Learn Korean (eng) (grammar & voc)

Using Adjectives

Using Adjectives - ㄴ/은

Alright, this won’t help you understand those greeting words any better, but what you are about to learn is a major step in learning Korean. You should remember these two important facts from the previous chapters:

🔹1. All sentences must end with either a verb or adjective
🔹2. All verbs/adjectives end with the syllable ‘다’

Although both of those are true (and always will be), let’s look at them more deeply:

🔹All sentences must end with either a verb or adjective
              - Yes, but verbs and adjectives can ALSO go elsewhere in a sentence. In the previous chapters, you learned this sentence:

나는 배를 원하다 = I want a boat
↘(나는 배를 원해 / 저는 배를 원해요)

But what if you want to say:
“I want a big boat.”
In that sentence, there is a verb and an
adjective. Where should we put the adjective? In Korean when describing a noun, the adjective is placed in the same position as in English. For example:

나는 배를 원하다 = I want a boat
나는 big 배를 원하다 = I want a big boat

Simple. So we just substitute the Korean word for big (크다) into that sentence?:

나는 크다 배를 원하다 = Not correct. Not by a long shot.

Remember that second rule I taught you?:
All verbs/adjectives end with the syllable ‘다’
             - Yes, but the version of the word with ‘다’ as the last syllable is simply the dictionary form of that word and is rarely used.
Every verb/adjective in Korean has a ‘stem,’ which is made up of everything preceding 다 in the dictionary form of the word. Let’s look at some examples:

크다 = 크 (stem) + 다
작다 = 작 (stem) + 다
좋다 = 좋 (stem) + 다
배우다 = 배우 (stem) + 다

When you deal with a verb/adjective, you eliminate 다 and add something to the stem.
What you add depends on what you are doing. When you want to make an adjective that can describe a noun, for example:

small boy
big boat
soft hand
delicious hamburger

you must eliminate ‘다’ and add ㄴ or 은 to the stem of the adjective.
Words in which the last syllable of the stem ends in a vowel (크다/비싸다/싸다) you add ㄴ to the last syllable. For example:

Word 🔶
Stem ⚫
Adjective that can describe a noun ⚪ Example 🔵
Translation 🔴

🔶|크다       |비싸다                 |싸다               |
⚫|크          |비싸                     |싸                  |
⚪|큰          |비싼                    |싼                   |
🔵|큰 배      |비싼 음식             |싼 것              |
🔴|Big boat|Expensive food|Cheap thing|

Words in which the last syllable of the stem ends in a consonant (작다/좋다/많다) you add 은 to the stem. For example:
 
🔶|작다            |좋다          |많다                    |
⚫|작               |좋              |많                       |
⚪|작은            |좋은           |많은                    |
🔵|남자            |좋은 아들    |많은 돈               |
🔴|Small man|Good son |A lot of money|

Looking back to what we were trying to write before:

I want a big boat = 저는 크다 배를 원하다 = incorrect
I want a big boat = 저는 큰 배를 원하다 = correct