Let's progress together.

The topic of this post is the topic marker.. See what I did there? Haha.. I’ll just go sit in the corner.

은/는 was one of the most difficult things for me to learn about Korean, because there wasn’t a thing like it in any of the languages I’d previously learned and to be honest I’m still not sure I’ve mastered it. You can kinda compare it to “the” or “a/an” but not completely and I would recommend you put those words out of your head as they don’t really exists in Korean. Also 은/는 are part of other constellations so it’s a bit confusing, but just assume all 은/는s are topic markers for now.  

Maybe first of all I should clarify that in the Korean language there are several markers or particles, they have different uses. In this case it’s a suffix which means it’s something you put at the end of another word to affect it.

Okay, so what is a topic marker and what does it do? I have brought my friend Neun Cat to help with that. Neun Cat wants to be the most important thing around, but on his own he’s not that special, therefor he always seeks out the topic of the conversation, because he thinks by association that makes him important too. When Neun Cat jumps up onto your lap, it’s because you’re the one who’s doing something, you’re the center of your sentence. If Neun Cat goes to lie on someone else or something else they’re the topic, they are in focus.  

Still doesn’t make sense? Let’s look at some examples and see if it does then.

저는 고양이예요. I am a cat. Here you want to make it clear that you are the cat. The thing/person who is something is me, therefor 는 attaches itself.

저의 친구는 가사예요. My friend is a singer. Here 는 is attached to friend not you, because it’s your friend who’s a singer, not you. Often your topic will be early on in the sentence but as you can see here it’s not always first.

Sometimes Neun Cat will meet a topic that ends in a vowel instead of a consonant, but our Neun Cat is so eager to be near the topic that he shapes himself to fit and instead become Eun Cat - Like this:

동물은 고양이예요. The animal is a cat. So just as before it’s the animal who is something and in this case its a cat.

Sometimes the topic marker doesn’t only work as a topic marker but you also use 은/는 when you want to make special emphasis on the thing.

화요일은 좋아해요. I like Tuesdays the best. Here Tuesday isn’t liking anything, but it’s Tuesday that is particularly liked by the speaker. So they’re saying other days are good but as for Tuesday I really like that particular day.  

And last but not least it also works as a contrast in conversation.

A: 저는 사과 좋아해요. B: 저는 배 좋아해요. A: I like apples. B: I like pears. So A makes a statement and B puts emphasis on the fact that they like something different. When talking you might also put pressure on the 저는 like you might if you were speaking English.

Me, you and you~

It might’ve been some fast reading and responding on my part but guys, let’s just clear this up real quick:

내가 means me/I (我). 네가 means you (你).

But wait!!! Don’t “nae ga” and “nae ga” sound the same? How do I know which one refers to me and which one refers to you?

니가 is actually a dialect word for 너, which when combined with the particle 가, became 네가 (nae ga) meaning “you.”

[너+가 = 네가]

However, 니가 (ni ga) won the verbal battle due to its clarity and easier recognition when spoken and heard. If you want to be grammatically picky, 네가 is correct, but 니가 is acceptable as well.

Just to be clear, even though many people substitute the proper 네 with 니, the pronunciation is still nae and ni!

지금 and 이제 are both super common words, but speakers of other languages can find them a bit confusing at first if their language doesn’t make a similar distinction and thus translates them both as the same word (English is one of those languages; in English, we would use “now” for both of these Korean words). Let’s take a quick look at the two and how they’re different.

지금

지금 is “now” in the sense of “at this present moment.” Let’s say that you have to catch a flight with your family and someone is holding up the process. Time is ticking away and it’s getting critical. In that case, you would use 지금. You could tell the slowpoke “지금 가야 돼!” (We have to go now!)

이제

이제 is “now” in contrast to some other time. Let’s say that your friend invites you to a concert by an artist you aren’t familiar with and at first you turn down the offer, saying you don’t want to go. Later in the evening, you look up the artist on the internet and find out that their music is your style and you feel that you actually do want to go to the concert. You call your friend and say you want to go, and they ask you to explain yourself. You say,

“가고 싶지 않았는데 가수를 좀 알아봤고 이제 가고 싶어.” (I didn’t want to go, but I looked up the artist and now I want to go.)

