Learn Korean , Learn 한굴 by Hwal-wal

#Unit_Lesson 26: Korean Grammar (By Parts)

Parts of a Sentence

In case you've forgotten, here's a short description of the different parts of a sentence. Subjects are things that the sentence is talking about. Verbs are the words that describe what they're doing. Objects are what your verb acts on. It'll be easier to understand this with an example:

e.g. The dog eats his food.

Here, the sentence is talking about the dog, so the subject is the dog. The dog is eating, so your verb is eats. Lastly, a neat little trick to find out the object is to ask "What/Who is the (subject) (base verb)-ing?" That might sound a little weird, but fill in the subject and verb and you get, "What is the dog eating?" The answer to that is his food.

It's important to understand the components of a sentence, because Korean sentences don't always follow the same order as English. If you're able to pick out which are the subjects, verbs, and objects, it'll make it easier to string sentences together.

verbs, and objects, it'll make it easier to string sentences together.

For a more in-depth refresher on English grammar, this course will get you straightened out in a hurry.

Particles

Most Korean sentences have words that have a particle attached to them. These signify what the word's role is in that sentence (subject or object). There's nothing like this in the English language, so we can't translate them. There are about 20 particles in Korean, but we'll teach you the basic ones first.

는or 은(Subject)

This is placed after a word to indicate that it is a sentence's subject.

If the subject's last syllable ends in a vowel, use 는 [neun]If the subject's last syllable ends in a consonant, use 은 [eun]

를or 을(Object)

This is placed after a word to indicate that it is the object of a sentence.

If the object's last syllable ends in a vowel, use 를 [leul]If the object's last syllable ends in a consonant, use 을 [eul]

에(Place or time)

If the verb in the sentence is done at a specific time, you've got to attach this to the word indicating the time. It is pronounced [e]. You also attach it to a word that indicates a place.

You can't exactly translate this to English, but this particle 에 plays the role of the prepositions in the following sentences:

I went at 3pm

I went to the park

Word Order and Sentence Structure

An important thing to understand when learning Korean grammar is how they put words together to build a sentence. Take a look at these English sentences:

Jessica sees the dog.

Mr. Hyde reads a newspaper.

In English, a lot of the sentences follow the Subject-Verb-Object order or S-V-O. We can't change this word order without changing the meaning or producing a bad sentence:

The cat sees Jessica.

Mr. Hyde a newspaper reads.

In Korean, the sentences aren't always structured this way. There is a saying that when learning Korean, that the trick is to listen until the end of the sentence. This is where the verbs, tenses, and important expressions come in. It's incredibly important that you understand this.

Every Korean sentence MUST end in a verb (like eat, read, etc.) or an adjective (like pretty, yummy, hungry, etc.) otherwise you'd be grammatically incorrect.