Essential grammar for korean as a second language

Inflectional words are the words that have independent meanings and can be used as a predicate in a sentence.. Verbs, Adjectives and Predicate Postpositions are inflectional words... Fo

Essential Grammar For Korean as a Second Language

© 2004 All rights reserved by

Chul Young Lee

Version 2.3

Preface

Demand for the Korean langauge education as a second language is significantly increasing these days The Korean language is an agglutinative language and is sometimes recognized tricky to learn by the people who speak a European language as their primary language But depending on how systematical the education method is, it can be efficiently learned with the aid of its scientific letter system Hangeul

This book aims to provide the comprehensive rules and factors of the Korean language in a systematic way The grammar chapters contain most of the important basic rules so that you can build the essence to learn Korean This book can be used for self-learners who are learning Korean with other books and environment and want a good grammar textbook This book can be also used as a textbook in a Korean class, in which case I recommend the instructors to provide replicating examples to the students and try to relate the multiple chapters on the inflectional words with each other to maximize the efficiency of the education

I hope this can contribute to the Korean language education to all the people who teach or learn Korean Chul Young Lee

이철영

CONTENTS Part I Alphabet & Basic Phonetics

Chapter 0: About the Korean Alphabet System ……… ……….………… 5

Chapter 1: How to Compose a Syllable ……… ……… 6

Chapter 2: Korean Alphabet ……… 7

Chapter 3: Important Rules for Pronunciation ……… 11

Part II Basic Grammar Chapter 4: Parts of Speech … ……… 18

Chapter 5: Sentence Structure ……… 20

Chapter 6: Inflectional Words ……… 23

Chapter 7: Supplementary Inflectional Words ……… ………… …… 28

Chapter 8: Irregular Inflectional Words ……… …… 32

Chapter 9: Attitudes ……… 38

Chapter 10: Postpositions ……… ……… 41

Chapter 11: Designation ……… 44

Part III Useful Expressions & Vocabularies Chapter 12: 5W1H ……… 47

Chapter 13: Frequently Used Basic Sentences ……… … ……… 48

Chapter 14: Numeral & Units ……….………… 51

Chapter 15: Time ……… 55

Chapter 16: Family ……… 57

Part I Alphabet & Basic Phonetics

Chapter 0 About the Korean Alphabet System

The World's Most Scientific Writing System

The Korean Alphabet is known to be the most scientific writing system in the world This letter system is called Hangeul Each character in Hangeul represents a unique sound in a systematic way, which makes it very easy and clear to learn this letter system This is why Korea’s literacy rate is extremely high

Hangeul was developed in 1443 by King Sejong (1397-1450) who clearly stated the purpose of developing this letter system It was basically to let everyone in the nation to be able to read and wirte easily He developed the new letter system in an amazingly scientific and systematic way He created the shapes of the characters in a way that they resemble the shapes of the human organs when they are pronounced

Hangeul is a state-of-the-art phoneme character system which consists of 10 basic vowels, 14 basic consonants and some compound vowels and consonants, and you can write down whatever you hear in a unique way You typically do not have to ask how to spell something This is possible because one character

in Hangeul is mapped to only one sound

While you learn this letter system, you will be amazed to see how easy it is to learn and how powerful it is You could even apply Hangeul to another language without a big problem

Chapter 1 How To Compose A Syllable

1 Why is Syllable Important in Korean?

Syllable is the unit of composing actual letters using the letter elements (consonants and vowels)

Once you become able to build a syllable by applying the consonants and vowels, you can write anything you hear

2 What does a Korean Syllable look like?

It is composed of three elements: Initial Sound (초성), Medial Sound (중성) and Final Sound (종성), as you can see in the figure below

Figure 1 A Korean Syllable

3 Composing Syllables

See the example below:

Figure 2 An example of a syllable

A syllable must have exactly 1 consonant as the initial sound and 1 vowel as the medial sound A syllable can be composed with or without the final sound (consonant) Sometimes there can be 2 consonants located as the final sound

Examples (보기)

