe some examples will make it clearer. If we put a ~ and a ~()
sentence side-by-side:
= Even though I dont like meat, I will try some
(where the meaning of even though is very slight, and the first clause I dont like meat is
simply setting up the second clause).
= Because I dont like meat, Im not going to eat it
(where the meaning of because is very slight, and the first clause I dont like meat is simply
setting up the second clause).
The confusing thing here is that I have presented you with two meanings of () in this
lesson:
To express the meaning of because or therefore like ~(), and
The provide information for an upcoming clause, with a slight meaning of

because
The question I am sure you want to ask is: How can I tell the two usages apart if they almost
have the same meaning (one meaning because, the other one slightly meaning because)?
My answer: Does it really matter?
No it doesnt. In both situations, the second clause happens after the first clause. If a direct causal
link between the two clauses can be assumed, then assume that the meaning of ~() is
because. However, if that causal link is less obvious, assume that the clause before ~()
is simply providing information for the upcoming clause.
Some other examples:
5 () = (Because) it is already 5, so we have to go quickly
! = (Because) the rice is ready, so eat a lot!
= (Because) I have finished the laundry, so I can go to bed
now
When specifically used in the past tense, it is often more convenient to change the translation of
~() to now that one has For example:
= Now that I am finished my homework, I
can see a movie
, ! = These days, I
only eat Korean food every day, so now that I have met a friend (you), lets eat Italian food!

= Tomorrow, another busy day will start, however, now that I have recharged for a day, I
am not afraid of tomorrow!
30 30
= At first I thought 30 years old was old, but (because) I am now 30, I dont
think that way
I have recently been writing short stories for Intermediate learners to use to practice their Korean
reading. ~() shows up a lot in those short stories, so I can provide a bunch of examples:

= But, (because) it was said that the place where the penguins are is far from the
entrance of the zoo, we saw other animals first

= (Because) I am trying to work with new people, and my workplace is far from my
house, I am not adapting well
= I am excited because, from now on, I realized
that I can rest
= (Because) I am
chatting with an old friend, a lot of thoughts of the old days have come up
You will find this grammatical principle in the TOPIK tests as well. I glanced at the 27th test for
a second and I found this sentence:
= Now that I am finished the difficult work, I
am/was very happy / (because) I am finished the difficult work, (so) I am/was happy
The question was asking which sentence (amongst the sentence above and three others) was
incorrect. The sentence above was one of the sentences that is correct.
Thats it for this lesson! Hopefully thats enough examples to get you accustomed to ~().
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Oh! I didnt realize that: ~, ~ or ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= fishing line
= birds nest
= secret code
= obesity
= appetite
= normal
= crust of bread
= acceleration
= rainy season
= pen and paper
= life
= life insurance
= navy
= colonel
= side/face
= surface
= the ground surface
= sidewalk
= shelf
= anxiety
Verbs:
= accelerate
= deceleration/decelerate
= paint
= pet
Adjectives:
= embarrassed
= anxious/nervous/uneasy
= at the very ___
= approximately/roughly
= later
= quickly/right now
Introduction
In this lesson you will learn how to add ~, ~ or ~ to the end of a sentence. This
grammatical form is said when somebody realizes a new fact or piece of information. Allow me
to break it down more than that. Lets get started.
.
Oh! I didnt realize that: ~, ~ or ~

Just like many of the other grammatical principles that you have learned recently, creating a
direct translation for ~, ~ or ~ is very difficult. Instead, it is better to understand its
usage and the subsequent meaning that it can possess.
In any event, one attaches ~, ~ or ~ to the end of a sentence that he/she did not
realize or know before. Adding ~, ~ or ~ to the end of a sentence is done in the
following way:
~, ~ or ~ attach directly to a verb or adjective in the present tense.

(For example: , or )
~, ~ or ~ attach directly to / in the past tense. (For example:

)
~, ~ or ~ attach directly to in the ~/ future

conjugation. (For example: )
~, ~ or ~ attach directly to in the future conjugation of ~/

. (For example: )
Though they can be used in the future tense as shown above, I rarely use it in the future tense.
As I mentioned, when one learns a new fact or piece of information, you can put ~, ~ or ~
at the end of a sentence if to say Oh, I didnt realize/ know that For example:
= Yesterday was my birthday
= Oh! I didnt realize/know that yesterday was your birthday!
As you may have guessed, ~ and ~ are used in informal situations and ~ is used in
formal situations.
Also note that ~, ~ or ~ cannot connect two clauses, and that it must be used at the
end of a sentence.
~ is pretty common in conversation much more common than ~. However, younger
people commonly use ~ when chatting on the internet or on their phones.
Understanding this grammatical principle is best done through looking at (and dissecting) many
example. So lets do that.
! = Oh! I didnt know that you are a science teacher.
You could use this sentence if you were talking to a person and they just told you that they were
a science teacher. Alternatively, if your friend just told you that some other man was a science
teacher, you could say:
! = Oh! I didnt realize/know that he is a science teacher!

= Oh, I didnt realize/know that you already ate
= Oh, I didnt realize that your son is good at swimming
= I didnt realize/know that you are so smart
! = (I just realized that) you farted!
~ = Oh, you didnt bring your book (I just realized that you
didnt bring your book)
The most common word that this grammatical form attaches to is . When you say
or , you are essentially saying Oh, I didnt realize that it is like that!
For example:
Person 1: ? = Where is Seulgi?
Person 2: = Seulgi already went home
Person 3: = Oh (I didnt realize that fact)
Again, it is always hard to translate these types of grammatical principles perfectly. Instead of
relying on a somewhat unnatural translation to English, I suggest understanding how/why/when
this grammatical principle should be used.
The interesting thing is that sentences ending with ~/~/~ have the feeling that one
is speaking to him/herself. This self-talking isnt really part of the conversation that you are
having, and the speaker is kind of mumbling (without actually mumbling) to himself Ah, I
didnt realize _______.
The question is, then, if that were the case, why would we need to use ? Why would we
need to use polite speech if this form is only used when talking to oneself? Well, you wont see
this is any other grammar book (I dont think), because this is my personal opinion. I have been
exposed to this form (in conversation, books, Korean tests, other writings, etc) and the feeling
is that the sentence said before ~/~/~ is mostly said to oneself.
I would say that, within one sentence, 90% of the feeling is that the speaker is speaking to
him/herself. The remaining 10% is the speaker wanting to show the listener that he/she is
surprised about the fact. Therefore, while technically self-speech, a part of the function of the
sentence is to show the listener that the speaker is surprised. This is the reason why we should
use honorifics if the situation calls for it (if you are speaking to somebody who deserves high
respect)
The important thing to realize in all of these sentences is that the speaker has JUST found out
about a certain fact. This fact is typically revealed in the sentence immediately preceding the
sentence containing ~, ~ or ~.
Lesson 83: Expressing Surprise or Admiration: ~()
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Expressing Surprise or Admiration: ~()
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= background/personal history
= documents/papers
= surgery ward
= bathroom
= inspection
= entertainment
= ones senior
= amount (of money)
= bachelor
= major text book
= dessert
= expense/charge
= small change
= painkiller
Verbs:
= export
= import
= returning home
= pay back
= loose something
= report (to the police/government)
= watch/take care
Adjectives:
= not kind
= to be empty
= intelligent
= serious/critical

= for a while/for some time
= frequently
= a hypothetical case/event
= the best way/plan
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn the meaning of adding ~() to sentences. This
grammatical form has a very similar meaning to ~/~/~, which you learned
in the previous lesson.
Expressing Surprise or Admiration: ~()
In the previous lesson, you learned how to add ~/~/~ to the end of a
sentence. You learned that you can use this grammatical principle at the end of a
sentence to indicate that one is surprised about a certain fact. For example:
! = Oh, you came fast!

~ ! = Ah! You are so smart!
You can express a very similar feeling by attaching ~() to the end of a
sentence. This form is conjugated very easily (just like ~) :
~() attaches directly to a verb or adjective in the present tense ()

~() attaches directly to ~/ in the past tense. ()
~() attaches directly to when using with a noun that ends in a
consonant. This would also include the ~/ future conjugation form (
)
~() attaches directly to a noun that ends in a vowel when the conjugating word
is . This would also include the ~/ future conjugation form (
)
Just like with ~/~/~, we can use ~() to express surprise to the
information one just received. The question all Korean learners have then, is: What
is the difference between ~/~/~ and ~()?
Well, the difference is so slight and in almost every situation, they do not need to be
distinguished. Nowhere on any test will you ever see a question asking you to
differentiate the two and nobody would ever ask you to differentiate between the
two. However, that is not what this website is about and I pride myself on being
able to distinguish things that have no business being distinguished.
Before we get to distinguishing seemingly identical things, lets look at some

examples of ~() in use first:
! ! = Teacher! I didnt know you were so good at English!

! = Oh! I didnt know that you (mother in law) are so
good at cooking food!
! ! = Ah! Your son is so cute, isnt he!
= Wow, this restaurants food is really delicious!
Now, how can we distinguish ~/~/~ and ~()?
Ive been told (by Korean people) that ~/~/~ would be more likely to
be used by an older person when having a conversation with a younger person. Ive
also heard that it sounds slightly more rude than ~(). ~() would be more
likely to be used amongst friends or people who you are close with. In both cases I
specifically say would be more likely because neither of those are set in stone,
and you could technically use ~/~/~ or ~() in either situation.
Within that, remember what I said about ~/~/~ in the previous lesson
that most of the feeling within this grammatical principle is self-speech.
While ~() is also a form of self-speech, I feel that it is less so compared to

~/~/~. That is, when you say ~(), although part of the feeling of
the sentence is spoken to oneself (about 60%), a lot of it (about, 40%) is directed at
the other person in the conversation. Compare this with the 90:10 ratio that I
estimated with ~/~/~ in the previous lesson.
Id like to share with you a dialogue that brought me to these ridiculous estimations.
One of my students in my (Korean) school came into my office, where one of my

(Korean) coworkers was speaking to me in English. The student immediately said to
the teacher:
! ! (Teacher! I didnt know you were so good at

English!)
The teacher, in response, said ~ ! (No! Im not good!)
Notice here that the teacher responded to the student, which emphasizes that what
the student said was not only directed to himself, but also towards the teacher.
If, however, the student came into the room and said:
! (Teacher! I didnt know you were so good at
English!)
The chance of the teacher responding would be less, because most of the sentence
was directed at the person speaking and not to the other person.
In addition to this, while ~/~/~ and ~() could be mutually

exchangeable in essentially any situation, ~() would be more likely to be used
when the speaker is impressed from a fact that he/she just realized. On the other
hand, ~/~/~ would be more likely to be used when the speaker simply
realizes some mundane fact that he/she didnt know before. Again I specifically say
would be more likely because neither of those are set in stone, and you could
technically use ~/~/~ or ~() in either situation.
In the Korean novel I am reading right now, a father asks his daughter what the last
thing she said to her mother was (the mother is in a coma). The daughter thinks the
last thing she said was:
(Mom! Im home/came back from pre-school)
However, the father thinks the last thing she said was:
(Mom! Im home/came back from school)
The daughter eventually convinces the father that she is right. At which point, the
father says:
? . . .
In the example, within the same sentence, the father uses both () and ~
/~/~ to signify that he just realized that new fact.
Lesson 84: As soon as (~, ~ , ~)
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
As soon as: ~
As soon as: ~
As soon as, when, after: ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= prisoner of war
= bush
= patent
= new product
= bomb
= waste materials
= express (train)
= bandage/band-aid ()
= annual income/salary
Verbs:
= prosecute
= to give a lecture
= convey information/deliver
= print
= subtract/deduct
= to guide tourists around
= measure/weigh/time
= cheer
= crawl
= dispatch/send
= demand
= to knock/blow down something
= extend/renew (time)
= handle/dispose of/process
Passive Verbs:
= to collapse/fall down
Adjectives:
= plentiful/abundant/generous
= clean/neat and tidy
= damp/wet/moist
= too much

= a long time
= no sort of placed behind noun
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about the common grammatical principle ~ and its less
common counterpart, ~. Both have similar meanings, but as always I will dissect each one so
you can understand them more clearly by the end of this lesson. Lets get started.
As soon as: ~
This is actually one of the easiest grammatical principles to learn and understand, especially
because you have had tons of practice with learning new grammar by now. By attaching ~
to a verb at the end of a clause, you can create the meaning of as soon as. The following
clause then occurs as soon as the action in the first clause finishes. For example:
= as soon as we arrive at home, I need to eat

= as soon as I started teaching, the
students got quiet
= as soon as the planes
wheels hit the ground, the passengers got out of their seats
Notice that just like many other Korean grammatical principles, the first clause is not conjugated
to the past or future tenses. Rather, the present tense conjugation is always used before ~
and the tense can be assumed from the conjugation of the second clause.
This grammatical principle is pretty straightforward but, as always, there is more you need to
know before the end of the lesson. First is the usage of another grammatical principle that has the
exact same meaning of ~.
As soon as: ~
By substituting the word for in the ~ principle, you can create the meaning of as
soon as, just as you did with ~. For example:
= as soon as we arrive at home, I need to eat

= as soon as I started teaching, the
students got quiet
= as soon as the planes
wheels hit the ground, the passengers got out of their seats
Notice that only present tense conjugations are used in the first clauses here as well.
Though the use of this grammatical principle is perfectly acceptable, I would say that ~ is
much more common than ~ and I would advise against using ~ in
conversation. If you write a Korean test (TOPIK, for example), you might see some questions
asking for a similar form of ~, where the answer will inevitably be ~ . But
aside from that, I rarely see this form being used.
Also notice that this could technically be seen as another meaning, simply because the
pronunciation of ~ in this lesson would sound identical to or , as you
learned in Lesson 76 and Lesson 77.
Now that you know about ~ and ~ , you need to learn about ~.
As soon as, when, after: ~
This is where it gets a little bit strange. Though it is technically much less common than ~
, many textbooks might tell you that the grammatical principle ~ has the same meaning as ~
. Dont get confused, though; we are not talking about the ~ that you learned about in
Lesson 53. This is a new grammatical principle that you have not been introduced to yet.
Finding any information about this grammatical principle on the internet is really difficult for a
few reasons. One, most of the results that come up when searching for ~ are related to the ~
that you learned in Lesson 53. Secondly, ~ is so much more common than ~, it often
overshadows it even more.
At any rate, you found this lesson and you will learn about it here. By placing ~ in between
two clauses, you can create a meaning very similar (if not identical) to ~. Some sources
indicate that they do in fact have identical meanings, but I dont think they do.
In order to describe the exact meaning, look at the following two examples:
= when the bus departed, people moved, and

= as soon as the bus moved, people started
moving
Ask yourself: are those sentences (in English) identical? Almost, but there is a subtle difference
between when and as soon as in this example. When you use ~ you are stressing that
something is done as soon as some other action finishes.
~ can have the meaning of as soon as, but I like to think that the meaning is not as strong as
~. Instead, I would say that the meaning is somewhere between ~ and ~/ .
Essentially, you are indicating that something is done after the first clause finishes (this means
that ~ or ~ could also be substituted here as well).
Some more examples:
= when/as soon as the teacher said

be quiet, the students stopped laughing
= as soon as/when I asked my
friends if they want to go shopping, they all said that they are busy
Again, just like ~ , ~ is a perfectly acceptable grammatical principle to use. However,

its usage is not very common especially in conversation. I came across it a couple of times
when doing the TOPIK tests, and every once in a while in Korean literature; but in everyday
conversation it is much more common to use ~ .
Lesson 85: To know, to not know (~/// /), As you know (~)
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
To know (how to): ~/

As you know: ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= a singles match (in sports)
= place of living/dwelling/residence
/ = stability/sense of stability
= grass
= ambitions/aspirations
= angle
= storage
= closet
= young man/young people
= prison
= power ()
= outward appearance
Verbs:
= to fast
= excessive
= to stabilize
= to cut yourself
= to cut grass/trees/plants
= secret/unknown to people
= to sentence/tell about a condition
= to heat up
= swear/insult/abuse
Adjectives:
= stable
= urgent/pressing
= lukewarm
= clear/distinct

= probably
= much more (like )
= secretly
= all day
= goes before ~ in a sentence
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn two grammatical principles that can be used with the verb (to
know). First, you will learn about ~/ (to know how) and second you will learn
about (as you know). Lets get started.
To know (how to): ~/
By placing ~/ after a verb, you can indicate that one knows how to do that verb.
For example:
? = Do you know how to ski?

= Do you know how to make kimchi?
? = Do you know how to open that door?
? = Do you know how to make ?
Though all those examples were in the form of a question, you can use this grammatical form as
a statement as well:
= I know how to ski

= I know how to do that
= I know how to open that door
= I know how to make
This grammatical form is based on the same principles as ~/ and ~/

(and other grammatical principles that use these pseudo-nouns). Essentially, acts as a noun
that is being described by the previous sentence in the ~ form (in the future tense). Just like
the pseudo-nouns and , you cannot use in other situations only when used with
the specific grammatical form that it goes with.
Notice that the ~/ form is essentially the same as using somewhere earlier
in the sentence:
? = Do you know how to ski?
But, in situations when you are asking if (or stating that) somebody knows how to do something,
it is usually more natural to use ~/ .
You can use the word (to not know) instead of to have the opposite meaning
that is to indicate that one does not know how to do something. For example:
= I dont know how to ski

= I dont know how to do that
= I dont know how to open that door
= I dont know how to make
You can also use in the same way when preceded by the present or past tense conjugation of
~ (or ~/ ). When used this way, you are saying that you thought something was
some other way. It is hard to describe with words, so I will describe an example from my real
life.
One day, I went to buy some worth 2,000 won. When I paid the lady, she gave me a weird
look. She looked at me and said something like arent you going to give me more money?
After a minute of confusion, she looked down and said:
~ ~ = Oh, sorry, I thought you only gave me 1,000 won
Another example would be if I was talking to somebody in my school using the low respect form
of speech. Afterwards, I realize that the person that I am speaking to is not a student but is
actually a teacher (which could actually happen in Korea because some people look really
young). In this scenario, I could say:
~ = Sorry, I thought you were a student
Notice that this translation is essentially the same as the quoted sentence ~/ .
For example:
= I thought you were a student
The difference between the two is that ~/ implies that there was a lapse in
judgement that caused you to think the way you did. Whereas ~/ just expresses that you
thought something, for example:
= I thought she was pretty, opposed to:
= (Oh,) I thought she was pretty (originally you thought she was
pretty, but because of some lapse in judgement [maybe because you saw her from far away?] she
actually isnt pretty.
Other examples:
= I thought you said that you didnt want to go (originally

you thought he/she didnt want to go, but you probably misheard him/her)
= I thought it was expensive there (originally you thought it was

expensive, but somehow you realized that it is actually not expensive there).
= I thought that cell-phone was good (originally you thought the

cell-phone was good, but somehow you realized that it isnt).
You can create the opposite of this meaning by using the word again. For example:
= I didnt know she was pretty (originally you didnt know she was
pretty, but you realized that you were wrong for some reason and now you think she is pretty)
= I didnt know it was expensive there (originally you didnt know it

was expensive there, but you realized that you were wrong and it is actually expensive there)
= I didnt know that cell-phone was good (originally you didnt

know that cell phone was good, but you realized that you were wrong and it actually is good)
= I didnt know you said you didnt wanted to go (bad

example because the sentence is too confusing [originally you didnt know that he/she said she
didnt want to go but now you realize that she said she didnt want to go])
You can also conjugate the verb before into the present to indicate that you thought
something was the case in the present. However, as with regular sentences, you would only
really use the present tense in a few situations. Usually when people talk, they talk about
something that happened, will happen, or is happening, but only sometimes do they talk about
something that happens. Haha confusing? This doesnt really belong in this lesson, and its
basically common sense, but if you were with friends, any of these would be natural:
I saw the movie yesterday

I will see the movie tomorrow
I am watching the movie now
However, when would you say this?
I see the movie
If you include some adverbs of frequency, it could be natural. For example:
I see the movie often

I always see the movie
Anyways, in that same sense, you can conjugate the verb before to the present tense, but
only when appropriate based on the context of the sentence. For example:
= Oh, I thought you exercise every day

= Oh, I thought you werent here!
Earlier in the lesson, you learned that you can should add the future conjugation ~/ before
to indicate/ask if one can do something. You can also use the future tense conjugation
before to indicate a lapse of judgement just like you can with ~/ and ~. For
example:
= I thought you went

= I thought you were going
= I thought you would go
Here, you are indicating that you thought something would be the case in the future, but you
realized that you had a lapse of judgement. The only real way to distinguish between these two
usages of ~/ is by the context of the sentence.
Here are some examples showing that show how ~/ can be used to indicate a lapse of
judgement in the future.
= I thought we were going tomorrow

= I thought you were going to give me money
= I thought I was going to die
= I thought would be going to an American

university
As you know: ~
By placing ~ after a persons name followed by you can create the meaning of as
(persons name) know. For example:
= As you (dad) know

= As you know
When the person who knows deserves a high amount of respect, the formal addition is
often added to to make . Adding ~ to this turns the whole thing into
. For example:
= as you (boss) know
These constructions can then go in sentences where appropriate:
= as you know, I have to go on a business

trip tomorrow
= as you know, I have no money, so I cant
buy that
Using ~ is pretty simple mostly because you can essentially put anybodys name
before and it will make sense as long as the following sentence makes sense as well.
Vocabulary
Introduction
To negate a noun: /
~ : To negate the first verb/adjective
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= snow man
= kettle
= agriculture products
= noise from something/racket
= the standard amount of something
= pesticides
= power outage ()
= advanced
= territory
= a (workers) strike
= aid/assistance
= ones own car
= red pepper powder
= tourist attraction
= a Korean living abroad
= male and female underwear
= cliff
= outline/summary
= receipt
= Korean English dictionary
Verbs:
= to pass down
() = sell/sales
= halt/cut off
= participate
= to support people financially
=take turns/take over
= distinguish/distinction
Adjectives:
= cheap (with money)
= bumpy (road/ground/etc)

= this year/the present year
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use the word (from the word ) to negate a
preceding noun. In addition, you will also learn how this same grammatical principle can negate
an entire clause ending in an adjective or verb in the form of ~ . Lets get started.
To negate a noun: /
You learned way back in Lesson 8 that you can use the word to indicate that one is not
= I am not a teacher
= That person is not a student
Remember that the particle / must be attached to the noun before .
By replacing with , you can create , which can be used as a connector

between two clauses. The clause before is negated and the clause after usually
describes what that thing is. Some examples:
= That person is not a student, he is a teacher

= Im not a teacher, Im a student helper
cannot be conjugated into the past tense rather, the final clause will indicate the tense:
= I wasnt a teacher, I was a student

helper
Notice that just like when using , the particle / needs to be attached to the word
before . Also notice that this grammatical form looks very similar to / (because)
being added to (which sometimes changes to ()()). Even though they look the same,
make sure that you can distinguish the difference between the meaning of because (learned in
Lesson 37) and the meaning being described in this lesson. For example:
() = I dont know that because Im not a teacher
= I am not a teacher, I am a student
More examples of being described in this lesson:
= That isnt food, it is garbage

= The most delicious Korean food isnt
Kimchi, it is
Not only can you use this grammatical principle with nouns but you can also use it to negate a
preceding clause ending a verb or adjective. This will be described next.
~ : To negate the first verb/adjective
By using the ~ principle, you know that you can use verbs/adjectives to describe a noun.
This noun () can be placed before (just as you saw in the section above) to negate the
clause describing . Some simple examples:
= Im not eating, Im studying

= That girl isnt pretty, she is ugly
In practice (not just with this grammatical principle, but all the time in Korean) can be
condensed to . When using to negate a previous verb/adjective, this is almost always
done:
= Im not eating, Im studying

= That girl isnt pretty, she is ugly
More examples:
=
The reason I want to go to Korea is not to work, but to learn Korean
= Its not that I dont
like that person, we just dont get along
Actually, the first time that I knew that my understanding of Korean grammar was getting really
good was when I was trying to make the following sentence:
The reason I am learning Korean is not for my girlfriend, but for her parents
I wanted to say this sentence to a friend of mine, and I had never made a sentence like it before.
This is what I did:
As you know, you can use ~/ to create the meaning of for. For example:
= I am learning Korean for my

girlfriend
You should know by now that is actually an adjective (the fact that it is an adjective
instead of a verb is irrelevant aside from the fact that it has to be conjugated as an adjective) with
a dictionary form of . Because it is an adjective, it can be conjugated with the ~
principle to make something like:
= This thing is (a thing) for my girlfriend
So, in order to make the sentence that I wanted to say, I used my knowledge of , ~
and and came up with:

= The reason I am learning Korean is not for my girlfriend, but for her parents
Note that you could just as easily say:

= I am not learning Korean for my girlfriend, but I am learning it (Korean) for her
parents
Though those two sentences essentially have the same meaning, there is a slight difference in
emphasis in the two the first sentence emphasizing the reason why I am learning the language.
Anyways, I thought I would share that story of how awesome I am.
You should also be aware that is often used to start a sentence with its not
that For example:
= Its not that, I just want to see you

= Its not that, I just need to earn money
But in these situations, there would always need to be a prior sentence that would create a
situation where these sentences could be said.
Finally, the construction is often used in some specific formal situations. If one
is talking to a co-worker/client/boss (etc), people usually start off by making small talk about
some other (non-work related) topic. If you want to stop the personal chit-chat and start talking
about some real facts/business/whatever, saying the phrase is similar to the
English expression alright, lets get to business here.
Lesson 87: To decide to do (~ )
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
To decide to do: ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= storage center
= the lost item (noun)
= lost and found
= repair charges
= yawn
= screen/monitor
= engine
= mechanical part
= elevator
= carfare
= contest
= small and medium enterprises
= lease/rent
= honor prize
= one sided love
= concert
Verbs:
= understand/recognize a sound
= to leave/entrust with somebody
= finish something like a job/work

= applying a law
= present/press against
= to buy and sell
= raise/lift/put up
= to fall/go down
= trust
Adjectives:
=something being flat/dull/tasteless
= being offended/hurt
= confident
= quiet/innocent
= polite
= ambiguous
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to add ~ to the end of a sentence or clause to have
the meaning to decide to. The usage and translation are fairly straightforward, to the point that
the construction can almost be thought of as an idiom. However, I do feel that this is a
grammatical principle that deserves its own lesson. Lets get started.
To decide to do: ~
In Lesson 29, you learned how to add ~ to a phrase to turn the entire phrase into a noun. Much
earlier than that, in Lesson 12 you learned how to add ~() to nouns to indicate that one is
going towards that noun.
By combining these two grammatical principles we can create ~. Remember, ~ is

attached to a phrase to turn it into a noun. So, if we create a phrase:
(to meet a friend in a park),
We can attach ~ to this:

Which technically means I am headed in the direction of meeting my friend in the park.
which nobody would ever say
However, this whole construction, followed by takes on a special meaning that indicates
that one has decided to do something. For example:
= I decided to meet my friend in the park
The verb before ~ is always conjugated in the present tense, even though it usually
describes an action that was decided to be done in either the past or the future. For example:
= We decided to meet tomorrow

= We decided to meet yesterday
Also notice that the at the end of the clause is usually in the past tense, as this form
typically describes an action that was decidED to be done.
So, the first verb isnt conjugated even though it usually describes an action in either the past or
future tense, and the final verb () is usually conjugated into the past tense because it is
describing that the DECISION happened in the past.
More examples:
= We decided to take the subway to Seoul

= We decided to move to Busan
= I decided to buy a new cell phone
= I decided to be a teacher
You will also find times where the word is substituted for , which literally
means to decide:
= It was decided that we were going to take the

subway to Seoul, or
= We decided that we would take the subway to Seoul
Though you will never see this as an official common usage in a textbook or anything, I find
myself using the following construction very often:
~ (something opposing the first clause)
Using your knowledge of ~ from Lesson 76 and 77, you should know that this construction
can be used to say:
Originally I/we/etc decided to . but .
Some examples:
= We
originally decided to meet tomorrow, but we delayed it to next week because we were both so
busy
1 = We
originally decided to eat , but we ate something different because one of my friends cant
eat spicy things
I have also heard times where ~ is translated to supposed to do. Whatever the
translation, however, the result is usually the same:
1 = We
originally were supposed to eat , but we ate something different because one of my
friends cant eat spicy things
Pretty cool grammatical principle that will make your Korean sound really good!
Many meanings of ~
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
To do something after something: ~

While: ~
To add to: ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= beach
= genius
= pregnant woman
= seafood
= bat (the animal)
= glass
= vocal cords/ones voice
= ones hearing ability
= study (room in somebodys house)
= retest
= rematch
= bedroom
= paints
= stream of water
= the shape of something
Verbs:
= to give somebody money
= dominate/seize control of
= mix
= punch
= hand signal
Passive Verbs:
= to be mixed
= be connected/continue/lead to
Adjectives:
= strange/weird
= huge/gigantic
= conservative
= pure white
Adverbs and Other Words

= slightly/secretly
= in the very middle
= below zero (temperature)
= above zero (temperature)
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about the various usages of ~, which is often placed between
two clauses. The difficulty with ~ is that there are many meanings that this grammatical
principle can take on all with a seemingly identical purposes. Because of this confusion, this
grammatical principle has plagued learners of Korean for years. Lets get started.
If you have come across ~ in some form before this lesson (Im sure you have if you are on
lesson 88!) then I am sure you have had some trouble trying to understand exactly when this
principle should be used. The difficulty lies not only in its seemingly identical usages to other
grammatical principles but also in the different meanings ~ can create.
Understanding how/when ~ is used was probably the first time that I understood a
grammatical principle from deciphering its usage in conversation/books rather than reading
descriptions from dictionaries or having people tell me what it means. The good thing about ~
is that it is usually fairly easy to understand when heard/seen, which allows for learners to
grasp its meaning before starting to use it on their own. After enough exposure, it is much easier
to understand exactly how it can be used at least that is the way it was for me. Because of this,
instead of trying to use ~ in sentences right away, I suggest listening for it in your Korean
conversations and looking for it in your Korean readings before immediately trying to make your
own sentences.
Nonetheless, I never had good explanations of the specific meaning(s) of ~ when I was
studying. Therefore, in order to help every other learner of Korean, I am going to do my absolute
best to explain the meanings in this lesson.
Amongst the stew of meanings that ~ can take on, there are two meanings that are more
important than any of the others. The first is a meaning that expresses that an action happens
after the completion of a previous action. For example:
= The student studied hard and then fell asleep

= We ate and then went to the arcade together
The examples above all show verbs being used, but ~ can be attached to adjectives as well:
= The weather was cold, and then suddenly became hot
In the first two examples, though and actually happened in the past (the
student studied and we ate), the verbs were not conjugated behind ~ and the tense was
assumed from the conjugation of the final verb. Unlike most other grammatical principles, the
verb behind ~ can be conjugated as well. However, when the first clause in conjugated in
the past tense (to have the meaning being described here), there must be a direct relationship
between it and the second clause. For example, if we were going to conjugate the first clauses in
the two sentences above into the past tense:

People might understand what you are trying to say, but it will sound unnatural if you were to
say those two sentences. In the first example, the student falling asleep has no relation to the fact
that he/she studied; and in the second example, the fact that those people went to the arcade has
no relation to the fact that they ate together. Instead, as I mentioned, if you conjugate the first
clause in the past tense, and want to use ~ in this way, there must be a direct relationship
between the two clauses. Two examples where this would work:
= I prepared to write the exam to become a

government worker, and/but then I gave up
= I asked her if she wanted to go on a
date, and then she rejected me
The only two verbs where you conjugate the clause before ~ in the past tense and not need
to have a direct relationship between the two clauses are (to go) and (to come). These
two verbs are commonly conjugated to and to mean after one goes, and
after one comes. For example:
= I went to school, and then went to a friends house

= Those people came in the morning and left quickly
Perhaps the most common word that ~ can attach to is . is almost

synonymous with later, as its construction literally implies after we are here or after this.
The most common ways would be used would be:
= just a little bit later (soon)

= later (soon)
A time frame can also be put before to indicate how much later:
10 = 10 minutes later
1 = 1 year later
When used like this, the is sometimes omitted:
1 = 1 year later
These constructions can then go in sentences where applicable:
10 ! = Lets leave in 10 minutes!

