Beginners Lesson One

Learn Hangul
The first step in learning Korean is to learn Hangul. Hangul is the name of
the Korean alphabet. Before we begin to learn Hangul, let me remind you to set your
browser to properly view Korean. Otherwise, all you will see is jibberish. If you scroll
down and you see jibberish instead of Korean, please right-click now and go to
encoding - Korean. Or, if you need to, refer to the Set-Up Hangul Page.
Learning the Korean Alphabet, Hangul , is a lot easier than trying to learn
Romanization of Korean. Throughout your studies, you will run into many resources
that will only publish Romanization though. I highlyrecommend you learn to read
Hangul first, as it will be most useful to you. Then later, you should learn
Romanization so that you can read the Romanization in those resources and know
how to spell it properly in Hangul . Also, many Korean speakers will use
Romanization on programs like AOL Instant Messenger, that do not support the
Korean alphabet (If you are looking for programs that DO let you use the alphabet, I
highly recommend MSN Messenger).

If you still have trouble after this lesson and truly wish to learn Hangul correctly, try
out a membership at Learn Korean Now - it's incredibly affordable and will have you
reading and writing like a native in no time. The site uses nearly 500 audio files to
teach the alphabet - plenty to help you get that pronunciation you deserve!
There are also quizzes to help along the way.
Better yet, membership gives you access to all of the premium lessons, not just
lessons on Hangul. So just try it, what will it hurt?

NEW: Are you busy working on learning Hangul? If so, practice with this simple and
playful tool for learning Korean Hangul letters.
First, a few basics on Hangul (Don't worry! You will be reading in Hangul perfectly
extremely soon!). Hangul is an alphabet, just like the Roman alphabet English
speakers use. The only two differences are Hangul blocks syllables, and there are no
lowercase or capitalize letters in Hangul. The letter is always written the same, no
matter when it is used.

Characters will be stacked into squares to form each syllable. For example , ,
and are three separate characters. But, as they would form one syllable, they
would be written instead of .
+ + =
want another example?
++=
We then combine syllables to form words, just as we do in English.
+ =
Recognize that word? That's right! It's Hangul . It consists of han () and gul ().
Two syllables. Six characters. As you begin to learn all the different characters, you
will see how to construct the syllables properly depending on which character you are
using. Just keep this one thing in mind. Every Korean word, syllable,
anything...begins with a consonant. A vowel will always follow it, either positioned to
the right of it, or below it. With each vowel, I will tell you where it should be positioned.
Also, there will be 2,3, or rarely 4 characters in a syllable. is one way of stacking,
having the vowel to the right of the first consonant, with the third character under
those two. is the other main way of stacking, where the vowel falls below the first
consonant, with the third character below the second. A third character will always fall
on the bottom. You will never have three characters in a row on the top. I cannot
even type an example for you to see, it just can't be done. Below is a table of the
characters you will see.

Learn Hangul -

For now, I think it's time to begin! Why not start with the characters that make up
Hangul .
The first character is

It has a couple variations. Generally, it is like an "h" sound. If it is at the beginning of

a word, it will sound like an "h". There will be more on this one in Lesson 2. Next

comes...

This is a vowel, and it is an "a" sound, as in father. It pretty much never varies and
always has the same sound. Quite a simple character. This vowel will always be
placed to the right of the first consonant. It does not fall below the consonant.

is a character that usually sounds like an "n". It only has one irregular form, which is
in Lesson 2.
So far, we have a "h" sound, an "a" sound, and a "n" sound. Or, we have , , and
. Together, these form the first half of Hangul, .
Now let's break down the second syllable.

This is a light "g" or "k" sound. Don't push the air too hard or try and make this sound
too heavy, it is a light sound. Don't emphasize the character. Especially at the end of
a word, this character is very light. At the end of a word, it is almost as if you don't
say the character.

This a little harder to explain. I think the best way to say it is, it sounds like the "oo"
part in "good".
Let me phrase this another way...
It is like a short 'u', said in the back of the mouth. It is almost like a grunt! Be sure you
don't actually grunt though when you say it :)
This vowel will always be placed below the first consonant. It does not fall to the right
of the consonant.

This character might be the most complicated character you run into! But I'll be
honest, you will have it down along with all the other characters before the week is
over! Think of it as either a light "l" sound, or a rolling "r" sound, depending on where
it is. If it falls between two vowels, it will most likely be a rolling "r" sound. If it is at the
end of a syllable, it will usually be a light "l" sound. It does not come at the beginning
of a syllable of any Korean word, but will be used at the beginning for borrowed
words, like loanwords. If that is the case, treat it as it needs to be in order to say the
loanword properly. This character is covered very well in Elementary Korean.

That's it! You now have learned 6 characters. You can now write

and you can! You can write both in Hangul, and the word Hangul.
Now, do you remember what each of those characters is like? Let's provide a little
practice. Read these words to yourself, and try to not refer to the section above. You
may if you need to, but try first!

See Answers.
Learn Hangul - Common Characters
So, you feel like you are beginning to see how Korean and Hangul are? Are you
ready for more?

This is a common character. It will have a light "b" or "p" sound. pa bap. ban.
At the end of a word, it will have a very light, almost unheard sound.

This is a very easy character. It sounds just like an "m" sound. As simple as that.
What do you think would sound like? If you said ma, that's right!

I think you are ready for a very commonly used character. It has two sounds. One
sound, is no sound! It makes no sound at all when it is the first consonant in the
syllable. It is as simple as that. It is more like a place holder since all Korean syllables
must start with a consonant. When it falls at the end of a syllable, it sounds like a light
"ng" sound in "running". It is that ng sound in the back of your throat, but do not
emphasis the "g" part of it. So the two sounds? No sound at the beginning of a

syllable, "ng" sound at the end. Simple.

Let's learn two more, and then have a little practice.

This is an "o" sound. It is hard to explain, but try this. Say the letter O. Make it really
really long and say it slow. Notice where your mouth starts to close in? This sound is
the sound before that. The beginning of the O sound.
Let's look at this in a different way...
Shape your mouth as if you were to say the 'o' in 'go'. Now make a sound like aw, as
in awe, pawl, bawl, and law.
This vowel will always be placed to the right of the first consonant, never underneath.

This is another "o" sound. They sound very similar. The best I can do is say this may
be more like the other side of saying O, as with the experiment before. The part
toward the end in O is more like this.
Or, think of it this way. is like the 'o' in go, row, bow, and low.
They are very similar. Some people will be able to hear the difference if they have a
good ear. Many non native speakers have the problem hearing the difference though
at first.
So, for those who cannot hear the difference, When spelling and learning Korean, try
to think of these are learning to spell. In English you can't always know how to spell a
word, you must learn it properly. It is the same way in Korean. When words with an O
sound comes up, just learn how it is spelled and leave it at that because they sound
so similar.
This vowel will always appear underneath the first consonant, never to the right of it.
Let's try a few more practice words to read. So far we have covered (in order): , ,
, , , , , , , ,

See Answers.

Go back and review the characters you have learned now. Here is a list of them. If
you know what has been said about each so far, move on! , , , , , , ,
, , , .

This one is easy. it is the "ou" part in you. Simple as that. "oo" in boot. This vowel
always falls below the first consonant, never to the right. *Notice a pattern with
placement of vowels? One vowel consisting of a horizontal line will be placed
underneath the consonant, while vowels consisting of a vertical line will be placed to
the right. Don't believe me? Go back and check!*

This character is easy as well. It is the "ee" sound in meet. An example using it would
be . That sounds just like saying "me" in English. You can guess where it is
placed...Go ahead and try! This vowel is placed to the right of the first consonant,
never underneath.

This vowel sounds like ea in bear. The vowels are all easy if you just memorize them,
and do not ever sound irregular (When could they?!?). This vowel always appears to
the right of the first consonant, never underneath .