용서하다 : to pardon, forgive

감추다 : to hide, conceal

환장하다 : to go mad, nuts

방지하다 : to avoid

예상하다 : to expect

노력하다 : to make efforts

거슬리다 : to offend

해결하다 : to solve, settle, resolve

수록하다 : to include, contain

연애하다 : to date

쓸쓸하다 = 외롭다 = lonely

괜하다 : useless

기발하다 : novel, brilliant

거만하다 : haughty, arrogant

솔직하다 : frank, honest

소중하다 : significant, precious

변덕스럽다 : unpredictable, fickle, temperamental

유난하다 : unusual, singular

방향 : side, direction

겨우 : difficulty

차이 : difference

논란 : controversy

이상형 : ideal type

의미 = 뜻 = meaning, sense

의심 : doubt, suspicion

연관 : relation, connection (between things)

관계 : relation (between people)

자유 : freedom

미리 : in advance, ahead of time

내내 : throughout

분명 : clearly, obviously

이따 : later, after a while

먼저 : first

먹고살기 : to make a living, to make ends meets

검은색 - black 흰색 - white 희색 - gray 갈색 - brown 노란색 - yellow 주황색 - orange (or 오렌지색 which comes from the english word “orange”) 빨간색/붉은색 - red 녹색/초록색 - green 보라색 - purple 파란색 - blue 하늘색 - blue sky 분홍색 - pink (or 핑크색 which comed from the english word “pink”) 짙은… - dark /insert color/ 연한… - light /insert color/

⚠as u probably noticed, they all end with the same syllable : 색 “색” comes from chinese and means “color”! MOST of the time, you can remove the syllable “색” if the word is placed before a noun.

🌸 some examples on how you can use these words:

빨간 입슬 : red lips 분홍색 꽃 : pink flower 갈색 머리 : brown hair 파란 눈 : blue eyes 검은 차 : black car

♡ 가장 좋아하는 색깔이 뭐예요? -> what is your favorite color?

♡ 제가 좋아하는 색깔을 연한 녹색이에요 -> my favorite color is light green

♡ 저는 보라색을 좋아해요 -> i like purple

Korean Grammar - Verbs [Part 3/∞]

At long last, here’s a list of some very common verbs in Korean!~

Enjoy!

*remember to try and sound out each word before peeking at the romanization!~

오다 (oh da) - to come

가다 (ga da) - to go

먹다 (meok da) - to eat

마시다 (ma shi da) - to drink

주다 (joo da) - to give

갖다 (gaj da) - to have

받다 (bad da) - to receive 

배우다 (bae woo da) - to learn

가르치다 (ga reu chi da) - to teach

공부하다 (gong bu ha da) - to study 

연습하다 (yeon seub ha da) - to practice

일하다 (il ha da) - to work

준비하다 (joon bi ha da) - to prepare

앉다 (anj da) - to sit

운동하다 (oon dong ha da) - to exercise

쉬다 (shwi da) - to rest

일어나다 (yi reo na da) - to stand up

걷다 (geot da) - to walk

달리다 (dal li da) - to run

춤추다 (choom chu da) - to dance 

일어나다 (yi reo na da) - to wake up

자다 (ja da) - to sleep

꿈꾸다 (kkum kku da) - to dream

악몽 꾸다 (ak mong kku da) - to have a nightmare  

울다 (ool da) - to cry

웃다 (oot da) - to smile/laugh

듣다 (deud da) - to listen/hear

말하다 (mal ha da) - to talk, speak

보다 (bo da) - to see

감다 (gam da) - to close (one’s eyes)

빌리다 (bil li da) - to lend/borrow

돌려주다 (dol ryeo joo da) - to return

열다 (yeol da) - to open

닫다 (dat da) -  to close to open

사다 (sa da) - to buy

내다 (nae da) - to pay

팔다 (pal da) - to sell 

신다 (shin da) - to wear (shoes, socks, footwear)

입다 (ib da) - to wear (clothes)

벗다 (beot da) - to remove/take off/undress (clothes)