1 = We will probably get married in a year
In addition to , the past tense of () is often used with ~ to form . This

indicates that one went somewhere, and then did something else. Be careful, however, not to
confuse this with which I decipher in Lesson 98.
To get back to the general meaning of ~, the most common question by people who learn
this grammatical principle for the first time is what is the difference between ~ and ~ or
~ ?
Very good question. The answer: there doesnt seem to be any real difference as both
grammatical principles indicate that something is happening after something else. I read one
description once that indicated that ~ is often used when the speaker/writer feels that he/she
has already used ~ (or ~ ) too many times in a sentence (or previous sentences). For
example:
! = Lets eat, then go home, rest for a bit, then

go!
I feel that this first meaning (of an action happening after the completion of another action) is the
most common usage of ~. I will talk other meanings in the upcoming sections.
The second action occurs during the process of the first action, and there is a slight implication
that the second action is caused by the first action (While): ~
Sorry for the long-winded definition provided in the heading title above. In doing my research
the only reputable definitions I can find for this usage are in Korean-Korean dictionaries, and I
did my best to translate the Korean definition provided in Korean. The definition given (The
second action occurs during the process of the first action, and there is a slight implication that
the second action is caused by the first action) is very similar to grammatical principles that
mean because, like ~/, ~ or ~().
The difference between ~ and the other grammatical principles learned previously to mean
because is that there doesnt have to be a direct connection between the first and second
clauses. Instead, it is usually implied that while one is doing the first action, something about that
action caused the action in the second clause to occur.
For example:
= I was walking fast and then (because I was walking
fast) stubbed my toe
Notice the incredibly subtle difference between that sentence and the following:
= Because I was walking fast I stubbed my toe
In the second example, you are indicating that the sole reason that you stubbed your toe was
because you were walking too fast and there is a direct connection between the two behaviors.
However, in the first example, you are indicating that you were walking fast and while you
were walking fast you stubbed your toe, and although there is a connection between the two
behaviors, it isnt immediately implied.
Another example:
= We were talking, and then (as a
result) we didnt hear what the teacher said
Again, notice the subtle difference that exists between this sentence and the following:
= Because we were talking, we didnt
hear what the teacher said
Another example:
= I was walking on a snowy road, and then (as a result) I fell
This usage of ~ is often translated to while one was doing, mainly because (as I
mentioned) the second action occurs while the first action is still in its process. This is different
from ~() because () implies that the two actions are progressing simultaneously.
For example:
However, this usage of ~ implies that while the first action is occurring, the second action
comes up (and in a way, causes the first action to stop although that connection isnt
immediately implied)
For example:
= While we were talking, we werent
able to hear what the teacher was saying
= While I was walking on the snowy road, I fell
More examples:
= While I was cleaning the house, I found
the key that I lost
= While I was crying alone at home,
my friend suddenly came
What really makes ~ tricky is that it is often difficult to understand meaning is being
expressed. For example, in the example we saw at the beginning of the lesson:
This could actually have two meanings. The two meanings you have learned would be:

or
= While the student was studying hard, he fell
asleep
How can we distinguish between the two? Well look at both of the sentences (in English).
Despite there being a slightly different translation is the meaning that is being expressed all
that different? In the first sentence; the student studies hard, and then after that falls asleep. In the
second sentence; the student studies hard and then while studying, he falls asleep but the
action of falling asleep did happen after the studying in this case.
So ask yourself Are they really that different? Our brains tell us that they should be
different, but really, but sentences are expressing the same thing and the same result is implied.
Of course, as with other confusing Korean grammatical principles (Im looking at you ~!),
there are still more meanings that ~ can have.
To add to: ~
In addition to the two meanings described above, you will often hear ~ be placed after
when is attached to a place. Remember, as is often omitted in words like ,
, , and , ~ gets added directly to those words. For example:
+ + =
+ + =
Again, as with the last usage, for all intents and purposes, in a pinch you can always assume that
and have the same meanings.
Actually, a lot of the time, and do have the same meaning. For example:
= Put the rice in the fridge

= Put it in the fridge
However, ~ can also be used to imply that you are adding more of an item to something.
For example:
= I put kimchi in the sandwich (~ implies here

that there is already some other stuff in the sandwich, and you are adding even more stuff to it)
= I put sugar in my coffee (again, ~ implies that there was

already something there [essentially, the coffee was already there], and that you are putting more
stuff [the sugar] into what is already there.)
An example that I used today actually, was when I was getting my lunch at my schools cafeteria.
I had my tray out, and an always puts the fruit on our tray for us. By the time I got to
her, my tray was full, so I asked her if she should put the fruit next to my rice (where there was a
small place left over). So, I said:
= Please, put it here (implying that she is putting the fruit in a place where
there is already something there).
But yeah, like I said, the meaning is so similar to , that it really doesnt need to be
distinguished that much.
There are actually other usages of ~, but only ones that are used very infrequently. Id say
that if you see/hear ~ used 100 times, 99% of them would fit into the three meanings
presented in this lesson. For that last 1%, you will need to learn a lot more grammar before you
get introduced to those.
Many meanings of ~
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction

While: ~
To add to: ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= beach
= genius
= pregnant woman
= seafood
= bat (the animal)
= glass
= vocal cords/ones voice
= ones hearing ability
= study (room in somebodys house)
= retest
= rematch
= bedroom
= paints
= stream of water
= the shape of something
Verbs:
= to give somebody money
= dominate/seize control of
= mix
= punch
= hand signal
Passive Verbs:
= to be mixed
= be connected/continue/lead to
Adjectives:
= strange/weird
= huge/gigantic
= conservative
= pure white
Adverbs and Other Words

= slightly/secretly
= in the very middle
= below zero (temperature)
= above zero (temperature)
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about the various usages of ~, which is often placed between
two clauses. The difficulty with ~ is that there are many meanings that this grammatical
principle can take on all with a seemingly identical purposes. Because of this confusion, this
grammatical principle has plagued learners of Korean for years. Lets get started.
If you have come across ~ in some form before this lesson (Im sure you have if you are on
lesson 88!) then I am sure you have had some trouble trying to understand exactly when this
principle should be used. The difficulty lies not only in its seemingly identical usages to other
grammatical principles but also in the different meanings ~ can create.
Understanding how/when ~ is used was probably the first time that I understood a
grammatical principle from deciphering its usage in conversation/books rather than reading
descriptions from dictionaries or having people tell me what it means. The good thing about ~
is that it is usually fairly easy to understand when heard/seen, which allows for learners to
grasp its meaning before starting to use it on their own. After enough exposure, it is much easier
to understand exactly how it can be used at least that is the way it was for me. Because of this,
instead of trying to use ~ in sentences right away, I suggest listening for it in your Korean
conversations and looking for it in your Korean readings before immediately trying to make your
own sentences.
Nonetheless, I never had good explanations of the specific meaning(s) of ~ when I was
studying. Therefore, in order to help every other learner of Korean, I am going to do my absolute
best to explain the meanings in this lesson.
Amongst the stew of meanings that ~ can take on, there are two meanings that are more
important than any of the others. The first is a meaning that expresses that an action happens
after the completion of a previous action. For example:

The examples above all show verbs being used, but ~ can be attached to adjectives as well:
= The weather was cold, and then suddenly became hot
In the first two examples, though and actually happened in the past (the
student studied and we ate), the verbs were not conjugated behind ~ and the tense was
assumed from the conjugation of the final verb. Unlike most other grammatical principles, the
verb behind ~ can be conjugated as well. However, when the first clause in conjugated in
the past tense (to have the meaning being described here), there must be a direct relationship
between it and the second clause. For example, if we were going to conjugate the first clauses in
the two sentences above into the past tense:

People might understand what you are trying to say, but it will sound unnatural if you were to
say those two sentences. In the first example, the student falling asleep has no relation to the fact
that he/she studied; and in the second example, the fact that those people went to the arcade has
no relation to the fact that they ate together. Instead, as I mentioned, if you conjugate the first
clause in the past tense, and want to use ~ in this way, there must be a direct relationship
between the two clauses. Two examples where this would work:
= I prepared to write the exam to become a

government worker, and/but then I gave up
= I asked her if she wanted to go on a
date, and then she rejected me
The only two verbs where you conjugate the clause before ~ in the past tense and not need
to have a direct relationship between the two clauses are (to go) and (to come). These
two verbs are commonly conjugated to and to mean after one goes, and
after one comes. For example:
= I went to school, and then went to a friends house

= Those people came in the morning and left quickly
Perhaps the most common word that ~ can attach to is . is almost

synonymous with later, as its construction literally implies after we are here or after this.
The most common ways would be used would be:
= just a little bit later (soon)

= later (soon)
A time frame can also be put before to indicate how much later:
1 = 1 year later
When used like this, the is sometimes omitted:
1 = 1 year later
These constructions can then go in sentences where applicable:
10 ! = Lets leave in 10 minutes!

1 = We will probably get married in a year
In addition to , the past tense of () is often used with ~ to form . This

indicates that one went somewhere, and then did something else. Be careful, however, not to
confuse this with which I decipher in Lesson 98.
To get back to the general meaning of ~, the most common question by people who learn
this grammatical principle for the first time is what is the difference between ~ and ~ or
~ ?
Very good question. The answer: there doesnt seem to be any real difference as both
grammatical principles indicate that something is happening after something else. I read one
description once that indicated that ~ is often used when the speaker/writer feels that he/she
has already used ~ (or ~ ) too many times in a sentence (or previous sentences). For
example:
! = Lets eat, then go home, rest for a bit, then

go!
I feel that this first meaning (of an action happening after the completion of another action) is the
most common usage of ~. I will talk other meanings in the upcoming sections.
The second action occurs during the process of the first action, and there is a slight implication
that the second action is caused by the first action (While): ~
Sorry for the long-winded definition provided in the heading title above. In doing my research
the only reputable definitions I can find for this usage are in Korean-Korean dictionaries, and I
did my best to translate the Korean definition provided in Korean. The definition given (The
second action occurs during the process of the first action, and there is a slight implication that
the second action is caused by the first action) is very similar to grammatical principles that
mean because, like ~/, ~ or ~().
The difference between ~ and the other grammatical principles learned previously to mean
because is that there doesnt have to be a direct connection between the first and second
clauses. Instead, it is usually implied that while one is doing the first action, something about that
action caused the action in the second clause to occur.
For example:
= I was walking fast and then (because I was walking
fast) stubbed my toe
Notice the incredibly subtle difference between that sentence and the following:
= Because I was walking fast I stubbed my toe
In the second example, you are indicating that the sole reason that you stubbed your toe was
because you were walking too fast and there is a direct connection between the two behaviors.
However, in the first example, you are indicating that you were walking fast and while you
were walking fast you stubbed your toe, and although there is a connection between the two
behaviors, it isnt immediately implied.
Another example:
= We were talking, and then (as a

result) we didnt hear what the teacher said
Again, notice the subtle difference that exists between this sentence and the following:
= Because we were talking, we didnt
hear what the teacher said
Another example:
= I was walking on a snowy road, and then (as a result) I fell
This usage of ~ is often translated to while one was doing, mainly because (as I
mentioned) the second action occurs while the first action is still in its process. This is different
from ~() because () implies that the two actions are progressing simultaneously.
For example:
However, this usage of ~ implies that while the first action is occurring, the second action
comes up (and in a way, causes the first action to stop although that connection isnt
immediately implied)
For example:
= While we were talking, we werent
able to hear what the teacher was saying
More examples:
the key that I lost
= While I was crying alone at home,
my friend suddenly came
What really makes ~ tricky is that it is often difficult to understand meaning is being
expressed. For example, in the example we saw at the beginning of the lesson:
This could actually have two meanings. The two meanings you have learned would be:

or
= While the student was studying hard, he fell
asleep
How can we distinguish between the two? Well look at both of the sentences (in English).
Despite there being a slightly different translation is the meaning that is being expressed all
that different? In the first sentence; the student studies hard, and then after that falls asleep. In the
second sentence; the student studies hard and then while studying, he falls asleep but the
action of falling asleep did happen after the studying in this case.
So ask yourself Are they really that different? Our brains tell us that they should be
different, but really, but sentences are expressing the same thing and the same result is implied.
Of course, as with other confusing Korean grammatical principles (Im looking at you ~!),
there are still more meanings that ~ can have.
To add to: ~
In addition to the two meanings described above, you will often hear ~ be placed after
when is attached to a place. Remember, as is often omitted in words like ,
, , and , ~ gets added directly to those words. For example:
+ + =
+ + =
Again, as with the last usage, for all intents and purposes, in a pinch you can always assume that
and have the same meanings.
Actually, a lot of the time, and do have the same meaning. For example:
= Put the rice in the fridge

= Put it in the fridge
However, ~ can also be used to imply that you are adding more of an item to something.
For example:
= I put kimchi in the sandwich (~ implies here

that there is already some other stuff in the sandwich, and you are adding even more stuff to it)
= I put sugar in my coffee (again, ~ implies that there was

already something there [essentially, the coffee was already there], and that you are putting more
stuff [the sugar] into what is already there.)
An example that I used today actually, was when I was getting my lunch at my schools cafeteria.
I had my tray out, and an always puts the fruit on our tray for us. By the time I got to
her, my tray was full, so I asked her if she should put the fruit next to my rice (where there was a
small place left over). So, I said:
= Please, put it here (implying that she is putting the fruit in a place where
there is already something there).
But yeah, like I said, the meaning is so similar to , that it really doesnt need to be
distinguished that much.
There are actually other usages of ~, but only ones that are used very infrequently. Id say
that if you see/hear ~ used 100 times, 99% of them would fit into the three meanings
presented in this lesson. For that last 1%, you will need to learn a lot more grammar before you
get introduced to those.
Lesson 90: The meaning of ~ (~, ~)

Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
The meaning of ~ (~, ~)
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= essence
= anger
= talk back
= tap/faucet
= trouble/fear
= approval/consent/permit
= opposition party
= ruling party
= benefit/profit/gain
Verbs:
= introduce (not people)
= reflect/mirror
= leak out/slip out

= recycle/reuse (recycling)
= to take a course
= to finish a course
= stand up against/oppose
Passive Verbs:
= state of being off
= passive for grab
Adjectives:
= beautiful
= for a style to look awkward
= meticulous/precise
= contagiousnous (not a word in English)
= as it turns out
= after a meal
= before a meal
= short sleep
= only (placed after noun)
= very/extremely
= meticulously/precisely
= each and every day
Introduction
In this lesson you will learn how to end sentences with ~ (~ or ~). Though this
is a very common ending in conversational Korean, English speakers often cannot figure out
exactly what it means. The main reason for this is simply because it is hard to translate directly
into English. In this lesson, there will be many examples that describe specifically the situation
where this grammatical form can be used. Lets get started.
The meaning of ~ (~, ~)

As you may have heard by now, adding ~ (usually conjugated to ~ or ~) to a
word at the end of a sentence is very common in Korean. The meaning that this construction
creates is very difficult to translate, but easier to describe. Therefore, when reading the examples
of this usage in this lesson, pay more attention to the descriptions after the sentences that I
provide than the actual translations.
Attaching ~ to a verb/adjective at the end of a sentence creates the meaning that loosely
translates to as you know/you know/dont forget that In practice, this is used when you are
talking to somebody who knows the fact that you just said, and you are asserting to this person
that he/she knows (or should know) this fact. A common word that this is attached to (that you
will hear all the time) is:
(to be right/correct) + = (typically conjugated to ! or !)
! = I told you it was right! You should have known that this was right!
Description of when this would be used:
Imagine yourself with a friend, and somebody asks the two of you what the capital of Canada is.
You say that the capital of Canada is Ottawa, and your friend says the capital is Vancouver. After
debating for a bit, the person who asked you the question says that the capital of Canada is in fact
Ottawa. In this case, you could say to your friend: ! = I told you Ottawa was
right/You should have known that Ottawa was right!
Similarly, if you know that the capital city of Canada isnt Vancouver, you could say to your
friend:
! = Its not Vancouver! You should know that it is not Vancouver!
Lets look at another example with another word:

! = You should know that
tomorrow is Saturday, so we should probably go early!
Imagine yourself with a friend discussing what time you should go to the park tomorrow.
Because tomorrow is Saturday, you know that there will probably be a lot of people at the park
on Saturday. So, you can say to your friend dont forget/you should know that tomorrow is
Saturday! So we should go early because of that!

! = Dont forget that I dont have any money/you should know that I dont
have any money:
Imagine yourself with your girlfriend but with no money (which I dont recommend, but it could
happen if you forget your wallet or something). You tell her that you forgot your wallet and
therefore have no money on you. Your girlfriend later asks you to buy her a cup of coffee, to
which you can respond Dont forget that I dont have any money/you should know that I dont
have any money!
The important thing to notice here is that you have already told your girlfriend that you dont
have your wallet. Therefore, you are telling her a fact that she should already know. Herein lies
the subtle meaning that ~ has you are stating something that the listener already should
know and you are asserting to that person that they should know this fact already.

! = Willy (my name) is hungry!/You should know that Willy is hungry/Dont
forget that Willy is hungry!
Okay, so my name is actually Willy and I heard this sentence this morning. I will explain the
situation of why it was used. I was at my girlfriends house and we were talking about what we
were going to make for lunch. My girlfriends mother suggested that we make something small,
to which my girlfriends dad responded !
As I mentioned in the previous example the important thing to remember with this meaning is
that the listener should already know the fact that is being said. In this case, I am (actually)
always hungry, and my girlfriends father was making an assertion to his wife that dont forget,
Willy eats a lot and is going to be hungry if we cook something small!
~ is also commonly used when you are telling a story to somebody. Usually, when telling a
story (in any language), you need to provide some sort of back-story that is often common
knowledge before getting to the actual story. An example of this could be:
~
.
Imagine yourself at work the day after you were sick. You are at work, and a co-worker heard
from somebody that you went to the hospital last night. He asks why you went to the hospital,
and in your response you say remember/dont forget/as you know I was sick at work
yesterday Then, I went home and ate, and suddenly threw up, so I went to the hospital.
Notice that in this example as well, the listener should know about the fact that you were sick
yesterday.
.
.
A few more things to be aware about before we finish:
Notice in the example that ~ can be added to verbs/adjectives conjugated into the past tense.
It isnt usually attached to words conjugated to the future tense (using ~).
Additional grammatical principles are rarely (if ever) attached to , and this form usually
ends a sentence.
My girlfriend always tells me that adding ~/ to the end of a sentence makes it sound
like you are being rude/mean. Almost as if you are saying I TOLD you it was like that! Though
she says this, I constantly hear people using ~ all the time without the emotion of being
angry. Nonetheless, she is telling me that you should be cautious if using this form to an elder or
to somebody who deserves high respect.
In a recent lesson, you learned about ~ and how it can be used to mean as you know.
Though ~ and ~ have different usages, their meanings are quite similar. Therefore,
I suggest that if you want to use ~ to an elder consider using ~ first. For
example, if your boss asked you why you were late for work yesterday, you could say:
! = Dont forget/You should know that I was sick yesterday
But if you say that sentence, you are (in a way) asserting to your boss that he/she should know
that you were sick, which might sound very rude. Instead, you could say:
= As you know, I was sick
yesterday, so I was late
If you said this sentence instead, it would sound much more polite and probably wouldnt get
you in trouble.
In addition to all of this, ~ is commonly attached to . This construction should not be

seen as the meanings of and put together. Instead, / should be
thought of as one unit. / is commonly used at the beginning of a sentence
when somebody is trying to think of what they want to say or if they are indicating that they have
something to say. For example:
? = Hmm do you think there will be too many people?
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Because: ~()
Other meanings of: ~()
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= next generation
= heir/successor
= profit
= non-profit
= medical
= foundation
= public interest
= confusion
= quality
= inside water
= stain/smear/smudge
= border
= border line
= nuclear/nucleus
= biceps
= triceps
= slippers/house shoes
= strong point
= weak point
= air conditioning
Verbs:
= squeeze
= express
= hanging your body forward
= mediate
Passive Verbs:
= to be addicted
Adjectives:
= creative/original (idea)
= clear/bright/fine/nice(weather)
= constant
= modest

= constantly
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to add ~() to the end of a sentence or to connect two
clauses. Though this grammatical form has one very common meaning, it is often used to have
other meanings as well. In this lesson, I will break down all the meanings of ~() and
explain how they can be used. Lets get started.
Because: ~()
In Lesson 37 you learned how to use ~/ to connect two clauses to have the meaning
so/therefore/because. For example:
= The students were too loud,

so I couldnt hear the professor
= I didnt study, therefore, I didnt do well on the
exam
= I dont want to go now because I am eating
Even though they would technically be grammatically incorrect, you could eliminate the clause
after / and say the following:
= Because the students were so loud

= Because I didnt study
= Because I am eating
The examples above are grammatically incorrect because they are not full sentences. Technically
you cant end a sentence with ~/ even though many people do so in conversation. The
situation that would allow for this to happen would be if you were only providing the reason for
something without having to indicate the result as well.
Okay, so those three sentences above are grammatically incorrect, but sometimes used in
conversation. How can we make those sentences grammatically correct?
By placing ~() after a clause, you can create a meaning that indicates a reason without
having to indicate a result. The three examples from above could be written as:
= Because the students were so loud.

= Because I didnt study.
= Because I am eating.
Notice that those technically are not full sentences in English even though we would say those
sentences in some situations. The best example of when you would use sentences like that is
when somebody is asking a question, and you only need to provide the reason. For example:
? = Why couldnt you hear the professor?

= Because the students were so loud.
? = Why did you do poorly on the exam?

? = Why dont you want to go?

Be aware of the following conjugation rules with ~():
When attached to a verb or adjective in the present tense, simply remove ~ and replace with ~
(). For example:
When attached to a verb or adjective in the past tense, remove ~ after adding ~/ and
replace with ~(). For example:
When attached to a verb or adjective in the future tense, conjugate the word using the ~/
conjugation. Treat like any other verb/adjective attach directly to . For
example:
= Because dad cant come.
Just like ~ can be condensed to ~ , you can condense ~ to ~

. For example:
= Because dad cant come
More examples:
~~ = ahhh these days I am going to bed to

late Because I have so much work.
~ = Tomorrow I wont be able to go
because Im meeting a friend in Seoul
Other meanings of ~()
There are other meanings that ~ can be used for. In Lessons 76 and 77 you learned about the
various meanings that ~ can have. One meaning of ~ is to provide information for the
upcoming sentence. For example:

7 = The person in that
picture is my dad, but I havent seen him in 7 years
However, in these examples, I taught you that there is a subtle meaning of even though that is
implied.
You can use ~() to provide information for upcoming sentences similar to ~. Notice
however that ~ connects two clauses, whereas this usage of ~ would be used at the end
of a sentence. Also, the subtle meaning implied with providing information for an upcoming
sentence with ~() is a meaning of because and not even though as with ~. For
example, although this sentence works with ~:
It would not work with ~:

. = (slight meaning of because) that girl is pretty.
she is not my style No that doesnt make sense.
Some examples of where this usage would be appropriate:

. ? = (slight meaning of because)
Im going to Seoul to meet a friend tonight would you like to go together?
. = (slight meaning of because) I
finished all of my work yesterday. Therefore, today, I have nothing to do.
It looks weird sometimes when you translate these sentences into English simply because there is
no perfect definition for certain grammatical principles. The meaning of providing information
for the upcoming sentence while implying a slight meaning of because is the best I can do in
this case.
In addition to this meaning, ~ can be placed between two clauses to have the meaning of
if or when similar to ~() or ~/ that you learned about in Lesson 43. The
difference is that ~ is more usually used when the second clause ends with an imperative
conjugation (when somebody tells somebody to do something) or some other form of suggestive
ending.
However, this usage is not very common, but it does come up every once and a while. For
example:
! = If the pants are too big, change them!

! = If the pants are too big, change them!
! = Let me know when you are done your homework!

! = Let me know when you are done your homework!
If you are studying for the intermediate TOPIK test, be prepared to answer a question like the
following:
Choose the grammatical principle that can replace the underlined section in the following
sentence:
a)
b)
c)
d)
Now that you have read this lesson, you will be able to answer those questions with ease!
Thats it for this lesson!

Click here for Korean Short Stories specifically tailored to learners at this level.
Lesson 92: ~: To an extent, In order to, To make
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
The First Meaning of ~: To the Extent That

The Second Meaning of ~: So That, In Order to
The Third Meaning of ~: To Make
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= a bribe (/)
= fatigue
= residence/home
= academic affairs
= precipitation
= victim
= gold medal
= prize money
= chocolate
= everyone
= a department in school
= picture/image
= the area around a body of water
= desire/craving
Verbs:
= force/impose/pressure
= immigrate
= to brush ones teeth
= to comb somebodys hair
= prepare/make preparations for
= to tie (in a game)
= impose/levy (a fine/fee/punish
= to compose, to makeup
Passive Verbs:
= to be interlocked
= be composed of

= rectangle
= square
= circle
= triangle
= cleanly
Adjectives:
= tired
= dreary/desolate
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about the Korean grammatical principle of ~, which has
confused foreign learners of Korean for ages. There are three common meanings of ~, but I
will break it all down for you step by step, so you have no reason to worry. Lets get started.
The First Meaning of ~: To the Extent That
In this first meaning, ~ attaches directly to a verb or adjective in a sentence or clause to have
the meaning of to the point that or to the extent that. Typically, these sentences are
straightforward:
= We walked around to the extent that our feet started

hurting
= The soldiers trained to the extent that
they could shoot guns with their eyes closed
= I ate to the extent that I was sick of it
There is not much else I can say to describe the sentences above. Using ~ in those situations
is simply a means of putting it in place of to the point that in English.
This same meaning, however, can often replace ~/ in sentences. You should
know from previous studies that ~/ means until/to (a certain) point. For
example:
= Until I die
= Until I arrive
~ can replace ~/ in sentences where the meaning implied is to the extent

that For example, if I were to write:
= I will love you until I die,
You can replace ~ with ~ because that sentence essentially means:
= I love you to the extent that, for my whole life, until I

die, I will love you
Notice that the meaning that is being expressed in that sentence is that you love somebody to a
certain extent. In other cases where ~/ is used (where this meaning of extent is not
implied), you cannot substitute with ~. For example:
? = Could you wait for me until I arrive?
By substituting ~/ with ~, you would create this meaning:

? = Could you wait for me to the extent that I arrive?
This doesnt make sense. Therefore, you can use this usage in two ways that have similar
meanings:
1) To indicate that something is/was/will be done to the extent of something. For example:
= The athlete ran to the extent that he couldnt breathe
2) To replace ~/ in situations where one is describing that something will be

done to a certain extent until a certain time.
= We talked until late
= We talked to the extent that it was late/We talked so much that
A common word that ~ is used with is . By using , you can emphasize

that a certain amount of time has passed since something happened. For example:
3 = We havent met in so long (to the extent that) it has

been 3 years since we met
= I havent eaten in so long (to the extent that) it has been
2 days since I last ate
Heh. I guess you can see why some people may be confused with this grammatical form. With
any confusing grammatical form (like this one), I highly recommend not using it in speech for a
few months. During this time, although you will understand it when you see it written (or hear it
being said), you should take this time for your brain to better understand when it can be used.
Then, once you have had a lot of exposure to it, you will be more prepared to use it in
conversation.
But, were not done yet. Lets look at the other meanings.
The Second Meaning of ~: So That, In Order to
The second meaning has a meaning closest to ~ (taught in Lesson 32). You can place ~
after adjectives or verbs to have the meaning of in order to. For example:
= I went to bed early last night for the

purpose of (in order to) get up early in the morning
Notice that this sentence could also be said as:

= I went to bed early last night to get up
early tomorrow
Another example:
= I ran to the bus stop in order to (so that I

would) not miss the bus
This meaning of ~ is very commonly seen in signs around Korea. For example, you may see
a sign that says:
= In order for other riders to ride

comfortably, please dont read a newspaper on the train
Actually, there is a sign at the gym that I work out at that has the following message:
= In order for other
members to use them, dont use a machine for a long time
Or, another example:

= Speak slowly so that the students can
understand you
This usage is also identical (or very very similar) to one of the usages of ~ introduced in
Lesson 56. Recall that one of the usages of ~ is to create the meaning of so that/in order
to. ~ can be replaced with ~ in all of the example sentences in this section:
= I went to bed early last night for the purpose

of (in order to) get up early in the morning
= I ran to the bus stop in order to (so that I would) not
miss the bus
= In order for other riders to ride
comfortably, please dont read a newspaper on the train
= In order for other
members to use them, dont use a machine for a long time
= Speak slowly so that the students can
understand you
The usage is ~ and ~ is essentially the same. However, you are more likely to see ~
on signs and in formal writing. I would much rather say ~ in my sentences over ~.
The fact that these two grammatical principles are so similar is something that comes up on the
TOPIK test sometimes. It is possible that you will see questions asking you to replace ~
with a grammatical principle that has the same meaning. Easy peasy (aside from the fact that I
wrote the TOPIK test years ago and got a question like that wrong because I didnt know of this
rule when I wrote it).
The Third Meaning of ~: To Command/To Make
You can also use ~ to give somebody a command by using any of the imperative voice
conjugations discussed in Lesson 40. When doing this, you attach ~ to the verb that you
would like somebody to do and use an imperative conjugation of after it. For example:
! = Do it from tomorrow
This is essentially the same as:
! = Do it from tomorrow
The only subtle difference is that the first one would be more likely to be used by a boss or
somebody in a commanding role. It feels more like a command, like you are ordering somebody
to do something.
You can also use this form to indicate that you will do something. The two most common
endings attached to when it comes after ~ in this situation are:
~/(), and
For example:

Those two sentences would be common responses to an order that was said using the ~
command shown above.
As you can probably guess however, the two sentences above would essentially be the same as
these:
You can also use a similar form of this to indicate that one made or forced somebody do
something in the past. An example that my old Korean grammar teacher gave me a long time ago
was:
= My parents made to go to University
Just by the nature of the sentence, the word (to force) is often used instead of
to specifically indicate that one forced somebody to do something:
= My parents forced me to go to
University
Note that sentences like this effectively have the same meaning/outcome of a quoted imperative
sentence. For example, I could just as well say:
= My parents told me to go to University
This usage is probably the least common of the three that I have presented to you in this lesson;
nonetheless, it is important for you to know.
Hopefully that helps in your understanding of ~!
Of Course!
Though ~/~ usually takes on the meaning described above, it is also commonly used as an
ending that is placed on the end of a verb or adjective as a response to a question. When you
respond to a question with the use of ~/~, it gives the response a feeling that one is also
saying of course or something like that. For example:
!? = Are you going tomorrow
= Yeah, I am going (of course I am going tomorrow)

(also notice in this example how ~/~ is added to , or the future conjugation of ~/
)
Other examples:
Person 1: ? = Are you hungry?

