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This lesson will have 30 words. Most lessons will have 100 words. We know you are just getting started so we don’t want to overwhelm you from the very first lesson! That being said – This lesson is pretty heavy in grammar. I am aware of that. It is essential that you understand the basics of Korean grammar before you move on.

The vocabulary is separated into nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs for the purpose of simplicity:

Nouns:
한국 = Korea
도시 = city
이름 = name
저 = I
나 = I
남자 = man
여자 = woman
그 = that
이 = this
저 = that (when object is far away)
것 = thing
의자 = chair
탁자 = table
선생님 = teacher
침대 = bed
집 = house
차 = car
사람 = person
책 = book
컴퓨터 = computer
나무 = tree
소파 = sofa
중국 = China
일본 = Japan
문 = door
의사 = doctor

Verbs:
이다 = to be (acts like an adjective)

Adverbs:
안 = not

Other:
네 = yes

When learning a language, people always want to learn “hello,” “please,” “how are you” and “thank you” first. I know that. I know that you will be dying to know, so I will show you:

안녕하세요 = hello
감사하다 = thank you

(Korean people don’t really say “please” and “how are you.” It’s not that they aren’t polite; they just have a different way of expressing these words. You will learn these a few lessons later).
It is, of course, important for you to memorize “hello” and “thank you” in Korean, but you need to know that there is a reason why they are said that way. For now, don’t worry about why they are said that way, and simply memorize them. We will get back to them in a later lesson.

Sentence Word Order

One of the hardest things to wrap your head around in Korean is the alien-like sentence structure. Essentially, Korean sentences are written in the following order:

Subject – Object – Verb (I hamburger eat)
Or
Subject – Adjective (I beautiful)

It is incredibly important that you understand this from the very beginning. Every Korean sentence MUST end in either a verb (like eat, sleep or walk) or an adjective (like beautiful, pretty, and delicious). This rule is so important that I’m going to say it again: Every Korean sentence MUST end in either a verb or adjective.

In addition to this sentence structure, most words in a sentence have a particle (a fancy word to say ‘something’) attached to them. These particles indicate the role of each word in a sentence. The following are the most common particles:

는 or 은 = goes after the subject of a sentence
Use 는 when the last letter of the last syllable is a vowel: 나 = 나는/저 = 저는
Use은 when the last letter of the last syllable is a consonant: 집 = 집은/책 = 책은

를 or 을 = goes after the object of a sentence
Use 를 when the last letter of the last syllable is a vowel: 나 = 나를/저 = 저를
Use을 when the last letter of the last syllable is a consonant: 집 = 집을/책 = 책을

에 = goes after the time and/or location indicated in a sentence

It is hard to translate these into English, but if I were to write the following sentence:
I ate hamburgers at 3pm.
The word at in the sentence is essentially what 에 is doing in a Korean sentence.
If I were to write that same sentence using Korean structure and particles, it would look like this:
I는   hamburgers를     3pm에     ate

Let’s try some more:
I speak Korean = I는 Korean를 speak
I went to the park = I 는 park에 went

To be: 이다

Now its time to learn how to make an actual sentence using the word ‘be.’ English speakers often don’t realize how difficult the word ‘be’ is in English. Look at the following examples:

I am a man
He is a man
They are men

In each of those sentences, the word ‘be’ is represented by a different word (is/am/are) depending on who is the subject of the sentence. Luckily, in Korean, the same word is used to represent is, am and are. This word is 이다

The hard part about 이다 is that it is not a verb. It is not an adjective either, but it acts like one. I always thought that ‘be’ was a verb in English but maybe it is not. I don’t know because I’m not an English teacher. In any event, 이다 is not verb in Korean… nor is it an adjective. However, it acts as an adjective.

Why is this important? I don’t want to teach you all about English grammar here, but this one thing needs to be said: Sentences with adjectives do not have objects in them. Only sentences with verbs have objects. Lets look at some examples:

I eat hamburgers (eat is a verb, the object is a hamburger)
I meet my friend (meet is a verb, the object is my friend)
I study Korean (study is a verb, the object is Korean)
I listen to music (listen is a verb, the object is music)

All of those sentences have objects because there is a verb in the sentence. Instead, if I were to say sentences with adjectives:

I am pretty

I am beautiful
I am hungry
I am smart

Notice that there is never an object in a sentence with an adjective (unless you want to say “I ate a delicious hamburger” – but that will come in a later lesson).

