Learning Korean (한국어 배우기) [COMPLETE]

Unit 1.3 - Korean Verbs/Adj (2)

의 Possessive Particle

You already know that 'I' in Korean is 저/나. You also know the translation for various objects in Korean.

"의" (eui) is a particle that indicates that one is the owner/possessor of another object. It has the same role as "apostrophe s" in English

For example:

저 = I
책 = book
저의 책 = my book

그 사람의 차 = That person's car
의사의 탁자 = The doctor's table
선생님의 펜 = the teacher's pen

You can use these words in sentences you are familiar with (with verbs and adjectives):

선생님의 차는 크다 = The teacher's car is big
(선생님의 차는 커 / 선생님의 차는 커요)

그 여자의 눈은 아름답다 = That woman's eyes are beautiful
(그 여자의 눈은 아름다워 / 그 여자의 눈은 아름다워요)

You will find that words like "my/our/their/his/her" are often omitted from sentences. As you will learn continuously throughout your Korean studies, Korean people love shortening their sentences wherever possible. Whenever something can be assumed by context, words are often omitted from sentences to make them more simple.

For example:

나는 나의 친구를 만나다 = I meet my friend
(나는 나의 친구를 만나 / 저는 저의 친구를 만나요)

Can be written as the following:

나는 친구를 만나다 = I meet (my/a) friend
(나는 친구를 만나 / 저는 친구를 만나요)

In this case (and many others like it) you are clearly meeting "your" friend, so the word "my" can be omitted from the sentence.

Always try to stay away from translating sentences directly, and try to focus more on translating sentences based on context as done above.

좋다 and 좋아하다

The word 좋다 in Korean is an adjective that means "good." Because 좋다 is an adjective we can use it just like any other adjective:

이 학교는 좋다 = This school is good
(이 학교는 좋아 / 이 학교는 좋아요)

There is also 좋아하다 which is a verb meaning 'to like.' Because 좋아하다 is a verb, can use it just like any other verb:

나는 이 음식을 좋아하다 = I like this food
(나는 이 음식을 좋아해 / 저는 이 음식을 좋아해요)

나는 그 선생님을 좋아하다 = I like that teacher
(나는 그 선생님을 좋아해 / 저는 그 선생님을 좋아해요)

좋아하다 gets formed by removing '다' from 좋다and adding 아 + 하다.

But instead of 좋아하다, Koreans say 좋다 and use 이/가 instead of 을/를:
나는 그 선생님이 좋다 = I like that teacher
(나는 그 선생님이 좋아 / 저는 그 선생님이 좋아요)

We, Us, and Our (우리 ~ oo-ree)

In English, even though they are technically the same word, the usage of "us" or "we" depends on its location within the sentence it is used in. Just like "I" and "me", if the word is the subject of a sentence, "we" is used. For example:

I like you
We like you

However, if the word is the object in a sentence, the word "us" is used. For example:

He likes me
He likes us

In Korean, they don't make this distinction, and "우리" is used in both situations. For example:

우리는 선생님을 좋아하다 = We like you
(우리는 선생님을 좋아해 / 우리는 선생님을 좋아해요)

선생님은 우리를 좋아하다 = The teacher likes us
(선생님은 우리를 좋아해 / 선생님은 우리를 좋아해요)

By placing the possessive particle "의" after "우리" we can create the meaning of "our". While this can be done, I feel it is much more common to omit this particle when it is used with "우리." In fact, the particle "의" is very commonly omitted from words other than "우리" as well. However, I don't suggest thinking about doing this until you have a better grasp of the language. At this point, I only suggest that you do this with "우리."

For example:

우리 선생님은 남자다 = Our teacher is a man
(우리 선생님은 남자야 | 우리 선생님은 남자예요)

우리 집은 크다 = Our house is big
(우리 집은 커 | 우리 집은 커요)

A formal version of "우리" is "저희". However, even in formal situations it is acceptable to use "우리".