It's Fortunate - 다행이다
Koreans say “다행이다” when things turn out to be better than expected in tough situations or in unfortunate accidents. It is conceptually equivalent to “It’s…
Conjugation: 오다
오-지마세요: Don’t come. (Command – Negative, polite) 오-셨어요: Came (Past tense – Positive, polite); “참 잘 오셨어요 = Informal/friendly way to say “Welcome!” (instead of…
How to Ask Out Someone, Korean Way
Do you want to ask someone out on a date, speaking in Korean? Your success would depend on many factors, of course. From a linguistic…
Metaphor - Korean Style
Conversations between two Koreans can become metaphorical, more often than in the West. Some Koreans just enjoy saying things indirectly, to the extent that they…
Simile in Korean
Adverbial predicate: A-처럼 / A-같이 (… like A) => Followed by a verb or an adjective. 남남처럼 살아가다 = Keep living like strangers 꽃처럼…
Even If You Don't Find It, Come Back - 찾지 못해도 와
찾다 can mean various things depending on contexts, but mostly it means 1) Find, or 2) Look for. English and other European languages have separate…
Please Just Forget Me - 날 그만 잊어요
그만 is such a mysteriously difficult Korean adverb that it deserves an honorary mention here. In many sentences, it means “stop” doing something, so it…
Graffiti of Love; -서 vs. -면서
Korean is an agglutinative language. It is of paramount importance to pay attention to ENDINGS of verbs and adjectives in Korean, since they work like…
Are You Hearing, All This Story of Mine? - 듣고 있나요 나의 이 모든 얘기를
그가 그렇게 얘기한 것 같아요. = It seems that he said so. 그거 이제 알 것 같아요. = I think I understand that now. 이…
제발 = Please???
In English, as in some other languages, saying the word “please” is one of the few ways to make you sound more polite and respectful,…
