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Korean Grammar Guide

Welcome to the Elon.io Korean Grammar Guide. 790 topics across every area of Korean grammar, tagged by TOPIK level so you can find the right page for your level.

TOPIK 1263 pagesTOPIK 2252 pagesTOPIK 3172 pagesTOPIK 479 pagesTOPIK 522 pagesTOPIK 61 pagesBeyond1 pages

Start Here (TOPIK1)

New to Korean? These are the foundation topics every beginner needs.

  • 좋다 vs 좋아하다: 'Be Good/Likeable' vs 'To Like' — The particle trap at the heart of beginner Korean: 좋다 is an ADJECTIVE (the liked thing is the subject, 커피가 좋아요) while 좋아하다 is a transitive VERB (the liked thing is the object, 커피를 좋아해요). Same idea, opposite case frames — and only 좋아하다 can state what someone else likes.
  • Adjective Attributive -(으)ㄴ: 좋은, 예쁜, 큰 — How a Korean adjective dresses to modify a noun — attach the present attributive -(으)ㄴ (-은 after a batchim, -ㄴ after a vowel): 좋은 사람, 큰 집. The modifier goes BEFORE the noun with no 'who/that', and the everyday error is leaving the adjective in its 좋다/좋아요 form.
  • Comparatives with 더 (more) and 덜 (less) — Korean has no '-er' ending — you place the adverb 더 'more' or 덜 'less' in front of an unchanged adjective. 더 커요 'bigger,' 덜 매워요 'less spicy,' and nothing about the adjective ever changes shape.
  • Superlatives: 제일 / 가장 (the most) — Korean has no '-est' ending — you place the adverb 제일 or 가장 'most' before an unchanged adjective. 제일 좋아요 'the best,' 가장 커요 'the biggest,' with 중에서 for 'out of a set.'
  • Korean Adjectives Are Verbs (형용사 = Descriptive Verbs) — The one reframing that unlocks the whole group: a Korean 형용사 is a descriptive (stative) verb that conjugates like an action verb and predicates on its own — 좋다 already means 'to be good', so 날씨가 좋다 is a complete sentence with no copula and no separate 'to be'.
  • Predicative Use: 날씨가 좋다 (No Copula) — A Korean adjective is a complete predicate on its own — 좋아요 already means 'is nice', with no 'to be' added — because adjectives are descriptive verbs, unlike nouns, which need the copula 이다.
  • The Dictionary Form -다 (좋다, 예쁘다, 크다) — Every adjective is listed in the dictionary ending in -다, identically to action verbs; strip -다 to find the stem you attach endings to, and never try to speak the bare citation form to someone.
  • The Verb / Adjective Divide & Why It Matters — Adjectives and verbs look identical in the dictionary, but they split in four grammatical places — attributives, commands, plain endings, and meaning — so you must always know which class a word belongs to.
  • Present Polite -아/어요: 좋다 → 좋아요 — The everyday 해요체 present on adjectives: add -아요 after a final stem vowel ㅏ/ㅗ, otherwise -어요, with 하- becoming 해요 — the same machinery action verbs use, producing a stative meaning with no copula.
  • The 으-Drop: 예쁘다 → 예뻐요, 크다 → 커요 — Every stem ending in the vowel ㅡ drops it before -아/어, taking its harmony vowel from the syllable before the ㅡ (default 어 if none) — a fully regular pattern that also governs ㅡ-stem action verbs like 쓰다 → 써요.
  • 하다-Adjectives: 조용하다 → 조용해요 — The huge, productive class of 하다-adjectives (root + 하다) and its irregular present, where 하- + -여요 contracts to 해요 — learn one contraction and unlock hundreds of words like 조용해요, 깨끗해요, 피곤해요.
  • Formal -ㅂ니다/습니다: 좋습니다, 큽니다 — The 합니다체 (formal-polite) present of adjectives — pick -ㅂ니다 after a vowel-final stem (큽니다) and -습니다 after a consonant-final stem (좋습니다); it's the crisp public register that pairs with the softer 해요체, and adjectives take it exactly as verbs do.

Adjectives

Adjective → Verb Shift

  • 좋다 vs 좋아하다: 'Be Good/Likeable' vs 'To Like'TOPIK 1 — The particle trap at the heart of beginner Korean: 좋다 is an ADJECTIVE (the liked thing is the subject, 커피가 좋아요) while 좋아하다 is a transitive VERB (the liked thing is the object, 커피를 좋아해요). Same idea, opposite case frames — and only 좋아하다 can state what someone else likes.
  • -고 싶다: 싶다 Is an Adjective (and 싶어하다 for Others)TOPIK 2 — The 'want to' construction -고 싶다, and the fact that unlocks its whole grammar: 싶다 is an ADJECTIVE. That's why it takes the adjective attributive 가고 싶은 (not ×싶는), and why a third person's wanting switches to the derived verb 싶어하다 — the exact mirror of 좋다/좋아하다.
  • Becoming with -아/어지다: 예뻐지다, 좋아지다TOPIK 2 — How an adjective (a STATE) turns into an inchoative VERB (a CHANGE of state) with -아/어지다 — 예쁘다 → 예뻐지다 ('become pretty'), 좋다 → 좋아지다 ('get better'). Once an adjective takes -지다 it crosses the divide and starts taking verb endings (예뻐지는, 예뻐지고 있어요).

Attributive

  • Adjective Attributive -(으)ㄴ: 좋은, 예쁜, 큰TOPIK 1 — How a Korean adjective dresses to modify a noun — attach the present attributive -(으)ㄴ (-은 after a batchim, -ㄴ after a vowel): 좋은 사람, 큰 집. The modifier goes BEFORE the noun with no 'who/that', and the everyday error is leaving the adjective in its 좋다/좋아요 form.
  • THE Key Contrast: Adjective -(으)ㄴ vs Verb -는TOPIK 2 — In the present tense, adjectives and action verbs choose DIFFERENT endings to modify a noun: a descriptive verb takes -(으)ㄴ (예쁜 꽃), an action verb takes -는 (먹는 사람). Getting it wrong (×좋는 사람) instantly marks a learner — and the split is the verb/adjective divide made visible.
  • -있다/-없다 Adjectives Take -는: 재미있는, 맛없는TOPIK 2 — The systematic exception to the adjective rule: any adjective built on 있다 or 없다 (재미있다, 맛있다, 맛없다, 멋있다) takes the verb-style attributive -는 — 재미있는 영화, never ×재미있은 — because the 있다/없다 at its core patterns as a verb, and that morphology overrides the state meaning.
  • Irregular Attributives: 매운, 긴, 하얀TOPIK 2 — How irregular-stem adjectives build the attributive -(으)ㄴ — 맵다 → 매운, 길다 → 긴, 하얗다 → 하얀 — and why the stem morphs before the ending instead of taking a blunt -은.

Comparison

  • Comparatives with 더 (more) and 덜 (less)TOPIK 1 — Korean has no '-er' ending — you place the adverb 더 'more' or 덜 'less' in front of an unchanged adjective. 더 커요 'bigger,' 덜 매워요 'less spicy,' and nothing about the adjective ever changes shape.
  • Comparing with N보다 (than) + 더TOPIK 2 — Build a full comparison by marking the standard with 보다 'than' and leaving 더 'more' in front of the plain adjective: 여름이 겨울보다 더 더워요. The order flips from English, because Korean marks roles with particles, not position.
  • Superlatives: 제일 / 가장 (the most)TOPIK 1 — Korean has no '-est' ending — you place the adverb 제일 or 가장 'most' before an unchanged adjective. 제일 좋아요 'the best,' 가장 커요 'the biggest,' with 중에서 for 'out of a set.'
  • 같다 / 다르다 / 비슷하다 (same, different, similar)TOPIK 2 — The three identity-comparison adjectives and the one particle they all share — 와/과 — where English uses three different prepositions (same AS, different FROM, similar TO). Plus the 르-irregular in 다르다 → 달라요 that learners always miss.

Derived & Special

  • Making Adjectives from Nouns: -답다 / -스럽다 / -롭다TOPIK 3 — Three productive suffixes that turn a noun into a descriptive adjective — -답다 ('true to, worthy of'), -스럽다 ('having the feel of'), -롭다 ('full of') — their nuance differences, and the ㅂ-irregular conjugation all three share.
  • Adverbs from Adjectives: -게, -이, -히TOPIK 2 — How to turn an adjective into a manner adverb — the always-safe productive ending -게 (크게, 맛있게), versus the lexicalized -이 (많이, 같이) and -히 (열심히, 조용히) that must be memorized as vocabulary.
  • ㅎ-Irregular Adjectives: 어떻다, 그렇다, 빨갛다TOPIK 2 — The ㅎ-irregular (ㅎ 불규칙) covers almost every color word and the 이렇다/그렇다/어떻다 manner-demonstrative family. Two branches: before -(으)ㄴ etc. the ㅎ drops (그런, 빨간, 하얀); before -아/어 the ㅎ drops AND the vowel fuses to ㅐ/ㅒ (그래요, 빨개요, 하얘요). It powers 그래요, 어때요, 어떤, 그런데 — and it is NOT 좋다, which stays regular.
  • Color & Sensory Adjectives, and 같다 ('seems like')TOPIK 2 — The everyday sensory adjectives — taste (달다·쓰다·짜다·시다·맵다), texture, and sound — plus the single most important hedging tool in Korean: 같다. NOUN + 같다 ('is like…') and [clause] + 것 같다 ('it seems that…'), the softener Koreans reach for instead of a blunt opinion.

Foundations

  • Korean Adjectives Are Verbs (형용사 = Descriptive Verbs)TOPIK 1 — The one reframing that unlocks the whole group: a Korean 형용사 is a descriptive (stative) verb that conjugates like an action verb and predicates on its own — 좋다 already means 'to be good', so 날씨가 좋다 is a complete sentence with no copula and no separate 'to be'.
  • Predicative Use: 날씨가 좋다 (No Copula)TOPIK 1 — A Korean adjective is a complete predicate on its own — 좋아요 already means 'is nice', with no 'to be' added — because adjectives are descriptive verbs, unlike nouns, which need the copula 이다.
  • The Dictionary Form -다 (좋다, 예쁘다, 크다)TOPIK 1 — Every adjective is listed in the dictionary ending in -다, identically to action verbs; strip -다 to find the stem you attach endings to, and never try to speak the bare citation form to someone.
  • The Verb / Adjective Divide & Why It MattersTOPIK 1 — Adjectives and verbs look identical in the dictionary, but they split in four grammatical places — attributives, commands, plain endings, and meaning — so you must always know which class a word belongs to.

Present & Conjugation

  • Present Polite -아/어요: 좋다 → 좋아요TOPIK 1 — The everyday 해요체 present on adjectives: add -아요 after a final stem vowel ㅏ/ㅗ, otherwise -어요, with 하- becoming 해요 — the same machinery action verbs use, producing a stative meaning with no copula.
  • The 으-Drop: 예쁘다 → 예뻐요, 크다 → 커요TOPIK 1 — Every stem ending in the vowel ㅡ drops it before -아/어, taking its harmony vowel from the syllable before the ㅡ (default 어 if none) — a fully regular pattern that also governs ㅡ-stem action verbs like 쓰다 → 써요.
  • 하다-Adjectives: 조용하다 → 조용해요TOPIK 1 — The huge, productive class of 하다-adjectives (root + 하다) and its irregular present, where 하- + -여요 contracts to 해요 — learn one contraction and unlock hundreds of words like 조용해요, 깨끗해요, 피곤해요.
  • Formal -ㅂ니다/습니다: 좋습니다, 큽니다TOPIK 1 — The 합니다체 (formal-polite) present of adjectives — pick -ㅂ니다 after a vowel-final stem (큽니다) and -습니다 after a consonant-final stem (좋습니다); it's the crisp public register that pairs with the softer 해요체, and adjectives take it exactly as verbs do.

있다/없다

  • 있다 / 없다: Existence, Possession, and Adjective-Like UseTOPIK 1 — How 있다 and 없다 carry three English meanings at once — 'there is', 'have', and the engine behind adjectives like 맛있다 — and why the possessed thing takes 이/가, not an object marker.
  • 있는 / 없는: The -는 Attributive of 있다 and 없다TOPIK 2 — Why 있다 and 없다 form relative clauses with the verb ending -는 (있는, 없는), never the adjective ending -(으)ㄴ — and how this single rule underlies 맛있는, 재미없는, and every existence-based modifier.
  • Honorific of 있다: 계시다 vs 있으시다TOPIK 2 — When 있다 refers to a person being present, its honorific is the suppletive verb 계시다; when it means the possession or existence of something belonging to an honored person, use the regular 있으시다 — and why time and questions can't 'be present.'

Adverbs

Degree

Forming Adverbs

  • Forming Adverbs with -게TOPIK 1 — -게, the fully productive adverb-former that turns any descriptive or action verb stem into a manner adverb (조용하게 'quietly', 크게 'loudly') and doubles as a resultative before another verb (짧게 자르다 'cut short') — the safe default whenever you're unsure which adverb a quality yields.
  • The -이 / -히 Adverb Suffixes (and 깨끗이 vs 깨끗히)TOPIK 2 — The frozen, non-productive -이/-히 adverbs (많이 'a lot', 조용히 'quietly', 깨끗이 'cleanly') that you memorize rather than derive — and the notorious -이 vs -히 spelling, where ㅅ-final roots take 이 (깨끗이, never 깨끗히) and other 하다-roots take 히 (정확히).
  • Lexical Adverbs and Adverb PlacementTOPIK 1 — The pure lexical adverbs that are adverbs by nature — 잘 'well', 자꾸 'keeps -ing', 함께 'together', 다 'all', 또 'again', 먼저 'first', 곧 'soon', 빨리 'fast' — and the placement rule that governs them all: Korean adverbs come BEFORE their target, never after, with degree adverbs hugging the word they intensify.

Frequency & Time

  • Frequency Adverbs: 자주 / 가끔 / 항상 / 늘TOPIK 1 — The frequency scale from 항상·늘 (always) down through 자주 (often), 보통 (usually), 가끔 (sometimes) to 거의 (hardly) — plus the 자주 / 자꾸 trap and why Korean needs no auxiliary 'do' to say how often.
  • 벌써 / 이미 / 아직 / 여전히 (already, still, yet)TOPIK 2 — The phasal time adverbs that track an event against expectation — 벌써 (already, with surprise), 이미 (already, neutral), 아직 (still / not yet), and 여전히 (still, unchanged as ever) — and why Korean splits notions English fuses into 'already/still/yet'.
  • 방금 / 막 / 이제 / 드디어 (just, now, finally)TOPIK 2 — The 'just now / from now on / at last' cluster — 방금 (a moment ago), 막 (right at the very instant), 이제 (now as a new phase, vs 지금 'this instant'), and 드디어/마침내 (finally, after waiting) — and the two splits English hides inside 'just' and 'now'.

Manner & Mimetic

  • Onomatopoeia 의성어: Sound-Imitating Words (멍멍, 쿵쿵)TOPIK 3 — 의성어 — words that imitate real-world SOUNDS (animal cries like 멍멍, 야옹 and impact noises like 쿵쿵, 똑똑) — a huge, productive ADVERB class in Korean that slots before verbs and verbalizes with 하다/거리다, not childish noise but core adult vocabulary.
  • Mimetics / Ideophones 의태어: Manner-Imitating Words (반짝반짝, 깜짝)TOPIK 3 — 의태어 — words that depict MANNER, motion, and appearance rather than sound (반짝반짝 sparkling, 살금살금 stealthily, 두근두근 heart pounding) — one of Korean's most distinctive features, with almost no English equivalent, and the key to description that sounds native instead of flat.
  • Reduplication & Sound Symbolism (졸졸/줄줄, 깜깜/캄캄)TOPIK 3 — The phonological engine behind Korean mimetics — reduplication plus two sound-symbolism systems: bright vs dark vowels (졸졸 small/light vs 줄줄 big/heavy) and plain→tense→aspirated consonants (깜깜 dark → 캄캄 pitch-dark) — so paired words are never free variants.
  • Verbalizing Mimetics: 하다 / 거리다 / 대다 / 이다TOPIK 4 — How a Korean ideophone becomes a full verb — 반짝 sparks 반짝하다 (one flash), 반짝거리다 / 반짝대다 (keep sparkling), and 반짝이다 (to sparkle) — with the semelfactive-vs-iterative logic that decides which suffix you need.

Modal & Sentential

  • Probability Adverbs: 아마 / 틀림없이 / 설마 (and their endings)TOPIK 3 — The adverbs that grade your certainty — 아마 (probably), 분명히 / 틀림없이 (surely), 혹시 (by any chance), 설마 (surely not) — and the crucial rule that each one demands a matching sentence-ending, so the adverb and the ending work as a team.
  • Entreaty Adverbs: 제발 / 부디 (please, I beg you)TOPIK 3 — The two heightened 'please' adverbs — 제발 (urgent, pleading, even desperate) and 부디 (formal, earnest, well-wishing) — why neither is the everyday politeness marker (that's 좀 + -(으)세요), and how each demands a request or a wish to complete it.
  • Stance Adverbs: 다행히 / 솔직히 / 물론 (and adverb–ending agreement)TOPIK 3 — The speaker-oriented adverbs that comment on the whole sentence — 다행히 (fortunately), 솔직히 (honestly), 물론 (of course), 사실 (actually) — why they sit at the clause front, and the group-wide principle that a modal adverb is a promise about how the sentence must end.

Annotated Texts

Everyday

  • Reading a Self-Introduction (자기소개)TOPIK 1 — A line-by-line walk through the first monologue every learner produces — a spoken 자기소개 in polite 해요체 with 합니다체 greeting frames — showing the humble 저, the topic particle 은/는, copula allomorphy 이에요/예요, 에서 doing double duty as 'from' and 'at', and the progressive -고 있다.
  • Ordering at a Café (카페에서 주문하기)TOPIK 1 — A two-party café dialogue in polite 해요체 with service-register formulas — showing the request frame 주세요, the intention ending -(으)ㄹ게요, native numbers with the cup counter 잔 beside Sino-Korean won prices, and the service-register verbs 드리다 (humble 'give') and 드시다 (honorific 'eat/drink').
  • A Text-Message Exchange (반말)TOPIK 2 — A casual phone-text thread between two close friends written entirely in 반말 (intimate 해체) — the register learners meet in real chat but rarely in textbooks — showing 요-dropped endings, intonation-only questions, dropped case particles, the offer -(으)ㄹ래?, the propositive -자, and chat orthography ㅇㅇ/ㅋㅋ.
  • A Polite Phone Call (존댓말 통화)TOPIK 2 — A polite telephone call in 존댓말, mixing 합니다체 openers with a 해요체 body — the register for calling an office or an elder — showing the opener 여보세요, the subject honorific 계시다 for the person asked about, the softening ending -는데(요), the self-naming frame -(이)라고 하다, and the humble 드리다.
  • Asking for Directions (길 묻기)TOPIK 2 — A street dialogue asking and giving directions in polite 해요체 — showing the question word 어디 with the copula, the honorific-imperative -(으)세요 for instructions, the conditional -(으)면, the directional particle 으로/로 versus static 에, and the means/manner -아서/어서 (걸어서).
  • Making a Restaurant Reservation (식당 예약)TOPIK 3 — A phone reservation dialogue in polite service register (해요체 with 합니다체 flourishes) — showing the intention frame -(으)려고 하다, the possibility -(으)ㄹ 수 있다, the deferential request -아/어 주시겠어요, honorific nouns 성함/분, and the native-vs-Sino number split on the people-counter 명/분.
  • A Workplace Email (업무 이메일)TOPIK 3 — An interpersonal business email in formal-polite 합니다체 — the bridge between everyday speech and fully formal 공문 — showing the greeting 안녕하십니까, the subject honorific -(으)시- on the manager's actions (even inside relative clauses), the honorific subject particle 께서, the humble 드리다, and honorific 말씀 with the formal command -(으)십시오.
  • A K-Drama-Style Conversation (드라마 속 대화)TOPIK 3 — An emotionally colored 반말 exchange between two close friends over a small conflict — the register of K-drama dialogue — showing the attitude-bearing sentence endings -잖아 (shared-knowledge appeal), -거든 (offering backstory), -지 (expected agreement), -더라 (reporting what you witnessed), and -(으)ㄹ 줄 알았어 (I knew it).
  • A Daily-Routine Diary Entry (일기)TOPIK 3 — A first-person diary narrating an ordinary day in plain written 한다체 (-았다/-었다) — showing past-tense formation with 아/어 vowel harmony, the sequential -고, the temporal frames -(으)ㄴ 후에 and -(으)ㄴ 다음에 ('after doing'), the reason -아서/어서 (which cannot carry its own past tense), and the intention -(으)려고 하다.

Formal & Media

  • A News Headline & Lede (뉴스 표제·리드)TOPIK 5 — A real economic-policy headline and its opening lede, annotated line by line — the verbless noun-predicate of the headline, the plain-narrative 한다체 of the body, the quotative -다고 밝히다 ('revealed that'), the passive -되다 / -(으)ㄹ 것으로 전망되다 ('is forecast to'), and the dense Sino-Korean compounding of written journalism.
  • A Weather Forecast (일기 예보)TOPIK 4 — A broadcast weather forecast in the polished 합니다체 forecasting register, annotated clause by clause — the predictive -겠- that means 'is forecast to' (not 'I will'), the impersonal passive -(으)로 예상되다, the scope phrase 을 중심으로, and the courteous advisory -(으)시기 바랍니다.
  • A Public Notice / Sign (안내문)TOPIK 4 — A posted elevator-out-of-service notice in institutional formal register, annotated line by line — the humble opener 안내 말씀 드립니다, the formal causal -(으)로 인해, the agentless passive -되다 that states rules without a doer, the range 부터…까지입니다, and the request/prohibition endings -아/어 주시기 바랍니다 and 금지합니다.
  • A Product Description (상품 설명)TOPIK 4 — An online product description for a reusable water bottle in marketing 문어체, annotated feature by feature — the passive-of-making -(으)로 만들어지다 ('is made of'), the bookish -여 connective on 하다-verbs, nominal predication (휴대가 간편하다 'is convenient to carry'), the possibility noun 가능하다, and the honorific ability -(으)실 수 있다.
  • A Formal Announcement (공지사항)TOPIK 5 — A line-by-line read of a service maintenance 공지사항 in fully deferential 합니다체 — showing the honorific dative 께, the prospective -(으)ㄹ 예정이다, the agentless passive -되다 (중단되다, 제한되다), the formal courtesy connective -오니, and the humble set phrases 안내 말씀 드리다 and 공지드리다.
  • A Short Essay Paragraph (수필·논설)TOPIK 6 — A line-by-line walk through a paragraph of expository Korean in written plain 한다체 — the register of essays, editorials, and TOPIK II reading passages — showing the impersonal declaratives -(ㄴ/는)다 and -았/었다, the proportional -(으)ㄹ수록, the trade-off -(으)ㄴ 대신, the escalating -(으)ㄹ 뿐만 아니라, and the clause-final justification -기 때문이다.
  • A Job-Posting Excerpt (채용 공고)TOPIK 4 — A line-by-line read of a Korean recruitment listing (채용 공고) — a register built almost entirely from noun-ending fragments — showing the bracketed headers, the formal relativizer -인 자 / -는 자 with bookish 자 ('person'), the attributive -(으)ㄴ/-는, the threshold 이상, the formal 'and' 및, and bare nominal predicates like 제출 and 우대.
  • An Official / Institutional Email (공식 이메일)TOPIK 5 — A line-by-line read of a fully formal institutional email (공문 style) from an HR office inviting a candidate to an interview — showing the ultra-formal greeting 안녕하십니까, the written-purpose -고자 하다 paired with a humble main verb, the humble compounds 드리다 (연락드리다, 감사드리다), the passive attributive 첨부된, the deferential request -(으)시기 바랍니다, and the frozen honorific address 귀하.

Proverbs & Sayings

  • 속담: 시작이 반이다TOPIK 3 — An annotation of 시작이 반이다 ('the beginning is half' → well begun is half done) — the gentlest entry to proverb grammar, turning on the subject particle 이 after a batchim, the plain declarative copula 이다 that gives sayings their timeless, impersonal ring, and the quotative frame -(이)라고 하다 that embeds a frozen proverb into your own speech.
  • 속담: 티끌 모아 태산TOPIK 3 — An annotation of 티끌 모아 태산 ('specks of dust gathered make Mt. Tai' → many a little makes a mickle) — a maximally telegraphic proverb that compresses a whole clause into noun + connective + noun, dropping both the object particle 을 and the main verb, and turning on the 아/어-form 모아 (from the 으-irregular 모으다) and the Sino-Korean loan 태산.
  • 속담: 원숭이도 나무에서 떨어진다TOPIK 4 — An annotation of 원숭이도 나무에서 떨어진다 ('even a monkey falls from the tree' → even experts slip) — a full-predicate proverb built on the concessive particle 도 ('even'), the source particle 에서 ('from'), and the gnomic plain present -ㄴ다/-는다 that gives proverbs their timeless, general-truth reading.
  • 속담: 백지장도 맞들면 낫다TOPIK 4 — An annotation of 백지장도 맞들면 낫다 ('even a sheet of paper is better lifted together' → many hands make light work) — an a-fortiori proverb built on the concessive 도 ('even'), the conditional -(으)면 on the ㄹ-stem 맞들다, and the ㅅ-irregular adjective 낫다 'be better' (which drops its ㅅ before a vowel: 나아, 나으니까).
  • 속담 둘: 가는 말이 고와야 오는 말이 곱다 · 낮말은 새가 듣고 밤말은 쥐가 듣는다TOPIK 5 — Two speech-themed proverbs annotated together — 가는 말이 고와야 오는 말이 곱다 ('kind words invite kind words'), which turns on the attributive -는, the necessity conditional -아야/어야 and the ㅂ-irregular 곱다; and 낮말은 새가 듣고 밤말은 쥐가 듣는다 ('walls have ears'), a balanced antithesis built on parallel 은/는 topics, 이/가 subjects, the listing connective -고, and the gnomic plain present.
  • 속담: 호랑이도 제 말 하면 온다TOPIK 4 — An annotation of 호랑이도 제 말 하면 온다 ('even a tiger comes if you speak of it' → speak of the devil) — a full-predicate proverb built on the concessive 도 ('even'), the reflexive 제 ('its own,' a contraction of 저의, not the humble 'my'), a dropped object particle in 제 말[을] 하면, the conditional -(으)면, and the gnomic plain present 온다.
  • 속담: 소 잃고 외양간 고친다TOPIK 4 — The proverb 소 잃고 외양간 고친다 ('lose the ox and then fix the barn' — shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted), annotated to show the sequential connective -고, the dropped object particles proverbs love, the gnomic 한다체 present 고친다, and the everyday frame -는 격이다 ('it's a case of ~').

