Click here for a workbook to go along with this lesson. Jump to: Vocabulary Korean Irregular: ㅎ 이렇다/그렇다/저렇다 A Discussion about the Use of ~의 Vocabulary Click on the English word to see information
and examples of that word in use (you probably won’t be able to understand the grammar within the sentences at this point, but it is good to see as you progress through your learning). A PDF file neatly presenting these words and extra information can be found here. You can try to find all of the words from this lesson, and all of the words from every lesson in Unit 1 in a package of twenty
five Word Searches. Nouns: The pronunciation of this word is closer to “초록쌕” Notes: Color words that end in “색” are nouns. However, these words are
often used like adjectives by placing them before a noun. Examples: 보라색 = (the color) purple Examples: 연두색 = (the color) light green Example: 분홍색 = (the color) pink Notes: The Konglish word “핑크(색)” is used more and more commonly these days. Example: 갈색 = (the color) brown The pronunciation of this word is closer to “갈쌕” Example: 회색 = (the color) grey Example: 적색 = (the color)
red The pronunciation of this word is closer to “적쌕” Common Usages: Example: 셔츠 =
shirt Common Usages: Examples: 눈 = snow Common Usages: Examples: 눈보라 = blizzard, snow storm Example: 뉴스 = news Example: 전쟁 = war Common Usages: Example: 작품 = a piece of work Common
Usages: Example: 날짜 = date Common Usages: Example: 그릇 = bowl The pronunciation of this word is closer to “그륻” Common Usages: Examples: 등 = one's back Notes: When you want to say that your “back hurts,” you should say “허리가 아파요” – which translates to “my hip
hurts.” Example: 손등 = back of hand The pronunciation of this word is closer to “손뜽” Example: 손톱 = fingernail Common Usages: Example: 독자 = readers The pronunciation of this word is closer to “독짜” Example: 부부 = couple, married couple Common Usages: Examples: Verbs: Example: 들르다 = to stop by 들르다 follows the 르 irregular Common Usages: Example: 내려오다 = to come down Notes: Compound verb of 내리다 and 오다. Example: 내려가다 = to go down This word appears in Korean Sign Explanation
Video 16. Notes: Compound verb of 내리다 and 가다. This is also used to refer to going down (geographically) in the country. Example: 드러내다 = to reveal, to show Common Usages: Example: 발표하다 = to announce The noun form
of this word translates to “announcement” or “presentation” Example: Passive Verbs: Example: Adjectives: Notes: 푸르다 gets conjugated into 푸르러(요) when ~아/어 is added to it. Example: 노랗다 = to be yellow The pronunciation of this word is closer to “노라타” 노랗다 follows the ㅎ irregular Idioms: Examples: 빨갛다 = to be red The pronunciation of this word is closer to “빨가타” 빨갛다
follows the ㅎ irregular Common Usages: Example: 하얗다 = to be white The pronunciation of this word is closer to “하야타” 하얗다 follows the ㅎ irregular Common Usages: Example: 까맣다 = to be black The pronunciation of this word is closer to “까마타” 까맣다 follows the ㅎ irregular Common Usages: Examples: 파랗다 = to be blue The pronunciation of this word is closer to “파라타” 파랗다 follows the ㅎ irregular Common Usages: Example: 섬세하다 = to be delicate Common Usages: Example: 이렇다 = to be like this It is hard to describe the meaning of 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 without any other grammatical principle added to it. Much like 이, 그 and 저 can mean “this,” “that” and “that;” 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 can mean “like this,” “like that” and “like that.” It is easier to describe and understand the meaning of these words when other grammatical principles are attached to it. ~ㄴ/은 (Lesson 4) is often added to 이렇다 (to create 이런) to describe a noun. For example: 이런 일은 위험하다 = This type of work is dangerous ~게 (Lesson 8) is often added to 이렇다 (to create 이렇게) to turn it into an adverb. For example: 저는 이렇게 하고 싶어요 = I want to do it like this When Korean people ask a “why” question, they often stress “why” by using 이렇게. For example: 왜 이렇게 일찍 가요? = Why are you going so early (like this)? 