KOREAN - ON HOLD

Lesson 5

before reading any of these chapters make sure you are able to read Hangul.
How to say "I" or "me" in Korean

First of all, I want to point out the difference between "I" and "me" in English. This is something that I never knew/realized until I started to learn Korean as you will find that learning a foreign language will vastly increase your understanding of your mother tongue and languages in general. In English "I" and "me" have the same meaning, but they differ in their usage. When the speaker is the subject of a sentence "I" is used. When the speaker is the object (or other part) of a sentence "me" is used. For example:

I love you ("I" is the subject of the sentence)
You love me ("me" is the object of the sentence)

In Korean, the same word is used to say "I" or "me." That is, there is no difference in the Korean word if it used as a subject or object. However, remember that different particles will have to be attached to these words.

Although the word in Korean for "I/me" doesn't change based on its usage in a sentence, it does change based on the politeness of a sentence. For example:

저 means "I/me" and is used in formal situations
나 means "I/me" and is used in informal situations

~는 can be attached to 저 and 나 to indicate "I" is the subject of a sentence. For example:
저는
나는
(I am purposely not providing example sentences because you still haven't learned proper conjugations. You will finally learn about conjugations in this lesson)

~를 can be attached to 저 and 나 to indicate that "me" is the object of a sentence. For example:
저를
나를
(I am purposely not providing example sentences because you still haven't learned proper conjugations. You will finally learn about conjugations in this lesson)

~가 can be attached to 저 and 나 to indicate "I" is the subject of a sentence or clause. I have already briefly distinguished the difference between ~이/가 and ~은/는 in Lesson 2. The difference between these particles is very subtle and takes years to fully grasp. I discuss these differences more deeply in Lesson 17 and Lesson 24, but this isn't immediately important to you right now. What is immediately important to you is that you remember that when ~가 is attached 나 changes to 내, and 저 changes to 제. For example:

내가
제가
(I am purposely not providing example sentences because you still haven't learned proper conjugations. You will finally learn about conjugations in this lesson)

In the lesson below, all of the sentences are conjugated in an informal style. Therefore, all of the example sentences below use the informal "나" or "내." In this lesson, don't worry about formality and just focus on the information that I present. In the next lesson, you will learn more about formal and informal speech, and you will see "저" and "제" being used.

How to say "you"

You may have noticed that I still haven't taught you one of those most common words in the English language. I know this sounds weird, but the word 'you' is not said very often in Korean. Korean people get around saying the word 'you' through a number of ways:

Most of the time, you use somebody's (usually job) position when referring to them or talking about them. For example, boss (부장님), principal (교장선생님), vice principal (교감선생님), Mr. Name (for a teacher) (Name선생님), customer (고객님), guest (손님), 회장님/사장님 (president/CEO of a company).
It is very common in Korean to refer to people that you are close with as your own family member. For example, 오빠 means "older brother" (when you are a woman). But even if somebody is not your older brother, you can call him '오빠' if you are close to him.
You can usually call any woman or man that looks very old "grandmother" and "grandfather" (할머니/할아버지). But other than that, you don't really call somebody part of your family unless you are close with that person.
You can generally call any strange man or woman that you don't know '아저씨' (man) and '아주머니' (woman).
In informal situations, you can use the word "너." ~는 and ~를 can attach to "너" when "you" is the subject or object of a sentence, respectively. If ~가 is added to ~너, it changes to "네가." In order to distinguish the pronunciation of "네가" and "내가" from each other (which, technically should be pronounced the same), "네가" is pronounced as "knee-ga."
You can also use the word "당신" which means "you." You may use this word when talking to anybody, but Korean people hardly ever use it. Most people that say '당신' are foreigners and only do so because they are so used to saying "you" in a sentence.