Choosing

Connectives

  • -고 vs -아서: Listing or Linked SequenceTOPIK 2 — Both chain two events in time order, but -고 simply lists actions with no required connection, while -아서/어서 makes the first action carry into the second — the same place, object, or posture persists. The 'does event 2 use what event 1 set up?' test, why motion verbs almost always take 아서, the 았-and-subject constraints on 아서, and the errors English speakers make.
  • -아서 vs -(으)니까: Two Kinds of 'Because'TOPIK 2 — Both mean 'because', but -아서/어서 gives a neutral, tightly-bound cause that can't finish a command or carry its own past tense, while -(으)니까 gives the speaker's reasoning and freely precedes orders, requests, and 'let's'.
  • -(으)러 vs -(으)려고: Purpose of Going vs IntentionTOPIK 3 — Both mean 'in order to', but -(으)러 attaches only to a motion verb (가다/오다/다니다) and names the goal of a trip, while -(으)려고 states the intention behind any action and can't be capped by a command.

Modality & Conjecture

  • 것 같다 vs -나 보다: Guess or InferenceTOPIK 3 — Both mean 'seems / probably', but 것 같다 is a general 'I think / it looks like' usable about yourself and any hunch, while -나 보다 is an inference about someone or something else read off external evidence — and can't describe your own feelings.
  • -(으)면 되다 vs -아야 하다: Enough vs MustTOPIK 3 — -(으)면 되다 says 'it's enough to / you just need to' — this much suffices; -아야 하다/되다 says 'must / have to' — an unavoidable obligation. Sufficiency versus necessity, with a treacherous split in their negatives.

Negation & Limiting

  • 안 vs 못: Won't or Can'tTOPIK 1 — Both negate the verb, but 안 negates by choice or plain fact ('do not / is not') while 못 negates by inability ('cannot' — blocked by capacity, circumstance, or permission); the deciding line is volition versus impossibility.
  • 만 or 밖에? Choosing the Right 'Only' ParticleTOPIK 2 — Both mean 'only', but 만 attaches to a positive/neutral predicate and simply restricts ('just X, that's what I want'), while 밖에 requires a following negative (안·못·없다·모르다) and frames the amount as insufficient ('nothing but X, and it's not enough'). The literal 'outside of' logic behind 밖에's mandatory negation, minimal pairs, a scope trap, and the errors English speakers make.

Numbers

  • Native vs Sino-Korean Numbers: Which System WhenTOPIK 1 — Korean runs two number systems in parallel — native Korean (하나, 둘, 셋) for tangible quantities, the hour, and age, and Sino-Korean (일, 이, 삼) for dates, money, minutes, and everything above 99 — and the two routinely appear side by side in one phrase.

Particles & Case

  • 은/는 vs 이/가: Topic or Subject?TOPIK 1 — The flagship Korean particle confusion — 은/는 marks the topic (what the sentence is about: given information, contrast, or a general truth) while 이/가 marks the grammatical subject (new/first-mention information, a neutral event report, or the exhaustive answer to who/what). A decision rule, the double-subject frame, the irregular subject forms, and the errors English speakers actually make.
  • 에 vs 에서: Static Location or Action Site?TOPIK 1 — Both particles attach to places, but 에 marks a static location or destination while 에서 marks the site of an action or a source — the one question that decides it is whether an action actually happens at the spot.
  • 에게/한테 vs 에: Giving to People or ThingsTOPIK 1 — For 'to a recipient,' animate receivers (people, animals) take 에게/한테 while inanimate targets (places, institutions, plants) take 에 — the deciding factor is whether the receiver breathes, not the English word 'to.'
  • 으로 vs 에: Direction or DestinationTOPIK 2 — With motion verbs, 에 marks the destination you arrive at while (으)로 marks the direction or route you head in — the line is 'arriving at a point' versus 'orienting toward,' which is why every turn-instruction uses 으로.
  • 을/를 vs 이/가 with 좋다 · 되다 · 필요하다TOPIK 2 — A cluster of Korean predicates that translate as English transitive verbs — like, need, become, fear, hurt — are actually descriptive/intransitive and mark their complement with the subject particle 이/가, never the object particle 을/를. The governing test, the whole cluster (좋다·싫다·필요하다·되다·무섭다·아프다), the -어하다 escape hatch, and the transitivity errors English speakers import.

Tense & Aspect

  • -겠- vs -(으)ㄹ 것이다: Volition or PlanTOPIK 2 — Both point to the future, but -겠- expresses on-the-spot willingness or a fresh guess read from present evidence, while -(으)ㄹ 것이다 (거예요) states a settled plan or a reasoned forecast — spontaneous versus pre-decided.
  • -고 있다 vs -아 있다: Progressive vs ResultantTOPIK 3 — Both translate as 'be …-ing', but -고 있다 marks an action unfolding in real time while -아/어 있다 marks the standing result of a finished action — and only the second one refuses transitive verbs.
  • -던 vs -(으)ㄴ: Habitual/Interrupted vs Completed PastTOPIK 4 — Both modifier endings put a past action in front of a noun, but -(으)ㄴ files a finished one-off event while -던 recalls something habitual, ongoing, or broken off — the ending of memory.

Verbs & Giving

  • 좋아하다 vs 좋다: Like It or It's GoodTOPIK 2 — 좋다 is a descriptive verb 'be good/pleasing' whose theme is a subject (이/가) and defaults to the speaker's own feeling; 좋아하다 is an action verb 'to like' whose object takes 을/를 and asserts a standing preference. The state-vs-action split drives the particle AND who you can use each verb for — including why reporting someone else's taste needs 좋아하다.
  • 주다 vs 드리다: Giving Up or DownTOPIK 2 — Both mean 'give', but 주다 is neutral (to a peer or junior) while 드리다 is the humble form used when the recipient outranks you — an elder, boss, teacher, or customer. The deciding factor is the recipient's status, not the giver's; 드리다 pairs with the honorific dative 께, the favor auxiliary follows suit (-아 주다 → -아 드리다), and 주시다 handles the opposite direction when a superior gives to you.

Common Mistakes

English-Interference Errors

  • 'I have a question': Drop 가지고 있다TOPIK 1 — Why 'I have a question' is 질문 있어요, not ×질문을 가지고 있어요 — Korean expresses most 'have' as existence with 있다, and reserves 가지고 있다 for concrete things you physically hold or carry on you.
  • 'There is' vs 'It is': 있다 ≠ 이다TOPIK 1 — English 'be' does two jobs Korean splits across 있다 (existence/location) and 이다 (identity/equation) — so 'there's a cat' is 고양이가 있어요 while 'this is a book' is 이것은 책이에요, and they even negate differently.
  • 너/당신 Everywhere: Overusing PronounsTOPIK 2 — English needs an overt subject and a plain 'you' in every clause; Korean drops the subject and addresses people by name+씨, title, or kinship term — so ×당신은 어디 가요? to a stranger is blunt, and 어디 가세요? is right.
  • 할 수 있다 for Every 'Can'TOPIK 2 — English 'can' bundles ability, permission, and polite request into one word; Korean lexicalizes each — ability is -(으)ㄹ 수 있다, permission is -아/어도 되다, a request is -아/어 주세요 — so ×창문을 열 수 있어요? for 'can you open the window?' misfires.

Particle Errors

  • 은/는 for Everything: The Topic-vs-Subject ErrorTOPIK 1 — The most common Korean particle mistake: treating 은/는 as a generic subject marker and stranding 이/가 — why the English brain does it, and how to retrain it.
  • ×커피를 좋다: 을/를 with 좋다, 싫다, 있다TOPIK 1 — Why 'I like coffee' is 커피가 좋아요, not ×커피를 좋아요 — Korean encodes like/need/fear/have as adjectives whose stimulus is the subject, so the object particle is simply wrong there.
  • ×도서관에 공부해요: 에 vs 에서 for PlaceTOPIK 1 — English 'at/in' collapses two Korean particles: 에서 marks the site of an action, 에 marks static existence and destination — so 'I study at the library' is 도서관에서, not ×도서관에.
  • ×나는 내가: Stacking Topic on SubjectTOPIK 2 — Why marking one referent twice — with both 는 and 가 — inside a single clause is wrong, and how to pick the one role a noun phrase should play (plus the pronoun reshaping 나→내가, 저→제가, 너→네가).
  • ×나의 친구의 집: Overusing 의TOPIK 1 — Why Korean drops the possessive particle 의 far more than English drops 'of'/'’s' — the pronoun contractions 나의→내, 저의→제, 너의→네, the bare noun-plus-noun pattern, and the few places 의 genuinely belongs.

Speech-level & Honorific Errors

  • ×저는 가십니다: Don't Honor YourselfTOPIK 2 — Why -(으)시- raises the sentence's subject and can never be applied to yourself — the two-axis system that separates addressee politeness (요/습니다) from subject honorification (-시-), and the humble verbs that carry deference about your own actions.
  • ×커피 나오셨어요: Over-honoring Objects (사물존칭)TOPIK 3 — Why -(으)시- can only elevate a person and never an inanimate thing — the service-speech over-correction 사물존칭 (커피 나오셨어요, 품절이십니다) that even natives produce, and the clean principle that fixes it.
  • ×어디 가?: 반말 with StrangersTOPIK 1 — Why the short 반말 (해체) forms are a social act, not a shortcut — the danger of aiming them at strangers, elders, and clerks, and how 해요체 (add 요) plus honorific -세요 keeps you safe by default.
  • Register Whiplash: Dropping 요 HalfwayTOPIK 1 — Why you must hold ONE speech level across a whole conversation — and how stripping 요 midstream accidentally drops you into 반말.

Tense & Aspect Errors

Verb/Adjective Conjugation Errors

Vocabulary-grammar Confusions

  • 계시다 & 드리다: Getting the Honorific Direction RightTOPIK 3 — Suppletive honorific verbs point in a direction: 계시다 (an elder is present) vs 있으시다 (an elder has something), and 드리다 (you give up) vs 주시다 (an elder gives down).
  • 돼요 or 되요? The 되다 Spelling TrapTOPIK 2 — 되 + 어 contracts to 돼, so write 돼 before 어/아-endings (돼요, 됐어요) and 되 before consonant-endings (되고, 되면) — with the foolproof 하/해 substitution test.
  • 친구를 만나요, not 친구에게 만나요TOPIK 1 — Why 'meet a friend' is 친구를 만나요 (direct object), never ×친구에게 만나요 — Korean 만나다 and 보다 are plain transitive verbs, so the person is an object with 을/를, not a dative recipient.

Conjunctions

Additive

  • 그리고: And / And ThenTOPIK 1 — The most basic conjunction, 그리고 joins two sentences as 'and' (adding a fact) or 'and then' (sequence) — with its ending twin -고 that fuses clauses inside one sentence, and a warning about the number-one learner error: gluing every sentence with 그리고.
  • 또 · 또한 · 게다가: Also / In Addition / On Top of ThatTOPIK 2 — The 'adding more' conjunctions as a rising ladder — 또 (light, spoken 'also'), 또한 (formal, written 'as well'), and 게다가 (an escalating 'what's more' that raises the stakes) — and how English 'also / moreover / plus' sorts onto them by register and rhetorical push.
  • 더구나 · 그 외에(도): What's More / BesidesTOPIK 3 — The strong additive conjunctions — 더구나 stacks a further point in the same direction (usually with emotional weight), while 그 외에(도) enumerates items beyond an already-named set. English 'moreover / besides' blurs the two.

Adversative

  • 그러나 · 하지만 · 그렇지만: But / HoweverTOPIK 1 — The three plain adversative conjunctions all reverse the previous sentence, but they split by register: 그러나 is formal/written, 하지만 is the everyday neutral 'but,' and 그렇지만 is a softer, spoken 'but even so.'
  • 그런데 · 근데: But / By the Way (Topic Shift)TOPIK 2 — 그런데 is the workhorse spoken conjunction that does two jobs English keeps apart — mild contrast ('but') and topic shift ('by the way / so / anyway'). In real speech it almost always contracts to 근데.
  • 그래도 · 그럼에도 (불구하고): Even So / NeverthelessTOPIK 2 — The concessive conjunctions that grant the previous point yet push on regardless — everyday spoken 그래도 ('even so, still') from -아/어도, and the heavier formal 그럼에도 (불구하고) ('nevertheless, in spite of that').

Alternative & Explanatory

  • 아니면 · 또는 · 혹은: Or / AlternativelyTOPIK 2 — The three sentence-level 'or' conjunctions graded by register — spoken 아니면 (which also means 'or else / otherwise'), neutral written 또는, and formal 혹은 — plus the crucial boundary with the particle -(이)나 that joins two nouns inside a clause.
  • 즉 · 다시 말해(서): That Is / In Other WordsTOPIK 3 — The restatement conjunctions that re-explain what you just said — terse, written 즉 ('that is, namely') versus the everyday spoken 다시 말해서 ('in other words') — plus 요컨대, 말하자면, and formal 곧, and why they restate rather than add or conclude.
  • 예를 들어(서) · 예컨대: For ExampleTOPIK 2 — The exemplifying conjunction 예를 들어(서) ('for example'), literally 'raising an example' from 예를 들다, its variants 예를 들면 and literary 예컨대, and why what follows it must be a genuine instance of what came before — plus the classic 예룰/예을 misspelling and the wrong-verb error 예를 주다.

Causal & Consequential

  • 그래서: So / That's Why (Everyday Cause)TOPIK 1 — 그래서 is the default 'so / that's why,' presenting the previous sentence as a neutral, objective cause for this one — and, inheriting the constraint of -아/어서, it cannot be followed by a command or a suggestion.
  • 그러니까 · 그러므로 · 따라서: Therefore / ThusTOPIK 2 — The three 'therefore' conjunctions that draw a conclusion — 그러니까 (spoken reasoning that can precede a command), 그러므로 (formal logical therefore), and 따라서 (academic 'thus') — and how they differ from plain 그래서.
  • 그 결과 · 그러다 보니: As a Result / And So It Ended UpTOPIK 3 — Two ways past plain 그래서 to say 'as a result' — the formal, noun-based 그 결과 that announces a concrete outcome, and the spoken, experiential 그러다 보니 that means an outcome crept up on you unplanned ('before I knew it').

Conditional & Sequential

  • 그러면 · 그럼: Then / In That CaseTOPIK 1 — The conversational 'then' that takes the previous statement as a condition and draws the next step from it — 그러면 and its ubiquitous contraction 그럼, which also stands alone as an agreement word meaning 'of course / okay then.'
  • 그래야: Only Then / That's the Only WayTOPIK 3 — The conjunction that presents the previous statement as the sole necessary condition for what follows — 그래야 ('only then / that's the only way it works'), from 그렇다 + -아야, and how it makes the prior action necessary rather than merely sufficient like 그러면.

Foundations

  • Sentence Conjunctions 접속부사 and the 그렇다 PatternTOPIK 1 — The words that open a sentence and link it to the last one — 그리고, 그래서, 하지만, 그런데 — and the single insight that unlocks almost all of them: most are 그렇다 ('be so') plus a connective ending, so each conjunction has an ending twin.

Connective Endings

Background, Discovery & Addition

Cause & Reason

Condition & Hypothesis

  • -(으)면: If / WhenTOPIK 1 — Korean's all-purpose conditional — one ending that covers 'if', habitual 'when(ever)', and hypothetical 'if', with 으/면 allomorphy and counterfactual 았/었으면.
  • -(느)ㄴ다면 · (이)라면: If (Vivid Supposition)TOPIK 3 — The supposition conditional built on the plain declarative form — a vivid, hypothetical, often counterfactual 'if' that flags the speaker is entertaining a supposition, never habitual 'when'.
  • -거든: If (Spoken Condition Before a Command)TOPIK 3 — The colloquial conditional -거든 that sets up a following command, request, or the speaker's own resolve — a warm, spoken 'if/when', kept distinct from the sentence-ending 거든요.
  • -아/어야: Only If / Must (Necessary Condition)TOPIK 2 — The necessary-condition connective — 'only if X can Y', marking X as the indispensable prerequisite rather than a merely sufficient condition, with vowel harmony and the 만 reinforcement.

Contrast & Concession

  • -지만: But (Plain Contrast)TOPIK 1 — The everyday, all-purpose 'but' — attaches to any stem with no allomorphy, freely carries tense, and states a flat contrast, unlike the background-setting -는데.
  • -(으)ㄴ/는데: But / Whereas (Contrast & Background)TOPIK 2 — The soft, scene-setting connective that says 'but / whereas' by laying down a backdrop — with adjective-vs-verb allomorphy that mirrors the attributive system, and the split from the blunt -지만.
  • -아/어도: Even If / Even ThoughTOPIK 2 — The everyday concessive — 'even if / even though / no matter' — built with vowel harmony, spanning hypothetical and factual clauses, and pairing with 아무리; contrasted with plain conditional -(으)면.
  • -더라도 · -(으)ㄹ지라도: Even If (Hypothetical & Emphatic)TOPIK 3 — The stronger, more hypothetical 'even if' — conceding an unlikely or extreme supposition and insisting the outcome holds — plus its bookish cousin -(으)ㄹ지라도, and the stance contrast with everyday -아/어도.
  • -(으)ㄴ데도 / -는데도: Even Though (Despite the Fact)TOPIK 3 — The concessive built from background -는데 plus 도 — 'even though X (which is actually true), the surprising Y' — marking a real, established fact that should have prevented the result but didn't.
  • -(으)나: But (Formal & Literary)TOPIK 4 — The written, formal 'but' — the register-shifted twin of -지만, at home in news, essays, and speeches — plus its paired -(으)나 … -(으)나 'whether X or Y' construction.

Coordination -고 / -(으)며

  • -고: And (Listing & Sequence)TOPIK 1 — The workhorse connective -고, a neutral 'and' that attaches to any stem with zero allomorphy — used for listing facts and for loose time-sequence.
  • -(으)며: While / And (Formal & Written)TOPIK 3 — The written-register connective -(으)며 — a formal 'while' for simultaneous actions and a formal 'and' for listing parallel predicates, with -(으)면서 and -고 as its spoken counterparts.
  • -고 vs -아/어서: Two Kinds of 'And Then'TOPIK 2 — The beginner's key contrast — both -고 and sequential -아/어서 translate as 'and then,' but -고 chains independent events while -아/어서 makes the second action reuse the first's place, object, or result.

Overview

  • Connective Endings 연결어미: How Korean Joins ClausesTOPIK 1 — Korean doesn't join clauses with separate words like 'and / but / because' — it fuses the link into the first verb's ending and leaves that verb unfinished, so only the final clause carries tense and the speech level.
  • The Three Constraints: Tense, Subject & MoodTOPIK 2 — Connective endings aren't interchangeable synonyms of 'and / but / because' — each is a contract about three things: whether it can carry tense, whether the two clauses must share a subject, and whether a command or suggestion may follow.

Purpose & Result

  • -(으)러: To (Purpose of Going/Coming)TOPIK 1 — The purpose-of-motion ending — 'go/come somewhere in order to do X', restricted to motion main verbs (가다, 오다, 다니다), with same subject and no tense on the ending.
  • -(으)려고: Intending To / In Order ToTOPIK 2 — The intention-marking purpose ending — -(으)려고 says 'with the intention of / so as to', works with any action verb, and demands the same subject in both clauses.
  • -(으)러 vs -(으)려고: Two 'In Order To'sTOPIK 2 — The decision guide for Korean's two purpose endings: -(으)러 only rides a motion verb and labels a trip's purpose, while -(으)려고 works with any verb and foregrounds intention.
  • -도록 · -게: So That / To the Point ThatTOPIK 3 — The two 'so that' endings that allow a different subject in each clause — -도록/-게 express a goal aimed at someone else's outcome, and -도록 also means 'to the point that'.

Sequence & Time

  • -아/어서: Sequential 'And Then' (Same Subject, No Past)TOPIK 1 — The sequential connective -아/어서 links two actions where the first feeds into the second — with vowel harmony, a strict same-subject rule, and no tense marker on the first clause.
  • -고 나서: After FinishingTOPIK 2 — The connective -고 나서 explicitly foregrounds completion — 'after finishing X, then Y' — built from -고 plus 나다 ('to be done'), and restricted to action verbs only.
  • -자마자: As Soon AsTOPIK 2 — The connective -자마자 attaches to any verb stem to mean 'the instant that X, Y' — with no tense marker of its own and no requirement that the two clauses share a subject.
  • -다(가): Switching Mid-ActionTOPIK 3 — The connective -다(가) means 'was partway through X when Y broke in' — with a crucial tense split between an interrupted action (plain -다가) and a completed-then-reversed action (-았/었다가).
  • -(으)ㄴ 지: How Long SinceTOPIK 2 — The frame verb + -(으)ㄴ 지 + [duration] + 되다/지나다/넘다 measures elapsed time since an action — a spaced dependent noun 지 that must not be confused with the attached 'whether' ending -는지.

Copula

Connective & Attributive

  • 이고 · 이라서 · 이니까 · 이면: Linking with the CopulaTOPIK 2 — The copula's four workhorse connective endings — 이고 'and', 이라서 'because it is', 이니까 'since it is', and 이면 'if it is' — all built on the 이 stem, with the copula reusing the 아서-vs-니까 division of labour learners already know from verbs.
  • 인: 'that is a N' (Copula Attributive)TOPIK 2 — 인 is the attributive form of 이다 — it lets a noun-predicate modify the noun that follows (학생인 친구, 'a friend who IS a student'), built like an adjective's -(으)ㄴ, and clear evidence that the copula patterns with descriptive verbs rather than action verbs.

Forms

  • 이에요 / 예요: Polite Present (with Casual 이야/야)TOPIK 1 — The everyday polite copula picks its shape from the noun's final sound — 이에요 after a consonant, 예요 after a vowel — and the number-one spelling trap is writing 에요 for 예요; the casual 반말 pair 이야/야 tracks it exactly.
  • 입니다 / 입니까: The Formal CopulaTOPIK 1 — 입니다 is the formal-polite (합니다체) 'is' of announcements, presentations, and first meetings — it attaches identically to every noun regardless of batchim, its question form is 입니까?, and it is pronounced (and romanized) imnida, never ipnida.
  • 이었어요 / 였어요: Past CopulaTOPIK 1 — The past of 이다: 이었어요 after a consonant, 였어요 after a vowel — the past marker 았/었 is infixed into the copula itself, the noun never changes, and one rule (keep 이 after a consonant, fuse it after a vowel) generates present, past, and negative past alike.

Foundations

  • The Copula 이다: 'to be' for NounsTOPIK 1 — 이다 is the copula that bolts a noun onto the sentence as its predicate, meaning 'is [something]' — and the one structural fact that changes everything is that it's a bound suffix glued to the noun, conjugating like a descriptive verb, not a free-standing 'to be'.
  • A는 B이다: Identity SentencesTOPIK 1 — Korean's basic 'A is B' sentence: the topic 은/는 (or subject 이/가) marks A, B takes the copula 이다 directly, and the predicate lands last — with no article and no word for 'a/an' anywhere.
  • 이다 vs 있다: 'Be' Is Not 'Exist'TOPIK 1 — The single most important line in Korean 'to be': 이다 equates (A is B), while 있다 handles existence, location, and possession (there is / is at / have) — and they even take different negatives, 아니다 vs 없다.

Negative

  • 아니다: 'to not be' and the 이/가 ComplementTOPIK 1 — 아니다 is the dedicated negative of 이다 ('is not [something]'), and its defining quirk is that the thing being denied takes the SUBJECT particle 이/가, not an object marker — the frame is A은/는 B이/가 아니다.
  • 아니에요 / 아닙니다 / 아니야: Negative Copula FormsTOPIK 1 — 아니다 conjugated across the register ladder and tenses: polite 아니에요, formal 아닙니다 / 아닙니까?, casual 아니야, past 아니었어요 — and the same word doubles as the everyday 'no,' which is why Korean 'no' can be put in the past tense.
  • 아니다 vs 없다: 'is not' vs 'there isn't'TOPIK 1 — 아니다 negates identity ('A is not B'); 없다 negates existence and possession ('there isn't / doesn't have / isn't at'). English blurs both into 'isn't / don't have,' so the test is the question each answers: 'what is it?' → 아니다, 'is there any?' → 없다.

Register & Written

  • 이다: The Plain / Written DeclarativeTOPIK 2 — The dictionary form 이다 is also a complete sentence — the neutral, impersonal declarative of books, news, definitions, and diaries (한다체). Because 이다 conjugates like a descriptive verb, its plain present is the bare 이다, never ×인다 or ×이는다.
  • 이라고 · 이라는 · 이란: Quoting and Naming with the CopulaTOPIK 3 — The copula's quotation and naming family — 이라고 하다 ('says it is'), 이라는 ('called/named'), and the definitional 이란 ('the thing called X') — all built on an irregular 라 stem, learned together because none of them looks like the copula's plain conjugation.

Countries & Culture

Countries & Nationality

Customs & Society

Everyday Culture

Korea & Geography

Names & Address

Discourse Markers

Backchanneling & Reactions

Fillers & Hesitation

  • Hesitation Fillers 그 / 저 / 저기(요)TOPIK 2 — How Korean stalls mid-thought and flags an approach with the demonstrative-derived fillers 그 ('that…'), 저 ('um'), and 저기(요) ('excuse me / um') — real pointing words, not the meaningless 'um/uh' of English.
  • 'Like / I Mean': 뭐 / 뭐랄까 / 그러니까TOPIK 3 — The formulation markers Korean uses to buy time while phrasing a thought — 뭐 ('like/well'), 뭐랄까 ('how should I put it'), and reformulating 그러니까 ('I mean') — and how the last one differs from the causal 그러니까.
  • Hesitation Sounds 음 / 어 and the Softener 좀TOPIK 2 — The thinking-noises 음 ('mm') and 어 ('uh' — also a casual 'yeah'), and the all-important 좀 — a reduced 조금 that softens requests and complaints rather than meaning 'a little'.

Reporting & Distancing

Sentence-final Discourse Endings

Topic Management & Connectors

  • 그런데 / 근데: 'By the Way' and Topic ShiftingTOPIK 2 — How 그런데 and its spoken contraction 근데 do double duty — mild contrast 'but' and, more often in speech, opening or shifting a topic: 'so / by the way / anyway'.
  • 그래서 / 그러니까 as Discourse 'So'TOPIK 3 — Beyond cause-and-effect: how 그래서 draws a consequence and prompts 'so…?', while insistent 그러니까 means 'that's exactly why' — and 그러니까(요) alone is emphatic agreement.
  • 'Anyway' 그건 그렇고 and 'Oh Right!' 아 참 / 맞다TOPIK 3 — Two deliberate topic-management moves: 그건 그렇고 consciously sets the current topic down to pivot ('anyway / that aside'), and 아 참 / 맞다 flag something you've just remembered ('oh right! / that reminds me').

