Basic Sentence Structure

Music to study to is here and they are so good! 방탄 for the win! One of the coolest things I've heard in Kpop for a while.

Anyway, today we're going over the most basic of sentence structure, simple declarative sentences and markers. Firstly, unlike English, the verb comes last. So normally, the structure of a simple sentence goes: subject, object, verb. Which for me, seems to make a good amount of sense logically.
An example from my text goes, "마크 음식 먹어요."  Or, Mark food eats. Or, Mark eats food.
Secondly, Korean has markers for subjects and objects, but not verbs. For subjects, the marker is "가" and for objects the marker is "을." So after you use markers, the sentence should look like, "마크가 음식을 먹어요." And finally, the order of answers and questions are the same, meaning that simple sentences can be questions or answers based on the cadence of the person's voice. So, if you're asking if markㅁ is eating food, at the end of the sentence, you'd say "먹어요?" In a higher tone!
That's pretty much it for the bare bones of sentence structure! Happy Studying~

"Korean Made Easy; for beginners" Review

Hello! Its been a long time since I've last posted, and I'd like to apologize! But, school is out for the year so know I can focus on learning Korean. A little while ago, I purchased a pretty cheap work book called  "Korean Made Easy; for beginners," which came with an audio CD and a key phrase book. Its wonderful, and lived up to its Amazon reviews.
It's lessons are simple and quick; very easy to understand. Lots of pictures, example conversations, and places to practice writing. Jam packed with vocabulary. Has examples of colloquial speaking and formal writing in Korean. The audio CD helps so much with pronunciation. It has a little bit of everything. I've only gone through the first chapter but there's a lot in each one, which is nice. I completely recommend it. Well, that's all I needed to say about it. Now, I'm going to review vocab on Quizlet, which I'm sure you all know. (It's amazing as well). While you study, Click Here to listen to one of my favorite albums that just came out. It's insanely good!

The front cover

Korean Months

Hello Hello! Click Here for another song to study to! Since I just did numbers, you can see how they are applied into the language. The names of the months of the year are basically the Korean Sino number system.

일월...eel-wol
이월...ee-wol
삼월...sahm-wol
오월...sah-wol
오월...oh-wol
유월...yoo-wol
칠월...cheel-wol
팔월...pahl-wol
구월...goo-wol
시월...shi-wol
십일월...ship-eel-wol
십이월...ship-ee-wol

The character 월 means month. So the first month would be 1+month, or 일월. Happy Studying!

Korean Number Systems

I realized my writing of posts might be slightly sporadic depending on my productivity level that week. But since I got a lot of sleep last night I'll write another one this weekend. This song has been stuck in my head since I've heard it so Click Here to suffer with me! It has a really cool concept for this music video!
Anyway, lets move on to the two Korean number systems. There is the native system and the Sino Korean system. They are used for different things.

Native System:
1. Age
2. The number of people
3. Hour of the day
4. Number of hours/things

Sino System:
1. Age
2. Date
3. Temperature
4. Measurements
5. Minutes/seconds
6. Phone numbers
7. Money

Here's one through to ten in the Native System:
하나...hana 1
둘...dool 2
셋...seht 3 (when the ㅅ is on the bottom alone it makes a "t" sound)
넷...neht or net 4
다섯...da-suht 5
여섯...yuh-suht 6
일굽...eel-gob 7
여덟...yuh-duhlb 8
아홉... ah-hop 9
열...yuhl 10

When you want to say 11, you add ten and one, to make "열하나" or "eleven." This pattern continues throughout the system.

스물...seu-mool 20
서른...suh-reun 30
마흔...mah-heun 40
쉰...shwin 50
예순...yeh-soon 60
일흔...eel-heun 70
여든...yuh-deun 80
아흔...ah-heun 90

If you wanted to say twenty two for example, it would be "스물둘"

Sino System:
일...eel 1
이...ee 2
삼...sahm 3
사...sah 4
오...oh 5
육...yook 6
칠...cheel 7
팔...pahl 8
구...goo 9
십...ship 10

When you want to say eleven you would do "십일" just like the native system. But when you get into bigger numbers it changes.

이십...ee-ship 20
삼십...sahm-ship 30
사십...sah-ship 40
오십...oh-ship 50
육십...yook-ship 60
칠십...cheel-ship 70
팔십...pahl-ship 80
구십...goo-ship 90

As you can see the smaller number is now in the front, compared to being the second figure as shown above. For example 21 is written as "이십일" or two, ten, and one. So to clarify, the smaller number in front of the ten shows if its twenty and the last shows how many of the twenty.

