
Think about a world with out adjectives.
Every little thing could be bland, boring and shapeless. Nouns would simply be there—present colorless.
So at the moment, let’s punch up your Korean—add infinite richness, nuance, colours and layers to your verbal repertoire—by studying adjectives.
Let’s get into this colourful a part of Korean grammar!
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Easy methods to Conjugate Korean Adjectives
Utilizing adjectives is like conjugating verbs in Korean.
Oh, however what are conjugations within the first place?
Conjugating is the method of constructing the verb kind “agree” with the opposite elements of a sentence like particular person, quantity, gender, tense, side, temper or voice.
For instance, the verb “to leap” can turn into “I bounce,” “I jumped” and “I’m leaping.”
That’s one instance of verb conjugation.
Many languages use verb conjugations, however Korean takes it a step additional and in addition conjugates adjectives.
Consider Korean adjectives as beginning their lives as Korean verbs.
They belong to a category of verbs often known as “descriptive verbs.” (The opposite three courses are “processive,” “existential” and “copulative” verbs. “Processive verbs” are principally what we take into account in English as motion phrases.)
These descriptive verbs are conjugated to turn into adjectives.
It’s like taking the verb “bounce” and turning it into an adjective by including -y on the finish—making it “bouncy.”
Korean Adjectives Have a Stem and an Ending
For those who see an inventory of phrases and all of them finish with 다, for instance:
크다
작다
예쁘다
…then you definitely’re taking a look at an inventory of Korean verbs within the infinitive kind.
In English, they’d imply:
to be massive — 크다
to be small — 작다
to be fairly — 예쁘다
The “다 kinds” are what you’ll be looking for in Korean dictionaries.
However this isn’t the shape you often take care of in conversations. As an alternative, you’ll be coping with conjugated adjectives which have gone by means of some transformation.
So how are we going to take care of these 다 verb kinds and switch them into adjectives?
Step 1: Drop the 다
Step one to conjugating Korean adjectives is to take away the 다 from the phrase.
When you try this, you now have the verb stem. Within the examples above, by eradicating the 다, you’re left with:
크
작
예쁘
After you have the verb stem, the one remaining factor to do is add the ending.
Step 2: Add the Applicable Ending
You by no means use simply the verb stem or the core phrase alone. After dropping the 다, you now want to stay the touchdown and produce within the suffix.
The ending provides one other unit of which means to your verb stem.
In Korean, the endings of verbs are what give the phrase a extra exact which means.
For our functions right here, the suffix you utilize will rely on whether or not or not the stem ends with a vowel or a consonant.
If the stem ends with a vowel, you add ㄴ.
Within the instance above, 크 ends with the vowel —. So we add ㄴ to 크 and find yourself with 큰.
큰 is the adjective “massive” in Korean. You now know that it comes from the dictionary kind 크다.
If the stem ends with a consonant, you add 은.
Within the instance above, 작 ends with the consonant ㄱ. So we add 은 to 작 and have 작은, which suggests “small” in Korean.
Irregular Korean Adjectives
Sounds easy sufficient, proper?
There are after all a couple of exceptions to this rule. We take into account them irregular adjectives. Listed below are two of the commonest ones:
When the verb stem ends in ㅂ, drop it and add 운.
Say after taking the 다, and also you see that the verb stem ends in ㅂ like 쉽다 — “to be simple.” Right here’s the way you conjugate it:
Doing these manipulations, you have got 쉬운, which is the Korean phrase for “simple.”
When the verb stem ends in ㄹ, drop it and add ㄴ.
Now say that after eradicating the 다, you see that the verb stem ends in ㄹ like 길다 — “to be lengthy.”
First, drop the ㄹ.
Final, add ㄴ.
You now have 긴, which is Korean for “lengthy.”
The place to Place Korean Adjectives in Sentences
Like English, Korean adjectives will be positioned earlier than or after the noun. However the adjectives look a bit completely different, relying on the location.
