KOREAN LANGUAGE TUTORIAL

LESSON 43

Korean Lesson: Lessons 43

적다 is an adjective that means 'few' which has the opposite meaning of '많다.' Which means you could say something like this:
많은 학생들은 나를 좋아해 = Many students like me
적은 학생들은 나를 좋아해 = Few students like me
However, 적다 is much more commonly used after applying the ~는 것 principle. This was very hard for me to grasp when I first learned this, but it is something you should know. Instead of saying '적은 학생들은 나를 좋아해' you should say:
나를 좋아하는 학생들은 적어 = There are few students who like me
Notice that this is done by creating a noun of "the students who like me" (나를 좋아하는 학생) and then putting the adjective (적다) after the noun. You can also do this with 많다:
나를 좋아하는 학생들은 많아 = There are many students who like me
영향 is a noun that you need to use whenever you want to say that something 'influences' something. The thing that is being influenced needs to have 에 attached to it, and you can add the verbs 주다 or 미치다to act on the noun '영향:'
부모님들은 아이에 영향을 준다/미친다 = parents have an influence on their children
Because 영향 is a noun, you can put adjectives before it:
부모님들은 아이에 큰 영향을 준다/미친다 = parents have a big influence on their children
자체 is a hard word for me to understand, even now. It is one of the words in Korean that we don't exactly have in English. It means something like "on its own/by itself" - but it heavily depends on the situation. I suggest going to the Naver dictionary and looking up examples
그냥 is probably the most common word that you don't know yet. You can use this word in sentences when you want to say "just/for no reason" (in the meaning of "we are just friends" or "I just wanted to leave for no reason"):
저는 학교에 그냥 왔어요= I just came to school (for no reason)
It is a very common word. It is also often said in response to a "why" question.
a) 학교에 왜 왔어요?
b) 그냥.