그렇다 = to be like that It is hard to describe the meaning of 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 without any other grammatical principle added to it. Much like 이, 그 and 저 can mean “this,” “that” and “that;” 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 can mean “like this,” “like that” and “like that.” It is easier to describe and understand the meaning of these words when other grammatical principles are attached to it. ~ㄴ/은 (Lesson 4) is often added to 그렇다 (to create 그런) to describe a noun. For example: 저는 그런 사람을 믿지 않아요 = I don’t trust that type of person/those types of people ~게 (Lesson 8) is often added to 그렇다 (to create 그렇게) to turn it into an adverb. For example: 저는 그렇게 운동 하고 싶어요 = I want to exercise like that Many other grammatical principles are commonly added to 그렇다. I discuss this more in the actual lesson below. 저렇다 = to be like that It is hard to describe the meaning of 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 without any other grammatical principle added to it. Much like 이, 그 and 저 can mean “this,” “that” and “that;” 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 can mean “like this,” “like that” and “like that.” It is easier to describe and understand the meaning of these words when other grammatical principles are attached to it. ~ㄴ/은 (Lesson 4) is often added to 저렇다 (to create 저런) to describe a noun. For example: 저는 저런 여자를 좋아하지 않아요 = I don’t like that kind of girl ~게 (Lesson 8) is often added to 저렇다 (to create 저렇게) to turn it into an adverb. For example: 아빠는 왜 저렇게 말하고 있어요? = Why is dad talking like that? Adverbs
and Other Words: Notes: Placed immediately before a noun to say “most.” Often times “의” is attached to 대부분 when it describes an upcoming noun. Examples: 송이 = counter for “bunch” of bananas or single flower Notes: You can use the word “꽃다발” to indicate that you bought a bunch or “bouquet” of flowers. Example: 종류 = counter for a “type/kind of thing” The pronunciation of this word is closer to “종뉴” Common Usages: Notes: 종류 and 가지 have the same meaning. They are used as a counter when you are talking about types of things. Example: 가지 = counter for a “type of thing” Common Usages: Example: For help memorizing these words, try using our Memrise tool. Introduction In this lesson, you will learn how to use colors in Korean by applying the ㅎ irregular. In addition, you will learn about the words 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 and how the ㅎ irregular can be applied to those words. Let’s get started. Korean Irregular: ㅎ Korean Colors You learned all about the Korean irregulars in Lesson 7. On top of all of those
irregulars, there is one more that you should be aware of. 좋다 = 좋아 However, a lot of colors in Korean end with the final syllable ㅎ (see the vocabulary list for a good list of these). When conjugating these words (which are adjectives) to allow them to describe an upcoming noun, we can add ~ㄴ/은, just like it is done with other adjectives. However, in some words (mostly colors) the ㅎ gets dropped and ㄴ gets added directly to the word stem. For example:
You can use those color words to describe objects in sentences where appropriate. For example: 저 노란 집이 예뻐요 = That yellow house is pretty If you want to use these words as nouns (as in, “the color white” or “the color red”), you can add “색” after the adjective form of the color (색 means ‘color’): 노란색 = the color yellow Though these words are nouns, they are often placed before another noun to describe it. For example 저 노란색 집이 예뻐요 = That yellow (colored) house is pretty Here, each of these “color” nouns is describing an upcoming noun without being an adjective. This is a good time to teach you about another usage of the particle “~의”. “~의” can be attached to words that commonly describe nouns (like adjectives) but are inherently not adjectives. What I mean by this, is that you will often find words that are always (or very commonly) placed before nouns to describe them, but are technically classified as adverbs or nouns (and hence, don’t end with “~다” like a typical adjective). It is acceptable to attach the particle “~의” to these adjective-like adverbs or nouns when they describe an upcoming noun. The meaning is the same when using “~의” or not using it, but in speech it is more common to not use it. For example, all of the above could be written as: 저 노란색의 집이 예뻐요 =
That yellow (colored) house is pretty Although acceptable and understandable, it would be slightly more natural to not use ~의 with these color words. Therefore, I didn’t make audio recordings for the sentences above using ~의. In other situations with other (non-color) words, you will more commonly see ~의 attached to a noun or adverb being used to describe a noun. For example, a common word that ~의 is attached to is “대부분,” which translates to “most.” Just like in English 대부분 is usually placed immediately before a noun to say “most (noun).” For example: 대부분 사람들… = Most people… In each case, it is also possible to attach ~의. For example: 대부분의 사람들…
