Korean Grammar

Grammar is enough to give many people fits, but it doesn’t have to be as difficult to understand or learn as one might imagine. Learning proper Korean grammar is going to ensure that you are putting your words in the correct order and using them the right way. Without an understanding of grammar, you will not be able to say what you actually mean to say, and this is going to lead to confusion. Learning the basics is important. You will find that when you have a good grasp of the basics of Korean grammar, learning how to speak the language and write Korean is much easier.

Understanding Differences in Korean Grammar

You will find that the English and Korean language have some stark differences. The largest of these differences is the fact that the order in which you place the words is often going to be different. The verb, in English, is usually going to follow the subject and finally the object. The subject-verb-object structure is something that we learn early in English. In Korean, the structure is actually going to be subject-object-verb. You have to listen to every word in a Korean sentence to understand the meaning and context.

The tenses in Korean are simpler than English as well. In Korean, they have only three tenses: past, present, and future. In English, we have those tenses, as well as present progressive and present perfect. Because there are fewer tenses in Korean grammar, there is less conjugation.

Korean simplifies things even further. While there are pronouns and plurals, they are often unnecessary in the language. Thus, many Korean speakers omit them. This is something that you will certainly want to know when you are listening to a Korean speaker. For plurals, you will only have to add one letter. Again, you will usually be able to omit this.

One of the other interesting things about the language and Korean pronunciation is the use of measure words. Nouns have a unique measure word or counter that goes with it. This is different from English. In English, you could simply say “a cat”. In Korean, you would need to say “a cat + one + animal counter”.

In Korean, you will conjugate the Korean verbs, as well as the adjectives. They refer to adjectives as descriptive verbs rather than active verbs. The verbs do not change based on first, second or third person. Rather, they are going to change in relation to the formality or politeness levels. Fortunately, it is relatively easy to learn to conjugate them to make them polite.