Learn how to use question marking particles
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: The Question Marking Particles. Brandon here! |
| Kyejin: 안녕하세요. And I'm Kyejin. |
| Brandon: Kyejin, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Kyejin: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the question marking particles - 까 and 까요. |
| Brandon: The conversation takes place in a restaurant. |
| Kyejin: It’s between Geuncheol and Soyeon. |
| Brandon: The speakers are students. The older student will be using informal Korean and the younger student will speak formally. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
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| 소연: 선배님, 여기 이 식당은 삼계탕이 맛있어요. 삼계탕을 먹을까요? |
| 근철: 다른 음식은 뭐가 있을까? |
| 소연: 여기 보세요. |
| 근철: 불닭은 어때? 불닭 먹어볼까? |
| 소연: 불닭은 너무 매운데 우리가 먹을 수 있을까요? |
| 근철: 그러면 삼계탕 먹자. |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| 소연: 선배님, 여기 이 식당은 삼계탕이 맛있어요. 삼계탕을 먹을까요? |
| 근철: 다른 음식은 뭐가 있을까? |
| 소연: 여기 보세요. |
| 근철: 불닭은 어때? 불닭 먹어볼까? |
| 소연: 불닭은 너무 매운데 우리가 먹을 수 있을까요? |
| 근철: 그러면 삼계탕 먹자. |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation with English translation |
| 소연: 선배님, 여기 이 식당은 삼계탕이 맛있어요. 삼계탕을 먹을까요? |
| Soyeon: Senior, this restaurant has delicious ginseng chicken soup. Shall we eat the soup? |
| 근철: 다른 음식은 뭐가 있을까? |
| Keuncheol: What other foods do they have? |
| 소연: 여기 보세요. |
| Soyeon: Here, have a look. |
| 근철: 불닭은 어때? 불닭 먹어볼까? |
| Keuncheol: How about the spicy chicken? Shall we try that? |
| 소연: 불닭은 너무 매운데 우리가 먹을 수 있을까요? |
| Soyeon: The spicy chicken is really spicy, do you think we’ll be able to eat it? |
| 근철: 그러면 삼계탕 먹자. |
| Keuncheol: Okay, then let’s eat the ginseng chicken soup. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Korean people love to eat special traditional dishes on specific dates, just like the ginseng chicken soup in the dialogue. |
| Kyejin: That’s right. You can see long lines of people waiting to have 삼계탕 (samgyetang) meaning “ginseng chicken soup” on 복날 (boknal), the days that divide the summer season into three. |
| Brandon: Are there any other traditional foods like this? |
| Kyejin: Well.. what about 미역국 (miyeokguk)? |
| Brandon: You mean the soup made of sea mustard or sea weed., right? |
| Kyejin: Right. It’s a dish that’s traditionally eaten on birthdays, because mothers who have recently given birth eat it a lot. |
| Brandon: Oh I see – American normally eats sweet cakes or ice cream on their birthday. |
| Kyejin: That’s true. These days, you can simply buy an instant 미역국 (miyeokguk) at a Korean supermarket, so listeners, you should buy one for yourself for your birthday! |
| Brandon: It will definitely be something special. Okay, now let’s move onto the vocab list. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: Let take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Kyejin: 선배 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: senior |
| Kyejin: 선배 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 선배 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 식당 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: restaurant |
| Kyejin: 식당 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 식당 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 삼계탕 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: ginseng chicken soup |
| Kyejin: 삼계탕 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 삼계탕 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 다른 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: other, another |
| Kyejin: 다른 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 다른 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 맵다 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to be spicy |
| Kyejin: 맵다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 맵다 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 그러면 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: then, if that’s the case |
| Kyejin: 그러면 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 그러면 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 불닭 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: spicy chicken (literally "fire-chicken") |
| Kyejin: 불닭 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 불닭 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 여기 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: here, this place |
| Kyejin: 여기 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 여기 [natural native speed] |
| The last word is.. |
| Kyejin: 어때? [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: How is it?/How about...? (intimate) |
| Kyejin: 어때? [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 어때? [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. First is... |
| Kyejin: 맵다 |
| Brandon: Which means "hot,” or “spicy" You can use this adjective to describe things, usually food items, that are spicy or hot. |
| Kyejin: You can conjugate it as 매워 (maewo) for informal situations or 매워요 (maewoyo) with the sentence ending particle 요 (yo.) |
| Brandon: Can you give us an example? |
