#study korean

집으로 돌아가요. → I’m going back home.

출발점으로 돌아가자. → Let’s go back to the starting point.

돌아오다 — to return here ("come back")

Return to where the speaker currently is.

집에 돌아왔어요. → I came back home (and I'm here now).

여기로 돌아오세요. → Come back here. (request)

Tip: You can think of it like 가다 is to go while 오다 is to come/came.

A common confusion:

Using 집에 갔어요 to say “I got home" or "I went home (and am now here)" isn't correct.

Actually, you want to say:

집에 왔어요 “I came home (I’m home now).”

The other two:

들어가다 — to go in / to enter (go into a place)

Think: you are outside → you go in there. But it can also not be so literal, like getting into a university, going into the workforce, etc.

Examples:

가게에 들어가요. → I’m going into the store.

방에 들어갔어요. → I went into the room.

들어오다 — to come in / to enter (come into where the speaker is)

Think: someone else is outside → they come in here.

Examples:

여기 들어오세요. → Please come in (to where I am).

친구가 집에 들어왔어요. → My friend came into the house.

A good example that makes the difference pretty clear (I think?):

Scenario 1: The teacher is inside the classroom, the students are outside, she says: 들어오세요.~ Come in, please.

Scenario 2: The teacher is outside the classroom, and the students are also outside. She says: 들어가세요.~ Go in, please.

It has to do with where the speak is, so in this example the 선생님.

Copy and paste into a document to save/annotate your own copy. Also, feel free to practice in the comments (or point out any inaccuracies)! We’re all learning here.

아마도 저는 한국어로 웹툰들을 찾고 있었던 것 같아요.

(이제부터 영어 쓸게요)

After looking around this website, which is entirely in Korean, my guess is that it was some sort of online forum like Reddit. And that seems to be true.

Research tells me Bobaedream is basically a huge Korean online community forum, mixed with various discussion boards and posts on cars, gossip, news, personal stories seeking advice, humor, etc. Apparently, it originally was a place to sell cars???

Either way, I am sharing this because I think it would be a good place to practice Korean reading and increase vocabulary, because it has so many miscellaneous topics. Likewise, reading the comments is good practice too.

I'm not at this high a level of Korean yet to easily navigate the website, but from that initial illustration "돈이 없다의 기준" I am in the humor/issues/GIF section of the board, which is probably right where I want to be. If you press the next button ("다음"), it'll take you to the next post, which seems to vary quite widely, no matter what category you are in.

Here is a direct link to the little comic about money: 사람마다 갈린다는 '돈이 없다'의 기준 - 보배드림 신유머/이슈/움짤.

Also, here is the translated menu list of topics:

Anyhow, I just wanted to share this with you all as a potential reading practice resource. You can literally click through any category and just hunt for a post that looks like your level and try reading/translating it. It's quite fun.

Verbs & Adjectives

Present 현재: ~아/어/해

Past 과거: ~았어/었어/했어

Future 미래: ~을(c)/ㄹ(v) 거야

예:

가 / 갔어 / 갈 거야

들어 / 들었어 / 들을 거야

알아 / 알았어 / 알을 거야

바빠 / 바빴어 / 바쁠 거야

좋아 / 좋았어 / 좋을 거야

추워 / 추웠어 / 출 거야

싸워어 / 싸웄어 / 싸울 거야

Nouns (with 이다 /아니다)

Present 현재: ~이야(c)/야(v)

Past 과거: ~이었어(c)/였어(v)

Future 미래: 일(c)/ㄹ(v) 거야

예:

친구야 / 친구였어 / 친구일 거야

동생이야 / 동생이었어 / 동생일 거야

Names 이름

Vowel ending: add 야

Consonant ending: add 아

예:

민진아 vs 지수야

Commands 명령/권유

Remember, commands are those ~으/세요 or ~지 마세요 phrases in polite speech.

Verbs ("Do XXX"): ~아/어/해 (요 form without 요)

예:

써 / 와 / 앉아 / 들어

Negation ("Don't do XXX"): Verb stem + ~지 마

예:

가지 마 / 말하지 마 / 듣지 마 / 울지 마

Suggestions 제안 (let's/let's not...)

*Suggestions for joint action

"Let's": verb stem + 자

예:

찍자 / 앉자 / 걷자 / 만들자

"Let's not" (negation): verb stem + 지 말자

예:

타지 말자 / 가지 말자 / 먹지 말자 / 공부하지 말자

Copy and paste into a document to save/annotate your own copy. Also, feel free to practice in the comments (or point out any inaccuracies)! We’re all learning here.

(1) I only have XXX and nothing more/else

(2) Besides XXX, he does nothing else

(3) I care about nothing besides XXX these days

These are random examples and not comprehensive.

Sidenote: 안 = don’t (choice) /  못 = can’t (ability / possibility) 

Other sidenote: You can use a verb with 밖에, but you must turn that verb into a noun-like form first.

예:

저는 요즘 한국 드라마밖에 안 봐요. These days, I don’t want anything besides Korean dramas.

요즘 예술밖에 관심이 없어요. These days, I have no interest in anything besides art (basically, all I care about is art right now).

약이 하나밖에 없어요. I only have one pill left (literally: I have nothing else besides this one pill.) 

어렸을 때 우리 오빠밖에 몰라요. 근데 지금 자주 안 만나요. When I was young, all I knew was my brother (I only cared about/loved/had eyes for/etc him). However, now we don’t meet often.*

*모르다 literally means you don’t know anything besides [noun], but it is often used figuratively to mean you only cared about/had eyes for this thing or person.

제니밖에 자지 않아요. Besides Jenny, no one else is sleeping. 

제니가 잠밖에 안 자요. Jenny does nothing but sleep. (Verb is 잠을 자다 → changes to 잠을 안 자다 becase needs ot be negative then adding ~밖에 replaces 을/를 in these cases so → 잠밖에 안 자요, where 잠 is the noun)

여기에는 물밖에 없어요. There’s nothing here except water.

라면밖에 안 먹어요. They eat nothing besides ramen.

그것밖에 몰라요. Besides that, they know nothing.

영어밖에 못 해요. I can only speak English (Literally: besides English, there's nothing I can speak.)

Sidenote: This grammar typically has a more negative connotation, i.e., you're not glad you can only do this (when you should do more) or only have this left (when you want or need more). Looking at how you can only use negative verbs here, it makes sense.

Copy and paste into a document to save/annotate your own copy. Also, feel free to practice in the comments (or point out any inaccuracies)! We’re all learning here.