Learn Korean

Grammar

//Yehey, nasa grammar na tayo! Ito talaga yung pinakapaborito kong part, kahit medyo mahirap siyang intindihin.

Actually, may isa pa dapat lesson bago mag-Grammar, Dating a Korean, pero ipapagpaliban ko muna yon for certain purposes. Charot! Basta! Don't worry, we'll get there.

For now, grammar muna tayo. Kung may hindi kayo maintindihan, comment kayo o mag-message sa'kin kasi medyo mahirap din i-explain ang grammar ng Korean language e. Introduction pa lang naman muna ngayon. Anyways, enjoy kayo!//

Characteristics of the Korean Language

The Korean language is spoken by more than 60 million people. Kabilang siya sa family of languages na tinatawag na Altaic languages together with Japanese, Ainu and Mongolian. Ibig sabihin, may similarities siya with the other languages of the Altaic family. Example, diba parang may similarities ang Korean sa Japanese? Kasi nasa iisang family of languages sila. 70% naman ng contemporary vocabulary ng Korean came from Chinese.

1. SOV language

Korean is classified as an SOV or SOA language which stands for <Subject-Object-Verb> or <Subject-Object-Adjective> word order. Hindi siya katulad ng English na SVO <Subject-Verb-Object> ang word order.

Subject is the one who acts while the object is the one who receives the subject's action.

In English, ang word order ay ganito: e.g., Baekhyun loves Seoyeon. :P

Sa Korean naman, siya ay ganito: Baekhyun Seoyeon loves.

Subject (sino ang nagmamahal kay Seoyeon?) - Baekhyun

Object (sino ang minamahal ni Baekhyun?) - Seoyeon

Gets po ba?

2. Topic-prominent language

First of all, ano ang topic? Hindi ba parang subject lang din 'yon? Although we call it a subject, its position is not for subjects, the actor, only. A topic can also be in the position.

Subject = the doer of the action in a sentence

Topic = may not be the actor, but the one which the sentence is about

//Parang ang gulo po ba? Ako din naguguluhan pero ita-try kong intindihin para sa inyo. Hahaha. Kung hindi kayo naguguluhan edi go lang. Hahaha.//

Examples (in Korean sentence word order):

Lunch, I ate.

Chocolate, I like.

Ang mga topic ay "lunch" at "chocolate" kasi sila ang theme nung sentence at ang subject ay "I" kasi siya yung actor, or the one who acts, in the sentence.

I'll make it clear later on if there's still some confusion.

3. Agglutinating Language

Kung ita-translate nyo ang ang Korean translation ng "Lunch, I ate." ng word per word at naisipan nyo siyang i-arrange ng tama, you'd probably come up with "Lunch ate me" thinking na "lunch" ang subject at "I/me" ang object since ang word order niya ay SOV.

Okay, magaling at naisipan nyo yun. Pero parang mali diba? "Lunch ate me"? Ano kaya yun?

D'yan pumapasok ang function ng particles, endings, at conjugations. By attaching these little grammatical devices, you label each words, so that your words come into places without causing misunderstanding. Ina-add siya pagkatapos ng isang word para malaman mo kung ang word na yun ba ay isang subject, topic, object, verb, etc. kahit magkapalit-palit pa sila ng order sa isang sentence.

So, hindi necessary na ang word order niya ay SOV/SOA, pero mas maganda pakinggan at mas natural kapag ang word order niya ay SOV/SOA.

4.  Basic Sentence Formation:

{Subject/Topic + particle}     +     {Object + particle}     +     {Verb/Adjective + Conjugation}

~Mam Seoyeon

Any questions? Reactions? Suggestions? Corrections?

Comment na lang. Thank you!