I think now’s a good time to go over directional particles.  Let’s look at the particle ro (로) and uro (으로).  If I want to say, “towards the school” all I have to do is add the ro (로) particle to the noun “school”.  The noun for school in Korean is hakkyo (학교).  Add ro (로) to hakkyo (학교) and you get hakkyoro (학교로).  Whenever you add ro (로) or uro (으로) to a noun, it means “towards the _____”.  For example the noun for “class” is suop (수업).  The phrase “towards the class” is suopuro (수업으로). 

Unlike English, Korean does not have a “the” or “a” particle.  In sophisticated English terms, the Korean language does not have an indefinite and definite article.  This is good, because that means you don’t have to worry about it!  Another thing to keep in mind is that depending on whether the last character is a consonant or vowel, you’ll use uro (으로) or ro (로) accordingly.  If the noun ends in a vowel you have to use ro (로).  When it ends in a consonant you use uro (으로). 

The only exception is the consonant ㄹ.  When the noun ends in ㄹ such as the word kyoshil (교실), you add ro (로).  Kyoshil (교실) means “classroom” in Korean.  Even though ㄹ is a consonant, it’s a special case so you would use the ro (로) ending.  The reason for why ㄹ is a special case has to do with phonetics.  If you want to say “towards the classroom” and add the uro (으로) ending, it would be hard to pronounce.  It’s much easier to pronounce “towards the classroom” with the ro (로) ending.  Try it for yourself: kyoshilro (교실로) versus kyoshiluro (교실으로).

Alright folks, that’s it for today!