How to Learn Korean Grammar as a Beginner

If you've just started to learn about Korean grammar, you're probably trying to understand grammar concepts like topic, subject, adjective, native sign or numbers, verb endings and verb conjugation, and many more. But here's the thing. As a beginner, what should you actually focus on first? And in this video, I'm going to teach you the three most important grammar concepts that you need to understand before you dive into anything else. The first concept that you need to understand is Korean sentence structure. And it's quite easy if we compare it with English sentence structure. So let's take a look at this sentence in English. Kyle kicked the ball. Remember, in English, the sentence structure is subject, verb, and object. But in Korean, we're only going to change one thing. We're going to change the order of the verb and the object. So in Korean sentence structure is subject, object, verb. Let's go ahead and change the word too. So, Kyle, the ball, kicked. We have it in Korean sentence structure. Now, I'm going to translate each word into Korean. Kyle, Kyle, the ball, gong, kicked, chada. I just translated it into its purest form. So we just learned Korean sentence structure is SOV, or subject, object, verb. But keep this in mind. This is just the basic structure and people won't understand you But if you want people to actually understand what you're saying, you need to understand this concept. And this is where the second concept comes in. The second concept that you need to understand is Korean verbs. Korean verbs are so important. I want to put stars next to it. They're important because they decide the formality level and the tense for the sentence. In Korean, we have three levels of formality. We have informal, the way you talk with your friend or someone who's younger than you. Secondly, we have polite formal. That's the most commonly used one. This is when you would talk to a stranger or someone who's older than you. The last level is honorific. And this is the most formal one where you would use it in work settings or to elders. And if you're just starting out, I'd recommend starting out with polite formal. And in this video, I'm going to be using polite formal. And verbs are highly correlated to formality because the formality can change depending on how you end the verb. For example, in Korea, before we eat the meal, we actually say, Thank you for the meal. To my friend, I would say, To someone who's older than me, I would say, And someone who's an elder, I would say, So depending on how you end the verb, it really can change the formality level. So if I were to say to an elder, that would be considered rude. And that's why you need to have a good understanding with verbs with the formality levels. The second thing that you need to know with verbs are the different tenses. And when we conjugate into different tenses, there are two terms that you must know. The first term is dictionary form. So all Korean verbs start in their dictionary form or the most simple form. So for example, if we were to look up in a dictionary, you find 가다 in its dictionary form. What about to see? To speak? To read? These are all in its dictionary form. And you're going to notice in its dictionary form, they always end with 다. The second term that you need to know is verb stems. Verb stems are just everything before the last 다. So for 가다, the verb stem is 가. For 보다, the verb stem is 보. For 말하다, the verb stem is 말하. For 읽다, the verb stem is 읽. And the reason why verb stems are so important is, when you're trying to conjugate it either to past, present, future, or present progressive, the very first step is actually identifying the verb stem. And from the verb stem, you can actually conjugate it. So for example, I'll take 가다. The verb stem is 가. So if I conjugate it, it would be 갔어요. And how we can conjugate verbs into different tenses is a video for another day. So now you know that verbs are very important because it decides the formality and the tense of the sentence. Let's go back to our sentence. So, 칼, 공, 차다. Notice right now, 차다, it is in its dictionary form. But right now, we want people to actually understand what we're saying. So we need to conjugate it. And what do we need to identify the first thing? We need to identify the verb stem, which is 차. So if I want to conjugate into the past tense, it would be 칼, 공, 찼어요. We conjugated the dictionary form into its past tense. Now that we conjugated the verb, the sentence is 칼, 공, 찼어요. Kyle kicked the ball. Now, people will understand what you're trying to say, but we're still not there. We actually need to understand the next concept for you to actually sound like a Korean. Before we move on to our third concept, please like and subscribe to my channel. It'll mean a lot to me and it will help other Korean learners learn Korean. And the next concept that we're going to be talking about is particles. Particles are so important. They're like colors on a black and white screen. They're like 김치 to 삼겹살. And they're like cheese to 불닭. They complete the sentence and make it full meaning. So then what are particles? Particles tell us what role each word plays in a sentence. And they're attached to different nouns and pronouns. To understand particles better, let's go back to our sentence. 