This one is pretty similar to the one above. It sounds like the e in yes. The e in met.
This vowel always appears to the right of the first consonant, never underneath.
Learn Hangul - More On Vowels

You have now covered all the basic vowels. There are two more things you can learn
about vowels, and then you know all vowels and everything about them. And these
next two things are simple.
You will see vowels like , ,,, , etc. Notice how instead of one short line,
there are two? This means that before the vowel sound, there is a y like sound. I will
give two examples.

This sounds like saying "you" in English.

This sounds like saying Ya in English. All the teenagers should know it from the song
Hey Ya! by Outkast. It played all the time.
All other vowels follow the same pattern.
Next, you will see vowels combined to form a new vowel sound, such as , , ,
. You just run the vowels together into one sound. The vowel on the left (long
horizontal line) comes first. Here are a couple examples.

This sounds like wa in water.

This sounds just like the French oui. It is more or less like wee.

I have chosen to include this one for a special reason. It works just like the others,
except if it comes after a consonant, you only hear and not the other part. It is just
how it sounds when spoken. At the beginning of a syllable, you do run the two
together however.
Speaking of mixing these with consonants. Let's just take a look at a couple and it will
explain itself on how to write them.

The first consonant is written in the top left. Any consonant that comes after the
vowel sound comes at the bottom.
You are now a master at vowels. You also know a few of the consonants in Korean
as well. Let's finish up the rest of the consonants.
Learn Hangul - More Consonants

This is a consonant that sounds like an s in English. It is a very light s and isn't
stressed or anything. Also, before the Korean vowel , like , it is usually
pronounced like an sh, or for this example, shee. At the end of a word or before a
syllable that begins with a vowel or consonant other than , it ends with a light d
sound. You will find many consonants sound like a light d sound if they are at the end
of a word.

Speaking of light d sounds, here it is. This is a light d or t sound. sounds like mat,
with a very light t sound at the end. So does however. See what I mean by
sounding like a light d sound at the end? is not mas. It is mat.

This is a light j sound in between vowels. At the beginning of the word, it is often
heard as a "ch" sound instead. At the end of a word, it sounds just like an and a
.
Are you excited? There are only four more consonants left, and you know Hangul!
But first, let's make sure we know what we have covered so far. We have covered A
LOT! Better put, we have covered ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,. That is actually in order of the keyboard. ^-^

!
Also, let's try one of these on for size. Most likely you won't understand it, but you can
try and pronounce it!
? !
See Answers.
Learn Hangul - Aspirated Consonants

Here are the final four! These four are aspirated sounds. If you don't know what that
means, they basically are said with more of a puff of air. Also, try to see if you can
catch something in common with all of these in relationship to their similar consonant
sounds.

this is like kha. It is similar to the sound, except is said with more air. More towards
a K sound.

This is a t sound, much like , except said with more air to it!

This is a cha sound. Always. It is similar to the sound, except said with more air to
it. Always a cha sound, never a j sound ( sounds like a j between vowels,
sounds like a cha between vowels.)

This is the last consonant, and last character you will learn in Hangul! It has an airy P
sound to it. Similar to but with more air.
Did you catch what is in common in them all? They all look very similar to the other

consonants that sound similar! The only thing is, each contains an extra little line
somewhere. The only one that doesn't fit perfectly with this is and . Look at them
and compare them.
-
-
-
-
If you are lucky enough to own Rosetta Stone Korean Level 1 then you will easily be
able to hear the differences between the similar characters. It is often difficult at first
but eventually you will be able to hear the subtle differences.
Learn Hangul - List Of Characters

Here is a list of all the characters. Vowels are written first, followed by consonants.

One more note, you will see some consonants doubled up. You can consider these
seperate characters if you wish, or just think of them as being stronger with more
voice to them. These are ,,,,.
Let's practice one more time.
?
!
?

 .
?
! !
:(
.

Beginners Lesson Two

Hangul Irregularities
So, you feel you've got a good grasp on the basics of the characters.
Then you're ready for Lesson 2! This lesson will cover all the Hangul irregularities.
Once you know the characters and the times they are irregular, you can read
anyHangul and read it perfectly. Korean is more simple when it comes to reading
than English is. Sometimes in English you can read it 5 times and still not know how
to say the word correctly. This is not the case with Korean. So, enough talk. Let's get
started.
The first irregular pattern has already been mentioned in Lesson One.
, ,
These three characters are your three main basic consonants. At the end of a word
or before a consonant, many other characters will be simplified to sound just like
these. Here is what I mean:
,
both of these characters will sound like before another consonant or at the end of
a word. But for this example, that isn't so much of a difference. How about this one
though?
, , ,,
Now, all of these will sound like before another consonant or at the end of a word.
That makes more of a difference. Even though gives an s sound normally, it will
sound like a d or t if it occurs before another consonant or at the end of a word. If it
occurs before a vowel, it will sound like an s.


These will sound like . See a pattern? , , and are all made by closing your
lips. Notice the pattern in the two sets above? One includes characters that are made
in the back of the throat, while the other includes characters that are made with the
tongue behind the teeth on the roof of the mouth. If you remember this pattern, you
should not forget which characters end with a , , or sound. Now, how about
some real examples.
mat
mas-un
ap
ap-e (with more air on the p)
Goht
Gohch-ee
Keep in mind, if a syllable begins with the Hangul character following these rules,
we treat it as if the syllable begins with a vowel (since it is unheard). So, a better way
to put it would be if the character comes before another consonant sound or at the
end of a word, then it will be reduced to one of the three basic consonants. This is
the first irregular to keep in mind. After the second irregularity, there will be some
time to practice a little bit before continuing.
The second Irregularity
The second irregularity involves changing the sound of a few characters if it comes
before certain other characters. The main thing to watch for is the second character.
There are two of them and they are both consonants. They are

,
These two characters are known as nasal sounds. Basically, the reason for this
irregularity is it makes the words flow better. If , , any of the "throat" sounds
occur before one of these two consonants, it will change to an "ng" sound, as if it was
the consonant . Notice why it changes to that? That is a throat sound as well, and
let's the word flow better. In writing it will keep the original spelling, but when spoken
it will reflect the change.
, , any of the sounds made by closing your lips will change to the sound
before either of these two consonants. Notice how saying flows a lot better
than saying ? It just flows better, as with the above case. is also made by
closing the lips.

The last cases are all the sounds made by placing the tip of the tongue on the roof of
the mouth. , , , , , , get the picture? These will change to the sound
before an or an . is also made with the tongue in a similar position. here are
some examples.
- This is pronounced hamnida, as opposed to hapnida.
- this is pronounced hang-nyon, as opposed to hak-nyon
- This is pronounced mong-ne, as opposed to mok-ne
- This is pronounced ee-nun, as opposed to eet-nun (notice the t at the end?
That would be the case following irregularity rule number one, but because it comes
before , it sounds like an ).
These two rules are the main two irregularities you will run into. Most other
irregularities are much smaller, and not as common. They tend to be specific to a
single character, and not a group of characters.
The next irregularity deals with the character
This character has a few irregular forms that you will see. I personally believe if
you know irregular forms above this, you will be able to pronounce most anything
reasonably well.
If is between vowel sounds, it will sound like a rolling "r" like in spanish or
japanese. If this makes it difficult for you like that, just think of it sounding like a quick
d or t sound. It is not the long rolling "r" sound you hear in spanish, just a short one
click of the tongue.
At the end of a syllable before a consonant ( excluding then it will usually sound
like a light "l" sound. Both of these were mentioned in the previous lesson.
Irregularities deal with when is falls next to certain characters. It will only begin a word
if it is a loanword, in which case it will sound like the loanword. But it sometimes
(rarely) will be the first consonant after another syllable ending in a consonant, such
as . When this is the case, it will sound like . is pronounced chongno.
The second irregularity is if it is at the end/beginning of a syllable, and the other
consonant it lies next to (end/beginning, whichever the is not) is a or an . If it
is an , then it will be an "l" sound, like usual. But, if it is next to an , as in , it
will still make an "l" sound. is pronounced eel-lyon, not eel-nyon. Try saying it
both ways, you will see that eel-lyon flows a lot better.
This character has one irregular form. It is simple as well. If comes before , it
is pronounced as if it were , meaning with a "ch" sound. is pronounced gachee, not gat-ee.
This is the final irregular form you will learn. Whenever this falls next to (end/
beginning syllable combination) a sound such as , , , or , you will usually not
hear the sound and the , , , or sound will sound more like ,,,or

with more air. Some words in this situation are , , .

