Korean lessons: Lesson 1

Fundamental features of Korean Language

The Korean language is spoken by more than 60 million people. It belongs to the group of Altaic languages
together with Japanese, Ainu, and Mongolian, which were splitted one another several thousand years ago.
Syntactically, Korean shares some common characteristics with these Altaic languages, while over 70% of its
contemporary vocabulary came from Chinese.

1) SOV language
Korean is classified as an SOV language, which stands for <Subject-Object-Verb> word order. English on the
other hand is an SVO language. A subject is the one who acts. An object is the one who receives the subjects
action. For example:
<English> Bob loves Jenny.
Who loves Jenny? Bob does. Who is loved by Bob? Jenny is. In Korean this sentence will be in the the word
order:
<Korean> Bob Jenny loves.

2) Topic-prominent language
Although we call it a subject, its position is not for subjects, the actor, only. A topic can also be in the position. A
topic may not be an actor, but the one which the sentence is about. Let's take an example: You bumped into a
friend after lunch. Your friend asks you, "Hey, how about a lunch?" You might want to say, "Lunch? I already had
it. How about a cup of coffee?" The first part of this speech can be understood, 'As for (or, speaking of) lunch, I
already ate it.' In Korean, this can be stated simply:
<Korean> Lunch, I ate.

3) Agglutinating language
Now, you may have been confused, saying, "I don't get it. How come no one interprets it 'A lunch ate me.'?" This
is where the powerful function of particles, endings, and conjugation comes in. By attaching these little
grammatical devices, you label each words, so that your words come into places without causing
misunderstanding.
4) Basic Sentence Formation:

{Subject/Topic+particle} + {Object+particle} + {Verb/Adjective+conjugation}

Korean lessons: Lesson 2

Hangul
1. Consonants ()

-- Click on the chart and listen to how they sound.

Consonant chart
Plain

Aspirated

tensed

dictionary order:

(), , (), , , (), (), , (), , , , ,

Aspirated ones are with more puff of air than the plain ones. As for tensed ones, you add more stricture, but without puff of
air, when letting out the sound. Tensed ones are difficult for beginners, and many students take long time to acquire the
correct pronunciation.

is similar to g as in god.
is similar to k as in sky.
is similar to k as in kill.
is similar to d as in do.
is similar to t as in stop.
is similar to t as in two.

 is similar to tt as in butter (not [t] but a flap like a Spanish [r]), in a syllable initial position.
is similar to l as in filling, in a syllable final () position.
is similar to b as in bad.
is similar to p as in spy.
is similar to p as in pool.
is similar to s as in astronaut.
is similar to s as in suit.
is similar to j as in jail.
is similar to tz as in pretzel.
is similar to ch as in charge.
is similar to h as in hat.
2. Vowels ()

-- Click on the chart and listen to how they sound.

Vowel Chart
Simple

Palatalized

labiovelarized

dictionary order:

(, ), , (, ), , (, , ), , (, , ), , (),

 is similar to "Ah".
is similar to "yard".
is similar to "cut".
is similar to "just" or "Eliot".
is similar to "order".
is similar to " Yoda".
is similar to " Ungaro".
is similar to "you".
is similar to "good" or "le chatau".
is similar to "easy".
is similar to "add".
is similar to "yam".
is similar to " editor".
is similar to " yes".
is similar to " Wow!" or "what".
is similar to "wagon".
is similar to "Koeln".
is similar to " one".
is similar to " weather".
is similar to "we" or "Oui!".
Traditional vowel classification:
Traditionally, vowels are classified into three categories, that is yang (bright), yin (dark), and neutral. This
classification is very important, for it will be used when we learn conjugation of predicates and some
phonological aspects of Korean. The classification also principles the vowel-hamp3ony phenomena that Korean
has as a member of Altaic language family. The cassification is as follows:

and
-

(,

series

,
,
)

and
-

(,

series

,
,
,
)

and
-

3. How to make a character out of alphabet

Each character is designed to represent one syllable, the structure of which may be described as (C)V(C), where
C stands for a consonant, and V does a vowel--(C) means that the consonant in the position is optional.
V

(CC)

vowel

final consonant
(coda)

Some vowels are placed on the right side of the initial consonant; some are placed underneath the
initial consonant: Vowels , , (and their derivatives, i.e. , , ,) are placed on the right;
and vowels , , are placed undersneath the initial consonant. Final consonants are always placed
at the bottom.
E.g)

