Korean Language Tutorial

Lesson 17

Korean lessons: Lesson 17
Korean Sentence Structure
One of the hardest things to wrap your head around in Korean is the alien-like sentence structure. Essentially, Korean sentences are written in the following order: Subject - Object - Verb (for example: I hamburger eat), Or
Subject - Adjective (for example: I beautiful)
It is incredibly important that you understand this from the very beginning. Every Korean sentence MUST end in either a verb (like eat, sleep or walk) or an adjective (like beautiful, pretty, and delicious). This rule is so important that I'm going to say it again: Every Korean sentence MUST end in either a verb or adjective.
It is also important to point out here that there are two ways to say "I" or "me" in Korean. Depending on how polite you need to be speaking, many things within a sentence (mostly the conjugation) can change. You will learn about the different honorific conjugations until other Lesson, so you do not need to worry about understanding those until then. However, before you reach those lessons, you will see two different words for "I," which are:
나, used in informal sentences, and
저, used in formal sentences.
As this Lessons make no distinction of formality, you will see both 나 and 저 arbitrarily used. Don't worry about why one is used over the other until other Lesson , when politeness will be explained.
Things to indicate parts of speech (particles)
In addition to this sentence structure, most words in a sentence have a particle (a fancy word to say 'something') attached to them. These particles indicate the role of each word in a sentence. The following are the most common particles:
는 or 은 = goes after the subject of a sentence Use 는 when the last letter of the last syllable is a vowel:
나 = 나는
저 = 저는
Use은 when the last letter of the last syllable is a consonant:
집 = 집은
책 = 책은
를 = goes after the object (the thing that is being acted on by the subject) of a sentence
Use 를 when the last letter of the last syllable is a vowel:
나 = 나를
저 = 저를
Use을 when the last letter of the last syllable is a consonant:
집 = 집을
책 = 책을
에 = goes after the time and/or location indicated in a sentence
It is hard to translate these particles into English. But, for example:
I ate hamburgers at 3pm.
The word at in the sentence is essentially what 에 is doing in a Korean sentence.
If I were to write that sentence using Korean structure, it would look like this:
I는 hamburgers를 3pm에 ate
Notice that: 는 is attached to "I" (the subject) 을 is attached to "hamburgers" (the object) 에 is attached to "3pm" (when the action took place)
Let's try some more:
- I speak Korean = I는 Korean을 speak 는 is attached to "I" (the subject) 을 is attached to "Korean" (to object) - I went to the park = I 는 park에 went 는 is attached to "I" (the subject) 에 is attached to "park" (the location indicated in the sentence) - I like you = I는 you를 like 는 is attached to "I" (the subject) 을 is attached to "you" (to object) - I wrote a letter = I는 letter를 wrote 는 is attached to "I" (the subject) 을 is attached to "letter" (to object)
To be: 이다
Now it is time to learn how to make actual sentences in Korean using 'to be.' English speakers don't realize how difficult the word 'be' actually is in English. Look at the following examples:
I am a man
He is a man
They are men
I was a man They were men
In each of those sentences, the word 'be' is represented by a different word (is/am/are) depending on the subject and tense of the sentence. Luckily, in Korean, the same word is used to represent is, am, are, was and were. This word is 이다
The hard part about 이다 is that it is not a verb. It is not an adjective either, but it acts like one. I always thought that 'be' was a verb in English but maybe it is not. I don't know because I'm not an English teacher. In any event, 이다 is not verb in Korean... nor is it an adjective. However, it acts as an adjective.
Why is this important? I don't want to teach you all about English grammar here, but this one thing needs to be said: Sentences with adjectives do not have objects in them. Only sentences with verbs have objects. Let's look at some examples:
I eat hamburgers (eat is a verb, the object is a hamburger)
I meet my friend (meet is a verb, the object is my friend)
I study Korean (study is a verb, the object is Korean)
I listen to music (listen is a verb, the object is music)
All of those sentences have objects because there is a verb in the sentence. However, if I were to say sentences with adjectives:
I am pretty I am beautiful
Notice that there is never an object in a sentence with an adjective (unless you want to say "I ate a delicious hamburger" - but that will come in a later lesson).
Okay, let's see if we can do this. Remember, 이다 is an adjective:
I am a man - the Korean structure is:
I는 man am.
Now use the words provided above for "man," "I" and "am" 저 = I 남자 = man 이다 = am/is/are/(to be)
저는 + 남자 + 이다 이다 gets attached directly to the noun that one is "being." So, the above construction looks like: 저는 남자이다 = I am a man
Important:
Focus of this lesso, this is to introduce you to simple Korean sentence structure. Until you reach other Lesson you will not be exposed to the conjugations and honorifics of Korean verbs, adjectives and 이다. In reality, these words are never (or very very rarely) used without these conjugations and honorifics. Therefore, while I stress the importance of understanding the structure of the sentences presented in this Lessons do not use the sentences in any form of communication with Korean people, as they will most likely not be understood. In order to completely understand what is presented in next Lessons (and for the rest of your Korean studies), it is essential that you understand what is presented in these first four lessons - even though they may be seen as "technically incorrect."
For all of the "technically incorrect" (un-conjugated) sentences presented in this Lesson I will provide a correct (conjugated) version of the same sentence in parenthesis below the un-conjugated version. Note one more time that you will not understand these conjugations until the other Lessons (for verbs and adjectives) and Lesson 9 (for 이다).
저는 여자이다 = I am a woman (저는 여자예요)
저는 선생님이다 = I am a teacher
(저는 선생님이에요)
저는 ______이다 = I am a _______
(저는 _____이에요)
You can substitute any word into the blank space to make these sentences.

Next chappy~