Beginners Lesson Three

Korean Verbs
Lesson Three introduces Korean Verbs. This page is the best place to start if you can
read Hangul, but are not yet able to understand Korean.
From this page on, it is assumed you can read Hangul, the Korean alphabet. If not,
please look through lessons one and two and then return here.
Korean verbs are extremely important. Verbs in Korean sentences are the most
important part of the sentence. In fact, it is the only part you need for the sentence to
be complete. Korean, unlike English, does not mention the subject of the sentence if
it can be assumed from context. For example, in English, one might ask "Are you
hungry?" In Korean, if someone could just ask "Hungry?" and people knew who they
were referring to, then it is perfectly fine to leave off the "you." You may hear this in
English as well, but it is not considered grammatically correct. It isconsidered
grammatically correct in Korean!
So, to sum up that paragraph, the verb is the only needed part in a Korean sentence.
Everything else is extra.
Now I know you are eager to start learning verbs and looking them up in the
dictionaries, but we must cover one important piece of grammar first. Korean verbs
can take many different forms, depending on who you are talking to. Korean still has
social status literally integrated into the language itself. The verb "to be" when
speaking to an older person or teacher will be slightly different than "to be" when
speaking to your best friend. Most Korean verbs have the same root, regardless of
who you are talking to, but you will change the ending of the verb depending on who
you are speaking with.
is the dictionary form of the verb "to eat." The dictionary form consists of the
verb root, in this example, and the ending. Go ahead, look up a few of your
favorite verbs here or even better, grab yourself a copy of Declan's Korean
Flashcards(contains over 3600 words with audio, arranged in vocabulary sets) to
start building a strong foundation of Korean verbs. You will see all forms they list end
in . If you remove the ending, you will be left with the verb root. The verb root of
is . The verb root by itself has no meaning. You must remove the ending
and replace it with a different ending depending on what you want to say and who
you want to say it to.

In my mind, I see three different, very distinct endings for speaking and
writing.Formal , Polite , and Casual .
/
/
/

Formal Ending
Polite Ending
Casual Ending

For now, we will focus on the two most common styles of verbs you will use, polite
and casual. As you can see above, there are also two different endings for both polite
and casual speech. The way you decide which ending to choose is based on the verb
root. If the last vowel in the verb root is or then you choose the (polite) or
(casual) ending. If the last vowel in the verb root is anything other than or ,
then you choose the (polite) or (casual) ending. Look at the following chart of
commonly used verbs and compare the verb root to the ending to get a better
understanding of this. I will refer to the Formal ending section next.

Dictionary
Form

Polite
Ending

Casual
Ending

Formal
Ending

English

Verb Root

To Have
To Be Good
To Go
To Not
Have
To Do

Let's look at a couple. means "to have." is the verb root. The last vowel in
is . Since this is not or then we know to choose the / endings
depending on whether we will need to be polite or if it is casual speech.
(~) has a verb root of . The final vowel in this root is , so we need to
choose the / endings.
If you look at , this has a verb root of with a final vowel of . So, since that is
or , it must take the / ending. Understand the general pattern?
Irregular Verb Patterns

Now, as you can see in the chart, there will be some situations that do not follow this
exactly. means "to go". If you remove the to get the verb root you are left with
. Following this pattern, you would add / to the verb root, and get something
like . The real way is just . It has been shortened because otherwise we
just say two of the same vowel in a row. Since that is a waste of time and breath, it is
simply or .
The final verb is the chart above is . This is a very common verb in any
language. This one verb is irregular all on it's own. It doesn't follow a pattern, and you
just need to memorize the case. It shouldn't be too hard because you will see this all
over the place. has a root of . The polite form is and the casual form is
. Just take a few minutes right now to memorize this and then you will never have
to worry about it again.
Done? Ok, let's move on. Below is a table of irregular verbs that follow a pattern.
Briefly look over the table and then continue on.

English

Verb Root

To Drink
To Meet
To Come
To Be Busy
To Not Know
To Be Hot

Dictionary
Form

Polite Ending

Casual Ending

The first one is "To Drink" or . If we remove the dictionary ending, we are
left with . Following normal patterns for the polite form, we would have .
To make it easier and sound better, the real polite form is . Any verb root that
ends in will naturally take the / endings, and we shorten + to . Other
verb examples that take this pattern are - , - ,
- .
Next we meet (get it?). This one should be easy. We already went over it with
. Since the verb root ends in , we shorten to . Also, keep in
mind this pattern works with verb roots that end in as well.
If it ends in it would naturally take the ending. This would be a double vowel
sound so we just shorten it the same way. Other verb examples that take this pattern
are - , - , - .
Next, we come to (ok, I will really stop now, I promise!). The verb root is . This

would naturally take the ending, making . Wouldn't it be much easier to

combine the and the into ? It sure sounds better and smoother. That is
exactly what we do. Whenever a verb root ends in , it will naturally take the
ending and because all of you will know this lesson, you will naturally combine the
and the to . Other verb examples that take this pattern are -
, - .
Next, we have . The verb root is . Following normal verb patterns we
would figure the polite form would be . Try and say that. Now, try and say
. That is the correct way. When a verb root ends in , we drop the , look at
the last vowel in the root that is left (not including the ) and add the appropriate
ending. For this example, the last vowel would be . So, when we drop the and
add the ending, we get . Other verb examples that follow this pattern are
- , - , - .
The next verb is . The verb root is . You might be thinking, that ends in
so wouldn't it follow the above irregular pattern, and become ? Indeed, it
would, except Koreans have decided if a verb root ends in (not just ), then we
will double up the by adding a second to the end of the syllable before the .
Andthen we drop the . . We added a to and got . We dropped the
and got . Together, we have . Other verb examples using this pattern are
- , - , - .
The final verb in the verb chart above is . You should definitely be good with verb
roots by now and instantly know it is . Now, with this irregular pattern, you must
remember two things. Often, when a verb root ends in , you should drop the and
add . After that, you move to the second step. If it ends in , when we pick a style
such as polite style, it should naturally take the ending. This is another pattern
where we combine two characters to make it smoother. and combine into .
We get in the end. Other verb examples that follow this pattern are -
, - .
Now you should know the verb patterns you will run into. You can take a verb out of a
dictionary such as Declan's Korean Dictionary, find the root, and put it in either casual
language or polite language. But you may still be wondering what exactly that means!
Is polite language simply the same thing as if you were to be polite in English?
Similar, yes...but not the same. If you want to think of it as the same, then you should
just remember to be polite to everyone in Korea or when speaking Korean. Here is
the thing, since Korean is still a language with social status still built into the actual
language, you mustbe polite with your speech or you will be considered very rude.
You should use the polite style with anyone older than you, above you, new to you. A
teacher, a parent, a stranger, pretty much everyone except your closest friends! You

