DDAOME "따옴"

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중요한 약속이니까 반드시 시간에 맞춰서 와야 합니다. (Since it's an important meeting, you must be on time.)

편의점: convenience store

슈퍼/마트/슈퍼마켓: grocery store

빵집: bakery 

지하철 역: subway station

도서관: library

아파트: apartment

시청: city hall

구청: gu office (“구” is a lower level of administration than 시, which is city)

For example, for Seoul it’s 시청 (서울 시청), but for gangnamgu, a area within Seoul, it’s 강남구청.

On an even lower level there are 주민센터, and there can be more than one 주민센터 within one 구. 

학교: school

초등/중/고등/대: elementary/middle/high/university

상가: shopping district/shopping center

백화점: department store

은행: bank

우체국: post office

미용실: hairdresser/beauty salon

병원: hospital

약국: pharmacy

카페: cafe

식당/음식점: restaurant

학원: academy (private educational institutes)

호텔: hotel

공원: park

놀이터: playground

경찰서: police station

소방서: fire station

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Answers:

When you learn Korean, you may come across the word “하다” a lot. However, you may find that sometimes it works as a verb by itself while others seem combined with other words. 

하다 is usually used as a verb, meaning “to do something”. 

나는 매일 운동을 한다. (I exercise every day.)

나는 어제 공부를 열심히 했다. (I studied very hard yesterday)

To translate more literally word-by-word, the sentences above would look a bit more like “I do exercise every day” or “I did study very hard yesterday”. 

However, you can also combine -하다 as a suffix to nouns to make various verbs and adjectives. Basically, -하다 can make nouns into something that has the quality of a verb, which can become a predicate.

Examples for -하다 verbs: 비행하다, 공부하다, 노래하다, 집중하다, 사랑하다

Examples for -하다 adjectives: 건강하다, 순수하다, 중요하다, 유용하다, 가난하다

(check the images above for each meaning and pronunciation!)

So what is the difference between a verb and an adjective in Korean? Well, adjectives, or 형용사, in Korean, aren’t very similar to adjectives in English, which usually refers to words used to describe nouns. In Korean, 형용사, or adjective describes the state or condition of the subject. If you check the meanings for the -하다 adjectives in the images above, you will notice most of them start with “to be”, which is the main difference between the verbs. 

A commonly known adjective would be “예쁘다”, which means “pretty” (to be pretty). While both can be conjugated and act as predicates in a sentence there are some key grammatical differences, which is why in Korean we differentiate these two parts of speech. For example, adjectives cannot combine with the word ending -ㄴ다 (present tense ending). 

Example:

나는 공부한다. (I study) (O)

나는 예쁘다 (I am pretty) (O) / 나는 예쁜다 (X)

-하다 not only combines with nouns but can also be combined with adverbs or onomatopoeic words, and sometimes other words as well. It even combines with certain dependent nouns too!

하다 as a verb also has many more meanings than just doing something, and it is an extremely versatile word. It can mean “to make” or “to dress/wear” in certain contexts, or could even refer to causation. It’s also used as another auxiliary/assistant verb (보조 동사), usually as the form -게 하다, which makes causatives(사동 표현). However, these are more advanced uses and aren’t the focus of this post, but perhaps in the future we can dive deeper into the various uses of the word “하다”.  

Additionally, if you are an advanced learner and know quite a lot about Korean grammar, you may be questioning whether -하다 itself is a suffix or -하- is the suffix while -다 should be seen as a simple ending (종결어미). After all, when you conjugate -하다 words like 공부하다 into 공부하니, 공부하여, you will find that -하- is the suffix adding the new meaning while -다 is just the ending for the base form.

According to 국립국어원(the National Institute of Korean language) -하- is the suffix that makes nouns into verbs while -다 is an ending, but sometimes dictionaries such as the 표준국어대사전 mark it as -하다 (the whole) as a suffix which can be a source of confusion. Since I didn’t want to explain too much about the grammar behind the conjugation of endings, I simply referred to the suffix as -하다 in this post. Of course, this distinction does not have much use for foreigners learning Korean but may be an interesting tidbit for advanced learners or native speakers who are interested in advanced grammar! 

If you were in Korea between May and August, you would have received an alert that would have looked similar to this:  

[Emergency Alert] 

At 7/24(Wed), unidentified materials, which are speculated to be North Korean Waste, were located near XXX area. Please contact the nearby army station upon notice if you see one. 

From May 28th to August, North Korea has released balloons a total of 12 times, amassing over 1000 balloons dispatched to the South. The balloon, which carries all kinds of trash from tattered clothing to human waste, was spread through the northern part of South Korea. Seoul, the capital city of Korea, was no exception to this sudden action as well. Such balloons were spotted near the Congress and even at the presidential residence of president Yoon. 

While it is speculated that such acts by North Korea was an act of retaliation toward the South Korean government upon allowing various organizations(especially those who are North Korean refugees, 탈북민[Tal-Bok-Min] in Korean) who sent anti-government leaflets and materials to North Korea, the specific reasons to such activities remain unknown at this time. 

Followed by this occurrence, the ministry of Unification(통일부[Tong-Il-bu]) released a unique statement regarding the specifics of the balloons. Upon analysis of the materials that were inside, it was revealed that the majority of the rubbish was “curated trash,” which consisted of paper, clothing and vinyl that were cut in an identical size each. 

The few pieces of actual trash provided some insight into the current circumstances inside North Korea. Socks and clothing, which were found to be repaired multiple times, added strength to the claims which argued people in North Korea, especially after the COVID-19, were facing severe strains in daily life. 

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