Nouns: 신발 = shoe 남방 = shirt 질문 = question 문제 = question/problem 나이 = age 화장실 = bathroom, restroom 부장님 = boss 분위기 = the atmosphere of something 차 = tea 바지 = pants 교실 = classroom 급식 = food at school 교감선생님 = vice principal 교장선생님 = principal 풀 = glue 수도 = capital city 병 = bottle 병 = disease, sickness 생선 = fish 야채 = vegetable 언덕 = hill 선물 = present 기타 = guitar 종이 = paper 우유 = milk 손목 = wrist 시계 = clock 손목시계 = wristwatch 영화 = movie Verbs: 노력하다 = to try 앉다 = to sit 만지다 = to touch 자다 = to sleep 보다 = to see 기다리다 = to wait 청소하다 = to clean 약속하다 = to promise 듣다 = to hear 들어보다 = to listen 그만하다 = to stop 운동하다 = to exercise Adjectives: 놀라다 = to be surprised 빠르다 = to be fast 느리다 = to be slow 착하다 = to be nice Adverbs and Other Words: 곧 = soon 항상 = always 주 = week 아래 = bottom Conjugating with Honorifics In Lesson 5, you learned how to conjugate verbs and adjectives into the past, present and future forms. You also learned that those conjugations are hardly ever used in speech and are most often used when writing a book, test, article or diary. In this lesson, you will learn the basic word conjugations that are more commonly used in speech. What are Honorifics in Korean? To this point, you haven t learned anything about Honorifics. In Korean, depending on who you are speaking to, you must use different conjugations of the same word. The different conjugations imply respect and politeness to the person you are speaking to. Depending on that person s age and seniority, you must speak differently to that person. HowtoStudyKorean.com Unit 1 1
The reason this is so hard for English speakers to understand is that we have nothing like this in English. We can make some sentences sound polite by adding please and thank you, but you can only use those words in a limited amount of sentences. For example, if somebody asked you where did you go yesterday? You could respond: I went to school yesterday. In English, regardless of whether you were speaking to your girlfriend s grandfather or your best friend, that sentence would look and sound exactly the same. In Korean, you must use a higher respect form when speaking to somebody older or higher in position. I started learning Korean a few months before I moved to Korea. I was not studying very hard or often, so my Korean was extremely basic. When I arrived at the airport in Seoul, was driven directly to my school and introduced to my principal immediately. My principal said I am happy you are working at my school, to which I replied: 나도 (the lower respect form of saying me too ) Instead of being impressed that I at least knew some words in Korean, the look on his face was as if somebody had just kidnapped his daughter. Never, never underestimate the importance of honorific endings in Korean. Keep in mind that all these conjugations with different honorific endings have exactly the same meaning. You will learn how to conjugate using honorifics in the following ways: 1) Informal low respect When talking with friends, people you are close with, younger people and family. Used in most situations, even in formal situations despite being called informal. This is usually the way most people speak when they are trying to show respect. This is a very high respect form that is used when addressing people who deserve a lot of respect from you. It is hard to describe perfectly, but honestly, the difference between Informal high respect and Formal high respect is not very big. As long as you speak in either of these two ways, you will not offend