Expressions & Collocations

Body & Emotion Collocations

  • 마음 · 기분 · 속: The Three 'Hearts' and Their VerbsTOPIK 2 — Korean splits the English 'heart/feelings' into three inner-state nouns — 마음 (durable heart/mind), 기분 (passing mood), and 속 (guts, where hurt lives) — each locked to its own verb and particle.
  • 눈 · 손 · 발 · 머리: Body-Part IdiomsTOPIK 3 — Korean maps personality onto anatomy with a single productive frame — '[the person]은 [body part]이/가 [descriptive verb]' — where eyes, hands, feet, and head describe character, never the body.
  • 배가 아프다: When 'My Stomach Hurts' Means JealousTOPIK 3 — The same string 배가 아프다 means both 'my stomach hurts' and 'I'm green with envy' — and only the situation, not the grammar, tells you which; a lesson in how context switches a body collocation from literal to figurative.

Discourse & Reaction Set Phrases

Four-Character Idioms 사자성어

  • What 사자성어 Are: Four-Character Hanja IdiomsTOPIK 4 — 사자성어 (四字成語) are four-syllable idioms inherited from Classical Chinese — each syllable a Sino-Korean morpheme, the four frozen into a fixed proverb you store whole and deploy as a noun; knowing a handful marks educated, fluent Korean.
  • High-Frequency 사자성어: 일석이조 · 유비무환 · 고진감래 · 금상첨화TOPIK 4 — Four of the most useful four-character idioms, each with its character breakdown and natural sentence frames: 일석이조 (two birds, one stone), 유비무환 (ready, no worries), 고진감래 (after bitter comes sweet), 금상첨화 (icing on the cake) — stored images you use to LABEL a situation, not describe it.
  • How 사자성어 Slot Into a Sentence GrammaticallyTOPIK 5 — The part every proverb-list skips: a four-character idiom is grammatically a NOUN, so you predicate it with 이다 (금상첨화예요), give it particles (고진감래를 믿어요), quote it (고진감래라는 말이 있어요), or — for the action subset — attach 하다 (우왕좌왕했어요). You conjugate the attached grammar, never the four frozen characters.
  • 속담 vs 사자성어: Native Proverbs vs Hanja IdiomsTOPIK 5 — Korean has two proverb traditions — native folk sayings (속담) that are full sentences, and four-character Sino-Korean idioms (사자성어) that behave like nouns — and you attach them to your speech in opposite ways.

Giving & Receiving

  • 주다 · 받다 · 드리다 · 주시다: The Direction-and-Status SystemTOPIK 2 — Korean has no single neutral 'give.' The verb itself encodes a social vector: 주다 (give outward/among peers), 받다 (receive), 드리다 (give upward, lowering me), 주시다 (a superior gives to me, raising them). A 2×2 grid of direction × status — and it drags the dative particle 한테 → 께 along with it.
  • -아/어 주다: Doing Something as a FavorTOPIK 2 — Attaching 주다 ('give') to a verb turns the action into a kindness done FOR someone — 도와주다 'help', 사 주다 'buy for', 읽어 주세요 'please read it for me' — and the polite version 주시다 (someone kindly does it for me) / humble 드리다 (I do it for a superior) is the machinery behind almost every natural Korean request.
  • 덕분에 vs 때문에: Thanks-To vs Because-OfTOPIK 2 — Korean splits English 'because' by polarity: 덕분에 credits a GOOD outcome to someone ('thanks to you'), 때문에 is the neutral-to-negative default for causes and blame ('because of the rain') — so choosing the wrong one turns a thank-you into an accusation.

Greetings & Set Phrases

  • 안녕히 가세요 vs 안녕히 계세요: Go in Peace vs Stay in PeaceTOPIK 1 — Korean has no single word for goodbye — you say 안녕히 가세요 ('go in peace') to the person who is leaving and 안녕히 계세요 ('stay in peace') to the person who is staying. The choice is a verb of motion vs a verb of staying, decided by one question: who moves?
  • 잘 먹겠습니다 / 잘 먹었습니다: Before and After EatingTOPIK 1 — The two table rituals differ by one morpheme: 잘 먹겠습니다 ('I'll eat well,' before the meal) uses volitional -겠-, while 잘 먹었습니다 ('I ate well,' after) uses past -었-. Here -겠- is intention, not a weather-forecast 'will,' and 잘 means 'gratefully,' not 'skillfully.'
  • 수고하셨습니다 / 고생하셨습니다: Acknowledging Someone's EffortTOPIK 1 — The 'thanks for your hard work' formulas, parsed morpheme by morpheme — honorific -(으)시- plus past -었- praising effort already spent. Plus the register rule every learner needs: 수고하세요 is fine downward but rude upward; to a boss or elder, say 고생 많으셨습니다 or 감사합니다, never 수고하세요.
  • 처음 뵙겠습니다 / 잘 부탁드립니다: The Introduction RitualTOPIK 1 — The fixed first-meeting pair, built on humble verbs: 뵙겠습니다 uses 뵙다 ('to meet a superior,' the humble counterpart of 보다) and 잘 부탁드립니다 uses 드리다 ('to give humbly,' the humble counterpart of 주다). These humble verbs lower the speaker to elevate the listener — swap in plain 보다/주다 and the whole ritual collapses.

하다 & Light-Verb Collocations

Learner Paths

Getting Started

  • Start Here: Your First Steps in Korean GrammarTOPIK 1 — The zero-to-first-sentences roadmap for an absolute beginner — five ordered gates from reading 한글, to the copula 이다, to the topic/subject particles, to the polite -아요/어요 present, to the workhorse particles — each linking to its full page, with the core reframings (no articles, no gender, SOV, and 이다 fuses onto the noun) planted from the start.

Goal-Based Paths

  • Grammar for Travel: Survival Korean in a WeekendTOPIK 1 — The fewest grammar patterns that buy the most transactions in Korea — identifying things, making polite requests, reading prices, telling time, asking directions, and saying what you want — each linked to its full page.
  • Grammar for K-Drama & K-Pop: Understanding Casual KoreanTOPIK 2 — A listening-first roadmap for fans: the intimate 반말 speech and the emotive sentence-final endings that fill dramas, variety shows, and lyrics — the stance-carrying layer textbooks skip.
  • Grammar for Business Korean: Formal & Written RegisterTOPIK 4 — A workplace roadmap through 합니다체, subject honorifics, humble 겸양 forms, honorific nouns, and email/document conventions — the two-directional politeness system that is the baseline in Korean meetings, emails, and reports.

Skill Roadmaps

  • Fixing Fossilized Errors: The Top 10 to UnlearnTOPIK 3 — A remedial roadmap for intermediate learners: the ten errors English speakers most reliably harden into habits, each linked to its Common Mistakes page so you can drill the fix by targeted contrast.
  • Mastering Honorifics: The Full Speech-Level RoadmapTOPIK 2 — A dedicated, ordered path through Korean's honorific system — speech levels, the subject honorific -(으)시-, honorific particles, humble forms, and honorific nouns — built as one coherent system of three independent axes rather than scattered forms.
  • Verb Conjugation Roadmap: From Stem to Every EndingTOPIK 1 — A single sequenced path through the whole Korean conjugation system — stem and ending, vowel harmony, the polite and formal present, tense, the irregular predicates, and the connective and attributive endings — climbing one dependency at a time.

TOPIK Roadmaps

  • TOPIK 1 Grammar Checklist (Complete Beginner Syllabus)TOPIK 1 — The entire beginner (TOPIK I, level 1) grammar syllabus as an ordered, checkable roadmap — copula, particles, tense, negation, connectives, and both number systems — each item linked to its full page.
  • TOPIK 2 Grammar Checklist (Upper-Beginner Syllabus)TOPIK 2 — The upper-beginner (TOPIK I, level 2) grammar syllabus as an ordered, checkable roadmap — the second future, honorifics, benefactives, obligation, richer connectives, and the three attributive endings that unlock relative clauses.
  • The Intermediate Path (TOPIK 3–4)TOPIK 3 — A sequenced intermediate roadmap through the machinery TOPIK 3–4 rewards — reported speech, causatives and passives, conjecture and modality, and the retrospective -더- — each stage linked in learning order.
  • The Advanced Path (TOPIK 5–6)TOPIK 5 — An advanced roadmap toward TOPIK 5–6 — nuanced sentence patterns, advanced connectives, the written 문어체 register, and the four-character idioms and proverbs that mark educated fluency.

Negation

Inability & Prohibition

  • 못 vs 안: Can't vs Won'tTOPIK 1 — The semantic split that Korean forces you to make: 안 negates choice or plain fact ('doesn't / won't'), while 못 negates ability blocked by circumstance ('can't, though I might want to').
  • -지 마세요: Telling Someone Not ToTOPIK 1 — How Korean says 'don't do X' — built not from 안 but from the auxiliary 말다 on -지: intimate 하지 마, polite 하지 마세요, formal 하지 마십시오 — and why you can never command with 안.
  • 말다 Beyond Commands: -지 말고, -지 말자, 말다 LexicalTOPIK 2 — The auxiliary 말다 past the bare prohibition — -지 말고 ('rather than X, do Y'), the negative propositive -지 말자 / -지 맙시다 ('let's not'), and the lexical main verb 말다 meaning 'stop halfway'.

Lexical & Copular Negation

  • Words That Are Already Negative: 없다, 아니다, 모르다TOPIK 1 — A closed set of verbs whose negation is a whole different word — 있다→없다, 이다→아니다, 알다→모르다 — so 안 and -지 않다 are blocked, plus the 이/가 complement 아니다 demands.
  • Preferring an Antonym: 싫다 over 안 좋다TOPIK 2 — Why Korean says 싫어요 / 싫어해요 for 'I dislike it' instead of the weaker 안 좋아요 — the 좋다/싫다 and 좋아하다/싫어하다 pairs, their argument frames, and the general habit of reaching for a crisp antonym over 안 + base.

Negative Questions & Answers

Negative-Polarity Items

  • Adverbs That Demand Negation: 전혀, 별로, 그다지, 도무지TOPIK 3 — Degree adverbs that are ungrammatical without a negative predicate somewhere in the clause — 전혀 'at all', 별로 'not really', 그다지 'not that much', 도무지/도저히 'no way' — and the polarity-agreement rule behind them.
  • 아무도, 아무것도, 하나도, 절대로 + NegationTOPIK 3 — The 아무-series and intensifier NPIs — 아무도 'no one', 아무것도 'nothing', 하나도 'not one bit', 절대로 'never' — that are grammatical only with a negated predicate, and the 도/나 switch that flips 아무 between 'no-' and 'any-'.
  • 밖에 + Negation = 'Only', and the NPI Agreement RuleTOPIK 3 — The particle 밖에 'nothing but / only' literally means 'outside of X', which is why it forces a negative predicate — and how it differs from 만 'only', which stays positive. The clearest proof that Korean negation is clause-level agreement.

Scope & Double Negation

Short vs Long — the System

  • 안 vs -지 않다: Choosing Short or Long NegationTOPIK 1 — Both negate the same predicate with the same truth value — 안 가요 and 가지 않아요 both mean 'don't go' — so the real question is WHEN to use each. The heuristic: 안 is a light clitic that wants a short host; the longer or more formal the predicate, the more -지 않다 takes over.
  • 못 vs -지 못하다: Short and Long InabilityTOPIK 2 — The two ways to say 'can't / was unable to' — short preposed 못 versus long postposed -지 못하다 — split by register and predicate weight, plus the spacing trap that turns 못 하다 into the adjective 못하다.
  • The 하다-Verb Trap: 공부 안 하다, not 안 공부하다TOPIK 1 — Why short 안 and 못 go INSIDE a noun+하다 verb — 공부 안 해요, not ×안 공부해요 — and the one diagnostic that tells you when to split and when to keep the word whole.

Nouns, Pronouns & Demonstratives

Bound Nouns

Demonstratives (이/그/저)

  • The Three-Way 이 / 그 / 저 (why Korean 'this/that' beats English)TOPIK 1 — Korean demonstratives form a three-way system anchored to the speaker, the listener, and the far distance — where English has only this/that. The key insight: most English 'that', especially pointing back to something mentioned, is Korean 그, not 저.
  • 이것/그것/저것 and 여기/거기/저기 (things and places)TOPIK 1 — How the 이/그/저 stems build full pronouns for things (이것/그것/저것), places (여기/거기/저기), and directions (이쪽/그쪽/저쪽) — including the heavy everyday contractions (이게, 그건, 저걸, 거기서) and why 거기, not 저기, is 'there where you are.'
  • 이런/그런/저런: 'this kind of / such'TOPIK 2 — The adjectival demonstratives 이런/그런/저런 ('this kind of / that kind of / such') and their manner-adverb partners 이렇게/그렇게/저렇게 ('like this / like that') — why Korean's word for 'such' is deictic, why 그런 is the default, and how not to confuse the determiner with the adverb.
  • Referential 그: 'the' for Known / Shared InformationTOPIK 2 — Beyond 'that near you,' 그 is Korean's main device for 'the (one we both already know)' — carrying the anaphoric-definite load that English hands to the article 'the.' Why 그 (not 이 or 저) marks something already mentioned, when to add it, and why 그/그녀 are NOT the spoken 'he/she.'

Nouns

  • Korean Nouns: No Gender, No Articles, No Obligatory PluralTOPIK 1 — A Korean noun is bare: no grammatical gender, no articles (a/the), and no obligatory plural. Context, particles, and (optionally) demonstratives do the work that English packs into der/die/das, a/the, and -s.
  • Counting Nouns: Classifiers Are (Almost) ObligatoryTOPIK 1 — Korean counts almost everything through a classifier in the frame noun + number + counter (사과 세 개, 사람 두 명). You cannot mirror English 'three apples' — the counter is required, and the native numbers shorten before it.
  • Compound Nouns and the Linking 사이시옷TOPIK 2 — Korean welds nouns into new words written solid (손 + 가방 → 손가방), and many native compounds insert a linking 사이시옷 — an orthographic ㅅ that surfaces as tensing or ㄴ-insertion (나무 + 잎 → 나뭇잎). Fixed compounds take no 의.
  • Sino-Korean vs Native Vocabulary (한자어 vs 고유어)TOPIK 2 — Korean vocabulary comes in two strata — native (고유어) and Sino-Korean (한자어) — often as register doublets (나이/연세, 이름/성함). This split is why Korean has two number systems, each wired to specific counters.
  • 것 / 거: The General Noun 'thing / one'TOPIK 1 — 것 (colloquial 거) is Korean's all-purpose noun 'thing / one' — it turns demonstratives, possessors, adjectives, and whole clauses into full noun phrases, and it contracts hard with particles in speech (게, 건, 걸).

Personal Pronouns

  • First Person: 나 vs 저 (I / me — plain vs humble)TOPIK 1 — Korean has two words for 'I' split by politeness, not case: 나 (plain, for 반말) and 저 (humble, for polite speech). The subject forms are irregular — 나→내가, 저→제가 — and 저 lowers you relative to the listener, making it the safe default with anyone you'd address politely.
  • Second Person: 너, 당신, 그쪽 — and Why 'you' Is a TrapTOPIK 1 — Korean has no safe, all-purpose word for 'you'. 너 is intimate and downward, 당신 is for spouses, ads, or fights, and 그쪽 keeps distance — the polite move is to use a name, a title, or no pronoun at all.
  • First Person Plural: 우리 vs 저희 — and 'our' Meaning 'my'TOPIK 1 — 우리 is 'we / our'; 저희 is its humble version, lowering your group before a superior or outsider. The twist for English speakers: Korean says 우리 엄마 ('my mom'), 우리 집 ('my house') — 'our' expresses in-group belonging, not joint ownership.
  • Third Person: 그, 그녀, 그분, 걔 — Mostly a Written DeviceTOPIK 2 — Korean third-person pronouns (그, 그녀, 그분, 그이, and casual 걔/얘/쟤) are largely a literary, written phenomenon. Everyday speech avoids 'he/she' and re-uses the person's name, a title, or 그 사람 / 그분 instead.
  • Dropping Pronouns (Pro-Drop / Zero Anaphora)TOPIK 1 — Korean freely omits any subject or object you can infer from context. 어디 가요? = '(where) are (you) going?', 몰라요 = '(I) don't know' — with no word for 'you' or 'I'. Over-supplying pronouns sounds foreign, robotic, or unintentionally emphatic.

Plurals (들)

  • The Optional Plural 들TOPIK 1 — Korean's plural suffix 들 is optional and used sparingly — a bare noun is number-neutral, so 사람 already covers 'person' and 'people'; 들 is added mainly for salient, human, or definite plurals, and dropped once a number already shows the plural.
  • Floating 들: When 들 Lands on Non-NounsTOPIK 3 — One of Korean's most surprising devices — 들 can attach to adverbs, objects, even greetings (많이들 드세요, 어서들 오세요) to signal that a dropped subject or addressee is plural. It doesn't pluralize its host; it echoes an invisible 'you all.'
  • Collective vs Individual: What Adding 들 Actually DoesTOPIK 2 — When 들 does appear on a noun it doesn't just count — it individuates. Bare 학생 is number-neutral and often generic; 학생들 frames the students as several distinct, identifiable individuals. The bare-vs-들 choice is really about definiteness and individuation, not grammatical number.

Question Words

  • Interrogatives I: 누구 (who), 무엇 / 뭐 (what) — and wh-in-situTOPIK 1 — The two core question pronouns 누구 ('who,' with the irregular subject 누가) and 무엇/뭐 ('what') — plus the single biggest structural difference from English: Korean is wh-in-situ, so the question word stays in its normal SOV slot and is never fronted.
  • Interrogatives II: 어디 / 언제 / 왜 / 어떻게TOPIK 1 — The place/time/reason/manner question words — and the hidden fact that decides their particles: 어디 ('where') is grammatically a NOUN and takes 에/에서, while 왜 ('why') and 어떻게 ('how') are ADVERBS and stay bare. Plus how to keep 어떻게, 어떤, and 어때요 apart.
  • Interrogatives as Indefinites: 'someone / something / somewhere'TOPIK 2 — The very same words that ask 'who / what / where' double as 'someone / something / somewhere' when they're unstressed and cued by yes/no intonation — plus the free-choice forms 뭐든지 and 누구나.
  • 몇 vs 얼마: 'how many' vs 'how much / what price'TOPIK 1 — Korean splits 'how much/many' by countability: 몇 counts discrete things and always takes a counter (몇 개, 몇 시, 몇 살), while 얼마 asks price or amount with no counter — and its adverb 얼마나 asks extent, duration, and frequency.
  • 어느 vs 어떤 vs 무슨 (which / what kind / what)TOPIK 2 — Three prenominal determiners that English blurs into 'which / what': 어느 picks from a known set, 어떤 asks about quality or type (and also means 'a certain'), and 무슨 asks the category or nature of something — often with surprise.

Nuance & Modality

Ability & Possibility

  • -(으)ㄹ 수 있다 / 없다: Can / CannotTOPIK 2 — Korean's all-purpose 'can / cannot' — a bound noun 수 ('way, means') plus 있다/없다 — covering both learned ability and situational possibility, and how it differs from the confident inference 리가 없다.
  • 못 vs -(으)ㄹ 수 없다: Two Ways to Say 'Can't'TOPIK 3 — Both mean 'can't,' but 못 is a short, personal adverb of inability while -(으)ㄹ 수 없다 states impossibility neutrally — plus the crucial gap between 못 (unable) and 안 (won't).
  • -(으)ㄹ 줄 알다 / 모르다: Know How ToTOPIK 3 — The bound noun 줄 ('the way, the method') plus 알다/모르다 expresses know-how — a learned skill — distinct from the general ability of 수 있다; plus its second life, -(으)ㄴ/는 줄 알았다 'assumed that.'

Advice & Suggestion

Conjecture

Desire & Wish

Experience & Attempt

Inference & Assumption

  • -는 모양이다: It Appears That (From the Look of Things)TOPIK 4 — A bound-noun conjecture built on 모양 'shape/appearance' — 'it appears / looks as though,' inferred from what you can observe. It mirrors the modifier-tense system of 것 같다, and like -나 보다 it can't be turned on your own feelings.
  • -(으)ㄹ 텐데: I Expect It'd Be… (but / so)TOPIK 4 — A conjecture built on the bound noun 터 ('expectation') plus the -ㄴ데 setup ending — it fuses a confident guess with a contrastive or worried backdrop, and usually trails off into an unspoken 'but…'.
  • -(으)ㄹ 테니까: Since I Expect / Intend, …TOPIK 4 — The causal cousin of -(으)ㄹ 텐데 — same 터 stem, but with -니까 it supplies a basis for a request or suggestion, splitting into an 'intention' reading with a first-person subject and a 'prediction' reading otherwise.
  • -(으)ㄹ 리가 없다: There's No Way That…TOPIK 4 — The strong logical denial -(으)ㄹ 리가 없다 — 'there's no way / it can't possibly be that…' — built on the bound noun 리 'reason, grounds', and how it differs from the ability-blocking -(으)ㄹ 수 없다.
  • -는 듯하다 / -는 듯싶다: It Seems (Literary)TOPIK 5 — The bookish conjecture markers -는 듯하다 and -는 듯싶다 — near-synonyms of 것 같다 dressed for writing and refined speech — plus how to keep the conjectural 듯 apart from the manner comparison -듯이 'as if'.

Intention & Plan

  • -(으)려고 하다: Intend To / About ToTOPIK 3 — The intention-and-imminence frame -(으)려고 하다 — 'plan to' and 'be about to' — and why adding 하다 to the bare purpose clause -(으)려고 changes everything.
  • -(으)ㄹ게(요): I'll (a Promise to You)TOPIK 2 — The interactive commitment ending -(으)ㄹ게요 — 'I'll do it (for you, so count on it)' — and its two hard limits: first-person only, and never a question.
  • -(으)ㄹ래(요): I'd Rather / Wanna …?TOPIK 2 — The volition ending -(으)ㄹ래요 — voicing your own preference as a statement and consulting the listener's wish as a question — and how it differs from the commitment -(으)ㄹ게요.
  • -(으)ㄹ 것이다: Will / Intend To / ProbablyTOPIK 2 — One future form, two readings — a first-person plan ('I'm going to…') or a third-person guess ('probably will…') — sorted entirely by who the subject is.
  • -기로 하다: Decide / Agree ToTOPIK 3 — The ending of a settled decision — 'decide to / agree to / resolve to' — and why Korean parks a future action in the past tense (했어요) once the decision has been concluded.
  • -(으)ㄹ 참이다 / -(으)려던 참이다: Just About ToTOPIK 4 — The bound noun 참 pinpoints the exact juncture of an action on the verge of happening — and -(으)려던 참이다 adds that this imminent intention happens to coincide with the moment.

Obligation & Necessity

Permission & Prohibition

  • -아/어도 되다: May / It's OK ToTOPIK 2 — The permission construction — 'you may, it's OK to, you're allowed to' — built from -아/어도 ('even if you do X') plus 되다 ('it becomes acceptable'), with 괜찮다 and 좋다 as free swaps.
  • -(으)면 안 되다: Must Not / Not AllowedTOPIK 2 — The prohibition construction — 'you must not, you're not allowed to' — built as 'if you do X, it doesn't become OK,' the exact negative of the permission pattern -아/어도 되다.
  • -(으)면 되다: You Just Have To / That's All It TakesTOPIK 3 — The sufficiency construction — 'if you do X, that's all it takes' — the reassuring member of the 되다 family, carefully kept apart from 'must' (-아/어야 되다) and 'may' (-아/어도 되다).
  • -지 않아도 되다 / -(으)ㄹ 필요 없다: Don't Have ToTOPIK 3 — How to waive an obligation — 'you don't have to, you needn't' — the negation of NECESSITY, and why it is the polar opposite of the prohibition 'must not.'

Regret, Counterfactual & Hindsight

Numbers & Counters

Counters

  • Counters (Measure Words): Why You Can't Count Bare NounsTOPIK 1 — Korean can't quantify a noun directly — it inserts a counter (분류사), like English 'two sheets of paper' but obligatorily and for everything. The frame is Noun + Number + Counter: 사과 세 개, 학생 네 명, 커피 두 잔.
  • 개: The General Counter for ThingsTOPIK 1 — 개 is Korean's default all-purpose counter for inanimate objects, taking native numbers — 한 개, 두 개, 세 개. When you don't know a specialized counter, 개 is the safe fallback — but never for people (명) or animals (마리).
  • Counting People: 명 (plain) vs 분 (honorific)TOPIK 1 — Korean has two counters for people, both taking native numbers: 명 is plain (학생 세 명), 분 is honorific for those you respect (손님 세 분). The same four people are 네 명 in a headcount but 네 분 if they're your guests.
  • 마리: The Counter for AnimalsTOPIK 1 — 마리 is the one counter for every non-human creature — dog, fish, bird, or mosquito — and it takes native numbers: 개 두 마리, 고양이 세 마리, 새 한 마리. Never ×한 명 for a pet, never ×한 개 for an animal.
  • Everyday Counters: 장, 권, 병, 잔, 대, and MoreTOPIK 1 — The high-frequency counters keyed to an object's shape or class — 장 for flat sheets, 권 for bound volumes, 병 for bottles, 잔 for served drinks, 대 for machines — plus 켤레, 그릇, 송이, 벌, 채. All take native numbers.
  • Native or Sino? Which Counter Takes WhichTOPIK 2 — The master rule for Korea's two number systems: if you could point and tally the things, use native numbers (개, 명, 마리, 시, 살); if it's an abstract unit, measure, rank, or calendar/clock unit, use Sino (분, 원, 년, 층, 인분). Plus the clash cases that break learners.
  • Word Order and Spacing: 사과 세 개TOPIK 1 — The counted phrase is Noun + Number + Counter — 사과 세 개, 학생 네 명 — the noun leads and the quantity trails, the reverse of English 'three apples.' Plus the two mechanics: the number takes its determiner form (세, 두) and a space goes between number and counter (세 개, never ×세개).