Syllables without the final sound: 가, 나, 너, 뽀, 쭈, 야, 의, 왜

Syllables with 1 consonant as the final sound: 안, 녕, 합, 얌, 굉, 있, 낚, 꺾

Syllables with 2 consonants as the final sound: 않, 없, 앉

Chapter 2 Korean Alphabet

2) Compound Consonants

1) Every compound consonant is a fortis Do not get confused with aspiration (ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, ㅊ)

2) Do not get confused with double consonants which are combination of two different

2) Compound Vowels

3 Common Writing Rules

Writing a syllable should be done by the following rules:

1) Write in the following order: Initial Sound ► Medial Sound ► Final Sound

2) For each letter element, write from Top and from Left

Polarity of Vowels (모음의 음양)

Positive Vowels: ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅗ, ㅛ, and compound vowels including them

Negative Vowels: ㅓ, ㅕ, ㅜ, ㅠ, ㅡ , and compound vowels including them

Neutral Vowel: ㅣ

Vowel Accordance (모음조화): Vowels with the same polarity tend to stick together

in words (but this is not an absolute rule any more in modern Korean) For example, an

inflectional word with the stem with a positive vowel uses suffixes with a positive vowel

<보기> 놀다 (to play) ▶ 놀 + 아요 = 놀아요

Two-Element Syllable Matrix with Basic Consonants and Basic Vowels in Order

가나다라마바사아자차카타파하 갸냐댜랴먀뱌샤야쟈챠캬탸퍄햐 거너더러머버서어저처커터퍼허 겨녀뎌려며벼셔여져쳐켜텨펴혀 고노도로모보소오조초코토포호 교뇨됴료묘뵤쇼요죠쵸쿄툐표효 구누두루무부수우주추쿠투푸후 규뉴듀류뮤뷰슈유쥬츄큐튜퓨휴 그느드르므브스으즈츠크트프흐 기니디리미비시이지치키티피히

Chapter 3 Important Rules for Pronunciation

[Comparison] Dependent combination : 옷을 입어요.(Original sound recovered)

Independent combination: 옷 입어요 (Pronounced as representative sound)

2 Phoneme Compression (음운 축약)

Phoneme compression is a phenomenon that occurs when two phonemes meet and change

[Rule 1] Consonant Compression (자음 축약)

When‘ㄱ·ㄷ·ㅂ·ㅈ’are followed or preceded by ‘ㅎ’, they change to the aspiration‘ㅋ·ㅌ·ㅍ·ㅊ’

ㅂ + ㅎ = ㅎ + ㅂ = ㅍ 밟혀 ▶ [발펴] (to be stepped on)

ㅈ + ㅎ = ㅎ + ㅈ = ㅊ 닿지 ▶ [다치] (to touch/reach)

[Rule 2] Vowel Compression (모음 축약)

When two vowels meet, they become a diphthong

ㅜ + ㅓ = ㅝ 주었다 ▶ [줬다] (to give)

[Note] Do not get confused with the historical transformation: ‘compaction’ (축약)

In history there were special mutual assimilation cases where two consecutive

vowels were compressed or became one sound

<보기> 가히 ▶ 개 (dog)

입시울 ▶ 입슐 ▶ 입술 (lip)

<보기> 가 봤는데요 ▶ [가 봔는데요] (I’ve been there.)

한 곳만 ▶ [한 곤만] (only one place)

[Rule 2] Palatalization rule does not apply to the following cases:

1) Compound word (of independent words)

<보기> 홑이불 = 홑 + 이불 ▶ [혼니불]

2) Within the stem of a word

<보기> 더디다, 버티다, 견디다, 잔디, 느티나무

6 Voiceless Consonants ㄱ/ㄷ/ㅂ/ㅅ/ㅈ Pronounced as Fortis

If voiceless consonants ㄱ/ㄷ/ㅂ/ㅅ/ㅈ/ follow a voiceless consonant (as the final sound of a preceding syllable), they are pronounced as a fortis [ㄲ/ㄸ/ㅃ/ㅆ/ㅉ]

[Note] Head-Sound Rules (두음법칙) - Historical change (not important)

There are specific rules for the initial sound of the first syllable of a word Pronunciation conforms to these rules, so does the spelling (‘Head-sound’ means the initial sound of the first syllable of a word.)