= Most people… These constructions can now be used in sentences where appropriate. For example: 대부분의 사람들은 아침밥을 먹지 않아요 = Most people don’t eat breakfast (rice breakfast) 대부분의 부부들은 같은 침대에서 자요 = Most couples sleep in the same bed 대부분의 독자들은 그 작품을 안 좋아해요 =
Most readers don’t like that work Using ~의 here is in effect the same reason why we can attach ~의 to counters when placed before a noun (as you learned in Lesson 10). To jog your memory, in that lesson I said it was acceptable to place a counter before a noun you are counting followed by the use of “~의.” For example: 나는 네 개의 펜을 샀어 = I bought four pens The number-counter pairs in the above sentences are effectively describing the upcoming noun. Of course, the number-counter pairs are not adjectives, so ~의 can be used. I dig deeper into the use of “의” and specifically how it relates to “적” (which was introduced in Lesson 16) later in the lesson. I want you to be aware of this usage of ~의 and how it can be attached to adverbs and nouns when describing an upcoming noun. However, the main purpose of this lesson is to talk about color words and the ㅎ irregular, so I will continue with that now. Often, the most common way to describe a color is to use a word that only exists as a noun and does not have an adjective form. For example, look at the following: 초록색 = (the color) green The above are all color words, but they do not have a respective adjective form (like 빨갛다 and 빨간색). In order to use these words to describe the color of something, they can be placed immediately before a noun (naturally) without ~의 and (slightly unnaturally) with 의 just as described earlier. For example: 저는 초록색(의) 펜으로 쓰고 싶어요 = I want to write this with a green pen When adding “~아/어” (or any of its derivatives) to color words where the stem ends in ‘ㅎ,’ an irregular conjugation applies. For now, the only situation you know where you would add ~아/어 (or a derivative like ~았/었) is when conjugating using the honorifics introduced in Lesson 6. Note that there are other times when you would have to add ~아/어 to words, you just haven’t learned about them yet. When adding ~아/어 to these words, the ㅎ is dropped and the final vowel changes to either ㅐ or ㅒ. If the final vowel is ㅏ or ㅓ, it changes to ㅐ, and if the final vowel is ㅑ, it changes to ㅒ. For example:
Here are some of these used in sentences: 불이 노래요 = The light is yellow In each case, it would also be acceptable to use the noun form of each of the words above and conjugate the sentence with 이다. For example: 불이 노란색이에요 = The light is (the color) yellow A more advanced Korean speaker (or a Korean person) could argue that the two sets of sentences are not completely identical. Their meanings and translations could be exactly the same, but they could have a slightly different nuance. For example, “얼굴이 왜 빨개요?” would be more about a face being red as a result of it blushing, whereas “얼굴이 왜 빨간색이에요?” would be more about a face that is actually red from something like paint. This nuance is very subtle and not something you need to worry about as a beginner. Even as an advanced learner, I find it very hard to articulate this difference into words. In a way, I find the difference between the two similar to “why is your face red?” and “why is your face the color red?” ————– So far, you have seen how ~ㄴ/은 and ~아/어 cause the ㅎ irregulars to change. Since the beginning of this course, you have also learned the following additions that could potentially cause a change to a word stem: ~ㅂ/습니다 (Lesson 6) To this point, you have seen how these additions can cause changes to the irregulars introduced in Lesson 7. Because this is your first time learning about the ㅎ irregular, we should quickly discuss the changes that occur as a result of adding these to ㅎ irregular words:
노랗다 + ~ㅂ/습니다 = 노랗습니다
살다 + ~ㄹ/을 = 살
살다 + ~니 = 사니 The table below shows all of the additions you have learned so far that can cause a change to a word stem. This table shows how these additions affect various words, including words that follow the ㅎ irregular. Examples where irregulars apply are in bold.