이기다 (yi gi da) - to win

지다 (ji da) - to lose 

읽다 (ilk da) - to read 

쓰다 (sseu da) - to write/to wear

기억하다 (gi yeok ha da) - to remember

잊다 (it da) - to forget

시작하다 (shi jak ha da) - to start

끝나다 (kkeut na da) - to finish  

묻다 (moot da) - to ask

대답하다 (dae dab ha da) - to answer 

출발하다 (chul bal ha da) - to depart

도착하다 (do chak ha da) - to arrive 

생각하다 (saeng gak ha da) - to think

알다 (al da) - to know

모르다 (mo reu da) - to not know

결혼하다 (gyeol hon ha da) - to marry

축하하다 (chuk ha ha da) - to congratulate

태어나다 (tae eo na da) - to be born

살다 (sal da) - to live

헤어지다 (hae eo ji da) - to separate

운전하다 (oon jeon ha da) - to drive

좋아하다 (joh ah ha da) - to like

싫어하다 (shil eo ha da) - to dislike

사랑하다 (sa rang ha da) - to love

미워하다 (mi wo ha da) - to hate

있다 (yit da) - to have

없다 (eob da) - to not have

들어오다 (deul eo oh da) - to enter

나가다 (na ga da) - to exit

씻다 (shid da) - to wash

청소하다 (cheong so ha da) - to clean

약속하다 (yak sok ha da) - to promise

거짓말하다 (geo jit mal ha da) - to lie

고백하다 (go baek ha da) - to confess

요리하다 (yo ri ha da) - to cook

끓이다 (kkeul yi da) - to boil

썰다 (sseol da) - to chop, slice

튀기다 (twi gi da) - to (deep) fry

재다 (jae da) - to measure, weigh

섞다 (seok da) - to mix, blend

굽다 (gub da) - to roast, grill, bake

볶다 (bokk da) - to stir fry

찌다 (jji da) - to steam

휘젓다 (hwi jeot da) - to stir

까다 (kka da) - to peel

만나다 (man na da) - to meet

주문하다 (joo mun ha da) - to order

전화하다 (jeon hwa ha da) - to make a phone call

타다 (ta da) - to ride

필요하다 (pil yo ha da) - to need

도와주다 (do wa joo da) - to help

하다 (ha da) - to do

걱정하다 (geok jeong ha da) - to worry

보내다 (bo nae da) - to send

사용하다 (sa yong ha da) - to use

싸우다 (ssa woo da) - to fight

Hope this helps and happy studying!~

Quoting in Korean is easy,really it is

Method with using 다니

A: ‘내가 한국에 돌아갈거야’

B: 니가 한국에 돌아가다니 엄청 슬퍼.

A: 어젯밤에는 소희가 잘모르는 남자랑 모텔에 갔어

B: 소희가 잘모르는 남자랑 모텔로 갔다니 궁금해.

‘What person A said’다니 Your response.

First, this is a combination of the declarative quotation format, -다고 (하다) and -(으)니까, which can be used to express reasons or can be used as “because.” Combined and shortened, they make “-다(고) (하)니(까).” Do you see it? So, together, we can translate this form as “Because you/he/she/etc. say(s)…” Let’s look at these examples a little more in detail. I will change the sentences into 존댓말 as well because they are originally in 반말, which you can not use with strangers (except for people who are clearly younger than you) without offending someone (please please PLEASE don’t learn Korean from 반말 ㅠㅠ).

A: 제가 한국에 돌아갈 거예요. (I will go back to Korea.)

B: 한국에 돌아간다니 엄청 슬퍼요. (Because you say you are going back to Korea, I am really sad.)

A: 어젯밤에는 소희 씨가 잘 모르는 남자랑 모텔에 갔어요. (Last night Sohee went to a motel with a *strange man.)

B: 소희 씨가 잘 모르는 남자랑 모텔에 갔다니 궁금해요. (Because you say Sohee went to a motel with a strange man, I’m curious.)

*NOTE: For the sake of sounding more natural, I translated “잘 모르는 남자” as “strange man” but it literally means “a man that Sohee doesn’t know well” (maybe someone she just met that night, or just someone she isn’t very familiar with).

Okay, let’s look more at this grammar.

“한국에 돌아간다니 엄청 슬퍼요.”

We could rewrite this sentence as “한국에 돌아간다고 하니까 엄청 슬퍼요.” In there, we have 돌아간다고 하다, which is quoting A, who said they will return to Korea, and then we have -(으)니까 which marks the previous information as a reason (AKA: “because”). In that way, we get the translation “Because you say you are going back to Korea, I am really sad.”

“ 소희 씨가 잘 모르는 남자랑 모텔에 갔다니 궁금해요. “

We could rewrite this sentence as “소희 씨가 잘 모르는 남자랑 모텔에 갔다고 하니까 궁금해요.” Again, the -다고 하다 on the past tense form of 가다 is quoting A, who said that Sohee went to a motel with a strange man. Then, we have -(으)니까 which marks that quote as the reason why person B is curious.

I hope this helped. Learning the parts of grammar forms can be VERY helpful to understanding them in full. If you want to know more about -(으)니까, you can check out my post on expressing reasons.

This has been a much-requested grammar form! -다가 is a really useful grammar point that is used often in speech, so it would be really helpful to learn how to use it well.