[Rule 1] ‘ㄴ’ followed by ‘ㅣ’ cannot be a head-sound

This ‘ㄴ’ becomes mute (‘ㅇ’)

<보기> 녀자 ▶ 여자 (woman)

뉴대 ▶ 유대 (relation)

[Rule 2] ‘ㄹ’ cannot be a head-sound

If ‘ㅣ’ follows this ‘ㄹ’, it becomes mute (‘ㅇ’), otherwise it becomes ‘ㄴ’

<보기> 량심 ▶ 양심 (conscience)

[Rule 3] Double consonant cannot be a head-sound

You separate the consonants using ‘ㅡ’

<보기> Chirstmas ▶ ㅋ리ㅅ마ㅅ ▶ 크리스마스

strike ▶ ㅅㅌ라이ㅋ ▶ 스트라이크[Exceptions to Rule 1 & 2] Rule 1 and 2 do not apply to adopted foreign words

<보기> 라디오 (radio), 라면, 뉴스 (news)

Part II Basic Grammar

Chapter 4 Parts of Speech

품사 Parts of Speech

Parts of speech are the types of words classified according to their commonness from the grammar

perspective There are 8 parts of speech in English: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition,

conjunction and interjection In Korean there are 9 parts of speech: noun, pronoun, numeral, verb,

adjective, postposition, pre-noun, adverb, and interjection

(의존명사)

Noun that cannot be used without a preceding pre-noun or noun

Words that indicate and replace nouns

Type Description example Personal Pronoun

(인칭대명사) Indicates a person: the first person, the second

person, the third person

Words that usually express emotion and are capable of being used by itself independently

Substantives (체언) and Inflectional Words (용언)

Substantives are the words that can take a role of a body supported by a postposition in a sentence

Nouns, Pronouns and Numberals are substantives

Inflectional words are the words that have independent meanings and can be used as a predicate in

a sentence Verbs, Adjectives and Predicate Postpositions are inflectional words

Chapter 5 Sentence Structure

문장 구조

1 Basic Format of a Korean Sentence with the Main Components

* Pre-nounal, adverbial, and independent components are not shown in this diagram

Part of speech is a class of a word determined by the nature of a word itself before being used, but when the word is used in a sentence, it is assigned its function as a component of the sentence For example nouns need appropriate postpositions to become a component of a sentence, and inflectional words need appropriate suffixes The components are subject, object, predicate, complement, pre- nounal component, adverbial component, and independent component The subject and the predicate are essential to form a sentence (even though subject is often omitted)

[Rule 1] The order of the sentence components is as above

[Rule 2] Subject, object and complement are granted the roles by a postposition

[Rule 3] There are 3 cases for the predicate (all with appropriate inflection):

(Don’t get confused with English where only verbs can be a predicate.)

i) A verb can be a predicate with a closing suffix

Subject Object Predicate

ii) An adjective can be a predicate with a closing suffix

[보기] 날씨가 좋습니다. The weather is nice

서술어 Predicate

[Rule 5] Complement is used only for the incomplete predicates, ‘되다’ and ‘아니다’

Subject Complement Predicate

[Rule 6] Subject is often omitted (in imperative sentences and in the colloquial language)

A pre-nounal component modifies a substansive (noun/pronoun/numeral)

[보기] 그는 아름다운 경치를 좋아한다. He likes a beautiful scene

Subject P.N.C Object Predicate

6) Adverbial Component (부사어)

An adverbial component modifies the predicate, a pre-nounal component, another adverbial component or the entire sentence (Possible combinations: substansive + postposition, inflectional word with a suffix, and an adverb)

[보기] 어제는 눈이 많이 왔습니다. We had a lot of snow yesterday

Adverb Subject A.C Predicate

7) Independent Component (독립어)

An independent component is used independently of other components in the sentence

[보기] 아, 드디어 여름이구나. Oh, finally it’s summer!