[kam]

[kuk]

[na]

[hwa]

[ae]

[ot]

[kot]

[kkot]

[pat]

[hu^(r)
k]

[o^p]

[tto^(r)
p]

NB) Final consonant clusters:

, , , , , , , , , ,

, , , , , , (ones with placed befre another consonant), when followed by another

consonant or nothing, the second consonant of the cluster becomes silent. This second consonant will come
alive when there is a vowel after it.
Except for

= kap "price"
+ = kap kwa "price and"

 + = kapsi "price (with a subject particle)"

Final clusters with '+consonant' fomp3ation are pronounced with slight irregularity. As for , ,
, , , the foregoing liquid sound [] of the cluster is ignored when followed by another
consonant or nothing. This comes alive when the cluster is followed by another vowel. However,
Seoul speakers (and many other regions too) tend to throw in a touch of liquid sound for the even
when the cluster is followed by a consonant or nothing.

= sa(l)m "a living"

= sal mi

"a living (with a subject particle)"

In clusters and , however, [] is alive even when followed by another consosnant.

+ = kku^l k'o "boil and.."

Korean lessons: Lesson 3

Phonological notes
1. Syllable-final Consonants ():
1) Theoretically, any consonant can be in the (syllable final) position. In reality, , , and are not used
as .
2) Some of the consonants merge into one sound when they are in the syllable-final position. Orthographically,
however, they remain different. Summarized as follows:
consonant endings

sound

examples

3) These merged sounds regain their original values when they are followed by a zero-initial syllable (i.e. vowel).

(topic/subject marker)

[ kagi]

(place marker)

[ puo^k`e]

2. Rules of Pronunciation
2.1. Liason ( carry-over)
1) A is carried over by the following syllable when the following syllable starts with a zero-initial.
ex)

[]

[]

2) The second part of a double is carried over by the folowing syllable when the following syllable starts
with a zero-syllable.
ex)

[]

[]

2.2. Nasalization
When a final (non-nasal) consonant is followed by a nasal initial (,), the non-nasal consonant absorbs the
nasality, keeping its place of articulation. Remember, '' in the initial position is not a nasal consonant but a
zero.
,

ex)
[]

2.3. Aspiration

[]

[]

When

[h] is adjacent, a consonant is influenced and aspirated.

ex)
[]

[]

2.4. Palatalization
When or is followed by [i], a paplatalization occurs.

[t]

[ch]

ex)
[]

[]

[]

2.5. Liquidation

/before another

ex)

[]

[]

Korean lessons: Lesson 4

Base forms and Stems
In a language, we find three basic ways of describing facts: description of action, state, and identity. To
describe an action, we use verbs. For example, in English, we say "I eat lunch," which describes the
action ('eating') of the subject ('I'). To describe a state, we use adjectives. When we say, "I am tall," it
describes the state ('being tall') of the subject ('I'). Describing an identity is relating one thing to
another, characterizing the property of the subject. To say "I am a student" is characterizing a property
of the subject ('I'), by identifying the subect as a student. When we talk about facts that happened in
the past, or a something that will happen in the future, the story is not simple. In English, if the your
action of eating had happened in the past, you need to use a different form of the verb, i.e., "I ate
lunch." If you used to be quite tall for your age in the past, but it is not the case now, you have to say,
"I was tall."

For similar reasons, we say, "I was a student." In order to differentiate the mode of facts, such as
tense, we make variation on the predicates--in other words, verbs, adjectives, and noun phrases, etc.
This variation is called "conjugation." Like English, Korean also uses this conjugation of predicates.
Therefore, in a verb predicate, for example, we see a part that is constant in all kinds of sentences, and
the other part that changes according to the modes of facts. (Think of "push, pushes, pushed,
pushing..." in English. "Push" is the constant, where "-es", "-ed", and "-ing" are alternating.) The
constant part is called the 'stems'. The conjugation in Korean is made by attaching different suffixes to
the stems.

stem
"to go/leave"

mid-polite suffix
(present tense)

"", a lexical verb stem, is attached with a mid-polite suffix "", making a present-tense predicate.
("-" has more stories. We will learn them later.) Subjects can be omitted in many simple everydayconversational sentences, as long as they are obvious by the context. ""thus can be used in the
sense of "I go," "you go," or sometimes, "He goes," etc. With an intonation rising at the end (), it can
be a question, "Do you go (Are you leaving?)" or "Shall we go?", etc. It can even be taken as an
imperative sentence, "Go (Leave)!"
A stem is a part of a verb predicate, not a whole word. When we list it in dictionaries, or refer to it as
a word--just as when we say "to go" or "to eat" as words--, we add "" at the end of a stem. Thus,
Stem + = Base Form
+ = (Base Form, "to go")

High-polite -
When addressing a senior (in terms of age or social ranking), a high-polite stle of speech is used. "" is a typical suffix of this style. A simple "How are you?" is made as the following.