I will cover four different “forms” of -다가, each of which has its own meaning(s). The four forms I’ll cover will be -다가, 아/어다가, -았/었다가 (-다가 attached to a verb conjugated to past tense), and -다가는. Also, while it’s not the same as the verb endings that use -다가, I’ll explain the particle -에다가 as well.

-다가

Function

The -다가 grammar form is used to indicate interruption of an action. In English, we could translate this form roughly as “While doing X…”

Usage

-다가 is very simple to use! Just attach it to an action verb root in present tense! You can optionally remove the “가” at the end and just use it as -다 as well. Just make sure that the subject of the preceding and following clauses stays the same Let’s check it out:

Interruption of an action:

요리를 하다가 접시를 떨어트렸어요. (While cooking, I dropped a plate.)

영화를 보다가 잠들었어. (While watching a movie, I fell asleep.)

화랑 씨는 숙제를 하다가 친구들과 전화도 했어요. (While doing his homework, Hwarang  talked with his friends on the phone.)

수하 씨는 오랜만에 못 본 친구랑 통화하다가 울었어요. (While on the phone with a friend she hadn’t been able to see in a long time, Suha cried.)

NOTE: This section originally listed a second meaning for -다가, that being the introduction of the simultaneous occurrence of two actions. After looking into it a bit more, a true feeling of simultaneous occurrence can not be achieved by using -다가 and -(으)면서 must be used, otherwise the sense of interruption persists. You can read a little more by clicking this paragraph. I apologize for any confusion caused.

-아/어다가

Function

-아/어다가 is a grammar form indicating sequential actions. The action in the preceding clause is done first, and then the action in the following clause occurs in a different location. The two actions must be related to each other, so that the action in the following clause happens dependent upon the completion of the action in the preceding clause. You can think of it as meaning “First… and then…” in English, though of course you might have to change that a bit for a more natural translation depending on the circumstances.

Usage

To use this form, simply attach -아/어다가 to the root of an action verb in the present tense. Remember to change the root as needed depending on whether or not it’s irregular!  You can optionally remove the “가” at the end and just use it as -아/어다 as well.

제 가방 좀 가져다 주세요. (Please get my bag and give it to me.)

아름 씨는 김밥을 만들어다가 친구에게 줬어요. (Areum made kimbap and gave it to her friends. 

언니는 선물을 사다가 어머니께 보냈어요. (My older sister bought a gift and sent it to mom.)

-았/었다가

Function

Using -다가 on an action verb conjugated to the past tense indicates completion of an action, after which another action action occurs. This is in contrast to -다가 with a present tense action verb, which indicates interruption of an action or simultaneous occurrence of two actions, as seen above. The verbs used in the preceding and following clauses are often contrasting or opposite, though this is not always the case.

Usage

Just conjugate the action verb that you want to use to past tense and add -다가! You can optionally remove the “가” at the end and just use this grammar as -았/었다. Also, the subject of both the preceding and following clauses must stay the same.

갔다 올게요! (I’ll go and come back! [More naturally, “I’ll be back!”])

편의점에 들렀다가 집에 갔어요. (I stopped by the convenience store and then went home.)

NOTE: This form can also be used to express that something unexpected happened after doing the action in the preceding clause.

집에 갔다가 문 앞에 웬 소포가 있었어요. (I went home and there was an unexpected package in front of the door.)

기차를 탔다가 6년만에 못 본 친구를 만났아요. (I got on the train and met a friend I hadn’t seen in six years.)

-다가는

Function

This grammar point is used to give warnings, indicating that if the action or condition of the preceding clause continues, then the negative result in the following clause will occur. It can be translated as “If… then…”. Just keep in mind that it must be used with negative consequences only!

Something important to note with this form is that, while it might seem similar to -(으)면, the two are not totally interchangeable! -다가는 refers to an action that is already known to be in progress, regardless of context, while an identical sentence that changes only -다가는 to -(으)면 refers to a condition in the preceding clause that may or may not be in progress (unless prior context makes it clear that the action is in progress, in which case the two sentences are identical).

Usage

Unlike the other -다가s that we have looked at so far, this one can be used with action and descriptive verbs both! Just attach -다가는 to the root of the verb in either present or past tense. Using a verb conjugated to the past tense changes the preceding clause from a situation that is currently in progress to speculating about a present or future event.

PRESENT

Action verbs: -다가는

담배를 계속 피우다가는 폐암에 걸릴지도 몰라요. (If you keep smoking, you might get lung cancer [LIT-I don’t know whether or not you’ll get lung cancer].)

