Learning Korean (한국어 배우기) [COMPLETE]

Unit 1.12 - Korean Particles (2)

Korean Particle ~만 (only)

The particle ~만 is very common and has the meaning of "only." It can be attached directly to the end of a noun to express "only (that noun)." For example:

나는 물만 마셔
= I only drink water

It can be attached to the subject or the object of a sentence, and in each case it replaces the particle that would normally be attached there (~은/는 or ~을/을) or For example:

나만 사과를 샀어
= Only I bought apples

나는 사과만 샀어
= I only bought apples

You could also stress that you only bought one apple (or any other number of things) by placing ~만 on a counter:

나는 사과 한 개만 샀어
= I only bought 1 apple

I said it once before in Lesson 3, but it is something that learners of Korean often forget: When a verb ends in 하다, the part before 하다 is usually a noun form of that verb:

성공하다 = succeed
성공 = success

말하다 = speak
말 = speech/words

성취하다 (seong-chui) = achieve
성취 = achievement

With these verbs, the part before 하다 can be separated from 하다 to make a noun form of that verb. Then, "하다," meaning "do" can act on that noun (I do study = I study). It is hard to explain, but look at the following example:

나는 공부했어 = I studied
나는 공부를 했어 = I studied

Those two mean exactly the same thing, even though in the second example, 공부 is used as a stand-alone noun. But why is all of this important? It is important because now you can treat 공부 as a regular noun, which means you can attach 만 to it:

저는 공부만 했어요
= I only studied

Note that just because a word ends in 하다, doesn't mean you can do this. For example, many adjectives end in 하다 (for example: 행복하다: happy), but this:

저는 행복만 해요 = I am only happy - doesn't make sense

Also, many verbs don't end in 하다 and just end in 다 (for example: 가다, 먹다, 보내다). The way that you can change those verbs into a form that allows ~만 to be attached will be discussed in later chapters.

When ~만 gets attached to more complicated things, it usually doesn't replace something, but overlaps it. What I mean is, when ~만 is attached to the subject or object, ~을/를 or ~은/는 get eliminated. However, when ~만 is attached to something else, everything usually stays in place:

저는 밤에만 운동해요
= I only exercise at night

저는 커피를 낮에만 마셔요
= I only drink coffee during the day

저는 그 여자를 그때만 사랑했어요
= I only loved her at that time

When using 그때, ~에 is often omitted because it can be assumed

Korean Particle ~에서

Foreign learners of Korean are often very confused as to when they should use ~에서 instead of ~에, as they both denote places in Korean sentences. ~에서 is used to denote the location in which the subject is doing something in. For example:

저는 학교에서 공부할 거예요
= I will study at school

As I said, ~에서 is used to indicate the location in which the subject is doing something.