You will learn more additions in later lessons. In those lessons, you will learn how each addition affects each irregular – including the ㅎ irregular. ————– The words 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 are not colors, but they also follow the ㅎ irregular. I will talk about those in the section below. 이렇다/그렇다/저렇다 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 are all adjectives. Each word is essentially the same – the only difference being the difference between 이, 그 and 저. Remember the difference between these? 이 means “this” 그 means “that” when you are referring to something in a previous sentence. For example: “I went to Canada last week. At that time I forgot about my test that I had to write.” 저 means “that” when something is far from you. 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 are very important and common in Korean, so let’s look at them one by one. 이렇다 이렇다 means “like this,” but (along with 그렇다 and 저렇다) is rarely used in its dictionary form. It is generally used in two ways: as an adjective and as an adverb: As an Adjective: 이런 이런 일은 위험하다 =
This type of work is dangerous As an Adverb: 이렇게 저는 이렇게 하고 싶어요 = I want to do it like this You’ll notice that in the last two examples, the words “like this” in English don’t necessarily need to be in the sentence. It is hard to fully explain in words, as this is something that you really just pick up after a while when learning Korean. When Korean people ask a “why” question, they often stress “why” by using 이렇게. *Also notice the usage of “일” in the sentence above. Although the best translation of the word “일” is “work” (in noun form), it is very common for Korean people to use “일” to represent some sort of task or thing that somebody has to do (regardless of if we would call it “work” in English). I am reluctant to show you the most common example of this being used because you haven’t learned the grammar within it yet. Nonetheless, you will often see “저는 할 일이 있어요” which translates to “I have something to do.” As of now, you haven’t learned how “할” is being used, but try to focus on the usage of “일” in this sentence. The sentence is essentially saying “I have a task that I will do.” The sentence above could also be written as “이것은 왜 이렇게 어려워요.” 그렇다 Now that you know about 이렇다, learning about 그렇다 is simple. Like 이렇다, 그렇다 is usually used as an adjective or an adverb: As an Adjective: 그런 저는 그런 사람을 믿지 않아요 = I don’t trust that type of person/those types of people As an Adverb: 그렇게 저는 그렇게 생각하지 않아요 = I don’t think like that 저렇다 저렇다 can be used the same way as 이렇다 and 그렇다; as 저런 and 저렇게. All you need to do is to keep in mind the differences between 이, 그 and 저. As an adjective: 저런 As an adverb: 저렇게 Just like our color words presented earlier in this lesson, when ~아/어 (or a derivative) is added to 이렇다, 그렇다 or 저렇다, an irregular conjugation occurs. Let’s look at this next. 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 As Predicating Words 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 can also be used as the predicating word (i.e. the end) of a sentence. These are usually only seen in relatively simple sentences asking or indicating if something is “like this/like that.” For example: 이 학교도 그렇지 않습니까? = Is this school not like that as well? The most common way that you will see any of these words being used, especially for a beginner, is in the following form: 왜 이래? Notice that the sameㅎ irregular applies to the words above. That is, when adding ~아/어 (or one of its derivatives), the ㅎ is dropped and the ㅓ changes to ㅐ. In each case, the speaker is asking “Why are you like this/that?” This is very common in Korean conversation, as it essentially is like saying “what’s wrong?” or “what’s the matter” or “what the **** are you doing?” 그렇다 specifically is also commonly used by people to express their content/agreement with some sort of statement or situation. For example: Person 1: 내일 공원에 같이 가고 싶어요? = Do you want to go to the park together tomorrow? Person 1: 제가
지금 갈 거예요 = I’m going to go now Person 1: 저는 내일 회사에 못 와요 = Tomorrow, I can’t come to work In this same respect, it is often used as a question to express one’s “disbelief” or “shock.” In reality, the speaker isn’t actually “shocked” or “in disbelief” but is merely showing his/her interest in the conversation. This would be akin to using the word “Really?!” in English. For example: Person 1: 저는 지난 주에 캐나다에 있었어요 = I was in Canada