Whereas learning Korean adjective placement is a good begin, it’s essential that you just hearken to pure Korean to actually grasp it.
You should use packages like FluentU to observe genuine Korean movies with interactive captions. As you pay attention, take note of the place native audio system place their adjectives.
You may as well hearken to Korean podcasts or watch films that can assist you grasp adjective placement.
Listed below are some guidelines to recollect about Korean adjective placement:
1. Adjectives Earlier than the Noun
In English, we regularly place adjectives earlier than nouns. For instance, “massive ears” and “small head.” In these instances, the adjectives modify the nouns that instantly come after them.
In Korean, similar to in English, you merely stick the conjugated kinds earlier than the noun.
Keep in mind our conjugated kinds 큰 and 작은? You merely put them side-by-side proper earlier than their noun.
For instance, “massive ears” could be 큰 instantly earlier than 귀, the Korean phrase for ears.
큰귀 — massive ears
Equally, “small face” could be 작은 earlier than 얼굴, the Korean phrase for face.
작은 얼굴 — small face
By the way, massive ears are thought-about fortunate in Korea. They imagine it means that you can hear luck when it’s calling you. Small face, for its half, is a coveted Korean magnificence commonplace.
2. Adjectives After the Noun
In English, adjectives that come after the noun shall be your statements like:
My home is massive.
My automotive is small.
Korean sentences often finish with a verb or an adjective.
And right here’s a bit of excellent information—for the adjectives that come after the noun (these on the finish of sentences), you possibly can simply use the “dictionary kind.”
That’s, the “다 kind”—probably the most fundamental, unconjugated look of the adjective.
So the assertion “my home is massive,” will be translated as 우리 집은 크다. On this sentence, 크다 is used as an alternative of the conjugated 큰.
Let’s have a look at one other instance:
우리 차는 작다 — My automotive is small
Discover once more that 작다 is used as an alternative of the conjugated 작은.
So to summarize, for adjectives earlier than the noun, you utilize the conjugated kinds. For adjectives after the noun, on the finish of sentences, you might use the “다 kind.”
Easy methods to Conjugate Korean Adjectives for Formality Ranges
In Korean, the best way you speak relies on who you’re speaking to.
(I assume everyone talks to grandma differently, that’s true throughout cultures, nevertheless it’s an entire new stage of expectations with Korean.)
There are seven speech ranges, however don’t fear, we gained’t deal with all of them right here. We’ll simply concern ourselves with probably the most helpful one—the casual well mannered kind.
Within the spectrum of ritual, you’re within the protected center right here. It’s informal speech, however nonetheless has the well mannered flourish and also you’re not at risk of disrespecting native audio system.
It’s the shape you’ll almost certainly want in lots of your interactions.
You’ve already realized about adjectives positioned after the nouns. One other approach of doing it’s through the use of the casual well mannered kind (요 endings).
Right here’s how:
For adjective stems which have the vowels ㅗ and ㅏ, you add 아요.
For instance, let’s take the adjective 좋다, which suggests good.
First, drop the 다, which leaves you with 좋.
Wanting on the stem, you see that it has the ㅗ vowel. So that you add 아요, making it 좋아요.
So if you wish to say “The climate is sweet,” you possibly can say “날씨 좋아요.”
For adjective stems that don’t have ㅗ and ㅏ, you add 어요.
For instance, “unhappy” in Korean is 슬프다.
Taking out 다, we see that the stem ends with the vowel —. To conjugate, we add 어요, making it 슬퍼요.
If anybody asks you, “How was the film?” or worse, “How was the examination?”, you possibly can say:
진짜 슬퍼요 — It’s actually unhappy.
When so as to add 아요 or 어요 appears easy sufficient.
You merely verify if ㅗ and ㅏ are within the stem.
There may be, nonetheless, a vital and customary exemption. That’s whenever you see 하. While you see 하, you possibly can’t suppose to your self, “Ah the ultimate vowel isㅏ.”
Nope, as an exception, 하 conjugates to 해요.
For instance, 똑똑하다 is the fundamental type of “good” in Korean.
