Korean for Dummies

Free Korean for Dummies by Wang. Jungwook.; Lee Hong Page A

Book: Korean for Dummies by Wang. Jungwook.; Lee Hong Read Free Book Online
Authors: Wang. Jungwook.; Lee Hong
subject, and the conjugated form of the adjective placed at the end of the sentence. If you want to say “the apple is red,” in Korean, all you have to say is sagwaga ppalgaeyo ( sa-gwa-ga ppalgae-yo ) “apple red.”
    Suffixes
    Enhancing verbs and adjectives with suffixes is a lot like changing tenses because all you are doing is adding an additional suffix to an informal polite or dictionary stem. And, if you learn how to enhance verbs by using suffixes, you can use the same suffixes to a wide range of adjectives and verbs. Hence, your range of expression increases extremely quickly.
    In Table 2-2, I use English nouns (refer to “Making Korean verbs with English verbs and adjectives,” earlier in this chapter) so you focus more on how the suffixes are used. Also, I write the endings of the suffixes in dictionary form so you can conjugate to whichever tense or form of politeness you need. And for suffixes that require minor changes according to whether the stem ends in a consonant or in a vowel, I first write the form of the suffix that comes after a consonant and then the one that comes after a vowel.
    One final thing to remember is that you can “stack” suffixes. For example, you can add the suffix eul geosida ( eul-guh-shi-da )/ reul geosida ( reul-guh-shi-da )
    “to probably be” and eul suitda ( eul-soo-it-da )/ reul suitda ( reul-soo-it-da )
    “can” on the verb “eat” to get meogeulsu isseul geosida ( muh-geul-boo-ee-sseul-guh-shi-da ) “can probably eat.” So if you think that someone is using more than one suffix, you are most likely right.
    Adverbs
    You don’t need to worry about conjugating adverbs or worry about tinkering around with stems. Adverbs don’t conjugate.
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Part 1: Getting Started
38
    There are largely two types of adverbs in Korean. The first is the type of adverbs that are meant to modify the sentence as a whole such as accordingly, also, besides, however, and hence. These adverbs are placed at the beginning of a sentence of phrase. The other type of adverbs are those that that modify the adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs of a sentence or phrase.
    A few examples are very, less, more, sometimes, and often. Although some of these adverbs can be placed almost anywhere within a sentence or a phrase, the safest way to use adverbs is to place them immediately to the left of the word they modify.
    Two adverbs that are important are mot ( mot; can’t) and an ( an; won’t). mot and an implies that the subject of the sentence, usually the speaker, cannot do or be something. Both mot and an are placed to the immediate left of the verb or adjective they modify, and neither of them can be used to modify other adverbs.
    mot, can only be used with verbs and implies that the speaker cannot do something.
    For example: jeoneun gimchireul mot meogeoyo ( juh-neun gim-chi-reul mot muh-guh-yo; I can’t eat Kimchee). gimchi alleojiga iseoyo ( gim-chi al-luh-ji-ga it-ssuh-yo; I have Kimchee allergies).
    an, when used with a verb, means that you choose not to do something.
    For example: adamssineun gogireul an meogeoyo ( a-dam-sshi-neun go-gee-reul an-muh-guh-yo; Adam won’t eat meat), chaesikjuuijaeyo ( chae-shik joo-ui-ja-ae-yo; He’s a vegetarian).
    an, can also be used with adjectives to mean that the thing spoken about does not have the quality of the adjective.
    For example: gimchiga an maewoyo ( gim-chi-ga an mae-wo-yo; The Kimchee isn’t spicy).
    Particles
    In Korean, the basic word order is subject-object-verb (refer to “Knowing the Basic Parts of Speech,” earlier in this chapter), but in most cases, even object-subject-verb is fine so long as the verb stays at the end of the sentence. If we were to say, Eric drinks juice, in Korean we could say Eric juice drinks, or juice Eric drinks. But you can immediately see a problem: How do you know what is being drunk and whot is doing the drinking?
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