Person 2: ! = Of course Im hungry!
Person 1: ? = You dont pay income tax?

Person 2: ! = Of course I pay (it/income tax)!
Person 1: = Im moving/going to (an) Internet High

School next year
Person 2: ? = Do you not to lessons in person there?
Person 1: ! = I do (of course I do!)
In Lesson 79 you learned about the word and how it is often used as to
mean of course! Instead of responding with the verb that was in the question (as in above with
and ), you can simply respond with with the addition of ~/
. For example:
? = Are you hungry?

!! = Of course!!
When used like this ~ is much more commonly used than ~. The reason behind this is that it
is generally informal to use this conjugation in this way, and it doesnt make sense to use a
formal conjugation in an informal way.
In these cases, the only way to distinguish whether the speaker is asking a question or simply
using ~/~ to and a sentence in a normal way is by the context and by the tone of the persons
voice. In most cases, it is clear that the speaker is asking a question because (as in any language)
their tone gets higher as they end a sentence.
Using ~/~ with / /
In Lesson 46 you learned that you can add / / to words to indicate that one
must do something. For example:
= I must go now
~ (and less commonly ~) can actually replace / and the respective conjugation that
would be added to that word. For example:
! = I must go now
! = You need to study hard!
! = People need to put up a
Christmas tree for Christmas!
Replacing / with ~ or ~ is fairly colloquial. Therefore, while ~ is commonly

used in this form ~ is slightly less common, and only really used if you are in a situation where
you are very close to a person, but he/she is older than you so you want to be slightly more
formal than just using ~.
Im not sure if a textbook would say the same thing, but that is what I have noticed with my
experience with the language.
However, the usage that I described earlier in this lesson (where ~/) can be used to change a
statement into a question is used very frequently in informal (~) and formal (~) situations.
Vocabulary
Introduction
To end up: ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= stew
= air conditioning
= population
= human/human being
= public transportation
= last bus/last train
= independence
= chapter (of book)
= dialect
= seal/stamp that many Koreans have
= big meeting/conference
= depression
= genre
= scholarship
= candle
Verbs:
= wash ones face
= to nurse/to care for
() = increase
= arrive/reach
= arrive/reach
= devote/dedicate ( )
= to keep/maintain
Adjectives:
= robust/strong
= middle/center
= often
= gradually/slowly
= purely
= day of week
= overnight
To end up: ~
By attaching ~ to the end of a verb, you can create the meaning of to end up. Using
this form indicates that the events that occurred happened out of ones control, almost by chance
or fate. For example:
= I ended up falling in love with her
LG = Doosan ended up beating LG in the baseball
game
= I ended up moving farther away from work
= I ended up meeting her on Sunday
I first came across this grammatical form while reading a book, where the main character said
something like:
= I ended up getting a job at that company
When I first saw that sentence, I asked a friend how it differed from this sentence:
= I got a job at that company.
His answer was similar to what I described earlier that the result of the sentence happens
without the subject having much influence on the outcome. What is also interesting is that my
friend also mentioned that using is a very humble way of saying something. He said
that if one were to say:
= I got a job at that company
it is almost as if that person is boasting about the fact that he/she got a job, maybe because of
how awesome he/she is. However, if one were to say:
= I ended up getting a job at that company
the feeling is more humble because the speaker had no influence on the outcome, thus not
flaunting his/her awesomeness.
Make sure that you can distinguish between ~ and the passive voice. Attaching ~
does not change an active sentence into a passive sentence. It merely indicates that something
was done out of ones control. I will provide a good example below:
= That company hired me
(Active sentence)
= I got hired by that company
(Passive sentence)
= That company ended up hiring me

(Active ~ sentence)
= I ended up getting hired by that company
(Passive ~ sentence (not very natural))
~ can also be used with adjectives as well, but I would advise against doing this. You
may come across people doing, or you may see it from time to time in books, but using ~/
(which you learned in Lesson 18) has essentially the same meaning, and is much more natural
that using ~ with adjectives. For example:
= The weather ended up getting cold (unnatural)
= The weather got cold (natural)
= That girl ended up getting fat (unnatural)
= That girl got fat (natural)
In previous lessons, you have learned about words like (Lesson 43) and (Lesson
59). You learned that these words have very little meaning and are placed in sentences
specifically for feeling.
The word is another one of these words, and it is used in sentences that end in ~
(or other situations where something happens by chance and one has little impact on the
outcome). Look-up in the dictionary and you will see something like accidentally or
by chance. However, just like and has very little (if any) meaning
unless used in these sentences.
Anyways, you will often see in sentences that end in ~ . For example:
= I ended up seeing her on the bus
= I ended up passing the exam
Introduction
Placing after a noun
Placing after a verb/adjective
Using in the middle of a sentence
Not only, but also: ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= drinking party/banquet
= pattern/design
= stripes
= plaid
= camouflage
= tiger/leopard skin
= in a dream
= honeymoon
= slave
= aftereffects/aftermath
= side effect
= knock off ______ (fake purse)
= mold
= physiology
= menstruation
= phenomenon
= root of a tree
= lodging/accommodations
= aboriginal/native
= exterior
= picture frame
Verbs:
= to see (high respect)
= to put something on your shoulder
= run away with something
= harass/torment
= dig out/pick out
= to be on ones period
= be defeated/lose
= reconcile/make up with somebody
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use in a variety of situations. First, you will learn how to
use after a noun. Then, you will learn how to use after a verb/adjective both at the end of
a sentence and in the middle of a sentence. Finally, you will learn how to use ~ to
have the meaning of not only A, but B. Lets get started.
Placing after a noun

The English translation of is similar to just or only, but it is more of a grammatical
principle than it is a word. There is a variety of situations in which it can be used all of which
typically have this similar translation. The first usage I want to talk about is when placed after a
noun at the end of a sentence. By placing after a noun, you can create the meaning of it is
only/it is nothing but(that noun). When doing this, you should attach to the noun and
conjugate it to the future tense (~). can then be placed after this construction. For example:

~

However, you should know by now that you cant end a sentence with a random thing word like
. Therefore, in order to make these sentences complete, we must also add to . For
example:
= Buying that is just a waste of money/Buying that is
nothing but a waste of money
~ = Its nothing its just/only money
= Becoming an actor is just a dream
= Its just a joke
You should note, however, that sometimes (conjugated to the future tense as ~) can be
omitted and ~ is attached directly to the noun. For example:
= The only thing I want to eat is

= The only thing I want is (just) you
There is a slight difference between the two forms. When you attach ~ to the noun before
there is a negative connotation. For example, if you said this:
= Its just , so dont expect too much
Here, you are implying that it is just ramen; and, because it is bad, the listener should not get
his/her hopes up.
However if you said:
= The only thing I want to
eat is ramen because I havent eaten it in such a long time
Here, you are implying that you havent eaten ramen in a long time (which is unfortunate, but
you really miss the taste of ramen), so the only thing you want to eat is this food that you enjoy,
but havent eaten in a while.
Placing after a verb/adjective

This same usage can also be applied to verbs and adjectives. When using with
verbs/adjectives, the preceding word is always connected to the future ~ conjugation of ~
/ . Using a verb/adjective with ~/ before is similar to adding the word just in
a sentence in English. For example:
What are you doing?
Im thinking.
What are you doing?
Im just thinking.
I want to sleep
I just want to sleep
Im tired
Im just tired
If you can understand the subtle differences between the sentences with just and the sentences
without just than you can understand the differences between sentences with and without .
For example:
= Im thinking
= Im just thinking
= I want to sleep
= I just want to sleep
= Im tired
= Im just tired
Notice that this meaning is very similar to the meaning of in Korean. For example:
has a very similar (if not identical) meaning as:

And:
has a very similar meaning to:

More examples:
= You being here just makes the
problem worse
= I just do my best in everything I do
The future tense ~ conjugation of ~/ gets added even if the action is in the past
tense. In these cases the ~/ gets attached to /. For example:
= I was just doing as you ordered
= I just tried it
= I was just looking at the sky
Using in the middle of a sentence
If you place verbs and adjectives before as you did in the previous section, you can also place
(and its preceding clause) in the middle of a sentence. If you do this, does not get
conjugated in any way, and the whole construction acts almost as if it were an adverb.
Lets look at the following example:
= She sat there just staring at me
The underlined part doesnt really act like any other grammatical principle you have learned thus
far, so it might take some time getting used to. This form is used when something is done while
another thing is just done (where the meaning of just is ). I would say the construction
of:
~ (as in the example )
Is very similar to:
~
For example:
= She sat there just staring at me
= She sat there while just staring at me
However, what I have noticed is that ~/ is used more commonly to indicate that
somebody does something without doing another action. For example:
= She just sat there and didnt do anything
Other examples:
= The student just looked outside and
didnt say anything
= The man didnt answer his phone,
and was just biting his fingernails
Though you will come across this usage from time to time, it is more commonly used with ~
attached to it.
Not only, but also: ~/
By placing ~/ at the end of a clause, you can create the meaning of not only
A, but also B. This grammatical principle is one of my favorite principles to use in
conversation, as it is very natural and makes your Korean look very good. I guarantee that if you
use ~/ in a conversation with a Korean person, you will turn some heads.
This usage is pretty straightforward. I will show some examples and talk about them after:
= Not only does this company provide
housing, but it also provides a car
= Not only do we not have any
food, but we also dont have any money to buy food either
= Not only
will we not be able to review, but we will have to study more content (a sentence I actually said
to my students in Korea. They were talking so much, I wanted to punish them by taking away
our review class and making them learn more content before the exam.)
And, if I may, you could also make this sentence:
= He is not only poor, but ugly
If the verb in both clauses is the same, it is common to omit the first verb and attach
directly to the noun. The simplest example I could think of would be:
= Not only did I buy apples, but I bought
bananas too
Instead of this, you could write:
= I bought not only apples, but bananas too
In fact, just using by itself has the meaning of not only that, but For
example:
.

= Eating lots of healthy fruits is very important
Not only that, but exercising often is also important.
96: If one wants to be able to: ~()

If one wants to be able to: ~()
In Lesson 32 you learned how to connect two clauses with ~() to have the meaning in
order to, or for the purpose of. For example:
= I went to Seoul in order to meet my friend
In Lesson 43 you learned how to connect two clauses with ~() to have the meaning of if or
when. For example:
= If you go there, let me know
This is the first time that you have been introduced to a grammatical form that is actually a
combination of two grammatical forms tied together. Not only is the physical look of ~()
a combination of ~() and ~(), but its meaning is the combination of the two
respective meanings.
By connecting two clauses with ~(), you can create the meaning if one wants to be able
to or if one intends to. Though both translations have similar meanings, I like to use the first
translation (if one wants to be able to) because you can plainly see how ~ and ~ are being
used to create this meaning.
When making sentences, most of the time you can replace ~() with ~ . For
example:
= If you want to be able to go to University, you should
do well on
= If you want to go to university, you should do
well on
= If you want to be able to be a doctor, you should
study a lot
= if you want to be a doctor, you should study a
lot
The subtle difference that exists between ~() and ~ is that the ~ in ~()
signifies that the desired action requires a certain amount of effort to be completed. For
example, where this sentence makes sense:
! = If you want to go, go!
replacing ~ with ~() would not make sense. In this example, simply the act
of going does not require any effort. However, in the examples presented earlier, becoming a
doctor, and going to university require a significant amount of effort, and the upcoming clause
specifies where that effort should be channeled.
As you have seen, when ~() is used, it is usually followed by a clause ending with ~/
. Other typical endings are ~/ or an imperative ending like ~ or /
.
More examples:
= If you want to be able to buy that, you need a
lot of money
! = If you want to be able to go to Seoul (if you want to go to
Seoul/if you intend to go to Seoul), then take the subway!
? = If I want to go to Seoul, which way should I go?
= If you want to be able to change your address, you must
come in person (if you intend to change your address, you should come in person)
Abbreviated Conjugations: and

Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
An abbreviation of :
Because: ~/
(), () and ()
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= independence
= people of a country/citizen
= self-study
= next door
= jazz
= neighborhood
= change
= center/heart/middle of something
= site/ground/lot
= facial expression
= truth
Adjectives:
= independent
= terrible
= embarrassed
Verbs:
() = guess
= gamble
= gamble
= look down
= become known
= achieve
= since then
= top
= as of now
() = as of now
= cheer up
= whole/entire thing
= finally/at last
= finally/at last
= (2010 ) = year
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about the word , which is actually a colloquial abbreviation of
the word . The Korean language has evolved in such a way that can now be
thought of as a word, but due to the fact that it is actually an abbreviation, it has atypical
grammatical rules. I will break these rules open for you. Lets get started.
An abbreviation of :
First things first lets remember what the word means and how it is used. Though
can be used in a variety of situations, it always has a translation of to have or to
possess or something similar. It is most commonly used with to indicate that one has an
object. For example:
= I have money now
= That student has a talent for drawing
? = Who is the girl that has the beautiful bag (who
is the girl with the beautiful bag?)
3 = Our landlord owns three houses
In practice, the word can change to another verb to indicate that one does something
while possessing an object. For example:
= He always carries his camera with him (while walking
around)
? = Did you bring your keys (did you come out while possessing your
keys?)
? = Am I allowed to enter the zoo with a camera?
(Am I allowed to enter the zoo while possessing camera?)
can replace in all of these cases:
= I have money now
= That student has a talent for drawing
? = Who is the girl that has the beautiful bag (who is the
girl with the beautiful bag?)
3 = Our landlord owns three houses
= He always carries his camera with him (while walking
around)
? = Did you bring your keys (did you come out while possessing your
keys?)
? = Am I allowed to enter the zoo with a camera? (Am

I allowed to enter the zoo while possessing camera?)
What is interesting is that is very often used without any form of conjugation. When used
in this form, it is most commonly done when one is giving an order to another person. Including
in the sentence implies that the person should go or come somewhere while possessing
some object. For example:
= Give me a tissue, please (Please go get me a tissue, and come back [with
the tissue in your hand])
= Give me a pen, please (Please go get me a pen, and come back [with the
pen in your hand])
= Throw out the garbage (go [with the garbage in your hand] and
throw out the garbage)
The same form is also often used when telling somebody that you will do something usually
with the ~() or ~() ending (which you learned in Lesson 63). For example:
? = Would you like some coffee? Shall I give you some coffee? (Would
you like me to go, and return [with coffee in my hand]?)
= I am going to go and get your receipt
As you can see when used in the plain (unconjugated) form of , the meaning usually
implies that somebody is going somewhere and then returns with some object.
This usage can often be confused with (), which was taught in Lesson 88. Look at the
following example:
= Give me a tissue, please
, = Okay, I will go, and then come back
, = Okay, I will go, and then come back [with the tissue in my hand]
Notice that the two sentences above would sound exactly the same. Therefore, you dont really
need to worry about distinguishing between them in speech. However, you should make sure you
understand which one is used in which situation for reading and writing.
As I mentioned in the introduction of this lesson, is actually an abbreviated form of
. Because of this, it actually follows some strange rules that arent followed by other words
(aside from a few other abbreviated words).
Notice how the last vowel in is , which means that when adding ~/ to it, one
must add ~ because the last vowel is not or .
However, in the abbreviated form of , the last vowel is . So what should we add to it?
or ? In the form, one should add , but not that it is abbreviated to ,
should one add ?
Not only that, but the stem of ends in a vowel, whereas the stem of ends in a
consonant. Therefore, when adding grammatical principles that change based on whether the
stem of a words ends in a vowel or consonant what should we do? When adding () to
, we know that it should be , but (which is actually the same word), ends in
. So, should it be or ?
This ambiguity has led to a fairly strange rule: It is incorrect to add any grammatical principle
starting with a vowel to .
For example, while any of these would be correct:
+ / =
+ / =
+ () =
+ / =
None of the above could be added to . Notice that the reason this rule is in place is because
people wouldnt know which form to add one that corresponds to rules of or one that
corresponds to rules .
However, it is acceptable to add grammatical principles that apply to both and .
For example, any of these would be correct:
+ =
+ =
+ ~ = ~
And any of these would also be correct:
+ =
+ =
+ ~ = ~
As you can see, adding grammatical principles to ~ is only acceptable if there would be no
change to the grammatical principle if it were attached to . I actually find this rule quite
interesting, and if you do too, it is safe to say that you are now a Korean grammar nerd!
Some examples:
! = Go over there, get the money and then come back!
= There is nobody interested in this grammatical
phenomenon
Those two are exactly the same as:
! = Go over there, get the money and then come back!
= There is nobody interested in this
grammatical phenomenon
Because: ~/
In addition to everything that has been discussed so far in this lesson, can also be used
as a grammatical principle to mean because. In order to do this, ~/ is added to the
end of one clause that indicates the reason for the next clause. The word in the first clause can be
a verb or adjective. For example:
= Because I finished late yesterday, I couldnt go home
= Because the weather is so hot today, I
cancelled my plans
= Because we came so early, we had to
wait for a long time
It should be noted that the use of this grammatical principle is very common in speech, but very
uncommon in any form of writing (except for quoted dialogue).
It is also very common for people to pronounce as or even .
(), () and ()
Another word that follows a similar type of rule (but not the same rule) is . Just like
and , there is a shortened version of which is .
can be used any way and with any grammatical principle, but must be used in
accordance with the irregular. For example:
1 = A Korean exchange student
stayed at our house for a year
However, cannot be used with all grammatical principles.
Any grammatical principle that starts with a consonant (and there is no option other than that one
consonant), can be added to . For example:
+ ~ = = okay
+ ~ = = okay
+ = = okay
+ ~ = = okay
Any grammatical principle where there is a choice of whether a vowel or consonant needs to be
added, then it is also acceptable.
+ ~() = = okay
+ ~() = = okay
Note that this in these cases acts just like any other verb/adjective where the final
consonant is . All of the grammatical principles above are added to (to sell) in the
exact same way that they are added to . For example:
Because the last letter in the stem of (and ) is , a lot of these additions require
the application of the irregular. For example.
+ ~/
+ ~/ =
+ ~() =
+ ~() =
Again, all of the above are the same as they would be when adding them to or any other
verb with as the final consonant. For example:

Everything so far seems normal about , but it differs from most verbs in the following
way: if a grammatical principle that is added to is a vowel and there is no other option
other than a vowel then that grammatical principle cannot be added to . The two most
common grammatical principles where this occurs is when conjugating in the past or present
tenses. For examples:
+ ~/() = this is incorrect
+ ~/ = this is incorrect
This same rule also applies to:
(a shortened version of to rush ), and
(a shortened version of to not be good at something)
Lesson 98: To pretend to: ~//

Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
To pretend to: ~//
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= mind/spirit/soul
= dish washing
= investigation
= personal life
= groundless rumor
= organization/corporation
= tension
= events
= playground
= Buddhism
= paragraph
Verbs:
() = argument (argue)
= to apply lotion
= improve/develop/progress
= work/labor
= escape
= diffuse/spread out/spread
= arrange
= for a liquid to flow
= grow up
= represent
= stress/emphasize
= undertake/take on/handle/manage
= to eat out somewhere
= rescue
= squeeze
= to burn (part of a body)
= wild (wild ____ animal)
= as well as (Korea as well as Canada)
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about a grammatical principles that is essentially an extension of the
~ principle that you studied at great lengths in the first five lessons of Unit 2. () can
be used instead of in the ~ principle to mean to pretend. Lets get started.
To pretend to: ~//

In Unit 2, I bombarded it into your brain that ~ attaches to the stem of a verb to describe an
upcoming noun. I stressed that the word following ~ in these cases must always be a noun.
For example:
= the person who eats
= the person who goes
.
As you know, you can attach ~ to many nouns to make the action (verb) form of that noun.
The noun means pretending or whatever the noun of to pretend would be.
The verb form of that word () translates to to pretend, and it often replaces in the
principle. For example:
= to pretend to eat
= to pretend to go
Notice that this is technically breaking the rule of ~ that the word that follows must
be a noun. I often see people trying to get around this technically breaking a rule by separating
and . This would look like:
() , or
()
When this is done, not only is the meaning the same, but (in the case of when the particle ~/
is not used) the pronunciation is exactly the same as well.
Two common verbs used before are:
(to know)
(to die)
For example:
= He pretended to know the right answer
= The dog pretended to be dead because it was scared
The word (to do something well), is also commonly used before . This
construction as a whole means to brag/boast. For example:
= She bragged to her friends after doing
well on the exam
= That teacher always brags because he
graduated from Seoul National University
Another peculiar thing about this grammatical principle is that there doesnt seem to be any
rhyme or reason as to when the past tense form of ~/ should be used or the present tense ~
should be used.
Notice that in English when we say these sentences, the action that is pretended is not
conjugated. For example, we say:
She pretended to like me, NOT
She pretended to liked me
Or,
He pretended to understand, NOT
He pretended to understood
However, in Korean, the action that is pretended is conjugated but there is no need to
distinguish a different meaning between the two. The examples that I used previously in the
lesson:
Could also be said/written as:
However, the one exception is that I have never seen anybody use so it
should always be used as .
Many examples:
= He pretended to study when the teacher looked at
him
= The child pretended to listen to his mother
This form can also be used with adjectives. For example:
= The girl pretended to be sad to get what she
wanted
= I pretended to be happy at the
party, but I am actually really sad these days
= The girl pretended to be cute to her boyfriend
There are also some words that can be used instead of . The most common alternative
is , which has a very similar (if not identical meaning):
= The professor pretended to not know me in the
restaurant
Even if: ~
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Even if: ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= products/goods
= conditions/stipulations
= journalist
= standard criteria
= bar
= crime
= thief
= bounce
= fuel
= writer/author
= unification
= public
= public order
= electricity
Verbs:
= to plan to start to do something
= help somebody rise up
= look at
= contribute
= face
= finish
= shake hands
= pull/drag/haul
= inside the country
(4 ) = end of time period
= surely/definitely
= worldwide
= space/room (for something)
= properly
= a part/portion
= century
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use the ~ as a connector between two clauses to
mean even if. Though this form sometimes may look similar to Even though (~) or If
(~/), I will distinguish them for you in this lesson. Lets get started.
Even if: ~
The meaning of ~ is fairly straightforward, as it can almost always be translated to even
if when placed between two clauses.
When used in the present tense, this principle can be contrasted with ~/ (if), which you
learned in Lesson 43.
For example:
= If I study, I will do well on the test
The most natural way to use ~ is in situations where the condition is the same as
something that happened in a clause with if, but the opposite occurs in the second clause. For
example:
= Even if I study, I will do poorly on the test
= If the weather is nice, I am going to go outside
= Even if the weather is nice, I am not going outside
I feel it is a good exercise to compare/contrast these ~/ and ~ sentences, just to
give you an idea of how they can work.
Contrasting ~/ with ~ like this sometimes works. However, sometimes the result
is non-sense. For example, if I made this sentence using ~/:
= If I go to the bar, I am going to drink alcohol
Using ~, and a clause with the opposite meaning of the sentence above, I could make:
= Even if I go to the bar, I am not going to drink
Both of those sentences make sense. However, if I switched the second clauses of each sentence:
= If I go to the bar, I am going to drink
This sentence would make sense both grammatically and logically. However, if we wanted to
contrast that type of sentence with ~, and use a clause with the opposite meaning, we
would have:
= Even if I go to the bar, I am going to drink
Grammatically this sentence would be okay, but logically it doesnt make sense.
Notice that in some cases, even if could be substituted with even though without a major
difference in meaning. If you look at the second pair of examples above, we could also say:
= Even though the weather is nice, I am not going outside
Some sources on the internet will tell you that can be translated to even though.
However, this is not always the case, and I strongly suggest translating to even if
and not even though. For example, if we replace ~ with ~ in the first pair of
sentences above, we get:
= Even though I study, I will do poorly on the test
which sounds unnatural
Anyways, I dont want you to get too hung up on how it compares and contrasts with other
grammatical principles. The meaning and usage of is most easily understood if you
simply submit to the fact that it means even if. The only reason I am trying to make these
distinctions is because I had the same questions when I learned about this grammatical principle
a few years ago. Lets look at some examples:
= Even if that girl comes, Im not going to
talk to her
= Even if I do well on the exam, I wont be
able to get into University
= Even if we go by car, we are already late
= Even if I eat that, I am still going to be hungry
= Even if it is cold, make sure that you come
This form can also be used in the past tense as well. When used in the past tense, the second
clause is usually conjugated using the ~/ ending, which was discussed in Lesson
44. Some examples:
.
1) = Even if I studied really hard for the
exam, I would have failed
Contrasted with ~/:

= If I studied really hard for the exam, I
would have done well
And to show you that ~ does not mean even though:

(Even though I studied really hard for the exam, I would have failed) sounds weird.
2) = Even if I had money, I wouldnt have

bought that computer
Contrasted with ~/
= If I had money, I would have bought that
computer
And to show you that ~ does not mean even though

(Even though I had money, I wouldnt have bought that computer) sounds weird
Okay, lots of information in this lesson, but I can pretty much summarize it all in a couple
sentences:
1. ~ is best translated to even if
2. When you place sentences that contain ~ and ~/ beside each other, you
can see how they can have opposite, contrasting meanings
3. You should avoid using even though as a translation of ~
The confusing meanings of ~()

Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Would: ~/ ()
It is probable that, I suppose that: ~/ ()
Using ~/ (or ~/ ) in the middle of a sentence
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= injection
= ointment
= golf
= main road
= items
= death
= dead people (death toll)
= specific physical characteristic
= life
= one night
= communications/correspondence
= gathering/get together
= food products
= ones child(ren)
= male
= female
Verbs:
= to be absent from work
= repeat
= stretch
= prepare/arrange/provide
= release/put out
= loan
Adjectives:
= itchy
= hard/stiff
() = huge
= various
= these days
= the good days, my school days

= the best/first
Introduction
Okay, get ready for another lesson filled with grammar explanations. What else would you
expect? With this being our 100th lesson, I wanted to make sure it was a good one. Before I say
anything else, I want to take just a moment to thank anyone who has actually followed these
lessons up until this point. Everything up until now represents two years of work that I have
invested into this project. I wouldnt be doing it if I didnt enjoy it. One of the best parts about
creating this resource is hearing from people who have used my website to help them with their
studies. Hearing from you really motivates me to keep on going.
Two years worth of writing and 100 Lessons later, I am incredibly happy with what I have. But
this is only the beginning. I have plans for so much more. The only thing holding me back is
time. Keep an eye out for bigger and better things that I hope to install over the upcoming
months and years. Im just one person, so sometimes it takes a while to get everything finished
but I promise not to let you down.
In this lesson, you will learn about the grammatical principle ~/ (), and to a lesser
extend ~/ . Lets get started.
Would: ~/ ()
If you have come across this grammatical principle before, I am sure that it has confused you. Do
a quick search on the internet, and almost everybody will start off by saying that ~/ is
actually the contraction of ~/ followed by a pseudo-noun (a noun that can only be placed
after a describing verb or adjective; like , , , etc) followed the , and then
conjugated using the ~ principle. So, all together:
~/ + + + =
The problem is, nobody has a good explanation for the meaning of . Sure, you could look it
up in the dictionary to see what it means, but is hardly ever used outside of the ~/
grammatical principle. Therefore, I dont like the descriptions that try to explain the meaning of
~/ by simply saying oh, it is just + .
Instead, I prefer to think of (or , which we will talk about later) as one grammatical
unit. The problem is that this one grammatical unit can take on many meanings depending on the
situation.
The most common way that I use ~ is in sentences with if or even if where the
verb/adjective before if/even if is in the past tense. While most dictionaries wont tell you this,
I tend to feel that this usage is best translated to would in English. Read the following
examples and descriptions carefully to understand why I think would is the best word to use.
Examples of if and even if sentences where the verb behind if/even if is in the past tense:

In Lesson 44 and in the previous lesson (Lesson 99), you learned that sentences in this form most
likely end with the final verb being conjugated in this form: ~/ . For example:
= If it was nice out, I would have gone
= Even if it was nice out, I still wouldnt
have gone
= Even if I had money, I wouldnt have bought
that
In each of these cases, whenever you have an if or even if sentence in the past, followed by a
clause that would have happened (or not happened), you can replace with (). For
example:
have gone
that
This can also be done when the if/even if sentence is in the present tense as well, but only if
the second clause is a supposition that would happen if the first clause were true. For example:
= I would buy that if I had money
= It would be good if there was more food
When is used in a sentence, it is done because the speaker has a certain feeling that he/she
wants to express. It is very hard to express a feeling in words, and especially one that is elicited
from the use of a word in a foreign language, but I will try my best to explain this feeling to you.
It makes sense to me to split up this feeling and describe them in different sections. The thing is,
the feeling has is actually a combination of all of these descriptions, but I feel that
different situations elicit a slightly different feeling. Therefore, after reading all of my
descriptions below, realize that is actually a combination of all of those feelings.
For sentences that have if in the past tense, the reason for using (vs. not using it) is
very subtle. For example, in these two sentences:
Their meanings are virtually the same. However, in the sentence with , there is a slight
nuance/feeling of regret. There is no way I can translate this into words, but it is there. Because
of this, you typically only see this type of sentence when you want to express this nuance/feeling.
There, a sentence with a similar structure but no feeling of regret should typically would not use
. For example:
= If I wasnt careful when I was running, I would
have fallen
Here, under most situations, it would be strange to write that sentence like this:

