Korean Language Guide - PDF Learn Korean: LP's Korean Language Learning By Luke Park 2013 1 Korean Language Guide The following are the complete list of the lessons created so far in this Korean Language Guide. • Welcome • Korean Alphabet • Sentence Order Particles • Topic Particle - 는 / 은 • Identifier Particle - 가 / 이 • Subject Particles - 는 / 은 and 가 / 이 • Additive Particle - 도 • Object Particle - 를 / 을 • Time / Place Particle - 에 Pronouns • Pronouns (I, You) - 나 , 저 , 너 , 당신 • Pronouns (He, She) - 그 , 그녀 , 걔 , 그분 • Pronouns (He, She) - 얘 , 쟤 , 걔 • Pronouns (They) - 그들 , 걔들 , 그분들 • Pronouns- This, It, That Nouns • Nouns - Present, Past • Nouns - Nominalising • Nouns - Nominalizing Verbs • Nouns - Numbers and Counting Adjectives • Adjectives - Present, Past • Adjectives - Polite [Present, Past] • Adjectives - Descriptive • Adjectives - Connective Verbs • Verbs - Present, Past • Verbs - Polite [Present, Past] • Verbs - Future [Will] • Verbs - Continuous • Verbs - Connective • Verbs - Can • Verbs - Have • Verbs - Want 2 • Verbs - Descriptive I • Verbs - Descriptive II • Verbs - Speech Adverbs • Adverbs - 부사 Particles • Particles - 께 / 에게 / 한테 • Particles - 으로 / 로 • Particles - 에서 , 까지 • Particles - 만 [only] Possessive • Possessive - 의 Conjunctions • Conjunctions - And • Conjunctions - But [~ 지만 ] • Conjunctions - But [ 는데 / 은데 ] • Conjunctions - Because, So [~ 서 ] • Conjunctions - Because [ 때문에 ] • Conjunctions - If/Once [~ 면 ] • Conjunctions - If/Once [~ 거든 ] • Conjunctions - When [~ 때 ] • Conjunctions - While [~ 며 / 면서 ] • 5W1H Advanced Grammar • Comparatives & Superlatives • Imperatives - 해 , 하지마 • Have to - 해야 한다 • Allowed to - 해도 된다 • I like doing - 하는게 좋다 , 하는걸 좋아한다 • I think - ~ 고 생각해 (Opinion) • I think / It seems - 하는 거 같애 (General) • I used to do - 했었어 • I used to do - 하던 • (I learned that) ~ 더라고 • (I found that) - ~ 던데 • I heard / You said - ~ 며 3 • There is / I have - 있다 / 있네 Special Expressions • Are you doing? - ~ 는 거야 ? [Informal] • Are you doing? - ~ 시는 거예요 ? [Polite] • Are we doing? - 하는 거야 / 거예요 ? • Go to do - ~ 러 가다 • To do something - ~ 기 위해 • Try doing - 해 보다 • Of course, I've done it before - 해봤죠 • Give the favour of doing - 해 주다 • Would you like to go? - 갈래요 ? • Shall we do something? - 우리 뭐 할까 ? • It's cold, isn't it? - 춥지요 ? • Let's do it - 하자 • Easy to do / Difficult to do - ~ 기 쉽다 / ~ 기 어렵다 • I know how - 어떻게 하는지 알아 • I'm in the habit of - ~ 되면 ~ 게 돼요 • Because I'm - ~ 거든요 • I will go first - 먼저 갈게 Phrases • As I was doing - ~ 하다 보니깐 Other Lessons • Addressing people • Pronunciation 4 Learning the Korean Language for the First Time! Please refer to Audio Recordings - Introduction, to learn about "WHY" listening to Korean is so important in learning Korean. Welcome You All to the Korean Language Guide! This blog was first created in 2006 as an experiment to help people who would like to learn Korean language online by providing some basic grammar lessons on Korean. Over the years, I was able to put up more and more Korean language lessons online, and as of now, in January 2011, there are more than 70 online Korean lessons in this blog. The principles in writing these online Korean language lessons have been that I remain intentional about making them as easy to understand and readily applicable in daily life as I can, and comprehensive enough to cover major points of the Korean language which includes both the Written and Spoken forms. Now, what do I mean by written and spoken forms? In Korean, the verb endings change depending on whether the language is used in writing or speech. Note: In Korean grammar, the verbs come at the end of a sentence. For more on the sentence order, please read Sentence Order. For example, "나는 학교에 갔다" which means "I went to school" is a written form, and "나는 학교 에 갔어" is a spoken form. •나는 학교에 갔다 = I