Advanced quotation expressions, part 1

Advanced quotation expressions are formed by combining the usual quotation expressions with other grammar principles such as -는데, -면, -면서, -니까 I'm going to cover two quotation forms. -는/ㄴ다고 and -(으)라고, and for the purpose of demonstration I will use the 하다 verb. At the end I'll show the conjugation rules for verbs with 받침 …

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My learning journey, and a comprehensive list of resources I used along the way

I’ve been studying Korean since 2015 and I’ve tried many different resources, felt many things about my progress including frustration, accomplishment, satisfaction, anger, etc. I’ve wondered many times along the way how did other people go about their learning journey. Did other people go through the same things as I did? How did other people …

-는지: He walked past me as if he did not recognise me

This post will talk about a more advanced use of the 은/는지 grammar. Before that, a quick refresher on the basic usage (or the usage generally introduced in textbooks): 저 사람 누구인지 알아요? - Do you know who that person is? 뭘 하고 싶은지 말해요 - Tell me what you want to do 내가 너를 …

-만, -오랜만에

If you've already read the explanation of how this particle works in your textbook or online but still aren't "feeling" this grammar in your gut, have a read ahead of my own personal interpretation of how you should interpret this particle. Firstly some examples: 오랜만에 여기에 오네요 - It's been a long time since I've …

How and when to learn Hanja

This post has been updated on my new site here. [Update: Since writing this Naver has made a change to their English Korean dictionary. It now only allows mobile device access. You can get around this on Chrome by going to the side menu bar, clicking the 3 dots, more tools, developer tools. This will set …

-게 하다 My mum made me go to sleep

Keep this in mind as you read this: the English sentence structure "A made B do C", does not directly exist in Korean. The closest generalized Korean translation is "A는 B가 C게 하다" which literally translates to "do it so that B does the verb C". At times this can feel like a forced literal …

Difference between – 결정, 정, 결심, 선택, 고르다, 마음먹다

I saw someone ask this question on Reddit.  I'll elaborate a little bit on the response I gave there. I include the Chinese character below for reference but it is not critical for you to know it, just as long as you understand root meaning of the Korean character. 결정 - 決定 경 here means decide. …

든지 – If you hate work, then quit or something

I try not to write about topics that have been covered to death already on the internet, but I feel like the way this is taught through available resources on the internet is very 'textbooky'. By textbooky I mean it feels difficult to actually take those examples and apply in real life situations. And as …

짜리, 어치, 치 – Can I have 5 dollars worth of

This post has been updated on my new site here. These words are very useful in practical situations, and I haven't seen them covered in any textbooks or online resources so I decided to write a post about it. All three words mean 'worth' but all used in different contexts. 짜리 만원짜리 지폐. A 만원 …

Even though, even if. Comparing -아/어도, -더라도, -ㄴ/는다고 해도

This post has been updated on my new site here. As you know, all three grammar points roughly all convey the meaning even though or even if. The difference between -아/어도 and -더라도 is that 더라도 is used in more hypothetical type situations. So if you compare 수지는 화나도 욕을 안 할거야 수지는 화나더라도 욕을 …