For sentences that have even if in the past or present tense, the reason for using (vs.
not using it) is also very subtle. For example, in these two sentences:

have gone
have gone
nuance/feeling of being annoyed. This is technically the same as the feeling of regret in my
description above, but it feels closer to an annoying feeling when used with ~. For
example:
have gone
that
Again, it is very hard to translate this specific feeling of , but its addition brings the
translation closer to something like:
Ugh, even if it was nice out, I still wouldnt have gone, and
Ugh, even if I had money, I wouldnt have bought that
For sentences that have if in the present tense, the reason for using (vs. not using it) is
also very subtle. For example, in these two sentences:
nuance/feeling of oh, thats too bad. This is technically the same as the feeling of regret and
being annoyed in my descriptions above, but it feels closer to a thats too bad feeling when
used with if in the present tense like this. Again, it is very hard to translate the specific use of
, but its addition bring the translation closer to something like:
= Oh, its too bad there isnt more food, because if there were, I
would eat it
Heres another example:

= Ugh, I wish my friend would come quickly/It would be nice if
my friend came quickly
-
Remember what I said at the beginning of these descriptions the feeling that Im trying to
describe is actually a combination of all of these all taken on by one word. Im trying to
compartmentalize them, but try to realize that theyre actually all the same feeling. Because of
that, any sentence using could have any of these feelings, its really up to the mood and
context of the sentence. For example, in this sentence:
= Even if the weather is nice, I cant go

= Even if the weather is nice, I cant go
The purpose of using in the second example is to express this nuance/feeling. What is the
feeling? Well, its a combination of regret (maybe less so), and being annoyed and saying oh,
thats too bad. Youll see this same feeling talked about in the next section, but in that section I
talk about it being used as a worry feeling.
It is probable that, I suppose that: ~/ ()

Most dictionaries give you a definition of one supposes that, or one expects that I guess
that these translations could also be applied to the examples in the previous section, as the
second clause in each sentence was supposed to happen, baring the condition of the first
sentence.
However, despite the similarities with this usage and the one discussed previously, I like to think
that this is a completely separate usage. By placing ~/ at the end of a sentence, you can
indicate that you suppose or expect something to be the case. This is typically done when the
speaker is not the acting agent (the subject/topic) in the sentence. For example:
= It will probably rain (I suppose that it will rain)
= The weather will probably be cold
= He probably wont be home
When I first learned about this usage, my first question was what is the difference between
those sentences, and the following sentences?:
= It will probably rain
= He probably wont be home
There are actually two slight nuances that ~/ can add to the meaning of a sentence
compared to ~/ .
1. When you use ~/ , you are slightly more sure of something happening
(sort of like the difference between (I might go, and I will probably go.)
2. When you use ~/ , you are indicating a very slight feeling of being
worried, annoyed, thinking too bad (where appropriate depending on the
context).
For example, in the sentence:

You are indicating that the weather will probably be cold and, as a result of that you are a
little bit worried or irritated (depending on the context). It is hard to translate this nuance into
words, and this is sort of the feeling I was trying to describe earlier in the lesson. You could
almost translate the sentence above to:
= Oh it will probably be cold.., or, Im a little worried that it might be cold. (Oh,
its too bad that its going to be cold, its annoying that it is going to be cold, etc)
More examples:
= The restaurant is probably already closed (Ugh, its too bad

because the restaurant will probably already be closed/Im irritated/worried because the
restaurant will probably already be closed)
= The roads will probably be jammed because it is rush hour
(Ugh, its too bad because the road will probably be jammed because its rush hour/Im
irritated/worried because the roads will probably be jammed)
Using ~/ (or ~/ ) in the middle of a sentence

In all the examples in this lesson so far, you have seen ~/ being used at the ends of
sentences. However, you can use this usage of ~/ to connect two clauses as well. The
meaning it takes when used like this is it is probable that so. For example:
= The restaurant will probably already be closed, so
lets not go
= The roads will probably be jammed, so lets take the subway
= We probably dont have any milk, so buy one
Just by the nature of the first clause, the second clause is usually some sort of a suggestion.
However, not always:
? = The boss probably wasnt
there, regardless, did you go to work to meet him?
Also notice that these constructions are essentially the same as:
~/
For example:
= The roads will probably be jammed, so lets take the subway
= The roads will probably be jammed, so lets take the
subway
Interestingly, you can substitute ~() (Lesson 81) instead of ~// to the ~/
construction. This means you can end up with / . Using ~/ in
this way creates a very similar (if not identical) meaning to ~/ :
= The roads will probably be jammed, so lets take the
subway
= The restaurant will probably already be closed, so
lets not go
= We probably dont have any milk, so buy one
Other examples:
= The students probably
wont understand this content, so just teach them only up until this point
= The students probably
wont understand this content, so just teach them only up until this point
You can also use both of these ~/ and ~/ to indicate that you are going to
(or intend to) do something and the second clause reflects that. I emphasize you because
typically the action agent in the sentence with either of these constructions is the speaker.
Now, you will often see sources indicating that it is acceptable to use either ~/ or ~/
to express this usage of intention. It is my personal opinion (and the opinion of the
Korean native speaker who helps me write these lessons) that it is more common and more
natural to use ~/ and not ~/ . Note that this only applies to this one
specific meaning of intention. Some examples:
= Im going to leave now, so wait just a little bit longer
= I am going to earn a lot of money, so dont
worry
You could also, in theory, end a sentence with this usage. However, you should treat these as
incomplete sentences, and they can only really be used when the second clause can be assumed
from context. This is similar to ending a sentence with /. For example:
. = Dont worry. Because Im going to earn a lot of money.
. = Dont worry. Because Im going to earn a lot of money.
Wow! Thats the first real long lesson in a while. Its a good thing, too, because this is the last
lesson of Unit 4! Congratulate yourself on making it all the way up to Lesson 100!
but dont think that you are done yet. Oh no Im literally got at least 100 more lessons for
you!
Vocabulary
Introduction
Abbreviating Particles: , , , etc
Internet Speech (, , , )
/
, and
ending
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= consumer
= beauty
= something deep fried
() = lightning
() = thunder
() = fog
= specific characteristic
= special skills/specialties
= fender bender
= marines
= dumplings
= the same thing
Verbs:
= originate from/occurred
= to wear a watch
= to try to save something (energy)
= to leave an object (for somebody)
= leave an object (on something)
= to leave something
Adjectives:
= gross/creepy
= change/become different
= fresh
= ticklish
= mass (mass transit, etc)
= all sorts/all types
= no smoking/giving up smoking
= in person/real thing
= whole country
= each/every
= each
= always
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn some common abbreviations that are commonly used in Korean
speech (and in writing when speech is represented through quoting). In addition, you will learn
the most common internet abbreviations and slang terms that you can use in texts and messaging.
Lets get started!
Abbreviating Particles: , , , etc

Here in Lesson 101, you are probably aware of most of the content presented in this lesson.
However, not everybody is aware of all of these concepts because a lot of them would
technically be seen as incorrect Korean. While technically incorrect, the concepts in this lesson
are very common in speech, but uncommon in writing. The only time you will see these
constructions in writing is if it is a direct quote of what somebody said, or in forms of messaging
(text messaging, internet chats, etc).
One common thing to do it abbreviating the particles ~ or ~ when attaching them to
(I/me) or (you). The following shows how this is done:
/ + can be shortened to /
/ + can be shortened to /
Note that the same thing can also be done with to create or . However, I dont advise
doing this, as you typically dont abbreviate things when you talk with people who deserve a
high level of respect.
These can all be used in sentences just like , , and
= I heard thunder
= Dad left (some) money for me
? = Who are you waiting for?
= I want to hug you
This abbreviation can technically be done to any noun that doesnt have a . While this is
most commonly done with /, it is also very common to do with .
Remember first that can be shortened to with no difference in meaning. For example:
= I am going to Canada tomorrow
= I am going to Canada tomorrow
= I want to eat something delicious
The removal of from can be taken a step further. / can be abbreviated to attach
directly to just like they did with , or :
+=
+=
For example:
? = How much is this?
= Dont do that please!
As I said, this abbreviation rule can technically be done with any word without a . Though
you will see (and hear) ///// a lot in Korean, you will find that this is done much
less commonly with other nouns. The most common place that you will find these constructions
is in texting or other form of internet messaging. For example:
! = My bed is too hard!
While we are on the topic of texting and internet messaging, I want to introduce you to other
forms of internet speech.
Internet Speech (, , , )
If you have ever had a text-conversation with Korean people (especially somebody younger than
25, and especially if it is a female), you will have seen that the grammar and word constructions
can be very different than what you are used to. You might be aware of most of these by now, but
I have yet to introduce them in any lesson to this point. The following are very common in
Korean texts and messaging:
= It doesnt matter how many of these you include in a message, the meaning is like lol
in English. It stems from the fact that the pronunciation of sounds like somebody
chuckling. Typically, the more s you include, the more you are laughing. This is less
commonly represented as .
= Similar to above, it doesnt matter how many of these you include in a message
although there are usually two of them. The letters represent two eyes with tears pouring out of
them indicating that you are sad. Some people input more than two to emphasize that they are
very sad. You can sometimes hear people joking about the pronunciation of these two as you
you, which would be the pronunciation of . This is less commonly represented as
.
= This is an abbreviation of . It can be placed in sentences just like , and some
people often include more than one as if to emphasize very very For example:
! = Im sooooo hungry!
^^ = This represents a happy face. When Korean people smile, their eyes usually make a halfmoon shape, which is what each one of these ^ symbols represent.
= This is an abbreviation of .
= This is an abbreviation of , or . Many people pronounce as (although, many

foreigners have a hard time distinguishing between these two sounds for the first few years of
learning). The most common place you would see is following the word as
(my thing/mine). For example:
! = Youre mine!
! = Thats mine!
instead of = For no real reason, people on the internet will often substitute for when
it is used as the bottom of a syllable. For example, instead of they will write
No spaces = It is also common to see Korean people write text messages or posts on the internet
(more commonly Facebook posts instead of something like a message board) with no spacing
between their words. This makes it very difficult for a foreign learner to process, but it usually
only takes a second for your brain to realize where one word ends and the next one starts. Heres
an example that I found on one of my Facebook friends wall:
This word isnt necessarily internet speech or slang, but it is quite common in speech in general,
and I dont believe I have formally introduced it yet.
Although common, it takes some time for your brain to realize exactly what it means (and how it
can be used) because any definition you see online wont be able to define exactly what it means.
Well, luckily you have me, who has already processed years of information and can (hopefully)
regurgitate it into this lesson for you.
The best way to use is by itself (or before a clause, but separated from it), used after
somebody mentions some fact usually their opinion about something. By saying
the best translation to English is Thats the thing! For example:
Person 1: ~
= Ahh I cant believe didnt win the gold medal at the Olympics
Person 2: ! ?
= Me too! That skater (athlete) from Russia fell so many times, how could she win?
Person 1: ! = Thats the thing!
doesnt have to be by itself. Sometimes it is followed by another clause.

! ~
= Thats the thing! did so much better than the Russian skater!
Another example:
? = How was the date?
~ = Oh it was okay, but the guy was a little bit ugly
? ~ = Really? Thats not good! If
you go out with a boy, he should be handsome
! = Thats the thing!
When used like this, some people on the internet or on phones change to .
Its good to be aware of, but I dont suggest you do it unless you are a teenage (or 20-something)
girl.
When used connected with an actual clause (and not just used by itself as shown above), you can
see it as the meanings of + ~(). By putting these two together, you get
which is similar to and means that is why/that is the reason why. For example:
! = Thats why we need to save energy!
. ~ = Thats why I dont want to touch it. Its
too gross.
The word is also hard to translate into words. It is often used after one says a statement
and is asking the listener to agree with what he/she said. In practice, this is quite similar to the
ending ~/ which was introduced in Lesson 93 as it is actually an abbreviation of .
For example:
? = The weather is very hot, eh? (isnt it?)
, ? = The weather is very hot, isnt it!?
= The tomatoes we bought yesterday are fresh, eh?
, ? = The tomatoes we bought yesterday are fresh,
arent they!?
The formal equivalent of is (abbreviated from ). For example:

? = There was a lot of lightning last night, eh?
, ? = There was a lot of lightning last night, wasnt there?
Heres an example I pulled off of one of my friends Facebook pages:
= I took that picture well, didnt I?,
Note that this could be written as:
? = I took that picture well, didnt I?
/ can also be used by itself when the listener of a statement wants to show that he/she
agrees with what was just said. Actually, this usage is very similar to the meaning of
(when it is also used by itself). For example:
! = Korean pizza is the most delicious pizza!
! = (I agree!)
! = (Thats the thing!)
Person 1: HowtoStudyKorean ! =
If you want to learn Korean the right way, you should follow the HowtoStudyKorean lessons.
Person 2: ! ! = (I agree!) Because other
websites dont explain grammar that well!
Person 1: ! = Thats the thing!
Note that using and are almost exclusively reserved for speaking. The only time you
would ever see them written is through some sort of messaging system where the written
dialogue is trying to mimic an actual dialogue.
Abbreviations , ,
, and are all respective abbreviations of , and .
The word (meaning child or just a general young person) is typically reserved for
people who are actually young (like under 10 years old or younger or something around that
range). It would be weird to refer to a 20- or 30-year old person using the word .
However, the abbreviations , and are all used to refer to many more people than just
children. People often use these words to refer to people as him/her/he/she amongst friends or
when referring to somebody who doesnt deserve a high level of respect.
For example:
= Seulgi just left (went out)
? = Where did she go?
? = Who is that?
= That (person) is our teachers daughter
= This is the friend that I was talking about
ending
In addition to all of the above, one of the cutest things you can do in Korean (when speaking or
writing) is adding ~ as the to a word without one. Notice that I say one of the cutest
things. Young Korean girls will use this form all the time, both in speaking and in writing.
When an older person does it (older than about 30 or so), they are most likely doing so as a joke.
An older Korean man would sound very funny using this form.
Nonetheless, I (a 28 year old male) use this form all the time when texting and messaging on the
internet for no other reason other than it makes Korean people laugh. I guess it is funny to them
to hear a foreigner use this cute speech.
This typically isnt added directly to nouns (although it could sometimes, it is totally up to the
speaker), and is more commonly attached after conjugating a verb or adjective. For example:
~
~
Some examples:
! = Im here! (I came the whole way)
= Im not going tomorrow
~ can also be added after or ~ to conjugate a polite ending in a cute way. Note
however that in most situations, using ~ with formal conjugations would sound ridiculous. The
only time this could be done is if using polite speech with your friends as a joke. For example, I
could write this to my girlfriend:
! = Buy me something delicious tomorrow, please!
Or,
! = Thank you!
I would say that the most common unconjugated word that this ~ is attached to it (yes).
Saying would be a cute way to say yes.
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Conjugating ~/ to ~
Abbreviating Quoted Sentences with
Abbreviating a Quoted Imperative Sentence
Abbreviating ~ and ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= congestion
= traffic jam
= handwriting
= come into somebodys head
= persons physical build
= front row
= night market
= wedding anniversary day
= slipper
= seaweed soup
= window shopping
= old man
Verbs:
= boil
= leave work early
= collecting money/fees/taxes
= unfold/open/spread out (map/book)
= hold on/also detain (hold people)
= to cheat on somebody
= raise (only about price raise)
= lower (payment that I receive)
= achieve a goal (same: )
= work for/serve a master
= revive
Adjectives:
= excellent
= sixty
= counter for animals
= or
= annual (ex. annual income)
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn more ways to abbreviate Korean sentences. In the previous lesson,
you learned about common ways that Korean people shorten their sentences in messaging or
when talking on the internet. In this lesson, you will learn how to abbreviate conjugations of
quoted sentences. Lets get started.
Conjugating ~/ to ~
In Lesson 52, you started learning about quoted sentences, and how you can add ~/ to
indicate that something is said/written/thought. The predicating verb is typically something like
(to speak), (to think), or some other verb that can indicate that words or
thoughts were expressed.
For example, when quoted in the present tense:
= My dad said he is going to the hospital
= Our son said that he likes bananas
The same thing can be done with adjectives in the present tense, but ~/ is not added to the
stem of the word being conjugated. For example:
= said she is hungry
= My friends say that my girlfriend is pretty
In both of those situations (with verbs or adjectives), the entire construction of ~(/)
() can be contracted to ~(/)(). Essentially what is happening is ,
which, when conjugated looked like this () just gets shortened to . See how this
abbreviation is done by examining the sentences below, which are adapted to reflect this new
grammatical principle:
= My dad says he is going to the hospital
= Our son said that he likes bananas
= said she is hungry
= My friends say that my girlfriend is pretty
One thing you need to realize is that this abbreviation can only be used when you are relaying a
quote that was said by another person. For example, it would be unnatural to say this:
(x)
Lets look at some other examples of this abbreviation being used correctly.
= My brother said that lunch is delicious
( )
= The students said that the exam was too difficult
( )
= My girlfriend said that she wants to go travelling soon

( )
Note that in all of the sentences using this form, the sentence was said in the past (or the present,
but once the sentence is said in the present it becomes part of the past). However, within the
quoted sentence, the verb can be conjugated to any tense. For example:
Past:
= He said that he ate
( )
Present:
= He said that he is eating
( )
Future:
= He said that he will eat
( )
More examples from all tenses:
= He said that he can only speak Korean a little bit
( )
= Dad said that he lost his keys
( )
= My friend said that he is going to start
studying Chinese from tomorrow
These forms are very common in speech, but you will almost never see them written in a book or
newspaper (unless it is a direct quote of what somebody said). Note that the way these
constructions are pronounced (specifically with verbs in the present tense), they could be
mistaken for ~ (which you studied in Lessons 76 and 77) to an untrained ear.
At this point, though, you are probably thinking to yourself but I never use the ~ future
conjugation. What should I do about that? Well, lets talk about that next.
Abbreviating Quoted Sentences with

This same type of thing can be done with abbreviated quoted sentences ending in . In these
cases, () is abbreviated to ()(). Notice that (similar to above) this is done
when is the conjugated word within the quoted sentences. Some examples:
= That person said he is a teacher
( )
= He said it is a difficult problem/question
( )
= He said that it isnt an apple, it is a pear
( )
You can probably guess that you can use this principle to abbreviate future conjugated sentences
within quotes. Ive told you this in dozens of lessons since Lesson 9, but just in case you are not
aware, I will say it one more time:
When you conjugate a word to the future tense, you can add ~/ to the stem of the
verb or adjective. For example:
= is going to school tomorrow
This form actually contains a noun () followed by . In order to conjugate this sentence,
you should conjugate . One way would be:
= is going to school tomorrow
If you were to quote this sentence, you learned in Lesson 52 that changes to , and
is added to indicate that it is a quote. For example:
= said that she is going to school tomorrow
Now, if you wanted to abbreviate that sentence, you could can replace everything after the noun
() with (). For example:
= said that she is going to school tomorrow
More examples:
= He said that he is going to go meet a friend
( )
= The principle said that he/she is going to go out for
lunch/dinner
( )
Due to the similar structure with quoted sentences with (Lesson 52) and quoted imperative
sentences (Lesson 54), the abbreviated forms of both look very similar. Lets talk about that next.
.
Abbreviating a Quoted Imperative Sentence
In Lesson 54, you learned how to quote imperative sentences. For example:
= Mom said come quick!
= Mom said eat slowly
= My girlfriend said buy an expensive ring
These quoted imperative sentences can also be abbreviated. The manner in which it is done is
very similar to how quoted sentences with are abbreviated. When abbreviating quoted
imperative sentences, ~ changes to ~(). The three sentences above can be
abbreviated to:
= Mom said come quick!
= Mom said eat slowly
= My girlfriend said buy an expensive ring
Just like with verbs/adjectives, this form is very common in speech, and I highly recommend
getting used to everything taught in this lesson (so far). There is one more thing that should be
discussed in this lesson, though not as common as what has been discussed so far.
Abbreviating ~ and ~
So far, you have learned how to abbreviate quoted sentences in the past, present and future.
With verbs:
Past:
Present:
Future: or
With adjectives:

And with
However, when you learned how to make quoted sentences in Lessons 52 and 53, you also
learned how to make quoted sentences with a suggestion and with a question. For example:
= He said Lets eat!
= He asked Is the girl pretty?
In fact, these two types of sentences can be abbreviated as well. In order to do this, you should:
Replace ~ with ~(), or
Replace ~ with ~()
For example:
= He said Lets eat!
= He asked Is the girl pretty?
However, I dont want to spend too much time on these two constructions. Though important to
recognize, they are nowhere near as common as the constructions introduced earlier in this
lesson. In fact, the spelling/grammar-checker that I have on my word processing document has
underlined despite the fact that my Korean-Korean dictionary indicates it is possible.
One of the only times I have come across either of these constructions is when studying for the
Intermediate TOPIK test. The questions was something like:
Which of the following is incorrect?
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
The answer being number (4). shouldnt be placed after because

already includes this conjugation.
, , ~(), ,
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Estimating a Number/Amount with and
Therefore/Because: ~()
In general:
To Occur/Receive (Passive Sentence-ender):
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= real life
= stupid person
= reason
= little girl
= little boy
= membership fees
= income tax
= size
= western countries
= eastern countries
= civilization
= speed/velocity
= limit (restriction)
= speed limit
=club for people with same interest
= postcard
= e-mail
= previous engagement
= agriculture
= order
Verbs:
= a verb for when rain stops
= revenge
=serve/attend on someone
= bump into/make eye contact
= to dry something
= harass /bully
= sincerity/from the heart/with care
= putting your heart into something
= joint/communaldoing something together
= reluctantly
= newly/anew
= major/primary
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn a variety of smaller grammatical principles that are similar to
grammatical principles you have learned previously. Despite the similarities with its previously
taught counterpart, each grammatical principle taught in this lesson is more difficult (and less)
common with the one taught earlier. I will use this lesson to introduce you to:
and (similar to ~)
~() (similar to ~/ or ~ )
(not to be confused with or )
(similar to passive verbs)
Estimating a Number/Amount with and

In a much earlier lesson, you learned that you can use the connecting particle ~ to make an
estimation about something. Attaching this particle to a noun or number translates to
about/approximately _____. For example:
2 = We will arrive tomorrow at about two oclock
20 = Yesterday, about 20 people came to the store
Using ~ is a perfectly acceptable way to express that your sentence is an approximation, and
most learners of Korean learn this particle fairly early in their Korean studies.
However, most learners of Korean do not learn about an equally (if not more) common word that
can be used to make an approximation. By placing before the part of the sentence that you
are approximating, you can create this same meaning. This usage is very common in speech, but
not very common in writing (unless it is a quote that is written down). For example:
can be used in sentences with as well. For example:
More examples:
? = How many do you need?
10 = about 10
? = What time is your friend coming tomorrow?
9 = About 9 oclock
is another word that can be used to have the same meaning and function as . By
placing before a number or amount in a sentence, you can indicate that it is an
approximation of some sort. However, is significantly less common than or ~.
Nonetheless, it is a word that you should be aware of. Some examples:
35,000,000 = Canadas population is about 35 million
10 = Our friend will probably come in about 10 minutes

.
Therefore/Because: ~()
In previous lessons (most notably Lessons 37 and 38) you have learned how to say
because/therefore using a few different methods. For example:
= I cant buy that because I dont have any money
There are actually many (more than you can imagine) other ways that you can create essentially
this same (or a very similar) meaning. You will be introduced to a lot of these alternate forms in
later lessons (most are not used often, so there is no need to introduce them now), but I want to
introduce you to one specific form right now.
By connecting two clauses with ~(), you can create this same meaning of because or
therefore. This grammatical form is more common in formal writing, but I do hear it spoken
sometimes. For example:
100 = That person was sentenced
to 100 years in prison because he/she assassinated the president
= That student couldnt go to a good
university because of his/her low grades
Notice above that this grammatical form can be added constructions conjugated into the past or
present tense, just like ~ .
As you know, you can use the grammatical principle / with the word to form
.
In the same way, you can use () with to form . The meaning of
is very similar (if not identical) to but is used in more formal situations or in
print.
In general:
You learned in a very early lesson how to say generally. The two words that are used in
English that translate to generally in Korean are and . For example:
= I generally exercise on Mondays
= I generally dont see that person at work
Notice that in the examples above, generally could be substituted for usually, and the
sentences would have the same meaning.
While the word translates to in general, its meaning is different than or
. When using , you are indicating that something is done across the board, in a
general sense, amongst all things. It is always easier to describe it better with examples. See
below:
= I am interested in Korean history in general (I am
interested in all parts of Korean history).
Notice the difference between the sentence above and the following sentence:
= I generally/usually like Korean history
More examples:
= The City of Seoul is lowering the
budget for native English speakers in general (across the board)
You can also use as an adverb to mean generally/across the board:
= The price
of goods in general (across the board) is increasing because the US dollar is increasing
To Occur/Receive, or an Alternate Passive Sentence Ender:

The word is similar to or (each with their respective meanings, both
of which you should know thoroughly by now). However, one uses when the thing that
occurs/is received has a negative meaning (as if something bad is happening).
The best example to use as an introductory to this grammatical principle is the word .
translates to some form of injury or wound. For example:
5 ________
If you wanted to say that one is injured, there are a variety of words that you could use as the
verb in the sentence. One word that was taught in a previous lesson is , which is used in a
variety of situations when some sort of damage/injury occurs.
Another word that can be used in that situation is . The sentence then looks like this:
5 = Five people were injured in the car accident
can be used as the verb to act on a variety of nouns, all with the same general meaning.
In each case, implies that one received something bad, or something bad happened to
that person. Other examples:
= I got into an accident on my way home
= That outcast was humiliated by other
students
In addition to this, can be attached to nouns, acting as a substitute to the passive verb
ending ~ (which you studied extensively in Lesson 14). Specifically, ~ replaces ~
in passive verbs in cases where the result of the passive verb is negative. The best example is
the word .
is an active verb that means to reject, which means you can use it in sentences like
the following:
= The father refused his sons request
However, if we want to use in the passive voice (to be rejected), you can use
= He asked that girl on a date, but
got rejected
However, ~ is typically used when a person is getting the short end of the stick in some
situation. In other times, when a non-person is rejected, it would be more appropriate to use the
usual form. For example:
= The new budget was rejected by the CEO
There are many words that ~ can be attached to, most of which you do not know yet.
Another word that you are familiar with at this point is (to attack)
= She was attacked by unknown men at night

At this point, it is sufficient to understand how this grammatical principle is used which will
allow you to understand people when they say it (or if you see it written).
Adding ~/ to More Complicated Things
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Using ~/ to state that a comparison has taken place

Adding ~ to ~ (~ /~ )
Downplaying a Fact: ~
Comparing by Using ~/ Twice in the Same Sentence
What about X?
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= valuables
= support (food/financial/military/etc)
= wages/pay
= good deed
= the old and weak
= a wish/a desire
= blank(s)
= charity organization
= question
() = (underground) resources
= chart/diagram
() = report/(to report)
= dentistry
= psychiatry
= ticket office
= homeless person
Verbs:
= return something
= to sell tickets
= selling out
= to stay up at night
= submit (applications/resume
= to witness
= to go in and out of
Passive Verbs:
= to be broken

= specialty (specialty store = )
= commonly
=among ourselves ()
= for the time being
= detailed/elaborate/carefully
= thanks to
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about the particle ~/. Wait a second, didnt I learn about ~/
in Lesson 1? Isnt that the particle that I have been using in every one of my Korean sentences
since I started learning Korean? Isnt this Lesson 104? Why am I learning about ~/ in
Lesson 104?
Haha. As you learned in earlier lessons, ~/ is quiet complicated. In this lesson, you will learn
how to apply ~/ to more complicated sentences. Get ready to go for a ride.
Using ~/ to state that a comparison has taken place
Attaching ~/ to a noun to indicate that that word is the subject/topic of the sentence was
something you learned about in Lesson 1. In later lessons, you learned that ~/ has more than
one meaning. Specifically, in Lesson 2, 17, 22 and 24; you learned that ~/ can be used to:
Indicate a subject of a sentence (which can be part of the main clause in cases where there is
more than one clause)
Indicate a general fact
Indicate a comparison
This comparison function of ~/ is often added to other particles or other grammatical

principles to have an incredible subtle meaning. This meaning is sometimes completely
overlooked by foreign learners of Korean because the tendency for people to assume the
meaning is identical to the particle introduced in Lesson 1.
Accurately describing the function of this usage of ~/ and providing enough examples to
make you (the reader) fully understand will probably the most difficult thing I will ever do on
HowtoStudyKorean. I could keep going, but Im just prolonging the inevitable.
When attaching ~/ to something that looks like it shouldnt be attached to (essentially,

anything other than the subject of a sentence), it indicates that one situation is being compared to
another situation. Like many of the other grammatical principles that I have introduced lately,
providing some examples and then discussing them after is the easiest way to explain this usage.
Here is the first example to get us started:
= In Korea, people eat a lot of Kimchi
In this sentence, one is saying that, in Korea people eat a lot of Kimchi. Embedded within the
meaning of ~/ in this case is the comparison to some other situation. In the previous
sentence, for example, somebody might have said that in some other country, people dont eat a
lot of Kimchi. This would have prompted the speaker to say the sentence above: to state that,
(while people in other countries dont eat a lot of Kimchi) people in Korea do eat a lot of
Kimchi. The role of ~/ in these sentences is in the parentheses in the previous sentence.
That is it compares something in one sentence to something else. Something else is usually
mentioned in the prior conversation, or it can be implied sometimes.
In sentences like this where ~/ is used to compare one thing to another, it is usually more
natural to use the particles / on the subject of the sentence. That is, instead of saying this:
, it would be more natural to say

While both would be understood, it is better to use the second example above.
Lets look at another example. One where ~/ is attached to ~ again:
= People cant play soccer in the park
This is an example of a sentence that could be written on a sign somewhere in a park. Though the
sign could also have this meaning:
= People cant play soccer in the park
Attaching ~/ to is done specifically to compare that situation to another; most

likely that people can play soccer elsewhere, but not in the park.
However, both sentences above have the same translation, and essentially the same meaning.
The only difference being the subtle feeling that one situation is being compared to another.
10 = At our school, there are 10 native

English speakers
In this case, somebody is saying that there are ten native English speakers at their school;
compared to another school where there would be less or more native English speakers (you
cant distinguish if there is less or more you can only distinguish that there is a comparison to
another school. Again, you could technically say this as well:
10 = At our school, there are 10 native

English speakers
Again, the only difference between those two sentences is that the first one implies (through ~/
) that one school is being compared to another school.
~/ can be attached to other things (particles, grammatical principles, etc) as well. The
important thing to remember is that the part of the sentence that ~/ is attached to is
specifically the part that is being compared.
In Lesson 83 I showed you a quote from the Korean novel I am reading. It was about a girl and a
dad arguing about the last thing the girl said to her mom. The girl ended up convincing the dad
that she was right, at which point he expressed his surprise by saying:
? . . .
The next thing he said was:

?
So the whole thing was written as:
? . . .
?
Before this lesson, if you were to have looked at that sentence, you probably would have
assumed that the ~ attached to was a simple subject particle. Now, with your
knowledge of this other function of ~/, you can see that this one syllable has more
meaning than that. Specifically, the father is asking the daughter why she doesnt greet her
mother anymore compared to before.
In this sentence, though the time they are comparing to isnt explicitly stated, it can be assumed
from earlier on in the conversation.
Sometimes, however, the situation that is being compared to is actually stated within the
sentence. You may have noticed that we sell Korean stories specifically geared towards helping
foreign learners of Korean get reading practice tailored to their level. Within one of these stories
(Set 1, Story 4) is the following sentence:
5 ,
I would translate the sentence to:

5 years ago, I thought buying a magazine was a waste of money, but, these days (compared to
the before) I cant explain how good it is when I read a magazine.
Another scene from a different story is about a little girl who went to the zoo with her father.
Though she had a lot of fun, she wished her mother came as well. After the girl comes home, she
says to her mother:
! !
I would translate this sentence to: Next time (compared to the previous time/this past time when
you didnt come), lets go to the zoo together! Promise me!
More examples:
= These days (compared to
sometime before), there arent many places to work, so there are many people who dont have a
job
= There are many people at the amusement park in the

summer (compared to another season)
30 = A few months ago, I
was depressed that I was going to be 30 years old, but now (compared to that time), Im not
depressed at all
Examples of ~/ being attached to other grammatical principles:
= After work, there was no contact (I wasnt

contacted) by my mother (implied here is that the person was contacted by other people, but not
his mother)
= You can hurt yourself if you exercise like that
(compared to other ways where you wont hurt yourself
Adding ~ to ~ (~ /~ )
This same usage of ~/ is often placed after ~ in ~ . For example, instead of

saying:
= It wont take a long time
You could say this:

We know now that the ~/ attached to ~ in that sentence is used to compare something.
When used like this, I feel that it almost always is compared to ones expectations. So, the
sentence below:
This sentence would be naturally said when, for some reason, somebody has the
expectation/assumption that it will take a long time. However, the speaker is saying (despite
what you expect,) it wont take long. In addition, I should point out that this form of ~ is
almost always contracted to ~ as per what was taught in Lesson 101.
Another example:
I asked my (Korean) girlfriend when this sentence (with the use of ~) would sound natural.
She told me that if, for example, the speaker was in a cooking class which would make the
listener expect that the speaker is good at cooking. Then, by saying
, the speaker is trying to say (despite what you expect,) I am not good at cooking.
I truly feel that understanding this usage of ~/ can only happen by being exposed to many
examples, so I will keep showing you more sentences.
One day, I started getting a weird feeling in my esophagus. The feeling persisted for a few
weeks, so I went to the doctor. He told me it was nothing to be worried about, but I was skeptical
about what he was saying (I was really worried). He was telling me that he knew exactly what it
was, and assured that I would be fine. At which point, I asked him:
Do a lot of people complain of this feeling?
I specifically asked him that because he really made it seem like he had seen this 1000 times
before (by telling me he knew exactly what it was and telling me not to worry). His answer was:
Again, here, the purpose of the ~ (or ~) is that the fact is against my expectations. He
made me assume that many people had this feeling, so when I asked do many people complain
of this feeling he responded with:
= (despite what you expect,) there arent that many people
Below are other examples from the novel I am reading:
.
= As removed her eyes from me, she stated at the TV screen.
However, (despite the fact that she was looking at the TV, which would make you expect that she
was actually watching the TV), she probably wasnt watching the TV (literally translated to the
contents inside the screen).