went to school (written form as in writing, books, diary and newspaper) •나는 학교에 갔어 = I went to school (spoken form as in conversations, movies and dramas) As you can see, the ending of a verb changes from 갔다 to 갔어, both of which mean "went". Therefore you'd write in one way but speak in a slightly different way. But don't be too alarmed at the difference, as there are simple patterns to it, and you'll get to learn them along the way. It is also important to learn the differences in degrees of formalities in the Korean language. There are three major types in the degrees of formality: •Informal •Polite •Honorific In expressing the politeness in the speech, Korean differs from English in that the verb endings change depending on the age and rank of the person being addressed to and the social setting one finds oneself in. For example, when I'm asked, "Where are you going?" I might answer, "I'm going to school" in the following ways: 5 •학교 가 - [Informal, to people of the same age as me or younger than me, especially among close friends] •학교 가요 - [Polite, to people older than me, and in formal social situations] •학교 가는 중입니다 - [Honorific, this is rarely used in normal conversations. I would say this type of speaking is only found in very formal settings such as on the news or in the army.] You would use the polite form even when the person you're speaking to is of the same age as you or younger than you if you're not very close to the person and/or you're in a formal social setting. I'd say it's best to stick to the polite form first and then use the informal form later as you gain more understanding of the Korean language. The major mark of the division is probably the age. The polite language is used to people above one's age and informal language to people equal to and below one's age. However, generally, the polite language is generally used in many social situations and the informal language is usually used among close friends. I am trying to lay out some basics to the language of Korean. However it'd be good at this point to dive into the lessons and learn them for yourself. You can start reading the Korean language guide on this website, Learn Korean: LP's Korean Language Learning, from the top to bottom in the order as it's designed to guide you from the basics to intermediate and advanced Korean lessons. Before you go, here is a bit of history of 한글 (Hangeul, the Korean alphabet): Korean is the official language of Korea, both North and South. There are around 78 million people [1] who speak Korean around the world. 한글 (the Korean alphabet) was invented by Sejong the Great in the 15th century. Before that time, people used Hanja (the equivalent of the Chinese characters) which was not only difficult to learn [2] but was also considerably different to the Korean grammar and sentence order. 한글 is a phonetic writing system which means that the words correspond to pronunciation. The English alphabet is phonetic whereas the Chinese characters are not. If you learn the English alphabet, you can read an English writing fairly well although you may not understand the meaning. Korean is even more phonetic than that of English and many other languages, in that each consonant and vowel in Korean mostly have only one sound. For example, •ㄴ = n •ㅏ = a (as in car and mama, short sound) ㄴ+ㅏ= 나 [na] (which means "I" as in "I" am Luke) 6 Following the guide for the Korean language down the column on the right-hand of the page, we're now moving onto learning the sounds of the consonants and vowels of 한글. You'll learn to write and pronounce each of these consonants and vowels, and how to form a character in this next lesson. Keep on reading! I hope you enjoy this journey of learning a new language! I think it's always exciting to learn a new language! ;D Luke References [1] Wikipedia: Korean language, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_language#History, accessed Jan 2011. [2] Wikipedia: Sejong the Great, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejong_the_Great#Hangul, accessed Jan 2011. 