도 Posted by Ginny on Feb 22, 2010
There are many subtles uses of 도, which we will explore in today’s lesson. One of the uses of 도 is to use it to mean “also” or “too” 한국어도 공부했어요 (한국어 = Korean language. 도 = also. 공부했어요 = past tense of 공부하다 = to study) In English, this would mean, “I also studied Korean”. 도…
Traditional Korean Dances Posted by Ginny on Feb 19, 2010
The 검무 is a famous, traditional Korean sword dance. The dance involves a prototype of a small sword with rings attached to the sword. When the sword moves about, the rings make a sound in conjunction with the rhythm of the dance. The 검무 gets its name from a boy named 검무 who lived in…
“Only” Posted by Ginny on Feb 16, 2010
To start this lesson off, let’s take a look some sentences: (1) 술을 마셨어요. (술 = alcohol. 을 = object marking particle. 마셨어요 = past tense of 마시다 = to drink) (2) 술만 마쎴어요. (술 = alcohol. 만 = only. 마쎴어요 = drank) The first sentence can be interpreted as, “[I] drank alcohol” while the…
The Year of the Tiger Posted by Ginny on Feb 13, 2010
This February 14th will be the start of the New Year according to the lunar calendar. Every year a different animal is assigned to the new year. This year it will be the year of the tiger, but more specifically the 백호 호랑이. The 백호 호랑이 is a white colored tiger, and currently extinct in…
Cannot/Won’t Posted by Ginny on Feb 10, 2010
For today’s post we’re going to look at the construction ~지 못하다 and ~지 않다. ~지 못하다 is used when you want to say you cannot do something, while ~지 않다 is used when you won’t do something. Let’s take a look at some sample sentences: 오늘 숙제를 못 해요. (오늘 = yesterday. 숙제 = homework. 를 = object…
Korean Alcohol Posted by Ginny on Feb 7, 2010
The most commonly known and consumed alcohol in Korea is 소주 (See post 10/25/2008 for more on 소주), but did you know that there are other varieties of alcohol in Korea? 약주 literally means “medicinal alcohol”. According to legend, there once was a woman who became sick after her husband’s death. She made herself some…
ㅅ Ending Words in the Past Tense Posted by Ginny on Feb 4, 2010
In the last post, we looked at ㅅ ending words in the present tense. Today we’ll look at ㅅ ending words in the past tense. The verb 짓다 (to build) in the past tense of the standard polite will be 지었어요. Drop the 다 and ㅅ of 짓다 and add 었어요 to form the past…