may use casual language when speaking to someone younger than yourself, your
close friends, and your brothers and sisters. Any other time would be considered
rude. So, based on this, choose which to use wisely. If you are talking to an adult and
they are using casual verbs, that is because you are younger. This does not mean
you should use the same verbs when speaking to them. You should be polite. This
means that each of you will add different endings to the verbs.
Now that you can take a verb from the dictionary, find the root, make it into a casual
or polite verb, and actually know whether it should be a casual or polite verb, you are
ready to actually use some.
Remember how in Korean verbs can be used all alone and the sentence will be
grammatically correct? Let's see some examples. If we were to say , what
exactly are we saying? We know it is a polite way, and it means "to eat" (don't worry if
you haven't memorized the verbs yet. You will be sent to the homework page shortly
to do some memorization). But do we know what we are saying when we say
to someone? Well, it depends :). You could be saying "I'm eating." Or, you could be
saying "you're eating". You could be saying "eat." If someone said "What do you want
to do?" You could reply . In Korean you can use the verbs in a much more
general manner than in English. Later we will see how to add words such as "I" or
"You" if necessary to clear up the meaning of a sentence.
Another example could be . This means To Be Good. If someone asks you how
is something, you can say ! Like, "Are my new shoes ok? Do you like them?
How are they?" "!". Or, if you are having a casual conversation about
something with your friend, and they say something and in English you would just
give the reply "Good!" or something, you can just say !(remember, it's a
conversation with your friend).
This whole concept about the verbs being so general is hard to learn at first. Just try
your best! Casual verbs can have even more meanings than other forms! If you say
you could be saying I'm going, you're going, someone's going, let's go, are we
going?, etc. A lot of Korean is about what can be assumed. If it can be assumed,
there is no need to say it in the language. One of the most recommended Korean
language products, Rosetta Stone Korean Level 1, makes learning this part a breeze.
This wraps up the intro to Korean verbs! It's time for you to memorize a few, and to
go back and make sure you know the patterns covered on this page. There will
definitely be more to come on verbs later.

Irregular Verbs

Beginners Lesson Four is all about those verbs in Korean that are just plain weird.
Irregular verbs in Korean are actually not too bad though! In Beginners Lesson
Three, you were introduced to Korean verbs and the irregular verb patterns . The
verbs on this page are different. These verbs are commonly used verbs, but either
have more than one meaning, are used weird, etc. instead of being irregular
patterns . You will see what I mean, right now!
Verb - Polite Style
The first irregular verb that I need to cover here is definitely what many books and
courses will call the copula . Basically, it is the verb of equality. Equality? What is
that?!? In English, we may say "It is a book." "It" is equal to "book". It is pretty much
the verb "to be." If you look in a dictionary, you will see

The verb root is . This verb will follow it's own pattern however. It doesn't fit any
pattern and just needs to be learned. The polite form will be if it comes after a
consonant, or if it comes after a vowel. You will also see it spelled after a
vowel. When spoken, it will sound more like after a vowel. Let's practice with a
sentence. We will use the same sentence as the example in English. Book in Korean
is

Since ends in a consonant, we should use the polite ending . With most
normal verbs, there is a space between the verb and any other words, but the copula
is a special case. There is no space in between the two words. Also, in Korean
sentence structure is different. I feel the best way for you to understand it and get
used to it is just to see it. The verb falls at the end of the sentence always . Other
words fall before the verb. So, since our verb of "to be" is , that will fall at the
end. There is no space between and the word it is describing, so, our
sentence comes out to be

As you see, this is like "book-to be". The structure is different, but you will get used to
it as you see more and more of it. means "It is a book." Let's see a couple
more examples. Remember, you don't need to remember every noun you see yet.
Memorize what you find on the homework page.

 means pencil. It ends in which is also a consonant. If we combine this with the
polite ending and keep the correct word order, we get , meaning "It is a
pencil."

means car. It ends in which is a vowel. Because it ends in a vowel, the correct
spelling of would be . The sentence would be , meaning "It is a car."
Do you understand it a little better now? If so, then let's look at this, and then there
will be some practice problems.
Verb - Casual Style

Many resources choose to teach you mostly one style first, usually polite style, and
then much later return to teach you the other commonly used style. I feel it is best to
teach you them both from the start, because they both are very important if you plan
on learning Korean well. If we put off one, you will not be as strong with it. If we teach
both, you will learn at a slower pace at first, but will learn faster later on and the
whole time you will be learning more efficiently. So, here it is!
has two polite forms, depending on whether it follows a consonant or vowel, and
so does the casual form.
If follows a consonant, it is spelled .
If follows a vowel, it is spelled .
Lets use the same three examples as above so that you may compare the two forms.
The first one used the word , or book, in the example. The polite style was
. Since ends in , a consonant, the casual style form should be . If we put
this with , we get . and mean the exact same thing! The
only difference is who we are speaking with. As previous lessons covered, if we
speak with someone older or a teacher or anyone who deserves more respect, we
would use the polite form . If we are speaking with our close friends, we can
just use . That is the only difference! It is something you will get used to as you
learn Korean.
The second example sentence was , meaning "It is a pencil." This ends in
, a consonant, so we will add to this one as well. is correct.
and also mean the same thing, and are only different because of who we
may be speaking to.

 was the final example sentence. ends in a vowel, so we only add instead
of . When we form the new sentence, we get . As you can guess, this is
equal to .
I think you probably understand this pretty well by now and are ready to take on
anything like this! Here are a few practice problems. If you can get these, then you
know the irregular verb and are one step closer to knowing Korean!
How do you say, "It is a ____"?

This also works for people and their names, as in "It's Joe" or if you were referring to
yourself. In the next lesson we will see how to specify who we are referring to.

See Answers Here

Verb -
- Root is , Polite style is , Casual style is . Meaning - To have or To
be (location).
is a special verb because it has a couple of different meanings. I feel it is a verb
worth mentioning because it is an extremely common verb. Let's look at the two
meanings you will see.
To Have
This is a very common verb in all languages. "I have chicken." "I have a car." "Do you
have a car?" All of these deal with possesion of something. So does . We could
say to mean "I have a car" or "she has a car". Remember, in Korean the
subject may be left out if it can be assumed. If it cannot be, it will be added in, which

you will learn soon. This is a fairly simple verb when looking at it from this position,
and is easy to understand with this meaning alone. could mean "I have a
pencil." In written Korean, you can turn this statement into a question asking "Do you
have a pencil?" by simply adding a question mark on the end. ? In
spoken Korean, it is the tone of your voice that determines this. Nothing else in the
sentence changes.
To Be (Location)
can also mean To Be, when used for location. For example, using the same
sentence, ? could also mean "Is there a pencil?" For this sentence as it
is, it pretty much means the same thing. You are wanting a pencil and are asking if
there is one or if they have one or whichever. Later, you will see the difference easier
as we learn how to make our sentences longer and more complex. If we said "(In the
room) ?" then we can automatically assume it is talking about location. If
we say "(Anna) ?" Then we can automatically assume we are talking
about possession.
Try the following practice problems. They should not be difficult, but should help you
to see more examples of the use of .
Anna ?
At-Home ?
2 Blocks away .

See Answers Here

I think this is the perfect place to stop for now. Also, if you would review and
memorize this section on the homework page, it will be of great help to you! It will
contain a few basic nouns that I will use often in examples and problems. Once the
word has appeared on a homework page, I will not always include the English word
next to it. You may always go back and look at anything you need to, and may print
whatever you need :) (Homework pages especially!)
Study/Print the Homework Page
Verb -

- root is , Polite style is , casual style is . Meaning - To Do.

 has an irregular spelling when used as you learned in Lesson Three. Keep in
mind it is and not . This verb is not as irregular as with and , but I
would still like to briefly talk about it.
is a verb you will soon know perfectly, as you will see it forms many other verbs.
What I mean by this is, many Korean verbs are simply formed by taking a word and
simply adding on the end of it. The verb "To Make a Phone Call" is made by
sticking the word for "phone" and the verb (To Do) together. Phone is . The
verb "To Make a Phone Call" is .
Shower is . "To Shower" is simply .
Homework is . "To Do Homework" is .
This is why you will see this verb a lot. Many verbs are formed using it. When you
conjugate them, it is done the same as . , , etc. You will have
no problem with .