이렇게 공부를 미루다가는 기말 시험에 떨어질 수도 있어요. (If you put off studying like this you could even fail the final exam.)

Descriptive verbs: -다가는

미세먼지가 이렇게 심하다가는 호흡기 질환 환자들이 많아질 거예요. (If the pollution stays severe like this, the number of respiratory illness patients will increase.)

날씨가 이렇게 덥다가는 특히 노인들이 열사병에 많이 걸릴 것 같아요. (If the weather stays hot like this, it seems that especially many elderly people could get heat stroke.)

PAST— I actually struggled over this section quite a bit! I had to ask some native speaker friends to help me work through it. In general, the consensus we reached is that the examples that I wrote here are correct, but it is far more common to just use -(으)면 for the same meaning.

Action verbs: -았/었다가는

어제 처럼 경기했다가는 질 거예요. (If we play like we did yesterday, then we will lose.)

음식을 너무 많이 먹었다가는 배탈이 날 거예요. (If you eat too much food, you’ll get a stomachache.)

Descriptive verbs: -았/었다가는

집안 습기가 계속 이렇게 높았다가는 곰팡이가 쉽게 생길 거예요. (If the humidity in your house is constantly high, mold will form easily.)

출산율이 계속 낮았다가는 인구가 감소할 거예요. (If the birthrate stays low, the population will decrease.)

-에다가

Function

The particle -에다가 has two main functions. One of those functions is to indicate the specific location of something, and the other is to add more information in addition to something else. You can drop the final “가” and just use this particle as -에다.

Usage

When used to indicate the specific location of something, -에다가 is attached to an adverb. When used to provide additional information, it attaches to nouns.

Specific location:

종이 밑에다가 사인해 주세요. (Please sign the bottom of the paper.)

가방을 책상 위에다가 놓았어요. (I put my bag on top of the table.)

어디에다 둘까요? (Where should I put it?)

Additional information:

김밥을 만들었어요. 게다가(그에다가) 음료수도 준비해 놨어요. (I made kimbap. In addition to that, I also prepared drinks.) 

소윤 씨는 알바하는 데다가 봉사 활동도 해요. (In addition to working a part-time job, Soyun also does volunteer activities.) NOTE: 데다가 = 데 + 에다가. For more info on -는 데, click here!

이번 주 가스요금에다가 전기요금도 내야 돼요. (This week I must pay my electricity bill in addition to my gas bill.)

Hello, all! Thank you for your patience with my crazy posting schedule lately. I’m back with another grammar post, this time about -(으)ㄹ 때. Thanks to @keepitshortlikeme for asking about this form :)

Function

-(으)ㄹ 때’s function is pretty simple! You can use it when you want to talk about something that happens (or happened) at a particular point in time. For example, you could use it in sentences like, “When I eat fried chicken I am happy” or “When I was young, I played soccer often.”

Usage

This one’s pretty easy to use :) For present tense, just attach -을 때 to an action or descriptive verb root ending with a consonant (excluding ㄹ), or -ㄹ 때 to a root ending with ㄹ or a vowel. You can also use this grammar to talk about things that happened in the past by attaching -을 때 to a verb root that has been conjugated to the past tense.

Note that this is really just the noun modifier ending -(으)ㄹ used with the noun 때! 때 itself is a noun that indicates a point in time, but together with this noun modifier ending, it is most naturally translated as “when”.

PRESENT TENSE:

Action verbs:

밥 먹을 때마다 행복해요. (I am happy every time I eat.)

매일 출근할 때마다 카페에 들렀다가 회사에 가요. (Every day when I go to work I drop by a cafe and go to the office.)

친구들하고 놀 때는 시간이 너무 빨리 가는 것 같아요. (It seems that time goes by too quickly when I hang out with my friends.)

Descriptive verbs:

기분이 좋을 때 노래를 부르는 걸 좋아해요. (I like singing when I’m in a good mood.)

미세먼지가 심할 때는 집에 있는 게 나아요. (When the pollution is severe, it’s better to stay at home.)

아플 때는 많이 쉬는 게 좋아요. (It’s good to rest a lot when you are sick.)

PAST TENSE:

Action verbs:

그 사람을 처음 만났을 때는 첫인상이 안 좋았어요. (When I met that person for the first time, my first impression wasn’t good.)

진수 씨가 결혼했을 때 진수 씨의 가족들이 많이 울었어요. (When Jinsu got married, his family members cried a lot.)

경하 씨한테 전화했을 때 경하 씨는 전화를 안 받았어요. (Kyeongha did not answer the phone when I called her.)