= Her face was red/swollen like a person who had drank too much alcohol, but (contrary to what
you might think), she (probably didnt) drink alcohol
,
= She could have grabbed s hand strongly, but because she was tired and
because she is a girl it wasnt that hard
Downplaying a Fact: ~
When you place ~/ (almost always shortened to ~ in this case) attached to ~ (to make ~
) after a verb or adjective, you create a special meaning. This is a very hard meaning to
express; and for me to understand it took years of hearing it in everyday speaking. What this
does is somehow downplays whatever fact was said in the clause. In what way the fact was
downplayed depends on the context of the conversation, but sometimes it can just be due to
somebody trying to be modest.
Following this usage of ~, you can conjugate the sentence either with or by using the
same verb that was behind ~ again.
Some examples:
= I have an idea, or
= I have an idea
I heard this example on TV the other day. A group of people were sitting around a table
discussing how they could get their toy back from their neighbors house after it flew over the
fence. One of the people in the show said . The subtle meaning of this
principle instead of just saying is that the person may think that his idea isnt
very good, or maybe he is too shy to say his idea (again, possibly because it isnt very good)
and it somehow downplaying what he is about to say.
Another example:
, or
= I have something I want to say (but it might not be that good, or
there is some other reason that is preventing me from wanting to say what I want to say)
, or
= Its cold (but its not that cold its just a little bit cold)
= I studied hard (but not that hard)
Because the use of this principle downplays what you are saying, it is very common for~ or
to be used to connect to the next clause that indicates what happens as a result of this. For
example:
= I have an idea, but I dont

know if it is good
= I have something I want to say, but Im a

little bit shy
= I have money, but just not enough
= Its funny, but a little bit strange
= I had plans, but they got cancelled
= The kids at our school are smart, but they
dont try hard
Here are some examples of this same concept in the novel Im reading now:
= Psychiatrists are
doctors too, but usually doctors that cant save peoples lives

= Of course, during class we learned about that subject, but
it was very short and I only studied before the night of the exam so I forgot everything
immediately
Comparing by Using ~/ Twice in the Same Sentence
I showed you examples of this in earlier lesson, but Id like to address it again here. ~/ is
also sometimes used twice in the same sentence to compare how two things are different. The
two things being compared are usually in different clauses separated by ~ or some other
grammatical principle that can split clauses. For example:
= The apples are delicious, but the bananas are not

= Today it is raining, but tomorrow it wont
Here is an example from the novel I am reading:

, = On top of the
cake, there was no candles, but there was writing that said congratulations on leaving the
hospital, !
What about X?
Finally (phew), there is one other small usage of ~/ that I would like to teach you. By
placing ~/ after a noun, and only stating that noun (with ~/), you can create another
special meaning.
As this lesson is all about examples, I will give you another one. Say I was at school, and a
teacher was asking me about what I did over winter vacation. After telling him, if I wanted to ask
him the same question, I could simply say:
In this case, it to what about you (teacher)? However, the translation heavily depends on the
situation. A common one that you will hear is:
Which is used to ask somebody if they have eaten.
Making a translation that would fit all examples is very difficult, but generally by doing this you
are asking for the situation about the thing you said. For example, if I was telling somebody
about all of the furniture in my house, somebody could say:
?
That would translate to what about your bed? Tell me about your bed? Tell me the situation
about your bed?
Another example:
= Tomorrow, I am going to eat with my
mom and brother
? = What about your dad? Why isnt your dad going? Tell me the situation of your dad.
= Dad has to work, so he cant go
Just so you know, this lesson took me about 10 hours to write. Ten! Haha, definitely the most
difficult lesson I have written (both in terms of content and in terms of me actually writing it). I
hope you can understand it. The best part about everything in this lesson is: you can almost
always just ignore the meaning of ~/ in these cases, and the sentences will have
(essentially) the same meaning!
UNIT 0
UNIT 1
UNIT 2
UNIT 3
UNIT 4
UNIT 5
HANJA
NEWEST
OTHER
FORUM
Lesson 105: Small Grammar Points!

Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
~/ vs. ~/
Putting as a in a word
~ification: ()
Adding to Names
Adding ~/ to Adjectives
Formal Subject Marker ~()
Vocabulary
Note: You may have learned some of those words already:
= for something to be tangled
= to tangle something
= to be smashed/crushed
= to smash/crush something
= to be broken/fractured
= to break/fracture something
= to be messy/untidy
= to scatter/disperse
= to be bent
= to bend
= for somebodys heart to melt
= to melt somebodys heart
= to explode
= explode/pop out of/break
= drop/sag down
= let something hang/droop
= the back side
= tea house
= the light of a candle
= the color (light) of a rose
= water in/from a stream
= an area close to a window

= an area close to a road (roadside)
= an area close to a sea
= an area close to a lake
= western
= westernization
= modern
= modernization
= general
= generalization
= rationality
= rationalization
= mass/popular
= popularization
= standard
= standardization
= diversity
= diversification
= industry
= industrialization
= commerce
= commercialization
= acceleration
= acceleration
= differentiation
= differentiate
= simplicity
= simplification
= vitality
= vitalization
Introduction
The title of this lesson is: Grammatical principles that I cant believe I havent taught you yet
and I better teach them to you now before we get too deep into more difficult grammatical
principles in Unit 5. In this lesson, you will learn a variety of smaller grammatical principles that
you absolutely need to know to be able to speak/read/understand Korean.
In the summer of 2014, I had a few weeks off from work and set a goal for myself to read a
Korean novel in a week. I did this for two reasons. One, I wanted to challenge myself and benefit
from the vocabulary increase and reading practice I would get from reading the book. Two, I
wanted to see if, in that entire book, there were any grammatical principles that I hadnt
introduced in my lessons yet. From start to finish, there were only a handful of grammatical
principles that I havent introduced by this lesson. All of the grammatical principles that I
havent introduced yet will be in upcoming lessons.
However, there were some small things that, when reading them, I realized I hadnt spent a large
amount of time describing. I would like to take the opportunity in this lesson to teach you some
grammatical principles that you probably should have learned before (by this point you may have
already learned them somewhere else), but I never got around to teaching them to you.
Enough of that lets get started.
~/ vs. ~/
Okay, this one I actually have introduced. In Lesson 38 I taught you the words and
. Though I mentioned those two words in the notes of that vocabulary list, I felt like I
should formally introduce the difference between words ending in ~/ compared to
words ending in ~/ . As I mentioned in that lesson, words ending in ~/ are
often passive words that have an active ~/ equivalent. (Note that this is not the
grammatical principle ~/ that gets added to adjectives for example: + ~/
= ).
Words ending in ~/, just like any passive verb cannot act on an object. Rather, it
describes that something occurs usually without indicating who/what caused the action to
occur. For example:
= The bottle fell from the table
However, words ending in ~/ have a subject (which is usually a human, but not
always) that cause something to happen to an object/person. For example:
= I dropped the bottle
I specifically wanted to introduce this here because a lot of the words I wanted to teach you in
upcoming lessons had this ~// form. Instead of introducing those words
randomly throughout the next 20 lessons or so, I thought it would be better to introduce them all
in one lesson and provide an explanation about them as well.
Aside from and , two other words that you have learned that follow this
pattern are:
Introduced in the vocabulary list of Lesson 80
= to collapse (for something to collapse by itself)
= to collapse (for somebody to make something collapse)
Examples:
= The building collapsed
= That explosion collapsed the building
Introduced in the vocabulary list of Lesson 84
= to get knocked down
= to knock down
Examples:
= The building was knocked down
= The wind knocked down the building
(Just as a quick note years ago I was confused with the difference and , as
the essentially mean the same thing. A Korean friend of mine told me that is if
something were to fall over, like a tree getting blown down. However, is when
something collapses within itself and doesnt topple over, like when somebody purposely
implodes a building to collapse on itself to prevent debris from hitting the next building. The end
result is the same that both structures have been leveled to the ground, but the process of them
falling is slightly different).
Now, here is a host of other words that I would like to introduce you to that follow this same
pattern:
= for something to be tangled

= to tangle something
( = to be smashed/crushed already introduced in Lesson 63)
= to smash/crush something
( = to be broken/fractured already introduced in Lesson 63)
= to break/fracture something
= to be messy/untidy/scattered
= to make something messy/scatter things around
= to be bent
= to bend something
= for somebodys heart to soften/melt
= to soften/melt somebodys heart
( = to explode already introduced in Lesson 36)
= to explode something
= to droop/sag down/hung down
= to droop something
Here are some example sentences of those words being used in sentences:
= The clothes hanger is completely bent
= I completely bent the clothes hanger
= My phone is/was smashed
= I smashed my phone
.
Putting as a in a word
Often two individual words get combined to make a compound word. For example:
= breakfast/the food (or rice) that one eats for breakfast
When this happens, if the first word doesnt have a (a final consonant) it makes the
pronunciation slightly different. For example, if where to say the words yesterday and night
to form yesterday night (last night):
+ would be which would sound like
This pronunciation change within a word (or between words and particles) is natural and is
something that happens all the time in Korean. However, because these two words were initially
two different words, their pronunciations should not be mixed like that.
The way the Korean language has evolved to get around this is to add the as the first
word. Therefore, instead of saying (which is incorrect), one says:
Now that we have this , the pronunciation of the word is clearly separated into two words.
Remember/notice that the sound is barely audible when placed as the of a word like
this.
Other examples that you have already learned, and some that you havent yet:
= the back side (I have also seen that is also acceptable)
= tea house
= the light of a candle
= the color (light) of a rose
= water in/from a stream
= an area close to a window
= an area close to a road (roadside)
= an area close to a sea
= an area close to a lake
~ification: ()
is a Hanja character that is found in many Korean words to mean change. Some very
common examples are:
= change
= bathroom/restroom
= chemistry
If you have been keeping up with your Hanja studies, you should know the character for is .
is often placed after the noun form of a verb in Korean to indicate that the noun is now
a noun of change. The most common way that this changes the translation of the noun is by the
addition of ~ificatoin to the English word. For example:
= international/global
= changing into being international/global which is better translated to:
= internationalization/globalization
Other examples that you have already learned, and some that you havent yet (Im going to
include the Hanja characters that I have introduced in here as well for those that are practicing. If
you havent started studying Hanja, I suggest that you take a look at the first 100 characters that I
have introduced).
= western ()
= westernization ()
= modern ()
= modernization ()
= general ()
= generalization ()
= rationality ()
= rationalization ()
= mass/popular ()
= popularization ()
= standard
= standardization
= diversity
= diversification
= industry
= industrialization
= commerce
= commercialization
= acceleration
= acceleration
= differentiation
= differentiate
= simplicity
= simplification
= vitality
= vitalization
Whats interesting is now you can add to both the words with and without . Just
some examples:
= industrialize
= commercialize
= westernize
= standardize
= diversify
= modernize
= generalize
= rationalize
Here are some example sentences of those words being used in sentences:
= The purpose of
our website is to simplify grammar and teach it easily
= It is hard to generalize that situation

= The
standardization of student grades in Korean high schools will help the students enter University
= That company is trying more
and more to globalize its brand
Adding to Names
If a Korean name ends with a , you will commonly see added between the name and
the particles ~/, ~/ and ~/. From what I understand, this is entirely related to
pronunciation. For example, if I say , this actually sounds closer to , which
causes ambiguity as to what the persons name actually is. Is her name or ?
This would be the same with all names that end in a . You should also know that even
though there are a lot of letters in the Korean alphabet, you will probably only ever see the
following used as the on the final syllable: , , , , , .
Its pretty simple, but something that you may not have come across yet. Remember that this is
not done with names that end in a vowel. Just some quick examples:
= went to school yesterday to meet
= is preparing for the exam
2 = studies English 2 hours a day
In all cases, its not absolutely necessary to include this . For example, if you said:
= went to school yesterday to meet
Everybody would still understand what you want to say. Korean people just say ahh, it sounds
. is usually the word Korean people use to describe when they eat too much
pasta, bread, or something greasy, although it is also used to describe the feeling one gets when
they hear something so lovey-dovey that it is corny. Its hard even for me to completely
understand this feeling of , and even if I did understand it, it would be hard to explain
in words. Youre better off just using the rule of adding to names ending in a to be
safe, unless you are writing a romance novel and want to sound .
Adding ~/ to Adjectives
You have probably come across these sets of words before;
and other adjectives that have ~/ attached to them.

What is going on here? What is the difference between these two forms?
These adjectives above (and others like them) with ~/ attached are used in sentences
when the speaker is talking, but the subject of the sentence is another person about another
person. For example:
= He was very shy
Notice the adjectives that I listed above. What is common among all of those adjectives? Theyre
specifically describing a feeling that is elicited in somebody. If you are the speaker, and are
describing somebody else, how can you know what they are feeling? In these cases, where the
adjective being used is describing another persons feelings, it is more natural to add ~/
to the adjective. Your sentence would still be understood if you didnt attach this, but it sounds
more natural with the addition.
That is not to say, however, that you will never see a sentence like this:
= He was very shy

It would be weird to say the sentence above, but you might be able to find a sentence like that in
a novel. In novels, authors need to describe the characters in a book, who most of the time are
just figments of their own imagination. Therefore, in this case, it would be acceptable to just use
or because the author knows for certain the emotion that is being elicited
by the other person.
In the case of adjectives that are not descriptions of ones feelings, but instead descriptions based
on the opinions/facts of somebody/something else, adding ~/ is not necessary. For
example:
would sound weird, and it would be more natural to say:

You also may have noticed that ~/ is added to (from ~ which, you
should know, acts as an adjective) to form ~ . For example, instead of saying:
= Heeyoung wants to eat
Remember that ~ in these cases is an adjective. You can also see here that it fits in with all
the other adjectives above that it is describing the feeling within somebody.
In all of the examples above, I indicated that adjective+~/ can be used when the
speaker is not the subject of the sentence, and is specifically used with words that describe a
feeling that one experiences. Therefore, these would (typically) be incorrect by themselves:

In the examples above, if I changed the subject to another person, the sentences would be
correct.
However, it is acceptable to use the ~/ form of an adjective when the speaker is the
subject of the sentence if there is an object in the sentence. For example, all of these are correct:
= I am shy about/of my poorness (the fact that Im poor)
= I am happy/glad about/of my friends success
= I am sad about/of my friends death

= I am envious about/of others success
It is actually possible to remove the objects in the sentences above, but only if the object can be
immediately assumed from the context. This is essentially the same as changing to
and to . You couldnt just walk into a room and say

Instead, you need an object to specify what it is specifically that you like. For example:

However, if your friends were all talking about , and were going around the room one by
one and saying if they liked it or not, you could respond with just .
In that same respect, you couldnt just say the examples above unless there was some sort of
immediate understanding of what object was being referred to.
Formal Subject Marker ~()

In addition to the subject marking particles ~/ and ~/ that you have known forever the
particle ~ can also be used to indicate the subject of a sentence. The difference here is that
~ is an honorific subject marker, which means it is added to people who deserve a high
amount of respect. For example:
= The father ate
= Our boss is scheduled to depart this
afternoon
= Now, the principal will speak (I hear this
every week at my staff meetings at school)
= This was made by my mother in law
= Our grandfather lived in London a long time ago
This can be done any time somebody deserves a lot of respect, but it isnt completely necessary.
Failing to use the honorific ~ or ~/ forms when speaking to somebody who deserves
respect would most likely get you thrown out of a room.
However, very few people would use the subject marker ~ on a daily basis. Its usually
reserves for very formal situations.Its also quite common to see ~ added to ~. It could
have no function at all, or it could have one of the many subtle functions that ~ carries with it.
In all cases, it totally depends on the context of the conversation. Nonetheless, all the example
sentences above could have ~ added to for example:
= The father ate
= The father ate (but somebody else, maybe the mother,
didnt)
Listing Possibilities/Outcomes: ~ ()
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Listing Out Possibilities/Outcomes: ~ ()
~
Words that ~ is commonly attached to
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= independence
= people of a country/citizen
= self-study
= next door
= jazz
= neighborhood
= change
= center/heart/middle of something
= site/ground/lot
= facial expression
= truth
Verbs:
() = guess
= gamble
= gamble
= look down
= becoming known
= achieve
Adjectives:
= independent
= terrible
= embarrassed
= since then
= top
= as of now
() = as of now
= cheer up
= whole/entire thing
= finally/at last
= finally/at last
= (2010 ) = year
= anyways
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to add ~ to the end of a clause. Although this grammatical
principle has a fairly straightforward meaning across the board, it can be used in a bunch of
different ways. Lets get started!
Listing Out Possibilities/Outcomes: ~ ()

The general umbrella explanation of how this particle can be used is when one wants to indicate
that there are many possibilities/outcomes that can occur. ~ is added to the
possibilities/outcomes that could occur, and the following clause is not a selection of one of
those possibilities (like ~), but rather some sort of open ended decision that needs to be
made between those possibilities.
The translation of this in sentences is usually something like whether A, or whether B., or
It doesnt matter if one does A, or does B. As usual, it is fairly difficult to describe this is in
words, but easier once we have seen examples. So lets look at one:
= It doesnt matter if
you use a fork or use chopsticks, use/choose the one that is more comfortable (whether you use a
fork or chopsticks)
As you can see, the two words/clauses that have ~ attached to them are:
, and

The use of ~ at the end of those clauses indicates that they are both a possible outcome for
the upcoming clause (whatever it may express).
Lets look at some more examples:
= It doesnt matter if you win or lose the
game, you should try hard (whether you win or lose)
= It doesnt
matter if the results are what we expected or not, we are going to announce them (whether our
results are what we expected or not)
= It doesnt matter if you agree with

the rule or not, you have to follow it (whether you agree with the rule or not)
In a lot of cases, the verb(s) before ~ can be assumed from the context and dont really need
to be said. For example:
! = It doesnt matter if you want to eat rice or eat pizza,
but choose quickly! (whether you want to eat rice or pizza)
In the sentence above, the verb could be assumed from the context. In these situations,
you can replace the verb with :
! = It doesnt matter if it is rice or pizza, but choose quickly!
Notice that both sentences essentially have the same meaning. The second example (with
) actually sounds a little bit more natural because the first example unnecessarily
writes out the word twice.
Another example:
= It doesnt matter if I move to
Seoul or if I move to Busan, the cost of housing is the same
= It doesnt matter if you ride
a bike or walk, just do anything you want
= It doesnt matter if you go
to University or not, you need to study hard
This grammatical principle is also commonly used to indicate that one doesnt care about the
possible outcomes of something. This usage is essentially the same as the usage described thus
far but the examples above usually have one positive outcome that somebody prefers.
Just by the nature of these types of sentences, the endings usually express It doesnt matter or
something similar. For example:
= It doesnt matter if we go
tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, anyways, we have to go
= I dont care if we go or not
The Hanja character () means between and is a good word/character to know because it is
often added to words to mean between X. For example:
= between husband and wife

= between parents and children
= the force between molecules (intermolecular force)
Okay, Im biased with that last one. Im a chemistry teacher.
It is common to see placed after the final ~. Technically could be added to
any of the examples above (from the very beginning of the lesson until now). However, adding
this in the sentence sometimes adds a slight negative connotation to it (the only reason I say
sometimes is because languages are very complex and its possible that it wont have this
negative feeling but more times than not it will). Because of this, it is a little bit more common
to find used after ~ when the speaker doesnt care about the outcome. For
example:
() = It doesnt matter if we go
tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, anyways, we have to go
But note that the following are all acceptable, and adding makes the feeling slightly more
negative if the situation allows for it.
= It doesnt matter
if you use a fork or use chopsticks, use/choose the one that is more comfortable (whether you use
a fork or chopsticks)
= It doesnt matter if you win or lose
the game, you should try hard (whether you win or lose)
In all of the situations described so far, there were two different words that ~ was connected
to in a sentence. This doesnt always have to be the case, as long as the situation of the sentence
is such that it describes that something must be done amongst a choice of other things. For
example:
= It doesnt matter what you do tomorrow, but
you have to go outside
You can also use this to express if one does ____ or not. I would like to talk about this next.
.
A little earlier, you saw the following examples:

In situations like this when one indicates two possibilities one where something is done, and
the other where the same action is not done it is very common to use the verb (to not
do). Note that until now the only real experience you have with the word is in negative
imperative sentences. For example, found here:
+ ~() =
can be used in sentences with ~ like this:
= I dont care if we go or not
= It doesnt matter if there is an exam or not,
you have to go to school
Words that ~ is commonly attached to

So far you probably have a good understanding of the usage and meaning of ~ in Korean
sentences. It is actually a fairly simple grammatical principle that is not hard to use or grasp.
Before we finish this lesson however, I would like to introduce you to a few words that you will
commonly find ~ attached to.
First, it is common to find ~ attached to the common question words , , and
. Some people learn these constructions as actual words and not as words connected to ~
but the end result is the same. You can see the meaning of each construction next to each
example below, but the general meaning is It doesnt matter who/what/when/where
= Whatever /It doesnt matter what
1 = For one month, you are allowed to eat whatever you want (for
one month, it doesnt matter what you eat)
= Whoever/It doesnt matter who

= It doesnt matter who it is, people need a
friend they can trust (everybody needs a friend they can trust)
= Whenever/It doesnt matter when
= It doesnt matter when you come to our house (come to our
house anytime!)
= Wherever/It doesnt matter where
= Sit anywhere! (It doesnt matter where you sit)
You can also use ~ to create the expression whatever happens/regardless of what
happens by placing ~ at the end of some words at the beginning of a sentence. One of the
words you can use is , which can be used in many ways without ~. One usage
of the word that has no relation to ~ is to indicate that there is some sort of a
space or gap between two things. For example:
= Our dad has a gap in his front teeth
= There is a big hole in my bag
(Note that the passive addition of ~/ is used in this usage of )
can also be used to have a meaning similar to , which means to come up
or to happen. For example:
? = What came up?
= A war started/came up in the Middle East
It is this usage of that ~ is often added to. By using in sentences,
you can create the meaning of whatever happens/regardless of what happens. The construction
is often used in the clause . For example:
= Regardless of what happens, I need
to go/return home
= Regardless of what happens, Im
marrying her
Just so you know, in all of the examples above, eliminating from ~ () is
acceptable. All of the following examples have the same meaning as was expressed earlier:

!

()
()
()
1

There is another grammatical principle that looks and sounds very similar to ~ but it has a
separate meaning which will be discussed in a future lesson. ~ is often confused with ~
even with Korean people. Its not something that you really need to worry about (because youve
just learned a ton about ~, so you should be familiar with it not to mention, ~ is much
more common than ~), but it is something that Korean people sometimes forget.
Also remember that ~ can also be used in sentences with which you learned
about in Lesson 74. For example:
= It doesnt matter if you are hungry
= It doesnt matter if we go there
= It doesnt matter if it is expensive
And finally, here are some example sentences from a few of the novels I am reading:

= It doesnt matter if its an old house or a new house, when I imagine that
people will start their new life on the floor that I put down, I get happy
[The persons job in the book is to lay down new floors in peoples houses]
2 = It doesnt matter if you are rich or poor,
2 is a lot of money to anybody

~ = When I am in Japan
having a conversation with foreigners speaking (fumbling in) Japanese, regardless of if their
pronunciation is strange or if their grammar is rubbish, I gladly say Oh, your Japanese is really
good!
107: ~ Revisited
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Adding ~ to Simple Grammatical Principles
~
~
~ and ~
~
~()
~
~
Adding ~ to More Complicated Grammatical Principles
~
~
~
~
~
Adding ~ to Pseudo-Nouns:
~/
~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= mind/spirit/soul
= dishwashing
= investigation
= personal life
= groundless rumor
= organization/corporation
= tension
= events (events that happened)
= playground
= Buddhism
= paragraph
Verbs:
() = argument (argue)
= to apply
= work/labor
= escape
= diffuse/spread out/spread
= arrange
= flow/passed by
= grow up
= represent
= stress/emphasize
= undertake/take on/handle/manage
= eating out
= rescue
= squeeze
= to burn (part of a body)
= wild (wild ____ animal)
= as well as (Korea as well as Canada)
Introduction
By now, you have been exposed to the particle ~ and its usage/function for a while. You are
probably quite familiar with how it works, and the meaning it creates when it is added directly to
a noun. This particle was first introduced all the way back in Lesson 4. Since then, you have
learned a ton of additional grammatical principles each with their own special meaning and
function.
The purpose of this lesson is to familiarize you with these grammatical principles when they are
combined with ~. Sometimes, the meaning that is created by combining ~ with another
grammatical principle is just the sum of their individual meanings. However, sometimes their
meaning can be slightly or very different. Lets get started.
Adding ~ to Simple Grammatical Principles
~
By placing ~ after the particle ~, you can indicate that a location (in addition to another
location) is a certain way. This is quite straight-forward, and doesnt require much thought. This
is best understood when sentences without ~ are placed beside a sentence with ~.
Some examples:
= There are a lot of people outside the restaurant
= There are a lot of people outside the restaurant as well
= You should put lotion on your face
= You should also put lotion on your face
= The kids arent in/at the playground
= The kids arent in/at the playground either
~
This is another ~ combination that is very straight-forward. This one is so simple I even
thought about not including it in this lesson. As you know, acts as a noun that refers to a
time that something occurred. For example:
= When I meet my girlfriend, Im going to kiss
her
The word is a noun that is being described by the previous clause . The
construction could also be translated to the time in which I meet my
girlfriend (although it sounds a little bit unnatural in English when written like that).
Anyways, by attaching ~ to , you are indicating that something occurs at that time in
addition to some other time as well.
The most common English translation for this is even when. Some examples:
= It is possible for
North Korean people to be captured and killed even when they are trying to escape the country
= Not only when
they are eating at home, but even when Korean people eat out for dinner they eat kimchi
It can also be used to express that there will also be time where something will happen. For
example:
= Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose (There will be some
times where you will win, and there will be some times where you will lose)
~ and ~
By placing after the common particles or , you simply create the meaning
that something is done to something in addition to being done to other things. For example:
= I gave that person a present

= I also gave a present to that person
= Improving the Korean
economy is important to Canada as well as the United states
= It is hard for even me to do that kind of work
~
Much like the other examples given in this lesson, by attaching ~ to , their meanings
are combined together in the sentence. By using the speaker can express that
something is being done at a location in addition to other locations. For example:
VIPS ? = Can you use that coupon at VIPS too?
= Water comes out from that hole, too
= There are so many people at
the hospital, so there are even patients sleeping in the hallway
~()
As you know, () has many meanings. Below are examples of ~ being attached to
~() in some of its different usages. In all cases, you are simply combining the meanings of
the two particles:
= Jeju is also fresh for its fresh air
= In an emergency situation, you can also
use your seat as a life jacket
= That movie was also translated to Japanese
= These days, people can also talk over
(using) computers
= We also ate pizza for lunch
~
Just by the nature of the meaning of , ~ isnt added to it very often. If you look at an
example of a sentence with :
= I will start studying from tomorrow
Placing after would just be nonsense:
= I will start studying from tomorrow as well ?
Doesnt make sense.
The only time it is really used with is when it is used with () where it has
the meaning of receiving something from a person. For example:
= I also received money from grandma
.
~
The idea of why ~ cant be attached to is the same as why it cant be added to ~.
It just doesnt make sense. For example:
= I will go to until Seoul as well ?
Again, doesnt make sense.
However, although you are aware of this usage of (typically meaning until), there is
another usage that I haven really mentioned yet in my lessons. This usage is technically has
same as the usage described way back in Lesson 12, however, it does not typically translate to
until. Just to refresh, it is probably a piece of cake for you at this point to understand these
types of sentences:
3 = I will wait until 3:00
= I liked that girl until now
5 = I will work at that company until May
~ can also be used to express the extent to which something happened. This is another case
of a grammatical principle that is hard to describe with words. If we look at the following
example:
= My friend even ate squid
Imagine your friend came to Korea and tried a whole bunch of different Korean foods. You were
impressed with this, and you were telling another friend how many different foods he ate while
he was in Korea. You could say something like
. However, by just saying , in effect what you are saying
is he ate everything and even went so far as to eat squid.
Notice the quite subtle difference with this sentence:
= My friend ate squid as well
In this example, although the speaker is indicating that the friend ate some other food in addition
to squid, he/she is not stressing that there were many other foods that the friend may have eaten.
Another example:
= I even finished my homework
In this example, the speaker is indicating that he had many things to do. The sentence above
indicates that, not only did he/she finish the other tasks that needed to be done (maybe like
cleaning, doing the dishes, walking the dog, etc), but even went as far as to finish her
homework.
This usage can actually be added to other parts of the sentence as well. For example:
= Even grandma came (it went so far that even grandma came)
In this example, the speaker is indicating that many people came to some event and it even
went so far that the grandmother (who by context would be somebody who usually doesnt
come because of her age or something. But in this case, the speaker is stressing that so many
people came, even grandma, who never comes.
Now, back to ~. While ~ isnt usually added to ~ when used as was taught back in
Lesson 12, it is not uncommon to see ~ added to ~ when it is used in the way
described in this lesson. However, in this case, notice that both ~ and ~ have very similar
meanings. Doubling them up and creating ~ just adds even more emotion and stress to
the fact that something was done in addition to something else. For example:
= My friend even ate squid
= I even finished my homework
= Even grandma came too
Adding ~ to More Complicated Grammatical Principles