방귀 is a funny word, but a word nonetheless. It means "fart." 방귀를 하다 doesn't make sense, you need to use the verb 끼다 after 방귀. Also, the pronunciation of 방귀 is actually 방구.
방귀를 꼈어? = did you just let one rip? Haha
Irregulars with ~는 것
Present Tense
In Lesson 7 you learned all about Korean irregulars. From lesson 7:
As with all languages, there are some irregular conjugations that you need to know. The irregulars apply at times when you add 아/어/여 (or another vowel/consonant) to a verb/adjective stem (aside from conjugating, you have yet to learn other times when you must add a vowel to a word. You will learn about these later).
Irregulars can act differently depending on what vowel/consonant you are adding to them. Up to now, you have learned a lot about adding 어/아 to verbs/adjectives and how irregulars change as a result of this addition. For example:
걷다 + 어/아 = 걸어
부르다 + 어/아 = 불러
But, adding ~는 것 to these words doesn't change them:
걷다 + ~는 것 = 걷는 것
|부르다 + ~는 것 = 부르는 것
However, the ㄹ irregular does come into play when adding ~는 것 in the present tense. The ㄹ irregular from lesson 7 says:
If the final vowel of a stem ends in ㄹ AND you add ~ㄴ/~ㅂ to that stem, the ㄹ is removed and the ㄴ /ㅂ get added on directly to the stem. However, if you are adding '는' or something starting with ㅅ to the stem - the ㄹ is removed and ~는/~ㅅ is added directly after the stem.
In this case, we are adding ~는 (것) to the stem of words. Therefore, if we add ~는~ to words ending in ㄹ, the ㄹ must be removed:
열다
문을 여는 것 = opening a door
Which can be put into a sentence as a noun:
저는 친구가 문을 여는 것을 봤어요 = I saw my friend opening the door
Spotting this irregular in text is usually obvious, but even to this day I get confused when I see the ㄹ irregular in use. Sometimes, I will see something like "여는 것" and I think to myself "...huh? 여다 is not a word?" But then I realize that it is actually 열다 + 는 것.
Past and Future Tense
Three irregulars come into play when adding the past/future tense of ~는 것 (ㄴ/은 것 and ㄹ/을 것).
ㅅ Irregular: From lesson 7:
If the last letter of a word stem ends in ㅅ (for example: 짓다 = to make/build), the ㅅ gets removed when adding a vowel.
It's a little bit confusing in this case, because you are adding ㄴ/은 or ㄹ/을.
Lets stick to the past tense for now (ㄴ/은), and we'll get to the future tense later.
Lets look at two words: 잊다 and짓다.
잊다 (to forget) ends in a consonant (ㅈ). This means that you must add 은 것 to it:
잊은 것
There is no ㅈirregular, so 잊은 것 is perfect.
짓다 (to build) ends in a consonant (ㅅ). This means that you must add 은 것 to it:
짓은 것.
But, this is incorrect. Remember the ㅅ irregular. Because you are adding a vowel (은) to the stem of 짓다, you must remove the ㅅ:
지은 것
그 집을 지은 사람은 누구예요?= Who is the person that built that house?
The same process occurs in the future tense:
짓다 + ㄹ/을 것 = 지을 것
저는 집을 지을 거에요 = I will build a house (remember here that the future tense conjugation of ~ㄹ 것이다 is actually just ~ㄹ 것 + 이다)
ㄷ Irregular: From lesson 7:
If the last letter of a word stem ends in ㄷ (for example: 걷다 = to walk), the ㄷ gets changed to ㄹ when adding a vowel.
The confusion involved with this implementation is similar to the confusion involved with the ㅅ irregular. Lets look at the verb 걷다 (to walk) as an example:
걷다 ends in a consonant (ㄷ). This means that you must add 은 것 to it:
걷은 것.
But, this is incorrect. Remember the ㄷ irregular. Because you are adding a vowel (은) to the stem of 걷다, the ㄷ must be changed to ㄹ:
걸은 것
The same process occurs in the future tense:
걸을 것
그 사람은 서울에서 부산까지 걸은 첫 번째 사람이었다 = That person was the first person who walked from Seoul to Busan
ㄹ Irregular: From Lesson 7:
When you add ~ㄹ/을 to a stem of a word that ends in ㄹ, you actually drop the ㄹ/을 altogether:
Lets look at an example again.
잊다 (to forget) ends in a consonant (ㅈ). This means that you must add 을 것 to it:
잊을 것
There is no ㅈirregular, so 잊을 것 is perfect.
팔다 (to buy) ends in a consonant (ㄹ). This means that you must add 을 것 to it:
팔을 것.
But, this is incorrect. Remember the ㄹ irregular. Pronouncing "팔을" is weird, and flows more naturally if you just say "팔":
팔 것
그는 문을 열 사람이에요 = He is the person who will open the doors
... I'm not sure when you would say that sentence, but it's difficult to think up of a sentence where I can apply this irregular and make it sound natural. This irregular is often applied when conjugating to the future tense by adding 'ㄹ/을 것이다' to the end of a sentence:
저는 내일 시장에서 사과를 팔 거에요 = I will sell apples at the market tomorrow
My Favorite Thing: 가장좋아하는것
This is one of the first sentences that people learn whenever they learn any language. In Korean however, the grammar within this sentence is a little bit difficult (you only just learned it), so that is why you are just learning about it now.
In Korean, they don't have a word for "favorite." Instead, they just use "like most" - "가장 좋아하다." You have known how to make these sentences for a long time:
저는 우리 학교를 좋아해요 = I like our school
저는 우리 학교를 가장 좋아해요 = I like our school most
But you haven't yet learned how to specifically say "My favorite ____ is..."
Lets look at adjectives first. These should all be easy to you:
가장 큰 것 = the biggest thing
가장 작은 것 = the smallest thing
가장 어려운 것 = the most difficult thing
However, in those sentences, only adjectives are describing the noun. Now that you have learned how to describe nouns with verbs, you can now say:
내가 가장 좋아하는 것 = the thing that I like most (which is also - my favorite thing)
Notice that it is not "나의 가장 좋아하는 것." Really, you are not saying "my favorite thing" - you are saying "the thing that I like most." So even though in English we say "my" in Korean you shouldn't use 나의/저의 in place of 내가/제가 in these sentences.
You could take 가장 out to simply mean "the thing that I like"
내가 좋아하는 것 = the thing that I like
Or change the subject:
저의 친구가 가장 좋아하는 것 = The thing that my friend likes most
Now that you have created the noun of "the thing that I like most" you can place it in sentences:
제가 가장 좋아하는 것은 음식이에요 = My favorite thing is food
음식은 제가 가장 좋아하는 것이에요 = Food is my favorite thing
You can also replace "것" with any other noun:
제가 가장 좋아하는 음식은 김치예요 = My favorite food is kimchi
제가 가장 좋아하는 날은 금요일이에요 = My favorite day is Friday
As I said before, people often don't realize the power of the ~는 것 principle. Now that you can you can describe nouns with verbs, you can say much more complicated (and natural) sentences. Look at the following example:
내가 가장 좋아하는 것은 영화야 = My favorite thing is movies
Is that natural? It would probably sound more natural if you were to say my favorite thing is "watching movies" or "making movies." You learned in Lesson 26 how to make those nouns:
영화를 보는 것 = watching movies
영화를 만드는 것 = making movies
내가 가장 좋아하는 것은 영화를 보는 것이다 = My favorite thing is watching movies