Dates & Calendar

  • Dates Are All Sino: 2024년 3월 5일TOPIK 1 — Year (년), month (월), and day (일) all take Sino numbers, big-to-small — plus the two euphonic irregulars every learner must know: 6월 is 유월 and 10월 is 시월.
  • Days of the Week: 요일 (월화수목금토일)TOPIK 1 — The seven days built on 요일, each named for one of the classical seven luminaries — moon, fire, water, wood, metal, earth, sun — so the whole week is one memorizable system, not seven unrelated words.
  • 며칠 vs 몇 일: The Spelling TrapTOPIK 1 — 며칠 is the one word where 몇 + a counter fused into a single irregular spelling — it asks both 'what date?' and 'how many days?', and the transparent ×몇 일 is a genuine misspelling, not an option.
  • Last, This, Next: 지난 / 이번 / 다음TOPIK 1 — The relative-time frame words 지난 (last), 이번 (this), 다음 (next) that sit before a period noun — plus the year and day sets — and the 맞춤법 quirk that fuses 지난주/지난달 solid but spaces 다음 주/다음 달.

Money, Age & Quantities

  • Money: 원 with Sino Numbers and Reading PricesTOPIK 1 — Korean won (원) takes Sino numbers grouped by 만 (ten thousand), so 50,000원 is 오만 원 — five ten-thousands, not ×오십천 — and reading any price is just reading the Sino number plus 원.
  • Age in Native Numbers: 살 and 몇 살TOPIK 1 — Everyday age is a native number + 살 — 스무 살, 서른 살, 마흔 살 — with the special reduction 스물→스무 for a bare 20, asked with 몇 살이에요? and, a shade more politely, 몇 살이세요?
  • Respectful Age: 연세 and Sino-Number 세TOPIK 2 — Age climbs a three-rung register ladder — casual native 살, respectful noun 연세, formal Sino 세 — and the number system flips: 살 wants native numbers (예순 살), but 세 wants Sino (육십 세).
  • About / Approximately: 쯤, 정도, 약, 한TOPIK 2 — The four everyday ways to say 'about' in Korean — 쯤 and 정도 attach after an amount, 약 and 한 sit before it — plus 넘게, 가까이, and 남짓 for 'more than', 'nearly', and 'a little over'.
  • Fractions, Percentages, and Multiples: 분의, 퍼센트, 배TOPIK 2 — How Korean says one-third, twenty percent, 3.5, and 'twice as much' — fractions read the denominator first with 분의, percentages and decimals use Sino numbers, but multiples with 배 take native numbers.

Native Korean Numbers

  • Native Korean Numbers: 하나, 둘, 셋…TOPIK 1 — The home-grown numerals 하나·둘·셋·넷·다섯…열 are Korean's counting system for tangible things — objects, people, animals, age, and clock hours — and they run only from 1 to 99, with no native word for a hundred.
  • The Forms That Change: 한, 두, 세, 네, 스무TOPIK 1 — The classic Korean-beginner rule: 하나·둘·셋·넷·스물 drop their ending and become 한·두·세·네·스무 the moment a counter follows — 한 개, 두 명, 세 마리, 네 시, 스무 살, never ×하나 개.
  • Native Tens: 스물, 서른, 마흔, 쉰…TOPIK 1 — Korean's native tens — 스물·서른·마흔·쉰·예순·일흔·여든·아흔 — are ten separate memorized words, not a 'two-ten / three-ten' build; they power casual age and run only up to 아흔아홉 (99) before Sino takes over.
  • Counting 1–99: Assembling Tens and UnitsTOPIK 1 — How to build any native number from 1 to 99 — native ten + unit, written solid (스물하나, 마흔일곱, 아흔아홉) — and the one rule that matters before a counter: only the FINAL unit shape-shifts, never the tens word.
  • Where Native Numbers Stop: The 100+ SwitchTOPIK 1 — Native Korean numbers run out at 아흔아홉 (99) — there is no native word for 100. From 100 up you use Sino numbers even with native-number counters: 백 명, 이백 개, 백이십 명 — and the whole number goes Sino, units included.

Sino-Korean Numbers

  • Sino-Korean Numbers: 일, 이, 삼, 사…TOPIK 1 — The borrowed-from-Chinese number system that Korean uses for dates, money, minutes, and anything measured or abstract — and how it builds every number from ten simple digits by pure place value.
  • Large Numbers 만·억·조: Grouping by Four, Not ThreeTOPIK 2 — Korean bundles big numbers in units of 만 (ten thousand) — a mental comma every four digits instead of English's every three — so 'one million' is 백만 and there is no single word for it.
  • Two Words for Zero: 영 vs 공TOPIK 1 — Korean has two words for zero and splits them by job — 영 for real numeric values (math, scores, temperatures, decimals) and 공 for zeros you recite in a string of digits (phone, room, and PIN numbers).
  • Reading Phone Numbers Digit by DigitTOPIK 1 — Korean reads a phone number one Sino digit at a time — 0 is 공, and no digits ever fuse into tens or teens: 010-1234-5678 is 공일공 일이삼사 오육칠팔, never ×십이 for the '12'.
  • Ordinal Numbers: 제- and 번째 / -째TOPIK 1 — Korean has two ordinal systems — the formal Sino prefix 제- (제일, 제이차) for headings and rankings, and the everyday native counter 번째 / -째 (첫 번째, 두 번째), whose 'first' is the irregular 첫, never ×한 번째.

Telling Time

  • The Hour Uses Native Numbers: 한 시, 두 시TOPIK 1 — Clock hours take NATIVE numbers with the counter 시 — 한 시, 두 시, 세 시 … 열두 시 — using the determiner forms 한·두·세·네. The question is 몇 시예요? Never Sino ×삼 시 for 3:00. And the clock is the showcase where you switch systems: native hour, Sino minute.
  • The Minute Uses Sino Numbers: 십 분, 삼십 분TOPIK 1 — Clock minutes take Sino-Korean numbers with the counter 분 — 오 분, 십오 분, 삼십 분 — so a full time like 두 시 이십 분 runs native for the hour and Sino for the minute in a single breath.
  • Half, To, and Past: 반, 전, 후TOPIK 2 — The relational time words — 반 (half past), 전 (before/to), 후 (after), and 정각 (on the dot) — and why 전 assembles in Korean order: 세 시 오 분 전, never the English 'five to three'.
  • AM/PM and Parts of the Day: 오전, 오후, 저녁TOPIK 1 — 오전 (AM) and 오후 (PM) come before the time in Korean, and everyday speech leans on day-part nouns — 새벽, 아침, 낮, 저녁, 밤 — that sound warmer than strict AM/PM.

Particles

Comitative & Listing

  • 와/과: 'And' / 'With' (Written)TOPIK 1 — The neutral, written-register particle that both lists nouns ('A and B') and marks a companion ('with') — with an allomorph that runs backward from every other particle: 와 after a vowel, 과 after a consonant.
  • 하고: The Neutral Spoken 'And / With'TOPIK 1 — The everyday, register-neutral spoken particle for both 'and' (listing) and 'with' (accompaniment) — the one comitative particle with no allomorph, so it attaches to any noun unchanged.
  • (이)랑: The Casual 'And / With'TOPIK 1 — The intimate, colloquial particle for 'and' and 'with' among friends and family — allomorph 이랑 after a consonant, 랑 after a vowel — and the bottom rung of the comitative register ladder.
  • 'With' vs 'And', and 같이 / 함께TOPIK 2 — Why the same comitative particle (와/과, 하고, (이)랑) can mean either 'and' (a list) or 'with' (a companion), how context and a following 같이/함께 decide, and why a person-companion is never marked with instrumental (으)로.

Comparison

  • 보다: Than (Comparative)TOPIK 2 — 보다 is the comparative 'than' particle — but it marks the STANDARD you measure against (형보다 = 'than my brother'), not the subject. Getting which noun it clings to is the whole game, since attaching it to the wrong one reverses the sentence.
  • 처럼 / 같이: Like, As (Similarity)TOPIK 2 — 처럼 and the particle 같이 both mean 'like, as, similar to', clipped onto the noun you're comparing to (새처럼 'like a bird', 얼음같이 'like ice'). The catch: 같이 is a homograph — attached to a noun it's 'like', but standing alone it's the adverb 'together'.
  • 만큼: As Much As (Equal Degree)TOPIK 3 — The particle 만큼 attaches to a noun to mean 'as much as, to the same extent as' — it marks EQUAL degree, the exact counterpart to 보다's 'more/less than', and never changes shape.
  • 보다 + 더 / 덜: More Than, Less ThanTOPIK 2 — How the adverbs 더 'more' and 덜 'less' team up with the particle 보다 'than' to build explicit comparatives — and why 더 is optional but 덜 is not, since 보다 alone already means 'more'.

Dative & Source

  • 에게 vs 한테: 'To a Person'TOPIK 2 — 에게 and 한테 both mark the animate recipient 'to/for a person or animal' — same meaning, different register: 에게 is neutral and written, 한테 is colloquial and spoken. Neither has an allomorph, and both are strictly separate from place-marking 에.
  • 께: The Honorific 'To'TOPIK 2 — 께 is the honorific form of the dative 에게/한테, used when the recipient deserves respect — elders, teachers, bosses, parents. It travels with humble verbs like 드리다 and 여쭤보다, and swapping in plain 한테 toward an elder is a genuine politeness error.
  • 에게서 / 한테서: 'From a Person'TOPIK 2 — 에게서 (written) and 한테서 (spoken) mark the animate source — the person you receive, hear, learn, or borrow something FROM — with the formal 로부터 as a third option. They mirror the dative 에게/한테, and stay strictly separate from place-source 에서.
  • 에게 vs 에: Animate vs Inanimate GoalTOPIK 2 — One English 'to', two Korean particles: a person or animal recipient takes 에게/한테/께, but a place, institution, or inanimate goal takes 에 — and mixing them up is the number-one dative error.
  • Giving & Receiving: Who Takes the DativeTOPIK 2 — With 주다/보내다/가르치다 the recipient takes 에게/한테/께, but with 받다/배우다 the source-giver takes 에게서/한테서 — Korean re-marks the person depending on which way the thing moves.
  • 보고 / 더러: The Spoken 'Tell / Ask' DativeTOPIK 3 — 보고 and 더러 are colloquial 'to (a person)' particles that appear only with verbs of speaking, telling, and asking — the addressee of speech, never the recipient of a thing.

Focus & Addition

  • 도: Also, Too, EvenTOPIK 1 — 도 is the additive particle 'also, too, as well' (and, on a scale, 'even'). It has no allomorphy, it REPLACES the subject/object markers 이/가 and 을/를, and it STACKS on top of every other particle.
  • 도…도: Both … and / (with negative) Neither … norTOPIK 2 — Repeating 도 on two or more nouns lists them as jointly included — 'both … and'. The very same construction becomes 'neither … nor' the moment the predicate goes negative: Korean switches the verb, not the particle.
  • 까지: Up To, Until, As Far As — and Emphatic 'Even'TOPIK 1 — 까지 marks a boundary you reach — 'up to, until, as far as' in time and space — and, by extension, the emphatic 'even' at the far end of a scale. It has no allomorphy and stacks on other particles.
  • 부터: Starting From (Time & Sequence)TOPIK 1 — 부터 marks a STARTING POINT in time or sequence — 'from, starting from, beginning with'. The key contrast for English speakers: temporal/ordinal 'from' is 부터, but physical origin 'from' is 에서.
  • 부터 … 까지: From X to Y (Ranges)TOPIK 2 — The bracketing construction 부터 … 까지 frames a complete span from a start to an end. 부터 marks the beginning, 까지 marks the end — but for place-to-place ranges Korean prefers 에서 … 까지.
  • 조차: Even (the Least Expected)TOPIK 4 — 조차 is the adverse 'even' — it singles out the item you would LEAST expect to fall short, almost always with a negative predicate: 물조차 마실 수 없었어요 ('I couldn't even drink water').
  • 마저: Even the Last OneTOPIK 4 — 마저 marks the FINAL remaining item added to a series — the one you were counting on — usually with a tone of loss: 너마저 나를 떠났어요 ('even you left me'), 마지막 희망마저 사라졌어요 ('even the last hope vanished').

Foundations

  • What Particles (조사) DoTOPIK 1 — 조사 are short markers glued to the back of a noun that show its role in the sentence — subject, object, topic, place, direction — a job English hands to word order and prepositions; in Korean the particle, not the position, tells you who does what.
  • Stacking Particles: 에서는, 에게도, 만을TOPIK 1 — How Korean particles combine in a fixed order — a place or direction particle first, then a topic/focus particle (은/는, 도, 만) on top — and the crucial rule that subject/object markers 이/가 and 을/를 are replaced by 은/는·도·만, never stacked with them.
  • Particles vs English Prepositions: The Mindset ShiftTOPIK 1 — Why one English preposition splits into several Korean particles — 'to' becomes 에 / 에게 / (으)로, 'at' splits into static 에 vs active 에서, and 'with' splits into 와/과 (a person) vs (으)로 (a tool) — and how to stop translating the preposition and start reading the role.

Limiting

  • 만: Only, JustTOPIK 2 — 만 is the exclusive particle 'only, just, alone' — it restricts the predicate to the marked item and takes an AFFIRMATIVE verb: 저만 갔어요 ('only I went'), 조금만 기다려요 ('wait just a little').
  • 뿐: Nothing But, Only (with 이다 / 뿐만 아니라)TOPIK 3 — 뿐 is an exclusive bound noun meaning 'only, nothing but, merely' — unlike 만 it needs the copula 이다 or a fixed frame around it: 너뿐이에요 ('you're all I have'), 건강뿐만 아니라 ('not only health'), 노력했을 뿐이에요 ('I merely tried').
  • 밖에: Nothing But — and Why It DEMANDS a Negative VerbTOPIK 2 — 밖에 means 'only, nothing but' — built on 밖 'outside,' it literally frames the sentence as 'outside of X there is none,' which is why it obligatorily takes a NEGATIVE predicate: 천 원밖에 없어요 ('I only have 1,000 won').
  • 만 vs 밖에: Two Ways to Say 'Only'TOPIK 3 — The mechanical rule that trips up every learner — 만 takes an affirmative verb (사과만 먹어요), 밖에 takes a negative one (사과밖에 안 먹어요) — plus the nuance competitors skip: 만 is neutral exclusion, 밖에 laments scarcity.
  • 만큼: To the Extent That (Clausal Degree)TOPIK 4 — The clausal 만큼 that follows an attributive verb or adjective to mean 'to the extent that, as much as, in proportion as' — 노력한 만큼 결과가 나와요 — with its tense riding on the attributive ending, and how it differs from the nominal comparison 만큼.
  • 대로: In Accordance With / As / As Soon AsTOPIK 3 — One Korean form 대로 covers 'according to,' 'exactly the way,' and 'as soon as' — sorted by whether it follows a noun (약속대로), a past attributive (배운 대로), or a present attributive (도착하는 대로).

Location & Direction

  • 에: Static Location, Time & DestinationTOPIK 1 — The particle 에 marks where something exists (with 있다/없다), the point in time when something happens, and the goal of movement (with 가다/오다) — three senses that English splits across at, in, on, and to.
  • 에서: Location of Action & SourceTOPIK 1 — The particle 에서 marks the place where an action happens (with active verbs) and the 'from' point a movement or thing starts out of — the two jobs that separate 에서 cleanly from static 에.
  • 에 vs 에서: The Core ContrastTOPIK 1 — The decisive location contrast in Korean: 에 marks where something IS (existence, residence) and the GOAL of movement; 에서 marks where something HAPPENS (the site of an action) and the SOURCE 'from' — and the verb, not the English preposition, tells you which.
  • (으)로: Direction, Means & PathTOPIK 1 — The versatile particle (으)로 bundles direction ('toward'), means/instrument ('by, with, in'), and change-of-state ('into, as') — with a ㄹ-final trap in its allomorphy and a boundary against comitative 와/과 for 'with.'
  • 까지: All the Way To / Up ToTOPIK 1 — The particle 까지 marks the far endpoint of a spatial or temporal stretch — 'up to, as far as, until' — often bracketing a range with 부터 (from a time) or 에서 (from a place), and stressing the full extent covered rather than a bare goal.
  • 에다(가): Onto / Adding To a LocationTOPIK 2 — 에다(가) marks the surface or target that something is PUT, STUCK, POURED, WRITTEN, or ADDED onto — a vivid, colloquial cousin of destination 에 that spotlights the receiving spot, and also stacks additions ('on top of that').
  • 쪽으로: Toward the Direction OfTOPIK 2 — 쪽으로 — the noun 쪽 ('side, direction') plus directional (으)로 — means 'toward the vicinity of', an approximate heading that, unlike destination 에, does not claim you actually arrive. It's the standard, polite way to point and give directions.

Object

  • The Object Particle 을/를TOPIK 1 — 을/를 marks the direct object of a transitive verb — 을 after a consonant, 를 after a vowel — and because Korean tags the object explicitly, word order can move freely; the tricky part is the predicate split where 좋아하다 takes an object but the adjective 좋다 takes a subject.
  • When 을/를 Is DroppedTOPIK 1 — 을/를 is the most freely omitted particle in colloquial Korean — when the object sits next to its verb and the meaning is clear, native speakers just drop it — but you keep it to contrast, to emphasize, when the object is separated from the verb, or in formal register.
  • 을/를 with Movement Verbs: 길을 걷다TOPIK 2 — With motion verbs like 걷다, 건너다, 지나가다, 날다, and 산책하다, 을/를 does not mark a direct object — it marks the path or route traversed, the ground covered, where English reaches for 'along, across, through'.

Possessive

  • The Possessive Particle 의 and When to Drop ItTOPIK 1 — 의 links two nouns as 'X's Y', but unlike English 'of' it is optional glue — Korean drops it constantly (친구 책, 우리 학교), and over-inserting it sounds stiff and translated.
  • Pronouncing Possessive 의 as [에]TOPIK 2 — The letter 의 has three readings: full [의] word-initially (의사), [이] non-initially inside a word (회의), and — as the possessive particle — [에] (나의 → 나에). The eye sees 의; the ear should expect 에.
  • Nested Possession & 나의→내 / 저의→제TOPIK 2 — The pronoun-plus-의 contractions every learner needs — 나의→내, 저의→제, 너의→네[니], 누구의→누구 — and how possession stacks into long chains, each owner placed before what it owns.

Quotation & Attachment

  • 고 / (이)라고: The Quotative Marker (Overview)TOPIK 3 — A map of the quotative marker that clips onto reported speech before verbs like 하다/말하다/생각하다 — direct quotation with (이)라고, indirect quotation with -고 fused onto a reshaped plain ending, split by four sentence types.
  • (이)라고 하다: 'Is Called / Named'TOPIK 3 — The naming construction N(이)라고 하다 'to be called/named N' — a special use of the quotative that literally reports the naming ('people say N about it'), and the source of the essential question 뭐라고 해요? 'what's this called?'
  • (이)라는: The Attributive 'Called / That Says'TOPIK 4 — (이)라는 is the contraction of (이)라고 하는 — a prenoun modifier that does double duty: labelling a noun with a name ('the thing called love') and capping reported content onto a head noun ('the news that he's coming').
  • 하고 / (이)랑: Colloquial 'And / With'TOPIK 2 — The two spoken-register particles for both 'and' (listing nouns) and 'with' (accompaniment) — 하고 (neutral, invariant) and (이)랑 (casual, with an allomorph) — and why Korean picks among them by how relaxed the speech is, not by whether you mean conjunction or company.

Selection

  • (이)나: Or, About, As Many AsTOPIK 2 — The multi-function particle (이)나 — non-exhaustive 'or' (커피나 차), casual 'or something' (영화나 볼까?), surprise at a large quantity (열 개나 먹었어요), and 'about' with round numbers — all threaded by one idea: an open, non-committal amount or choice.
  • 든지 / 든가: Whichever, Whatever, No Matter WhichTOPIK 3 — The free-choice marker (이)든지 (and its twin 든가) — on a question word it builds the universal set (누구든지 'anyone', 언제든지 'anytime'), between options it means 'whether … or …, either is fine' — plus the crucial 든지 vs 던지 spelling trap.
  • (이)라도: Even If It's Just / At Least XTOPIK 3 — (이)라도 is the 'settle-for' particle — it offers X as a less-than-ideal but acceptable fallback ('coffee will do, at least give me water'), which sets it apart from free-choice 든지 and additive 도.
  • (이)나마: At Least (Though It's Not Much)TOPIK 4 — (이)나마 is the humblest 'at least' particle — it accepts a small, insufficient thing with gratitude or resignation ('take at least this modest gift', 'happy if only for a moment'), one notch below the fallback-offering (이)라도.
  • 거나 / 나: 'Or' Between Clauses (Pointer)TOPIK 2 — English 'or' hides a split Korean makes structurally: nouns take the particle (이)나 (커피나 차), but whole predicates take the connective -거나 on the verb stem (자거나 영화를 봐요). This page keeps the two apart.

Special

  • 마다: Every, EachTOPIK 2 — The distributive particle 마다 — 'every, each, per' — which attaches to a noun to mean 'each and every one, taken individually' or 'at every interval', and how it differs from the Sino-Korean prefix 매 and the pre-noun 모든.
  • 씩: Each, Apiece, Per (Distributive Rate)TOPIK 3 — The distributive particle 씩, which attaches to a quantity (number + counter, or an amount word) to mean 'each, apiece, per, at a time' — and how it distributes an amount across recipients or occasions, unlike 마다, which distributes over a set.
  • (이)야말로: Precisely, Indeed, THIS Is the OneTOPIK 5 — The emphatic identifying particle (이)야말로, which spotlights a noun already in play as 'precisely this one — the very X that deserves the predicate', contrasted with the neutral topic 은/는 and the plain subject 이/가.
  • 은/는커녕: Far From, Let Alone (Not Even)TOPIK 5 — The concessive-contrast particle 은/는커녕 — 'far from X, let alone X' — which dismisses a larger, expected thing and then reveals that even a smaller, more basic thing failed too, almost always with a 도 + negative in the second clause.
  • 치고: For A … / Considering It's A …TOPIK 5 — The particle 치고 flips between two opposite readings — 'atypical for its class' (겨울치고 따뜻해요) with an affirmative predicate, and 'no member of the class is without X' (한국 사람치고 김치 안 좋아하는 사람 없어요) with a negative one — and polarity is the switch.

Topic & Subject

  • The Topic Particle 은/는TOPIK 1 — 은/는 marks the TOPIC — it lifts a noun out as 'as for X, …', setting the frame the rest of the sentence comments on. It is not the subject marker and not the word for 'is'.
  • The Subject Particle 이/가TOPIK 1 — 이/가 marks the grammatical subject — the doer or experiencer — and presents it as new, noticed, or specifically selected, which is exactly why it is not interchangeable with the topic particle 은/는.
  • 은/는 vs 이/가: Topic vs SubjectTOPIK 1 — The flagship Korean contrast: 은/는 marks the known topic ('as for X'), 이/가 marks the subject presented as new or in focus. Same nouns, different pragmatics — the storytelling test makes the difference audible.
  • 은/는 for Contrast and EmphasisTOPIK 2 — Beyond topic-setting, 은/는 has a second job: it quietly marks contrast — 'X, but not/unlike Y'. 커피는 마셔요 already implies 'I do drink coffee (though not something else)', with no extra words.
  • 이/가 for New Information & Wh-AnswersTOPIK 2 — 이/가 presents its noun as freshly introduced, identified, or exhaustively selected — the 'it is THIS one' reading. That is exactly why wh-questions and their answers, and 'there is…' sentences, demand 이/가, never 은/는.
  • The Honorific Subject Particle 께서TOPIK 2 — 께서 is the honorific replacement for the subject particle 이/가 when the subject is a person you respect — an elder, teacher, boss or customer — and it normally travels with the honorific verb infix -(으)시- to raise the whole clause together.
  • Dropping Particles in Casual SpeechTOPIK 1 — Which Korean particles vanish in casual speech and which stay put — the case/topic markers 이/가, 을/를, 은/는 drop freely when the role is obvious, but the meaning-bearing markers 에, 에서, 에게, (으)로 are sticky and cannot be recovered from word order.

Pragmatics

Age, Status & Social Hierarchy

  • "나이가 어떻게 되세요?": Why Age Comes Up FirstTOPIK 2 — Why age surfaces so early in a Korean first meeting — it fixes the 서열 (seniority order) that decides speech level, address terms, and deference — plus the polite ways to ask (나이가/연세가 어떻게 되세요?), the indirect probes (학번, 띠), and why it's an input for politeness, not prying.
  • 말 놓기: Negotiating the Switch to 반말TOPIK 3 — Dropping from 존댓말 to 반말 is a negotiated social event, not a personal choice — usually senior-initiated and mutually agreed with phrases like 우리 말 놓을까요? and 말 편하게 하세요. Using 반말 before it's licensed reads as contempt.
  • Addressing Strangers: 저기요, 사장님, 선생님, 이모님TOPIK 2 — How to get a stranger's attention in Korean, which fictive title to guess (사장님, 선생님, 이모님, 기사님, 학생), and why aiming 당신 at a stranger can start a fight.

Apologies, Thanks & Formulae

Emotional & Affective Register

Indirectness, Face & 눈치

  • Why Korean Speaks Indirectly: 체면, Face & the Cost of BluntnessTOPIK 3 — The organizing principle behind every Korean request, refusal, and disagreement: a high-context culture protects 체면 (face) by under-saying — questions over commands, hedges over claims, unfinished sentences, blaming one's own limits, 우리 over 나, and avoiding a bald 너/당신.
  • 눈치: Reading the Room, and the Softeners 좀·혹시·그냥TOPIK 3 — 눈치 is the social skill of reading unspoken cues — the listener's half of Korean indirectness — and 좀, 혹시, 그냥 are the three little words that do the speaker's half: downgrading a request, gently opening a delicate question, and deflating the weight of a statement.

Refusals & Disagreement

Requests & Politeness Gradient

Pronunciation

Aspiration & ㅎ

  • Aspiration 격음화: ㅎ + Plain Stop → Aspirated (좋다 → 조타)TOPIK 1 — 격음화: ㅎ and an adjacent plain stop or affricate fuse into a single aspirated consonant, in either direction — 좋다 [조타], 축하 [추카], 입학 [이팍] — a change that Revised Romanization actually shows, unlike tensification.
  • ㅎ Weakening & Deletion Between Voiced SoundsTOPIK 2 — ㅎ 약화·탈락: between vowels or after ㄴ/ㄹ/ㅁ/ㅇ, ㅎ is phonetically weak and, in relaxed everyday speech, often drops entirely — 전화 [저놔], 결혼 [겨론], 은행 [으냉] — an optional register/tempo change that matters above all for listening.
  • The ㅎ Clusters ㄶ and ㅀ (괜찮아 → 괜차나)TOPIK 2 — One spelling, three outcomes: the double-batchim clusters ㄶ (많다, 괜찮다, 않다) and ㅀ (싫다, 옳다, 끓다) aspirate a following stop, delete the ㅎ before a vowel, and step aside before a nasal — so 괜찮다 is [괜찬타], 괜찮아 is [괜차나], and 괜찮네요 is [괜찬네요].