백...baek 100
이백...ee-baek 200
천...chuhn 1000
이천...ee-chuhn 2000

These are some other numbers that are helpful. This is meant as an introduction to the number system and definitely isn't as in depth as one could go. Anyway, here you go! Happy Studying!

App Review

Hello! Click Here for this week's song! So I'm trying to keep my learning experience as cheap as possible because I'm a broke high school student. This desire in mine results in a lot of things, like searching through YouTube and the free section in the app store. And finally, the search is over! Maybe! I found this app through a YouTuber named Megan Bowen, who is currently living in Korea and is constantly asked about how she learned. Its called HiNative, and its basically a forum. You ask teachers questions in real time, and a real speaker responds.

Here's a picture of what it looks like and the audio files you can use.

You can ask and answer questions!

Its really helpful! I think the only bad thing about it is that Since its real people responding, sometimes it'll take forever to get an answer, or sometimes you won't get one at all. But, its still free and the best out of the learning apps I've seen. For one, it has set formats for questions which is nice, and also an audio format if you don't know how to write what you want to say or if you want your pronunciation to be correct. On some posts, you can ask if what you're saying is natural and there is a voting system to show you how people think you sound. It's all a very helpful setup and they have plenty of languages to work with. I give it a 9/10!

Common Phrases

Hello! So I decided I'd crank out some posts today! Why not? Click Here for a new song to study to!

So now that We've gone over most of the writing system, I thought it would be fun to learn some common phrases and questions that one would use everyday. These are all in the formal tone. Firstly I will write the Hangeul, next what it means, and lastly the Romanized version, which will help with pronunciation.

네...yes...ne
아니요...no...aniyo
고맙습니다...thank you...gomabseubnida
제발요...please...jebalyo
문제없어요...no problem...munje eobs-eoyo
실례합니다...excuse me...sillyehabnida
죄송합니다...sorry...joesonghabnida  (When the "ㅇ" in underneath its makes the "ng" ending!)
모르겠어요...I don't know...molegess-eoyo
제말이 이해가 가세요?...Do you understand me?...jemale-i ihaega gaseoyo?
이해 했어요...I understand...ihae haesseoyo
이해가 잘 안되요...I don't understand...ihaega jal andoiyo
뭐라고 하셨어요?...pardon...muelago hasyeosseoyo?
잠시만요...just a moment...jamsimanyo
전만에요...you're welcome...cheonman-eyo
무엇을요?...what?...mueos-eul-yo?
어떤거요?...which?...eotteongeoyo?
언제요?...when?...eonjeyo?
어디요?...where?...eodiyo?
왜요?...why?...waeyo?
누가요?...who?...nugayo?
얼마나요?...how many?...eulmanayo?
얼마에요?...how much?...eolma-eyo?

So here we are! This is just some basic vocab. Pronunciation wise, a lot of it is melded together. Happy Studying!

Double Consonants and Dipthongs

Click Here for this week's song to study to! This group just came out with a full length album that I really enjoy, so please support them!

So, this week we shall delve into the world of double consonants and dipthongs. Funny name, but it just means two vowels that come together to make a sound. They are also known as compound or complex vowels.

Dipthongs:
애...Eh (like red or whatever)
에...Eh (means it, as, on, to, etc.)
얘...Yeh
예...Yeh (This is the formal way to say yes)
의...Eu+e
외...Weh (a way to say "but" or "except")
와...Wah
왜...Weh (This means "Why?")
위...Wee
워...Wuh
웨...Weh (used when writing an English word)
..............................................................................................................................................................................

Double Consonants are just ones that you put more emphasis into saying, and are usually the stressed syllable.
Double consonants:
까...Gah (Hard G)
따...Ddah (Hard D)
빠...Bbah (Hard B)
싸...Ssah (Harder S) Also means Cheap!
짜...Jjah (Hard J) Means salty or a person is stingy!

Now that we've covered pretty much the entire writing system, you can help yourself further understand by reading articles or even kids books written in Korean. Honestly, it doesn't matter if you don't understand what it says yet, it will help you memorize the characters. Another way of course is to write the characters over and over again while saying them aloud!  Happy Studying!