Particles
Particles - Endings attached to words to specify what significance the word has in
the sentence. The particle is attached to the end of the word, without a space in
between the word and the particle.

Subject Particle
One of the first and most common particles you will run into is the subject particle. In
English, one of the most basic parts of a sentence is the subject. It is a required part
in English, but is not required in Korean. The subject tells us who or what is doing the
action.

As you learned in Lesson Three, means To Eat. You also learned that you could
say to mean "I'm eating." Up until now though, we haven't learned how to
specify who or what is the subject if we need to for clarification.
The subject particle has two forms. and . comes after a word ending in a
consonant, and comes after a word ending in a vowel.
For example, let's say Eunji is eating. ends in a vowel, so we attach and get

. means Eunji, as the subject of the sentence. The is what makes

Eunji the subject. Then, we can simply add the verb in the proper present tense
form, and we have our sentence. in the polite form, or
simply . Eunji is eating. As you will notice, when speaking in the casual form,
particles are commonly left off.
In Lesson Four, we learned the irregular verb . can mean To Be, as in
location. There is a pencil. From Lesson Four, you should have memorized
means pencil. means pencil, as the subject. means "There is a
pencil (there, as in location)." means "It is a pencil." Be sure to keep
and separate when it comes to the verb To Be.
Say "There is (a) _____" by filling in the blank with the words below, using the correct
subject particle.

See Answers Here

Object Particle
Another very common particle is the object particle. This states which word in the
sentence is the object of the sentence, or the word receiving the action. It has two
forms as well. after a word ending in a consonant, and after a word ending in a
vowel.

In Lesson Three you were asked to learn the verb , To Drink. You should be
able to say "I drink" or "I'm drinking" but you haven't been able to specify what it is
you are drinking. You specify this using an object particle. means milk. If you
attach the proper object particle to it, you get . You can then say
. In Lesson Four you learned means water. Now you should know that
means "I'm drinking water." or "I drink water." Now, try these sentences.

 .
.
.
See Answers Here
Location Particle
You know the verb from Lesson Three, so you know how to say you're going or
someone is going, but knowing how to say where it is you are going is very important!
This is very simple! . It takes the same form no matter what word it comes after.
. You should know this! "I'm going home." . If I told you was
school, you would know this too :) .

One other location particle that I want to tell you about right now is . When you
add the on the end, it then turns into a place where the action is happening.
doesn't mean "to school" anymore. It means the action is happening at school .
means "Anna is eating at home." means "I
am studying at school."

Topic Particle

The topic particle may be the most common particle you will run into. It also has two
forms. after a vowel, and after a consonant. Keep in mind it will replace the
subject or object particle if it is attached to a word that would otherwise have a
subject or object particle attached, but it will fall after any other particle. It is also one
of the most difficult particles to learn when you begin to study Korean. I will keep it
simple, and you will do just fine. It does exactly what it is called. It sets the word or
words before it as the topic of the sentence...what the sentence is all about. You can
take any part of a sentence and make it the topic, except for the verb of course. Say
you have a simple sentence saying "Joe is eating bread at his house." You can make
Joe the topic, meaning the sentence is about Joe, and we are saying what he is
doing and where. If we like, we may decide bread should be the topic, in which case
the rest of the sentence will tell us who and where is eating the bread. Or, if we are
talking about "at home", we may want to make "at home" the topic. In this case, we
are saying what is going on at home. Joe is eating bread.

Often when you begin to learn Korean, you will be confused about when to use the
subject particle vs. the object particle. As you learned above, means
Eunji is eating. But... also would mean Eunji is eating. In one case,
Eunji is simply the subject of the sentence. In the second case, Eunji is the topic of
the sentence. Very similar. Honestly, it usually won't make much of a difference. Both
are right :) . Now for a few examples in Korean.
. still means "I". This sentence simply says "I am going home." But if
it helps you understand the topic particle better, think of it as "Speaking about me,
going home." Another example could be . This
sentence is a little longer, but if you knew all the nouns and verbs, you could
understand it just fine :) . is math. is school. is to study. This
sentence says "Speaking about what is going on at school, Anna is studying math."
This is why my lessons are so grammar heavy at first. If you know the grammar, you
can understand any sentence with the use of a dictionary. If you do not know the
grammar your chances of understanding the sentence are much smaller, and a
dictionary won't help much. I will begin to introduce larger amounts of vocabulary
words, but I just ask that you stick through the grammar until then :) . I promise it will
be worth it.
This is a great place to take a break in this lesson. If you memorize the first section
on the homework page tonight, then I say you've learned plenty for the day. You can
always come back and study some more, or go ahead if you like! Keep your own
pace, but this is simply where I will put a stopping point.
Study/Print the homework page
/
The particle is commonly used to mean "by means of." It will fall after a noun, and
take the form after vowels and a word that ends in the consonant , but will take
the form if it falls after any other consonant.
means To go by car. You are expressing which means of transportation
you will be using. is a sentence saying Let's Go by train. It is not only
used for means of transportation though. It can be used for anything to mean "by
means of." means Please write with a pencil, or please write by means
of a pencil.

 is a particle you stick onto nominals of place or time. It means "All the way up
to." As in, I'm going all the way to China, . I'm going (as far as) China.
You can use it to say a destination you will go to, and meaning thats how far you will
go. It is found in the question ? How far should we go?

Household Terms
If you have completed lessons 1-5, you are now ready to start learning household
terms. It is mainly a bunch of vocabulary words...I know, that doesn't sound fun, but
it's part of the language! One of the hardest things about learning any language is
just building a large enough vocabulary.
Luckily for you, this lesson will be full of items commonly found around the house.
You will see them frequently, so whenever you do, think of the Korean word, not the
English word. This is the best way to learn all the household terms. Plus, you will
begin to build the foundation of your vocabulary with common items and tasks. You
will get used to the structure of sentences and the language, and can practice while
you walk around at home! It'll be a breeze :)
Household Term Nouns

Korean

English
House
Apartment
Dormitory
Room
Bed
Pillow
Blanket
Alarm Clock
Mirror
Bathroom
Toilet
Shower
Towel
Toothpaste
Toothbrush
Soap
Shampoo
Kitchen
Oven
Refrigerator
Dinner Table
Chair
Plate
Cup
Lamp

Soap
Shampoo
Kitchen
Oven
Refrigerator
Dinner Table
Chair
Plate
Cup
Lamp
Window
Sofa
Television
Bookcase
Telephone
Computer

Household Term Verbs

Here is a list of common household verbs to go along with the household terms. To
form the casual style, drop the at the end.
Korean

Polite Style

English
To Do
To Get Up
To Sleep
To Have (Lesson 4)
To Not Have (Lesson 4)
To Read
To See / Watch
To Clean
To Play
To Exercise
To Write
To Eat
To Drink
To Go
To Put On Clothes
To Put On Shoes
To Take Off Clothes /
Shoes
To Do Homework
To Study

Total, that will give you 19 household verbs and 31 household nouns, 50 household
terms total! I recommend memorizing the lists over the next few days. Once you have
them memorized, remember to remember the Korean household term for the object
or task you are doing whenever you do it! This will help you retain the vocabulary
much faster than continuously returning to the list or a dictionary. This is a good idea
to try with any word in the language, not just household terms. Keep that in mind for
future lessons! Household Terms does not have to be the only easy lesson!
A Korean Paragraph Using Household Terms

Now this can be your real first lesson diving into real Korean and real sentences. It
will be based using the vocabulary above, and we will examine some sentences and
then have some practice ones. First, read through the following paragraph. Try your
best to understand it, even if there are a couple of words you do not know yet :) You
will be amazed at what you can accomplish by now if you have done the previous
lessons and learned some household terms. It will all be in present tense since that is
the only tense that has been discussed so far. Be sure to read it outloud to yourself
at least once!
7 . . . 8 .
. . 3 , . 4 ! 6
( !). .
. 9 .
? I bet you did! Now that you have read it, let me cover a couple things that
you may have picked up. First off, this is a general account of what could happen in a
day using the household terms, but all in the present tense. numbers were used to
help you pick up on this. As you may have noticed, means hour. 3 means 3:00.
means half. It is used when you say 3:30. 3 . 3 hours and half! is used like
, but means minutes (it is not needed when you use ). 3 26 means at
3:26. if you see attached to a noun, it will either mean "and" or it will mean
"with". In these cases, it means "and". would mean bulgogi and rice.
Yet wait, you see another thing used for and when I listed the foods. When using to
attach nouns, you can also use and . comes after a word that ends in a
vowel, while after a noun that ends in a consonant. It will have the same meaning
as . There were a few in there. That means "and" as well! When
connecting sentences that is. One final thing, if you see two or three things that all
seem like verbs but don't seem to have the exact same end on the word as you
would've thought ( ) You would think it would be . But, this
is one last way to use "and". When listing verbs, you can add to the stem of the
verb. Only the final verb in the list will be conjugated otherwise.