"" is a stem, the base form of which is "". Apart from the politeness of the style, "" can be used you use "", as in "You go (Please leave)" or "Do you go (Are you leaving)?",
"He/She goes", or "Does he/she go", etc. However, you may not want to use it when the subject is you,
the subject. For the added politeness by "--" is for the subject, not the addressee, whereas "-" is for
the addressee, as it is used in the mid-polite style.

Practice
Using the given words, make different sentences as seen in the key.
1. [verbs] --- (to meet), (to sleep), (to buy), (to ride), (to dig)
<Key>

(
t
o
g
o
)
:

2. [adjectives] --- (to be expensive), (to be salty), (to be cold)

<Key>

I
t
'
s
c
h
e
a
p

I
s
i
t
c
h
e
a
p
?
3. '-' verbs and adjectives

(adj.) (to be healthy)

<Key>
(adj.) (to be well):

? Are you well (How are you)?

Korean lessons: Lesson 5

Nominal predicates : "--"
Sample Dialogues
By 'nominal predicate', we mean a predicate of a sentence that describes the subject by identifying it

with another noun: "I am a student." For verbs and adjectives, we learned that there are base forms and
stems. We thus get base forms, "" for "to go", and "" for "to be cheap", etc. Now, we are
facing a new problem. If there is no such thing as the English verb "to be", how are we going to say
such sentences as "I am a student"? Many languages lack the verb like "to be," which can be used both
in nominal predicates and adjectival predicates. ("I am a student" and "I am tall".) In order to relate
two nouns (i.e., the subject and the nominal complement), such languages use so-called 'copula'. In
Korean, that copula is "-". "-" is of course the base form, which still has to be conjugated to
be used in actual sentences. Hence, "" ("to be a student"); "" ("to be clouds").
True stories of the present-tense suffix - and -
In Lesson 4, - and - were introduced. It was, however, not exactly everything that we should
know about them.
1) Mid-polite suffix -/
Verbs and adjectives that we practiced with for - suffix in Lesson 4 have something in common:
they all have the stem ending in vowel ? without any patch'im followed ('', '', '', etc.)
Those whose stems end otherwise, should take either - or -. The last vowel of the stem
decides which of the two to take. Once again, the vowel harmony principle ('yang with yang; yin with
yin') applies:

: + -

"It's small." or
"He/She is
small."?

: + -

()
"Come!" or "I
come" or
"He/She comes."

+ -

[]
"It's OK."

: + -

()
"Give (me, etc.)!"
or "I give."

: + -

"Eat!" or "I eat."

or "He/She eats."

: + -

[]
"Read!" or "I
read." or "He/She
reads."

In fact, is a contraction [ + - () ], so are the others in Lesson 4.

(NB) - verbs and adjectives are rather peculiar. For them, - is assumed instead of -.
This may sound quite overwhelming, but - words are in fact easier. All the - stems with no
exception appear as -.

to work

2) High-polite suffix -()

Although not so complicated as -/, this suffix also has its own rules:

: +

: +

[]

""
Finally, we arrive the detail structure of ". XXX(name)." Since personal names are
the same as nouns, we use the nominal-predicate copula, -. In order to make it into a real
sentence, we need to add either - or - in place of the base-form making - after --. For
is a neutral vowel, - is added. - had gone through a certain phonological change in modern
Seoul speakers' speech, and ended in -.
+ - "I am Oh Young Kyun."
Similarly,

: "I am / You are a student" or "He/She is a student"

: "It's a train."
There are two forms to spell this -: - and -. As far as we are concerned, just suffice.
Practice
1. Using the following words, make sentences with -/ and -() conjugation. Please give at
least one possible translation for each sentence. Also, mark each word whether it is a verb (V) or an
adjective (A).
<Key>
"It
is good."

