Learn Korean

Sentence Order

In regards to the order of a sentence, there are four basic types in Korean. These are:

•S + N

•S + V

•S + A

•S + O + V

* S = subject, N = noun, A = adjective, O = object and V = verb.

The tense of a sentence is determined by the last part of a sentence, namely, by a noun, verb or

adjective.

In Korean, adjectives function like verbs in that they can be converted to different forms to

determine the tense of a sentence.

For example,

•In English, the past tense of "go" is "went."

•In Korean, the past tense of "가다" (gada, go) is "갔다" (gatta, went).

The verbs function in the same way in English and Korean.

However, in the case of adjectives, the past tense of "good" in English is not "gooded" but it is

written, "was good."

Contrary to this, in Korean, "좋다" (jota, good) has a past tense form of "좋았다" (joatta, was

good).

Compare:

•In English, "good" (present) → "was good" (past)

•In Korean, "좋다" (present) → "좋았다" (past)

Therefore, the adjectives in Korean function like verbs in that they can be converted to a past tense

or future tense, or any other tense forms.

This conversion of a verb(or adjective) to its past, future, present continuous or past continuous

tense forms is called a verb (or adjective) "conjugation."

To understand Korean grammar, it is crucial that you become familiar with the concept of a distinct

part of speech called, "particles." Anyway, that's next lesson pa.

Particles are function words that indicate what the subject or object is in a sentence.

For example,

•는/은 is a topic particle

•가/이 is a identifier particle

•를/을 is an object particle

For more information and explanation on particles, please refer to the next lesson.

Now, let's have a look at the four main types of Korean sentences.

Note: S = Subject, N = Noun, V = Verb, A = Adjective, O = Object

1. S + N

•나는 학생이다 = I am a student

•리사는 선생님이다 = Lisa is a teacher

•앤드류는 의사였다 = Andrew was a doctor

•저는 중학생이에요 = I am a middle school student [polite spoken form]

나 = I

학생 = student

리사 = Lisa

선생님 = teacher