Descriptive verbs:

어렸을 때 축구를 자주 했어요. (When I was young I played soccer often.)

살면서 가장 슬펐을 때는 강아지가 죽었을 때였어요. (The saddest time in my life was when my puppy died.)

          –We have both a descriptive verb and an action verb here!

Listening practice is vital if you want to communicate with other speakers of whatever language you’re trying to learn. What good is being able to talk to someone if you can’t understand what they’re saying in return? However, especially if you aren’t taking a Korean class or if you don’t live in an area with a population that speaks your target language that you could potentially interact with, getting in good listening practice could be hard. Today, I’ll go over a few ways you can get some listening practice in.

1. Guided/instructed listening practice

I’ll call guided/instructed listening practice anything that comes from a book or a source that actually means to teach someone a language. In terms of Korean, there are more and more textbooks and websites out there that are aiming to teach Korean to non-native speakers. Most of those textbooks and sites include audio files for listening practice as you advance through their curriculum. For example, both of the books that I usually recommend to beginning Korean learners, “McGill Korean 1″ and “Korean Made Simple” include audio files that you can download and listen to as you start your learning journey. The “Korean Grammar in Use” series also includes audio CDs, and I’ve heard people talking about Talk To Me In Korean’s 이야기 conversation series as well (though I’ve not yet had the time to check it out myself). The language learning phone application LingoDeer also has quality audio files that you can listen to and do spaced repetition practice with. The same goes for Mandarin, Japanese, and pretty much any language out there. All of the textbooks that I have bought for both of those languages have included audio files on a CD or available for download online, and LingoDeer exists for both Mandarin and Japanese. Also, especially for Mandarin I’ve found a few Chinese-for-foreigners Youtube channels that are pretty good, especially Mandarin Corner. Using each of these sources, textbooks and website curriculum with corresponding audio files and transcripts, you can listen to material that you know will, provided you followed all the previous lessons well, at a level that you will be able to understand.

2. Native input (TV shows, podcasts, etc.)

If you have confidence in your listening skills, you can jump on in to listening to material made for native speakers, including things like TV shows, movies, and more. If you’re at a lower level, you might be able to listen and pick up a few words here and there and get a better feel for the language’s intonation and become more skilled at picking up word and phrase boundaries, even if you can’t quite catch the whole meaning. For Korean learners, variety shows might be the easiest because they tend to have a lot of subtitles already on-screen in Korean so you can check your comprehension with those also. For things like podcasts, you could use an app/site like Naver’s AudioClip and find something that suits your tastes, or you can watch dramas, movies, Youtube channels (I hardly even do makeup, but one of my favorites is 씬님)… If you’re looking to beef up your advanced vocab, the major Korean news channels stream on Youtube, though I’m not sure if those streams are region locked or not. The options are really only limited by how good you are at looking up what you want to listen to (and in the case of some TV streaming sites, whether or not you have a good VPN to get around region blocks :] ).

3. Language exchange partners

If you want to mix in some speaking practice with your listening, you can try to find a language exchange partner. There are a lot of websites and apps that you can use to find language exchange partners, and perhaps you’ll find someone that would be willing to do voice chat with you. Of course, if you’re ever tried to use one of the many language exchange sites or apps out there, you’ll know that they can be super hit-or-miss, and ladies especially have to be wary of creepy guys coming on to them. Still, I have met a lot of decent people over language exchanges apps, so I’ll never say that they’re useless. Just… be careful. The apps I mainly use are Hellotalk and Tandem, which I talked about in an app review not too long ago!

4. 받아쓰기 (Dictation)

This one isn’t so much a source of listening practice as much as a method that I have found works fairly well for me. You can use any audio source as long as there is an accompanying transcript. For Korean, I tend to use short news videos that I find through portal sites, because they often have a full transcript below the video. I watch the video and listen once so I can hear (and see) the context and the speech in full and then listen again, pausing as needed to write down what I heard. Even with a short news video of three minutes or so, it can take a really long time. If you want to try to do dictations, it’s best to find something not too long or decide on a shorter segment to work with. After I do the dictation, I compare what I wrote against the given transcript, making sure to mark and take note of my errors. It’s time-consuming and a bit tedious, but if you do it regularly enough you can notice patterns in your errors—maybe you consistently write one sound in place of a similar sound, maybe you make a lot of errors when vocab related to a certain topic comes up, and so on. There are, of course, other ways to test your listening, including trying to summarize what you heard, taking a quiz on it if you’re using a textbook or language learning site that provides those kinds of comprehension questions, and trying to listen and repeat exactly what you heard. If you have any cool methods that you use to help train and test your listening skills, let me know!

