LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

HOW (어떻게)

어떻게 is the easiest of the words that you will learn today. The word 어떻게 is actually 어떻다 (a word you don't know yet) turned into an adverb by adding ~게 to the stem (어떻 + 게). Though 어떻다 and 어떻게 are technically the same word, don't think of them that way. Just remember that 어떻게 means "how." You can use 어떻게 to ask how somebody does a verb, but it can not be placed before an adjective or adverb in Korean to mean "how (adjective/adverb)." For example:

"Learn" is a verb, so you can use 어떻게 in the following sentence:
How did you learn?

"Beautiful" is an adjective. "Often" is an adverb. Which means you can not use 어떻게 in the following sentences:
How beautiful is your girlfriend?
How often do you go to school?

You will learn another word (얼마나) later to use in those sentences.

어떻게 is an adverb, so you can place it in sentences very freely. You can use it to ask questions in the past, present or future tense. For example:

그것을 어떻게 해요? - How do you do that?
한국어를 어떻게 배웠어요? - How did you learn Korean?
그 자리를 어떻게 찾았어요? - How did you find that seat?

One thing that is different between English and Korean is when you ask "what do you think about..." If you want to say that in Korean, you have to use the equivalent of "how do you think about...":

그 여자에 대해 어떻게 생각해요? - What do you think about that girl?

That's pretty much all you need to know with regards to '어떻게,' but there is still more that you should know about the word 어떻다.