Billy Go’s Beginner Korean Course - #59- Colors

Welcome back. In this lesson we're going to learn all about colors. Now first of all, the word for color is 색 or 색깔. Here's an example of how you can use that. 저는 이 색깔을 좋아해요. I like this color. 저는 다른 색깔을 사고 싶어요. I want to buy a different color. If you want to ask what color something is, you can use the adjective 무슨, which means what. Note that this is not the same as the noun what that we learned before. For example, 무슨 색을 제일 좋아해요? What color do you like most? And 무슨 can also be used to ask what before any noun. So you could also say 무슨 약속이 있어요? What appointment do you have? Note that 약속 can both mean an appointment to meet someone, or if you make a promise. Again, be careful not to confuse the adjective 무슨 with the noun what or 뭐. Because 무슨 is an adjective, it can only be used when it comes before a noun. Next, let's learn a word that's much more useful, I think, than 무슨, and that is the adjective 어떤, which means what kind of, and you can use it to ask for more information about something. Here are some examples. 어떤 음악을 좋아하세요? What kind of music do you like? 어떤 장미가 제일 예뻐요? What kind of roses are the prettiest? 빌리 씨는 어떤 사람이세요? What kind of person is Billy? 이게 어떤 음식이에요? What kind of food is this? Note also that 어떤 originally comes from the descriptive verb 어떻다, which means to be how. So let's talk about colors then. In Korean, many colors are actually verbs, descriptive verbs. So instead of just saying the color blue or red, well in Korean these would actually be to be blue, or to be red. And since they're descriptive verbs, they also conjugate like descriptive verbs, which we'll learn about in a moment, but first let's take a look at an example with the verb to be blue. So the verb 파랗다, to be blue, conjugates just like any other descriptive verb. You can say 이 가방이 파래요. This bag is blue. Or 저는 파란 가방을 샀어요. I bought a blue bag. Or you can say 저는 파란색을 좋아해요. I like the color blue. Many color descriptive verb stems will end with a 히읗, so in this case there's an extra step that you have to do. First, remove the 히읗. Then, whether you're using that color at the end of a sentence, or before a noun as an adjective, you'll have to do a couple different steps. So first, if you're using that descriptive verb at the end of a sentence, you'll then add the vowel 에. Next, combine that vowel 에 into the previous vowel. And finally, attach 요. So the verb 노랗다, meaning to be yellow, would become 노래요. So you can have this sentence. 이 신발이 아주 노래요. These shoes are very yellow. However, if you're going to conjugate one of those descriptive verbs as a color to use before a noun, after you remove the 히읗, you can simply add a 니은, and you're done. For example, 파랗다 would become 파란. Now you have an adjective that you can use before a noun. So you can make this sentence. 파란 연필을 샀어요. I bought a blue pencil. However, note that the descriptive verb 좋다, to be good, which also ends with a 히읗, doesn't conjugate like this. It's an exception, and it just becomes 좋은. Alright, not every color will be a descriptive verb, but some of them are. Here are the most common colors that you should learn. 파랗다, to be blue. 빨갛다, to be red. 노랗다, to be yellow. 하얗다, to be white. These are the most common descriptive verb colors that you should learn. 검정색, black. 주황색, orange. 초록색, green. 보라색, purple. 회색, gray. 갈색, brown. Again, notice that not all of these are descriptive verbs, and many of them just end with 색, meaning color. Therefore, these ones that end with 색 are nouns, and can just be used as is, like you could in English. So if a color ends with 색, you can just use it as is, as a noun, or as an adjective, just like you can in English. Here's an example. As a noun, 저는 초록색을 제일 좋아해요. I like green, or I like the color green, the most. As an adjective, you could say, 초록색 우산이 너무 비싸요. The green umbrella is too expensive. And if you want to use it at the end of a sentence, just like a verb, you can simply attach 이다, to be. 벽이 초록색이에요. The wall is green. So you can see that this works just like it would in English. However, if the color is a descriptive verb, it must be conjugated just like a descriptive verb, whether it's going to be used as a noun, or as an adjective, or at the end of a sentence. Here's an example of that. As a noun, you could say, 저는 빨간색을 좋아해요. I like the color red. Note that 빨간색 written as one word literally means red 색, red color. Or as an adjective, you could say, 저는 빨간 공을 샀어요. I bought a red ball. And finally, as a verb, you can say, 이 벌레는 빨개요. This bug is red. All right, now here's where something fun happens. We learned that we can change a descriptive verb color into a noun by attaching it directly before 색, meaning color. For example, 빨간색이 검정색보다 더 예뻐요. Red is prettier than black. In fact, you can attach 색 to the end of any conjugated descriptive verb color just like this, and then use that color as a noun, as an adjective, or as a verb by attaching 이다 to be to the end. And this makes it a lot easier to work with colors. For example, you could normally say, 파란 가방을 사고 싶어요. I want to buy a blue bag. Or you can just say, 파란색 가방을 사고 싶어요. Here's another, 저는 노란 자동차를 가지고 있어요. I have a yellow car. Or you can just say, 저는 노란색 자동차를 가지고 있어요. And finally, 이 말이 양보다 더 하얘요. This horse is whiter than a sheep. Or you can just say, 이 말이 양보다 더 하얀색이에요. So let's do some practice with colors. We have a conversation here between two people, 지나 and 혜린. First, 지나 says, 저는 어제 빨간 드레스를 샀어요. Yesterday I bought a red dress. 언제 입을 거예요? When will you wear it? 몰라요. I don't know. 하지만 저는 빨간색을 정말 좋아해요. But I really like the color red. 저는 빨간색보다 검정색을 더 좋아해요. I like black more than red. 그래요? Is that so? Really? 네, 하지만 검정색 옷이 없어요. Yes, but I do not have any black clothes. 회색하고 하얀색만 있어요. I only have gray and white. 지금 같이 옷을 사러 갈까요? Shall we go now together to buy clothes? 아, 아니요. No, 괜찮아요. It's okay. 저는 지금 돈이 없어요. I don't have any money now. 저는 어제 빨간 드레스를 샀어요. 언제 입을 거예요? 몰라요. 하지만 저는 빨간색을 정말 좋아해요. 저는 빨간색보다 검정색을 더 좋아해요. 그래요? 네, 하지만 검정색 옷이 없어요. 회색하고 하얀색만 있어요. 지금 같이 옷을 사러 갈까요? 아, 아니요. 괜찮아요. 저는 지금 돈이 없어요. But before we go, I have a few notes. Just as there are dozens and dozens of different colors in English, the same is true in Korean. There can be different shades of colors, or different colors used for specific purposes. For example, there are two common words for pink, 분홍색 and 핑크색. Both of these are used, but 핑크색 is more common these days among younger people. So in this lesson we introduced colors, as well as how to use descriptive verb colors, nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Make sure to review everything that we've learned today, and I'll see you again in the next lesson. 그럼 다음에 또 봐! Well then, see you again next time!