Learn how to use the Korean word that means "can" to express capability or possibility
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Keith: You Can Do It in Korean. In this lesson, you will learn how to… |
| Misun: Well, how to express your abilities, -수 있다. |
| Keith: Okay. And this conversation takes place where? |
| Misun: In a playground. |
| Keith: Okay. And the conversation is between… |
| Misun: Two little kids. Yey! So cute! |
| Keith: And since they're little kids, they'll be speaking informal Korean. |
| Misun: 반말. |
| Keith: All right. Well, let’s listen in to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 태현 나 자전거 탈 수 있어. |
| 소영 나 운전 할 수 있어. |
| 태현 나 날아갈 수 있어. |
| 소영 그래? 해봐! |
| 태현 선생님! 다쳤어요! |
| English Host: One more time, with the English. |
| 태현 나 자전거 탈 수 있어. |
| Keith: I can ride a bike. |
| 소영 나 운전 할 수 있어. |
| Keith: I can drive. |
| 태현 나 날아갈 수 있어. |
| Keith: I can fly. |
| 소영 그래? 해봐! |
| Keith: Yeah? Do it! |
| 태현 선생님! 다쳤어요! |
| Keith: Teacher! I'm hurt! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Keith: Misun, that's a cute conversation! |
| Misun: Yeah, that’s true. Actually, when I was a kid, I couldn’t drive, but I actually pretend, like, I can drive. It’s just a funny way to do that, like if I’m saying those kind of things like adult is saying. |
| Keith: Yeah. Yeah. Kids like to have fun like that. |
| Misun: Right. |
| Keith: But since they're talking about riding bikes, I want to talk about that in more detail. |
| Misun: Sure. Kids, of course, ride bikes around their neighborhoods. |
| Keith: Yup, close by. But what if you're an adult, and you want to ride your bike to work? |
| Misun: That might be more difficult. |
| Keith: Yeah. Actually Korea does tend to have a lot of hills, so riding a bike for transportation reasons can be difficult sometimes. |
| Misun: Yeah. Of course, you’ll see bikes in Korea, but it's not a common form of transportation for adults. |
| Keith: Right. Especially since public transportation is cheap, too. |
| Misun: Yeah, it’s very cheap in comparison with here in New York. Buses and subways will go wherever you want, so it's not that common to see someone riding bikes. |
| Keith: Okay. Well, what if you wanted to ride your bike to work? Are there lanes on the street dedicated to bike riders? |
| Misun: Well, I saw pretty much a lot of lanes for buses and cars, but I rarely see the bike lanes. |
| Keith: Yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in Korea either. |
| Misun: Maybe, like, some different region down there, maybe they do have a bike, but in Seoul, I don’t see that much. |
| Keith: Yeah. |
| Misun: Yeah. |
| Keith: Because, again, it’s not that common form of transportation. |
| Misun: No. If you go to Olympic Park, 올림픽공원, then maybe you can see a bike lane. |
| Keith: Yeah. |
| Misun: Yeah. Otherwise, it’s not common. |
| Keith: Okay. Well, let's take a look at the vocab for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Keith: The first word we have is… |
| Misun: 자전거 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Bicycle. |
| Misun: 자전거 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 자전거 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next is… |
| Misun: 타다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: To ride. |
| Misun: 타다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 타다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next. |
| Misun: 운전하다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: To drive. |
| Misun: 운전하다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 운전하다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Okay. Next. |
| Misun: 날다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: To fly, to fly away. |
| Misun: 날다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 날다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next. |
| Misun: 그래? [natural native speed] |
| Keith: Sure. All right. |
| Misun: 그래? [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 그래? [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next is… |
| Misun: 해 봐 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: Do it, try it, show me. |