"Is
it good?"

"He/She
is good."

.
"Is
he/she good?"

"I
work."

"Do
you work?"

"He/she
works."

"Is
he/she working?"

<Words>

(to
wear, put on)
[

]
(
t
o
b
e
h
a
t
e
d
)

(to
be expensive)
(
t
o
b
u
y
)

(to
be comfortable)

(
t
o
b
e
O
K
)

(to
laugh)
[

]
(
t
o
b
e
m
a
n

y
/
m
u
c
h
)

(
t
o
s
t
u
d
y
)

2. Using the following nouns, make dialogues. (And translate them.)

<Key>
A ,
B.

?
Yes, it is a
duck.

I
s

t
h
a
t
a
d
u
c
k
?

<Nouns>

(hat)

(
b
a
b
y
)

(car)

(
b
u
t
t
e
r
f
l
y
)

(bear)
(
s

t
a
r
)

Korean lessons: Lesson 6

Subject marker: -/
As mentioned in Lesson 1, Korean is an agglutinating language. It means that Korean uses little
grammatical devices attached to words to specify their roles in a sentence. English is not an
agglutinating language, employing rather a fixed word order and prepositions in order to specify the
role of each part.
A subject of a sentence is the agent (doer) of the action described by the sentence. Assuming that a
state of being can also be treated as an action, a subject can take any kind of predicate, i.e., a verbal, an
adjectival, or a nominal predicate. Think of "S goes," "S is bad," and "S is a man." In each case, S is
the subject. To mark this subject, Korean attaches either or to it. - is used when the subject
word ends without a final consonant (patch'im), whereas - is for those ending without a final
consonant.
Only nouns can be subjects in Korean, such is the case in English. In other words, when you see a part
of a sentence attached with - or -, you will know that it must be a noun. However, you might hear
sometimes people say sentences without using subject markers -/ for subjects. It is because the
sentences were simple and a conversational reality is presumed. For these sentences, subject markers
can be replaced by a short pause. In sentences the structure of which is complex, or in written forms,
the markers should be specified.

Finally, we get a sentence meaning, "The embassy is far."

Now, let's look at some more examples.
predicate
.

These
pants are
comfortab
le.

The train
is coming.

The
teacher is
laughing.

That (over

there) is a
.
school.
.

This is a
bear.

<practice>
Use the following pairs of words to make sentences in mid-poite style. Don't forget to use subject
markers, and to translate each sentence, as given in the above examples.

9.

(here; this place)

answer

Korean lessons: Lesson 6: Answer

1. .

This is a friend.

3. .

The water is cold.

20. .

Homework is a lot. (I have a lot of home

work.)

Korean lessons: Lesson 7

Object marker - / -
[Not many people are fond of talking about grammar. However, this is the least bit of the Korean grammar that
you should know. We will be as plain as possible while discussing it.] An object in a sentence is the thing or a
person that receives the action (described by the verb) from the subject. As we know, the subject is the doer
(agent) of the action that the verb describes.

In this sentence, the doer of eating is "friend ('my' is assumed)," and the recipient of the action ("eating") is
"lunch." As you might have noticed already, not every sentence will have both subject and object. Only those
sentences containing verbs that take objects will. Let us think about English for a moment, in order to
understand this grammatical terminology. In English grammar, the verbs that take objects are called 'transitive
verbs.' For example, "to eat" is a transitive verb, since there must be something that is eaten (that is, receives
the action). Similarly, you have a group of verbs that are transitive and another that are intransitive. Such verbs
as "love, buy, drink, see, understand, choose, find..." are transitive. (What these verbs have in common is that
you can say "to [verb] something / someone.") Such verbs as "go, sit, stay, die, come..." are intransitive. You
handle an object in an English sentence simply by placing it AFTER the verb.
b
i
t
e
s

a person.
object

v
e
r
b
p
r
e
d
i
c
a
t
e

If you switch the positions of the subject and the object, you get a completely different meaning.

b
i
t
e
s

a dog.
object

v
e
r
b
p
r
e
d
i
c
a
t
e
Now, let's go back to Korean. We know that the predicate must be placed at the of a sentence. Thus, both
subject and object should come before the verb (predicate), and such change of meaning depending on the
word order is less likely to happen. A subject does not necessarily come before the object in a Korean sentence.
What clarifies the meaning, therefore, is the particle, i.e., subject/object markers. (Linguists usually call them
Case markers.)

verb predicate "bite"

o
b
j
e
c
t
"
a
d
o
g
"

- and - are subject and object markers, respectively. Since the subject and object are labeled with markers,
there is no possibility of confusion, as long as you keep them together.

s
u
b
j
e
c
t
"
a
p
e
r
s
o
n
"

verb predicate "bite"

The meaning can only change when you switch the markers.

verb predicate "bite"

s
u
b
j
e
c
t
"
a
d
o
g
"

Oftentimes, a subject is simply not said in Korean when it is understood.