This is a topic that confuses a lot of people at the start, especially if they are coming from a language that, like English, does not make use of grammatical particles.

I guess I should start by explaining what exactly a grammatical particle is. Particles are grammatical elements that lack meaning of their own but impart meaning when connected with another word. When they are associated with another word, they give some sort of additional meaning to that word. Korean makes extensive use of particles, and today we’ll look at the three most common ones.

-이/가

The particle -이/가 (-이 for when the preceding word ends with a consonant and -가 for when the preceding word ends with a vowel) attaches directly to a noun and marks that noun as the grammatical subject of the sentence. If you aren’t familiar with that concept, the subject is the doer of verb, or the person or thing carrying out a certain state in the sentence. For example:

She is crying.

In this sentence, “she” is the one doing the action. “She” is the doer in this sentence, so it is the subject. Let’s look at another example:

The bag got dirty.

Being dirty isn’t exactly an action, but the thing in that state is the bag. English does not have any special element marking “she” or “bag” as the subjects of their respective sentences, but Korean does. Let’s translate the above sentences into Korean and make sure we mark the subjects.

She is crying. -> 그녀가 울고 있어요.

Here, we attach -이/가 to the noun we want to mark as the subject. In this case, the noun is “그녀 (that lady).” Since it ends with a vowel, we choose -가 instead of -이.

The bag got dirty. -> 가방이 더러워졌어요.

Since 가방 ends with a consonant, we use -이 as our subject particle.

Let’s check out some more examples of -이/가 usage:

누가 왔어요? (Who came?)

NOTE: 누가 is the question word 누구 (who) + -이/가!

휴지가 없어요. (There is no toilet paper.)

책상 위에 사과가 있어요. (There is an apple on the table.)

리모콘이 안 돼요. (The remote doesn’t work.)

  -을/를

Next, we have the direct object particle -을/를. Like the subject particle -이/가, it attaches to nouns. Use -을 when the noun ends with a consonant and -를 when the noun ends in a vowel. The direct object is the receiver of the action that the subject does. Let’s take a look:

I ate an apple.

Here, the apple is receiving the action of being eaten.

My younger brother often reads books.

In this case, the books are receiving the action of being read.

Let’s translate them to Korean!

I ate an apple -> 제가 사과를 먹었어요.

You can see I used -를 since 사과 ends with a vowel. I also marked the subject with the subject particle -가.

My younger brother often reads books. -> 우리 동생은 책을 많이 읽어요. (NOTE: In Korean, 우리 [our/we] is used to mean “my” when referring to family members.)

Since 책 ends with a consonant, I used -을. 동생 is the subject of the sentence, but I marked it with the topic particle, which we will see below.

Let’s finish up with a few more examples:

미나가 잠을 잘 잤어요. (Mina slept well.)

NOTE: In Korean, one says they “sleep a sleep (잠을 자다).” Similar verbs include “to dance (춤을 추다)” and “to dream (꿈을 꾸다).”

민호 씨가 빵을 먹어요. (Minho eats bread/ Minho is eating bread.)

NOTE: Simple present tense in Korean can be translated as either simple present or present progressive tense in English.

-은/는

And now we get to the hard part… -은/는! This particle sometimes pops up where you would expect to see the subject particle, and sometimes it shows up where you would expect to see the direct object particle. So, what exactly is this mysterious thing??

-은/는 is a topic particle, which means, among other things, that it is used to mark the topic, or focus, of the sentence. This usage often shows turns up when you want to introduce a new topic or change from one topic to another. Sometimes it helps to translate it as, “as for…”

Let’s look at some examples, using -은 when it attaches to a word ending with a consonant and -는 when it attaches to a word ending with a vowel.

저는 미국인이에요. ([As for me,] I’m an American.)

그 배우는 정말 유명해요. ([As for that actor,] That actor is really famous.)

사과는 제가 가장 좋아하는 과일이에요. ([As for apples,] Apples are my favorite fruit.)

-은/는 can also be used for showing contrast betweenthings:

민수 씨는 사과를 싫어하지만 저는 사과를 좋아해요. (Minsu hates apples apples but I like apples.)

서현 씨는 키가 작은 반면에 서현 씨의 여동생은 키가 커요. (Seohyeon is short; on the other hand, her younger sister is tall.)

NOTE how we have both the topic particle and subject particle in the same sentence!

넌 거의 아무거나 잘 먹는데 당근은 왜 안 먹어? (You eat almost anything well, but why don’t you eat carrots?)