Okay, let’s see if we can do this. Remember, 이다 is an adjective:

I am a man – in Korean structure is:
I는 man am. Now use the words provided above for “man,” “I” and “am”

저 = I
남자 = man
이다 = am/is/are/(to be)

저는 남자이다 = I am a man

저는 여자이다 = I am a woman
저는 선생님이다 = I am a teacher
저는 ______이다 = I am a _______
You can substitute any noun into the blank space to make these sentences.

That ___/This_____

You can see in the vocabulary above that the word for “this” is 이 in Korean.
We use 이 in Korean when we are talking about something that is within touching distance (this pen – i.e. the one I am holding)

The words for “that” are 그 and 저. We use 그 when we are talking about something from a previous sentence (I don’t like that man [when your friend mentioned him in a previous sentence]. We use 저 when were are talking about something that we cannot touch because it is too far away.

Using these is very simple and is just like English:
That person = 저 사람
This person = 이 사람
That man = 저 남자
That woman = 저 여자
That thing = 저 것

Using This/That with 이다

Remember, 이다 can be used to say am/is/are. So, if we want to say this:

That person is a doctor
That person는 doctor is
그 사람은 의사이다

그 사람은 선생님이다 = that person is a teacher
이 것은 탁자이다 = this thing is a table
저 것은 침대이다 = that thing is a bed
그 사람은 남자이다 = that person is a man
그 사람은 여자이다 = that person is a woman

Wow! That was an extremely difficult lesson. If you were to pick up another Korean text book, I am sure the first chapter would be much easier than this. Trust me though; learning this at the start will be very useful to you later on. When I was learning how to speak Korean, it took me months to realize some of these things (not because they were hard, but because I was using a text book that never taught me the reason why things the way they are in Korean).

This lesson will have 30 words. Most lessons will have 100 words. We know you are just getting started so we don’t want to overwhelm you from the very first lesson! That being said – This lesson is pretty heavy in grammar. I am aware of that. It is essential that you understand the basics of Korean grammar before you move on.

The vocabulary is separated into nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs for the purpose of simplicity:

Nouns:
한국 = Korea
도시 = city
이름 = name
저 = I
나 = I
남자 = man
여자 = woman
그 = that
이 = this
저 = that (when object is far away)
것 = thing
의자 = chair
탁자 = table
선생님 = teacher
침대 = bed
집 = house
차 = car
사람 = person
책 = book
컴퓨터 = computer
나무 = tree
소파 = sofa
중국 = China
일본 = Japan
문 = door
의사 = doctor

Verbs:
이다 = to be (acts like an adjective)

Adverbs:
안 = not

Other:
네 = yes

When learning a language, people always want to learn “hello,” “please,” “how are you” and “thank you” first. I know that. I know that you will be dying to know, so I will show you:

안녕하세요 = hello
감사하다 = thank you

(Korean people don’t really say “please” and “how are you.” It’s not that they aren’t polite; they just have a different way of expressing these words. You will learn these a few lessons later).
It is, of course, important for you to memorize “hello” and “thank you” in Korean, but you need to know that there is a reason why they are said that way. For now, don’t worry about why they are said that way, and simply memorize them. We will get back to them in a later lesson.

Sentence Word Order

One of the hardest things to wrap your head around in Korean is the alien-like sentence structure. Essentially, Korean sentences are written in the following order:

Subject – Object – Verb (I hamburger eat)
Or
Subject – Adjective (I beautiful)

It is incredibly important that you understand this from the very beginning. Every Korean sentence MUST end in either a verb (like eat, sleep or walk) or an adjective (like beautiful, pretty, and delicious). This rule is so important that I’m going to say it again: Every Korean sentence MUST end in either a verb or adjective.