Foundations

  • Korean Rhythm: Syllable-Timed, Not Stress-TimedTOPIK 1 — Korean gives every syllable block roughly equal length and a full vowel — there is no vowel reduction and no stress hump, unlike English, which crushes unstressed syllables to a schwa.
  • No Pitch Accent: Why Korean Isn't Japanese or ChineseTOPIK 1 — Standard Seoul Korean has no lexical tone and no pitch accent — raising or lowering a syllable never changes a word's meaning. What Korean has instead is phrase-level melody and sentence-final intonation, plus a fading vowel-length contrast, so learners arriving from Japanese or Chinese can drop the pitch anxiety entirely.
  • The Sound Inventory & the Seven Final ConsonantsTOPIK 1 — The map for the whole Pronunciation group: Korean's 19 consonants built on a three-way plain/tense/aspirated contrast that is NOT English voicing, its vowel system, and the master fact behind every sound-change page — in final (받침) position only seven sounds survive, so spelling and pronunciation systematically diverge.

Intonation

  • Statement vs. Question IntonationTOPIK 1 — In everyday 해요체 a statement and a yes/no question can be worded and spelled identically — only the final pitch differs: 먹었어요↘ 'you ate' vs 먹었어요↗ 'did you eat?'. Statements fall, yes/no questions rise, and — the twist English speakers miss — wh-questions FALL, so 어디 가요↘ is 'where are you going?' but 어디 가요↗ is 'are you going somewhere?'.
  • The Melody of Sentence-Final EndingsTOPIK 2 — Common sentence-final endings (지요/죠, 네요, 잖아요, 거든요, 더라고요) each carry a habitual melody — and producing the ending on the wrong tune makes flawless grammar still sound off.

Lateralization 유음화

  • Lateralization 유음화: ㄴ → ㄹ Next to ㄹ (신라 → 실라)TOPIK 2 — ㄴ is pronounced [ㄹ] whenever it touches ㄹ — in either order. That is why the kingdom 신라 is romanized Silla, why 연락 ('contact') is yeollak, and why 설날 (Lunar New Year) is [설랄]. The two coronal sounds fuse into a single long, held [ll].
  • When ㄴㄹ Stays ㄴㄴ: The Sino-Korean ExceptionsTOPIK 3 — Lateralization is the default for ㄴ next to ㄹ — but a systematic set of longer Sino-Korean words break it and nasalize to [ㄴㄴ] instead. 생산량 is [생산냥], not [생살량]; 의견란 is [의견난]. The trigger is a two-syllable base plus a bound suffix (란·량·력·론·료·례), and the split is partly lexical.

Liaison 연음

  • Liaison 연음: Batchim Moves to the Next SyllableTOPIK 1 — The highest-frequency Korean sound rule: when a syllable ends in a batchim and the next begins with a vowel (the silent ㅇ), the final consonant slides forward to become that syllable's onset. Spelling keeps morpheme boundaries visible, but speech relinks right across them — so you glide, never pause, and a neutralized final is restored to its true value when it links.
  • The Letter ㅇ: Silent Onset vs. Final [ŋ]TOPIK 1 — The single fact that decides when liaison can happen: as a syllable onset ㅇ is silent — the empty slot a batchim moves into — but as a batchim it is the real sound [ŋ], and because Korean has no initial [ŋ], a final ㅇ can never relink. This page also handles double-batchim resyllabification, where a cluster splits and only its second member moves forward.
  • ㅎ Before a Vowel: The ㅎ DropsTOPIK 1 — The exception to liaison: unlike every other batchim, a final ㅎ does not link into a following vowel — it disappears, and the syllables simply run together. This is obligatory in ㅎ / ㄶ / ㅀ stems (좋아요 → [조아요], 많이 → [마니], 싫어요 → [시러요]) and it is why ㅎ-final adjectives look irregular though they are perfectly regular.

Nasalization 비음화

  • Nasalization 비음화: Stops Become Nasals (입니다 → 임니다)TOPIK 1 — The most audible rule in polite Korean: a stop batchim [k/t/p] turns into the matching nasal before ㄴ or ㅁ. That is why 국물 is [궁물], 먹는 is [멍는], and the ubiquitous ending -ㅂ니다/-습니다 is heard [ㅁ니다] — 감사합니다 is really [감사함니다].
  • ㄹ → ㄴ After ㅁ, ㅇ (종로 → 종노)TOPIK 2 — When ㄹ begins a syllable right after the nasal batchim ㅁ or ㅇ, it is pronounced [ㄴ]. This is why the Seoul district written 종로 (Jong-ro) is actually said [종노], why 정류장 is [정뉴장], and why almost every Sino-Korean word with an internal 로/료/리/력/령 shifts its ㄹ to [ㄴ].
  • Double Nasalization: 국립 → 궁닙TOPIK 2 — When a stop batchim ㄱ or ㅂ meets a following ㄹ, two sound-changes fire in sequence: the ㄹ becomes [ㄴ], and that new [ㄴ] then nasalizes the stop in front of it. So 국립 is [궁닙], 협력 is [혐녁], and 대학로 is [대항노] — two rules deep, none of it written.

Palatalization & ㄴ-Insertion

  • Palatalization 구개음화: ㄷ/ㅌ + 이 → 지/치 (같이 → 가치)TOPIK 2 — Why a stem-final ㄷ or ㅌ turns into [ㅈ]/[ㅊ] before the suffix 이 or 히 — 같이 [가치], 굳이 [구지], 밭이 [바치] — and the boundary condition competitors bury: it fires only across a morpheme seam, so 잔디 stays [잔디] and 견디다 stays [견디다].
  • ㄴ-Insertion at Compound Boundaries (한여름 → 한녀름)TOPIK 2 — Why a [ㄴ] appears out of nowhere at a compound seam — 한여름 [한녀름], 담요 [담뇨], 꽃잎 [꼰닙], 십육 [심뉵] — whenever the first part ends in a consonant and the second begins with 이/야/여/요/유/예. It targets the seam, so 십육 is [심뉵] but 육 alone is [육], and it is partly lexical (담요 [담뇨] but 금요일 [그묘일]).
  • ㄴ-Insertion Chain Reactions (서울역 → 서울력, 앞일 → 암닐)TOPIK 3 — The hardest listening cases in the sound system: an inserted [ㄴ] doesn't sit still — it feeds the next rule. Next to a ㄹ it lateralizes (서울역 [서울력], 알약 [알략]); after a stop it nasalizes that stop (색연필 [생년필], 앞일 [암닐]). Resolve them in order — insert first, then assimilate — and forms that land two or three steps from the spelling stop being mysterious.

Tensification 경음화

  • Tensification 경음화: Plain → Tense After a Stop (학교 → 학꾜)TOPIK 1 — The one fully automatic sound change: a plain ㄱㄷㅂㅅㅈ becomes its tense twin ㄲㄸㅃㅆㅉ right after any stop batchim — 학교 [학꾜], 먹다 [먹따], 국밥 [국빱] — silent in both the spelling and the romanization.
  • Tense After ㄹ in Sino-Korean Words (발달 → 발딸)TOPIK 2 — A narrower tensification confined to the Sino-Korean stratum: after a batchim ㄹ, the consonants ㄷ ㅅ ㅈ tense to ㄸ ㅆ ㅉ — but ㄱ and ㅂ do not — so 발달 [발딸] and 결정 [결쩡] tense while 결과 [결과] stays plain.
  • Compound Tensification & the 사이시옷 (물고기 → 물꼬기)TOPIK 2 — The 사잇소리 현상: when two nouns fuse into a compound, the second noun's initial consonant often tenses to mark a hidden 'of' boundary — 물고기 [물꼬기], 바닷가 [바다까] — and the same tensing appears after the future ending -(으)ㄹ (할 수 있어요 [할쑤이써요]).

Questions

Embedded & Indirect Questions

Question Endings

Rhetorical, Tag & Confirming Questions

  • Appealing to Shared Knowledge: -잖아(요)TOPIK 3 — The ending -잖아(요) reminds the listener of something they already know or should agree with — 'you know', 'as you know', 'but come on, remember?' — and why it is a confirming appeal, not a real question.
  • Tag & Rhetorical Negatives: 그렇지 않아요? / 안 그래? / 그치?TOPIK 3 — The detachable tags 그렇지 않아요? / 안 그래? / 그치? and rhetorical negatives like 안 예뻐? — questions that push for agreement rather than ask for information, and the 네/아니요 polarity flip that answers them.

Wh-Questions

Yes/No Questions

Register & Style

Contractions & Reductions

  • Colloquial Contractions: 뭐→머, 것→거, 이거/그거/저거TOPIK 3 — The everyday spoken contractions that pervade natural Korean — 것→거, 이것/그것/저것→이거/그거/저거, and pronoun-plus-particle fusions like 나는→난 and 이것이→이게 — and why they're standard casual speech, not slang.
  • Colloquial Ending Reductions: 할려고, 하구, -구TOPIK 4 — The colloquial reshaping of verb endings you hear constantly but won't find in a grammar table — the 오→우 raising of 하고→하구 and -구요, and the nonstandard-but-ubiquitous drift of -(으)려고 into 할려고/할라고 — with a clear line between what's casual-standard and what's marked wrong in writing.

Dialect Note (방언)

  • 표준어 vs 사투리: A Dialect OverviewTOPIK 5 — A comprehension-first map of Korean dialect (방언/사투리) against the standard — what 표준어 is, the major regional zones, what actually varies, and why regional speech is a full rule-governed system rather than 'broken' Korean, even under Korea's strong standard-language prestige.
  • Gyeongsang, Jeolla & Jeju: A Field NoteBeyond — A recognition-only field note on the three Korean dialects learners meet most in media — Gyeongsang's real pitch-accent and -노/-나 endings, Jeolla's -잉/거시기 flavor, and near-opaque Jeju — for training the ear, not the mouth.

Formal Written & News Style

  • Newspaper Headline Grammar (표제어체)TOPIK 5 — How to read the telegraphic grammar of Korean newspaper headlines — particle-dropping, verbless sentences that end on a bare noun, and dense Sino-Korean 하다-nouns doing the work of whole predicates.
  • Official & Report Style: -(으)ㅁ, 요망, 바람TOPIK 5 — The nominal-ending register of Korean official documents, reports, notices, and minutes — clauses that end in -(으)ㅁ or the bureaucratic 요망 / 바람 instead of a finite verb.

Spoken vs Written (구어체/문어체)

  • 구어체 vs 문어체: Spoken vs Written KoreanTOPIK 3 — A dimension separate from politeness — the same politeness level can be delivered in a spoken (구어체) or a written (문어체) flavor, each marked by whole grammatical endings, not just word choice.
  • Spoken-Only Forms: -거든요, 근데, -잖아요TOPIK 4 — The high-frequency endings and connectors that live almost entirely in speech and chat — supplying background (-거든요), opening a turn (근데), and flagging shared knowledge (-잖아요) — plus the fillers that make 구어체 sound alive.
  • 한다체: The Default Written StyleTOPIK 3 — The plain -(느)ㄴ다 / -다 endings are the register-less voice of impersonal Korean writing — books, news, essays, diaries — carrying no rudeness at all, because register lives in the channel, not the form.

Texting, Internet & Abbreviations

  • Consonant Abbreviations: ㅋㅋ, ㅎㅎ, ㅇㅇ, ㄱㅅTOPIK 4 — The initial-consonant (초성) abbreviations that fill Korean texting — laughter ㅋㅋ/ㅎㅎ, replies ㅇㅇ/ㄴㄴ, and courtesy tags ㄱㅅ/ㅊㅋ/ㅅㄱ/ㅈㅅ — plus the mechanic to decode any new one.
  • Texting Spelling: 머해, 어케, 걍TOPIK 4 — Korean texting's spell-it-how-you-say-it convention — 뭐→머, 어떻게→어케, 그냥→걍 — plus playful lengthening and softening final letters, and the register wall that keeps it out of formal writing.
  • Internet Slang & 신조어 FormationTOPIK 5 — How Korean coins internet slang (신조어) — first-syllable clipping (갑분싸, 얼죽아), jamo acronyms (ㅇㅈ, ㄹㅇ), and productive bits like -각 and 개- — so you can decode new terms instead of memorizing a fading list.

존댓말 vs 반말 in Practice

  • 존댓말 or 반말? The Register DecisionTOPIK 3 — A practical recap of the core Korean register choice — 존댓말 vs 반말 — gauged per relationship from age, status, and closeness, with 존댓말 as the safe default and 반말 something you earn, not assume.
  • Mixing & Code-Switching Mid-ConversationTOPIK 4 — How real speakers blend levels within a register — drifting between 해요체 and 합니다체, and slipping a 요-ending into 반말 — plus the crucial line between natural micro-shifts and a full 존댓말→반말 move that must be negotiated.
  • 반말 with Strangers: Online vs OfflineTOPIK 4 — Why the same 반말 that is fighting words to a stranger on the street is the friendly default in game lobbies and comment threads — and how age still governs both worlds.
  • When 존댓말 Turns Cold: Register as a WeaponTOPIK 4 — Once two people share 반말, switching back to 존댓말 is a loud, deliberate signal — anger, hurt, or icy distance. Why more politeness can mean more hostility.

Speech Levels & Honorifics

Address Terms & Titles

Choosing & Managing Register

  • Choosing a Speech Level: A Decision GuideTOPIK 2 — A four-step procedure for picking a Korean speech level — writing → 한다체, formal/public → 합니다체, ordinary talk with an adult → 해요체 (the safe default), licensed casual → 반말 — plus the asymmetry rule: when unsure, round up.
  • 말 놓다: The 존댓말 → 반말 TransitionTOPIK 3 — The socially charged moment two people shift from 존댓말 to 반말 — normally proposed by the older/senior person (말 놓다, 말 트다, 말 편하게 하다), rarely initiated by the junior, often one-directional for a while, and reversible when a relationship cools.
  • Regional & Generational Variation in Speech LevelsTOPIK 3 — How speech-level use varies by region (Gyeongsang, Jeolla, Jeju endings), generation (the young lean on 해요체; 하십시오체 recedes to ceremony), and medium (online 반말, workplace 존댓말-to-everyone) — and why Korean variation reaches the grammatical endings themselves.

Common Honorific Errors

  • 사물존칭: Over-Honorification (커피 나오셨습니다)TOPIK 4 — Why '주문하신 커피 나오셨습니다' is wrong even though you hear it every day — the honorific -(으)시- can only honor a human subject, never the coffee, the size, or the price — and how to defer to the customer properly instead.
  • Self-Honorification, 압존법, and Subject/Addressee MismatchTOPIK 4 — Three advanced honorific traps that all come from the same misconception — that a sentence has one 'politeness setting.' It has two independent dials: -(으)시- tracks who you talk ABOUT, the speech level tracks who you talk TO.

Formal Polite 합니다체

  • 합니다체: The Formal Polite Style (-(스)ㅂ니다)TOPIK 1 — The formal-polite declarative -(스)ㅂ니다 — its batchim allomorphy, the ㄹ-drop, the [슴니다] pronunciation trap, and why 합니다체 is a distinct register, not just 'more polite 해요체.'
  • -(스)ㅂ니까?: Formal QuestionsTOPIK 1 — The 합니다체 question ending -(스)ㅂ니까 — the interrogative twin of -(스)ㅂ니다 that marks a question morphologically, so it never leans on rising intonation the way English does.
  • -(으)십시오: Formal CommandsTOPIK 1 — The 합니다체 imperative -(으)십시오 — the most deferential everyday command, which bakes the honorific -시- into the ending so it elevates the very person it directs, and which pairs with the warmer 해요체 request -(으)세요.
  • -(으)ㅂ시다: Formal Proposals ('Let's')TOPIK 1 — The 합니다체 propositive -(으)ㅂ시다 — the formal 'let's,' which completes the four-mood set but carries a faint downward/peer vector, so it is not safe upward to a clear superior.

Honorific Particles & Subject-raising

  • 께서: The Honorific Subject MarkerTOPIK 2 — 께서 is the honorific replacement for the subject particle 이/가 when the subject is a respected person, and it normally travels with -(으)시- on the verb — Korean upgrades the very case particle, not just the vocabulary.
  • 께: The Honorific 에게/한테 (To Someone)TOPIK 2 — 께 is the honorific dative — the respectful replacement for 에게/한테 ('to a person') — and when the recipient is honored with 께, the giving or telling verb turns humble too (드리다, 여쭈다, 말씀드리다).
  • N님 as Subject and 께서는: The Honorific TopicTOPIK 2 — Two composable building blocks — the suffix 님 turns a role or title into a respectful noun that takes honorific marking, and 께서 combines with the topic particle 는 to give 께서는, the honored-subject counterpart of 은/는.

Honorific Vocabulary — Nouns

Humble / Deferential Forms 겸양

  • 저 / 저희: The Humble I and WeTOPIK 1 — 저 is the humble 'I' that replaces 나, and 저희 the humble 'we/our' that replaces 우리, in deferential speech — the key insight being that Korean has NO honorific 'you' pronoun (당신 is not polite 'you'), so deference runs by lowering yourself, not raising the listener.
  • 드리다: To Give (Humble) — vs 주다 and 주시다TOPIK 2 — 드리다 is the humble 'give' you use when YOU give something to a superior — the third point of Korean's give-system alongside 주다 (give to an equal/junior) and 주시다 (a superior gives to you), because Korean picks the verb by the social direction of the transfer, not just the act.
  • 뵙다 / 뵈다: To See or Meet a SuperiorTOPIK 3 — 뵙다/뵈다 is the humble verb for meeting or seeing someone above you, replacing 만나다/보다 — an example of OBJECT honorification, where you can't use -시- (which would honor the subject, i.e. yourself) so you switch verbs to lower your own act of meeting toward the respected person.
  • 여쭙다 / 여쭈다: To Ask a SuperiorTOPIK 3 — 여쭙다/여쭈다 is the humble verb for asking a question OF a superior, replacing 묻다/물어보다 — like 뵙다, it works by verb suppletion (you humble your own asking rather than adding -시-), and the person asked is marked with honorific 께. Its mirror image: when a superior asks YOU, that's plain 물어보다 + -시-.
  • 모시다: To Accompany or Serve a SuperiorTOPIK 3 — 모시다 is the humble verb for accompanying, escorting, or looking after a superior — the elevated replacement for 데리다 ('take a person along'), which is reserved for juniors and children. Because Korean has no rank-neutral verb for 'bringing a person,' choosing 데리고 over 모시고 for an elder is itself a form of disrespect.

Informal Polite 해요체

  • 해요체: The Everyday Polite Style (-아/어요)TOPIK 1 — 해요체, the informal-polite register that carries most of adult Korean life — how vowel harmony picks -아요 vs -어요, why 요 is load-bearing, and why one -아/어요 form does the work of all four moods.
  • One Ending, Four Jobs: 해요 by IntonationTOPIK 1 — In 해요체 a single -아/어요 form serves as statement, question, command, and proposal — split not by morphology but by intonation and context, which is why Koreans lean on cues like 같이, 좀, and -나요 to keep flat text unambiguous.
  • 해요체 vs 합니다체: Which Polite to UseTOPIK 1 — Both raise the listener, so this is a formality-and-distance choice, not a politeness one: 합니다체 is public and on-the-record, 해요체 is warm and conversational, and fluent speakers slide between them mid-interaction rather than picking one for life.
  • 해요체 Vowel Contractions (봐요, 와요, 써요)TOPIK 1 — The one genuinely fiddly part of 해요체: how a vowel-final stem fuses with -아/어요 — identical-vowel collapse, the ㅗ/ㅜ and ㅣ glides, the ㅡ change, ㅐ/ㅔ absorption, and 하→해 — and why learning these fused stems here unlocks the past tense and half the connectives.

Intimate 해체 / 반말

  • 해체 / 반말: The Intimate Style (-아/어)TOPIK 2 — 해체 — universally called 반말 — is literally 해요체 minus the 요: all the harmony and contraction mechanics carry over unchanged, which makes it trivial to form and, socially, dangerous to deploy; plus the copula 이야/야 and how real casual speech blends in 한다체 moods.
  • When 반말 Is Allowed (and the Danger of Rushing It)TOPIK 2 — 반말 is trivial to form but socially licensed only in narrow cases — a clearly acknowledged junior, close friends who have mutually agreed to drop 존댓말, family juniors, and children. Using it before it is earned reads not as friendliness but as talking down, which is exactly why unlicensed 반말 offends and why a deliberate drop into it can be a weapon.
  • 반말 in Every Mood: Question, Command, ProposalTOPIK 2 — How intimate speech makes statements, questions, commands, and proposals — 반말 pools endings from 해체 (bare -아/어) and 한다체 (-니/-냐, -아라/어라, -자), so it is a parallel casual paradigm, not just 해요체 with the 요 chopped off.
  • 응/어 vs 네/예: Casual vs Polite 'Yes'TOPIK 2 — The response words that leak your speech level before the verb does — polite 네/예/아니요 and casual 응/어/아니, plus 야 vs 저기요 for getting attention. In Korean 'yes' and 'no' are part of the honorific system, not free vocabulary, and 네 is a whole all-purpose polite response particle.

Legacy Levels 하오체 / 하게체

  • 하오체: The Archaic Formal StyleTOPIK 5 — The old formal-equal register — endings -(으)오 and -소 (가오, 좋소, 어떻소?, 미시오) — now largely archaic, surviving in door signs, period dramas, and retro online personas; learn it to recognize, not to speak, and never mistake its -시오 for the living 합니다체 -십시오.
  • 하게체: The Avuncular Semi-Formal StyleTOPIK 5 — 하게체 is the dignified, downward register an older person uses to a grown junior — statements in -네, questions in -나?/-는가?, commands in -게, proposals in -세 — nearly extinct in speech but essential for reading older fiction and period dramas, and famously confused with the still-living exclamatory -네(요).
  • The Full Formality Ladder: All Six Levels ComparedTOPIK 4 — One capstone table that runs 하다 (and 가다) through all six addressee speech levels across statement, question, command, and proposal — flagging which four rungs are living and which two are archaic, and showing why the ladder is a 2-D grid of formality × deference rather than a single politeness thermometer.

Overview & Principles

  • 높임법: Korea's Two Axes of PolitenessTOPIK 1 — Korean politeness runs on two independent axes English lacks — 상대높임법 (who you're talking TO, marked on the sentence ending) and 주체높임법 (who you're talking ABOUT, marked with -(으)시- and honorific words) — and they are orthogonal knobs you set separately on every sentence.
  • The Six Speech Levels 상대높임법: An OverviewTOPIK 1 — Traditional Korean grammar counts six addressee speech levels, each self-named by how the verb 하다 ends in it — but only four (합니다체, 해요체, 한다체, 해체) are alive in everyday use; 하오체 and 하게체 survive mainly in period dramas and old speech.
  • Politeness = Social Distance + Age + StatusTOPIK 1 — Which speech level you use is chosen by three social variables — relative age, relative status/rank, and social distance — plus the setting; the safe default with any unfamiliar adult is 해요체, never 반말, and Korean politeness is relational, recomputed for every person you speak to.
  • 존댓말 vs 반말: The Great DivideTOPIK 1 — The first binary every learner internalizes — 존댓말 (raised speech, everything ending in 요 or -(스)ㅂ니다) versus 반말 ('half-speech,' the plain forms with no 요) — with the reliable strip-the-요 surface test and the deeper truth that the divide encodes relationship, not moral politeness.

Plain / Written 한다체

  • 한다체: The Plain / Written Declarative (-ㄴ/는다)TOPIK 2 — The plain style whose declarative splits action verbs (간다, 먹는다) from adjectives and the copula (좋다, 학생이다) — the addressee-neutral register of books, news, and diaries, and the cleanest place to internalize Korean's verb-vs-adjective divide.
  • 한다체 Moods: -ㄴ/는다 · -냐 · -아라/어라 · -자TOPIK 2 — The full four-mood paradigm of the plain style (해라체) in one place — statement -ㄴ/는다, question -(느)냐, command -아라/어라, proposal -자 — and why these plain endings are the citation forms Korean's indirect quotation is built on.
  • Plain Style in Writing & Narration (문어체)TOPIK 2 — Why Korean writing defaults to 한다체 rather than 해요체 — the 문어체 (written style) vs 구어체 (spoken style) split. With no specific reader to raise, prose reaches for the addressee-neutral plain style, and the same news story lives in two registers: 한다체 on the page, 합니다체 read aloud.
  • 한다체 vs 해체: Plain-Written vs IntimateTOPIK 3 — Two 'no-요' styles English speakers fuse into one 'casual': 해체/반말 (가, 먹어) is intimate spoken register aimed at a listener, while 한다체 (간다, 먹는다) is neutral written register — and using 한다체 as everyday casual speech sounds bookish or theatrical.

Subject Honorific -(으)시-

  • The Subject Honorific -(으)시-: Honoring the SubjectTOPIK 1 — -(으)시- is the infix that raises the sentence's subject — the person doing the action or holding the state — for respect: -시- after a vowel stem, -으시- after a consonant stem, with ㄹ dropping. Crucially it tracks who the sentence is about, not who you're talking to, so you can honor grandma even in casual speech.
  • -(으)세요: When -(으)시- Meets 어요TOPIK 1 — -(으)세요 is the everyday 해요체 face of the subject honorific — -(으)시- fused with -어요. It does double duty: a soft 'please…' request (여기 앉으세요) and an honorific statement or question about the subject (어디 가세요?). It is not a dedicated imperative like English 'please'; it is the honorific present that context reads as a request.
  • The Honorific Past -(으)셨-TOPIK 2 — The past tense of an honored subject stacks the past marker onto the honorific: -(으)시- + -었- → -(으)셨- (가셨어요, 읽으셨어요, 오셨습니다). The morpheme order is the lesson — honorific inside, tense outside — so respect is marked before time, and suppletive verbs (드셨어요, 주무셨어요, 돌아가셨어요) build their past on the same slot.
  • When NOT to Use -(으)시-: Never Honor YourselfTOPIK 2 — -(으)시- raises the SUBJECT, so when the subject is you (저/나) it is forbidden — Korean shows respect by lowering yourself with humble verbs and raising others, never by elevating your own act the way English 'I'd be honored to…' does.
  • -(으)시- Across Speech Levels: 하십니다 · 하세요 · 하셔 · 하신다TOPIK 2 — Subject honorification (-시-) is independent of the addressee speech level and stacks on top of it — one honored subject runs through 합니다체, 해요체, 반말, and 한다체 alike, so even a casual '할머니 오셨어?' to a friend keeps the honorific.

