Learn Korean (eng) (grammar & voc)

I/Me (저 / 나)

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 later)

를 can be attached to 저 and 나 to indicate that “me” is the object of a sentence. For example:

저를
나를

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 before.

The difference between these particles is very subtle and takes years to fully grasp, 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 가 changes to 내, and 저 changes to 제. For
example:

내가
제가

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.” Now, don’t worry about formality and just focus on the information that I present. next, you will learn more about formal and informal speech, and you will see “저” and “제” being used.