You’ll discover that it has 하.
Due to this fact, we conjugate this with a 해요, ending up with 똑똑해요.
Easy methods to Conjugate Korean Adjectives In accordance with Tense
Thus far, we’ve solely been speaking in regards to the current tense conjugation of adjectives.
English audio system may discover conjugating adjectives with respect to tense a bit bit odd, however in Korean, since adjectives operate very very similar to verbs, they can be conjugated in accordance with tense.
That’s, the tense is baked into the phrase itself.
That’s why we will simply put nouns and adjectives/verbs subsequent to one another with none intervening phrases. We are able to merely put them aspect by aspect as a result of nuances like tense are embedded within the phrases themselves.
For instance, in English, you have got phrases like “had been” and “was” to point previous tense.
“She was sick” would describe a lady who was not feeling nicely previously.
However in Korean, we point out previous tense a bit bit in another way. Once more, it’ll contain wanting on the final vowel within the stem.
Previous Tense
For adjective stems which have the vowels ㅗ and ㅏ, you add 았어요.
For instance, the previous tense conjugation of “good” (좋다) could be 좋았어요 (was good).
So if any person requested you the way was the meals, you possibly can say that it was good (좋았어요).
For adjective stems which have the vowels aside from ㅗ and ㅏ, like 맛있다 (scrumptious), you add 었어요 and find yourself with 맛있었어요 (was scrumptious).
Future Tense
To conjugate sooner or later tense, you add ㄹ 거예요 or 을 거예요 to the verb stem.
If the verb stem ends with a vowel—like 예쁘 (fairly)—we add ㄹ 거예요.
So the longer term tense of this is able to be 예쁠 거예요 (shall be fairly).
However, if the verb stem ends with a consonant—like 늦 (late)—we add 을 거예요. So we find yourself with 늦을 거예요 which suggests “shall be late.”
70 Important Korean Adjectives You Should Know
Now that you know the way to conjugate and use Korean adjectives in sentences, let’s check out 70 helpful ones of their conjugated kinds.
Shapes and Sizes
큰 — Huge
작은 — Small
긴 — Lengthy
짧은 — Quick
좁은 — Slim
넓은 — Large
두꺼운 — Thick
얇은 — Skinny
일자형의 — Straight
둥근 — Round
삼각형의 — Triangular
정사각형의 — Sq.
Colours
검정 — Black
하얀 — White
회색 — Grey
파랑 — Blue
빨강 — Pink
보라 — Purple
갈색 — Brown
주황 — Orange
노랑 — Yellow
초록 — Inexperienced
Tastes
쓴 — Bitter
짠 — Salty
신 — Bitter
매운 — Spicy
달콤한 — Candy
Qualities
늙은 — Previous
새로운 — New
좋은 — Good
나쁜 — Unhealthy
깨끗한 — Clear
더러운 — Soiled
빈 — Empty
완전한 — Full
딱딱한— Laborious
부드러운 — Delicate
건조한 — Dry
젖은 — Moist
싼 — Low cost
비싼 — Costly
빠른 — Quick
느린— Gradual
무거운 — Heavy
가벼운 — Mild
같은 — Identical
다른 — Completely different
이른 — Early
늦은 — Late
Adjectives for Individuals
공손한 — Well mannered
무례한 — Impolite
조용한 — Quiet
시끄러운 — Loud
사교적인 — Outgoing
수줍은 — Shy
우스운 — Humorous
심각한 — Critical
아름다운 — Lovely
못생긴 — Ugly
행복한 — Blissful
슬픈 — Unhappy
건강한 — Wholesome
병든 — Sick
멍청한 — Silly
지적인 — Clever
뚱뚱한 — Fats
날씬한 — Slim
미혼인 — Single
결혼을 한 — Married
가난한 — Poor
돈이 많은 — Wealthy
And there you have got it—all the pieces it is advisable find out about utilizing Korean adjectives, plus 70 of them to immediately add extra coloration to your conversations!