Learn some common prefixes in Korean
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Intro |
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| Michael: what are some prefixes in Korean? |
| Kyejin: And why are they useful to know? |
| Michael: At KoreanClass101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following scenario, Sasha Morris meets her classmate, Seo-young Sin, on a cold winter day. |
| Sasha Morris: 너무 추워! (Neomu chuwo!) |
| Seo-yoeng Sin: 한겨울인데 맨손이야! 장갑 없어? (Hangyeourinde maensoniya! janggap eopseo?) |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Morris: 너무 추워! (Neomu chuwo!) |
| Seo-yeong Sin: 한겨울인데 맨손이야! 장갑 없어? (Hangyeourinde maensoniya! janggap eopseo?) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Morris: 너무 추워! (Neomu chuwo!) |
| Michael: "It’s too cold!" |
| Seo-yoeng Sin: 한겨울인데 맨손이야! 장갑 없어? (Hangyeourinde maensoniya! Janggap eopseo?) |
| Michael: "You’re bare handed in the middle of winter! Don’t you have gloves?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: You might wonder what our topic has to do with this dialogue. Actually, there were two words created with prefixes, |
| Kyejin: 접두사 (jeopdusa) |
| Michael: What are prefixes? The dictionary definition of prefix is “a word that is attached to the front of another and expands its meaning to form a new word.” It sounds a bit complicated, but the concept is actually really simple, and there are lots of prefixes in English, too, like “un” for “unlike”, “im” for “impossible”, “re” in “redo”, etc. There are lots of words containing prefixes in Korean as well, and they are called, |
| Kyejin: 접두 파생어 (jeopdu pasaengeo) |
| Michael: or “derivatives with prefixes.” So learning about prefixes will not only improve your vocabulary, but also will let you make a better guess on the meaning of words you hadn't learned before. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Morris says, “It’s too cold!” |
| Kyejin: 너무 추워! (Neomu chuwo!) |
| Michael: “It’s too cold!” says Sasha. |
| Kyejin: 너무 (neomu) |
| Michael: is an adverb meaning “too” or “very”. |
| Kyejin: 추워 (chuwo) |
| Michael: stands for “it’s cold”, and it’s a conjugated phrase of the adjective |
| Kyejin: 춥다 (chupda). |
| Michael: Since they are friends and are both the same age, they are talking to each other in an informal, addressee-lowering speech level. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Seo-yoeng Sin says: "You’re bare handed in the middle of winter! Don’t you have gloves?" |
| Kyejin: “한겨울인데 맨손이야! 장갑 없어?” (Hangyeourinde maensoniya! janggap eopseo?) |
| Michael: Seo-yeong responds with two sentences. First, she says, “You’re bare handed in the middle of winter!” Let’s go deeper into this sentence phrase by phrase. The first phrase here is |
| Kyejin: 한겨울인데 (hangyeourinde) |
| Michael: which literally means “middle of winter, it is, however”, and this phrase contains the first prefix in our dialogue. It’s |
| Kyejin: 한- (han-), |
| Michael: and it’s used to mean “precisely” or “in the middle of something.” You are probably aware of the Korean word that follows after the prefix, |
| Kyejin: 겨울 (gyeowul), |
| Michael: “winter.” By adding the prefix to this noun, this word’s meaning gets expanded to “in the middle of winter.” Then, let’s move on to the next phrase |
| Kyejin: 맨손이야! (Maensoniya!) |
| Michael: which literally translates as “bare handed (you are)!” Here, we can find the second prefix of this lesson’s dialogue, |
| Kyejin: 맨- (maen-). |
| Michael: It stands for “without anything,” so adding this prefix to the word for “hand,” |
| Kyejin: 손 (son), |
| Michael: creates a derivative |
| Kyejin: 맨손 (maenson) |
