A In Korean, adjectives are also considered verbs. In their dictionary form they translate to “to be.” For example, 아름답다 means “to be beautiful” and if you want to use it to describe someone, you have to conjugate it appropriately.
B For more on passives and causatives, and the mysteries of their creation, see page 33.
1 The Basics of Korean
Pronouns and Contractions
Let’s start by reviewing the basics here. As you should know by this point, you change your pronouns depending on how much respect you want to give the person you’re talking to.
| English | Lower | Higher |
| I | 나 na | 저 jeo |
| You | 너 neo | 당신 dangsin |
| We | 우리 uri | 저희 jeohui |
| This | 이것 igeot | 이것 |
| That | 그것 geugeot | 그것 |
| That (over there) | 저것 jeogeot | 저것 |
너 is used all the time in 반말 (informal language), but if you want to be respectful, it’s far more common to refer to someone you’re talking to in the third person: 선생님 seonsaengnim (teacher), 계현씨 gyehyeonssi (polite way to address a person named 계현) or even 민정 엄마 minjeong eomma (Minjeong’s mother) or something similar. Although 당신 is technically the polite way to say “you,” it’s almost never used in spoken Korean and if it is, it often means a fight is about to break out. So be very careful with 당신.
As you should also know, subjects and objects take endings: 은/는, 이/가, 을/를 eun/neun, i/ga, eul/reul are the ones we’ll deal with here. Go to page 30 if you need to learn about any of these endings.
Here’s a table to show you how to contract each word.
| Original word | 저 jeo | 나 na | 우리 uri | 저희 jeohui | 너 neo | 이(그/저)것 igeoseun |
| +는 neun | 저는 jeoneun | 나는 naneun | 우리는 urineun | 저희는 jeohuineun | 너는 neoneun | 이것은 igeoseun |
| Contraction | 전 jeon | 난 nan | 우린 urin | 저흰 jeohuin | 넌 neon | 이건 igeon |
| +이/가 i/ga | 제가 jega | 내가 naega | 우리가 uriga | 저희가 jeohuiga | 네가 nega | 이것이 igeosi |
| Contraction | 이게 ige | |||||
| +을/를 eul/reul | 저를 jeoreul | 나를 nareul | 우리를 urireul | 저희를 jeohuireul | 너를 neoreul | 이것을 igeoseul |
| Contraction | 절 jeol | 날 nal | 우릴 uril | 저흴 jeohuil | 널 neol | 이걸 igeol |
| +의 ui | 저의 jeoui | 나의 naui | 우리의 uriui | 저희의 jeohuiui | 너의 neoui | 이것의 igeosui |
| Contraction | 제 je | 내 nae | 네 ne |
저걸로 주세요. Jeogeollo juseyo. Give me that.
이건 어때요? Igeon eottaeyo? How about this?
More Contractions:
이렇다/그렇다/저렇다/어떻다 ireota/geureota/jeoreota/eotteota
As you may know, these mean “to be a certain way.” 이렇다 means “to be this way,” 그렇다 means “to be that way” and 저렇다 means “to be that way over there” and isn’t really used that much. These are very versatile expressions that you’ll see. and they are used in all kinds of ways. 어떻다 by itself doesn’t translate well, but you’ll see it all the time as 어떻게 (how).
The most common way you’ll probably see them conjugated is by adding the ending 게, which turns a verb into an adverb. We don’t have these adverbs in English, at least not as single words, but if “thisly,” “thatly,” and “that over therely” were words, they’d be translated this way.
어떻게
eotteoke
How?
이렇게
ireoke
Like this.
그렇게
geureoke
Like that.
저렇게