Introduction(ko)

HANGEUL Introduction

Korean alphabet

Anglicization vs Korean

We introduce two of the most famous Korean companies, Samsung and Hyundai. Don't be surprised that some companies and given names don't fit the romanization we're using.

Korean has had several standard systems of romanization over the years, with Revised Romanization currently the official system in use by South Korea and in this course. It came about in the 90s, so proper nouns and words that had previously entered English often make use of one of the older systems.

Tips ：

• 삼성 ——Samsung [samseong]

  현대Hyundai 모터스 —— Hyundai motors[hyeondae otase]

• 블루윙즈 —— bluewings

• 스타벅스 —— Starbucks

• 맥도날드 —— McDonald's

• 콜라 —— Cola

• 커피 —— coffee

배스킨라빈스 (baskin robbins)

아이스크림 파티 (ice cream party)

한국 (Korean)

서울, 부산, 도쿄 (seoul, busan, tokyo)

유나이티드: United

파리, 베를린, 뉴욕, 런던 워싱턴 (Paris Berlin New York London Washington)

아파트：Apartment

듀오링고 (Duolingo)

Transliteration

Transliteration into Korean is based on Korean approximation of English pronunciation.

Sometimes sentence final 'r' is dropped, subsumed into the vowel, like in British pronunciation.

Sometimes single syllables become split since Korean doesn't really do consonant clusters, so 3 syllable United becomes 5 syllable 유나이티드.

Of course, non-English words may be transliterated based on native language pronunciation, as in 파리 for Paris.

To Be

In this lesson we're going to learn how to make some sentences using the verb ~이다, corresponding to the English verb to be. Let's get started!

Nouns

Korean nouns do not decline for number, case, or gender. The noun is the noun. Period. Simpler than English.

However, Korean is an agglutinating or agglutinativelanguage. Rather than changing the base noun depending on its use in a sentences, extra pieces called particles are added to introduce more meaning. In general these pieces are added to the end of the word.

While that may seem scary, agglutinating languages usually have very clear rules so that people don't get confused when a basic word becomes buried inside a larger piece. The same is true for Korean. This means that you don't have to worry about memorizing exceptions to the rules, like we do in English!

The and A(n)

Korean does not have articles, and only context tells you whether you would need a "the" if said in English. The article "a(n)" is not used.

And

One common piece is and. Unlike in English where there is one word for "and" that can function in all situations, Korean has several. We introduce two here; both of which are used with nouns.

Korean	Example	Usage
~하고	남자하고	Common in speaking
~와	남자와	Common in writing, after a vowel
~과	소년과	Common in writing, after a consonant

Topic and Subject

The most common, and trickiest, particles represent the topic and the subject of a sentences. These two particles represent two different, but overlapping, ideas.

• The subject marker shows who is doing the action.

Korean	Example	Usage
~이	소년이	After a consonant
~가	남자가	After a vowel

• The topic marker shows what the speaker is talking about.

Korean	Example	Usage
~은	소년은	After a consonant
~는	남자는	After a vowel

Note: 는 is often contracted to ㄴ in spoken language. (남자는 → 남잔)

The topic marker adds emphasis, contrast, or limits what is being talked about. 저 (meaning "I") becomes 제 before the subject particle 가.

Usage	Example	Explanation
Limited topic	저는 여자입니다. (I am a woman.)	Irrelevant of anyone else, Iam a woman. (May imply that someone else might be as well.)
Contrasting topic	저는 여자입니다. (I am a woman.)	Unlike the others, I am a woman.
Subject	제가 여자입니다. (I am a woman.)	I am a woman. (May imply that out of the given options, I am the one who is a woman.)

은/는 can be used with general statements as well because you only want to talk about the notion as a group, and nothing else.

Usage	Example	Explanation
General topic	빵은 음식입니다. (Bread is food.)	Bread, for one, is food.
General subject	빵이 음식입니다. (Bread is food.)	Out of the given choices, it is bread that is food.

A sentence may have several topics. Why a topic is not considered as a special case of a subject will be explained later.

Copula

The verb ~이다 is the only verb that is agglutinative.

English	Korean
(It) is X.	X입니다.*
Y is X.	Y가/는 X입니다.

In the speech level (more about that later) we're using at this point in the course, this verb will always be realized as ~입니다 for a statement.

To Not Be

Korean has a separate verb, 아니다, which means "not to be." This verb is not agglutinative, and it comes after the thing that the subject is not, or a complement. The complement particle is also 이/가. At this point, this will always be realized as 아닙니다.

