Basic Grammar: 의 

What is 의 and how do we use it? 

의 is a possessive pronoun as it is expressed in english :)

for example: 우리 (we, us) + 사랑 (love) = 우리의 사랑 (our love)

applying on other pronouns: I=내 |My=나의 you=너 |Yours=너의 We=우리 |Our=우리의

 However it’s not necessarily used, you can say 우리 사랑 and it would totally make sense, in fact, Koreans don’t usually use it to express possesion; they would just use the pronoun and object and it would directly be understood as possesive, like 내 이름 은(my name is), you didn’t use 의 here but it’s still correct :D

How is it pronounced? It may be a bit hard for some foreigners to pronounce it but it is pronounced as 애 (ae).

Reader Requests - “I” and “You” 

So about a week ago, I put out a question text post asking for topics to write a lesson about. This was a feeble attempt to make this a more collaborative tumblr. And I was honestly somewhat surprised when people responded. With several different topics suggested. So I’ve decided to group these off on their own as “Reader Requests”. 

The first Reader Request is the first answer to the question submitted by then ghadah-photography, now ghadahme.

Alright. So. Grammar is not exactly my strong suit. If it was, I wouldn’t have created this tumblr to begin with. But I can help with the whole forms of “I” and “You” issue. 

So ghadahme gave a couple different characters for us to use: 나, 너, 내가, 네가, 저, and 당신. I’m going to go through these and write what in my experience I’ve used them for. 

• 나 - 나 is the most basic and common form of the word “I”. Pretty much anytime you want to translate something from English to Korean, you use 나. However, it is only when that has something only pertains to you. Just off the top of my head, thinking of examples, it’s usually used about your characteristics, like age, ethnicity, occupation, et cetera. It’s a little complicated, but if you’re stumped on what to use, this is the default. 
• 너 - 너 is the most basic form of “you”. Grammatically, it’s used under the same circumstances as 나. 

There is something that I should note here though and it may explain some of the confusion that you’ve been having with “I” and “you”. The subject is typically dropped in Korean. I believe this is called a Null Subject Language. (Anybody here who studies linguistics, please let me know if I’ve got that right.) I’ve seen this mostly used in the cases of 나 and 너. This means while you can say 나 and 너 as the subject or topic of your sentence, good grammar dictates that if it’s obvious you’re talking about “I” or “you”, you drop them. 

• 우리 - This one was not on ghadahme’s list, but is very important. The direct translation for 우리 is “our” but it is not used exclusively in that sense. For example, saying 우리 집 could either mean “our house” or “my house”. If I was talking to say my mom and said this, it would mean “our house”. If I was inviting you over, I would say this to mean “my house”. This is also applicable to people. Say I had an older brother. You’re about my age. I would say “우리 형” which would be my older brother.
• 내 - 내, not to be confused with 네 (which means “yes”, by the way), means “my”. So “My name is Alex” would start out with “내 이름은” which means “My name is”. Now, I have mentioned in a past lesson that they sound very similar, but they’re not. They actually are pronounced differently. 내 is pronounced with the top of the throat towards the front while 네 is pronounced at the bottom of the throat towards the back. Also, 가 is part of a past lesson found here. 
• 저 - 저 is really just the honorific form of 나. So anytime you use a more honorific form of speech, this becomes your default for “I”. The same rules apply grammatically for this as to 나. Actually, now that I think about it, it can also be used as “my”. So basically, 저 is used when dealing with honorifics. 
• 당신 - Google Translate’s usage of this particular form of “you” always annoyed me. Because when I was growing up, it was never really used as a form of “you”. I only heard four people use this as a kid: Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma. This is the form you use to address your loved one or spouse. It has that connotation of a married couple, so young couples don’t use it, although they could if they wanted. But if I had to group in either “I” or “you”, it’d be a “you” for sure. 

I think that about covers it. Now I know I’m prone to mistakes and oversights, as many people have told me. So if you know someone who knows the language better than me, let me know what they said was wrong. Most of the time, they’re right and I’ll post the corrections. Otherwise, hope this was an informative and helpful lesson on the various forms of “I” and “you”. If you’re looking for and actual grammar point lesson, just let me know via ask box. If you have a question about anything I’ve written here, put it in the ask box also and I’ll try to answer it as fast as I can. Until next time guys, 안녕~

Lesson #7: Grammar Point 에/에서 

This lesson’s overdue a month now. I really don’t think I was cut out for the whole usual update thing. I’m just really bad at it. So I wrote this out in little over half an hour, so not the lesson I really planned on giving. Anyway, this next lesson’s gonna be about 에/에서. 

There’s not a lot I can say about this one, but for me, it was probably the first grammar point that I learned in high school that I fully grasped and used regularly. Hell, it’s one of like two that I still remember and the only one that I still use, if incorrectly sometimes. Anyway, when to use these. 에/에서 are used when addressing a place. 에 is used when something or someone is at a place. 에서 is used when an action is involved. You could look at it so that 에 is the passive voice while 에서 is the more active. (are those two the right words? I don’t know anymore).

Uhm… let’s see. Examples. Situations where you would use 에 would be something like:

• “My notebook is at school.” — 공책은 학교에 있어요. — Gongcheakeun hakgyoeh eesuhyo.
• “Grandpa is at home right now.” — 할아버지는 집에 게십니다. — halahbuhjineun jibeh gehshimnida.
• “Your cookie is in the kitchen.” — 과일은 부엌에 있어. — guaeleun bu-ukeh ees-uh.
• “There’s paper on my desk.” — 종이가 책상 의에 있어오. — jong-eega cheaksang euee-eh eesuhyo.

에서 would be used in situations like:

• “I’m going to the park to play.” — 공원에서 놀어갑니다. — gongwonehsuh noluhgamnida.
• Young-Soo went to school already.” — 영수는 학교에서 벌서 갔어요. — Young-Soo-neun hakgyoehsuh bulsuh gassuhyo.
• “Let’s study in the library.” — 도서관에서 공부 하자. —dosuhgwanehsuh gongbu haja.
• “What’s he doing at the beach?” — 바다가에서 뭐해? — badagaehsuh muuhhae?

Yep. This one was written kinda fast, but I think that it does it’s job. Apparently, Google Translate doesn’t think so. So if any of you guys are there to check up on how I’m doing or know more than me or know someone who knows more than myself, then please correct me. I promise I won’t get mad.