Introduction
In the last lesson, you learned some important Korean particles that you can use in a wide variety of situations. There are still a few more basic particles that you need to be aware of before you can begin learning more complex grammar.
Most of these particles are very common, so it is hard to build sentences using more complex grammar without the use of what you learned in Lesson 12, and what you will learn in this lesson. Let’s get started!
Korean Particles (and): ~과/와, ~랑/이랑 and ~하고
~과/와, ~랑/이랑 and ~하고 can all be used interchangeably to mean “and” in Korean.
~과 and ~와 are the same. ~과 is attached to words ending in a consonant, ~와 is attached to words ending in a vowel. Similarly, ~랑 and ~이랑 are the same. ~이랑 is attached to words ending in a consonant, ~랑 is attached to words ending in a vowel. ~하고 can be attached to words ending in a vowel or consonant. These can be added fairly simply to nouns:
나는 사과와 바나나를 샀어
= I bought apples and bananas
나는 인천이랑 서울에 갈 거에
= I will go to Seoul and Incheon
형하고 아버지는 영화를 봤어
= My brother and dad saw a movie
Each one can be used interchangeably, but 랑/이랑 is used more in conversation, whereas 하고 and 와/과 are used in writing. But, it depends on the person – I usually say “랑/이랑” when I speak, but I often hear people say “과/와” or “하고.”
Korean Particles (with): ~과/와 함께, ~과/와, ~랑/이랑 and ~하고
Just when you thought this was going to be an easy lesson. Ha! This sounds crazy, but the same particles can be used to mean “and” and “with” in Korean. It is always clear if you are trying to mean “and” or “with” because of the sentence structure. When these particles have the meaning “and,” a noun will always follow 과/와/랑/이랑/하고: For example:
나는 사과와 바나나를 샀어
= I bought apples and bananas
After 와, another noun is used, which means you are talking about apples AND bananas. But if I said this:
나는 친구와 갔어
= I went with my friend
There is no additional noun after 와, which means it can only mean “with.” More examples:
나는 아버지랑 공원에 갈 거야
= I will go to the park with my dad
선생님은 학생들과 박물관에 갔다
= The teacher went to the museum with the students
Also notice that you can actually use these particles to mean both “and” and “with” within the same sentence:
저는 밥을 친구랑 저의 어머니랑 먹었어요
= I ate (rice*) with my mom and my friend
*Korean people often use “밥” (rice) to simply mean “food.” It stems from the fact that Korean people eat rice with (almost) every meal – so if you ate, it means that you ate rice. You can say “밥을 먹었어” which can simply mean “I ate.”
When using ~과 and ~와 to mean “with,” 함께 is often used in the sentence as well. 함께 comes after using ~과 and ~와 but can only be used when they have the meaning “with,” and cannot be used when the meaning is “and”
