Learn how to use confirmation particles
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Matt: Confirmation Particles, Matt here. |
| Kyejin: 안녕하세요. I'm Kyejin. |
| Matt: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use confirmation particles.. |
| Kyejin: such as 지, 이죠, 잖아 in Korean. This conversation takes place over the phone. |
| Kyejin: It’s between a delivery man and a customer. |
| Matt: The speakers are not familiar with each other, so they’ll be using formal Korean. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 배달아저씨: 여보세요? 택배가 왔는데요, 김아란 씨 맞으시죠? |
| 고객: 네, 그런데 제가 지금 점심을 먹으러 나왔어요. |
| 배달아저씨: 아.. 그럼 어떻게 하죠? |
| 고객: 택배를 문앞에 두고 가시면 되잖아요? |
| 배달아저씨: 원래 그렇게 많이 하지만, 이 택배는 본인이 직접 사인을 해야해서.. 곧 돌아오시면 기다릴까요? |
| 고객: 아니요, 괜찮아요. 제가 내일 우체국에 직접 찾으러 가면 되죠? |
| 배달아저씨: 네. 괜찮습니다. |
| Matt: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| 배달아저씨: 여보세요? 택배가 왔는데요, 김아란 씨 맞으시죠? |
| 고객: 네, 그런데 제가 지금 점심을 먹으러 나왔어요. |
| 배달아저씨: 아.. 그럼 어떻게 하죠? |
| 고객: 택배를 문앞에 두고 가시면 되잖아요? |
| 배달아저씨: 원래 그렇게 많이 하지만, 이 택배는 본인이 직접 사인을 해야해서.. 곧 돌아오시면 기다릴까요? |
| 고객: 아니요, 괜찮아요. 제가 내일 우체국에 직접 찾으러 가면 되죠? |
| 배달아저씨: 네. 괜찮습니다. |
| Matt: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Delivery Man: Hello? I have a package for you. Aran Kim, right? |
| Customer: Yes, but I am just leaving for lunch. |
| Delivery Man: Ah okay. What should I do? |
| Customer: You can just leave the package at the front door, right? |
| Delivery Man: Normally that’s the case, however, for this particular package, the recipient's signature is required. If you are returning soon, shall I wait for you? |
| Customer: No, you don’t have to do that. I can just pick it up from the post office tomorrow, right? |
| Delivery Man: That’s right. That would be fine. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Matt: If she lived in an apartment complex, I bet she wouldn’t have to visit the post office. |
| Kyejin: Yea, usually security guards or 경비아저씨 keep the items delivered to people in the apartment complexes on their behalf. |
| Matt: I think that’s one of the benefits of living in an apartment complex. Actually, in South Korea, you can easily find these large groups of tall apartment buildings, because they’re visible from multiple areas in the city. |
| Kyejin: That’s right. They’re called 아파트 단지, meaning “apartment complex.” |
| Matt: They’re located near a main street and good schools, so I’m guessing they’re generally more expensive than regular houses. |
| Kyejin That’s right. And inside the complex there will usually be at least one building which has shops, a supermarket, and restaurants for the residents. |
| Matt: I like that, because it means you don’t need to even step outside of the complex on the weekends if you don’t want to! |
| Kyejin: Some people want to live in an apartment complex for just that reason! |
| Matt: I bet! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Matt: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Kyejin: 택배 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: home delivery service |
| Kyejin: 택배[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 택배 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 두고 가다 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: to leave, to leave behind, to forget |
| Kyejin: 두고 가다[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 두고 가다 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 원래 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: originally, from the start |
| Kyejin: 원래[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 원래 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 직접 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: directly, personally |
| Kyejin: 직접[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 직접 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 사인 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: signature |
| Kyejin: 사인[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 사인 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 돌아오시다 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: to return, to come back (formal) |
| Kyejin: 돌아오시다[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 돌아오시다 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 우체국 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: post office |
| Kyejin: 우체국[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 우체국 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 괜찮다 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: to be okay, to be all right |
| Kyejin: 괜찮다[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 괜찮다 [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Matt: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Kyejin: 직접 |
| Matt: meaning "directly,” or “in person.” |
| Kyejin: 직접 it comes from the chinese word 직.. |
| Matt: which means “straight,” .. |
