Korean Fields-Lesson 4

4 min readNov 12, 2020

Author: 106501054 Dino 謝銘鴻

I am a NCCU student and now studying Introduction to Language Learning. In this semester, my group and I are going to learn Korean, aiming to be able to have basic conversation with native speakers in the end of this semester. Details and processes of my learning will be recorded in this website, Korean Fields. Welcome!

In today’s lesson, I have learnt vocabulary for Korean traditional food, and some sentence patterns which are helpful to use.

Dialogue — Food and Drink

Let’s begin by reading the conversation below.

A: 배 고파요. — I’m hungry. (고파요è 고프다 (hungry) + 아요 (ending word, representing the end of a sentence))
B: 뭘 먹고 싶어요? — What would you like to eat?
A: 저는 한국요리를 먹고 싶어요. — I’d like to have Korean food. (한국요리 stand for object in this sentence,
B: 무슨 한국요리를 먹고 싶어요? — What kind of Korean food do you like?
A: 저는 비빔밥을 좋아해요. — I like bibimbap.
B: 저도 비빔밥을 좋아해요. 우리 같이 가요. — I like bibimbap, too. Let’s go and get some together. (도 means “too, as well,” 같이means “together,” the words 가요 come from 가 + 아요)

Words below are some vocabulary applied in the dialogue.

배 — belly; pear; ship
고프다 — hungry (다, representing verb or adjective, should be deleted when it is at the end of a sentence )
뭘（무엇을) — what (을 signifies object, similar to the function of 를 )
먹다 — eat
-고 싶다 — want to (verb should be added before this sentence pattern, for example: 먹고 싶다 means “I want to eat”)
무슨 — what
비빔밥 — bibimbap

좋아하다 — like
같이 — together
가다 –go

문법 Grammar — “Want to”

The “want-to” sentence pattern can be written down as Verb + 고 싶다. The verb should be attached at the beginning of the sentence, meaning “want to…”. Examples are listed below.

먹다 + 고 싶다 è 먹 고 싶다 — want to eat…
가다 + 고 싶다 è 가 고 싶다 — want to go…
오다 + 고 싶다 è 오 고 싶다 — want to come…

문법 Grammar — Word ending

Two word endings, 을 or 를, can stand for the end of the sentence. They can be applied in the sentence pattern Noun + 을/를 + Verb. A noun should be put on before them, following by a verb. If the noun has a syllable coda, 을 should be used, and vice versa.

중국사람 + 을 좋아하다 — … like Chinese people.
커피 + 를 마시다 — drink coffee (마시다 means “drink”)
학생을 — student
술을 — wine
나를 — me
누나를 — word for the males to call their elder sisters
우산을 — umbrella

문법 Grammar — Present Tense Ending

Three present ending words, -아요/-어요/-여요, represent the very end of a word. If this word ends with the vowel ㅏ orㅗ, it has to be attached with 아요. If this word ends with any vowels except forㅏ andㅗ, the affix 어요should be added. Lastly, if the words ends with 하, the affix is여요, which will turn into 해요 eventually. Examples are listed below.