Nouns:

= Korea
= city
= name
=I
=I
= man
= woman
= that
= this
= that (when object is far away)
= thing
= chair
= table
= teacher
= bed
= house
= car

Nouns:
= person
= book
= computer
= tree/wood
= sofa
= China
= Japan
= door
= doctor
= student
Adverbs and Other Words:
= to be
= not
= yes
= no

Greeting Words
When learning a language, people always want to learn hello, how are you, and
thank you before anything else. I know that. However, at this stage you only know
words - and have no knowledge or experience in how to use or conjugate these words.
The grammar within these words is too complex for you to understand right now.
However, you can just memorize these words as one unit and not worry about the
grammar within them at this point.
= hello
and are the two words that are commonly used to say "thank you."
However, they are rarely used in those forms and are almost always conjugated. They can
be conjugated in a variety of ways, which you won't learn until Lesson 5 and Lesson 6. I
will show you a list of the more commonly used forms, but I can't stress enough that you
won't understand how this works until later lessons:

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 ? = How are you

Technically the appropriate expression in Korean, but not as common as "how are you"
in English. I would say that using " ?" is an English style of greeting people
in Korean.
= Please
(no complicated grammar construction)
It is, of course, important for you to memorize these expressions in Korean, but you need
to know that there is a reason why they are said that way. For now, dont worry about
why they are said that way, and simply memorize them. We will get back to them in later
lessons when they become important.
Korean Sentence Structure
One of the hardest things to wrap your head around in Korean is the alien-like sentence
structure. Essentially, Korean sentences are written in the following order:
Subject Object Verb (for example: I hamburger eat), Or
Subject Adjective (for example: I beautiful)
I am going to quickly explain what a subject and object mean, as your ability to
understand later concepts depends on your understanding of this.
The subject refers to person/thing/noun/whatever that is acting. The subject does the
action of the verb. For example, the subject in each sentence below is underlined:
I went to the park
I will go to the park
My mom loves me
He loves me
The dog ran fast
The clouds cleared up
In English, the subject always comes before the verb.
The object refers to whatever the verb is acting on. For example, the object in each
sentence below is underlined
My mom loves me
The dog bit the mailman
He ate rice
Students studied Korean
In English, the object always comes after the verb. However, a sentence with a verb does
not require an object. For example:
I slept
I ate
He died

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Sometimes there is no object because it has simply been omitted from the sentence. For
example, I ate or I ate rice are both correct sentences. Other verbs, by their nature,
cannot act on an object. For example, you cannot place an object after the verbs sleep
or die:
I sleep you
I die you
Subjects are also present in sentences with adjectives. However, there is no object in a
sentence with an adjective. The subjects are underlined in the following adjectivesentences below:
School is boring
I am boring
The movie was funny
The building is big
My girlfriend is pretty
The food is delicious
It is incredibly important that you understand this from the very beginning. Every Korean
sentence MUST end in either a verb (like eat, sleep or walk) or an adjective (like
beautiful, pretty, and delicious). This rule is so important that Im going to say it again:
Every Korean sentence MUST end in either a verb or adjective.
It is also important to point out here that there are two ways to say "I" or "me" in Korean.
Depending on how polite you need to be speaking, many things within a sentence (mostly
the conjugation) can change. You wont learn about the different honorific conjugations
until Lesson 6, so you do not need to worry about understanding those until then.
However, before you reach those lessons, you will see two different words for "I," which
are:
, used in informal sentences, and
, used in formal sentences.
As Lessons 1 - 5 make no distinction of formality, you will see both and arbitrarily
used. Don't worry about why one is used over the other until Lesson 6, when politeness
will be explained.
Okay, now that you know all of that, we can talk about making Korean sentences.
Korean Particles (~/ and ~/)
Most words in a Korean sentence have a particle (a fancy word to say something)
attached to them. These particles indicate the role of each word in a sentence that is,
which word is the subject or object. Note that there is absolutely no way of translating
these particles to English, as we do not use anything like them.
The following are the most common particles:
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 or (Subject)
This is placed after a word to indicate that it is the subject of a sentence
Use when the last letter of the last syllable of the subject is a vowel. For example::
=
=
Use when the last letter of the last syllable of the subject is a consonant. For example:
=
=
or
This is placed after a word to indicate that is the object of a sentence.
Use when the last letter of the last syllable is a vowel:
=
=
Use when the last letter of the last syllable is a consonant:
=
=
We can now make sentences using the Korean sentence structure and the Korean
particles.
1) I speak Korean = I Korean speak
is attached to "I" (the subject)
is attached to "Korean" (the object)
2) I like you = I you like
is attached to "I" (the subject)
is attached to "you" (the object)
3) I wrote a letter = I letter wrote
is attached to "I" (the subject)
is attached to "letter" (the object)
4) I opened the door = I door opened
is attached to I (the subject)
is attached to the door (the object)
5) My mom will make pasta = My mom pasta will make
is attached to my mom (the subject)
is attached to pasta (the object)

