Learning Korean (한국어 배우기) [COMPLETE]

Unit 1.1 - Basic Korean (2)

This and That (이/그/저)

That ~ 그
That (when something is far away) ~ 저
This ~ 이

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. Just like in English "이" is placed before the noun it is describing. For example:

이 사람 = This person
이 의자 = This chair

Unfortunately, there are two words for "that": 그 and 저. Early learners are always confused with the difference between them

We use 그 when we are talking about something from a previous sentence or from previous context, regardless of if you could see it or not.
For example:
That man yesterday (어제 그 사람)

We use 저 when we are talking about something that we can see, but cannot touch because it is too far away.

We can place "그" or "저" before a noun to describe "this" or "that" thing just like we did with "이."

이 사람 = This person
그 사람 = That person
저 사람 = That person

이 의자 = This chair
그 의자 = That chair
저 의자 = That chair

Again, although the English translations of "그" and "저" are the same, it is important to remember that they are not the same word in Korean.

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Thing ~ 것 (geot)

This (thing) ~ 이것
That (thing) ~ 저것
That (thing) ~ 그것

것 is often shorted to 거 in speech. 이거. 저거. 그거

Notes: When 이, 그 or 저 are placed before "것," the result is a compound word. Therefore, when placing "것" after 이, 그 or 저, there should not be a space between the two.

Although it can be translated as "that thing," 그것 itself is a pronoun and can be simplified to translate to "that."

For Examples:
저는 그것을 손으로 만들었어요 = I built that with my hands

We see this same thing happens with other common words. We see this same thing happen with the word 곳 (got ~ place) and 때 (dde ~ time).

With these words, the word "thing" isn't necessary in the English translation.

"That" can be placed before a noun to describe it. As we saw earlier:

That person

However, it can also be a noun itself. For example:

I like that

In this type of English sentence, "that" is referring to some thing that you like. It is a noun. It is a thing.

Therefore, the sentence could just as easily be said as:

I like that thing

In both English and Korean, "that" can be a determiner (as in, "I like that man"), and it can also be a pronoun (as in "I like that"). When used as a determiner in Korean, you should place 그 before a noun. When used as a pronoun in Korean, the word 그것 is used.

In this same respect, while "이, 그 and 저" translate to "this, that and that" respectively, and are placed before nouns to indicate "this noun, that noun and that noun," "이것, 그것 and 저것" are nouns.
Therefore, they don't need to be followed by the word "thing," although their meanings would be exactly the same:

I like this
I like this thing

I like that
I like that thing

We can now use these nouns as subjects or objects in a sentence.

Using This/That with 이다

Remember, 이다 translates to "to be" and is conjugated as "am/is/are" in English. Now that we know how to use 이, 그 and 저, we can now make sentences like this:

That person is a doctor
We can start by putting those words into the Korean structure:

That person는 doctor is

And then changing the English words to the appropriate Korean words:

그 사람은 + 의사 + 이다
그 사람은 의사다
(그 사람은 의사야 / 그 사람은 의사예요)

More examples:

그 사람은 선생님이다 = That person is a teacher
(그 사람은 선생님이야 / 그 사람은 선생님이에요)

이것은 침대다 = This (thing) is a bed
(이것은 침대야 / 이것은 침대예요)

저것은 나무다 = This (thing) is a tree
(저것은 나무야 / 저것은 나무예요)

Before you move on, make sure you understand the simple Korean sentence structure presented in this first lesson. Ask anything anytime, either message or comment ^-^