Now read that paragraph again (or maybe twice!) now that you understand those
couple things.
Now continue to read an English translation...
At 7:00 I get up. I exercise and shower. There is no shampoo and soap :( . At 8:00 I
eat. I go to school. At school I study. I come home at 3:00, and I do homework. At
4:00 I clean and play! At 6:30 I eat dinner (rice and kimchi and bulgogi!). After dinner,
I watch tv, and read a book. at 9:00 I sleep.
Korean Practice Using Household Terms

.
?
!
?
.
.
.
? ( = = )
. .
?
. .
?
.
?
.
?
. .

See Answers
Where are you going?
Where (as in how far) are you going?
I am going home.
I am going as far as school.
What are you eating?
What are you drinking?
I am eating rice and kimchi.
I am drinking milk.

What are you doing?

I'm sleeping.
I'm exercising and playing.
I'm exercising. And I'm playing.
Where is the toothpaste?
I don't know. Anna knows.
Where is my house?
I don't know.
Where is my pillow.
It's (right) here.
It's over there.

Body Parts And Numbers

Lesson Seven is a vocabulary lesson on body parts. It also includes an intro to basic
Korean numbers. It will be the second major vocabulary lesson you will learn.
This will be a shorter lesson, simply containing some common vocabulary words
based on the body, and the first 10 numbers in Korean. It is provided for you to help
you increase your vocabulary with common words.
Body Parts
Korean
English

Body

Head, Hair

Face

Eye

Eyebrow

Nose

Ear

Mouth

Cheek

Lips

Chin

Neck

Shoulders

Chest

Stomach

Back

Arm

Hand

Fingers

Waist

Buttocks

Legs

Foot

Toes
[an error occurred while processing this directive]


Arm

Hand

Fingers

Waist

Buttocks

Legs

Foot

Toes
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
That basic list of common body parts should be enough to get you more familiar with
the language, building your vocabulary. Now whenever you think of a body part, be
sure to think of the Korean body part term!
Pure Korean Numbers
First, I will tell you right off there are two sets of Korean numbers you will run into.
There are Pure-Korean numbers, which come straight from the Korean language,
and there are Sino-Korean numbers, which are taken from Chinese. Both sets of
numbers are commonly used, and you will learn when to use which kind.
For now, you will be introduced to the Pure-Korean numbers. Pure-Korean numbers
are used to count physical, tangible objects (excluding money) and the hour (but not
minutes).
You will learn time in the future. It is more difficult as it is composed of both number
systems.
Pure-Korean numbers only go through 99. Sino-Korean numbers can go as large as
you like them to.
Here are the first 10 Pure-Korean numbers.
Korean
Number

7
()
8

10
To form the numbers 11-99, you will simply follow a pattern.
+ (10 + 1) = 11
+ (10 + 5) = 15
But in order to continue this pattern, you need to learn the word for 20, 30, 40, and
so on.
Korean

Number
10
20
30
40
50
60

Korean
Number

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90
The pattern is the same as it was for the teens.
25
31
46
55
69
78
82
99

+ =
+ =
+ =
+ =
+ =
+ =
+ =
+ =

There are two last things to keep in mind with numbers. The first four, , , ,
change when they come before a noun or something you are changing. They will
change to , , , respectively.
- 1:00
- 2 bottles
- 3 animals
- 3 pieces of paper
This occurs in all cases where the number ends in one of these.
- 91 animals
- 43 people
Secondly, when or come before the sounds or , they may be pronounced
and respectively...instead of and . This may not always happen however.
Practice
Use the body part terms above and the Pure-Korean numbers for this practice.
- How Many
.
.
.
?
.
?

 .
?
.
How many eyebrows do you have?
How many legs do you have?
How many fingers do you have?
How many hands do you have?
How many feet do you have?

Verb Tenses
As we all know, there are three normal verb tenses; past, present, and future. Korean
has them as well! So far, you have been working using a normal present tense form
of verbs. These use the / ending.
I will briefly review the present tense. Then you will learn about another form for the
present tense, followed by past and future.
Present Tense

The present tense is just as you have learned. You take the dictionary form of a verb,
drop the , add the appropriate ending.
- + =
- + - - .
This tense is used to represent what happens in the present. I eat. I drink. It is a
general term for the present.

Currently Happening

There is a form you have not learned yet that is very common dealing with the
present tense. Although you can say to mean you are eating, as in
...there is a more specific way to say you are currently eating rice. As you speak, it
is happening. The pattern is:
~ .
It is quite simple. You take the verb from the dictionary form, drop the and you are
left with the stem. You add to the verb stem and that is all! This will form a
present tense of the verb of something that is currently happening. To form the

casual style, you would just add .

- I'm eating rice (as we speak)
- I'm drinking milk (as we speak)
- I'm wearing shorts (as we speak).
It is commonly used :) I'm currently eating... I'm currently wearing this...I'm currently
reading.
There will be practice at the end of all the tenses. Otherwise, you already know what
the sentences say! :)
Past Tense

Past tense is another easy verb tense. Here is the basic pattern.
1.Take the dictionary form, drop the
2.Add the ending or , which makes it the casual form (everything but the at
the end)
3. Add under the last syllable
4. Add on the end.

+ -
+ -
+ = .

+ -
+ -
+ =

+-
+-
+ =
- I ate rice.
- I watched tv.
- he went to school.
? - What did you do?
If you wish to say something you 'currently' were doing something in the past (say
you were saying something happened while you were doing something..'currently'
isn't exactly the word, because it's not current..but it was current)...

Then you can use the form from above and make past tense - .
I think a couple examples would explain better than words :)
- I was eating rice.
- I was watching tv.
Does that make a little more sense? Just another form you will see and can use
when making sentences and reading them.
Future Tense

There are a couple different forms of the future tense you will see. None match up
exactly to what we see the future tense in English as, but they are simple and easy to
understand.

Probable Future

One common future tense is the probable future tense. It can be used to mean "I
probably will eat." "I probably will go to school tommorrow." This is probably the most
similar (in my opinion) to our English future tense. If you just intend to say Will go, will
eat...this future tense may be your best bet.
The basic formation of this future tense is as follows:
Take the verb base, for our example using .
Attach () to the verb base. If the base ends in a consonant, you attach
. If it ends in a vowel, you attach .
- I will probably eat.
- I will probably go.
- It will probably rain.
*One thing to keep in mind. Remember back to when you learned some irregular
verb cases? being one. It appears as in the dictionary form, and
when conjugated? Well, when using this for these few special verbs, use the
ending on the base and not the . Will listen.
Also, remember how some verbs pick up a and sometimes not? Example -
...well, in this case, it will not take the , but will pick up an . Will
probably be cold.*

Past Probable

You can also use this form with a past tense verb, to mean 'must have' or 'probably
have'. The example with would be . Notice the past tense ending
is attached to the verb base, not the verb part. would mean
'must have eaten.' 'Probably ate.'