last week Person 1: 나는 보통 고기를 안 먹어 = I usually don’t eat meat Person 1: 이 물이 맛이 없어 = This water doesn’t taste good Many other grammatical principles can be added to 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 but these haven’t been introduced yet. Specifically, you will find that many grammatical principles can attach to 그렇다 to have their respective meaning combined with the meaning of 그렇다. These will all be introduced in future lessons (where the grammatical principle is introduced), but here is a quick taste of what I am referring to. I suggest browsing through this list just to get an idea of: a) How versatile 그렇다 is This list is by no means exhaustive, but rather a small taste of some of the concepts that you will be learning in the next 100 lessons or so. 그렇다 + ㅁ/음 (Introduced in Lesson 29) 그렇다 + ~ㄴ/은지 (Introduced in
Lesson 30) 그렇다 + ~ㄹ/을 것 같다 (Introduced in Lesson 35) 그렇다 + ~아/어서 (Introduced
Lesson 37) 그렇다 + ~기 때문에 (Introduced in Lesson 38) 그렇다 + ~(으)면 (Introduced in
Lesson 43) 그렇다 + ~지만 (Introduced in Lesson 47) 그렇다 + ~았/었으면 좋겠다 (Introduced in
Lesson 61) 그렇다 + ~ㄹ/을까? (Introduced in Lesson 63) 그렇다 + ~ㄴ/은데 (Introduced in
Lesson 76 and 77) 그렇다 + ~구나 (Introduced in Lesson 82) 그렇다 + ~네(요) (Introduced in Lesson 83) 그렇다 + ~지/죠 (Introduced in Lesson 93) At this point, I hope you can understand how 이렇다, 그렇다 and 저렇다 can be used, and their general meanings. In addition, I hope you can understand how color words can be used in sentences. Just below, I will continue the discussion of the use of ~의 and how it is used on words where ~적 is commonly attached. I have had some people ask me about the difference between using “의” on a word to describe a noun (like 흰색의 차) and using “적” on a word to describe a noun. The grammar below is a little bit advanced, but this is the lesson that it belongs in (as I am already discussing the purpose of “~의” attached to nouns or adverbs to describe an upcoming noun). It might be good to glimpse over this, and then come back to it later when you have a better understanding of Korean grammar. As you will recall from Lesson 16, “적” can be added to words to change them into a type of adjective as well. As I mentioned in Lesson 16, the addition of “적” to a noun causes the word to change a little bit. It’s hard to say exactly how the word changes, because it is a little bit different for every word. The examples that are given in the lesson are: 경제 = economy/economics 역사 = history 과학 = science 충동 = impulse/shock 문화 = culture 개인 = individual/personal Some other examples that you might want to jot down, but not memorize at this point because they are quite advanced: 열정 = passion 체계 = system 획일 = standardization 세계 = world Before I start, I want to first mention that the “의” that we are talking about here is not the possessive particle that is discussed in Lesson 3. Rather, it is a particle that is added to a word that is inherently not an adjective, but allows it to describe an upcoming noun (like an adjective). Most of the time, adding “적” literally changes the translation of the word. As you can see in the list above, the word changes when “적” is added. For example, from “passion” to “passionate”. However, when just “의” is added to the word, the translation would not change – and using “noun+의” only makes sense if that word (the original word) can actually act as an adjective (without being an adjective) to begin with. The easiest examples to start with are ones that work with “적” but not with “의”. For example: 열정 means “passion.” I can say things like: “적” can be added to mean
“passionate”. For example: However, simply adding “의” to the noun (열정) does not change it from “passion” to “passionate”. The meaning still stays as “passion”. Using this in a sentence would yield: In the same way “과학” means “science” I can use “과학적” to describe a noun that would be natural being described by “scientific”. For example: 과학적인 증거 = scientific proof However, “과학의 증거” literally translates to “science proof” which wouldn’t sound right. Now, just like everything in life, there are some exceptions. Specifically, the word “개인” (without the use of “적” or “의” actually means personal. Therefore, just like how the word “대부분(의)” (most) isn’t actually an adjective but feels like an adjective, “개인의” can be placed before a noun to describe it. My advice is to learn words with “적” as separate words. Don’t try to think of words with “적” as a noun followed by a grammatical principle, but try to think of them as their own words with their own translation. From what I can see – there are some words where the “-적” version of the word is the same as the non-적 version of the word. In these cases, it appears that both “의” and “적” can be used. Okay, I got it! Take me to the next lesson! Or, Want to practice your listening skills? This YouTube video will prompt you with Korean sentences to dictate using the concepts from this lesson. |