I.C A.C Predicate

3 Suffixes for Predicate

Suffixes for a predicate assigns the attitude class (politeness and formality) and the tense

(past-present-future), and indicate the type of the sentence (interrogative sentence, imperative sentence,

Postpositions are attached to compose a component out of a bare word Refer to the separate

Chapter for Postpositions

Spacing Rule for Writing (띄어 쓰기 원칙)

You must have a space between any two independent words, except

‘Words’ above mean any of the 9 parts of speech

Suffixes and prefixes are not ‘words’

[보기] 나는 사과를 좋아합니다.

pronoun noun verb

postposition

Chapter 6 Inflectional Words

용언

I Inflectional Words

Verbs, adjectives and predicate postpositions inflect when they are used in a sentence, and are called the inflectional words They have the following structure:

* There can be only 1 stem and 1 tail suffix used, but there can be multiple head-suffixes inserted

Inflectional words can be a predicate in a sentence:

i) A verb or an adjective can be a predicate if inflected with a closing suffix

Subject Object Predicate

ii) A noun plus predicate postposition (‘-이다’) can also be a predicate of a sentence

III Fundamental Form & Fundamental Suffix (기본형과 기본형 어미)

A fundamental form is the original form of a verb or an adjective that is composed of the stem of the word and the fundamental suffix ‘-다‘ A fundamental form implies no role of the word as a sentence component such as tense, attitude or the predicate type

[보기] 하다 = 하(stem) + 다(fundamental suffix) to do

공부하다 = 공부하(stem) + 다(fundamental suffix) to study

아름답다 = 아름답(stem) + 다(fundamental suffix) beautiful

IV Tail-Suffix (어말어미)

Tail-Suffix is the ending part of a verb or an adjective, and it decides many important roles of the word in the sentence such as tense, attitude and the predicate type Inflectional words are verbs, adjectives and predicate postpositions

In a sentence, a verb or an adjective must be inflected with a proper suffix to be a component of the sentence For that, the fundamental suffix ‘-다’ is replaced by an appropriate tail-suffix, or a

Head-SUFFIX

(Tail-) SUFFIX

1) Closing Suffix (종결어미)

Closing suffixes are used for an inflection to finish the sentence

There are different types of closing suffixes as in the following table:

Type Suffixes example

Normal

(평서형)

statement

-ㅂ니다/습니다[FP], -지[IC], -지요/죠[IP], -(ㄴ)다[C], -아/어[IC], -아요/어요[IP], -(ㄴ)데(요)[IC(IP)], -(ㄴ)대(요)[IC(IP)],

-렷다[IC], -오/소[IP], -느니라[IC],

-네요[IP], -네[C], -마[IC]

합니다, 했습니다, 했어요, 했소, 했다,

했어, 좋지, 했네요,

했네, 했느니라,

하마, 좋은데요, 좋대요

Interrogative

(의문형)

question

-ㅂ니까/습니까[FP], -(으)ㄴ가요[IP], -아/어[IC], -아요/어요[IP], -던가[FC], -지[IC], -지요/죠[IP], -나[C], -나요[IP],

-(으)ㄴ가/는가[FC], -(으)니[IC], -려나[FC],

했습니까, 했어요, 여기인가요, 했나요,여기인가, 여기죠,

했나, 했을까, 했어,

했니, 그럴까요, 했느냐

Imperative

(명령형)

instruction

-십시오[FP], -아/어[IC], -아요/어요[IP], -지요/죠[IP], -라/아라/어라/여라[IC],

* Bold face attitude means a frequently used one, and Italic means old fashioned

[Note] -(으)세요[IP]: A closing suffix transformed from –(으+)시+어요 = -(으)셔요

This suffix can be used as a normal, an interrogative, or an imperative closing suffix

[보기] 그 분은 참 친절하세요 (normal) 안녕하세요? (interrogative) 드세요 (imperative)

2) Connection Suffix (연결어미)

Connection suffixes are used for an inflection to connect the sentence to another sentence or a

word, without finishing the sentence

There are different types of connection suffixes as in the following table:

Equivalent

(대등적 연결)

-고, -며, -나, -지만, -거나, -든지, -거니, -느니, -면서, -ㄴ데, -되

-러, -려, -게, -도록, -아도/어도, -더라도

봄이 오니까 날씨가 따뜻하다

Since spring has come, we have a warm weather

There are different types of transmutation suffixes as in the following table:

Head-suffixes can be inserted into the front part of the suffix to indicate the attitude (towards the

subject of the sentence) and the tense

1) Honorific Head-Suffix (존칭 선행어미): -시-

The head-suffix ‘시’ elevates the attitude towards the person whom you are talking about (typically

the subject of the sentence) This is done independently of the attitude elevation towards the

[보기] 할아버지께서 영화를 보신다. Grandfather watches a movie

보다 = 보(stem) + 다(fundamental suffix) verb: to see ▶ 보(stem) + 시(honorific head-suffix) + ㄴ(tense head-suffix) + 다(tail-suffix)

[보기] 저희 할머니는 아주 친절하십니다. My grandmother is very kind

친절하다 = 친절하(stem) +다(fundamental suffix) adjective: kind/friendly ▶ 친절하(stem) + 시(honorific head-suffix) + ㅂ니다(tail-suffix)

We saw a movie yesterday

Present (현재) -ㄴ/는- * 나는 매일 많이 걷는다 I walk a lot everyday

I will do my homework this evening

* The present tense head-suffix is used only for verbs with some tail-suffixes such as ‘-다’ (normal) or ‘-가’ (interrogative) For many other cases, the closing tail-suffix itself indicates the present unless there’s a past or future tense head-suffix attached

Exercises

1 Inflect the following verbs as indicated:

가다 to go

▶ 선생님이 지금 학교에 _ + +

stem honorific head-suffix normal closing tail-suffix [FP]

▷ 선생님이 지금 학교에 Teacher is going to school now

먹다 to eat

▶ 아침에 밥을 많이 _ + _ +

stem past-tense head-suffix normal closing tail-suffix [FP]

▷ 아침에 밥을 많이 I had a big breakfast this morning

2 Inflect the following adjectives as indicated:

Chapter 7 Supplementary Inflectional Words

보조용언

1 Definition

Supplementary inflectional words are the inflectional words that cannot be independently used as predicate

of a sentence, and they are used after the main inflectional word If there are two inflectional words used in the predicate of a sentence, the first word is the main inflectional word (본용언) and the second one is the supplementary inflectional word (보조용언) The supplementary inflectional word is used to express status, completion, negation, duty, necessity, inability, supposition, desire and etc

2 Usage

A main inflectional word and a supplementary inflectional word can be used as the format below:

Main Inflectional Word Supplementary Inflectional Word

Head-Supplementary Connection Tail-Suffix + Supplementary Stem of

Inflectional Word

Suffix Suffix Tail-

Head-[Format 4] Main Adjective + Supplementary Adjective

본형용사 보조형용사

<보기> 길이 넓기는 하다

M-Adj S-Adj

3 Supplementary Inflectional Words List

There are supplementary verbs and supplementary adjectives as follows:

Exercises

Complete the sentence using the main inflectional word and the supplementary inflectional word given below:

1 Main Verb: 말하다 (to sleep) Supplementary Verb: 못하다 [inability]

I could not tell the fact

stem suppl con tail-s stem past head-s normal closing tail-s [FP]

▷ 나는 그 사실을 _ _

2 Main Verb: 가다 (to go) Supplementary Verb: 있다 [progress]

Yes, I am coming now [I’m on my way]

예, 지금 + 고 _ + _

stem suppl con tail-s stem normal closing tail-s [FP]

▷ 예, 지금 _ _

3 Main Verb: 보이다 (to show) Supplementary Verb: 드리다 [service]

I’ll show you my family pictures

stem suppl con tail-s stem future head-s normal closing tail-s [FP]

4 Main Adjective: 피곤하다 (tired) Supplementary Verb: 보이다 [inference]

You look tired today

stem suppl con tail-s stem normal closing tail-s [FP]