Intentional Future

The other form of the future tense you will see often will use . The meaning is
similar to the above future tense, but varies slightly. This form is more of the meaning
"I intend to, I'm positive it will happen, etc." Here is how it is formed.
Take your verb base (whatever is before in the dictionary form, no exceptions.
does not change to as above. .)
Attach to that base. Then simply add your or ending you normally would
use. Note the ending is always and never , even for verbs such as .
means I intend to eat. means I'm sure it will rain. See how it is a
little different from the previous future tense? This form has more certainty.
Practice

Now that you know the three tenses, you should practice them. Try not to look above
for the following!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
?
?
?
?
?

What were you doing?

Where did you go?
Where will you probably go?
What do you intend to eat?
I intend (certainty) to eat rice.
I will probably eat kimchi.
I am eating bulgogi (now).
I was eating bulgogi.
Did you drink beer?
Do you intend to drink beer?
No. I intend to drink water.

Clothes
Lesson Nine is the third lesson on vocabulary. The focus is on clothes for this lesson.
After the vocabulary lists, there will be a brief reading, followed by practice exercises.
The following lesson will be a grammar lesson on adjectives and colors. This will be
done based on this set of vocabulary (plus the adjectives and colors). You will then
be able to describe your clothing in more detail.
Nouns
Korean

English
Clothes
Shirt
White Dress Shirt
Pants
Shorts
Jeans
Shoes
Dress Shoes
Sneakers
Socks
Skirt
Coat
Jacket
Hat
Glasses
Ring
Earrings
Necklace
Gloves
Dress
Suit
Necktie
Pajamas
Bra


Glasses

Ring

Earrings

Necklace

Gloves

Dress

Suit

Necktie

Pajamas

Bra

Underwear(Male and Female)

Teeshirt

Hanbok, Traditional Clothing

You may have noticed many of these terms are taken from the English language.
Just makes it easier to remember :)
Clothes Verbs
One thing you will notice is there are several verbs for wear, depending on where the
object is. General clothing (shirt, pants) will use . Shoes and socks will use .
Hat, glasses, stuff on the head will use . Stuff on the hands like rings and gloves
will use . is used to mean take off, and is used for any of the objects, no
matter where it is.
Korean
Polite Style
English

To Wear (Body)

TO Wear (footwear)

To Wear (headwear)

To Wear (Hands)

To Take Off (anything)

To say you are currently wearing something, I recommend using the phrase ~
. As you learned in Lesson Eight, this means 'currently taking place' action.
would mean currently wearing clothes.
- I am wearing a skirt.
- I am wearing a shirt.
- I am wearing a ring.
If you use instead of , the sentence usually in the following way.
- I wear skirts (in general).
- I wear shirts (in general).
- I wear rings (in general).
Clothes Practice
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I am wearing a hat.
I am not wearing a hat.
I was not wearing glasses.
I intend to wear a skirt tommorrow.
I probably will wear my glasses tommorrow.
I intend to undress.
I used to wear three rings.
I did not used to wear four rings.
I'm not wearing jeans. I am wearing shorts.
I am wearing sneakers.
Korean Colors
Hello and welcome to the lesson on Korean colors! Hopefully you now understand
everything covered in lessons 1-9 because that is the best way to begin this lesson. If
you skipped ahead, then some parts may be understandable, some may not.
Whatever you have decided to do, I hope you come out of this lesson with a good
grasp on Korean color words.
Korean Colors
These are a little more complicated than color words in English, but you should be
able to handle them!
There are a few ways to deal with color words in Korean, and I will teach you the
most basic, common way.
First off, colors can come in a couple forms. There is the word that means just the
color. There are color verbs.
For now, you will learn the most basic uses of color words and these should let you
use colors just fine in an easy to understand way.

means color. Knowing this will allow you to make more sense and understand the
rest of this color lesson easily.
I will refer to the chart below throughout the lesson. You may refer to it any time you

wish until you learn the colors properly.

Color

Blue
Black
White
Red
Yellow
Green
Orange
Purple
Pink
Silver
Gold
Light Brown
Brown
Gray

Adjective / Noun
Modifier

Let's look at the color blue. . You can think of this as "blue color". is the
part that lets us know it is blue instead of orange, and tells us it is a color we are
talking about (you will see when should be included and when it shouldn't be in a
minute).
If you are naming colors, then you should put at the end of the color word. From
the table above, when naming colors use the actual color name form (the words on
the left).
If you are using them as an adjective, such as "The blue car is big."
( - To Be Big). Here...we are just saying that the car is blue, but that isn't the
topic of our sentence or anything like that. It is just an adjective or noun modifier
describing the car. If that is the case, then you should use the form that is on the right
side of the table. Some of the words will have a shortened form, without the . Other
colors you can't really shorten like that, however. So you would just say
.
If you do wish to make a sentence stating that something is a certain color, you
should use the verb - To Be. This way it is very easy. You can just take the word
for the color, , ..whatever the word is...and attach the verb,
. means the car is blue. It is very simple this way.
However, you may see other versions of the word. For example, you may see it
written as a verb itself, such as , stating something is yellow. would be
white.
What do you think is? If you said...color #2 in the chart above, then that's
right! They are fairly easy to recognize when you read them, but it may be harder to

use them this way yourself because they aren't written exactly the same way when
they are combined with or . A few other examples are and .
For now, just be aware that these forms do exist. If you see a version of one of the
colors similar to these, chances are the sentence states something is that color.

Korean Modals
Modals? What are modals?
Modals is a grammatical term that is pretty much unknown
to everyone except grammar teachers.
You know what they are though.
Have you ever wanted to say 'I can go,' 'I should go,' 'I want to go,' 'I need to go,' or 'I may
go' ?
If so, you've wanted to know how to use modals! Modals are simply combining verbs such as
may, want, need, can and should with another verb.
That is all there is to it! See, modals are not so bad, but everyone uses them in conversation.
Now you can go out, speak Korean, use modals, and communicate well!

Oh, right. You still want to know how to use them in Korean. Well, here we go!
To Want
To Need, To Have To
Can, Be Able To
May, Have Permission
Random Practice
To Want

There are two things to consider when thinking about the verb 'to want'.

To want a noun.
To want to do something (verb).

Since we are talking about modals, or conditions of verbs, we are going to cover the second
one in depth.

To want a noun

Alright. I will mention the first as well! The verb is:

- To want (a noun).
You use when you say something like 'I want an apple.' . 'I want a car'
. 'I want a house' .

To want (to do)

What if you want to say 'I want to go'? Would you say ? At first, you may think
so. Unfortunately, we cannot simply take the infinitive for 'to go', , and stick it before 'to
want'.
There is another pattern you must use. The verb 'to want' becomes ~ .
Now, take that infinitive, , and drop the . This gives you the verb base, or simply in
this case. Now all you have to do is add the new verb! .
When you say it in a sentence, will change just like any other verbs. It becomes .
Simple enough? Let's just add one more thing...
~ is only used when talking in first person (about yourself). This simply means you use
~ if you are talking about something you (yourself) want.
If you are talking about something someone else wants to do, the verb is ~ .
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Practice
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See Answers
-----Sidebar-------Remember, if you don't already know lots of vocabulary, you can greatly benefit from the
Vocabulary E-Zine. It will build your vocabulary gradually yet steadily, giving you great
knowledge on Korean words.
-------------------Have to, Need to

I have to do homework. Many of you may need to say this statement, even if sometimes you
pass up homework for a good time. ;-)
I have to work. This statement may fit you better.
Whether we want to do something or not, sometimes we just do not have a choice! If this is the
case....
~ will come in handy.
Let's stick with the example 'to go' to illustrate this.
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You simply drop the from the polite form of the verb and add the ending.Note how
becomes . + = . However, you will still see it written both ways.
A couple more examples should make this pattern clear.
. - I have to do homework.
. - I have to work.
Notice how all we did was take the verb to do, , drop the , and add the ending?
.