anyone. The names of each form of speech might be different in every source, but I have chosen the words above to describe each form. In addition, you learned the "Plain form" in the previous lesson. Before you start! Remember the rule you learned in Lesson 5: When adding something to a word stem, if the last vowel in the stem is ㅏ or ㅗ, you must add 아 plus whatever you are adding. If the last vowel is anything other than ㅏ or ㅗ, you must add 어 plus whatever you are adding. If the syllable of the stem is 하, you add 하여 which can be shortened to 해. HowtoStudyKorean.com Unit 1 2
Also, in the previous lesson, you learned that if a stem of a word ends in a vowel, ~ 았 / 었다 gets merged to the actual stem itself when conjugating into the past tense. In this lesson, two of the conjugations you will learn will require the addition of ~ 아 / 어. When adding ~ 아 / 어 to the stem of a word, the same rule applies from previous lesson. That is, if ~ 아 / 어 gets added to a stem that ends in a vowel, ~ 아 / 어 will be merged to the stem itself. For example: 가다 + ~ 아 / 어 = 가 ( 가 + 아 ) 오다 + ~ 아 / 어 = 와 ( 오 + 아 ) 배우다 + ~ 아 / 어 = 배워 ( 배우 + 어 ) 끼다 + ~ 아 / 어 = 껴 ( 끼 + 어 ) 나서다 + ~ 아 / 어 = 나서 ( 나서 + 어 ) 켜다 + ~ 아 / 어 = 켜 ( 켜 + 어 ) 하다 + ~ 아 / 어 = 해 ( 하 + 여 ) Conversely, if a stem ends in a consonant, ~ 아 / 어 is attached to the stem, but not merged to it. For example: 먹다 + ~ 아 / 어 = 먹어 ( 먹 + 어 ) 앉다 + ~ 아 / 어 = 앉아 ( 앉 + 아 ) There are many situations when you will have to add ~ 아 / 어 (or other vowels) to stems. Conjugating is just one of these situations. Always keep this rule in mind, as you will see it throughout this lesson, and throughout your studies. Okay, let s look at some conjugations. Verbs Present Tense You learned in Lesson 5 how to conjugate verbs to the present tense by adding ㄴ / 는다 to the stem of the word. To review: 먹다 = to eat (not conjugated) 나는먹는다 = I eat (conjugated present tense) 배우다 = to learn (not conjugated) 나는배운다 = I learn (conjugated present tense) HowtoStudyKorean.com Unit 1 3
There are three more conjugations in the present tense that you should be aware of. 1) Informal low respect All you need to do is add ~ 어 / 아 / 여 to the stem of the verb: 나는항상저녁에음식을먹어 = I always eat food in the evening ( 먹 + 어 ) 나는너의선생님을항상봐 = I always see my teacher ( 보 + 아 ) 나는항상아침에운동해 = I always exercise in the morning ( 운동하 + 여 ) In Lesson 1, you were introduced to the function of ~ 에 as a particle which identifies a location or a time in which something occurs in a sentence. Since then, you have seen many cases of ~ 에 being used to indicate a place, but you have yet to see any examples of it being used to indicate a time. This is just a quick reminder that ~ 에 is (in addition to other things) attached to the part of sentence to indicate a time. Also notice in the examples above that 항상 (always) is placed in two different places within a sentence. Adverbs are usually able to be placed wherever the speaker desires. The usage and placement of adverbs is discussed in Lesson 8 This is done the exact same way as Informal low respect but you also add ~ 요 to the end of the word. Adding ~ 요 to the end of anything in Korean makes it more respectful: 저는항상저녁에음식을먹어요 = I always eat food in the evening ( 먹 + 어요 ) 저는저의선생님을항상봐요 = I always see my teacher ( 보 + 아요 ) 저는항상아침에운동해요 = I always exercise in the morning ( 운동하 + 여요 ) This is done very similar to the conjugation you learned in Lesson 5 that is, adding ㄴ / 는다 to the stem of the word. To conjugate using the Formal high respect honorific ending, you add ~ ㅂ니다 / 습니다 to the end of the word stem. If a word stem ends in a vowel, you add ~ ㅂ to the last syllable and 니다 follows. If a word stem ends in a consonant, you add ~ 습니다 to the word stem. 저는항상저녁에음식을먹습니다 = I always eat food in the evening ( 먹 + 습니다 ) 저는저의선생님을봅니다 = I always see my teacher ( 보 + ㅂ니다 ) 저는항상아침에운동합니다 = I always exercise in the morning ( 운동하 + ㅂ니다 ) HowtoStudyKorean.com Unit 1 4
