Korean lessons

~(이)라고

You can use it when you want to use direct speech or indirect/reported speech.

이라고 goes for words ending in a consonant while 라고 goes for words ending in a vowel.
In indirect speech, (이)라고 is usually used with words related to speaking (말하다, 이야기하다, 대답하다), but also with 하다 (in this case it means “to say/tell/talk”).

Examples:

1.Direct speech

이거라고! / This is it!
자동차라고. / It’s a car.

2.Indirect/reported speech

이 사람이 학생이라고 말해요. / (He/She/They) say(s) this person is a student.
이 사람이 ‘학생’이라고 말했어요. / This person said ‘student’.

Vocabulary:

말하다 = to speak
이야기하다 = to have a conversation
대답하다 = to answer
하다 = to do
이거 = this, this thing
자동차 = car
사람 = person
학생 = student

~지요

지요 is added to words when a question is being asked. When somebody uses 지요 in their questions it means they already know the answer, but they just want to double-check it.

지요 often changes in 죠 in honorific speech.

Present tense: ~지요

Past tense: ~았지요, ~었지요, ~했지요

Future tense: ~겠지요

In the case of verbs, adjectives and nouns (nouns with no final consonant) ~지요 must be used. For nouns which end in a final consonant ~이지요 must be used.

Examples:

You know this dress, right? It was your dress. / 이 드레스 알죠? 당신의 드레스였어요.
It was delicious, right? / 맛있었죠?
You will forget, won’t you? / 잊어버리겠지?

Vocabulary:

이 = this
드레스 = dress
알다 = to know, to understand
당신 = you
이다 = to be
맛있다 = to be delicious
잊어버리다 = to forget

Korean writing practice through “Picture Story Writing”

Koen speaks...

A great method of learning and remember new vocabulary words and grammar structures for people with terrible memory

For the past couple of months I have been concentrating my time and efforts towards some Korean writing practice. Of course I am still continuing my listening exercises and word memorization (through dramas and others) on my free time. But I have been making conscious efforts to do some free writing practice in Korean as well. So this week, I have started a great new method of practising Korean writing, which is “Picture story writing”. This was actually one of my Korean friends :신지원, Jiwon Shin’s idea (another good friend I met on the language exchange app HelloTalk). I am really grateful for her for her simple yet fantastic idea. It is perhaps the simplest exercise that has always been there. But it is really effective, especially for a…

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~아서/어서

They are used to conjoin related actions in order and they can be attached to verbs and adjectives.

If the last vowel is ㅗ or ㅏ you have to use ~아서. Otherwise you have to use ~어서. In the case of verbs ending with 하다 you have to add 해서.

Examples:

운전해서 집에 가요. / I drive home.
길을 건너서 똑바로 가세요. / Go straight across the street.
서점을 지나서 100미터쯤 가세요. / Go about 100 meters past the bookstore.

Vocabulary:

운전하다 = to drive
집 = house, home
가다 = to go
길 = street
건너다 = to cross (over)
똑바로 = straight
서점 = bookstore
지나다 = to pass by, to go by
미터 = meter
쯤 = or so, about

This lesson was taken from this app. You should try it out!

같다

같다 is similar to 것 같다 (read about it here). There are, however, two differences between them and one of them is that 같다 is used with nouns while the other one is used with verbs. What you can use both of them for?You can use them both when you want to say that something looks or seems like something. The second difference between them is that 같다 can be also used when somebody wants to say, for example, that his/her bag is THE SAME as his/her friend’s.