| Kyejin: and 접 |
| Matt: ..which means "to approach.” These two characters combined give us "straight approach," so it’s easy to see where the translation "directly" comes from. This can also mean “in person” or “directly to the person in charge.” |
| Kyejin: That’s right. For example, we have the expression 직접 가서 물어보세요. |
| Matt: This literally means “go and ask directly please.” It’s a polite way of saying "go and inquire in person" if, for example, you addressed a question to someone who’s not in charge. What’s the next word? |
| Kyejin: 돌아오시다 |
| Matt: This is an honorific verb meaning “to come back” or “to return.” |
| Kyejin: 돌아오시다 is a honorific version of the verb 돌아오다 meaning “to come back.” It has the honorific suffix 시 next to the verb-stem which makes a verb into a honorific verb. |
| Matt: You can also find this pattern with other verbs. |
| Kyejin: For example, we have 가시다 which is based on the verb 가다 meaning “to go.” |
| Matt: You’ll also hear this when you go into a restaurant. At restaurants, shop owners or staff use it with customers. |
| Kyejin: That’s right. They’ll say "어서 들어오세요" to the customers. |
| Matt: It literally means "to enter quickly" and can be used to quickly and politely usher individuals into a room or building. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Kyejin: Sure. For example, you can say.. 언제 돌아오실 거예요? |
| Matt: .. which means "When will you return?" |
| Matt: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Kyejin: 괜찮다 |
| Matt: This expression is generally understood to mean "I'm okay" or "I'm fine," and it can also be used to politely refuse an offer or a request. |
| Kyejin: For example, if someone says 김치를 먹을래요? |
| Matt: which means "Would you like to have some kimchi?".. |
| Kyejin: ..you can politely refuse the offer by using the expression 아니요. 저는 괜찮아요 |
| Matt: which means "No thank you. I'm okay." Alright, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Matt: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use confirmation particles. |
| Kyejin: In Korean, these are 지, 이죠, and 잖아. Let’s take a look at the first one, 지. |
| Matt: This is a sentence-ending particle that changes the nuance of a sentence. It’s often used to elicit confirmation or to call for agreement. |
| Kyejin: When 지 is used as a question tag asking for confirmation or agreement, it can be translated as "right?," "is it?," "are you?," or "is he?" |
| Matt: It can also be used as a rhetorical question. Can you give us an example of how to use it, Kyejin? |
| Kyejin: Sure. 한국어 하지? is a question meaning “You speak Korean, don’t you?” By ending it with the confirmation particle 지, we add the meaning of “don’t you?” |
| Matt: As a side note, this particle can also be used in the answer. When the particle is used with the intent to get confirmation or agreement and is expressed as a statement, it can be translated as "I suppose," "I bet," "it seems to me," "you see," or "I'd say." |
| Kyejin: Right. For that reason, you can say 한국어 하지 when someone asks you if you speak Korean. It literally means “I do, for sure.” |
| Matt: Because this is a final sentence ending, it can no longer be conjugated itself to change the level of politeness. When you want to make it sound polite, you can simply add the other sentence-ending particle, which is.. |
| Kyeji: 요 as in -지요. The two particles 지요 can be combined to simply -죠. For example, both 한국어 하지요? and 한국어 하죠? have the same meaning and the same politeness level. |
| Matt: Okay, next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 잖아 which means something like “Isn’t it?” |
| Matt: This sentence ending particle can be used when the speaker assumes or supposes that the listener knows and agrees with what speaker has just said. |
| Kyejin: It’s from the expression -지 않아. Therefore, 잖아 is often translated as "isn't it?" or "don't you?" |
| Matt: It can also be translated as "as you know..." In this form, it’s in the intimate politeness level. You can get the standard politeness level by suffixing the politeness particle at the end of the construction. |
| Kyejin: The politeness marker is -요, so you can say 잖아요 when using this particle with an older person. It’s simple to use. When using it with a verb, you just need to add 잖아 to the verb-stem. For example, 차갑잖아. |
| Matt: meaning “It’s cold, isn’t it?” |
| Kyejin: 차갑다 is the verb meaning “cold” and its verb-stem is 차갑. Here you can simply add 잖아 to the meaning of “isn’t it?” |
| Matt: You can use it with a noun, too, for example.. |
| Kyejin: 고양이잖아? |
| Matt: meaning “It’s a cat, isn’t it?” Okay listeners, make sure to check the PDF lesson notes for more examples. |
Outro |
| Matt: Well, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Kyejin: 안녕히 계세요. |
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