A: ? (Who does the dog bite?)
B: . ([It] bites a person.)
As you might have noticed, the difference between - and - is purely phonological: when the previous syllable
ends with a consonant (patch'im), use -; with a vowel (no patch'im), use -.

answer

<practice>

You are given two nouns and one transitive verb in each line. Combine them into a sentence, assuming that the
first noun is the subject and the second is the object. Be sure to conjugate the verb with -, -, -(),
when needed.

Key

(watch, see)

.
([My] friend
watches TV.)

(
t
e
l
e
v
i
s
i
o
n
)

1. (boy friend), (book), (buy)

2. (father), (newspaper), (read)
3. (student), ,
4. (girl friend), (movie), (like)

5. (grandmother), (money), (give)

6. (child), (lunch), (eat)
7. , , (meet)
8. (uncle), (English), (study)
9. , (Korean),
10. (mother), ,

Korean lessons: Lesson 8

Who, What, Where?

Q: ?

A: .

Who is it?

It's Sun-i.

Q: ?

A: .

Where is it?

It is in Seoul.

w
h
o
w
h
a
t

w
h
e
r
e

These words are pronouns. They need particles to be specified for their functions, such as subject, object,
adverbial, etc. Although we have not discussed it in detail, let us learn - and -, object markers. - is used
when there is a final consonant (patch'im) preceding; whereas is for elsewhere. Note that (where) is
also a noun (pronoun), while "where" in English is not.

sub.

obj.

E.g.
?

What is difficult?

For similar reasons, - is needed after in the above dialogues. - is a marker that functions like the
preposition ('in' or 'to') in English, though they are placed after the noun they work with.
<Korean>
=

(Seoul + in)
We will discuss this in detail later.

Korean lessons: Lesson 9

This 'n that, here 'n there --, --, -, , and are demonstrative modifiers for nouns.

+
t
h
i
n
g

+person

+place

(who)

(where)

(
w
h
a
t
)

When the referent (an object or a person) is close to the speaker, it is referred to as --. When it is
closer to the listener than to the speaker, it is referred to as --. If it is rather distant from both parties,
it is referred to --. The only thing that is different from the case in English would be that what is
referred to with -- should be in the sight of the speaker.

Using ('person') is not polite enough to refer to an older person. You replace
with in such cases. Then, the predicate will have to change accordingly into high-polite
(with honorific infix --) style.

Korean lessons: Lesson 10

Styles of speech--a broad classification
1. or Polite speech
(non-polite style): the style of speech in which you speak to your friends (of your age) or to people
younger than you are.
(polite style): the style in which you speak to your superiors or seniors. Politeness of style can
be demarcated into two criteria:
(1) whom you talk to -- Politeness is achieved by -/- or -
(2) whom you talk about -- Politeness is achieved by infix --.
When you talk to someone, that person you are talking to could be older or younger than you are; when
you talk about a person to someone (of course, they can either be different or identical), that person you
are talking about can also be older or younger than you are. Chon-dae mal concerns the proper

handling of both these criteria in speech. In addition to age, rank in various social relations also
dictates proper use of these speech styles.
Throughout these categories applies a supervening category of formality. This category concerns the
occasion where the conversation occurs. For example, the formal style will be adopted more in work
place, public speech, army, etc. ; whereas the informal would better be used among close friends,
family members, and people in private relationship. However, in many cases, the consistency of
formal/informal speech style is not really strict. In other words, you may feel free switch back and
forth between formal and informal style within a conversation, as long as you keep the consistency of
politeness.
We can summarize the above:
ABOUT

formal ending

informal ending

TO

This is a simple outline of endings. As we will learn later, there are other grammatical details that may
be needed according to tense, verb/adjective differentiation, etc. There are also other supplementary
devices, such as self-effacing pronoun for the first person ( instead of plain for 'I'), lexically
honorific words ( instead of for 'speech, words'), etc. , which will also be discussed later.
Now let us see how we can make variation for same sentences. The following is in informal style.
(Talking to my friend) The teacher is coming to our house.
.
(Talking to my mother) The teacher is coming to our house.