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I am sure that you will be tempted to start substituting Korean words into those
constructions to make real Korean sentences. However, at this point, that is too
complicated. The goal of this lesson is to familiarize yourself with the structure of
Korean sentences.
The same could be done for sentences with adjectives. However, remember that
sentences with adjectives will not have an object:
1) My girlfriend is pretty: My girlfriend is pretty
is attached to "my girlfriend" (the subject)
2) The movie was scary = The movie was scary
is attached to "the movie" (the subject)
There is one more particle that you should be aware of before we go any further.
(Place or time)
We havent talked about places or times yet, but if you do an action at a time, you must
attach the particle to the word indicating the time.
"" is also attached to a word to indicate that it is a place in the sentence. I want to write
more about what "" does, but at this point, it would only confuse you. For now, it is
sufficient to know that "" is used to indicate a place in a sentence.
Again, it is hard to translate these particles into English, but, plays the role of the
underlined words in the following sentences:
1) I went at 3pm
2) I went to the park
Sentences with a place/time can also have an object in them. For example:
3) I ate hamburgers at 3pm
If I were to write those same sentence using Korean structure and particles, they would
look like this:
1) I 3pm went
2) I park went
3) I hamburgers 3pm ate
In these cases, "at 3pm" or "to the park" act as adverbs (a word that tells you when, where,
how, how much). There is no set place for an adverb within a sentence, and it can
generally be placed anywhere (except the end). Adverbs will be discussed at length in
Lesson 8.

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Again, the purpose of this first part of Lesson 1 was to familiarize yourself with the
different Korean particles and sentence structure. This knowledge will act as your base
for upcoming lessons when you will apply yourself to make actual sentences with
verbs/adjectives in Korean. While you will have to wait a little bit to create those types of
sentences, we can now talk about creating actual Korean sentences with the word "to be."
To be:
Now it is time to learn how to make actual sentences in Korean using to be. English
speakers dont realize how difficult this word actually is in English. Look at the
following examples:
I am a man
He is a man
They are men
I was a man
They were men
In each of those sentences, the word be is represented by a different word
(is/am/are/was/were) depending on the subject and tense of the sentence. Luckily, in
Korean, the same word is used to represent is, am, are, was and were. This word is
should not be thought of as a verb or an adjective in Korean, as in most cases it acts
differently. I will teach you how differs from verbs and adjectives as it becomes
important (in future lessons).
Sometimes however, is somewhat similar to adjectives. Remember that sentences
ending with adjectives do not have objects in them. Whenever a sentence is predicated by
an adjective, there will be no object in the sentence. Only sentences with verbs have
objects. Lets look at some examples:
I eat hamburgers (eat is a verb, the object is a hamburger)
I meet my friend (meet is a verb, the object is my friend)
I study Korean (study is a verb, the object is Korean)
I listen to music (listen is a verb, the object is music)
All of those sentences (can) have objects because the verb is the predicate of the sentence.
However, in sentences that are predicated by adjectives, there will not be an object:
I am pretty
I am hungry

