How to Study Korean Chart

Korean Particles (~/ and ~/)

Most words in a Korean sentence have a particle (a fancy word to say something) attached to
them. These particles indicate the role of each word in a sentence that is, specifically
which word is the subject or object. Note that there is absolutely no way of translating these
particles to English, as we do not use anything like them.
The following are the particles you should know for this lesson:
or (Subject)
This is placed after a word to indicate that it is the subject of a sentence.
Use when the last letter of the last syllable of the subject is a vowel. For example:
=
=
Use when the last letter of the last syllable of the subject is a consonant. For example:
=
=
or (Object)
This is placed after a word to indicate that is the object of a sentence.
Use when the last letter of the last syllable is a vowel. For example:
=
=
Use when the last letter of the last syllable is a consonant. For example:
=
=
We can now make sentences using the Korean sentence structure and the Korean particles.
1) I speak Korean = I Korean speak
is attached to I (the subject)
is attached to Korean (the object)
2) I like you = I you like
is attached to I (the subject)
is attached to you (the object)
3) I wrote a letter = I letter wrote
is attached to I (the subject)
is attached to letter (the object)
4) I opened the door = I door opened
is attached to I (the subject)
is attached to the door (the object)
5) My mom will make pasta = My mom pasta will make
is attached to my mom (the subject)
is attached to pasta (the object)

I am sure that you will be tempted to start substituting Korean words into those constructions to
make real Korean sentences. However, at this point, that is too complicated. The goal of this
lesson is to familiarize yourself with the structure of Korean sentences.
The same could be done for sentences with adjectives. However, remember that sentences with
adjectives will not have an object:
1) My girlfriend is pretty: My girlfriend is pretty
: is attached to my girlfriend (the subject)
2) The movie was scary = The movie was scary
: is attached to the movie (the subject)
~/ as a Subject Marker

The reason why they could be identical:

= The cat is behind the house
= The cat is behind the house
~/, like ~/ is added to the subject of the sentence. In some situations, there is no
difference in meaning or feel between adding ~/ or ~/ to the subject.

The reason why they could be subtly different:

~/ has a role of indicating that something is being compared with something else. The noun
that ~/ is added to is being compared. In this example:
= The cat is behind the house
The speaker is saying that the cat is behind the house (in comparison to something else that is
not behind the house). The difficulty here is that there only one sentence; which gives the
listener no context to understand what the cat is being compared with. However, if I were to
make up a context that fits into this situation, it could be that The dog is in the house, and, the
cat is behind the house.
However, saying:
= The cat is behind the house
is simply stating a fact, and the cat is not being compared to anything.
Another example:
= The coffee is in the fridge (This sentence is simply stating that the coffee
is in the fridge, and there is no intention of comparison)
= The coffee is in the fridge (This sentence could simply be stating that the
coffee is in the fridge. It is also possible that the speaker is trying to distinguish between the
location of another object. For example, perhaps the tea is on the table, but the coffee is in the
fridge).
Some Quick Notes about Korean Verbs and Adjectives

For example:
= happy
= happiness
= succeed
= success
= speak
= speech/words
= achieve
= achievement
= acquire
= acquisition
The word in Korean is an adjective that means good. There is also which is a verb meaning to like.

The first example is a sentence. The second example is not a sentence. The second sentence
needs more words in order for it to be a sentence. You need to add either a verb or adjective
that is acting on the noun (expensive food). For example:
= I eat expensive food
( / )
= Expensive food is delicious
( / )
How to say I/me

and = used when I is the subject of the main part of the sentence
and = used when I is the subject of a part of a sentence which is not the main part.
For example:
When I came home, my mother made a hamburger.
I is only the subject of the part of the sentence which is indicating the time that your mother
made a hamburger. My mother is the subject of the entire sentence. In cases like this, you
would used / to represent I.
I would show you an example of the sentence above, but the grammar is way too complex for
you right now. For now, simply understand that changes to , and changes to when /
are attached.

An important note before you begin

This lesson will show you how to conjugate past/present/future verbs in the most basic way.
Although all of these conjugations are grammatically correct, they are rarely used in
conversation. This form is sometimes called diary form because it is usually used when writing
to yourself in a diary. It is also used when writing a test, book (not in dialogue), research paper,

newspaper article, magazine article, and other times when you are not speaking/writing to a
specific audience. It is also sometimes called the plain form. If you used this form in a
sentence, you should use the informal , as this conjugation is seen as informal. As such, in
this lesson, you will see the word used for I throughout this lesson.
Lets try looking at all the verb conjugations you know together in one table. This table will include
the conjugation you learned in Lesson 5, often called Formal low respect, plain form, or diary
form.

Past
Informal low
Informal high

Plain form
Formal high

Present

Future

Past
Informal low
Informal high

Plain form
Formal high

Present

Future

Past
Informal low
Informal high

Plain form
Formal high

Present

Future

*/ essentially have the same meaning aside from the fact that one is an adverb and
one is an adjective. Most of the time, the difference between the adjective and adverb form is
very clear, but with /, the meaning is similar. See the following:
= I ate a lot of rice
= I ate a lot of rice.
Telling Korean Time

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

Korean Particle ~
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
This
This
This

does
does
does
does

not mean the location that he/she is going to

not mean the location that he/she looking at
not mean the location that he/she places something on
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:
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
Also note that when you indicate where something is by using , you should use ~ instead of ~. 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.
Instead, ~ is commonly attached to a time to indicate when something starts.

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
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
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).
Korean Passive Verbs to

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
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.

Korean Passive Verbs and

= to finish
= to be finished
= to break
= to be broken
= for something to come up/arise/occur
= to make something come up/arise/occur
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
= 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
~//

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
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
= impulse/shock
= impulsive
= impulsively
= I often buy clothes impulsively
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)
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:

~
~ 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
= loving
= nature
= natural
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:

= I was 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:
= I was disappointed in my friend

~ can be used to indicate that you are disappointed in a non-person:

= I was disappointed in the movie

is an adjective that describes something which is disappointing:

= The movie was a little bit 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)

Connecting Particle ~
The most common translation of this usage of ~ is then. If you really want to stress that
you are doing something after doing something else, you can add after ~. It can also be
used to simply connect two clauses that have a similar idea.
I would like to introduce you to usage of ~/ because it is commonly used in sentences with
~.
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
Using ~/
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.