Suppletive Honorific Verbs

  • 계시다: To Be Present (Honorific) — and the 있으시다 SplitTOPIK 2 — 계시다 is the suppletive honorific of 있다 for a person's PRESENCE (선생님이 교실에 계세요, 안녕히 계세요), but 있으시다 is what you use when what 'exists' is a superior's time, question, or child — the split English 'have/be' hides.
  • 드시다 / 잡수시다: To Eat & Drink (Honorific)TOPIK 1 — Korean does not honor 먹다 by adding -시- (×먹으세요 is avoided as blunt) — it swaps in the suppletive verb 드시다, which covers BOTH eating and drinking (많이 드세요, 물 드세요), with 잡수시다 as the higher register for elders.
  • 주무시다: To Sleep (Honorific)TOPIK 2 — 주무시다 is the suppletive honorific of 자다 (sleep), most familiar from the nightly 안녕히 주무세요 ('good night'). Its honorific -시- is built in, so the polite form is simply 주무세요 — never the double-stacked ×주무시세요, and never plain ×자세요 to an elder.
  • 돌아가시다 (Pass Away) & 말씀하시다 (Speak, Honorific)TOPIK 2 — Two more suppletive honorifics: 돌아가시다 ('return') is the respectful-and-euphemistic replacement for 죽다 (die), and 말씀하시다 elevates 말하다 (speak) — built on the two-faced noun 말씀, which raises a superior's words but humbles your own.

Syntax & Sentence Structure

Ellipsis, Cleft & Focus

  • Ellipsis & Context Recovery (Zero Anaphora)TOPIK 4 — How Korean tracks dropped subjects and objects across whole stretches of discourse — using topic continuity, honorific cues, and verb semantics — and how to know when silence turns ambiguous and you must re-supply a referent.
  • The Cleft: -는 것은 …이다 (What … is …)TOPIK 5 — How Korean builds the pseudo-cleft — nominalize a clause with -는 것, mark it topic with 은, and drop the focused element into the copula slot — plus the explanatory 거예요 that means 'that's why.'
  • Contrastive 은/는 & Fronting for FocusTOPIK 3 — The other job of 은/는 — setting one thing against an alternative — plus the fronting and focus particles (도, 만, 까지) that Korean uses to do morphologically what English does with stress.

Embedded Noun Clauses

  • Embedded Questions: -(으)ㄴ지 / -는지 / -(으)ㄹ지TOPIK 4 — How Korean folds an indirect question — 'whether / what / when / where…' — into a noun-like clause under 알다/모르다/궁금하다, and why -(으)ㄹ지 specifically flags a still-open future choice.
  • The Fact That: -(느)ㄴ다는 것 / -다는TOPIK 4 — How Korean says 'the fact / news / idea THAT S' — fusing an indirect-quote clause with a head noun via -다는 (from -다고 하는), the noun-complement cousin of the relative clause.
  • Embedded Decisions: -기로 하다 vs -(으)ㄹ지TOPIK 4 — Two ways Korean embeds a decision — -기로 하다 for a settled resolution ('decide/promise/resolve to') and -(으)ㄹ지 for an open deliberation ('whether/what to') — and why swapping them flips 'settled' and 'unsettled'.

Existential & Special Constructions

  • Existential Sentences: 있다 / 없다 (N이/가 있다)TOPIK 1 — Why 'there is / there isn't' in Korean uses the verbs 있다 and 없다 — never the copula 이다 — and how the frame N이/가 있다 (with 에 for location) also does the work of English 'have.'
  • Possession as Existence (나는 N이/가 있다)TOPIK 2 — Korean has no verb 'to have' — possession is existence predicated of a topic possessor: 저는 시간이 있어요 ('as for me, time exists' = 'I have time'). The thing owned is the grammatical subject, marked 이/가, never an object.
  • Comparative Sentences: A는 B보다 (더) …TOPIK 2 — How Korean builds comparisons — the particle 보다 ('than') on the standard, optionally 더 ('more') on the predicate — and the reframe that matters most: Korean adjectives never inflect for comparison the way English '-er / more' does.

Indirect / Reported Speech

  • The Reported-Speech System: OverviewTOPIK 3 — A map of how Korean reports what someone said — direct quotation with 라고, and indirect quotation whose connector (-다고 / -냐고 / -(으)라고 / -자고) is chosen by the sentence TYPE of the original, with politeness neutralized and no English-style tense back-shift.
  • Reported Statements: -다고 하다 / -(느)ㄴ다고TOPIK 3 — How to report a statement in Korean — plain-form clause + 고 하다 — and the three-way allomorphy that trips everyone: action verbs take -ㄴ다고/-는다고, adjectives take bare -다고, and 이다 becomes -(이)라고.
  • Reported Questions: -냐고 하다TOPIK 3 — Reporting a question in Korean — plain clause + 냐고 + 묻다/물어보다 — with modern Korean leveling verbs, adjectives and 있다/없다 all to bare -냐고; plus why a reported question (someone actually asked) differs from an embedded 'whether' clause with -는지.
  • Reported Commands: -(으)라고 하다 (and 달라고 vs 주라고)TOPIK 4 — How Korean reports an order — -(으)라고 하다 'tell someone to' — and the uniquely Korean split between 달라고 (give to me/us) and 주라고 (give to a third party) that English collapses into one word.
  • Reported Proposals: -자고 하다TOPIK 4 — How Korean reports a suggestion — -자고 하다 'suggested that we ~' — mapping the single propositive ending -자 straight onto reported speech, and why it must not be confused with the command -(으)라고.
  • Deixis Shifts & Spoken Contractions (-대요/-냬요/-래요/-재요)TOPIK 4 — The two things that happen when speech is reported — deictic words recompute from the reporter's viewpoint, and '…고 해요' contracts to the ubiquitous -대요/-냬요/-래요/-재요 endings that double as 'I heard that ~'.

Nominalization

  • The -기 Nominalizer (먹기 싫다, -기 쉽다)TOPIK 2 — -기 turns a verb, adjective, or whole clause into a noun naming the activity — the one Korean reaches for with predicates of emotion, evaluation, and ease/difficulty, and the fixed nominalizer locked inside patterns like -기 전에, -기 때문에, and -기로 하다.
  • The -(으)ㅁ Nominalizer (written: 있음/없음)TOPIK 3 — -(으)ㅁ nominalizes a verb or adjective into a noun denoting a fact, state, or finished result — the formal, written counterpart of -기 and -는 것 that powers notice-board style (재고 없음), lexicalized nouns (믿음, 죽음, 도움), and formal fact-complements (사실이 아님을 알았다).
  • The -는 것 Nominalizer (the general-purpose one)TOPIK 2 — -는 것 is the everyday, all-purpose clause nominalizer — attach an attributive ending plus 것 to turn a whole clause into a noun phrase (운동하는 것이 중요해요), conjugating for tense on the attributive and contracting to 거/게/걸/건 in speech.
  • Choosing -기 vs -(으)ㅁ vs -는 것TOPIK 3 — A decision guide for Korean's three nominalizers: -기 for unrealized activities and set frames, -(으)ㅁ for fixed written facts, and -는 것 for everything spoken and concrete — sorted by aspect and register.
  • The Bound Noun 데 (place / case / in doing)TOPIK 3 — 데 is a bound noun meaning 'place', 'a certain aspect', or 'the doing of something' — always spaced after an attributive ending and able to take particles — which is exactly what separates it from the solid connective ending -는데.

Relative / Attributive Clauses

  • The Modifier-Before-Noun Principle (No Relative Pronouns)TOPIK 2 — Every Korean modifier — adjective, possessor, or an entire relative clause — comes BEFORE its noun, and there are no relative pronouns; the described noun lands last and an attributive verb ending does all the linking work.
  • Present Verb Relative Clauses: -는TOPIK 2 — The present attributive -는 turns any action verb into a modifier that sits in front of a noun (먹는 사람 'a person who eats') — covering both English simple present and progressive, dropping ㄹ before it, and reserved strictly for verbs, never adjectives.
  • Past Verb Relative Clauses: -(으)ㄴTOPIK 2 — The past attributive -(으)ㄴ turns a verb into a modifier for a completed action (간 사람 'the person who went', 먹은 밥 'the rice I ate') — and the same shape that means PAST on a verb means PRESENT on an adjective, so you must read the word's class first.
  • Prospective / Future Relative Clauses: -(으)ㄹTOPIK 2 — The prospective attributive -(으)ㄹ marks an action as unrealized — future, planned, or hypothetical — and often translates as English 'to ~' rather than 'will': 마실 물 'water to drink', 갈 사람 'the person who'll go', 할 일 'work to do'. It's also the backbone of -(으)ㄹ 때, -(으)ㄹ 것이다, and -(으)ㄹ 수 있다.
  • Recollected Past Relative Clauses: -던 and -았/었던TOPIK 3 — The retrospective attributives -던 and -았/었던 modify a noun with a REMEMBERED past: -던 for an action that was ongoing, habitual, or left unfinished (마시던 커피 'the coffee I was drinking'), -았/었던 for one clearly completed and now discontinued (갔던 곳 'a place I once went'). They add 'witnessed / interrupted / nostalgic' — nuance the plain -(으)ㄴ can't carry.
  • Adjective Attributive: -(으)ㄴ (Descriptive Verbs)TOPIK 2 — Descriptive verbs (adjectives) take -(으)ㄴ for their PRESENT attributive — 예쁜 꽃, 작은 집, 좋은 사람 — which is why an adjective before a noun looks like a verb's PAST form but isn't. Covers the -은/-ㄴ split, the ㅂ/ㅎ irregulars and ㄹ-drop, and the master rule for telling adjective -(으)ㄴ from verb -(으)ㄴ.
  • 것 Head-Noun Clauses (the thing/one that…)TOPIK 2 — When a modifying clause has no specific noun to attach to, Korean supplies the bound noun 것 as a generic head — 'the thing / the one that…' — and contracts it heavily in speech (거, 게, 걸, 건).
  • Gapped and Gapless Relatives (한국말을 잘하는 사람)TOPIK 3 — Korean relative clauses use no relative pronoun and no resumptive pronoun — one attributive ending covers subject, object, and oblique heads, and even forms 'gapless' relatives like 머리가 긴 사람 that English can only render with 'whose' or 'with'.

Topic-Comment Structure

  • Topic-Comment Structure: A Topic-Prominent LanguageTOPIK 2 — Korean sentences often open by naming a topic with 은/는 — 'as for X' — and then make a comment about it, so the thing the sentence is 'about' can be a time or place that isn't the grammatical subject at all.
  • Double-Subject Constructions (코끼리는 코가 길다)TOPIK 3 — One Korean clause can carry two subject-like nominals — 코끼리는 코가 길다, 'as for elephants, the trunk is long' — where the first names the whole or possessor and the second is what the predicate actually describes.
  • Topic vs Subject in Sentence StructureTOPIK 3 — The 은/는 topic slot ('what we're talking about') and the 이/가 subject slot (the argument the predicate selects) are different chairs — sometimes the same phrase fills both, and sometimes the topic bears no grammatical role in the clause at all.

Word Order & Basics

  • Basic Word Order: Subject–Object–VerbTOPIK 1 — Korean's canonical order puts the predicate last — verb, adjective, or noun+이다 always ends the clause, and every modifier comes before the thing it modifies.
  • Flexible Word Order: Particles, Not Position, Mark RoleTOPIK 2 — Because case and topic particles tag each word's grammatical role, the pre-verbal elements can be reordered freely for emphasis — the only fixed point is the final verb.
  • Why the Verb Carries Everything (Head-Final Predicates)TOPIK 1 — The sentence-final predicate is the grammatical hub: tense, honorifics, speech level, mood, and negation all stack onto the last verb or adjective — so you change a whole sentence by editing one word.
  • Dropping Subjects and Objects (Pro-Drop)TOPIK 1 — Korean routinely omits any subject or object that context already makes clear — so 밥 먹었어요? means 'Did you eat?' with no word for 'you', and overusing pronouns is the number-one sign of a sentence translated from English.

Tense, Aspect & Mood

Aspect Contrasts

  • -고 있다 vs -아/어 있다: Progressive vs Resultant StateTOPIK 2 — Two Korean patterns English collapses into one 'be -ing': -고 있다 for an ongoing action, and -아/어 있다 for the state that persists after a change-of-state verb finishes — with the decisive 가고 있다 vs 가 있다 test.
  • -았/었- as Both Past and Present PerfectTOPIK 2 — How the single Korean marker -았/었- covers both simple past ('ate') and present perfect ('have eaten') with no separate 'have' auxiliary — and how, with certain verbs, it yields a present resultant state (결혼했어요 'am married').
  • -았었/었었-: Discontinued / Remote Past vs Simple PastTOPIK 4 — The doubled marker -았었/었었- signals a past situation now cut off from the present — over, reversed, or no longer holding — and why it is NOT the English past perfect for mere anteriority.
  • Ongoing vs Completed: 아직 and 벌써 / 이미TOPIK 2 — The aspectual adverbs that pin down the 'already / yet / still' readings English builds into its perfect tenses: 아직 ('still / not yet') with ongoing or negative verbs, and 벌써 / 이미 ('already') with completed -았/었-.

Perfect & Experiential

  • -(으)ㄴ 적이 있다/없다: Have You Ever (Experience)TOPIK 2 — The experiential construction -(으)ㄴ 적(이) 있다/없다 — 'to have (never) had the experience of V-ing' — built from a past adnominal plus the bound noun 적, and why it is a noun pattern, not a tense.
  • -아/어 봤다: Experience Through 'Try'TOPIK 2 — The everyday experiential -아/어 봤다 ('have tried, have done once') — the auxiliary 보다 'do-and-see' in the past, how it differs from the neutral 적이 있다, and why 봤다 here is not the verb 'to see'.
  • -곤 하다 / -(으)ㄹ 때가 있다: Habitual and Iterative PatternsTOPIK 3 — Two ways to say something happens repeatedly or occasionally — -곤 하다 'used to / would (again and again)' for a recurring habit, and -(으)ㄹ 때가 있다 'there are times when…' — plus how Korean splits what English fuses into 'used to.'

Realization Mood

  • -네(요): Noticing Something Right NowTOPIK 2 — -네(요) marks spontaneous realization or mild surprise about something perceived at the moment of speech — 비가 오네요 'oh, it's raining!' — contrasting on one side with neutral -아요 and on the other with the past-recollection -더라고요.
  • -군(요) / -구나: Realization and ExclamationTOPIK 3 — The endings of dawning realization — polite -군요 and plain -구나. The form split learners botch: present-tense verbs take -는구나/-는군요, but adjectives, 이다, and 있다/없다 take plain -구나/-군요; past is -았/었구나 for all.
  • -(으)ㄹ 걸(요): 'I Bet' and 'Should Have'TOPIK 4 — One ending, two moods split by intonation and person: -(으)ㄹ걸요 with rising intonation is a hedged guess ('I bet, probably'), while -(으)ㄹ걸 (그랬다) with falling intonation is a counterfactual regret ('I should have').

Retrospective & Evidential -더-

  • -더-: The Retrospective / Evidential MarkerTOPIK 3 — The pre-final ending -더-, unique to Korean, reports something the speaker personally witnessed in the past and now recalls — 'as I saw / found.' Its hard evidential restriction and first-person limits are the seed of a whole family: -더라, -더라고요, -던, -더니, -던데.
  • -더라 / -더라고(요): 'I Saw / Found That…'TOPIK 3 — The two everyday sentence-final forms of -더-: plain 반말 -더라 and polite -더라고요. Both relay a personally-witnessed past discovery with a 'turns out / I noticed' flavor — and both are sharply different from present-moment -네요.
  • -던 vs -(으)ㄴ: The Retrospective Attributive ContrastTOPIK 3 — Two past adnominal endings that modify a noun: -던 recalls a witnessed past action as ongoing, repeated, or interrupted, while plain -(으)ㄴ marks a completed one — plus -았/었던 for a distinctly recalled or discontinued past.
  • -더니 / -았더니: 'I Noticed X, Then Y'TOPIK 4 — Two retrospective connectives built on -더-: bare -더니 links something you observed about someone/something to a follow-up change, while -았더니 links your own prior action to a result you then discovered — the split runs on grammatical person.
  • -던데(요): Retrospective Background and Soft ContrastTOPIK 4 — -던데(요) fuses the retrospective -더- with the background ending -ㄴ데 to supply a personally-witnessed past circumstance — used to set up a contrast, or, sentence-finally, to trail off and invite the listener's reaction.

Tense System Overview

  • The Korean Tense System at a GlanceTOPIK 2 — The whole map before the details: Korean marks time with verb endings, not helper verbs — present is the bare form, past is -았/었-, future is -겠- or -(으)ㄹ 것이다 — and crucially there is no perfect auxiliary, so one past marker covers both 'went' and 'has gone'.
  • Absolute vs Relative Tense: Tense Inside Embedded ClausesTOPIK 3 — Main-clause tense is absolute — anchored to the moment you speak — but inside a relative or quotative clause, Korean tense is read relative to the main verb's time, which is why 'the baby crying earlier' uses the present -는, not the past.
  • Present Tense for Scheduled and Near-Future EventsTOPIK 2 — How the plain present ending routinely expresses planned, scheduled, and near-future events once a time word is present (내일 가요 'I'm going tomorrow'), and how it contrasts with -(으)ㄹ 거예요 and -겠-.

Verb Reference

Auxiliary-Verb Reference

Connective-Ending Reference

  • Connective Endings by Function (연결어미): Master TableTOPIK 3 — A one-stop table grouping Korean's major clause-connecting endings by meaning — 'and', 'and then', 'but', 'because', 'if', 'in order to', 'even if', 'setting-up' — because Korean chains clauses with verb endings on the first predicate, not with conjunction words.
  • Sentence-Final Endings by Speech Level (종결어미): Master GridTOPIK 3 — The full grid crossing Korean's four speech levels (합니다체 · 해요체 · 반말 · 한다체) with the four sentence types (statement · question · command · suggestion) — because the verb ending, not the word order or a helping word, carries both politeness and sentence type at once.
  • Modifier (Attributive) Endings (관형사형 어미): Reference GridTOPIK 3 — The endings that turn a whole clause into a modifier sitting in front of a noun — Korean's relative clauses — crossed by predicate type and tense, with the crucial split: -는 marks a present-tense VERB, while -(으)ㄴ marks a present ADJECTIVE or a PAST verb.
  • Indirect-Quotation Endings (-다고 · 냐고 · 라고 · 자고 + Contractions): Reference TableTOPIK 4 — The four indirect-speech endings organized by the sentence type of the quoted clause — statement -다고, question -냐고, command -라고, suggestion -자고 — plus the everyday spoken contractions -대 / -냬 / -래 / -재 that natives actually use.
  • Particle Master Index (조사): Function & Allomorph TableTOPIK 2 — A one-page index of Korean's particles organized by grammatical function, with the batchim-conditioned allomorphs shown as after-consonant / after-vowel pairs — because particles, not word order, are what tell you subject from object in an SOV language that lets you shuffle everything else.
  • Ending Attachment After Batchim (받침 이형태): Allomorphy ReferenceTOPIK 2 — The single rule sheet behind dozens of particles and endings — which allomorph attaches after a vowel-final stem versus a consonant-final (받침) stem — reduced to one idea: after a batchim insert 으/은/을/이, after a vowel don't, and ㄹ behaves half like a vowel.

High-Frequency Verb Conjugation Sheets

  • Conjugation Sheet: 하다 (to do)TOPIK 1 — A one-verb cheat sheet for 하다 — the most frequent verb in Korean and the engine behind thousands of noun+하다 verbs (공부하다, 좋아하다, 시작하다). Every cell runs on one contraction: 하 + 여 → 해. Speech levels, tenses, connectives, modifiers, negatives, honorific, imperative, and propositive at a glance.
  • Conjugation Sheet: 가다 / 오다 (go / come)TOPIK 1 — A side-by-side cheat sheet for the motion pair 가다 (go) and 오다 (come). Both contract in the present — 가 + 아 → 가요, 오 + 아 → 와요 — and 오다 has irregular imperatives (와라, archaic 오너라). Includes the purpose pattern -(으)러 가다/오다 and the crucial deixis difference from English go/come.
  • Conjugation Sheet: 먹다 / 마시다 (eat / drink)TOPIK 1 — A side-by-side cheat sheet for 먹다 (eat, a consonant stem) and 마시다 (drink, an i-final vowel stem). Different stem types, but one shared honorific: BOTH climb to 드시다 → 드세요, with 잡수시다 as the elder-facing form of 먹다. Includes 먹다's idiomatic reach far beyond English 'eat.'
  • Conjugation Sheet: 보다 (see / watch / try)TOPIK 1 — The full look-up sheet for 보다 — the ㅗ-stem that contracts to 봐요 (보 + 아 → 봐) — plus its two other lives: the humble 뵙다/봬요 for meeting a superior, and the everyday auxiliary -아/어 보다 'try doing.'
  • Conjugation Sheet: 되다 (become / work out / be allowed)TOPIK 2 — The full look-up sheet for 되다 — the ㅚ-stem that contracts to 돼요 (되 + 어 → 돼) — with the definitive 되 vs 돼 spelling test and the three jobs one stem does: literal 'become,' impersonal 'turn out,' and the permission/prohibition modals -어도 되다 / -면 안 되다.
  • Conjugation Sheet: 주다 (give / do for someone)TOPIK 2 — The full look-up sheet for 주다 — the ㅜ-stem that contracts to 줘요 (주 + 어 → 줘) — with the three-way deference split 줘요 / 주세요 / 드려요 and the benefactive auxiliary -아/어 주다 that overtly marks an action as a favour: 도와줘요, 해 주세요, 해 드릴게요.
  • Conjugation Sheet: 알다 / 모르다 (know / not know)TOPIK 2 — A side-by-side sheet for the antonym pair 알다 and 모르다 — a live showcase of the ㄹ-irregular (알다 → 압니다, 아니까) versus the 르-irregular (모르다 → 몰라요), plus the everyday idioms 알겠어요 / 모르겠어요 where -겠- softens rather than points to the future.
  • Conjugation Sheet: 있다 / 없다 (exist / have / be located)TOPIK 1 — A side-by-side quick sheet for the antonym pair 있다 and 없다 — Korean's one verb for 'there is / is at / have' and its dedicated negative — with the verbal -는 attributive (있는/없는), the honorific split 계시다 vs 있으시다, and the two aspectual auxiliaries -고 있다 and -아/어 있다.

Honorific / Humble Verb Pairs

  • Honorific Suppletive Verbs (특수 높임말): Plain → Honorific TableTOPIK 2 — The lookup table for the high-frequency verbs whose subject-honorific form is a separate word, not just stem + -(으)시- — 먹다 → 드시다, 자다 → 주무시다, 있다 → 계시다, 죽다 → 돌아가시다, 말하다 → 말씀하시다 — plus the 계시다 vs 있으시다 split that trips up even advanced learners.
  • Humble Verbs (겸양어): Plain → Humble TableTOPIK 3 — The lookup table for Korean's humble verbs — 주다 → 드리다, 보다/만나다 → 뵙다/뵈다, 묻다 → 여쭙다/여쭈다, 데리다 → 모시다, 말하다 → 말씀드리다 — where the SPEAKER lowers their own action to elevate a higher-status object, a separate axis from the subject-honorific -(으)시-.
  • Honorific Nouns (높임 명사): Plain → Elevated Reference TableTOPIK 3 — The consolidated table of Korean nouns that swap to a separate elevated form for a respected person — 밥→진지, 집→댁, 이름→성함, 나이→연세, 사람→분, 말→말씀, 생일→생신, 병→병환, 딸/아들→따님/아드님 — plus the two-way word 말씀 and the concord rule that makes an honorific noun pull 께서 and -(으)시- onto the whole clause.
  • Address Terms & Title Suffixes (호칭·-님/-씨): Reference TableTOPIK 1 — The words Korean uses to address and refer to people in place of 'you' — the deferential suffix -님 (선생님, 사장님, 고객님), the polite-neutral -씨 on a name (민수 씨), the all-purpose 선생님, group 여러분, and kin-as-address (형님, 어머님). Includes the surname trap (×김 씨) and why 당신 is NOT a neutral 'you.'

How to Use These Tables

  • How Korean Conjugation Works: Stem + EndingTOPIK 1 — The single mechanism behind every table in this reference: strip -다 to get the stem, then attach an ending — with three factors (batchim, ㅏ/ㅗ harmony, irregular class) deciding the ending's exact shape.
  • How to Read the Tables in This ReferenceTOPIK 1 — The fixed conventions every paradigm table uses — rows are tenses and moods, columns are the four speech levels, and the notation -(으), 아/어, and a leading dash all mean specific things — so you can look any verb up in three moves.

Irregular Verb Tables

  • ㅂ-Irregular Predicates (ㅂ 불규칙): Full TableTOPIK 2 — The complete lookup grid for the ㅂ-irregular class — stem-final ㅂ fuses into a 우/오 before vowel- and 으-endings (덥다 → 더워요, 더운, 더우니까, 더웠어요), with the two 오-exceptions 돕다·곱다 and a stays-regular warning row (입다·잡다·좁다).
  • ㄷ-Irregular Verbs (ㄷ 불규칙): Full TableTOPIK 2 — The complete lookup grid for the ㄷ-irregular class — stem-final ㄷ mutates to ㄹ before vowel- and 으-endings (듣다 → 들어요, 들으니까, 들은, 들었어요) but stays ㄷ before consonants — with the 묻다 homograph split and a stays-regular row (받다·닫다·믿다·얻다).
  • ㅅ-Irregular Verbs (ㅅ 불규칙): Full TableTOPIK 2 — The complete lookup grid for the ㅅ-irregular class — stem-final ㅅ drops before vowel- and 으-endings but, unlike ㅂ and ㄷ, leaves an uncontracted two-syllable hiatus (짓다 → 지어요, never ×져요) — with a stays-regular row (웃다·씻다·벗다·빗다).
  • 르-Irregular Predicates (르 불규칙): Full TableTOPIK 2 — The complete lookup grid for the 르-irregular class — before an 아/어 ending the 으 of 르 drops and an extra ㄹ pushes back onto the previous syllable (모르다 → 몰라요, 부르다 → 불러요), with 라/러 set by harmony — plus the 으-drop imposters (따르다·치르다) and the separate 러-irregular (이르다·푸르다).
  • 으-Drop Verbs (으 탈락): Full TableTOPIK 1 — The complete lookup grid for the 으-drop pattern — any stem whose final vowel is ㅡ drops it before an 아/어 ending (쓰다 → 써요), with harmony set by the syllable one step back (바쁘다 → 바빠요, 예쁘다 → 예뻐요). The most systematic of all the 'irregular' classes, with zero lexical exceptions.
  • ㄹ-Irregular Predicates (ㄹ 탈락): Full TableTOPIK 2 — The complete reference table for ㄹ-stem verbs and adjectives, whose stem-final ㄹ drops before endings beginning with ㄴ, ㅂ, ㅅ, or the honorific 시 (mnemonic ㄴ·ㅂ·ㅅ·시) and which never take the 으 buffer — 살다 → 삽니다, 사세요, 사니까, 사는, 산.
  • ㅎ-Irregular Adjectives (ㅎ 불규칙): Full TableTOPIK 3 — The complete reference table for ㅎ-irregular adjectives — 그렇다, 어떻다, and the color words 빨갛다·파랗다·노랗다·까맣다·하얗다 — where a stem-final ㅎ drops before 아/어 and fuses the ending to 애 (그래요, 빨개요), and before 으 the ㅎ and the 으 both vanish (그런, 빨간). With the 좋다 and ㅎ-verb exceptions.
  • Irregular vs Regular: The Look-Alike Master TableTOPIK 3 — The cheat-card for the question learners actually ask — 'this verb ends in ㄷ/ㅅ/ㅂ/ㅎ/르, does it inflect irregularly?' A single minimal-pair table sets each irregular next to a regular verb with the same final consonant, so you can see that irregularity is lexical, not spelling-based, and that the safe default for an unknown verb is REGULAR.