| Michael: meaning “bare-handed.” So, in her first sentence, Seo-yeong is addressing Sasha with surprise at how she is bare handed on a mid-winter day. Then, she goes on further and says: “Don’t you have gloves?” |
| Kyejin: 장갑 없어? (Janggap eopseo?) |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: We have discussed so far that prefixes |
| Kyejin: 접두사 (jeopdusa) |
| Michael: are attached in front of a word to expand its meaning and form a new word. There are a lot of “derivatives formed with prefixes,” |
| Kyejin: 접두 파생어 (jeopdu pasaengeo), |
| Michael: in Korean. Therefore, learning some prefixes will definitely give you more clues about Korean vocabulary. We came across two prefixes from today’s dialogue. The first one was |
| Kyejin: 한- (han-) |
| Michael: meaning “precisely” or “in the middle of”. The other one was |
| Kyejin: 맨- (maen-) |
| Michael: which translates to “without anything” or “-less.” Now, how about we take one step further and look at more examples? There are actually a lot on the list, but we will take this opportunity to introduce a few of them. First, we have |
| Kyejin: 풋- (put-), |
| Michael: meaning “first produced, unripe” or “immature, not deep.” One of the derivatives formed with this prefix is |
| Kyejin: 풋사랑 (putsarang) |
| Michael: which stands for “puppy love.” The next prefix is |
| Kyejin: 참- (cham-) |
| Michael: It’s used to mean “authentic,” “good and sincere,” “of good quality,” and “edible.” Unlike the word for “puppy love” mentioned previously, this prefix can be added to form the word for “true love.” |
| Kyejin: 참사랑 (chamsarang). |
| Michael: The third prefix to consider is |
| Kyejin: 헛- (heot-), |
| Michael: meaning “groundless,” “fruitless.” It can be added in front of both verbs and nouns. |
| Kyejin: 헛고생 (heotgosaeng) |
| Michael: is created with this prefix, meaning “vain effort” or “fool’s errand.” Next, we have |
| Kyejin: 날- (nal-) |
| Michael: and |
| Kyejin: 생- (saeng) |
| Michael: meaning “uncooked,” “not processed,” “severe,” etc. Thus, |
| Kyejin: 날고기 (nalgogi) / 생고기(saenggogi) |
| Michael: means “raw/fresh meat.” Next on the list is |
| Kyejin: 늦- (neut-), |
| Michael: and this prefix is used to mean “late.” Thus, “to oversleep” is |
| Kyejin: 늦잠 자다 (neutjam jada). Last but not least, there’s |
| Kyejin: 독- (dok-) |
| Michael: which stands for “of one person” or “used by only one person.” So, if you take a picture of someone by him or herself, such photo would be called |
| Kyejin: 독사진 (doksajin). |
| Expansion |
| Michael: We have covered quite a lot of prefixes! Well, then, did you know that prefixes belong to “affix,” |
| Kyejin: 접사 (jeopsa), |
| Michael: and that there is another element in this “affix” family? Yes, it’s suffix, |
| Kyejin: 접미사 (jeopmisa). |
| Michael: Don’t worry, we’re not going to discuss it all today; we’ll leave that for one of our upcoming lessons. So stay tuned! Now, let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after Kyejin, focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Morris says: “It’s too cold?" |
| Kyejin: 너무 추워! (Neomu chuwo!) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Kyejin: 너무 추워! (Neomu chuwo!) |
| Kyejin: 너무 추워! (Neomu chuwo!) |
| Michael: And do you remember how Seo-yoeng Sin says: "You’re bare handed in the middle of winter! Don’t you have gloves?" |
| Seo-yoeng Sin: 한겨울인데 맨손이야! 장갑 없어? (Hangyeourinde maensoniya! Janggap eopseo?) |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Seo-yoeng Sin: 한겨울인데 맨손이야! 장갑 없어? (Hangyeourinde maensoniya! Janggap eopseo?) |
| Seo-yoeng Sin: 한겨울인데 맨손이야! 장갑 없어? (Hangyeourinde maensoniya! Janggap eopseo?) |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Kyejin: 안녕히 계세요 (annyeonghi gyeseyo) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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