| Kyejin: Sure. 이 김치가 너무 매워서 땀이랑 열이 나요. |
| Brandon : That means "This kimchi is so spicy that it makes me hot and sweaty.” And.. this verb can be used to mean “my eyes are burning”, right? |
| Kyejin: Yes. 맵다 can also be used in the expression 눈이 매워 (noon-i maewo), which means your eyes are burning or stinging. In this expression, it literally means "my eyes are spicy." |
| Brandon: Can we use it to say “the weather is hot”? too? |
| Kyejin: No. 맵다 is never used to describe weather or temperature in the same way "hot" would be used in English. Instead, you can use 덥다 to mean "hot." For example, you can say 방이 덥다 to mean "the room is hot." |
| Brandon: Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Kyejin: 어때? |
| Brandon: Which means “how about,” “how is". It’s an expression you use to inquire about an individual's thoughts or feelings on a subject or idea. You can use this word primarily to make suggestions and gauge an individual's interest. |
| Kyejin: It’s simple to use. First, you can say a noun, plus a topic-marking particle when the topic was introduced for the first time, plus 어때? For example, you can say 이 불닭은 어때? (slow) 이 / 불닭 / 은 / 어때? |
| Brandon: Which means "How about this spicy chicken?” |
| Kyejin: Also, you can use this phrase with the word 것, or 게, which makes clauses. |
| Brandon: We’ll more learn about this later on in this series. Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the question-marking particles. |
| Kyejin: These are 까 and 까요. First, let’s learn how to make a simple interrogative sentence using the particle 까. |
| Brandon: In earlier lessons, we learned about the ways to make a formal sentence. |
| Kyejin: That’s right. For example, you can use 입니다 to mean “to be.” For “This is a bag”, you can say 이것은 가방입니다 using the word 입니다 at the end of the sentence. |
| Brandon: Now let's learn how to change the predicate of a sentence into a formal interrogative sentence. |
| Kyejion: It's very simple. Just put 까 (kka) in the position of 다 (da) at the end of the sentence. So the sentence will be.. 이것은 가방입니까? Adding the ending 까 (kka) turns the predicate of a sentence into a formal interrogative sentence. Make sure you read it with a rising tone. 이것은 가방입니까? |
| Brandon: Let’s hear some more examples. |
| Kyejin: 저것은 학교입니까? |
| Brandon: “Is that a school?” |
| Kyejin: 저것은 학교입니다 is the sentence meaning “That is a school.” To say “Is that a school?” you just need to replace the sentence-ending particle 다 with the question-marking particle 까. |
| Brandon: Then what about the sentence-ending particle yo? |
| Kyejin: When a sentence ends with the particle 요, you don’t need to add any question-marking particles, you just need to read it with a rising tone. |
| Brandon: And.. it’s the same for impolite sentences, too, right? |
| Kyejin: That’s right. 집에 강아지가 있어 is the sentence meaning “I have a dog at home.” This sentence doesn’t have a pronoun meaning “I”, by the way. If you read the same sentence with a rising tone, then it becomes a question. It becomes 집에 강아지가 있어? meaning “Do you have a dog at home?” |
| Brandon: Okay. Now, let’s move on to the next question-marking particle. |
| Kyejin: You can make a simple volitional form using -을까 (eul-kka) or ㄹ까 (l-kka) to express intention on the part of the speaker, or to invite someone to do something. |
| Brandon: In English, we can translate it as, "shall we...?" |
| Kyejin: For example, for “Shall we watch something?”, you can say 볼까요? 보다 is the verb meaning “to see, to watch.” and 보- is the verb-stem. Since it ends in a vowel, you can use the batchim ㄹ and 까 to add the meaning of “shall we?” So it becomes 보(pause)ㄹ까, 볼까. |
| Brandon: And this verb means “Shall we watch something?” So how would you say “shall we eat?” |
| Kyejin: 먹다 is the verb meaning “to eat.” 먹 is the verb-stem and it ends in a consonant. For that case, you can use the word 을까 so it becomes 먹/을까? 먹을까. |
| Brandon: And it means “shall we eat?” In addition to inviting someone to do something, you also use it to ask for a person’s opinion, view, or appraisal of a certain fact. In this specific usage, you translate it as, "will it be (verb)?" Can you give us some example? |
| Kyejin: Sure. If you want to ask someone if a dog will eat food or not, you can say 먹을까요? It looks the same, but from the context you can tell that it means “shall we eat?” or “Will a dog eat?” |
| Brandon: Let’s look at some more sentences using these particles. When you want to ask someone’s opinion about whether it will be rainy or not, you can say.. |
| Kyejin: 오늘은 비가 내릴까? |
| Brandon: “Will it rain today?” Let’s take a look at one more example. If you want to ask your friend to go with you to work out together, you can say.. |
| Kyejin: 내일 같이 운동할까? |
| Brandon: Shall we work out together tomorrow? Listeners, make sure you check the lesson notes for more examples about these question-marking particles. |
Outro |
| Brandon: And 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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