Regular Verb Paradigms

  • 먹다 (to eat): Consonant-Stem Verb ParadigmTOPIK 1 — The complete look-up paradigm of 먹다 across all four speech levels — the stencil for every regular consonant-stem action verb, with the obligatory 으 buffer that batchim stems insert before consonant-initial endings.
  • 가다 (to go): Vowel-Stem Verb ParadigmTOPIK 1 — The complete look-up paradigm of 가다 across all four speech levels — the stencil for regular vowel-stem verbs, whose signature is contraction (가 + 아요 → 가요) and the total absence of the 으 buffer.
  • 살다 (to live): ㄹ-Stem Verb ParadigmTOPIK 2 — The complete look-up paradigm of 살다 across all four speech levels — the model for ㄹ-stem verbs, whose stem ㄹ drops before ㄴ, ㅂ, ㅅ, and 시, stays everywhere else, and never takes the 으 buffer.
  • 공부하다 (to study): 하다-Verb ParadigmTOPIK 1 — The full look-up paradigm of a noun+하다 verb, built on 공부하다 (stem 공부하-) — the single most productive verb pattern in Korean. Master this one grid and you conjugate thousands of 하다-verbs by swapping the noun.
  • 좋다 (to be good): Descriptive Verb (Adjective) ParadigmTOPIK 1 — The full paradigm of a regular descriptive verb / adjective (형용사), built on 좋다 (stem 좋-). Korean adjectives conjugate like verbs but differ in three predictable cells: present attributive -은 (not -는), no imperative or propositive, and a bare -다 plain present (좋다, never ×좋는다).

Speech-Level Conjugation Tables

  • 합니다체: The Formal-Polite Conjugation TableTOPIK 1 — The reference table for the formal-polite level (합니다체 / 하십시오체): -ㅂ니다/습니다 by batchim, question -ㅂ니까/습니까, command -(으)십시오, proposal -(으)ㅂ시다. The register of broadcasts, presentations, the military, and customer service — one notch more formal than 해요체.
  • 해요체: The Informal-Polite Conjugation TableTOPIK 1 — The reference table for 해요체, the default everyday polite register: stem + 아/어 by harmony + 요. One ending -아/어요 serves statement, question, and suggestion — intonation disambiguates. The register where the vowel contractions (와요, 줘요, 마셔요, 돼요, 해요) really bite.
  • 반말 (해체): The Intimate-Speech Conjugation TableTOPIK 2 — The reference table for 반말 (해체): statements/questions are 해요체 minus 요 (가, 먹어, 해), but the imperative (가/가라), propositive (가자), casual suggestion (갈까?), and copula (야/이야) have their own forms. The real skill is social — 반말 is licensed by relationship, not by mood.
  • 한다체: The Plain / Written Conjugation TableTOPIK 3 — The reference table for 한다체 (해라체 / plain style) — the impersonal voice of books, news, diaries, narration, and reported speech — where the verb-vs-adjective split is at its sharpest: action verbs take -ㄴ다/-는다 (간다, 먹는다), adjectives stay bare -다 (좋다), and the copula is -(이)다.
  • One Verb, Four Speech Levels: Master Comparison TableTOPIK 2 — A single verb declined across all four everyday speech levels at once (합니다체 / 해요체 / 반말 / 한다체) — read across a row for the same meaning at four politeness settings, read down a column for the moods available inside one level. Includes the adjective grid that shows why 좋다 has no imperative.
  • Imperative & Propositive Across All Speech LevelsTOPIK 2 — A focused look-up table for commands (imperative) and suggestions (propositive) — the two moods that vary most by speech level and trip learners most. Rows by level, columns splitting a vowel stem from a consonant stem to show 으-insertion, plus the negative-command row and the crucial 'don't aim -(으)ㅂ시다 upward' caveat.

Tense-Form Tables

  • Present-Tense Formation TableTOPIK 1 — The present (non-past) across all four speech levels and both predicate classes — 합니다체 / 해요체 / 반말 / 한다체 — with the key split that verbs take -ㄴ다/는다 in 한다체 but adjectives stay bare -다 (간다 vs 좋다).
  • Past Tense -았/었/였: Formation TableTOPIK 1 — The complete formation table for the past-tense infix -았/었/였-, which slots in before the ending and is chosen by the same ㅏ/ㅗ harmony as the present. One infix, four speech levels, no irregular 'went' to memorize — plus the vowel-boundary contractions (갔어요, 왔어요, 마셨어요, 됐어요).
  • Future & Intention: -겠 and -(으)ㄹ 것이다 TableTOPIK 2 — Korean has no single word 'will' — it splits the future between the infix -겠- (on-the-spot intention and conjecture: 가겠어요, 비가 오겠어요) and the periphrastic -(으)ㄹ 것이다 (planned future and prediction: 갈 거예요). This table lays both out across speech levels, flags the 으-insertion, and pins down which nuance goes where.
  • Negation Table: 안, 못, -지 않다, -지 못하다TOPIK 1 — Korean's four negation strategies laid out as SHORT (pre-verbal 안 / 못) vs LONG (-지 않다 / -지 못하다), with the split English merges: 안 = choosing not to, 못 = being unable to. Plus the three traps — 못 doesn't negate adjectives, 하다-verbs split under 안, and 'don't!' is -지 마세요, not 안.
  • Progressive & Resultant State: -고 있다 vs -아/어 있다TOPIK 2 — English '-ing' is ambiguous between an action underway and the state it leaves behind; Korean forces the choice. -고 있다 marks an action in progress (먹고 있어요 'is eating'); -아/어 있다 marks a resultant state that persists after a change is complete (앉아 있어요 'is seated'). This table draws the line, verb by verb.
  • Attributive (Noun-Modifying) Forms Table: -는 / -(으)ㄴ / -(으)ㄹ / -던TOPIK 2 — The 관형사형 endings that turn a whole clause into a modifier sitting in front of a noun — Korean's relative clauses, which carry tense inside the ending. The core trap: verbs form the present with -는 but adjectives form it with -(으)ㄴ, the very shape that marks a verb's past — so 먹은 (ate) and 좋은 (good) look parallel yet differ in tense and class.

Vowel-Harmony & Contraction Reference

  • The 아/어 Vowel-Harmony Selection TableTOPIK 1 — The master lookup sheet for choosing 아 vs 어 in every harmony-sensitive ending: if the stem's last vowel is ㅏ or ㅗ, use 아; for everything else use 어; 하 alone takes 여 → 해.
  • The Vowel-Contraction TableTOPIK 1 — The obligatory stem-vowel + 아/어 fusions that produce every 해요체 and past form — 가+아→가, 오+아→와, 주+어→줘, 마시+어→마셔 — plus the 되/돼 spelling test. The uncontracted forms are simply wrong.
  • The -(으) Insertion Table: When 으 AppearsTOPIK 1 — The linking vowel -(으)- surfaces only between a consonant-final stem and a set of endings, is absent after a vowel stem, and disappears in ㄹ-stems (which drop the ㄹ instead) — laid out ending by ending across all three stem types.
  • The ㅡ-Drop (으 탈락) TableTOPIK 2 — A fully regular alternation: a stem whose final vowel is ㅡ drops it before any 아/어 ending, and the syllable before the dropped ㅡ then decides harmony — 바쁘다→바빠, 예쁘다→예뻐, 크다→커. The 르-stems are a separate irregular.

있다 / 없다 / 계시다 Tables

  • 있다 (to exist / to have): Full ParadigmTOPIK 1 — The complete look-up paradigm of 있다 — Korean's one verb for both 'there is / is at' and 'I have' — across all four speech levels, with the crucial detail that it takes the verbal -는 attributive (있는, never ×있은), which is exactly why it's 재미있는, not ×재미있은.
  • 없다 (to not exist / to not have): ParadigmTOPIK 1 — The full look-up paradigm of 없다, the suppletive negative of 있다 — Korean has no productive 'not-있다,' you switch to the separate word 없다 — across all four speech levels, with the verbal -는 attributive (없는, never ×없은) and the key warning that ×안 있어요 is not how you say 'there isn't.'
  • 계시다 vs 있으시다: Honorific Existence TableTOPIK 3 — The two honorific counterparts of 있다 that English collapses into one 'be': 계시다 honors a PERSON who is present, while 있으시다 honors an OWNER whose possession exists — so a question or an amount of time can be 있으시다 but can never 계시다.
  • Possession Patterns: 있다/없다 with 이/가TOPIK 1 — Korean has no verb 'to have' — it says '[owner]은/는 [thing]이/가 있다/없다,' literally 'as-for-me, the thing exists.' The possessed thing is the grammatical subject with 이/가, never an object with 을/를 — the case frame that surprises every English speaker.

하다 & Copula Paradigms

  • 하다 (to do): Complete Paradigm, All Tenses × LevelsTOPIK 1 — The exhaustive reference grid for 하다 — the single highest-leverage verb in Korean, since thousands of noun+하다 verbs (공부하다, 사랑하다, 운동하다) inherit every one of its cells. Present, past, future, progressive, imperative, propositive, connectives, attributives, and nominal forms, all driven by one contraction: 하 + 여 → 해.
  • 이다 (to be): Copula ParadigmTOPIK 1 — The full paradigm of the copula 이다 ('to be [X]') — a bound ending glued onto the preceding noun, whose everyday polite shape flips with the noun's final sound: 이에요 after a consonant (학생이에요), the contracted 예요 after a vowel (친구예요). Organized by that split across all four speech levels, present and past.
  • 아니다 (to not be): Negative Copula ParadigmTOPIK 1 — The full look-up paradigm of 아니다, the suppletive negative copula 'is not [X]' — you never negate 이다 with 안 — laid out across all four speech levels, with the one structural fact that trips everyone up: the complement noun takes the subject particle 이/가, not an object marker.

Verbs

-게 되다

  • -게 되다: Coming to / Ending UpTOPIK 3 — V-게 되다 says a situation came about through circumstances rather than your own initiative — 알게 됐어요 'I found out', 살게 됐어요 'I ended up living [there]' — a high-frequency 'change of situation' pattern that also softens announcements.
  • -게 되다 vs -아/어지다TOPIK 4 — Both render English 'become', but the word class decides: -아/어지다 marks a change in a QUALITY on adjectives (좋아지다 'get better'), while -게 되다 marks coming into a SITUATION on verbs (좋아하게 되다 'come to like').
  • -게 되다: External Circumstance and SofteningTOPIK 5 — Why Korean reaches for -게 되다 so often — it frames an outcome as something that 'came about' through circumstance, making good news sound modest and hard news sound gentle, so 됐어요 is the polite register for both a promotion and a cancellation.

-아/어지다

  • -아/어지다 as PassiveTOPIK 3 — -아/어지다 on an action-verb stem builds an agentless passive/resultative (만들어지다 'be made', 지어지다 'be built') — the productive fallback for the many verbs that have no fused suffix passive — and why stacking both (보여지다) is the classic double-passive error.
  • -아/어지다 as 'Become': Change of StateTOPIK 2 — -아/어지다 on a descriptive-verb (adjective) stem means 'become / get [more] ADJ' — 좋아지다 'get better', 커지다 'get bigger', 따뜻해지다 'warm up'. Because Korean adjectives are stative verbs, they cannot express 'becoming' on their own; -아/어지다 is the everyday way to put a quality on a timeline.
  • Spontaneous, Agentless -아/어지다TOPIK 5 — The spontaneous/potential use of -아/어지다 on certain verbs of perception, cognition, and volition — 느껴지다 'come to be felt', 믿어지다 'can bring oneself to believe', 써지다 'the pen writes' — expressing that something happens by itself or beyond one's control, mapping to English 'won't', 'can't bring myself to', and 'seems/feels'.
  • Adjective + 지다: The Grammar of BecomingTOPIK 2 — A decision guide to Korean's three ways of saying 'become': adjective + -아/어지다 for a change in QUALITY (길어지다), noun + 이/가 되다 for becoming a CATEGORY (의사가 되다), and verb + 게 되다 for coming to be in a SITUATION (알게 되다). English uses one word for all three; Korean sorts by what follows 'become'.

Auxiliary Verbs I

Auxiliary Verbs II

  • -아/어 놓다: Doing Something and Leaving the ResultTOPIK 3 — The auxiliary -아/어 놓다 says you performed an action and left its result standing — the lingering state you created persists, a nuance English usually needs a whole clause to carry.
  • -아/어 두다: Doing It in Advance and Keeping ItTOPIK 3 — The auxiliary -아/어 두다 — perform an action now and deliberately leave the result in place for later use, the 'prepare-and-stash-it-away' auxiliary that makes 알아 두다 idiomatic where 알아 놓다 is not.
  • Choosing -아/어 놓다 vs -아/어 두다TOPIK 4 — The genuine intermediate hurdle of picking between Korean's two resultant-state auxiliaries: 놓다 foregrounds the state existing right now, 두다 foregrounds having stored it away for later — with the mental-verb cases where only 두다 works.
  • -아/어 가다 & -아/어 오다: Progression Over TimeTOPIK 4 — The aspectual auxiliaries -아/어 가다 (the process heads onward into the future) and -아/어 오다 (the process has come up to now from the past) — 가다/오다's spatial 'away/toward' meaning projected onto a time axis.
  • -아/어 대다: Doing It Over and Over (Excessively)TOPIK 4 — The iterative-intensive auxiliary -아/어 대다 — an action repeated persistently or to excess, almost always with an exasperated, disapproving tone; the 'won't stop …-ing and it's driving me nuts' auxiliary.

Causative Overview

  • Korean Causatives: An OverviewTOPIK 3 — Korean makes someone do or become something in two ways: a fused suffix 이/히/리/기/우/구/추 (먹다 → 먹이다 'feed'), or the productive auxiliary V-게 하다 (먹게 하다 'make eat') and N시키다 — and they are not freely interchangeable.
  • What Valency Change MeansTOPIK 3 — Valency is how many core arguments a verb takes. Causatives ADD one — a causer — and demote the old subject to object; passives REMOVE or demote the agent. In Korean this shows up as particle re-marking (이/가 → 을/를 → 에게), which is most of what you're really learning.
  • Korean Causative vs English make / let / haveTOPIK 3 — Why Korean does not split causation into make / let / have / get the way English does — one causative form covers 'make ... sleep' and 'let ... sleep' alike, and context or a helper verb carries the nuance.

Future & Presumptive

  • -겠-: Intention and ConjectureTOPIK 2 — -겠- is a modal pre-final marker, not a plain future tense: it expresses the speaker's intention/volition (제가 하겠습니다), conjecture about a situation (맛있겠어요, 비가 오겠어요), and survives in frozen phrases (알겠습니다, 모르겠어요) — with the subject largely deciding which reading you get.
  • -(으)ㄹ 것이다 / -(으)ㄹ 거예요: The Neutral Future & ProbabilityTOPIK 2 — The everyday Korean 'will / going to / probably' — how -(으)ㄹ 거예요 covers both your own plans and neutral predictions, and why it feels flatter than -겠어요.
  • -(으)ㄹ게요: The Speaker's Promise / CommitmentTOPIK 2 — The first-person 'I'll do it (so don't worry)' ending — how -(으)ㄹ게요 frames your own action as a commitment to the listener, and why it can never take a third-person subject or a question.
  • -(으)ㄹ래요: Volition, Preference, and OffersTOPIK 2 — The 'I feel like / do you feel like' ending — how -(으)ㄹ래요 expresses the speaker's own will as a statement and asks the listener's will (or extends an invitation) as a question.
  • 'Was Going To / Would': Future-in-the-PastTOPIK 2 — How Korean says 'I was going to (but…)' — the aborted-intention -(으)려고 했어요 and the past-of-the-plan -(으)ㄹ 거였어요 — without literally stacking past onto a future marker.

Imperative & Propositive

  • Polite Commands & Requests: -(으)세요 / -(으)십시오TOPIK 1 — -(으)세요 is the everyday courteous 'please do X': it commands while raising the addressee, because it hides the honorific -시- inside. Its crisp formal sibling -(으)십시오 is the language of announcements and service. Includes the suppletive honorifics 드세요, 주무세요, 계세요.
  • Casual Commands: -아/어 and Plain -아/어라TOPIK 1 — Intimate 반말 has no special command form — the bare -아/어 shape doubles as statement and order, sorted out by tone alone (먹어 = 'I'm eating' AND 'eat!'). The plain-style -아/어라 (먹어라, 자라) layers on bluntness and is the standard written imperative for narration and instructions.
  • Prohibition: -지 마(세요) — 'Don't'TOPIK 1 — Korean builds 'don't' not from a negated imperative but from a dedicated construction: verb + -지 말다 ('desist from doing'). Because 말다 is a ㄹ-stem, the ㄹ drops before the endings, giving 마세요 / 마 / 마십시오 — never ✗말으세요 or ✗말세요.
  • Let's: -(으)ㅂ시다 / -자 (and Everyday -아/어요)TOPIK 1 — The propositive ('let's ~') has one form per speech level: formal -(으)ㅂ시다 (갑시다), plain/intimate -자 (가자), and, in ordinary polite talk, the plain -아/어요 doubles as it (같이 가요). The catch: -(으)ㅂ시다, despite being 'polite,' can sound bossy aimed at a superior.
  • -(으)ㄹ까요?: 'Shall We? / Shall I? / I Wonder'TOPIK 1 — One ending, three closely related jobs: a soft proposal seeking agreement ('shall we?' — 같이 갈까요?), an offer ('shall I?' — 제가 도와줄까요?), and speculation ('I wonder if' — 비가 올까요?). Person and context decide which. It is the gentle, collaborative alternative to the assertive -(으)ㅂ시다.

Irregular Verbs — Overview

  • Regular vs Irregular Predicates: The Big PictureTOPIK 1 — The seven irregular predicate classes are not chaos — each is a small, predictable sound change keyed to the stem's FINAL letter, and adjectives conjugate by the exact same machinery as verbs.
  • When Irregulars Fire: The Three Ending EnvironmentsTOPIK 1 — Irregular stems only change before certain endings. Sort every ending into three environments — consonant-initial (safe, no change), 으-initial, and 아/어 vowel-initial (the strongest trigger) — and you can predict every irregular form.
  • Irregular Predicates at a Glance (Reference Table)TOPIK 2 — One-screen reference for all eight irregular classes — the trigger, the change, a model verb with its 아/어-form and 으-form, and a regular look-alike to guard against over-generalizing each class.

Morphological Causative

  • Morphological Causative -이-TOPIK 3 — The causative suffix -이- slots between a verb stem and its ending to turn 'V' into 'cause to V' — 먹다 → 먹이다 'feed', 죽다 → 죽이다 'kill', 끓다 → 끓이다 'boil something' — with several of these landing as everyday English verbs rather than 'make' phrases.
  • Morphological Causative -히-TOPIK 3 — The causative suffix -히- attaches to stems ending in ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, ㅈ, or ㄺ, where -이- won't fit phonologically — 앉다 → 앉히다 'seat', 입다 → 입히다 'dress', 익다 → 익히다 'cook / master' — and it fuses with the stem consonant to produce an aspirated sound.
  • Morphological Causative -리-TOPIK 3 — The causative suffix -리- attaches to ㄹ-final stems — 울다 → 울리다 'make cry / ring', 살다 → 살리다 'save', 알다 → 알리다 'inform', 얼다 → 얼리다 'freeze something' — with many landing as a single English transitive verb, plus the 늘리다 / 늘이다 trap.
  • Morphological Causative -기-TOPIK 3 — The causative suffix -기- attaches to stems ending in ㄴ, ㅁ, or ㅅ — 웃다 → 웃기다 'make laugh / be funny', 벗다 → 벗기다 'take off / peel', 남다 → 남기다 'leave behind', 맡다 → 맡기다 'entrust' — with 웃기다 drifting into the colloquial adjective 'hilarious'.
  • Morphological Causative -우-TOPIK 3 — The causative suffix -우- attaches mostly to vowel-final stems — 깨다 → 깨우다 'wake', 자다 → 재우다 'put to sleep', 서다 → 세우다 'stand/stop/build/draw up', 타다 → 태우다 'give a ride/burn', 크다 → 키우다 'raise' — with several stems changing shape (자→재, 타→태) because they hide an old double causative.
  • The Minor Causatives -구- and -추-TOPIK 5 — The two rarest fused causative suffixes: -구- in a handful of lexicalized verbs (달구다, 일구다, 돋구다), and -추- for causatives of degree (낮추다 'lower', 늦추다 'delay', 맞추다 'adjust/match', 갖추다 'equip') — plus the classic 맞추다 vs 맞히다 trap.
  • Which Verbs Take Which Suffix (and Why It Is Unpredictable)TOPIK 4 — The morphological causative is a closed, memorized set, not a productive rule: the stem-final consonant only hints at which of 이/히/리/기/우/구/추 a verb takes, many verbs have no suffix causative at all, and the safe default for any verb is the productive V-게 하다.

Morphological Passive

  • Morphological Passive -이-TOPIK 3 — The passive suffix -이- fuses onto certain transitive stems to mean 'be V-ed' — 보이다 'be visible', 놓이다 'be placed', 쌓이다 'accumulate', 섞이다 'be mixed' — often reads as an English state adjective, frequently pairs with -아/어 있다, and must never be doubled with -어지다 (×보여지다).
  • Morphological Passive -히-TOPIK 3 — The passive suffix -히- turns transitive verbs whose stem ends in ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, or ㄺ into passives — 닫다 → 닫히다 'be closed', 잡다 → 잡히다 'be caught', 막다 → 막히다 'be blocked/congested' — with the ㅎ fusing into an aspirated sound.
  • Morphological Passive -리-TOPIK 3 — The passive suffix -리- attaches to ㄹ-final stems (and ㄷ-irregular verbs) — 열다 → 열리다 'be opened', 듣다 → 들리다 'be heard', 걸다 → 걸리다 'take time / catch a cold', 풀다 → 풀리다 'be solved / thaw' — several of which English almost never treats as passive.
  • Morphological Passive -기-TOPIK 3 — The passive suffix -기- attaches to transitive stems ending in ㄴ, ㅁ, ㅅ, or ㅊ — 안다 → 안기다 'be held', 쫓다 → 쫓기다 'be chased', 끊다 → 끊기다 'be cut off', 빼앗다 → 빼앗기다 'have something taken' — and often carries an adversative 'it happened to me' colouring.
  • When Passive and Causative Look Identical (보이다, 업히다, 읽히다)TOPIK 4 — The same 이/히/리/기 suffix builds both passives and causatives, so a whole set of derived verbs — 보이다, 업히다, 읽히다, 안기다 — is homophonous between the two voices; only the surrounding particles and argument structure disambiguate.
  • Which Verbs Passivize (and Which Do Not)TOPIK 4 — The suffix passive 이/히/리/기 is a closed, non-productive list — only a memorized set of native transitive verbs takes one, and the choice tracks the stem-final consonant; everything else passivizes through the escape hatches 되다 (for Sino-Korean nouns) and -아/어지다 (for native verbs).

Negation

  • Short Negation: 안TOPIK 1 — The everyday 'not' — how the adverb 안 negates verbs and adjectives, why noun+하다 action verbs split into 공부 안 해요, and how 안 (won't/don't by choice) differs from 못 (can't).
  • Long Negation: -지 않다TOPIK 1 — The written-and-formal 'not' — attach -지 to any stem and let 않다 carry tense and politeness (가지 않아요, 먹지 않았어요, 비싸지 않습니다). It negates every predicate uniformly, never splits noun+하다 verbs, and the tense goes on 않다, never on the main verb.
  • 못: Can't / InabilityTOPIK 1 — The adverb 못 negates ability, not choice — 못 가요 'can't go', 못 먹어요 'can't eat'. It sits before the verb, splits noun+하다 verbs the way 안 does (공부 못 해요), attaches only to action verbs, and hides two tricky pronunciations: 못 해요 [모태요], 못 가요 [몯까요].
  • Long Inability: -지 못하다TOPIK 2 — The formal, written counterpart of short 못 — attach -지 to any stem and let 못하다 carry tense and politeness (가지 못해요, 참석하지 못했습니다). Same 'can't' meaning, but it never splits noun+하다 verbs and fits the parallel 못 : -지 못하다 :: 안 : -지 않다.
  • 안 vs 못: Won't vs Can'tTOPIK 1 — The decision page that resolves Korean's two negations — 안 negates volition or plain fact ('doesn't / won't by choice / isn't'), 못 negates ability ('can't', because something blocks it). Minimal pairs, a one-question test, and the hard rule that adjectives take only 안.
  • Suppletive Negatives: 있다 → 없다, 알다 → 모르다, 이다 → 아니다TOPIK 1 — A small set of high-frequency predicates negate by swapping in a whole different word, not by adding 안 or 못 — existence 있다 → 없다, knowledge 알다 → 모르다, and the copula 이다 → 아니다 (with the noun taking 이/가). Ordinary adjectives still negate normally with 안.