We actually have two -은/는 here with different meanings. The first one is 너 + 는 (shortened to 넌) to mark that the speaker wants to focus on this particular person. The second, which we can find on 당근, emphasizes the contrast between the listener eating pretty much everything with the special exception of carrots.

Also notice that the topic particle on 당근 is replacing the direct object particle -을/를!

At the end of the day, the usage of -은/는 is one that is best grasped through exposure to native speech. The more Korean you hear, the more you’ll develop your intuition of when you should and shouldn’t use -은/는. However, I hoped this short section on it at least helps you to understand how it functions when you do happen across it.

되다 is one of the most useful, and perhaps most confusing, verbs you will encounter while learning Korean. If you were to ask me what it means, my fast-and-easy answer would be “to become.” However, it serves a lot of purposes in a lot of different contexts. Today, we’ll look at some of the most common of its usages.

To become

As I already mentioned, “to become” is my fast answer for whenever someone asks me what 되다 means. Let’s look at some simple examples:

호인 씨는 아빠가 됐어요. (Hoin became a father.)

이렇게 쓰면 괜찮은데 그렇게 쓰면 틀린 말이 돼요. (If you write it like this it’s okay, but if you write it like that it’s bad [lit: it becomes incorrect words].)

그는 제가 써준 편지가 힘이 됐다고 해요. (He says that the letters I wrote gave him strength [lit. became strength].)

Passage of time

되다 is also often used when one wants to refer to how much time has passed. This usage often occurs with the grammar -(으)ㄴ 지, which can be translated as “since.”

입대한 지 2개월이 됐어요. (It has been two months since he enlisted.)

아침을 먹은 지 1 시간도 안 됐는데 배가 고프네요. (It’s only been an hour since I ate breakfast but I’m hungry.)

“Leave it!”

Sometimes when you’re annoyed, you just want to tell someone that you’re done with the conversation or that you want them to leave you alone. You can accomplish this with a single exclamation:

“됐어!”

Let’s look at it in some context:

A: 다니 씨가 어제 입은 빨간색 원피스가 엄청 예뻤어. (The red dress that Dani wore yesterday was really pretty.)

B: 파란색이었는데? (It was blue, though?)

A: 아니, 빨간색이었어. (No, it was red.)

B: 빨간색 원피스는 경하 씨가 입었잖아! (Kyeongha wore the red dress!)

A: 아, 됐어, 색깔이 그렇게 중요하냐? (Oh, leave it, is the color that important?)

Permission

If you want to ask permission—or deny permission!—되다 is there for you! In this case, it is paired up with -아/어도 or -(으)면 (even if). When -아/어도 or -(으)면  is followed by 되다, it takes on the meaning of, “Is it okay if…?” when presented as a question or as granting permission when presented as a statement. Adding negation to 되다 will turn that granting of permission into refusal. Also, you can simply use “돼요” and “안 돼요” for the same meaning.

내 핸드폰을 맘대로 가져가 사용하면 안 돼. (You can’t take my phone as you please and use it.)

저 컴퓨터를 사용해도 돼요. (You can use that computer over there.)

A: 이 케이크를 먹어도 돼요? (Is it okay if I eat this cake?)

B: 안 돼요. (No [It’s not okay].)

Disbelief

Imagine an action movie, the lead hero and and his or her sidekick fighting together, when suddenly the sidekick is seriously injured! The hero cries out “No!” in disbelief and rushes to the sidekick’s side. That “No!” can be translated in Korean to “안 돼(요)!” This usage is fairly limited to negative situations.

Acceptability judgments

Sometimes you need to decide if something is up to a certain standard, or if something is suitable for a certain purpose. In this case, you can use 되다 to pass judgments on something:

이 채소는 안 돼요. 가장 신선한 것만 사용해요. (These vegetables are no good. Let’s used only the freshest ones.)

A: 음식을 충분히 준비했어요? (Have you prepared enough food?)

B: 이 정도면 될 것 같아요. (It seems like this much will be fine.)

Completion

Finally, 되다 can be used to express completion! Suppose a friend asks you if you’re done with your part of a group project. You can show them your finished portion and tell them, “다 됐어!”

A: 준비할 게 아직도 있어요? (Is there anything else to prepare?)

B: 아뇨, 준비가 다 됐어요. (No, the preparations are all complete.)

A: 오븐 안에 있는 쿠키를 좀 확인해 줘. (Please check the cookies in the oven.)

B: 아, 다 됐네. (Oh, they’re all done.)