7 The Korean Alphabet Learning Korean for the first time! Hangeul or 한글 (the Korean alphabet) literally means "the Korean writing." In 한글, the Korean alphabet, consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels. •Cosonants: ㄱㄴㄷㄹㅁㅂㅅㅇㅈㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ •Vowels: ㅏㅑㅓㅕㅗㅛㅜㅠㅡㅣ In addition, there are 5 double consonants and 11 double vowels. •Double consonants: ㄲㄸㅃㅆㅉ •Double vowels: ㅐㅒㅔㅖㅘㅙㅚㅝㅞㅟㅢ Additionally, there are 11 final double consonants. •Final double consonants: ㄳ ㄵ ㄶ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀ ㅄ Please also refer to the audio recording of different Korean consonant-vowel combinations that I produced with my own voice, here , Korean alphabet - Consonants and Vowels . You will get to learn these basic consonants and vowels, learning how to read, write and pronounce. Click on the alphabet to listen to their corresponding pronunciations. (Provided by Korean language learning online, Sogang Unversity) 자음[Consonants] ㄱ = g ㄴ = n ㄷ = d ㄹ = l, r (ㄹ is a sound somewhere between l and r) ㅁ = m ㅂ = b ㅅ = s ㅇ = "no sound" when used as a first consonant, "ng" when used as a final consonant. ㅈ = j ㅊ = ch ㅋ = k ㅌ = t ㅍ = p ㅎ = h 모음[Vowels] ㅏ = a ㅑ = ya ㅓ = eo 8 ㅕ = yeo ㅗ = o ㅛ = yo ㅜ = u ㅠ = yu ㅡ = eu ㅣ = i 쌍자음[Double consonants] ㄲ = gg Click on the link to hear the difference between the sounds of ㄱ, ㄲ and ㅋ. ㄸ = dd Note the difference in sounds; ㄷ, ㄸ and ㅌ. ㅃ = bb Note the difference in sounds;ㅂ, ㅃ and ㅍ. ㅆ = ss Note the difference in sounds; ㅅ and ㅆ ㅉ = jj Note the difference in sounds; ㅈ, ㅉ and ㅊ More links: ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ 쌍모음[Double Vowels] ㅐ = ae ㅒ = yae (rarely used) ㅔ = e ㅖ = ye ㅘ = wa ㅙ = wae ㅚ = oe ㅝ = wo ㅞ = we (rarely used) ㅟ = wi ㅢ = ui ● How to form a character There are two ways of making a character, using the consonants and vowels as building blocks. 1.Initial consonant + Vowel 2.Initial consonant + Vowel + Final consonant 1. Examples •가 = ㄱ + ㅏ = ga •너 = ㄴ + ㅓ = neo •도 = ㄷ + ㅗ = do •루 = ㄹ + ㅜ = lu/ru •므 = ㅁ + ㅡ = meu •비 = ㅂ + ㅣ = bi 2. Examples •각 = ㄱ + ㅏ + ㄱ = gag •넌= ㄴ + ㅓ + ㄴ = neon •돗 = ㄷ + ㅗ + ㅅ = dod 9 •를 = ㄹ + ㅡ + ㄹ = leul/reul •쟁 = ㅈ + ㅐ + ㅇ = jaeng Characters with final consonants of ㄱ, ㄲ and ㅋ, all sound the same. Thus 각, 갂 and 갘 will sound exactly the same. For example, 국, 엌, 밖 Their final consonants all sound the same. Click on the links to hear. Now, below is a list of the final consonants and their respective sounds. •ㄱ/ㄲ/ㅋ = ㄱ •ㅂ/ㅃ/ㅍ = ㅂ •ㄷ/ㅌ/ㅅ/ㅆ/ㅈ/ㅊ/ㅎ = ㄷ •ㄴ= ㄴ •ㄹ= ㄹ •ㅁ= ㅁ •ㅇ= ㅇ For example, •낚시 [낙시] = fishing •부엌 [부억] = kitchen •앞 [압] = front •씨앗 [씨앋] = seed •낮 [낟] = day For a more detailed explanation and audio files, click here. When the initial consonant of second and/or third characters is ㅇ, for example, 돌이 and 만악이, the sound of the final consonant of each letter is pronounced with the next vowel. Because ㅇ has no sound, 돌이 is pronounced as 도리 and 만악이 as 마나기. These are just made-up words to show you how these work. •돌이[도리] •만악이[마나기] For more examples on this pronunciation, click on the link. 쌍받침[Final double consonants] There are also 11 additional final double consonants. Their sounds are as follows. As you can see, the first consonant of the double consonants is pronounced. (except ㄺ = ㄱ,ㄻ = ㅁ and ㄿ = ㅂ) I do not recommend that you learn these exhaustively right away because that is a hard work and I rarely employed them in my grammar lessons anyway. So it would be better to come back to these when you come across them from time to time. •ㄳ = ㄱ •ㄵ = ㄴ •ㄶ = ㄴ •ㄺ = ㄱ 10