I am beautiful
I am smart

This means that we can never use the particle ~/ in a sentence predicated by an
adjective (because ~/ denotes that there is an object).
The object particle is also not used when using the word . The basic structure for a
sentence predicated by is:

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[noun /] [another noun] [], For example:

I man = I am a man
Now substitute the words for man and I:
=I
= man
+ +
is attached directly to the noun. So, the above construction looks like:
= I am a man
It is very important that you remember that ~/ is not attached to words in sentences
with "." The following would be very incorrect:
.
is the only word that acts like this, and is one of the reasons why you should treat it
differently than other verbs or adjectives.
The focus of this lesson (and Lessons 2 and 3) is to introduce you to simple Korean
sentence structure. Until you reach Lesson 5 and Lesson 6 you will not be exposed to the
conjugations and honorifics of Korean verbs, adjectives and . In reality, these words
are never (or very very rarely) used without these conjugations and honorifics. Therefore,
while I stress the importance of understanding the structure of the sentences presented in
this Lessons 1, 2, 3 and 4 do not use the sentences in any form of communication with
Korean people, as they will most likely not be understood.
In order to completely understand what is presented in Lessons 5 and 6 (and for the rest
of your Korean studies), it is essential that you understand what is presented in these first
four lessons - even though they may be seen as "technically incorrect."
For all of the "technically incorrect" (un-conjugated) sentences presented in Lesson 1 - 4
I will provide a correct (conjugated) version of the same sentence in parenthesis below
the un-conjugated version (one formal and one informal conjugation). Note one more
time that you will not understand these conjugations until Lessons 5 and 6 (for verbs and
adjectives) and Lesson 9 (for ).
Other examples of in use:
= I am a woman
( / )
= I am a teacher
( / )
______ = I am a _______
( _______ / _____)
You can substitute any word into the blank space to make these sentences.
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This and That (//)

You can see in the vocabulary above that the word for this is in Korean.
We use in Korean when we are talking about something that is within touching
distance (For example: this pen - i.e. the one I am holding). Just like in English ""
(this) is placed before the noun it is describing. For example:
= This person
= This man
= This woman
= This car
= This table
= This chair
Unfortunately, there are two words for that": and . English learners are always
confused with the difference between "" and "."
We use when we are talking about something from a previous sentence. Providing
examples would be too difficult right now because you do not know any Korean
sentences. However, if I were to say: "I dont like that man [when your friend mentioned
him in a previous sentence]." The word "that" in that sentence would be how "" is used.
We use when we are talking about something that we can see, but cannot touch
because it is too far away.
Just like "" we can place "" or "" before a noun to describe "this" or "that" thing
= That person
= This person
= That man
= That woman
= That thing
= That thing
= This thing
= That chair
= That table
We can now use these nouns as subjects or objects in a sentence. We will look at how
they can be used with "" next.
Using This/That with
Remember, can be used to say am/is/are So, if we want to say this:
That person is a doctor, We can do that.
First, we can start by putting those words into the Korean structure:
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That person doctor is

And then change the English words to the appropriate Korean words:
+ +

( / )
More examples:
= that person is a teacher
( / )
= this thing is a table
( / )
= that thing is a bed
( / )
= that person is a man
( / )
= that person is a woman
( / )
= that thing is a car
( / )
= this thing is a tree
( / )
Wow! That was an extremely difficult lesson. If you were to pick up another Korean
textbook, I am sure the first chapter would be much easier than this. Trust me though;
learning this at the start will be very useful to you later on. When I was learning how to
speak Korean, it took me months to realize some of these things (not because they were
hard, but because I was using a text book that never taught me the reason why things are
the way they are in Korean).
Before you move on, make sure you understand the simple Korean sentence structure
presented in this first lesson. Also, remember that these sentences are technically
incorrect (or very very uncommon) because they have not been conjugated.

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