Here’s some quick info bits for anyone who is studying the Korean language. This is just some super simple stuff, but will be helpful in understanding the language, or at least the intention of a particular sentence.

This is a re-post of what I posted on JiNi’s Forum. You’ll need to read that thread in order for this post to make complete sense.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert. I am still a beginner. Jinni (or someone else) may have to thwack me on the back of the head and correct me.

Here’s some useful stuff from our Korean class that I thought that I’d share.

Note: the ~ symbol means that something comes before it. For example: ~ing would be anything, something, and so on.

future tense:
~갰다
example:
“will do”: 하갰다
“will go”: 가갰다
..so on

something first:
~부터
example:
“Lady first”: 여성부터 (add ~들 to make it plural, thus; 여성들부터, but I’m not entirely sure that this combination (~plural + ~first) is correct)

Let’s:
~자
~ㅂ시다 (respectful. ends in vowel)
~읍시다 (respectful. ends in consonant)
example:
“Let’s eat”: 먹자 or 먹읍시다

This next one I got wrong on today’s test, which is just sad considering that he gave us the answer the other day. ;D Bleh..

To say that you “have to” do something:
… “You have to read this book.”
… 너는 이 책을 읽어야한다.
Translation: You this book readmust.
~는 or ~은 designates the subject of the sentence
~를 or 을 designates the object of the sentence.
So if you are talking about a chair you would use 를: 의자를
Which one that you choose depends on if the word ends with consonant or vowel. “Chair” ends in a vowel.

Never use 를 when talking about a person. You would be referring to them as an object and, obviously, that’s terrible. I done that by accident once. ~.~ Thankfully it was with my language tutor and he quickly corrected me.

“My Korean language is not good”.
내 한국어는 안좋아요. (you could probably begin it with 나의 instead if you wanted to)
Though this is usually not the case, this sentence pretty much translates word-for-word.

내 or 나의 : “my”
한국어: Korean language (~는 is the subject marking particle)
안~ gives the negative meaning to something
좋다: “Good” (note: the “~다” at the end of words is almost always dropped & replaced by a specific sentence ending)
thus: 안좋다 = “not good”
Note: The “H” sound at the bottom of the word is silent.

Reference the posts before this one for links to places to learn the pronunciation of the vowels and consonants.

Remember that I am still a beginning student. Be sure that you ask someone more fluent than myself (such as a random rock or blade of grass) if you are speaking correctly.

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