LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

USING QUESTION WORDS

Depending on which question word you are using, building a question can be really easy or really confusing. I will teach you the easy examples in this lesson (who, when, where, why) and the more confusing examples (what, how, how much/how many).

Why (왜)
Why (왜) is probably the easiest question word in Korean. '왜' is an adverb, which means it can be used/placed as an adverb in sentences. Many of the question words that you will learn are adverbs. As you know, adverbs can be used very freely in sentences and do not have any specific location that they need to be used. However, the most common position for these adverb-question words is before the verb. If there are other adverbs in the sentence (including the negative "안") the question word is usually placed first.

With these adverb-question words, you can typically just take a statement and change it into a question by inserting the word into the sentence. For example:

만화책을 좋아합니까? - Do you like comic books?
만화책을 왜 좋아합니까? - Why do you like comic books?

(저는) 한국어를 공부하고 있어요 - I am studying Korean
한국어를 왜 공부하고 있어요? - Why are you studying Korean?

(저는) 너무 빨리 먹었어요 - I ate really fast
왜 너무 빨리 먹었어요? - Why did you eat so fast?

왜 is also used to respond when somebody calls your name (because they want you for some reason). In English, we would say "what," but in Korean, they say "왜." For example:

Person 1: 슬기야! - Seulgi!
Person 2: 왜? - Why/what do you want?

Notice that saying "why" in English is unnatural. This is how they say it in Korean.

When (언제)
The usage of 'when' (언제) is very similar to the usage of '왜' in Korean. As an adverb, it can be used to ask "when" something happens. For example:

집에 갔어? - Did you go home?
집에 언제 갔어? - When did you go home?

집에 갈 거야? - Will you go home?
집에 언제 갈 거야? - When will you go home?

그 여자가 사라졌어요 - That girl disappeared
그 여자가 언제 사라졌어요? - When did that girl disappear?

Particles like ~부터 and ~까지, which are often used to indicate from/until when something happens can be attached to 언제 to indicate that it is unknown "from/until when" something happens. For example:

어제부터 아팠어요 - I have been sick since yesterday
언제부터 아팠어요? - Since when have you been sick?
Notice that 어제 and 언제 are not the same word.

한국에서 내년까지 있을 거예요 - I will be in Korea until next year
한국에서 언제까지 있을 거예요? - Until when will you be in Korea?

작년부터 한국어를 공부했어요 - I have been studying Korean since last year
언제부터 한국어를 공부했어요? = Since when have you been studying Korean?

언제 can also be attached to "이다" to ask "when" something is. In these cases as well, it replaces the noun that would normally be attached to 이다. For example:

결혼식은 내일이야 - The wedding is tomorrow
결혼식은 언제야? - When is the wedding?

방학은 다음 주야 - Vacation is next week
방학은 언제야? - When is vacation?

The grammatical principle ~든지 is commonly attached to 언제 to form 언제든지. For now, you can think of this simply as a word that means "whenever." When you learn about the function of ~든지, you will understand how this meaning is formed.