~
In Lesson 30, I talked about the use of ~ and the purpose of attaching ~ specifically to
future tense conjugations. If you havent read that lesson yet, I suggest you review that lesson
briefly before continuing.
In addition to the purpose discussed in Lesson 30, adding ~ to ~ stresses that the
uncertain clause is one of other things that are also uncertain. For example:
= I dont know what this is
= I dont even know what this is
Here, the speaker could be stating that he/she doesnt know other aspects of this thing, and is
staying that he/she doesnt even know what it is. For example, imagine in somebody asked you
Do you know how to use this? Here, you could respond with I dont even know what it is!
When used in the future tense, it is possible that ~ could have the meaning described in Lesson
30, or it is possible that it has the meaning being described here. The context of the situation will
make it clear. For example:
= I dont know when mom will arrive
= I dont know when mom will arrive
= I dont even know when mom will arrive
More examples:
= I dont know what Buddhism is
= I dont even know what Buddhism is
! = You dont know how to open the door!
! = You dont even know how to open the door!
= I dont know how to do the dishes
= I dont even know how to do the dishes
= I dont know why people like this kind of

music
= I dont even know why people like this
kind of music
~
In Lessons 76 and 77, you learned all about how to use ~ in sentences. As you know from
those lessons, the meaning of ~ is often hard to express in English but the closest we can
do (for one of the usages) is to say that the meaning is similar to ~ but not as strong and
it often provides background information for the upcoming clause.
~ is very similar, but the addition of ~ makes the even though feeling stronger than
if it were just ~. Therefore, using ~ is very similar to using ~ in a
sentence. The common dictionary translation Ive always remembered is in spite of or
despite, but although or even though would also be acceptable. For example:
= In spite of her health
deteriorating (going down), the singer said she wants to continue with the performance
= Even though I kept telling him
to stop, my friend kept talking
= Despite studying very hard, I failed the exam
= Despite the cold weather, we went to
see an outdoor performance
~
You know the general usage of ~ is to indicate that something happens after something else.
You can place ~ after the particle ~ to stress that even after the first action occurs, the
second action occurs.
For example:
= After eating all the provided food, he
said he was still full
= Even after eating all the provided

food, he said he was still full
= After opening the door, the dog didnt come
inside
= Even after opening the door, the dog
didnt come inside
(Note that because of the situations, both the second examples above (the ones with ~)
actually sound much more natural than the first examples)
Heres a good example from the book I am currently reading (Hector and the Search For
Happiness in Korean):
= Even after
experiencing (going through) all that unhappiness, it is not difficult to smile often like that
~
From Lesson 88, you also learned that, depending on the context of the sentence, the translation
of ~ could be while one does something. For example:
the key that I lost
=While I was studying, I thought about her
By placing ~ after ~ you can also create the meaning of even while one was
doing For example:
=Even while I was studying, I thought about her
= Even while I was eating pizza, I wanted to eat
kimchi
= Even while (when I am/was) eating, I cried
= Even while she is going out
with her boyfriend, she goes on dates with other guys

= Even when I cry I laugh sometimes
In these examples, the speaker is expressing that the second action occurs in many situations.
The speaker is essentially saying not only does this action occur in many other situations, but it
also occurs when the first action takes place. For example:
=Even while I was studying, I thought about her
Here, the speaker is saying that he thinks about the girl a lot in many situations. By saying the
sentence above, he expresses that not only does he think about her in many other situations, but
also when he is studying.
In Lesson 88, I also introduced you to another meaning of ~, one that expresses that
somebody does an action after another action. You would think that adding ~ to this would
create a meaning similar to ~, which would have a meaning like even after. However,
adding ~ to ~ does not have that meaning. Therefore, the following wouldnt make sense:
(or )
(or )
However, I dont want to say that in all situations where the meaning of ~ is one action
happens after the other that adding ~ would be incorrect. For example, if we look back to
this sentence:
I introduced that sentence in Lesson 88 as having the meaning of the student studied hard and
then fell asleep. However, I also talked about the fact that this sentence could also have the
meaning of the student studied hard, and then while studying hard, fell asleep. Because of this,
adding ~ to ~ in this situation would be acceptable. For example:
= While studying hard, the student fell asleep
= Even while studying hard, the student fell
asleep (the student was sleeping in many situation s, and even fell asleep when he was (trying) to
study hard)
~
The most peculiar of all the (grammatical principles)+ introduced in this lesson has to be ~
. By coupling ~ and ~, you express a meaning like ~ or ~/ one that
often translates to even though or regardless of. For example:
= Although that person lives in Korea,
he cant speak Korean
Because of the use of ~, (just like in other examples of sentences with ~) the subject
in both clauses is usually the same. In effect, what we are saying:
while living in korea you would think that he/she should be
able to speak Korean + (negates that previous clause and then the upcoming clause is
something that is the opposite of the first clause) that person cant speak Korean
= Although that person is attending graduate
school, he doesnt study
Adding ~ to Pseudo-Nouns:
~/
= I didnt even know you moved to Busan
For example, if you are catching up with a friend and he is telling you about what he has been up
to for the last little while. He tells you a bunch of things that you didnt know, including that he
moved to Busan. In this case, you can stress that you didnt know all of these things, even the
fact that he moved to Busan (which you should have known, because that is a big piece of news
to not be aware of).
= I didnt even know that you liked the movie
For example, if you walked into your friends house and you saw that he had a bunch of
memorabilia from a movie (like posters and stuff like that). You could say this sentence to
express that you didnt even know that he liked it, let alone like it so much to go as far as buy all
of this memorabilia.
~/
The grammatical principle ~/ / was first talked about in Lesson 45. In that
lesson, you learned that acts as a pseudo-noun that although noun it can only be used
in this grammatical principle being described by a clause. When adding ~ to the noun of
in this grammatical principle, the meaning that is created usually is not indicating that a
person/thing can do something in addition to some other action. For example, if I were to say:

This translates to I can play soccer
However, by attaching ~ to in the following example:

The meaning that is created is not I can play soccer too.
Note that in order to express this meaning, the following should be done:

Instead, adding ~ to indicates that the action/situation in the previous clause is also
possible. For example:
= It is possible that it will/might rain
Note that a better translation might technically be there is a possibility that it will rain.
However, I personally prefer the translation of it is possible that when using the ~/
form.
It is for this reason that the following is slightly unnatural:

This sentence would translate to something like It can rain. but what? What can rain?
What has the ability to rain? It is more natural in Korean to talk about the possibility that it could
rain. For this reason, it is more natural to say .
To go back to the first example of . That sentence does make sense,

but only in the situation when you are talking about the possibility of you playing soccer.
= It is possible that I can play soccer tomorrow
More examples:
= Its possible that my friend can come
= Its possible that the plans can change
While the English translations dont require the use of the word also, it might make the
meaning I am trying to describe clearer if I include it:
= Its (also) possible that the plans can change
When using the ~/ form, in essence what you are doing is stating that there could
be other possible outcomes in the future. With the use of ~/ , you specifically
indicate that one of the possibilities (in addition to other possibilities which may or may not have
been indicated previously) could happen. So, if you say:

What you are inferring is that the plans might not change but there is also the possibility of
them changing as well. This is the function of ~ in this grammatical principle.
More examples:
= Its possible that we could finish the work by tomorrow
(but it is also possible that we could not finish it)
When adding ~ to in / , the meaning expressed is very similar to not
including it at all. The only difference is that speaker is stressing that one cant do something.
The best way to translate this to English is to add the word even to the sentence. For example:
= I cant even play soccer
= You cant even move because her room is so
messy
Two common words that this is used with just by the nature of the words themselves are:
:
= I cant even think about applying for that
job
= I cant even think about not being a teacher
:
= I cant even imagine divorcing my wife
= I cant even imagine having that
much money
~~
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
The Past Perfect: ~~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
( /) = sufficient time/space
= diameter
= shortcut
= instrument
= mayor
= scar
= paint brush
= fraud
= swindler/fraud man
= beginner
= lily pad/lotus flower
= landscape
= standard
= flame/flare/blaze
= fireworks
= conversation
= charm
= system (electoral, educational, etc)
= pension
= anchovy
Verbs:
= exist/existence
() = flatter
= tempt/temptation
= recording audio
= attack/offense
= defense/defend
Adjectives:
= silent/silence
= tough/leathery (meat)
= to be frugal, thrifty
Adverbs:
= actually/really
= similar to
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn the meaning of a grammatical principle that, by this point, you have
probably noticed a few times in your Korean studies. Have you ever seen words in the past tense
conjugated with an additional ? As in, instead of ? In this lesson, we will look
at the meaning of this additional . Lets get started.
.
.
The Past Perfect: ~~
There has probably been many times where you have noticed this additional ~~ in a
verb/adjective conjugated in the past tense. By now, you have undoubtedly become familiar with
the usage and meaning of a simple past tense conjugation. For example:
= When I was in high school, I was very fat
= People said that school is bad
= Japan attacked Korea in the war
= I flattered my teacher every day
by telling him his class was fun ( is an older way to say )
= I went to Seoul
The purpose of adding an additional ~~ to these past tense conjugations is to indicate that that
action has since finished and is no longer occurring in the present. Note that in most situations,
when something is conjugated into the past tense (the regular past tense as in the examples
above) this could be the case as well. For example, if we look at the first sentence above:
= When I was in high school, I was very fat
In this sentence, the speaker is indicating that he/she was fat. Just by the context of the sentence,
it can probably be assumed that the speaker is no longer fat. However, this meaning is not
specifically indicated and it is only implied from the situation in the sentence. Therefore, the
person could technically still be fat but there is no way of knowing from this one sentence.
(You would have to know by either looking at the person or by hearing more information)
The same could be said for the next sentence as well:
= People said that school is bad
In this sentence, the speaker is indicating that other people said the school was bad. Just by
looking at the one sentence and being given no other information it is possible that people still
say the school is bad or it could be possible that they no longer say the school is bad. The
only information that is given is the fact that people in the past said the school was bad and we
cant make any assumptions regarding the present tense without more information.
The purpose of adding the additional ~~ to a past tense conjugation is to eliminate this
ambiguity. For example:
= When I was in high school, I was very fat (and
I am no longer fat now)
In this sentence, the use of ~~ is to indicate that whatever the situation was in the past, it is
not continuing to the future. People with knowledge of English grammar (or grammar in general)
often call this the Past Perfect Tense which is simply a fancy name for a sentence that
describes that something happened in the past and is no longer happening in the present.
Compared to the Past Tense, where it is ambiguous as to whether the action has continued to
the present tense.
Other examples:
= People said that school is bad (but they no longer
do)
= Japan attacked Korea in the war, (but not anymore)
= I flattered my teacher every
day (but now Im finished school so I dont do that anymore)
This grammatical principle is often added to as well, to indicate that one went somewhere
and has since returned. When the speaker is the subject (the person who went) in a sentence like
this, the meaning is essentially the same regardless of if you use ~~ or not. For example:
= I went to Seoul (and it would be obviously assumed from the situation
that you are no longer in Seoul).
= I went to Seoul, (and it is stated that you are no longer in Seoul)
= I went to Canada
= I went to Canada (and I returned)
If the speaker is not the subject of the sentence, the effect of ~~ is more apparent. For
example:
= Dad went to Seoul (and it is ambiguous if he is still there or not)
= Dad went to Seoul (and he has come back)
Its really not that hard of a grammatical principle, especially because it almost means the same
thing as a simple past tense conjugation. The only difference that it is specifically indicated that
the action is not continuing to the present.
One way of conjugating this into English is to use the word had. For example:
= People had said that school is bad
= Japan had attacked Korea in the war
= I had flattered my teacher
every day
Other examples from the book I am currently reading:

= He was too young at that time, and because he didnt have the
experience of meeting other girls, he hadnt realized that she was a good girl
= That man had once liked her for a little bit
, ~/
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
To guess, think, suppose, to look like: ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= hot water
= bathtub
= pile/heap of something
= socialism
= self esteem
= long underwear
= switch
= ping pong table
= lounge (room)
= message
= winter (cold period)
= list/table
= vest
= a maze
Verbs:
= rinse
= soak something in something

= estimate/assume
= to smash/break something
= point out
= receive/reception
= to put something face down
= lie with your face down
= to fall on your face
= make smbdy fall on face
= fly away
= advice/offer
= devote
= evacuate and take shelter
Passive Verbs:
= to be locked in
Adjectives:
= to be sorry
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn a difficult grammatical principle that is very common in speech.
Here, you will learn how to attach ~ (or ~ , or ~ ) to the end of a sentence
to express that something might be the case. Lets get started.
.
.
To guess, think, suppose, to look like: ~/
This is a very common grammatical principle that you will hear all the time. By attaching ~/
to verbs, or ~/ to adjectives, the speaker indicates that the sentence is a
guess, and it thought to be true (but he/she is not really sure). Some simple examples:
= I guess the exam is hard/the exam looks hard/I suppose the exam is
hard
While the English translations can look and feel similar, this usage is slightly different from that
of other similar grammatical principles that express probability/possibility. For example:
= The exam is/will probably be hard
The difference is that when I say , I am mostly guessing this based
on intuition and there isnt really any implied concrete reason for me thinking that it will be hard.
However, when you say , (maybe as a result of being in the
sentence) the feeling is that the speaker has a direct reason as to why he/she feels this way. For
example, image I you are a proctor in an exam room watching students write an exam. During
the test, you see/hear many students sigh, and even some students completely stop writing the
exam and start sleeping without answering all the questions. At this point, you could say to the
other proctor in the room:
= I guess the exam is hard/the exam looks hard/I suppose the exam is
hard
= I guess that foreigner likes kimchi/it looks like that
foreigner likes kimchi/I suppose that foreigner likes kimchi
Imagine you are at a restaurant and you see a foreigner eating some Korean BBQ. After each
piece of meat, he eats a big piece of kimchi. At this point, because it is something that you are
directly observing and something that you have direct evidence of, you can say this sentence.
You would be more likely to say
= That foreigner probably likes kimchi
if you actually didnt know he liked kimchi or not, and were just guessing that he might
(maybe because kimchi is delicious and everybody likes it)
More examples:
= I guess the apples are too expensive (maybe because you realized
that nobody is buying any apples, so you have the evidence to lead you to believe that the apples
are too expensive)
= I guess I need to wear long-johns (long-underwear) (if you
imagine its winter and you look outside and you realize that it is going to be freezing cold)
= I guess that student doesnt have any money to
buy food (If you imagine you are on a school field trip as a teacher and it is lunch time for the
students. However, one of the students is just sitting by himself not eating anything, and looks
very sad)
= It looks like there is a lot of people
who want to express their complaints towards the government (If you imagine you are walking
around the downtown of your city and you see a bunch of protesters protesting something at city
hall)
This grammatical form can be attached to sentences conjugated in the past tense as well:
= I guess the baby broke the plate/it looks like the baby broke
the plate
= I guess there is no reception/It looks like there is no reception
= I guess the new Ping-Pong table arrived/It looks like the new
Ping-Pong table arrived
= I guess the bird flew away/It looks like the bird flew away
~(), which you learned about in Lesson 83, is often added to sentences where the speaker
learns something new. Because of the nature of the sentences we are creating with ~/
, it is very common to add the grammatical principle ~() to . For example:
= I guess the exam is hard/the exam looks hard
= I guess the apples are too expensive
= I guess I need to wear long-johns (long-underwear)
= It looks like there is a lot of people
who want to express their complaints towards the government
= I guess the baby broke the plate
= I guess the new Ping-Pong table arrived
Not only that, but it is very common for ~/ to be shortened to ~ (or ~
). In fact, I would say that the ~ form is much more common than ~/
(especially in speech). The only reason I introduced the less common one first is because
(from what I understand) that is the original grammatical principle, and the more common ~
is simply a contraction of ~/ . Either way, ~ can be attached to all of
the examples introduced in this lesson instead of ~/ . For example:
= I guess the exam is hard/the exam looks hard
= I guess the apples are too expensive
= I guess I need to wear long-johns (long-underwear)
= It looks like there is a lot of people who

want to express their complaints towards the government
= I guess the baby broke the plate
= I guess the new Ping-Pong table arrived
I personally use the ~ form all the time when I speak Korean. I cant be exactly sure why
~/ is less common that ~ , but if you ask me, a sentence ending in ~
flows off of your tongue much better. Also, it is much easier to conjugate because it doesnt
change if it is an adjective or verb, or in the past or present tense.
The ~ sentences are all fine, but when I showed them to when she was checking
this lesson, she kept on saying Yeah, thats fine, but I would rather say ~ . Ill say it
one more time before I finish the ~ sentences are much more common than the ~/
sentences

Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
There is nothing one can do about something:
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= layer
= wheat
= a quarter (of a year)
= definition
= equipment/gear/apparatus
= reputation/face
= reputation/face
= ceiling
= slang
= sword
= puberty
= steel
= trace/evidence
= emergency _______
= first aid
= ancient
= the Middle East
Verbs:
= tidy/straighten up/shovel snow
= to treat somebody badly/cruelly
= to put somebody down
= wrinkle/crumple/crease
= to sulk
= get out of/break away from
Passive Verbs:
= to be scolded
= to be disgraced
= to be peeled/sharpened
Adjectives:
= rough/course/uneven (skin/surface
= timid
= dirty/messy
= admirable/commendable
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use and its various forms in sentences.
Though not quite a grammatical principle (its more of a word combined with ~/
its usage is fairly common and quite difficult enough to warrant me to write a lesson about it.
Lets get started.
.
.
There is nothing one can do about something:
In Lesson 94 you learned about the word and how it is used in sentences to indicate that
something happened by chance (or, in effect, was not under the control of the acting agent in a
sentence). You learned that this word is most commonly found in sentences that end in the
grammatical principle ~ . For example:
= I ended up seeing her on the bus
Because ends in ~, people often assume that it is a verb or an adjective. However,
if either of these were the case, there would be no way that could be placed unconjugated
at the beginning of a sentence like we see above. Therefore, when used this way is an
adverb. (Not that it really matters, Im just saying).
Korean dictionaries also have an entry for as a verb. Because of the slight similarities in
meaning with the adverb and verb form of , you might think that they are actually the
same word, but just different forms of the same word. All the sources I have tell me that each of
them come from contractions of different words and technically arent related. Either way, this
discussion is nonsense and doesnt really affect your understanding of what I would like to
present in this lesson.
(in its verb form) is most commonly used by combining it with the ~
grammatical principle to create . The whole construction (which I suggest you treat
as one unit) is used when one wants to express that there is nothing he/she can do in a situation.
In its most simple form, it can be used by itself:
= Theres nothing I/we/you can do
You can make it more complicated (and natural) by putting a clause before to give
more information to the listener/reader as to what you are talking about. For example:
= I wish I could write the exam again, but

there is nothing I can do (about it)
= Our friend already left, so there is nothing we can do
(about it)
= The situation is unfortunate, but there is nothing we
can do (about it)
In the examples above, no information is given as to what situation is being talked about. They
all just generally said there is nothing we can do (about it).
It is also possible to describe that there is nothing a person can do about a specific situation. Any
situation can just be turned into a noun using the ~ principle and can then be described by
. For example:
= Theres nothing I can do about the students
not liking me (its inevitable that the students wont like me)
= Theres nothing I can do about my fame being tarnished
= After breaking the computer,
there is nothing I can do about dad scolding me (it is inevitable that dad will scold me)
Its also possible to apply the ~ principle to ( ) to turn it into a
clause that can describe an upcoming noun. The noun that is being described then changes to a
noun that one cannot do anything about. For example:
(Note that it is often hard to translate these sentences directly into English. What might sound
natural in Korean might not sound natural in English if it is translated directly).
= The fact that people die is an inevitable
fate/destiny
= We arrived at the problem that we cant do anything
about
= Because this is a situation we cant
control (cant do anything about) lets think about something else
= Hating your boss is inevitable
= When an airplane
crashes, it is inevitable that many people will die
Finally, its also possible to change to to act as an adverb.
can then be placed in sentences to indicate that one does an action unavoidably or
because he/she had no (figurative) choice in the matter. For example:
= I had no choice but to tell my wife
that I cheated on her
= I had no choice but to tell my parents the truth
= Because the boss would
get mad at me every day, I had no choice but to quit

= After kissing my best friends girlfriend, I had no choice but to lie to him
= Because we were
going so fast, the accident was unavoidable (we couldnt do anything about the accident)
Jump to:
Introduction
Vocabulary
Adding ~() to Nouns
Adding ~() to Adverbs
Adding ~() to Counters
Adding ~() to a Location with ~
Adding ~() to Question Words
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= nephew/niece
= magic
= magician
= abbreviation
= mop
= international community
= keychain
= coward
= breeze
= supply and demand
= article in a paper/magazine
= somebody who handles equipment
= skull/skeleton
= plane ticket
= birthday (high respect)
= hygiene/sanitation
Verbs:
= go out
= watch to get some information
= to make/release to the public
= explode/explosion
= advice/advise
= resign
= regard/consider
= suicide
= collision/crash
= bump into
Adjectives:
= picky
= outstanding/excellent
= gold (color)
= silver (color)
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to add ~() to nouns. Though this grammatical principle
looks similar to (and sometimes even translates similarly to) ~ (which you learned in
Lesson 99), ~() is in fact a separate grammatical principle with a separate usage and
meaning. Lets get started.
Adding ~() to Nouns

~() typically gets attached to nouns in a sentence. Lets assume for simplicity sake that it
can only attach to nouns while I describe it here. When you attach ~() to a noun, the
speaker is indicating that; even though that particular noun is not the most preferred option, it is a
close second compared to the other possible options.
In its simplest form, you might see a sentence like this:
?
When translating a sentence like this, it is hard to translate the ~() part naturally into
English. A simple translation of the sentence about would be something like Shall we eat some
bread?, but the use of ~() makes the translation more complicated. In reality, it is more
like We should eat something, and bread isnt really what either of us wants to eat, but it
wouldnt be that bad either.
Again, the use of ~() expresses that somebody is slightly dissatisfied with the fact that the
most preferred option is not available but at the same time somewhat satisfied that there is at
least a good option that can be taken.
Many more examples with my attempts at translating this nuance into English:
? = You came all the way here, so can I at least
buy you a coffee? (You came all the way here, which was really nice of you. I feel like I need to
thank you somehow. I know coffee isnt much, but how about I buy you a coffee?)
= You are driving (which is difficult),

I will at least pay for the gas (You are the one who is doing all the effort of driving and
everything, so let me at least pay for the gas, which I know is not much, but its better than
nothing [or a lot of other things])
= Im hungry, so I should eat something like
ramen (Im hungry, and I should eat something. Ramen isnt my first choice, but its better than
nothing [or a lot of other things])
? = Because it is so quiet, should I turn on some music?
(Because it is so quiet, we should do something do break this silence. I guess maybe the best
thing would be to start talking or something, but turning on music would be better than nothing
[or a lot of other things])
? = While you wait, can I offer you a magazine? (While you wait,
I know youre going to be bored and youd probably rather not be here. However, a magazine
might help you overcome this boredom and will be better than nothing).
= When I go to the US, I want to get a
keychain as a souvenir (When I go to the US, I want to buy a souvenir. A keychain wouldnt be
the best thing to buy, but its still better than nothing)
Adding ~() to Adverbs

~() can be also be attached to some adverbs, but typically only adverbs that arent
derivatives of some adjective. For example, is just a derivative of and
is just a derivative of . It would be awkward and unnatural to attach ~() to most of
these types of adverbs.
The only good example I can think of where this would be acceptable is attached to . For
example:
= We are going to pay the bill, even if it is a little late
(we would have preferred if we paid the bill on time, but its too late now. Regardless, we are
going to pay it, but just a little bit late, which is better than not paying it at all).
However, adverbs that are not derivatives of adjectives and are words on their own can often
have ~() attached to them. The most common of these adverbs can be seen in the
examples immediately below:
= We need to go right now (It would have been better if we
left earlier, but that time has already passed so there is nothing we can do about it. But now, even
though it is not the best option, we need to go right now)
? = Would you be able to give me just a little bit of
sauce? (I would prefer if you were able to give me a lot of sauce, but even if you give me a little
it would also be okay)
= Ill probably have to do that job by myself (I would
prefer if I didnt have to do it by myself, but Ill still be able to do it by myself)
? = What do you think about going today? (I would have
preferred if we went yesterday [or some other day depending on the situation], but today would
also be okay. What do you think about going today?)
= Please do all of your homework and then give it to me
tomorrow (I would prefer if you gave it to me today [or some other time depending on the
situation], but tomorrow would be okay as well)
Adding ~() to Counters

It is also common to add ~() to counters. For example:
? = Can you show me that article just once? (I
would prefer it if you showed it to me many times (or for a longer amount of time), but even if
you show it to me once Ill be happy)
= I wish I had a nephew, even if I only had one (I wish I
had many nieces/nephews but even one would be better than nothing)
= I wish at least one customer would
come into our store today (I would prefer it if many people came into the store today, but even if
one person came into the store I would be happy)
Adding ~() to a Location with ~

It is also possible to add this to a location (with ~ attached) to have the same meaning as
described above. For example:
? = We have nothing to do, so how
about going to a park or something (We have nothing to do, and Id rather do (go) somewhere
else, but going to the park wouldnt be so bad, would it)?
? = Now that it is raining, do you want to go to the
movies or something? (Id rather go somewhere else, but its raining so what else can we do?
How about going to the movies?)
Though this can be done, I feel that while the previous examples of adding ~() directly to
nouns is much more common than adding it to a location as you can see directly above.
Adding ~() to Question Words
Finally, it is also possible to add ~() to some of the common question words that you are
familiar with. Adding ~() to these words doesnt quite make the same meaning that is
made when adding it to a regular noun as we have seen so far in this lesson, and I am tempted to
say that this is actually a separate usage. Instead of having the I would prefer something else,
but this is a good second option meaning, a more accurate translation of (question word)+
would be:
= anywhere (it doesnt matter where)
= any time (it doesnt matter when)
= anybody (it doesnt matter who)
= anything (it doesnt matter what)
= anything (it doesnt matter what)
For example:
= It doesnt matter where my
girlfriend goes, I want to go with her
= It doesnt matter when it is, you can always come to our
house
= It doesnt matter who it is, anybody could solve that
problem
() ! = Before you go, I dont care what it is, but lets

eat something!
I know what youre thinking. Yes, these words (well, not really words words plus grammatical
principles) are very similar to , , and .
The following three sentences essentially have the same meaning as their respective examples
yesterday:
= You can always come to our house anytime
= Anybody could solve that problem
! = Lets eat anything!
Just by the nature of the sentence, the following doesnt make sense, but there could be some
examples where they can be switched. For example:
= It doesnt matter where you go, you can go
= You can go anywhere
Although both sentences above are correct, and (as you can see) essentially have the same
meaning, says that the first sentence is more likely to be found in a poem. I have no idea
what that means and neither does she. She just says feels like a poem to me. If anything, you
can take that as a lesson that it might be more common to use and other similar
words in most conversation situations.
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
as a Regular Noun
as a Grammatical Principle
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= nail (tool)
= association/society
= backpack
= backpacking
= willpower
= wages/salary
= angel
= immunity
= alternative
= blind date
= interview
= interviewer
= vocabulary
= nightmare
= pressure
= rain clothes
= core/the key point/the gist
= license
Verbs:
= to oppose something
= beg
= approve/accept
= chat
= scratch/claw at
Adjectives:
= cool/chilly
= abstract
= blessed ( + )
= to feel upset/distressed
Adverbs:
() = teenage
= free
= ten days
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use , both as a noun and as a grammatical principle to
make your sentences softer and more humble. Lets get started.
as a Regular Noun
First of all, one of the meanings of the word is side. In this sense, it is most commonly
used in the following ways:
= the opposite side (or the opposite direction)
= the opposite/other side (usually of a street or something that you can cross)
= the back side
= the right side
= the left side
These constructions can go into sentences where applicable. For example:
? = Where is the washroom?
= Go outside, and then its on the back side of the building
? = Is this the store that fixes computers?
~ = No, Its across the street
can also be used on its own to simply mean side. For example:
= When we play the game, I
want to be on the side that is on
= Whatever happens, I am always on your side
.
as a Grammatical Principle
can also act as a noun that is being described by an adjective or a verb (conjugated using the ~
principle). The adjective/verb + combination has a meaning that is very similar to that
of just the adjective/verb on its own. The only difference is that makes the meaning slightly
softer than just the adjective/verb by itself. For example, I could say:
= That person has a lot of money
If I say this sentence, it might have a negative effect because maybe for example people will
treat that person differently if they find out he/she has a lot of money.
However, if I say:

The meaning is softer than was expressed without the use of . Instead of straight out saying
yes, he has a lot of money, you are more humbly saying Yeah, that person has fair amount of
money, but not that much.
Lets look at some other examples:
= Our son is smart
= Our son is fairly smart
Because of the use of the word , a common translation for these types of constructions is on
the X side. For example:
= Our son is on the smart side
Other examples:
= My boyfriend is on the handsome side (fairly handsome)
= The salary I earn is fairly high (on the high side)
= This backpacker backpack was fairly expensive
In each of the examples so far, the speaker would be downplaying something that is very good.
In effect, this is a way to speak in a humble way in Korean. The opposite can be done with words
that have a negative connotation to them. That is, when you use this type of construction with a
negative word, you are expressing that even though something is bad its not that bad. For
example:
= My boyfriend is on the ugly side
= My height is on the small side (Im quite short)
The situation doesnt need to be inherently negative or positive in order to use this ~//
construction. All it does is it softens the word being used and turns the severity of its meaning
down a little bit. For example:
= Foreigners who speak Korean are on the rare
side
= The interview I have to do tomorrow is quite
important
= Memorizing Korean vocabulary is quite
difficult
Just by the nature of the sentences ~// is used in, it is quite easy and common to use
this grammatical principle with adjectives. However, it can be used with verbs as well. For
example:
= I exercise fairly often
When used with verbs, youll notice that the sentence often has an adverb in it as well. If you
imagine the sentence above without the use of the adverb , you get:
= I exercise fairly? I fairly exercise?
You need something else in there in order for it to make sense. It doesnt necessarily need to be
the adverb :
= I exercise fairly well
= I exercise fairly hard
When used with verbs, a common translation that goes in these sentences is tend(s) to For
example:
= I tend to exercise well (English translation doesnt really
work in this situation)
= I tend to exercise hard
Other examples:
= I am running fairly quickly
= I tend to go to bed fairly late
= I swim fairly well
ones way ~
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
On my way to/from : ~
While one my way to/from: ~
There is no way of/to ~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= infant care
= recording studio
= thread
= colored thread
= touts
= colored pencils
= listener
= indirect
= second hand smoke
= conflict
= ceiling
= identity
= bankbook
= reverend
= ground
= statue
= climate
= climate change
= bamboo
= pole/rod
= exchange rate
Verbs:
= shine/light up
= pass through/go through
= weave a thread
Passive Verbs:
= to be drawn/pulled/attracted to
= to be built
Adjectives:
= impressive
= cold (usually teeth or bones)
= excessive
= loose (clothing)
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use as a noun that can replace in the ~ principle.
Dont be confused! This grammatical principle isnt describing a road. It has a special meaning
that we can study as a separate grammatical principle. Lets get started.
On my way to/from : ~
By this point, you are probably very familiar with how to use the word in Korean. It translates
to street or road, and there is nothing overly complicated. For example:
? = What is the name of this road/street?
? = What road are you looking for?
= I live on that road
In addition to this simple meaning, when used as the noun in the ~ principle (so, for
example, ~ ), it can take on a different meaning. Well, actually, I dont want to say this new
meaning is completely different from its original noun form meaning because it is, in some way,
related to a street.
Anyways, regardless of that, when is described by a preceding phrase, we can express than
somebody is on his/her way to/from somewhere. For example:

However, I have taught you well enough by now for you to know that you cant end a sentence
that way. We need to attach something to that noun! By using , we can complete our
sentences:
= I am on my way home
= I am on my way (coming) from work
Other examples:
= I am on my way (going) up the mountain
= We are (on our way) going into the stadium
In this form, the verb describing is only ever used in the present tense. However, you can
express that you were (or will be) on your way going or coming somewhere by changing the
tense of . For example:
= I was going down the mountain
which would probably be more natural if you used it to answer a question. For example:
! ? = Hey! Why didnt you answer
your phone earlier? I called you a bunch of times
~~ = Sorry I was on my way down the mountain
at that time
! ? = I saw you yesterday! Where were you going?
= I was on my way to school to study
The ~ construction doesnt need to be used at the end of a sentence. By connecting
other grammatical principles to , you can also find it used between two clauses. The most
common thing that you will see used here is ~/. For example:
20 ? = I am on my way home
right now, so can you call be back in 20 minutes?
However, you need to realize that this grammatical principle only works if the verb is some
action where one is coming or going somewhere. The most common of which would be:
= to come
= to go
= to go in
= to come in
= to go out
= to come out
= to go down
= to come down
= to go up
= to come up
This isnt to say that it is incorrect to place other verbs (and their preceding clauses) behind the ~
form. It just means that constructions without the use of a coming or going verb dont
have this on my way from/to. For example:
= The price of land on the street with a lot of big
houses is expensive
= The citizens are restoring the street
that was damaged by the flood
The examples above show ~ being used just as if was a normal noun and not some
sort of special grammatical principle. However, if the verb in the preceding describing clause is
related to coming or going the constructions usually have this on my way meaning. However,
if the entire construction is not finished by it can have a similar, but slightly different
meaning. Notice the following:
= I am on my way (going) up the mountain
= I am on the road that goes up the mountain
The first one specifically indicates that the speaker is on his/her way up the mountain.
However, the second one (without the use of and thus without the use of this
grammatical principle) is just like the grammar in any other sentence, and doesnt take on this
special meaning.
While one my way to/from: ~

In addition to the usages described above, it is also common to see ~ attached to in the ~
form. The meaning that is expressed here is; while one is on route coming or going
somewhere, he/she stopped to do something. For example:
? = One my way home, should I buy some bread (for
you)?
? = On your way home, can you buy something
delicious please?
= One my way out to meet a friend, I will
return the book
= On your way back from getting/bringing food,
can you get/grab me a fork?
I love this grammatical principle. Easy to use, easy to understand, and it makes your Korean that
much stronger.
There is no way of/to ~/

Another way you can find being used is in the grammatical principle ~/ .
This literally translates to something like there is no direction/road to do but a better
translation that more accurately describes what this grammatical principle means is There is no
way of. First, lets look at some easy examples:
= There is no way of checking that fact
= There is no way to save that person
The most common verb that you will find before ~/ is , which altogether
would create there is no way of knowing.. For example:
2 = We are going to
America in two months, so there is no way of knowing the exchange rate at that time
= There is no of knowing that dead persons identity
= There is no way of knowing

how many listeners our program has
Here are some other examples with other verbs being used:
= There is no way of
knowing if the reason you caught cancer was because of second hand smoke, or because of
pollution
= There is no way of avoiding touts when you
travel abroad
= There is no way of avoiding
conflict if you live in a small space with somebody you dont know well
= There is no way of measuring climate change
= There is no way of finding the bankbook that I lost
yesterday
= There is no way of fixing that broken statue
: ~
While one is doing something, he/she takes the opportunity to do something else: ~
In the previous Lesson, you learned how to use ~ to express that one is on his way to/from
somewhere. ~ often takes the form ~ , which is used to express that, while one is on
his/her way to/from a place, he/she takes the opportunity to do another action.
You learned, however, that this can only be done with words related to coming or going.
~ is essentially the same thing. However, because the word isnt used, the verb
doesnt need to be one of these coming or going verbs. For example:
= While we are buying a new bed lets buy
some new pillows too
Notice in the example above that the English translation is While. Though this is often the
most natural way to say these types of sentences in English, be careful to not confuse them with
sentences including ~() which would also translate to while. There meanings
might sometimes be similar, but the specific meaning of ~ is to indicate that while
already doing one action, the person can take that opportunity to do the next action (which would
be easier or more convenient now that the first action is already taking place.
More examples:
= While making kimchi (I took the
opportunity and) I also made radish kimchi
! = While you change your shirt (take the opportunity
to) also change your pants!
= While you cut the onions, (take the opportunity to)
also cut the carrots please!
? = While I am renewing my contract, shall
we also talk about my severance pay?
One of the more common constructions that you will see is ~ combined with ()
. Both of them combine to mean something like Now that I am mentioning X, or
While we are on the topic of X or Speaking of which. For example:
= Now that we are talking about
that/Now that you mention it, lets talk about solutions to that problem
= Now that we are talking about it, lets
decide on when we are going to the amusement park
: I Should Have: ~/ ()
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
I Should Have Done: ~/ ()
Negative Sentences with ~/ ()
: Something That You Didnt Need to Do
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= oriental painting
= western painting
= foundation/basis for
= a sign on the road
= cover of a book/magazine
= expiration date
= steam
= sushi
= fruit knife
= kitchen knife
= ladle (for soup)
= charity
= philanthropist
= Jesus
= kidney
= zoo
= dimple
= lyrics
= weak point
= crewman/flight attendant
= germ
= rules/regulations
Verbs:
= compensate (for a loss)
=sign/mark/indicate
= rent/to rent something
= hiccup
Passive Verbs:
= to be expired
Adjectives:
= dry
= orange (color)
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about a grammatical principle that looks like it has an entirely
different meaning and purpose than it actually does. I remember when I saw ~/ for the
first time, I said to myself Oh, I can probably guess what that means! Boy was I wrong. Let me
teach it to you. Lets get started.
I Should Have Done: ~/ ()

You can place ~/ at the end of a sentence to express that you should have done something
in the past (but didnt). The meaning is fairly simple, and attaching it to a clause is quite simple
as well:
= I should have brought my bag (but I didnt)
= I should have gone to my friends house (but I didnt)
= I should have memorized the lyrics better (but I didnt)
= I should have looked at that sign better (but I didnt)
= I should have bought the (one-piece) dress that we saw (but I
didnt)
This grammatical principle is typically used when the speaker is talking about him/herself (when
the subject is I or we or something like that). When talking to him/herself the person regrets
whatever decision was made in the past that wasnt done (or was done, as you will see later in
this lesson).
The word is often placed after the ~/ construction for no real reason and I have
never seen or heard anything to suggest that adding changes the meaning in any way.
For example:
= I should have memorized the lyrics better
= I should have looked at that sign better
= I should have bought the (one-piece) dress that we saw
Just like ~ or other forms of self-speech, it may be more appropriate to express something
more formally. Even if the sentence is directed at yourself, there could be somebody listening to
you in which case, it is possible to conjugate these sentences formally. I have seen some people
claim that adding directly to ~/ is possible. However, Korean people I have asked
say that would be unnatural. For example, this:

Wouldnt be correct.
Instead, you can conjugate the word . For example:
= I should have memorized the lyrics better
= I should have looked at that sign better
= I should have bought the (one-piece) dress that we
saw
The word can theoretically be conjugated any way, but the most common way you will
see it conjugated is by adding ~ or ~ (As you learned in Lesson 109). For example:
= It looks like I should have memorized the lyrics better
= It looks like I should have studied harder
= It looks like I should have eaten
When the whole sentence finishes with , it is most often in a form of a question. The
question is usually directed at oneself, but it is not uncommon for a listener to answer the
question. For example:
Person 1: ? = Should I have eaten before coming here?

Person 2: ! = (no), We are going to go out and eat soon
Its also possible to use the first person plural to talk about something that we should have done.
In cases like these, it is common to attach ~ or ~ to to create a question that you are
asking to the people around you. For example:
= We should have looked at that sign better
? = We should have come to the zoo earlier (eh?)
? = Should we have ordered sushi?
Person 1: = Our daughter is going to buy lunch at
school today
Person 2: ? = Should we have given her more money?
In my experience, this grammatical form is most often used when the speaker is the subject of
the sentence or when referring to we. However, it is possible to use this form when talking
about another person. For example:
Person 1: ! . = Oh no! I missed the bus
Person 2: ! = (I told you that) you should have left earlier
Negative Sentences with ~/ ()
By making a negative sentence with or ~ , you can create the opposite meaning of
what is described above. That is, to indicate that you shouldnt have done something in the past
(but did). Some examples:
= I shouldnt have brought this heavy bag
= I shouldnt have had sushi for breakfast
= I shouldnt have come to school today
= I shouldnt have told my mother that
All the other forms you learned above with the positive sentences can also be applied to these
sentences as well:
? = Should I have not brought this heavy bag?
= I shouldnt have had sushi for breakfast
= I guess I shouldnt have come to school today
? = Should I not have told my mother that?
? = We shouldnt have come to the zoo (eh?)

? = Should we have not ordered sushi?
There is also a fairly difficult adverb than can sometimes be used to express the same meaning as
the sentences weve created in this lesson. I would like to introduce you to that next.
: Something That You Didnt Need to Do

The word is often translated to in vain in English, but that isnt really a perfect
translation. In fact, it is difficult to come up with a perfect translation for this word simply
because we dont have a similar word in English. is an adverb, and can be placed in
sentences (just like any other adverb) in indicate that one did something that didnt need to be
done. I feel it is best to teach this word by presenting sentences using this word and not using this
word side-by-side. For example:
= I brought the heavy bag
= I brought the heavy bag in vain
The first sentence is easy, and I am sure you understand it completely. In the second sentence, the
purpose of is to indicate that the person ended up realizing that he/she didnt need to
bring the bag. If I think of an example maybe a bunch of people were going camping and I
wasnt sure if I should bring a tent or not. I decided to put the tent in a bag (which ended up
being really heavy), and when I got to the campground I saw that my friend also brought a tent.
At which point, I can say:
= I didnt need to bring this heavy bag
In this situation, I could also say:
= I didnt need to bring the tent
As you can see is put in the sentence where one realizes that he/she didnt need to
something (usually because it was already done or because it was pointless to do it).
Another example:
= I bought milk
= I bought milk, but I just realized that I shouldnt have because you
also bought milk (or because we already had milk.)
So, just because of the nature of the sentence and the meaning that this creates can
sometimes be used to make a sentence with a similar meaning to ~/ (). For example:
= I shouldnt have prepared this meal
= I shouldnt have prepared this meal
While in the state of: ~/ ()

While in the state of: ~/ ()
If you have picked up any Korean book (especially novels), you most likely have come across
this grammatical principle. This grammatical principle is incredibly common in novels and
stories, but only fairly common in speech. You essentially cant read any Korean literature
without understanding the meaning of ().
Okay, now we know that this is important but what does it mean? As I already mentioned,
is placed as a noun in the ~ principle (most commonly used when ~ is in the past
tense form of ~/). For example:
()
(There doesnt seem to be any difference in meaning if is used or not)
The purpose of ~/ is to indicate that the state of the clause describing it continues until
(and usually beyond) the action I the next clause. I want to stress the word state in that
sentence.
When I say , it does not mean that the person actively put on his hat. Its possible
that he put on his hat in an earlier sentence but that information is irrelevant to our current
sentence. All that is relevant is that the hat is currently on his head and that state (the hat being
on his head) will continue until (and beyond) the next action.
So lets finish that sentence. If I were to say, for example:

that sentence would translate to: The teacher went into the school with a/the hat on his head
As usual, its hard to come up with an English translation that fits all scenarios. The most
common translations are with or while. For example:
The teacher went into the school with a/the hat on his head
The teacher went into the school while wearing a hat
Despite the similarities in translations, it is important to fully understand the difference between
~/ and ~(). When using ~(), both actions are actively happening at the
same time and are processing/continuing together. For example, if I were to say:
although this sentence is grammatical correct,
it is pretty ridiculous and only in very rare situations would somebody actually need to say this.
Here, the person is saying that while he went into the school, he put his hat on. As in, the
moment he entered the school, he took his hat and put it on his head. 99.9% of the time, it would
be more appropriate to say:

Regardless of the translation, it is important that you remember that the clause is in its non-active
completed state. The verb itself does not have to be a passive verb. It just needs to be a verb
where once the action is done one time it can proceed in its completed state until something
changes. Many verbs are like this, and here is a list of some of the more common verbs that you
will find being used with :
= to put on shoes
= to turn on
= to turn off
= to cover, close
= to cover
= to sit
= to stand
= to put into
= to put onto
= to close ones eyes
= to not know
Lets look at many examples:
= I left the house with the money on the table
= He was just sitting (there) with the lights off
= You shouldnt talk with food in your mouth
= Seulgi worked without knowing she was sick

= That man died with his eyes open
= American people go into their houses with
their shoes on
= I went outside in my underwear because it
was so hot
= The girl came out of the bathroom
with the toilet covered by newspaper
TV = The child came out of the room with the TV
turned on
Notice that even though the clause before ~/ feels like it is in the passive voice (because
it is in its completed state), the active verb is actually used.
From my experience, Ive noticed that most of the verbs that are used before ~/ are
words that have a passive equivalent. For example:
(to sit)
(to be sitting)
(to close ones eyes)
(for ones eyes to be closed)
(to put onto)
(to be put onto)
( and most of the others from the longer list above)
Its not always the case (for example, which is not something that can be expressed in
the passive voice and is commonly used before ~/ ).
In the cases where the active verb also has a passive equivalent, it is sometimes acceptable to
place the passive word and/or conjugation before ~/ . For example:
TV 3 = We went on a holiday for three days
with the TV turned (left) on
TV 3 = We went on a holiday for three days with
the TV turned on
= We watched a movie with the lights off

The only difference between the active and passive forms is the distinction of who actually did
the action. For example, by saying , you are indicating that we turned
the lights off, and then did the next action. However, by saying you are not
indicating specifically who turned the lights off you are just saying that they are off when the
next action occurred.
This form would also be acceptable:
I dont want to start describing the difference between those two because that isnt the purpose of
this lesson. If youre wondering what the difference between these three are:

Essentially nothing. Only the nuance of who/what turned on the light. They can be
distinguished if we look at just the clause before ~/ as a separate clause:
= We turned off the light
= The light was turned off
= The light is off
But thats as far as Im going with that in this lesson. Distinguishing their meanings isnt as
important when used with ~/ because, in effect, they all describe the same thing.
Now, back to this lesson. I just want to say one more thing before I finish. Notice that I included
the words and beyond in the description at the very beginning of the lesson. I said:
The purpose of ~/ is to indicate that the state of the clause describing it continues
until (and usually beyond) the action I the next clause. I want to stress the word state in that
sentence.
I specifically wrote and beyond to insinuate that in sentences with , even though the
second action is completed it doesnt mean that the clause describing also is completed. For
example, in our sentence:

The and beyond description is just to indicate that just because the person enters the school
(and thus, the second action completes itself), doesnt mean that he takes his hat off. Instead, the
completed state of him wearing the hat will continue until the situation explains otherwise. This
is the same with all of the examples I provided. For example, if we looked at this one:

it means that the person goes outside without wearing underwear. But, it doesnt mean that
once he gets outside that he puts underwear on. Rather, it means that this state of not wearing
underwear will continue even past the next action.
Finally, here are some examples of this grammatical principle behind used in the book I am
currently reading:
= The two people lied on the bed without turning
off the lights
= The next morning
when they woke up, She left without leaving any words (without saying anything)
= The girl walked towards me with her arms out
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Recalling a Fact from Experience: ~~
Asking Questions to Yourself Using ~
Asking Questions to Somebody Else Using ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= interest (from a bank)
= student ID
= reading room (in a library)
= fly
= rooftop
= chin-ups
= chin up bar/horizontal bar
= level/dimension
= patriotism
= patriot
= lecture/course
= way/means/method
= efficiency
= robbery
= seagull
= standard language
= spice
Verbs:
= to smash
= present/show/exhibit
= express
/ = be sensitive to cold
= motivate somebody to do something
= shine/light up/illuminate
Passive Verbs:
= to be smashed
= to be bumped/crashed into
Adjectives:
= efficient/effective
= cheap/inexpensive
= even number
= odd number
= half
Introduction
In this lesson, you will be introduced to the grammatical principle ~~ and the meaning it
creates in a sentence. You will apply your knowledge of - by combining it with another
grammatical principle to create ~. Lets get started.
Recalling a Fact from Experience: ~~

The grammatical principle ~~ is interesting. As you can see, there are connecting lines both
before and after which indicates that it not only gets attached to something when it is
used, but something also attached to it as well. It would rarely (if ever) be used by itself as you
will always see another grammatical principle attached to it.
Just to show you what I mean by not only does it attach to something, but something also
attaches to it here are the three grammatical principles that we will study over the next three
lessons:
~~ + ~/ = ~ (for example = )
~~ + ~ = ~ (for example = )
~~ + () = ~ (for example = )
The specific meaning that ~~ creates in a situation heavily depends on the grammatical
principle that attaches to it. However, each of constructions above is simply the added meaning
of ~~ plus the meaning of the next grammatical principle.
Therefore, before I introduce you to the meanings of the constructions including ~~, I would
like to introduce you to the meaning of ~~ on its own (despite never being used on its own).
When you see ~~ used as part of a grammatical principle, it signifies that the speaker is
recalling (or requesting that somebody recall) some fact from the past that he/she experienced.
Its hard to give you specific examples right now because you havent studied the complete
constructions yet. However, if you keep this in mind when you learn about things that include ~
~, it will help you with your understanding. It will also help you differentiate between two
similar looking grammatical principles, differing only in their inclusion of ~~.
Asking Questions to Yourself Using ~
In Lesson 21, you learned how to ask questions. You learned that one way to end a sentence with
a question is to add ~/. You can add ~/ to ~~ to form ~, which is a
specific way to ask a question that I would like to talk about.
In that lesson, I mentioned that ~/ is mostly used with adjectives and not with verbs.
However, it is acceptable to attach the construction ~ to verbs.
The most common way ~ is used is when the speaker is asking a question to himself/herself.
For example:
? = Did I read this book?
Now, here is the thing with this grammatical principle. You cannot use ~ to ask yourself any
question other than a yes or no question. For example, while the example sentence above is
correct, the following would all be incorrect:
? this would be asking yourself what day did I buy this
book? which requires an answer other than yes or no. Thus, this sentence is awkward.
You must be thinking to yourself alright, so when I make a sentence like this, I just cant use a
question word like , , , etc Right? Good thinking, but unfortunately incorrect.
Using these question words just changes the meaning of the sentence a little bit. Remember, the
only questions you can make with ~ are yes/no questions. Therefore, if I said:
?
It does not translate to When did I read this book? Rather, it translates to:
? = Did I read this book at some time?
?
Here, you are asking yourself Did that person go? The answer is either yes or no.
It would be awkward to say:

?
As you know, it doesnt make sense as When did that person go? because the answer is not
yes or no. It also sounds awkward as Did that person go at some time? However, it would
be natural to say something like:
? = Did that person go to some place?
? = Did that person go on Tuesday?
? = Did that person go to school?
Another example:
?
This would only be appropriate when it means Did my brother say something to me? not
What did my brother say to me?
Lets look at some more examples:
? = Did dad give me this present?
? = Have we met (at some time) before?
? (This is incorrect)
? = Did we meet yesterday?
? = Did I do the dishes yesterday?
? = Did I return the book to the library?
~ can also be attached to . If the last syllable of a word ends a consonant, you will see
the construction of (word)++. However, if the last syllable of a word ends in a vowel, you
will see the construction of (word)+. For example:
? = Is our teacher Canadian?
? = Is that car my friends car?
You will notice that some of the examples above have the conjugating word conjugated in the
present tense behind ~. Although most of the time the speaker is asking himself/herself
about something that happened in the past, a present tense conjugation is possible as long as the
situation allows for it. Lets look back to some of the earlier examples and see if we could
change the tense of the words behind ~:
? this would translate to something like am I reading this book?
Would this make sense in any situation? I asked Seulgi if this would make sense. She said Only
if you had Alzheimers disease and you couldnt remember if you were reading the book or not.
Or,
? this would translate to something like actually I
cant even translate this one. Something like is this person went on Tuesday
Heres an example of when it could make sense:
? = Is this candy expensive?
Notice that this is also correct:
? = Was this candy expensive?
They both essentially mean the same thing mainly because if something was expensive it is
usually still expensive in the present tense. The only tips I can give you about the difference in
feel between those two sentences (and this is just what Im feeling), is that the second sentence
(in the past tense) is referring to a specific time in the past when he/she bought the candy (and is
asking himself/herself to try to recall if it was expensive or not). The first example (in the present
tense) isnt referring to something in the past, but he speaker is just asking himself/herself if the
candy is expensive (in general). Both, however, are used as the speaker asking the question to
himself/herself. There is really only a slight nuance between the past and present tense in this
case.
Asking Questions to Somebody Else Using ~

When asking yourself a question, it is quite common to use ~. However, it would only be
used in informal situations to ask a question to another person (usually an older person asking a
question to a much younger person). I dont want to spend too much time on this, but it is
something that you should be aware of. Some examples:
? = Is Seulgi really sick?
The above would be more likely to be said as:
? = Is Seulgi really sick?
? = Do you eat fish?

? = Did you buy a cell-phone?
Stating a fact from experience: ~

Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Stating a Fact from Experience: ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= domestic (something from Korea)
= house
= developed country
= medical treatment
= active
= passive
= wall socket/outlet
= plug from a wire
= ancestor
= pimple/acne
= passion
= garage
= reputation
= living room
= joke
() = election (elect)
Verbs:
= get off of a train/bus
= to bring, pack up something
= move/travel/migrate
= scratch/scrape
= tie up
= adjust
= encourage
= warn down/run down/ran out
Adjectives:
= stylish/cool
= in the middle
= also/as well
= here and there
= in the middle of
Introduction
In this lesson, you will continue to learn about ~~. Specifically, you will learn about ~~,
which is a common ending to a sentence. But what does it mean? Lets gets started.
Stating a Fact from Experience: ~

In the previous lesson, you learned about ~~ and how it can be placed between two things to
have a meaning that expresses experience. You learned how it can attach to a verb/adjective, and
then how ~/ gets attached to it to form a compound meaning.
In this lesson, you will learn another grammatical principle that is often compounded with ~~.
By attaching ~ to ~~ we end up with ~, which can be placed at the end of a sentence
attached to a verb/adjective.
First of all, what meaning does just ~ have?
The thing is, although ~ is still used commonly in Korean, just using ~ is somewhat of
an older grammatical principle that isnt used anymore. Its general function is simply to state a
fact or current situation. The only time this ever really comes up anymore is when attaching it to
to form , which you learned about in Lesson 95.
If we combine the usage of ~~ with ~, we end up with a grammatical principle that is
the combined meaning of both of these individual principles. That is, when the speaker is
expressing some fact that he/she witnessed and knows from some sort of first-hand experience
with that fact. Specifically, this fact must be something that wasnt already known to the person
and it must be something that he/she just came to realize or learn because of this first-hand
experience.
Lets look at a very simple example:
= (from my own experience, I realized that) the bag is heavy
Notice the difference is nuance between these two:

In the first example, one is simply stating a fact that the bag is heavy. In the second example,
the speaker is indicating that he/she has some direct experience with the heaviness of the bag
and this allows him/her to say that the bag is heavy. In both examples the end result is essentially
the same (the speaker conveying that the bag is heavy), but the second one has a more complex
nuance.
Because this grammatical principle is only used when one indicates a newly learned fact (from
the experience), a sentence like this cannot be used:

In this case, nothing was learned, and there is nothing that one can convey based on
experience. However, you could say something like this:
= (from my own experience, I realized that) walking to school is

difficult
In the example above, there is something that the speaker realized for the first time (that walking
to school is difficult), and the use of ~ is to signify that this knowledge came as a result of
first-hand experience with walking to school.
As with most intermediate/advanced Korean grammatical principles, it is difficult to come up
with an English translation that fits all examples of ~. My favorite, the one that I feel fits
most situations is (from my own experience, I realized/saw/noticed that).
Other examples:
= (from my own experience, I realized that) learning Korean is
hard
= I realized/noticed that Canadian weather is very cold
= I saw/noticed that that kid has a lot of acne
= is/was very stylish (from what I experienced)
So far I have only used examples of ~ attached to adjectives, but it is also common to attach
it to verbs or . For example:
= (from my own experience, I realized/noticed that)
Korean students study really hard
= (from my own experience, I realized/noticed that) the problem is the
computers
= from my experience, I remember that the outlet is
between the bed and the desk
= from my experience, I saw that this meat is from Korea
..
.
I am very happy to be able to explain the subtle difference between conjugating the word before
~ in the present tense (for example, ) and conjugating it in the past tense (for
example, ). Because the use of ~ already expresses ones experience from the past,
some people are confused about what effect the past tense conjugation can have on this
grammatical principle. Let me explain.
By saying, for example:

You are saying that you personally saw/experienced it raining. In other words, you literally saw
water fall from the sky.
However, by saying:

You are saying that you personally saw/experienced the fact that it did rain, but you didnt
actually see it rain. For example, maybe you saw/experienced that the ground was wet yesterday,
but you didnt actually see the rain falling from the sky.
In most situations, it is usually more common to use the present tense conjugation before ~.
However, if the situation allows for it, the past tense is possible.
A good translation for the past tense conjugation being used before ~ might be I
saw/experienced that (something/somebody) had. For example:
= I saw it rain yesterday
= I saw that it had rained yesterday
= I saw/noticed my girlfriend eating at the restaurant
= I saw/noticed that my girlfriend had eaten all of her
food at the restaurant (For example, you get here, and you see that her plate is empty. You didnt
personally see her eating, but you saw that she had eaten).
= I noticed/saw firsthand that our teacher is good at English
( ) = I noticed/saw firsthand that our teacher had
been good at English (and here, you need to ask yourself in what situation would this actually
be said?)
It is also quite common to use ~ to ask a question. These questions, like are usually
addressed to oneself. However, depending on the situation they can sort of be addressed to a
listener. This is similar to how ~ works; that is, even though the sentence is directed at
oneself, the speaker might be deliberately saying it to get a response from a listener.
Regardless, the purpose of using ~ to ask a question can be seen if we look at the following
examples:
? = How much did the bread cost?
? = How much did the bread cost?
In the first example, the use of ~ implies that the speaker knew how much the bread
cost but for some reason cant remember. He/she knew or somehow experienced the price in
the past, but currently cant think of it. For example, if you went to the grocery store and bought
some bread in addition to other items. When you got home, you looked in your wallet and realize
that you have less money than you thought. You start thinking about how much each item cost,
and then you can ask yourself ? Notice here that if you went to the grocery
store with a friend, and came back together you could say the same sentence. Even though the
question is directed to yourself, your friend could also hear the question and answer it.
Conversely, the second example implies that the speaker has/had no idea how much the bread
costs. For example, if you were sitting at home and your mother came home with bread. You had
no idea how much it cost, so here you can ask her ?
Another example:
= Ah, where did Seulgi go, again? (I cant remember where she went,
but I was with her and I saw her leaving, but I just cant remember where she went)
= Where did Seulgi go? (You have no idea where she went)
Other examples:
= Ah, when did I go to Thailand, again? (I cant remember, but
obviously I have the experience of going to Thailand, but I just cant remember when it was)
= Ah, when did I graduate again (what year)? (I cant remember, but
obviously I have the experience of graduating, but I just cant remember when it was)
= Ah, where did I get off the bus, again? (I cant remember, but
obviously I have the experience getting off the bus, I just cant remember where it was I got off)
UNIT 1
UNIT 2
UNIT 3
UNIT 4
UNIT 5
HANJA
NEWEST
OTHER
FORUM
Lesson 119: ~ (to notice then)

Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
To Notice/Experience and Then : ~
When the speaker is talking about himself/herself: ~
When the speaker is talking about somebody else: ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= something to lean on
= counter for turns around something
= North Korean defector
= ingredients
= welfare
= valley
= laboratory
= heating
= weather
= weather forecast
= guy/fellow (informal)
= guy/jerk/chap
= bible
= Christianity
= catholic
= god
= believer
= drinking water
= protest/demonstration
Verbs:
= (conduct an) experiment
Passive Verbs:
= to have something taken away
Adjectives:
= greasy/oily/rich
= etc
= total/all
= for there to be no use
= straight/upright
= dry season
= wet season
= the lowest
Introduction
In this lesson, we will finish with our group of lessons about ~~. Specifically, in this lesson,
you will learn how to use ~~ in combination with ~() (Lesson 81) to connect two clauses.
The construction ~ is very similar to other clause connectors like ~/, ~()()
and ~ , but as always there are some specific usages you should know about. Lets get
started.
To Notice/Experience and Then : ~
This is one of the grammatical principles that foreign learners of Korean have a lot of trouble
with. With good reason, too its meaning and usage are very similar to many other grammatical
principles that you have already studied. My goal for this lesson is to teach you the situations
where you will be more likely to find this grammatical principle being used.
You can probably already guess the meaning of ~ without even reading my explanations.
Its quite simply the combination of ~~ (to experience/notice/learn/see something first hand)
which you have studied since Lesson 117, plus the meaning of ~() that you studied in
Lesson 81. As always, its hard to come up with a translation that will fit every scenario, but a
good translation might be to experience/notice/learn/see something first hand, so.
I would like to separate my explanation of ~ into two usages that I have noticed.
When the speaker is talking about himself/herself: ~

Typically, when the speaker is talking about himself/herself (when the speaker is the subject of
the sentence), you will see a sentence that has a form like this:

So you might be looking at that sentence and asking yourself Okay this looks just like any
sentence what form are you talking about.
Let me explain.
Typically and I really do mean typically, as Ive noticed this for years now, when the speaker is
also the subject of a sentence, you will see this type of form:
((1) speaker) ((2) some action that the speaker did) ((3) past tense ~/) ((4) ~)
((5) some emotion or description that happens as a result of what the speaker did).
I would like to talk about each number above individually to describe this form that I am
talking about.
1. As I said, this form is typically used when the speaker is the subject. The only
reason I say typically instead of always is because you never know when
there may be exceptions in languages. Id like to say always, but Im just
going to say typically
2. This one doesnt really matter. Some action that the speaker did in the past.
3. When the speaker is the subject of the sentence, I have noticed that the
clause is conjugated into the past tense. For example, this sentence is
awkward in Korean

4. Why use ~? Actually, in my opinion, its not even about the use of ~. ~
is just there to connect the two clauses really. Then what is the purpose of
~~ here? Why not just use one of the other clause connectors that you
have already learned? To answer that, you need to remember what the
purpose of ~~ is; which is to indicate that the speaker has
seen/experienced something first-hand.
5. This could really be anything that makes sense in the context of the
sentence, but as you will see in the examples below; this is usually some sort
of emotion or feeling (typically an adjective) that was elicited as a result of
the first clause.
You have to remember that has no understanding of Korean grammar. She just knows what
sounds natural/correct to her. Without knowing any of the things that I just described previous, I
asked her Make me some sentences using ~ where you are the subject of the sentence.
This is what she came up with:
= I (had the experience of) writing the essay question
and because of that my hand is sore
= Because my body was
sore, I (had the experience of) receiving a massage and because of that my body is not sore
anymore
= I (had the experience of) going into the
warm water and because of that I started to fall asleep
= I (had the experience of) thinking really hard
and because of that I thought of the answer
= I (had the experience of) walking all day and because
of that I am very tired
= I (had the experience of) walking all day and because
of that my legs are sore
10 = I (had the experience of) eating cake every

day and because of that I gained 10 kilograms
The first thing I did was change all of the conjugations before ~ to a present tense
conjugation. She said all of those sounded unnatural.
The next thing I did was ask her what the difference between these two would be:

Her answer: both sound exactly the same to me.
The only thing I can guess is that the example with ~ just gives the listener a tiny bit more
information/feel (specifically that the person experienced the action) and makes the sentence just
that much more complex.
So now your question is: Okay, so when would I use ~ instead of ~/ or ~ ,
or any other grammatical principle like this?
Thats what Im saying. When you want to express a sentence in the form that you see in the
sentences above, I suggest that you use ~ over other grammatical principles. Likewise, you
will be more likely to see/hear ~ be used in these types of situations as well.
Now, what if the speaker is not the subject of the sentence?
.
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
How is this grammatical principle formed?
What does this grammatical principle mean?
~/
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= swing/trapeze
= maple tree
= ratings
= viewer
= audio-visual room
= back door/back gate
= overcoat
= tendency/trend
= habitat
= double eyelid
= ocean
= ocean
= Mediterranean Sea
= petition
= internal medicine
= glacier
= seawater/saltwater
= sea level
Verbs:
= watch TV
= sink
= inhabit
= overwhelm
= melt/dissolve
Passive Verbs:
= to be hanging
Adjectives:
= to be relaxed/relieved
= to be relaxed/relieved
= clear/obvious/apparent
= hard/tough/difficult
= to be gloomy/blue/depressed
= forever/for good (usually leaving)
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to connect two clauses with ~, which will be your first
real introduction into the world of compounded quoted grammatical principles. I just made up
that term off the top of my head, but lets get started.
Indicating an Emotion after hearing what somebody says: ~

How is this grammatical principle formed?
As you progress to more and more advanced grammar in your Korean studies, you will often
come across a grammatical principle that looks like a grammatical principle that you already
know but placed after ~~ (or after ~()~ in the case of nouns).
For example, look at what is being introduced in this lesson: ~. ~() is a grammatical
principle that you learned about in Lesson 81, and it is being placed after ~~. Whenever you
see this, the clause before ~ is often a quoted sentence, and this entire quoted sentence is
then attached to whatever the next grammatical principle is. The grammatical principle that is
attached to ~~ (in our case, ~()) typically just follows its usage and meaning, but only
compounded onto the fact that it is attached to a grammatical principle. From this lesson
forward, Im going to refer to these as compounded quoted grammatical principles because that
is exactly what they are.
Okay, Im not sure if you were able to follow that description above. Without examples, it might
be hard. Lets look at the following example:
Okay, Im not sure if you were able to follow that description above. Without examples, it might
be hard. Lets look at the following example:

Remember what I said: The clause before ~~ is a quoted sentence. Therefore, in the
example above, the following is a quote:
()~
But how is that a quote? That doesnt look like a quote.
When you see these compounded quoted grammatical principles, the ~~ represents an
abbreviation. It is an abbreviation of:
~/ (remember that the rules change when quoting an adjective)
Therefore, the sentence from above could actually be written as this:
= I am said because you said you are leaving
However (as this lesson is going to describe) these types of sentences are often abbreviated to
only include ~ between the two clauses.
As I mentioned before, there are many other compounded quoted grammatical principles, each
that will be introduced in its own lesson when it becomes important. At this level, this is really
the only important one that you need to worry about. However, it would be good to remember
that if you see a grammatical principle attached to ~~ instead of being directly attached to the
verb/adjective you are most likely looking at a compounded quoted grammatical principle.
Just one example to show you what I mean before we move on. The following:

Is actually an abbreviation of:

I dont want to get into the meaning of ~ (although I bet you can already guess it) or any
other compounded quoted grammatical principle. At this point, I just want you to be familiar
with what you are looking at in case you come across one of these while studying on your own.
Back to our original sentence:

The next thing I want you to realize is that the verb ~ attaches to does not have the usual
quoted conjugation attached to it. As a quoted clause, you would probably expect that the
sentence should look like this:

However, is correct. Also note that this distinction doesnt need to be made for
adjectives, because ~/ isnt added to a quoted adjective.
What does this grammatical principle mean?

Okay, now that we understand what this grammatical principle is composed of, we can start
talking about the meaning that it has. Much like ~ form the previous lesson, ~ is
typically used in one specific type of sentence. Lets look at the example from before again,
because ~ is almost always used this specific format:

The format is: The speaker repeats something that another person said (which is placed before ~
as the quoted part of the sentence), and then the speaker indicates his/her emotion or
feelings as a result of hearing that fact. A simple translation for the sentence above would be:
= Im sad that you are leaving
However, you need to remember that the first part of the sentence is actually a quote. Therefore,
detailed (but less flowing) translation would be:
= Now that/because I have heard that you are leaving, I am sad, or
= After hearing that you are leaving, I am sad, or
The most common emotions that are used after the quoted sentence are adjectives that express
one is sad, happy, surprised or impressed. Lets look at a bunch of examples, all of which you
will see follow a similar format:
= I cant believe Seulgi is going to graduate school
(now that I have heard that Seulgi is going to graduate school, I cant believe it)
= Its too bad that your parents are getting a divorce
(now that I have heard that your parents are getting a divorce, it is too bad)
= Thankfully a police station is being built in-front

of our house (Now that I have heard there is a police station being built in-front of our house, I
am thankful)
= It is a big problem that all the glaciers in the north
pole are melting (After hearing that all the glaciers in the North pole are melting, (I can see that)
this is a big problem
= I am glad that your dad is coming as well (Now that I have
heard that your father is coming as well, I am glad)
= After hearing you say thank you to me, I feel more
thankful
The clause before ~ can also be conjugated into the past tense. This makes the quoted part
of the sentence in the past tense. Ive used some of the examples above in the examples below so
you can see how they might differ slightly:
= Im sad that you left (Now that/because I have heard that you left, I
am sad)
= I cant believe Seulgi went to graduate school (now
that I have heard that Seulgi went to graduate school, I cant believe it)
= Its too bad that your parents got a divorce (now that I
have heard that your parents got a divorce, it is too bad)
= After hearing that you said thank you to me, I feel
more thankful
Im not going to give the full quoted sentence translation for the upcoming sentences. Mainly
because it is redundant and I think you get the idea:
= It is too bad that that rabbits habitat disappeared
= It is too bad that your dog died
= I cant believe that the swing in the
playground broke
= Im disappointed that the
ratings for the drama we make dropped
Depending on the situation, it is also possible to end a sentence with ~ in this form. That is,
use the sentences above, but to not indicate your emotion after ~ is said. When this is
done, the emotion that would be said is assumed from context. For example, if somebody just
said the following:

Assuming the speaker wasnt some weirdo who wanted to start dating your mother or father after
the divorce (and wanted to tell you about it), you can assume from the context that the speaker
would want to say something like its too bad.
Another good example would be:

You always need to remember that Korean people love shortening their sentences!
.
~/
Earlier in the lesson I stressed that the grammatical principle we were dealing with was ~
and not ~/.
You must be asking yourself what meaning does ~/ have, then?
You probably wont believe this I didnt believe it when I first learned it but this has the same
meaning as described above, except for that the quoted part of the sentence is in the future tense.
For example:

This would translate to:
I cant believe Seulgi will go to graduate school (now that I have heard that Seulgi will go to
graduate school, I cant believe it)
I dont know about you, but this to me absolutely doesnt look like it should be the correct
translation. However, in cases like this, I either have to trust my instinct, or trust what Korean
people tell me. The Korean people around me are telling me that the translation above is correct.
Other examples, which are the same as the examples earlier, just conjugated differently:
= Its too bad that your parents will get a divorce (now
that I have heard that your parents will get a divorce, it is too bad)
= Thankfully a police station will be built in-front
of our house (Now that I have heard there will be a police station built in-front of our house, I am
thankful)
= It is a big problem that all the glaciers in the
north pole will melt (After hearing that all the glaciers in the North pole will melt, (I can see that)
this is a big problem

Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
If one does something for a while, the next action will occur: ~
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= vaccine
= ones superior/boss
= system
= skeleton
= cyclone/tornado
= wisdom
= orphanage
= teaching materials
= hairdresser
= build/frame
= street/road
= comment
= idol groups
= taste/preference
= taste/preference
= ornament/decoration
= cook/cooking
= kitchen
= jungle
= parallel
Verbs:
= starve
= let/make somebody starve
= pursue/pursuit
= brainwash ()
= talk behind somebodys back
= burp
= division/divide
Passive Verbs:
= to be touching/adjoined
Adjectives:
= bulky/burly (build)
= leisurely/quietly
= charming
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to connect two clauses by using the grammatical principle ~
. The grammar within this principle is actually the addition of a few different grammar
concepts piled together, but its meaning is simple enough to describe in a short lesson.
Over the next few lesson I am going to be focusing on grammatical principles that connect two
clauses with the use of . Each of these lessons will introduce a grammatical principle that is
easy to explain and understand. I was tempted to present all of these in one lesson because of
their simplicity but decided against it. As you continue to reach higher and higher lessons here at
HowtoStudyKorean, I can only assume that your understanding of Korean grammar is very
good.
From this point forward, you may notice lessons that are significantly shorter than earlier
lessons. This is not because I am getting lazy or because I have lost my motivation to provide the
best lessons possible. Rather, it is simply because there is very little to explain mainly because
everything was explained to thoroughly in earlier lessons.
In no means will lessons always be like this from this point. Dont worry there are still quite a
few grammatical principles that will take a long time to explain perfectly (look up all the
meanings for the word if you are getting to the point where you are starting to say to
yourself I know everything about Korean grammar.). You have come a long way, but you still
have a long way to go.
In these shorter lessons, in lieu of providing unneeded explanations, I will do my best to provide
as many original examples as possible for you to get accustomed to each grammatical principle.
Now, lets get started.
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
While doing something, one realizes: ~ ()
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= empire
= pest/insect
= outfit
= family history
= flowerpot
= sprout of a plant/blossom of behavior
= dementia/Alzheimers disease
= breaking news
= streetlight
= rank
= rose
= equal rights
Verbs:
= argue about
= push/thrust
= push/thrust
= back up
= blossom/spring up
= going too far
= obey
= rank/set something (price, etc)
= harvest/collect/gather/gain
= neglect/negligence
= open/spread out
= resist/fight back
Adjective s:
= strong/powerful (///)
= a low status in life
= evil/wicked/vicious
() = equality/equal
= golden yellow
= counter for drops (ex. Water)
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn another grammatical principle that requires the addition of
between two clauses. Specifically, you will learn how to use ~ to connect two clauses.
Lets get started.
.
While doing something, one realizes: ~ ()
In the previous lesson, you learned how to connect two clauses with ~() . This was
used to express that if one does something for a continuous/repeated amount of time, something
will happen. ~() () is often shortened to ~ . It is used to indicate that while
(in the midst of) doing an action, one realizes something. Lets look at how this meaning is
created.
This is essentially the sum of two grammatical principles with the word to see/look. First,
as you learned in Lesson 88, ~() is used to indicate that while one does something another
action occurred. For example:
After ~(), we place , which is an addition of ~()() (Lesson 81) and the word
to mean now that I look. The sum of everything together has a meaning similar to
while one does an action, and then looks/reflects on what is happening. The following
clause is typically a realization that occurred due to the looking/reflecting that occurred.
We wouldnt be able to add to the example above because that wouldnt make sense. For
example:
while I was walking I realized that I fell? Grammatically
that might make sense, but the sentence is ridiculous. Remember that this grammatical principle
expresses that one realized something while doing another action. How can you realize that you
have fallen?
Instead, lets look at an example that would be appropriate. Usually the most simple example you
could make with ~ would be something like this:
12
As I said, the meaning in this sentence is not simply While I studied, it became 12 oclock.
Rather, the specific use of indicates that the person is/became aware of what was going
on, and the second clause is an expression of what the person became aware of. A simple
translation of the sentence above would be:
12 = While I was studying, it became 12:00
A more complicated translation that more accurately expresses the nuances of ~ would
be:
12 = While I was studying, (and then looked at/reflected
one what was happening) I realized that it had become 12:00
In this form, the end of the Korean sentence doesnt need to explicitly indicate that one
realized something. This meaning is implied within the grammatical principle itself. However,
it is quite common to see the final clause of the sentence conjugated using the ~
grammatical principle, which you learned about in Lesson 94. This essentially adds the nuance
that the result in the second clause occurred without the speaker being aware of it happening
(because he/she was too focused on the action in the first clause).
You need to be careful with what type of clause you use before ~ . For example, this
sentence wouldnt make sense:

Here, the action that became realized ( ) was something that occurred in the
past before the process in the first clause began. In order to use ~ , the action that is
being realized has to occur simultaneously with the realization not that one realized something
prior to the another action happening. For example, in this sentence:
= While I was exercising, I realized that my arm was sore
This clause expresses that the person was exercising, and while exercising, he/she realizes that
his/her arm was sore. This realization occurred as a result of the first action, and therefore is
acceptable.
Lets look at some simple examples:
= While talking with my friends, I
realized that time had gone by very quickly
= While going out with her, (I realized/noticed
that) she has become better and better
The actions that youre doing dont necessarily need to be currently happening in order for you
to use this grammatical principle. As you will see in the examples below, it is possible to use ~
with a situation that you do many times. In effect, the action is directly happening, the
lifestyle of you doing something regularly is still happening.
=While/after eating hamburgers continually (over
a period of time), I realized that I gained a lot of weight
=While/after exercising often, I realized that I

got/became healthy
And now lets look at some more complicated examples:
= While watching the
same broadcast (over and over), I realized that, without my knowledge, I had become
brainwashed
= While
reading the comments, I came to realize that there is really a wide variety of people in the world
In the next lesson, you will learn a grammatical principle that looks/sounds similar to ~
both in structure and in meaning. I dont want you to get confused. ~() , through the
use of ~ within the grammatical principle itself, implies that the realization occurs while one
is still doing the first action. I dont want to introduce the grammar of the next lesson in this
lesson, but keep that in mind when you read Lesson 123.
Jump to:
Vocabulary
Introduction
Now that I have done/Having done ~/()
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= conscience
= stationary
= ones reason/intellect/head
= alternative
= the dead/the deceased
= price of oil
= driving force
= writer/author
= breach/violation/failure
Verbs:
= overlap with/coincide with
= dye your hair
= go out with
= to promise/do something for sure
= lower/drop/reduce
= influence/affect/sway
= march/parade
= construct
= radiate/emit/give off
= verify
= investigate
Adjectives:
= hurt/sad about something
= serious/earnest
= groundbreaking
= fundamental
= active
= definite/obvious/clear
= thin/fine
= soon/shortly/any minute
= without fail
= stresses a ~ sentence
Introduction
In this lesson, you will continue to learn about grammatical principles that contain . In
this lesson, you will specifically learn about the grammatical principle: ~/ . Lets get
started
.
Now that I have done/Having done ~/ ()
In Lesson 81, you learned how to add ~()() between two clauses. This grammatical
principle is essentially the same as that, but with the addition of ~/ before ~()
(). I probably could have included it in the explanation give in Lesson 81, but ~/ ()
is usually taught as a separate grammatical principle, so I decided to introduce it in a separate
lesson.
Its meaning and usage is quite simple. One thing I want to recognize is that the word in
this case is not to see. Notice that in the previous two lessons you learned grammatical
principles that were connected like this:
~()
~()
Used like that, you should be able to recognize that the word is to see. The verb before
~ is not physically connected to the word .
However, in this lesson, you should recognize that we are connecting to the preceding verb
using ~/. Remember from Lesson 32 that this has the meaning of to try/to attempt.
Therefore, the meaning that this entire grammatical principle expresses is not related to
seeing/reflecting as it was in the previous two lessons. Rather, the meaning is related to
attempting/trying an action.
You should remember from Lesson 81 that the meaning of ~()() is something like
because or now that I have.
By using ~() and ~/ , we combine their meanings to have the meaning that
now that one has tried/attempted the first an action, he/she realizes or can state/assert the second
clause.
Lets look at a simple example:
= Now that Ive used an IPhone, (I realize
that) I cant use another phone | or | Having tried (using) the IPhone, I can (no longer) use
another phone
The meaning/usage is fairly simple, mainly because you should already be familiar with using
~() by this point. At this point, I feel that all I can do to help you understand this better is
provide you with a bunch of original example sentences applying this grammatical principle.
Here you go:
= Now that Ive

tried/attempted living in a foreign country, (I know that, I can assert that, I realized that) I am
very proud to be Korean
= Now that Ive attempted to
stay up all night, I realized how important sleep is | or | Having tried staying up all night, I
realized how important sleep is
= Now that I
have tried/attempted to dye my hair, I realize/can assert that doing so is not as simple as one
thinks
= Now that I have tried/attempted
having a boyfriend, I became able to understand men better
10 = Now that I have
tried/attempted running a 10km race, I have the confidence to do anything
= Now that I have
been a University student, I can feel (realize) how good my high school life was
= Having
studied science, I now know that the material in science books require a lot of verification
Just one quick thing before we finish. This grammatical principle can also be written/said as ~/
. However, I feel that it is more common as ~/ .
Introduction
To be Worth Doing: ~/
Complicated ~/ Sentences
Vocabulary
Nouns:
= specialist
= bug/insect
= field
= principal/fundamentals
= crescent moon
= full moon
= coffee beans
= cocoa
= caffeine
= sunflower
= ostrich
= willpower/mental strength
= cemetery
= refugee
= jeans
= rent for a room
= cockroach
Verbs:
= exhale
= torture
= taste
= hesitate
() = camping/camp
() = chatter/(chat)
= shoot/fire a gun
= part from/farewell/parting
= evacuate
Passive Verbs:
= to have a cramp ()
Adjectives:
= desirable
= fifteen days/half a month
= Korean measurement
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use the grammatical principle ~/ to indicate that
something is worth doing or possible. In doing so, you will see how these types of sentences can
also be expressed using the word . Lets get started.
To be Worth Doing: ~/
The grammar within ~/ is very similar to that of ~ , which you learned in
Lesson 98. In both ~/ and ~ , the you can see that the ~ principle is
being used to allow the preceding clause to describe (in the form of ~/) and
(in the form of ~) respectively. As you know, most of the time, the thing that immediately
follows something like this a noun. For example:

However, (along with ) doesnt act like this. Instead, there is no noun and the
clause preceding ~/ is describing , which is adjective. You should specifically
remember that it is an adjective (and not a verb) so you know how to conjugate it and also for
something else that I will point out later.
Okay, as always, I like to give you my grammar notes about a particular grammatical principle,
but you dont need to concern yourself too much with that.
Lets look at the basic structure of how this can be used by looking at a simple example:

The construction above would translate to something like to be worth doing. The thing is
though, what we have essentially created is an adjective (remember I said that was an
adjective) that can describe things to say they are worth something. Therefore, this form, as an
adjective, is often used to describe a noun. For example:
= That is worth doing
Notice what is happening here. The noun of that (thing) is being described by the entire
construction of . Lets look at some other example:
= That food is worth eating
= That book is worth reading
= That computer is worth buying
= That person is worth trusting
= Cacao is worth tasting
The grammatical principle ~/ (from Lesson 32) is often used with these verbs to add
the feeling of to try/attempt. For example:
= That food is worth eating (worth trying)
= That book is worth reading (worth trying to read)
In this form, (with or without ~/ ) it is rare to find an object being used before the verb.
Think about this for a minute. If you look at this structure:
( ) [ ] = (the food) + [is worth eating]
What noun could you possibly add to this sentence? It doesnt make sense. A lot of Korean
learners assume that because a verb is being used that it is better to include the noun as an object
in the sentence. For example, instead of writing this:

They write:

I know is a verb. I also know is a noun. However, you have to remember that the
entire construction of (verb) + ~/ acts as sort of descriptive clause that describes
the noun as a subject and the noun is not being acted on by the verb.
It is possible to include a noun before the verb in these cases, but typically only done when the
verb is . In these cases, we still have a descriptive clause describing a subject, but the
descriptive clause simply gets longer and more complex with the use of the object.
Using the construction (subject) + (noun) + we create the meaning of (subject)
deserves/is worthy of receiving (noun). For example:
= That teacher deserves an award
= That doctor deserves a lot
of praise for saving a lot of peoples lives (because he/she saved a lot of peoples lives)
= Our grandfather
deserves a lot of respect for fighting in the Korean war
Another time you might see a noun included before the verb in these situations is if the verb is
, and the noun could actually be attached to to form a verb. For example, there is no
difference between these two sentences:

This isnt incredibly important, but I hear ~/ used as a question every weekend
when I eat with my girlfriends parents, so I wanted to make sure that I specifically mentioned it.
Im sure you could have figured out how this is done without me showing it to you, but here we
go I hear this all the time:
? = Is the food worth eating?
(The direct translation above might be more accurately translated to is the food good? or does
the food taste alright?)
? = It is worth living in Korea?
? = Was it worth driving? (this is more likely to have another meaning which
is talked about later in the lesson)
(Notice above that you can conjugate to the past tense to indicate/ask if something was
worth it)
.
More Complicated ~/ Sentences
Its also possible to now use an entire clause ending in to describe an upcoming noun
(remember, its an adjective, so it can do this). When this is done, notice that the structure of the
sentence changes. Now you are not describing an upcoming noun in this form:
[ ] ( )? = (do you know) [worthwhile place to eat]?
Here, contrary to the structure of the sentence that we studied earlier, a noun could be added.
For example:
{} [ ] ( )? = (do you know) [worthwhile place to eat] {rice}?
? = Do you know a good (worthwhile) place to eat rice?
? = Do you know a good place to read a book?
Other examples of this form being used with or without that extra noun:
= There are jeans that I want to buy (there are jeans that would be
worthwhile buying)
= There are many places worth chatting
Often times people use ~/ to express that something is possible despite maybe not
being the best option. Its hard to separate these two usages (one expressing that something is
worthwhile and the other expressing that something is possible) because they often feel
similar in a sentence. For example:
? = Is it worth cooking Korean food?
This sort of sounds awkward expressed this way, as I cant think of an example where somebody
would want to say this. Instead, it could have the meaning of:
? = It is still possible/are you able to cook Korean food?
The usage/translation is often interchangeable. I looked at many examples of this possibility
usage in the diction airy, and my brain was still telling me that those usages were talking about
something being worthwhile.
Here is a good example from a magazine that I saw where the usage of possibility can be
distinguished quite distinctly from the usage of worthwhile:
8
= In the world, even though there is enough food for it to be possible for everybody to eat,
800,000,000 people are always hungry
Another example. From before, I showed you this sentence:
?
Depending on the situation, this could have the nuance of is it worth driving or is it possible
for you to drive?/can you drive?/are you able to drive? I specifically say nuance because, as I
said, it is very difficult for me consider this another meaning/usage.
Using to Express a Similar Meaning to ~/

The noun means value/worth, and can be used quite simply to express that meaning.
For example:
= Children dont know the value of
eating healthy
= Young people should learn the value of physical
labor
= That picture has a high value
Because it has this meaning, can be used to form essentially the same meaning as sentences
with , but instead of being a grammatical principle, it is just a noun that can be used as
any other noun. For example:
5 ? = Do you think this coffee is/worth (the price
of/paying) 5,000 won?
5 = It was worth it for me to work hard for
five years and become a lawyer
3 = It was worth watching that movie for three hours
A lot of times, you will see ~/ used with in the same sentence. For example:
= It is worth trying/attempting living in a
foreign country at least once
= It is worth learning a foreign language
: Lessons 1 20
Welcome to the Hanja section of HowtoStudyKorean.com! Make no mistake

about it our website is dedicated to teaching you Korean. However even a small amount of
studying Hanja can help ones Korean studies tremendously. In our Hanja Lessons, you will
gradually be introduced to the most common and important characters that can help you with
your Korean studies.
Korean people, even those who claim to be absolutely terrible in Hanja are able to recognize
about 100 or so basic characters. Because of this, these characters are often substituted for the
Hangeul equivalents in various written forms of Korean (newspapers, books, signs, movie
posters, TV drama names, etc). This first Unit will introduce you to the first 105 Hanja
characters that any learner of Korean should know.
Lesson 1
The First Five
, , , ,
Lesson 2
In and Out
, , , ,
Lesson 3
Days, Months, Year, Inside, Outside
, , , ,
Lesson 4
People
, , , , ,
Lesson 5
Numbers
, , , , , , , , ,
Lesson 6
Direction
, , ,
Lesson 7
Simplicity
, , , ,
Lesson 8
Korea
, , , ,
Lesson 9
Water
, , , ,
Lesson 10
Feelings
, , , ,
Lesson 11
Names
, , , ,
Lesson 12
Yes, No, Use, Half
, , , ,
Lesson 13
School
, , , ,
Lesson 14
Public
, , , ,
Lesson 15
Places
, , , ,
Lesson 16
Time
, , , ,
Lesson 17
Part, Whole
, , , ,
Lesson 18
New
, , , ,
Lesson 19
Power
, , , ,
Lesson 20
World
, , , ,
Unit 2: Lessons 21 40
The characters introduced in Unit 1 are, for all intents and purposes, characters
that every Korean person is expected to be able to recognize and know how to replicate.
However, the characters introduced in Unit 2 are more complex. Although most Korean people
would be able to recognize most of the characters introduced in this Unit, some Korean people
(especially the younger generation) would not be able to.
The difference is that native Korean speakers (just like native speakers of any language) can
often guess the meaning of an unknown word based on feeling and context due to their exposure
to the language. However, we are not native speakers. We need other tools to allow us to
understand the meaning of unknown words because we have not been exposed to Korean since
birth.
The following is 95 more characters (to bring us to an even 200) that will help you understand
the roots of Korean words easier. I created this list based on my own experiences with studying
Korean and Hanja, and their relationship with one-another.
Lesson 21
Direction 2
, , , ,
Lesson 22
Work
, , , ,
Later Lessons not yet uploaded! Check back later for more Hanja goodness!

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Korean pronunciation is vastly different from English, and it takes a lot of practice to be able to

Technically, it sounds like:

Lets do the same thing with

Lets do the same thing with (to scratch)

Informal Low Respect

Informal High Respect

Formal High Respect

Informal Low Respect

= I was a bad baby

Informal High Respect

Formal High Respect

How to actually conjugate verbs/adjectives to the Future Tense

= I will meet my friend tomorrow

Does this apply?

Here is one example sentence:

= I will eat rice

= That thing is probably/most likely not a passport

= counter for things

Pure Korean Numbers

These are the pure Korean numbers as provided earlier:

The temperature zero

You should use when talking about:

Counter of Behavior or Action

Telling Korean Time

: First, Second, Third, etc

Pure Korean Numbers

The temperature zero

You should use when talking about:

Counter of Behavior or Action

Telling Korean Time

: First, Second, Third, etc

= Our second (child) is a high school student

Months of the year:

10 = I walked for 10 minutes

I will eat in three hours, or

is used in the same way as , but it means next. For example:

Korean Days (//)

8 15 = I will arrive on August 15th

2 = I didnt eat Korean food for two weeks

Korean Months (/)

= I will go to Korea next year

This Week/This Month/This Time ()

Korean Particle (and using with counters)

An Important Note: Eliminating the Subject

= doctors have a lot of money

Korean Particle ~ (only)

In that same sense, adjectives can be used with a subject:

Korean Particles ~ and ~

3 = I will wait until 3:00

Korean Particle ~()

= I built our house out of wood

It is also used to indicate what you ate for a specific meal:

Korean Particles (and): ~/, ~/ and ~

Korean Particles (with): ~/, ~/ and ~

= I went with my friend

Korean Particles (to) //

Korean Particles (from): ~//()

= I learned Korean from my vice principal

Do something for somebody: ~/ ()