 .
(Talking to my younger sister) My friend is coming to our house.
.
(Talking to my mother) My friend is coming to our house.
.
Extensive variety in speech style is often the most overwhelming part when a foreigner begins to learn
Korean. It is known to be more complicated than in Japanese. However, as much as it is hard to
foreigners, it is not an easy matter to native speaker. People in younger generations in Korea also
experience difficulty with proper use of speech style. (In fact, this is somehow related to the shifts that
happened in the Korean social structure. Speech style is a product of layers of social/kinship
relationship. Compared to traditional families where more than three generations lived in one house or
neighbourhood, modern 'nuclear' families offer very few opportunities for the children to practice
different speech styles. )
2. or written style
literally means "written-language style," in which you write formal documents, articles, papers
in classes, and so on. As there are polite and non-polite styles, we have polite formal style and nonpolite formal style. They both have - at the end.
polite formal ending -- -/
non-polite formal ending -- -/ (present-tense verb) or - (elsewhere)
Newspaper articles, academic papers, public announcement, and so forth, are written in these styles. In
fact, the non-polite is preferred in most written documents over the polite, unless the document is by
nature a dialogue (i. e. , announcement) aiming at actual readers.
The non-polite formal, from a native speaker's intuition, gives the impression of self-addressing, which
may explain why it is also used in diaries--something that can be most informal. The style is also used
frequently by a speaker toward others in the same or younger age, as we saw in the chart above, and
therefore we can call it .

Korean lessons: Lesson 11

Numbers (I)
Two Sets of numbers
Two sets of numbers are in use in Korean: native Korean and Chinese-based sets. The Chinese-based

set transmitted to Korea long time ago, probably with Chinese writing system, to settle in the language.
It is also the case in Japanese, and we see certain phonological similarity among Chinese numbers and
Chinese-based sets of Japanese and Korean numbers.
Japanese

Korean

ichi
y
i

il ()

ni
e
r

i ()

san
s
a
n

sam ()

shi
s
i

sa ()

go
w
u

o ()

In fact, the Japanese and Korean sounds of Chinese numbers are quite similar to those in many modern
Chinese dialects, sometimes even more similar than modern Mandarin to them. The Chinese remnants
in Japanese and Korean, along with other Chinese dialects, reflect old phases of Chinese language.
For the sake of our convenience, let us call these two sets 'Korean numbers' and 'Chinese numbers.'
Here are the two sets of 1 to 10.
KChinese
onumbers
r
e
a
n

n
u
m
b
e
r
s

There is no semantic difference between the two sets. Both '' and '' means one. They differ
according to when and how they are used. We will discuss this in the next lesson.
First, let us learn more about the Chinese numbers. Counting more than ten observes the arithmetic
principles. Take "12" and "20" for example. 12 is made of 10 and 2--there are other ways of making it,
but this is what the number stands for--. On the other hand, 20 stands for two tens. Thus, the Chinese
number has them:
12 = 10 + 2

20 = 2 x 10

Chinese numbers under 100

10
11
12
13

14

15

16

17

18

19

Tens, hundreds, thousands . . .

0
1
2
3

Notice that 'one hundred', 'one thousand', etc. are not '', '', etc.
Now, let us see how these work.
168:
250:
7,892:
980,768,543:
Some examples in the usage of Chinese numbers.
Money: (12,000 won), (3,500 dollar)
Phone number: 238-7834 ( )
Room/APT Number: Room 305 ( )

Korean lessons: Lesson 12

Numbers (II)
Native Korean Numbers
Another set of numbers are of native Korean numbers. They are indigenous in Korean, possibly stemmed
through a different route from that of the Chinese-based set. Although they used to have a complete system of

native numbers that can go up to three digits (or more), they now only use the numbers up to two digits (99).
The formation of numbers is quite similar to that of English numbers in the sense that you have a set of
numbers for single digits (1-10) and another set for tens (10-90).

Numbers and formation

Single digits
1

10

Ten, twenty, thirty....

