korean for dummies!

sentence structures

okay, so as you learned in the last chapter; every korean sentence has subjects and objects.

BUT, if the sentence has an adjective, it will not have an object. i don't know why, they just don't.

korean sentences also have different structures. i can't really explain it to you, but i'm going to give a few examples.

if you were going to say "i want a boat", the first thing you'd have to do is determine the subject, object, and verb/adjective.

i (subject) want (verb) boat (object)

now, you may be wondering why the word 'a' isn't in the sentence above, and that's because 'a' isn't a subject, object, or verb/adjective in this case, so it's not going to be added to the sentence.

the second step in converting an english sentence to korean, is to actually structure the sentence the right way.

it really is hard to explain, but i'm going to make this as simple as possible:
1) subjects always come before objects.
2) objects are usually after the subject, unless there's two adjectives in the sentence.
3) if there's only one adjective or verb, that word will go at the end of the sentence.

it is very important that you understand this, because if you don't properly structure your sentences, people who speak fluent korean will have no idea what you're saying.

also, some of the sentences that i'll be giving as examples won't be grammatically correct, but that's only because you don't know all the grammar rules and extra particles yet. (for example, 'i는 speak korean을' is obviously incorrect, because all of the words are in english. and that's only because you don't know the korean versions of the words yet.) once i teach you everything, then i'll start giving examples of grammatically correct sentences, because you'll actually understand it.

now, back to sentence structures. the only things that you need to remember right now is that subjects go before objects. objects are after subjects. and verbs/adjectives are at the end of the sentence.

so now that we have that out of the way, let's get back to our "i want a boat" sentence

since "i" is the subject, it would go first.

i

since "boat" is the object, it would go after "i"

i boat

and since "want" is the verb, it would go last.

i boat want.

now, we're going to add the particles. (remember: 는 and 은 are for subjects, and 를 and 을 are for objects)

i는 boat를 want

you're probably wondering why i put '을' after "want", since want ends in a constant, and that's because the korean word for boat is 배 (bae), which ends in a vowel, meaning 를 would be used.

now, the only thing left to do is change the english words to korean.

i: 저 (jeo) or 나 (na). 저 is the formal version, and 나 is the informal version. koreans use 저 more than 나.
to want something: 원하다 (wonhada)
boat: 배 (bae)

i는 = 저는
boat를: 배를
want = 원하다

i want a boat: 저는 배를 원하다
pronunciation:
ㅈ(j) ㅓ(eo)
ㄴ(n) ㅡ(eu) ㄴ(n)
ㅂ(b) ㅐ(ae)
ㄹ(r) ㅡ(eu) ㄹ(l)
ㅇ(silent) ㅜ(u) ㅓ(eo) ㄴ(n)
ㅎ(h) ㅏ(a) ㄷ(d) ㅏ(a)

저는 배를 원하다 = jeoneun baereul wonhada

and now we've successfully translated an english sentence to korean, give urself a pat on the back!