English	Korean
(It) is not X.	X가 아닙니다.*
Y is not X.	Y가/는 X가 아닙니다.

PLURAL MARKER 들

There is a plural suffix, 들, but using 들 is often optional. It can be omitted if plurality is implied within the sentence, and is otherwise necessary for animate nouns/people but uncommon with inanimate nouns.

들 is not used when making a general statement.

Korean	English	Usage
남자는 사람입니다.	Men are people.	General statement
남자들은 사람입니다.	The men are people.	Referring to actual, specific men

의

As an exception, 의 as a particle (meaning of) can also be pronounced 에.

Where is the subject?

When the subject (or any other sentence component) is well implied in the context, you may freely drop it in Korean, though you will mostly see and be asked to submit full sentences here since translation exercises do not come with any context. If you come across an incomplete sentence in this course, then the dropped component is probably people in general (often translated to one or you) or something very obvious even without context. Otherwise we accept every possible pronoun for the omitted components.

Existence

Korean has a set of basic verbs that indicate existence. Two of the most common verbs, they form a class of their own and are used in many compound verbs and phrases.

있다 and 없다

The two verbs are 있다 and 없다.

Korean	English
있다	there is/to exist/to be located
없다	there is not/to not exist/to not be located

In our current speech level, these verbs become 있습니다 and 없습니다.

Korean	English
빵이 있습니다.	There is bread.
빵이 없습니다.	There is no bread.
제가 공원에 있습니다	I am in the park
제가 공원에 없습니다	I am not in the park

When used with place, the place is always marked with 에.

To Have

있다 and 없다 are the most common verbs used to translate "to have" and "not to have" into Korean, respectively. There are other verbs that mean "to possess," "to own," or "to hold," but those are usually more formal and less frequently used. Instead, most Koreans use 있다 and 없다.

The basic sentence is similar to the ones above, with the item marked with 이/가, the owner marked with 은/는, and the location marked with 에.

Korean	English
저는 차가 있습니다.	I have a car.
저는 차가 없습니다.	I do not have a car.
저는 집에 신문이 있습니다.	I have a newspaper at home.
저는 집에 신문이 없습니다.	I do not have a newspaper at home.

Grammatically the word order does not matter as long as proper markers are used and the verb is at the end. However, the order shown in the examples above is the most common, and what is emphasized tends to come later in the sentence when you change the order.

있다 Adjectives

있다 and 없다 can be used to create a wide range of compound adjectives in Korean. This is similar to adjectives ending in -ful or -less in English.

These compound adjectives can be broken down into their respective parts and still function the same way.

Korean	English	Split
맛있다	delicious, tasty (flavorful)	맛이 있다
맛없다	not delicious, disgusting (flavorless)	맛이 없다

Digest

우유(milk,uyu)

이(this)

예(yes)

아뇨(No)

네 (yeah)

위(stomach top)

이름 (Name)

남자의 이름 the man's name

학교 (school)

장소 (place)

영화 (Movie) [yeong hwa]

바다 (sea)

공원 (park) [公园]

신문 (Newspaper)[新闻，sinmun]

({는,은,를}the object marking particles like 공은 집에 있습니다 =the ball is at home)(가 is for person or animal like 개는 친구가 있습니다=the dig gas a friend)(에 is for places like 방이 집에 있습니다 =the room is in the house)(의 is for saying "my,their,his,her, (name)'s" and even though it is "ui" it is usually pronounced as "ye" over here like 여자아이의 음식=the girl's food)

바다에 공원이 없습니다. There is no park in the ocean.

[산]은 바다에 없습니다. (Mountains is not at the sea.)

공원이 없습니다. There is no park.

음식은 맛없습니다. The food tastes bad.

빵이 맛없습니다 The Bread tastes bad.

산은 공원에 있습니다 The mountain is in the park.

가수는 멋없습니다. (The singer is uncool.)

사과는 맛있습니다. Apples are delicious.

음식은 맛있습니다. Food is delicious.

영화는 재미있습니다. The movie is interesting.

공원은 재미없습니다 Parks are uninteresting.

영화는 메시지가 없습니다 The movie does not have a message.

책이 재미없습니다. (The book is not funny / uninteresting.)

음식은 의미가 있습니다. (The Food is meaningful.)

남자는 인기가 있습니다. (Men are popular.)

저는 한국 출신입니다. I am from Korea.

길이 한국에 없습니다. The road is not in Korea.

남자는 한국 출신입니다. (The man is from Korea)