In addition to this sentence structure, most words in a sentence have a particle (a fancy word to say ‘something’) attached to them. These particles indicate the role of each word in a sentence. The following are the most common particles:

는 or 은 = goes after the subject of a sentence
Use 는 when the last letter of the last syllable is a vowel: 나 = 나는/저 = 저는
Use은 when the last letter of the last syllable is a consonant: 집 = 집은/책 = 책은

를 or 을 = goes after the object of a sentence
Use 를 when the last letter of the last syllable is a vowel: 나 = 나를/저 = 저를
Use을 when the last letter of the last syllable is a consonant: 집 = 집을/책 = 책을

에 = goes after the time and/or location indicated in a sentence

It is hard to translate these into English, but if I were to write the following sentence:
I ate hamburgers at 3pm.
The word at in the sentence is essentially what 에 is doing in a Korean sentence.
If I were to write that same sentence using Korean structure and particles, it would look like this:
I는   hamburgers를     3pm에     ate

Let’s try some more:
I speak Korean = I는 Korean를 speak
I went to the park = I 는 park에 went

To be: 이다

Now its time to learn how to make an actual sentence using the word ‘be.’ English speakers often don’t realize how difficult the word ‘be’ is in English. Look at the following examples:

I am a man
He is a man
They are men

In each of those sentences, the word ‘be’ is represented by a different word (is/am/are) depending on who is the subject of the sentence. Luckily, in Korean, the same word is used to represent is, am and are. This word is 이다

The hard part about 이다 is that it is not a verb. It is not an adjective either, but it acts like one. I always thought that ‘be’ was a verb in English but maybe it is not. I don’t know because I’m not an English teacher. In any event, 이다 is not verb in Korean… nor is it an adjective. However, it acts as an adjective.

Why is this important? I don’t want to teach you all about English grammar here, but this one thing needs to be said: Sentences with adjectives do not have objects in them. Only sentences with verbs have objects. Lets look at some examples:

I eat hamburgers (eat is a verb, the object is a hamburger)
I meet my friend (meet is a verb, the object is my friend)
I study Korean (study is a verb, the object is Korean)
I listen to music (listen is a verb, the object is music)

All of those sentences have objects because there is a verb in the sentence. Instead, if I were to say sentences with adjectives:

I am pretty

I am beautiful
I am hungry
I am smart

Notice that there is never an object in a sentence with an adjective (unless you want to say “I ate a delicious hamburger” – but that will come in a later lesson).

Okay, let’s see if we can do this. Remember, 이다 is an adjective:

I am a man – in Korean structure is:
I는 man am. Now use the words provided above for “man,” “I” and “am”

저 = I
남자 = man
이다 = am/is/are/(to be)

저는 남자이다 = I am a man

저는 여자이다 = I am a woman
저는 선생님이다 = I am a teacher
저는 ______이다 = I am a _______
You can substitute any noun into the blank space to make these sentences.

That ___/This_____

You can see in the vocabulary above that the word for “this” is 이 in Korean.
We use 이 in Korean when we are talking about something that is within touching distance (this pen – i.e. the one I am holding)

The words for “that” are 그 and 저. We use 그 when we are talking about something from a previous sentence (I don’t like that man [when your friend mentioned him in a previous sentence]. We use 저 when were are talking about something that we cannot touch because it is too far away.

Using these is very simple and is just like English:
That person = 저 사람
This person = 이 사람
That man = 저 남자
That woman = 저 여자
That thing = 저 것

Using This/That with 이다

Remember, 이다 can be used to say am/is/are. So, if we want to say this:

That person is a doctor
That person는 doctor is
그 사람은 의사이다

그 사람은 선생님이다 = that person is a teacher
이 것은 탁자이다 = this thing is a table
저 것은 침대이다 = that thing is a bed
그 사람은 남자이다 = that person is a man
그 사람은 여자이다 = that person is a woman

Wow! That was an extremely difficult lesson. If you were to pick up another Korean text book, I am sure the first chapter would be much easier than this. Trust me though; learning this at the start will be very useful to you later on. When I was learning how to speak Korean, it took me months to realize some of these things (not because they were hard, but because I was using a text book that never taught me the reason why things the way they are in Korean).