Archive for April, 2010
The Progressive Posted by Ginny on Apr 29, 2010
In English, the present progressive is expressed by adding -ing. In Korean, the gerund is expressed by the construction ~고 있다. 변호사들이 서류를 준비하고 있어요 = The lawyers are preparing the documents (변호사 = lawyer. 들 = plural marker. 이 = subject marker. 서류 = document. 를 = object marker. 준비하고 있어요 = preparing) The…
Kim Yuna Posted by Ginny on Apr 26, 2010
This month, the International Skating Union ranked Kim Yuna (김연아) the number one skater in the world. This is an impressive feat, considering that she is only 19 years old. In February of this year, she competed in the Winter Olympics and won a gold medal. Not only is she a famous teenager, she’s a…
Giving/Denying/Asking Permission Posted by Ginny on Apr 23, 2010
To ask for permission use a verb + 도 + 되다 with a rising intonation : 여기 앉아도 돼요? = Can I sit here? or Am I allowed to sit here? (여기 = here. 앉아 = sit. 도 돼요 = can I/am I allowed.) The verb used here was 앉다 or “to sit”. Since 앉다 uses an…
Should/Have To/Must Posted by Ginny on Apr 20, 2010
~어/아야 되다 can be used to express should/must/have : 도와야 돼요 = I have to/should/must help (verb is 돕다 = to help. This is a irregular ㅂ ending verb so it’ll change to 도와. 되다 will change to 돼요.) You can also use ~어/아야 하다 to express should/must/have : 우리 서둘러야 해요 = We must/should/have to hurry (우리 =…
Spring Festivities in South Korea Posted by Ginny on Apr 17, 2010
The Cornus Fruit Festival in 인천 is a beautiful festival that highlights cornus fruit trees. The trees tend to bloom in the spring and from far away, it looks as though the area is covered in a sea of gold leaves. Some of the trees are actually hundreds of years old. Tourists are allowed to walk…
Don’t Want To/Don’t like to/Hate… Posted by Ginny on Apr 14, 2010
In the previous post, we talked about expressing our desires. In this post, we’ll be talking about the opposite. 울고 싶지 않아요 = I don’t want to cry. As you can see in the example above, the grammatical construction for “don’t want to…” is ~고 싶지 않아요. The verb “to cry” is 울다, so to…
Expressing Desire Posted by Ginny on Apr 11, 2010
When expressing desire in the first person, use the construction ~고 싶다. 김치를 먹고 싶어요 = I want to eat kimchee. (김치 = kimchee. 를 = object marking particle. 먹고 싶어요 = want to eat) In the third person, use the construction ~고 싶어하다. 민지는 여행가고 싶어해요 = Minji wants to travel. (민지 = Minji. 는 =…