10 20

30

40

50 60

70

80

90

100

The formation is quite simple:

15 = 10+5

21 = 20+1

87 = 80+7

Using with counters and measure words

Such formation as "five birds," however, is not directly applicable in Korean. When you speak of a thing with its
amount, the proper formation should be the following:
**Noun + number + counter**
+

number

counter

(five)

(counter for animals)

Thus, an expression like " " is not used in Korean. It may remind you of such expressions as "two
bottles of wine" in English. It is necessary in English to specify the measure unit when it comes to uncountable
nouns, such as 'water,' 'coffee,' etc. In Korean, this is applied to all nouns. Does this mean that they have
different counters for all nouns and that you have to memorize all of them? Probably. Do not panic, though, for
there are a certain number of counters that are more frequent and common than the others, and you could strat
by learning them and then move on to the rest.
There is yet another issue of when to use Chinese numbers and when to use native Korean numbers. This will
be discussed in the next lesson.

Slight changes when used before counters

Also, when before counters, numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 20, change their shape slightly, for the ease of
pronunciation.

changes

exam
ples

"a
bird"
(:
counte
r for
animal
s)

"two
stude
nts"
(:
counte
r for
people
)

"three
apple
s"
(:
counte
r for
counta
ble
objects
)

"four
volum
es of
books
"

(:
counte
r for
books)

"age
of
twent
y"
(:
counte
r for
age)

Korean lessons: Lesson 13

Locative markers - and -
So far, we have used - as a marker indicating a place. We now have a new location marker: - . The
meaning of - is 'in', used after a noun, like a postposition (the opposite concept to English 'preposition'). For
example:
. I work at a bank.
Now it becomes quite puzzling how - and - are different.
(1) Meaning of 'in (or at/on)'
- indicates the place of a state of being (, , , etc.)
- indicates the place of an action (, , , , etc.)
NB) is rather peculiar, being used with both - and - . No apparent semantic difference is noticed,
except that - with induces more vivid image of 'life' than simple 'dwelling'.
(2) With directional predicates (, , , etc.)
- means 'to'.
- means 'from'.
NB) (to put) and (to sit) also use - because these verbs are recognized to be directional.
. Mr. Kim came from Korea.
We may understand that - still keeps the meaning of 'in' and that it is the directionality implied by the

predicate that produces the sense of 'from'. In the above example, although Mr. Kim may not be in Korea at the
time that the sentence is spoken, his action of 'coming' must have started in Korea.
The following table summarizes what we have discussed above.

x indicates that the respective marker is not used with the predicates.

Sample Practice

Korean lessons: Lesson 13: Practice

Locative Markers - Practice
Practice the following. Fill in the blanks with either - or - , and translate the sentences.
(Answers are given below.)
1. ______ ?
2. ______ ?
3. ______ . ( : library)
4. ______ . ( : now)
5. ______ . ( : Japan)
6. ______ . ( : tomorrow)
7. ______ ?
8. ______ . ( : room)
9. ______ . ( : class room)
10. ______ .

11. ______ . (: we/our, : cat, :bed)

12. I work at a bank.
13. goes to the bathroom. (bathroom: )
14. goes to a college this year. (this year: )
15. I eat dinner at a Korean restaurant. (restaurant: )
16. buys a radio at Best Buy. (radio: )
---------------------------------------------------------------------

<Answers>
1. [In which school do you study?]
---- "To study" is an action.
2. or [Where do you live?]
---- "To live" can be understood either as action or as state. This is an unusual case due to the two
different, but subtle, modes of "living." Combined with , it sounds to be asking the place where the
action of living--eat, sleep, go to work, pay bills, etc.--takes place, whereas with , simply asking the
place of residence.
3. [My girl friend is at the library.]
---- "Being" is a state.
4. [I am going to the library now.]
---- "To go" is directional.
5. [A friend is coming from Japan.]
---- gives the origin of "coming".
6. [I am watching a movie at a theater tomorrow.]
---- "Watching a movie", though it may not be very 'active', is an action.
7. [Where is the theater?]
---- Again, "being" is a state.
8. [My older brother is reading a book in the room.]
---- "Reading" is an action.
9. [The teacher is not in the class room.]
---- " ", same as " ", is a state.
10. [The book is not in this room.]
---- " (not existing)" is also a state.
11. [Our cat sleeps in the bed.]
---- "To sleep" may not be an active thing to do, but counts as an action.
12. .

13. .
14. .
15. .
16. .