칼, 공, 찼어요. Remember right now, it's subject, the one who's doing the action of kicking. And then we have object as 공 or the ball because it is receiving the action of the verb. So it's receiving the kicking. And then we have the verb. But then from here, we actually need a particle for the subject and a particle for the object. And let's look at what the subject is first. So in Korean, the subject is kind of like a new concept. Because in Korean, you can actually use it as the topic or the subject. And how we differentiate between the topic and the subject is by particles again. So let's take a look at the topic first. For topic particles, we have vowel or consonant. Whether the noun ends in a vowel, so basically 아, 오, 의, 이, and etc. All the vowel. In this case, if you're going to be using as a topic, you need to add 는. If it ends in a consonant or 받침, I'll give you an example. Like 알, 람, 살. These all have 받침 or the end in consonant. In this case, you need to add 은. So let's practice. Right now, we have this sentence. 저 blank 카이리에요. If you take a look at the pronoun, it ends in a vowel. That's why for the topic particle, you need to put 저는 카이리에요. What about this one? 사장님 blank 갔어요. If you take a look at the noun here, now it ends in a consonant. That's why you need to use 사장님은 갔어요. Remember, these are topic particles. Now let's try to look at subject particles. The rule is actually the same whether it ends in a vowel or consonant. But then, now on the subject, if it ends in a vowel, you add 가. And if it ends in a consonant, you're going to be adding 이. Let's take a look at this example. 사자 blank 배고파요. Right now, the noun, it ends in a vowel. That's why it's going to be 사자 가 배고파요. What about this one? 학생 blank 공부해요. The noun ends in a consonant. That's why as a subject, it's going to be 학생 이 공부해요. Now that we looked at the difference between topic particles and subject particles, let's move on to object particles. So, object particles too, thankfully, the rules are the same if it ends in a vowel or consonant. But then, if it ends in a vowel, you need to put 를. And if it ends in a consonant, you need to put 을. Let's take a look at this example. Now, the object of the sentence right now, it ends in a vowel. That's why you need to add 휴지 를 썼어요. What about this one? 밥 blank 먹었어요. If you look at the noun, it ends in a consonant. That's why you need to put 밥을 먹었어요. So, just memorize this chart when you're confused with topic, subject, and object particles. Because why? The rules are the same whether it ends in a vowel or consonant. And now, if we head back to our original sentence now, 카일 blank 공 blank 찼어요. Remember, 카일 here is subject, 공, ball is object, and here is a chart. Then, how should we fill it in? It should be 카일 이 공 을 찼어요. Because my name ends in a consonant, consonant subject particle will be 이. And the object 공 right now, what does it end with? It also ends in a consonant. So, you're going to be adding 을. So, right now, we have the sentence as 카일이 공을 찼어요. So, now we actually have a complete sentence. 카일이 공을 찼어요. Kyle kicked the ball. But if we change this sentence into a picture like this, it's quite empty and it's too simple, right? I know you and I, we want to put more color to the picture. We want to put more meaning to the sentence. So, what do we need to do? We need to put more particles. So, let's try to add the information where Kyle kicked the ball. For example, let's say Kyle kicked the ball at the park. In Korean, park is 공원, 공원. And here, we're going to be using location particle 에서. It would be 공원에서. So, now, if we add it to the sentence, it's going to be 카일이 공원에서 공을 찼어요. And now, let's take a look at our picture. Now, let's put who he kicked the ball with. Kyle kicked the ball at the park with a friend. 친구 is friend, 친구. And the particle that we need to use for the word with is 하고. So, with a friend would be 친구하고. And if we put this into the sentence, it's going to be 카일이 친구하고 공원에서 공을 찼어요. Now, let's take a look at our picture. Now, let's try to put when Kyle kicked the ball. So, Kyle kicked the ball at the park with his friend at one o'clock. So, one o'clock in Korean is 한 시. But we need to add the time particle 에. So, 한 시 에 would be at one o'clock. So, if you put it all together, it's going to be 카일이 한 시에 친구하고 공원에서 공을 찼어요. And now, let's take a look at our picture. Right? It's very full, colorful. And how did we do it? By adding particles. Now, that you understand the concept of Korean sentence structure, Korean verbs, and particles, this is what you need to do next. First, you need to understand how to conjugate different verbs into different tenses. Also, you need to learn irregular verb conjugations too. Also, you need to study more particles. Today, we only looked at the difference between topic and subject as particles. But then when it comes to context, you need to see when to use it and what situation. And from there, if you want to make your sentences full of meaning and more color to it, you need to study particles like 에, 에서, 부터, 까지, 으로, 한테, 에게, and many more. And if you want to learn all of these concepts and Korean numbers and counters, and actually learn how to put this in real Korean conversation, click on the link in my description for my course. But if you're not ready, no worries. Because I'm going to be uploading more videos here. So, until then, 안녕히 가세요.