Past Tense You learned in Lesson 5 how to conjugate verbs to the past tense by adding 었다 / 았다 / 였다 to the stem of the word. To review: 먹다 = to eat (not conjugated) 나는먹었다 = I ate (conjugated past tense) 배우다 = to learn (not conjugated) 나는배웠다 = I learned (conjugated past tense) The three new conjugations should be very simple for you now: 1) Informal low respect Instead of adding 었다 / 았다 / 였다 to a word stem, remove 다 and add 어 after 었 / 았 / 였 : 나는먹었어 = I ate ( 먹 + 었어 ) 나는들어봤어 = I listened ( 들어보 + 았어 ) 나는운동했어 = I exercised ( 운동하 + 였어 ) Just add 요 to the end of the Informal low respect conjugations: 저는먹었어요 = I ate ( 먹 + 었어요 ) 저는들어봤어요 = I listened ( 들어보 + 았어요 ) 저는운동했어요 = I exercised ( 운동하 + 였어요 ) After adding 었 / 았 / 였 instead of adding 다 add 습니다 : 저는먹었습니다 = I ate ( 먹 + 었습니다 ) 저는들어봤습니다 = I listened ( 들어보 + 았습니다 ) 저는운동했습니다 = I exercised ( 운동하 + 였습니다 ) Future Tense You learned in Lesson 5 how to conjugate verbs to the future tense by adding 겠다 to the stem of the word. To review: 먹다 = to eat (not conjugated) 나는먹겠다 = I will eat (conjugated future tense) 배우다 = to learn (not conjugated) 나는배우겠다 = I will learn (conjugated future tense) The three new conjugations should be very simple for you now: HowtoStudyKorean.com Unit 1 5
1) Informal low respect Instead of adding 겠다 to a word stem, remove 다 and add 어 after 겠 : 나는먹겠어 = I will eat ( 먹 + 겠어 ) 나는배우겠어 = I will learn ( 배우 + 겠어 ) Just add 요 to the end of the Informal low respect conjugations: 저는먹겠어요 = I will eat ( 먹 + 겠어요 ) 저는배우겠어요 = I will learn ( 배우 + 겠어요 ) After 겠 instead of adding 다 add 습니다 : 저는먹겠습니다 = I will eat ( 먹 + 겠습니다 ) 저는배우겠습니다 = I will learn ( 배우 + 겠습니다 ) Try looking at all the verb conjugations you know together in one table. This table will include the conjugation you learned in Lesson 5, which I call the plain form or diary form. 먹다 Past Present Future Informal low 먹었어 먹어 먹겠어 Informal high 먹었어요 먹어요 먹겠어요 Plain form 먹었다 먹는다 먹겠다 Formal high 먹었습니다먹습니다 먹겠습니다 자다 Past Present Future Informal low 잤어 자 자겠어 Informal high 잤어요 자요 자겠어요 Plain form 잤다 잔다 자겠다 Formal high 잤습니다 잡니다 자겠습니다 이해하다 Past Present Future Informal low 이해했어 이해해 이해하겠어 Informal high 이해했어요 이해해요 이해하겠어요 Plain form 이해했다 이해한다 이해하겠다 Formal high 이해했습니다이해합니다이해하겠습니다 HowtoStudyKorean.com Unit 1 6
Adjectives Thankfully, adjectives are conjugated the exact same way as verbs when conjugating with these three honorific endings. The major difference in conjugating adjectives and verbs is when conjugating in the most basic form (which we did in Lesson 5). To conjugate adjectives with Informal low respect, Informal high respect and Formal high respect, follow the same rules as verbs: 비싸다 Past Present Future Informal low 비쌌어 비싸 비싸겠어 Informal high 비쌌어요 비싸요 비싸겠어요 Plain form 비쌌다 비싸다 비싸겠다 Formal high 비쌌습니다비쌉니다 비싸겠습니다 길다 Past Present Future Informal low 길었어 길어 길겠어 Informal high 길었어요 길어요 길겠어요 Plain form 길었다 길다 길겠다 Formal high 길었습니다깁니다 * 길겠습니다 *Irregular conjugation. You will learn about irregulars in the next lesson. 착하다 Past Present Future Informal low 착했어 착해 착하겠어 Informal high 착했어요 착해요 착하겠어요 Plain form 착했다 착하다 착하겠다 Formal high 착했습니다착합니다 착하겠습니다 HowtoStudyKorean.com Unit 1 7