악돌’s First Steps to Serious Korean Part 1 (3/4)
(4) “Verbs”: Descriptive verbs (형용사) + Action Verbs (동사)
aka Predicates (용언) – predicates describe the subject’s quality or actions; predicates state something about the subject.
Before anything, please know that Korean verbs are ‘conjugated.’ In this post, we are using two forms: the ‘dictionary form’ (좋다, 좋아하다), as well as ‘informal polite form,’ 아/어/여 + 요 (좋아요, 좋아해요). For more information on conjugation, check these links: [Korean Wiki Project: 아/어/여 + 요] [Korean Living – multiple conjugations]
Many beginners probably know how to say “오빠 좋아요” and “오빠 좋아해요” without understanding the differences between the two. You may understand them both as “I like 오빠.” Fortunately for us, 좋다 and 좋아하다 are great words to demonstrate the differences between descriptive verbs and action verbs.
While English has a huge distinction between adjectives and verbs, Korean does not share that same difference. Instead, we have descriptive verbs (형용사) that could be similar to English adjectives, but ultimately behave similarly to action verbs (동사), unlike the English adjective.
I think this is a very, very important difference between Korean and English. Both action verbs and descriptive verbs can describe the subject; whether it is about the quality of the subject (like an English adjective might) or to describe the action of the subject (like an English verb might).
How do I know if a "verb" (predicate) is a descriptive verb or an action verb? Well... To be honest, you either know it already, or you have to look it up. They act very similarly in Korean, so it's okay to confuse them. If you're unsure, look it up in the Korean dictionary and see if it says or 동사.
For today's' purpose, just know that action verbs and descriptive verbs are part of the same group and they can do a lot of the same stuff. (Action verbs can do "more" than descriptive verbs, but that's not so important today.)
A. DESCRIPTIVE VERB (형용사) – 좋다
As I’ve mentioned, descriptive verbs are words that could be considered similar to adjectives in English. 좋다, can mean “good,” “likeable,” and “agreeable” like English adjectives. You may also see that 좋다’s meaning is “to be good,” “to be likable” or “to be agreeable.” I personally think that the latter definitions, like “to be good,” is a more accurate depictions of descriptive verbs.
In the first sentence, 저는 사과가 좋아요, we’ve already figured out that ‘저는’ sets up the sentence to be about 저 (I), as identified by the topic particle ‘는.’ However, we know that the subject of the sentence is actually 사과, because of the subject particle ‘가.’ Let’s drop 저는 from this example to clean up the sentence.
Now we have 사과가 좋아요. 사과 is the subject (주어) and 좋아요 is the “verb.”
좋다 is a descriptive verb (형용사). (It is conjugated as 좋아요 in this sentence.) 좋다 is describing the quality of the subject, 사과, as “likable.” 사과가 좋아요 means, 사과 (the subject) has a likable quality.
Let’s bring back 저는. 저는 사과가 좋아요. We already know that this means “I like apples.” Combining everything we’ve learned so far, we can conclude that this sentence technically means the following:
저는 사과가 좋아요
As for me, the apple is likable.
=> I like apples!
Let’s move onto the next sentence.
B. ACTION VERB (동사) – 좋아하다 + OBJECT PARTICLE (을/를)
Verbs have different qualities. This is same for English and Korean alike. Today’s verb, 좋아하다 is a transitive verb (타동사), meaning that the subject verbs upon something (direct object). To reiterate, the transitive verb has three components: a subject, a verb, and a direct object. (Read more on English Transitive Verb here: [Grammar Bytes])
Subject: I
Verb: eat
Direct object: an apple
This is the same in Korean, as demonstrated in our second sentence:
Subject: 저
Verb: 좋아하다 -> 좋아해요
Direct Object: 사과
** Why is there a topic particle on 저 instead of a subject particle? Remember that in the absence of a subject marked by a subject particle, the noun marked with the topic particle can act as the subject of the sentence. Learning when to do this will take time.
Now we run into the object particle. As the name suggests, the object particle marks the direct object of a verb. Because “좋아하다” and “to eat” are both transitive verbs, they require a direct object. In Korean, the direct object is marked by 을/를, the object particle, as you see in the sentence above (사과 + 를).
Why does the other sentence lack a direct object? Remember that 좋다->좋아요 is a descriptive verb, not an action verb nor a transitive verb. It does not call for a direct object.
So, for 저는 사과를 좋아해요, we can break this sentence down like such:
저는 사과를 좋아해요.
I like apples.
=> I like apples!
The last (4/4) segment will be a conclusion and a summary of this lesson. Don’t forget to send me feedback! Is this helpful? Is there anything I can clarify?
Part 1 (¼) Introduction is here: [LINK]
Read the full lesson here on my Wordpress site: [LINK]