| Misun: 해 봐 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 해 봐 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next. |
| Misun: 다치다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: To get hurt, to get injured. |
| Misun: 다치다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 다치다 [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Keith: All right. Well, take a closer look at some of the words and phrases. |
| Misun: Sure. The first word we’ll look at is 타다. |
| Keith: Which means “to ride.” |
| Misun: 타다. So you can ride a subway, a car, a bus, a bicycle, an airplane. |
| Keith: Right, anything that's moving. So I think we should go over this word for our listeners who may want to get some directions from somebody. |
| Misun: How Good idea! Let's start with the sub way. |
| Keith: Okay. So Misun, how do we say , “ride the subway”? If someone’s telling you, “ride the subway.” |
| Misun: It’s 지하철을 타요 |
| Keith: Now, let's tell someone to ride line number 1. |
| Misun: 1호선 타요. |
| Keith: Okay. What's line #1 again? |
| Misun: 1호선 |
| Keith: So line number 2 would be? |
| Misun: 2호선. |
| Keith: So "ride line #2" would be... |
| Misun: 2호선 타요. |
| Keith: Okay. And just for good measure, what’s line #3? |
| Misun: Of course, 3호선. / 3호선. |
| Keith: Okay. |
| Misun: So "ride line #3" would be, 3호선 타요. |
| Keith: Great. What's out next word? |
| Misun: Our next word is 해봐. |
| Keith: Try it, or show me. |
| Misun: That’s right. There's different nuances depending on the situation. |
| Keith: So if I'm claiming I can speak French but you don't believe me, you can say... |
| Misun: 해봐! |
| Keith: Show me. |
| Misun: Right. So you use it when you want someone to do something, so you can see. |
| Keith: Right. The other use is when you're doing something and you want someone else to try it, too. |
| Misun: Right. If you're at a kitchen, making some 만두, which means dumplings, you can suggest to your friend to try making it, too. |
| Keith: Yeah. So if you suggest someone to try it themselves, you can just say... |
| Misun: 해봐! |
| Keith: And there it means "try it." |
Lesson focus |
| Misun: Let’s move onto the focus of this lesson. |
| Keith: Okay. |
| Misun: The focus of this lesson is -을 수 있다. |
| Keith: And this is used to express ability, capability, or possibility. |
| Misun: Yeah. For example, if you can speak English, or if you can use a computer. |
| Keith: Right, the ability to do so. This structure can be translated as "can," or "able to." |
| Misun: 네 맞아요. To use this construction, just take the verb stem of the verb and attach -을 수 있다 |
| Keith: Yes. But since this is absolute beginner, we don't want our listeners to focus on the construction. Instead, we have a few useful examples. |
| Misun: The first one is, 영어 할 수 있어요. |
| Keith: "I can speak English." |
| Misun: So this can be useful if you're in Korea, but don't understand some Korean. |
| Keith: Right. So if you want to say you can understand English, just say... |
| Misun: 영어 할 수 있어요. |
| Keith: Okay, our next example is... |
| Misun: 할 수 있어요. |
| Keith: Which simply means, "I can do it." |
| Misun: 네. This can be useful if you're at work, and your boss is asking you to do something. |
| Keith: Or maybe your teacher is telling you to do something. |
| Misun: 네. You can respond with, 할 수 있어요. |
| Keith: “I can do it.” And this will be good to let your boss or teacher know that you can do something! |
| Misun: Okay. Our last one is, 갈 수 있어요. |
| Keith: "I can go." |
| Misun: So this can be useful if you're invited somewhere. |
| Keith: Right. Your friend wants to see if you can go watch a movie Saturday... |
| Misun: Then you can respond with, 갈 수 있어요. |
| Keith:Let’s take a look at how it came out in this dialogue. |
| Misun: Sure! The first one was, 나 자전거 탈 수 있어. |
| Keith: "I can ride a bike." |
| Misun: Then it was 나 운전할 수 있어. |
| Keith: "I can drive." |
| Misun: And finally was, 나 날아갈 수 있어. |
| Keith: “I can fly.” |
Outro |
| Keith: Okay. Well, that’s just about does it for today. Bye-bye, everyone! |
| Misun: 네 여러분 안녕히 계세요. |
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