You just need to remember which part of the verb to use. In 'to want' we drop the from the
dictionary form and use that (the verb stem). In this case, we drop the from polite form and
attach the ending to that (the casual form of the verb).

Practice

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See Answers
Can, Be Able To

Moving right along.

If you need to say you can do something, you can go, you can eat, you use the following
pattern.
Take the verb stem (drop the from the dictionary form) and add ~() .
Let me explain that a little better.
First, get the verb stem. - . - . Now, add the appropriate ending.
If the verb stem ends in a vowel, like , all you do is add .
- I can go.
However, if it ends in a consonant, you cannot add another consonant to the verb stem because
there is already one there! If this is the case, you add .
. - I can eat.
That's really all there is to it! Just remember the ending is ~() .
Note: Oh, and one more thing! If the verb ends in the consonant , you don't have to add
either or . Simply jump to the . Otherwise, the becomes redundant.

 .
Conditions:

Verb ends in vowel - add

Verb ends in - add
Verb ends in any other consonant - add

Practice

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See Answers
May, Have Permission

If you have permission to do something, you would use the verb 'may'.
I may go. (I have permission to go).
I may play. (I have permission to play).
This is pretty simple in Korean.
The ending is ~
You attach the ending to the casual form of the verb (drop the from the polite form).
- I may go.
- I may play.
Nothing fancy here.
Use the following practice to get used to this pattern.

Practice

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See Answers
Some Real Practice

So, you understand them when separated. Do you think you can recognize what they all mean
when random?
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Adjectives - How To Modify

A Noun
Have you ever noticed a word in a sentence that you almost recognized? Perhaps it looked very
similar to a verb you had seen before.
Note: You may need to change the encoding for this page - I do. Right click - encoding Korean

Making The Distinction Between Verb And Adjective

What is an adjective? As of now, I have been calling all 'verb style' words verbs.
However, it is now time to make the distinction between true verbs and adjectives.
Both come at the end of a sentence. Both may take the normal endings you have learned.
An adjective is a word that describes something. Words such as 'to be cold' 'to be clean', and
'to be busy' are all adjectives, because they describe something. Adjectives usually begin with
'to be' in English.
Other words, such as 'to run', 'to swim', and 'to write', are all true verbs. They are actions.
Yet, they both take the same / / endings. We use them almost exactly alike.
There will be many cases when you will need to know whether or not the 'word' you are
dealing with is an adjective or a verb. I am going to introduce you to one right now, so hold
on!
How To Use An Adjective To Modify A Noun
What exactly do I mean by that?
Well, you can say 'The car is blue' and you can also say 'It is a blue car'. These two sentences
mean the exact same thing, except the word 'blue' is used two different ways.
In the first sentence, the whole sentence is based on describing the car, the color in particular.
In the second sentence, the writer may not necessarily be putting the emphasis on the color.
The color could just be there to provide additional information. What if I were to say 'A blue
car just drove across the street.'
Am I focusing on the fact that a blue car just drove across the street, or is the color of the car
simply extra details?
As of now, you have been using the first form of the sentence. Let's look at the following
sentence.
The weather is good.
You would probably say , correct?
What if you wanted to say 'Warm weather is good.'
This gets you into a situation in which you need to use another form of the adjective. You need
to modify the noun - weather. It is not enough to say .
. which means 'The weather is good, and the weather is warm.'
It doesn't quite mean the same thing.

Instead, you would say . This means 'Warm weather is good.'

How To Move An Adjective Before The Noun
So now you understand exactly what we want to accomplish. Let's learn how to do it.
The structure for this is based off adding or to a verb stem.
To know the verb stem, simply drop the from the dictionary form. is the verb for
'to be warm'. After you drop , you are left with . Because it ends in a vowel (),
you should add the ending.

Let's look at an example in which we will add the ending.

Good cars are expensive.
While this may not necessarily be entirely true in every case, it provides a good example to
demonstrate this point ;-)
We want to modify the noun 'cars' to specify only 'good cars'. We don't care about 'bad cars' or
'yellow cars', because we are talking about 'good cars'.
- to be good
If we drop the , we are left with . Since ends in a consonant (), you should add the
ending. You get .
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means 'good cars'.
Be careful, don't confuse adding the topic particle / to the end of a noun with this new
ending we attach to the word modifying the noun. They are two separate things.
For a review on topic particles, visit the Korean Particles page
How To Do This With Irregular Adjectives
As you have learned by now, there are usually some kind of irregular verb / adjective.
Irregular Ending
For example, the adjective is conjugated as in the present tense. Somewhere, we
lost the and gained a , right?
In these adjectives that drop the , you will do the same when moving the adjective before the
noun. You will also include the .

Instead of adding the ending to as you would in the present tense (

contracts to ), you simply add the vowel ending form, . This results in .
Irregular Endings
Another irregular ending is when an adjective ends in . Often, the is dropped in some
forms. An example is . In the present tense, you cannot notice any change. It stays
. However, before , , and , the is usually omitted.
It can be a little confusing to think of it like that, because you might think is the base, and
so we would add , rather than . However, try your best to realize that we are truly adding
, and the only reason the part is usually added is simply because we need the extra vowel
if it follows a consonant.
Or, if this is easier, simply remember that when moving an adjective before the noun,
adjectives that end in will drop the :-)
- to be far
In this case, we have . Let's drop the and get . Now, simply add the proper ending .
You could say , meaning 'the house that is far away'.
and
You will occasionally run into a time where and will be used. One common
adjective would be
- to be interesting
is an adjective, because it describes something as interesting. However, it ends in
, which usually comes with special endings.
With and endings, you will add instead of /.
The interesting car would be

Remember, this is pronounced , because when is followed by , it sounds like
. For a review on irregular pronunciation, visit the Hangul Irregularities page
Practice Moving Adjectives
Now that you know how to move them, try practicing some!

Homework
Lesson Three

Memorize these common verb patterns

Normal or
Normal not or
Ends in
Ends in
Ends in
Ends in
Ends in or
Ends in

Takes /
Takes /
Combine to ~/~
Combine to /
Drop add appropriate
ending
Double the , drop
add appropriate ending
Simply add or leave as
is (casual)
Combine to /

,,
, ,
, ,
,
- ,
- ,
- , -
, ,

Memorize These first 10 common verbs and forms. To form casual style, simply drop
the from the polite style.

(~)

(~)

To Do
To Have
To Not Have
To Go
To Eat
To Drink
To Get Up
To Sleep
To See
To Be Good

(~)

Lesson Four

(~)

To Do
To Have
To Not Have
To Go
To Eat
To Drink
To Get Up
To Sleep
To See
To Be Good

Memorize The Verb in the present tense for both polite and casual styles.
Verb

Meaning

Style

After Vowel

Copula, To Be
Copula, To Be

Polite
Casual

After
Consonant

Polite

Casual

Memorize the verb and its two meanings.

Verb

Meaning 1
Possession

Meaning 2
Location

Memorize these 10 common words. If it has a (p) next to it, it means polite. A (c)
means casual.
English
Hangul
Car
Pencil
House
Water
Bread
Friend
Yes
No
Hello
Lesson Five

Korean

(p), (c)
(p), (c)
(p), (c)

Below are the basics of the particles and a few vocabulary words that are commonly
used with those particles.
Keep in mind that words listed under subject particle will very well be used along with
the topic particle, and vice versa.
Particle
/
Korean

Use
Subject
English
Teacher
I
I (polite)
Mom

Particle
Use
/
Subject
Korean
English

Teacher

I (polite)

Mom

Dad
Below, words falling under a verb will be commonly used with that verb.
Particle
/

Particle
/

Use
Object
To Eat
Rice
Kimchi
Meat
Soup
To Drink
Water
Milk
Cola
Korean Liquor
Beer
Use
Topic
Location, To
Location, At