Passive Overview

  • Korean Passives: An OverviewTOPIK 3 — Korean spreads the passive across three systems — the fused suffix 이/히/리/기 (잡히다 'be caught'), the productive -아/어지다 (만들어지다 'be made'), and light-verb passives for Sino-Korean nouns (발견되다, 사랑받다, 무시당하다) — and uses the passive far less than English does.
  • Why Korean Uses the Passive Far Less Than EnglishTOPIK 3 — Korean strongly prefers active and topic-fronted sentences where English reaches for the passive: 은/는 topic-marking plus free subject-dropping let the patient come first while the verb stays active — so 'this book was written by a famous author' is naturally 이 책은 유명한 작가가 썼어요, not a be-passive.
  • Marking the Agent: 에게 / 한테 / 에 / 에 의해TOPIK 4 — How the demoted 'by X' agent is marked in a Korean passive depends on animacy and register: animate agents take 에게 (neutral) or 한테 (spoken), inanimate forces take 에, and formal written passives use 에 의해(서) — while very often the agent is simply omitted.

Past 았/었

  • The Past Tense -았/었어요TOPIK 1 — The past marker -았/었- slots in before the ending, chosen by the same ㅏ/ㅗ vowel harmony as the present. The shortcut that makes it nearly free: take your 해요-form, drop 요, and add ㅆ어요 — 가요→갔어요, 마셔요→마셨어요, 해요→했어요.
  • Contractions in the Past (오다 → 왔어요, 마시다 → 마셨어요)TOPIK 1 — The past -았/었- attaches to the very same fused vowel-stem you already built for the present, so the contractions carry over intact — 와요 → 왔어요, 봐요 → 봤어요, 줘요 → 줬어요, 돼요 → 됐어요 — and you never conjugate the past from scratch.
  • 하다 → 했어요: The Past of 하다-VerbsTOPIK 1 — The past of 하다 is 했-, and because thousands of nouns turn into verbs by adding 하다, the single trio 해 / 했 / 할 unlocks past narration across an enormous vocabulary — 공부했어요, 일했어요, 사랑했어, 시작했습니다 — while the noun in front never changes.
  • Past of Adjectives and the Copula (좋았어요, 학생이었어요/의사였어요)TOPIK 1 — Korean adjectives ARE verbs, so they take -았/었- and carry their own past — 좋았어요 already means 'was good,' with no separate 'was' word — while the copula 이다 forms its past off the noun's 받침: consonant + 이었어요, vowel + 였어요.
  • The Remote/Discontinued Past -았었/었었-TOPIK 2 — The 'double past' -았었/었었- marks a past state or event as remote and discontinued — it held then but the situation has since changed or closed off — and is NOT a routine English past-perfect; for ordinary 'had done' background, plain -았/었- is usually what Korean wants.

Present & Speech Levels

  • The Polite Present -아/어요 (해요체)TOPIK 1 — -아/어요, the informal-polite present that is the everyday workhorse of spoken Korean: stem + 아/어 by harmony + 요, covering a wide present ('go / am going / do go') and, with rising intonation, questions too — polite but warm, never stiff.
  • The Formal Present -ㅂ니다/습니다 (합니다체)TOPIK 1 — -ㅂ니다/습니다, the formal-polite present of broadcasts, presentations, and first meetings: -ㅂ니다 after a vowel or ㄹ stem (with ㄹ dropped), -습니다 after a consonant stem, question -ㅂ니까/습니까 — same meaning as 해요체, higher formality, pronounced [-mnida].
  • What the Present Tense Covers: Habitual, Generic, and Near-FutureTOPIK 1 — Why one Korean present form (가요) does the work of English's I go / I am going / I will go / I do go — habitual action, timeless truths, and scheduled near-future events — so you stop over-marking with 겠 and 고 있다.
  • The Plain/Written Present -ㄴ다/는다 (한다체)TOPIK 1 — The impersonal written-neutral present of books, news, diaries, and narration — action verbs take -ㄴ다/는다 (간다, 먹는다) while adjectives and the copula stay bare -다 (좋다, 학생이다), which makes this ending the cleanest test for action vs descriptive verbs.
  • Casual/Intimate Speech -아/어 (반말, 해체)TOPIK 1 — 반말 (해체), the intimate style, is mostly 해요체 minus 요 — 가요→가, 먹었어요→먹었어 — with two things to memorize: the copula becomes 이야/야, and questions rise in pitch on the same form. The real skill is social, not grammatical.
  • The Dictionary Form -다: What It Is and Where It Actually AppearsTOPIK 1 — The citation form -다 (가다, 먹다, 좋다) is how verbs are listed and how you talk about a verb — but for an action verb it is not a complete spoken sentence. Where -다 genuinely lives: bound endings, quotation, grammar talk, and spontaneous exclamations.

Progressive & Resultant Aspect

  • -고 있다: The Progressive ('be …-ing')TOPIK 2 — How to build the progressive: action-verb stem + -고 있다 for an action in progress, with 있다 carrying all the tense, politeness and negation — plus why Korean, unlike English, never forces you to use it.
  • -고 계시다: The Honorific ProgressiveTOPIK 2 — When the person doing the ongoing action deserves respect, the auxiliary 있다 is swapped for its honorific counterpart 계시다: stem + -고 계시다 raises the whole clause with a single word.
  • -아/어 있다: Resultant StateTOPIK 2 — The resultant-state aspect: an intransitive change-of-state verb + -아/어 있다 describes the lasting state a completed change leaves behind — 앉아 있다 'be seated', 문이 열려 있다 'the door is open'.
  • -는 중이다: 'In the Middle Of'TOPIK 2 — -는 중이다, 'to be in the middle of ~ing': the present modifier -는 + 중 ('midst') + 이다 for an action you are mid-process on right now — sharper than -고 있다, and usable with a bare noun (회의 중, 통화 중).
  • Aspect at a Glance: -고 있다, -아/어 있다, -는 중이다 (Formation Map)TOPIK 2 — A build chart for Korean's three aspect constructions — how each is formed, which verbs it can even attach to, and why 앉고 있다, 앉아 있다 and 앉는 중이다 are three different sentences, not free variants.

Subject Honorific -(으)시-

Valency & Disambiguation

  • Reading a Sentence: Causative or Passive?TOPIK 4 — The suffixes 이/히/리/기 build both the causative and the passive, so many derived verbs (보이다, 업히다, 읽히다, 안기다) are identical in shape — this page gives a step-by-step method to decide which voice a real sentence expresses, by reading its argument structure and particles rather than the verb.
  • Transitive/Intransitive Verb Pairs (열다/열리다, 붙다/붙이다)TOPIK 3 — Korean rarely uses one verb for both 'X happens' and 'someone does X' — instead it has paired verbs, one intransitive and one transitive, built from the same 이/히/리/기/우 machinery as causatives and passives; this is the everyday, high-frequency face of the whole voice system.
  • Lexical vs Derived Verb PairsTOPIK 3 — Not every intransitive/transitive pair is a tidy suffix derivation — some are suppletive (two unrelated roots like 넣다/들어가다), and a few are single labile verbs (움직이다) that never change form; assuming a clean 이/히/리/기 pattern everywhere is a reliable way to coin verbs that don't exist.
  • Unaccusative Verbs: Patient-Subjects Without a PassiveTOPIK 4 — A class of intransitive verbs — 되다, 생기다, 나다, 남다, 사라지다, 떨어지다 — whose single subject is a patient rather than an agent; because they already put the affected thing in subject position, there is nothing left to passivize, which is why 생겨지다 and 나지다 are errors and why so many Korean 'events' are stated without a passive at all.
  • The Forceful Transitivizer -뜨리다/-트리다TOPIK 4 — -뜨리다 (and its equally standard twin -트리다) turns a fall/break/collapse verb into a forceful, sudden, often accidental transitive: 떨어뜨리다 'drop', 넘어뜨리다 'knock over', 깨뜨리다 'shatter' — not neutral causation, but causation with impact.
  • Marking the Causee: 을/를 vs 에게 vs 이/가TOPIK 4 — How the person made to act is case-marked — the fused causative parks the causee in 을/를 (or 에게 when the base verb already has an object), while V-게 하다 lets you shade make/direct/let by switching between 을/를, 에게, and 이/가.
  • Deriving Nouns from Verbs: -기 / -(으)ㅁ (Pointer)TOPIK 3 — A signpost to Korean's two verb-to-noun suffixes — -기 for the activity (읽기 'reading'), -(으)ㅁ for the fact or result (죽음 'death') — enough to recognize the frozen nominalizations you meet in the valency system; the full account lives in the Syntax group.

Verb Classes & Stems

  • Verb Stems and Endings: How Korean Conjugation WorksTOPIK 1 — Every Korean verb and adjective is cited in a -다 form; strip the -다 and the STEM is what remains — all conjugation is just attaching stacked endings to that stem, with one vowel-vs-consonant distinction (으-insertion) governing almost every choice.
  • ㄹ-Stems: The Disappearing ㄹ (살다 → 삽니다, 사세요)TOPIK 1 — Stems ending in ㄹ (살다, 알다, 만들다) drop that ㄹ before endings starting in ㄴ, ㅂ, ㅅ and before -(으) forms — a fully rule-governed elision, not a random irregularity, and distinct from the seven true irregular classes.
  • 하다 Verbs: The Most Productive Engine in KoreanTOPIK 1 — 하다 ('to do') attaches to a noun to build a verb or adjective — 공부하다, 일하다, 조용하다 — splitting into action verbs and descriptive verbs; it has one memorized conjugation (하 + 여 → 해) that thousands of words inherit.
  • Action Verbs vs Descriptive Verbs (동사 vs 형용사)TOPIK 1 — Korean 'adjectives' are descriptive verbs (형용사) that conjugate for tense and politeness exactly like action verbs — 좋아요, 좋았어요 — with no separate 'be'; the four places the two classes diverge are plain present, attributive form, the progressive, and mood.

Vowel Harmony 아/어

  • Vowel Harmony: Choosing -아 vs -어TOPIK 1 — One rule fixes the shape of every -아/어 ending: if the stem's LAST vowel is ㅏ or ㅗ (bright), use 아; for anything else, use 어. The single memorized exception is 하다 → 해.
  • Vowel-Stem Contractions: 가 + 아 → 가, 오 + 아 → 와, 보 + 아 → 봐TOPIK 1 — The obligatory sound-fusions that fire when a vowel-final stem meets -아/어요 — identical vowels merge, ㅗ+아 becomes ㅘ, ㅜ+어 becomes ㅝ — so the 'long' forms 가아요, 오아요, 주어요 are never written or said.
  • 하다 → 해: The 여-ContractionTOPIK 1 — The one lexical exception to vowel harmony: 하다 takes neither -아 nor -어 but the archaic allomorph -여, and 하 + 여 always contracts to 해 — a single fixed output that conjugates thousands of 하다-compounds (공부해요, 사랑해, 시작해서).
  • ㅣ + 어 → ㅕ and ㅚ + 어 → ㅙ (마시다 → 마셔, 되다 → 돼)TOPIK 1 — The glide contractions that catch a whole family of verbs: ㅣ-stems fuse -어 into ㅕ (마셔요, 기다려요, 가르쳐요), and ㅚ-stems fuse it into ㅙ (되다 → 돼요) — the source of Korean's single most infamous spelling trap, 돼요 not ×되요.

ㄷ Irregular

  • The ㄷ Irregular: 듣다 → 들어요TOPIK 2 — How stem-final ㄷ mutates to ㄹ before a vowel- or 으-initial ending — 듣다 → 들어요, 들으면, 들으세요 — while staying put before consonant endings (듣고, 듣는).
  • ㄷ Homograph Traps and Regular ㄷ VerbsTOPIK 2 — Why 걷다 and 묻다 each split into an irregular and a regular verb by meaning, and the common ㄷ verbs (받다, 닫다, 믿다…) that keep their ㄷ before every ending.

되다 / 당하다 / 받다

  • The 되다 Passive: N이/가 되다, N하다 → N되다TOPIK 2 — 되다 is the light-verb passive that partners Sino-Korean action nouns and the huge N하다 verb class: swap 하다 → 되다 to get 'be/get X-ed' — 사용하다 → 사용되다 'be used', 시작하다 → 시작되다 'begin'. It's the passive escape hatch for the thousands of 하다-verbs that have no fused suffix passive.
  • The Adversative Passive N을/를 당하다TOPIK 4 — 당하다 turns a Sino-Korean noun of harm into a victim passive — 사기를 당하다 'be scammed', 무시당하다 'be ignored' — encoding that the event was bad and the subject a victim, unlike neutral English 'be + past participle'.
  • The 받다 Passive: N을/를 받다TOPIK 3 — 받다 'to receive' doubles as a passive light verb for actions you undergo as a recipient — 사랑받다 'be loved', 존경받다 'be respected', 초대받다 'be invited' — the neutral-to-positive counterpart of adversative 당하다.
  • The 하다 / 되다 / 시키다 TripletTOPIK 3 — One Sino-Korean action noun spawns three verbs by swapping the light verb: N하다 (active 'do X'), N되다 (passive/inchoative 'become / be X-ed'), N시키다 (causative 'make someone do X') — a clean paradigm covering a huge slice of formal Korean.

ㄹ Irregular / ㄹ-Drop

  • The ㄹ Drop: 살다 → 삽니다 / 사세요 / 사는TOPIK 2 — A stem-final ㄹ drops before endings starting in ㄴ, ㅂ, ㅅ, or 오 (mnemonic ㄴ·ㅂ·ㅅ·오), and ㄹ-stems take no 으 in 으-endings — so 살다 gives 삽니다, 사세요, 사는, 사니까. Filed with the irregulars, but the most predictable class of all.
  • ㄹ-Stem Attributives and Modal Endings (아는, 만든, 살, 우는)TOPIK 2 — Where ㄹ-stems trip learners is the modifier system — 사는 곳, 만든 음식, 살 집 — plus -(으)면/-(으)ㄹ까. One idea unifies them all: a ㄹ-stem always chooses the vowel-less variant of every -(으)X ending, so the ㄹ either drops or merges, and 으 never appears.

르 / 러 Irregular

  • The 르 Irregular: 모르다 → 몰라요TOPIK 1 — The high-frequency 르 irregular — before an 아/어 ending the 으 of 르 drops and an extra ㄹ pushes back onto the previous syllable (모르다 → 몰라요, 빠르다 → 빨라요), with 라/러 chosen by vowel harmony.
  • 르-Irregular vs 으-Drop Imposters (따르다 → 따라요)TOPIK 2 — Three stems that END in 르 — 따르다, 치르다, 들르다 — are NOT 르-irregular but plain 으-drop verbs, so they take a single ㄹ (따라요), never the doubled ㄹ of a true 르-irregular (달라요). One letter apart, opposite outputs.
  • The Rare 러 Irregular: 이르다 → 이르러요, 푸르다 → 푸르러요TOPIK 3 — A tiny class where the 르 stem stays intact and the -아/어 ending surfaces as 러: 이르다 'reach' → 이르러요, 푸르다 → 푸르러요, 누르다 'be deep yellow' → 누르러요. The mirror image of the 르-irregular, and a homograph trap where 이르다 and 누르다 belong to two classes at once.

ㅂ Irregular

ㅅ Irregular

시키다 & 게 하다 Causative

  • The 시키다 Causative: N하다 → N시키다TOPIK 3 — 시키다 works two ways: as a standalone verb 'order/make someone do' (일을 시키다, 짜장면을 시키다 'order food'), and as the causative counterpart of Sino-Korean 하다-verbs (공부하다 → 공부시키다 'make study', 진정시키다 'calm down', 입원시키다 'hospitalize').
  • The Periphrastic Causative V-게 하다TOPIK 3 — V-게 하다 is Korean's fully productive causative — attach -게 to any verb or adjective stem and add 하다: 먹게 하다 'make eat', 가게 하다 'make go', 행복하게 하다 'make happy'. It spans both English 'make' and 'let', all tense and politeness ride on 하다, and it leans indirect where a fused suffix leans hands-on.
  • V-게 만들다: Bringing About a ResultTOPIK 4 — The causative auxiliary V-게 만들다 uses 만들다 'to build/make' to stress that the causer brought about a result or change of state — natural with emotions (슬프게 만들다 'make sad') — and where it sits on the ladder above the neutral V-게 하다.

으 Irregular / 으-Drop

  • The 으 Drop: 쓰다 → 써요, 크다 → 커요TOPIK 1 — Any stem whose last vowel is ㅡ loses that ㅡ before an -아/어 ending. For a one-syllable ㅡ stem there is no preceding vowel, so it always defaults to 어: 쓰다 → 써요, 크다 → 커요, 끄다 → 꺼요. The most predictable of all the 'irregular' classes.
  • 으-Drop Harmony: 바쁘다 → 바빠요 vs 예쁘다 → 예뻐요TOPIK 2 — When a multi-syllable ㅡ stem drops its ㅡ, the choice of 아 vs 어 is decided by the vowel of the syllable IMMEDIATELY before the ㅡ. ㅏ or ㅗ there → 아 (바쁘다 → 바빠요); anything else → 어 (예쁘다 → 예뻐요).

ㅎ Irregular

  • The ㅎ Irregular: 그렇다 → 그래요, 그런TOPIK 2 — ㅎ-final adjectives like 그렇다, 이렇다, 저렇다, 어떻다 drop their ㅎ before a vowel ending and fuse the leftover into ㅐ — so 그렇다 becomes 그래요 and 그런, never ×그렇어요 or ×그러요. The output vowel is almost always ㅐ regardless of the stem vowel.
  • ㅎ Color Adjectives (파랗다 → 파래요) and Regular ㅎ Verbs (좋다)TOPIK 2 — Every ㅎ-final color adjective is irregular — 파랗다 → 파래요/파란, 하얗다 → 하얘요/하얀 — but ㅎ-final verbs (넣다, 놓다, 낳다) are regular and keep their ㅎ. The split runs almost cleanly by part of speech, with 좋다 as the lone regular ㅎ-adjective, plus the notorious 낳다-vs-낫다 spelling trap.

하다-Verbs & Compounds

  • 하다-Verbs: N하다 and N을/를 하다TOPIK 1 — How 하다 'do' turns a noun into a verb — Korean's single most productive verb-formation pattern — and the crucial fact that the noun can detach and take its own object particle: 공부하다 = 공부를 하다.
  • 하다 / 되다 Valency Pairs: 준비하다 vs 준비되다TOPIK 3 — Sino-Korean roots pair 하다 (active 'do X') with 되다 ('become X-ed'), giving Korean a ready-made lexical middle voice — 준비하다 / 준비되다, 시작하다 / 시작되다 — where English relies on the active/passive of a single verb.
  • Motion Compounds: 들어가다, 나오다, 올라가다TOPIK 2 — Korean fuses a direction verb with 가다 'go' or 오다 'come' to build 들어가다 'go in', 나오다 'come out', 올라가다 'go up' — and the 가다/오다 half is obligatory deixis, forcing you to track where the speaker is standing.
  • Serial Verbs: 가지고 가다, 데리고 가다, 모시고 가다TOPIK 3 — Korean chains a verb in -고 to 가다/오다 to say 'take/bring along' — but forces a three-way choice by animacy and status: 가지고 for things, 데리고 for people, 모시고 for elders you must respect.

Writing System

Consonants 자음

  • The Consonants (자음): A Three-Way ContrastTOPIK 1 — Korean's 19 consonants are built on a three-way laryngeal contrast English lacks — plain, aspirated, and tense — distinguished by breath and muscular tension, not by voicing; 불/풀/뿔 are three different words, and Korean has no phonemic b-vs-p at all.
  • The Plain Series 평음: ㄱ ㄷ ㅂ ㅅ ㅈ and the SonorantsTOPIK 1 — The lax consonants ㄱㄷㅂㅅㅈ plus the sonorants ㄴㅁㅇㄹ and ㅎ, with each place of articulation and the single most important rule: the plain stops voice automatically between vowels (부부 → 'bubu'), so g/k is never a choice you make.
  • The Aspirated Series 격음: ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅊTOPIK 1 — The aspirated consonants ㅋㅌㅍㅊ — each a plain letter plus one stroke, meaning one strong puff of air — and why English speakers must aspirate hard and consistently in every position, unlike English p/t/k that only puff word-initially.
  • The Tense Series 경음: ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ (된소리)TOPIK 1 — The tense consonants ㄲㄸㅃㅆㅉ — written as doubled letters and produced with a tightened, breathless glottis — completing the three-way contrast that English has no equivalent for (자다 / 차다 / 짜다).
  • ㅇ (이응): Silent Onset vs [ŋ] BatchimTOPIK 1 — The one letter with two completely different jobs — a silent placeholder when it sits on top of a syllable, and the 'ng' of 'sing' when it sits at the bottom — and why that split creates zero ambiguity.
  • Letter Names & Dictionary Order (가나다순)TOPIK 1 — Every Korean letter has a name used for spelling aloud and dictionaries — built on a template that drills the sound at both ends of a syllable (니은, 미음), with three irregulars to memorize — plus the collation order 가나다순 that puts words in a Korean dictionary.

Foundations

  • What Hangul (한글) Actually IsTOPIK 1 — Hangul is a true alphabet — one letter per sound — invented by King Sejong in the 1440s, and learnable in hours; it is not a wall of thousands of characters like Chinese, and each block decodes into ordered letters, not a picture to memorize whole.
  • A Featural Alphabet: Why the Shapes Make SenseTOPIK 1 — Hangul is the world's only widely used featural alphabet — the letter shapes diagram how each sound is made in the mouth, related sounds share a base with strokes added for aspiration and doubling for tenseness, so the whole chart becomes predictable instead of arbitrary.
  • Why You Must Learn Hangul (Not Romanization)TOPIK 1 — Romanization is a crutch that distorts Korean — it blurs the plain/tense/aspirated contrast, smears the vowels ㅓ/ㅗ and ㅡ/ㅜ for English eyes, and spells the same word unpredictably once sound-change rules apply — so drop it in your first week and read the actual script.
  • This Guide's Script PolicyTOPIK 1 — How to read every example in this guide: Hangul first with natural word-spacing, then a space-segmented Revised Romanization that spells the spoken pronunciation (not letter-by-letter), then an idiomatic English translation — read the Hangul, use the romanization only to check yourself.

Hanja & Loanwords

  • Hanja 한자: Background & Where It SurvivesTOPIK 1 — What Chinese characters (한자) are to Korean, why 60–70% of the vocabulary is Sino-Korean, and why you can be fully literate in Korean with zero hanja study.
  • Loanwords 외래어 & Konglish 콩글리시TOPIK 1 — Korean's large English-derived vocabulary, written phonetically in Hangul — and 'Konglish,' English-sourced words used in un-English ways, plus why your familiar words are hard to recognize by ear.
  • Spelling Foreign Sounds 외래어 표기법TOPIK 1 — How Korean maps foreign sounds it lacks — f, v, z, th, r/l — onto Hangul under the official 외래어 표기법, and the deliberate plain-only rule that forbids tense consonants in loanwords.

Orthography & Spacing 띄어쓰기

  • Word Spacing 띄어쓰기: Korean Has SpacesTOPIK 1 — Korean, unlike Chinese and Japanese, puts real spaces between words — but the spacing unit is the 어절 (a word plus its glued-on particles/endings), and where the space falls can change the meaning entirely.
  • Particles Attach; Bound Nouns & Counters Take a SpaceTOPIK 1 — The central spacing rule learners get wrong: particles (조사) and verb endings glue on with no space, but dependent nouns (것, 수, 때) and counters (개, 명, 시간) take a space before them.
  • Punctuation 문장 부호TOPIK 1 — Modern Korean punctuation largely mirrors Western usage, but adds a few marks with no clean English equivalent — the interpunct · for tight lists, the wave dash ~ for ranges, and CJK brackets 「」 and 《》 for quotes and titles.
  • Numerals in Writing: Arabic, Sino & NativeTOPIK 1 — How numbers appear in Korean text — Arabic digits vs spelled-out Hangul, the two competing number systems (Sino-Korean vs native), and the myriad boundary at 만.

Sound-Change Overview

  • Why Spelling ≠ Pronunciation (Morphophonemic Hangul)TOPIK 1 — Korean spelling keeps each word-part in one constant shape and lets a small set of sound rules derive the pronunciation — so 값 is always written 값 even though it is said [갑], [갑씨], and [감] in different words. This page explains why, so the sound changes feel principled instead of arbitrary.
  • Liaison 연음화 (Preview)TOPIK 1 — A quick orientation to liaison — the highest-frequency sound rule — with the one insight beginners need: because a batchim relinks onto a following vowel, and particles always start with a vowel, the particle-attached form is what reveals a noun's true final consonant. 꽃 sounds like [꼳], but 꽃이 gives away its real ㅊ: [꼬치].
  • Nasalization 비음화 (Preview)TOPIK 1 — A short pointer to nasalization — the rule that turns a stop batchim [k/t/p] into a nasal before ㄴ or ㅁ, so 국물 is always [궁물] and even 합니다 is really [함니다]. Stop pronouncing stops-before-nasals as spelled; the full rule set lives in the Pronunciation group.
  • Tensification 경음화 (Preview)TOPIK 1 — A first look at tensification (경음화) — the silent rule that turns a plain consonant tense after certain sounds, most reliably right after a stop batchim, so 학교 comes out [학꾜], not [학교].
  • ㅎ-Aspiration 격음화 & Palatalization 구개음화 (Preview)TOPIK 1 — A first look at two high-frequency sound changes: ㅎ fusing with a plain stop into an aspirate (좋다 → [조타]), and stem-final ㄷ/ㅌ turning into ㅈ/ㅊ before 이 (같이 → [가치]).

Syllable Blocks & Batchim 받침

  • Building a Syllable Block 음절TOPIK 1 — Korean letters are never written in a line — they cluster into square syllable blocks (음절), each an onset + vowel + optional final consonant; the real skill is decomposing a block back into its ordered letters, not memorizing it as a picture.
  • How Blocks Arrange: Vertical vs Horizontal VowelsTOPIK 1 — The single rule that turns a pile of letters into a readable square: a vertical vowel (ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅣ …) sits to the right of the onset, a horizontal vowel (ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅡ …) sits below it, the batchim always goes on the bottom, and every letter shrinks to fill one equal square.
  • The Final Consonant 받침 and the Seven SoundsTOPIK 1 — The batchim (받침) is the consonant in the bottom slot of a block; any of 27 letters can be written there, but in speech they all neutralize to just seven representative sounds — and Korean coda stops are unreleased — which is a core reason Korean spelling does not equal pronunciation.
  • The Seven Representative Sounds 대표음, MappedTOPIK 1 — The exact neutralization map: which of the 27 batchim spellings collapse to each of the seven representative sounds [k n t l m p ŋ] in isolation — organized by place of articulation, so you group by where the sound is made instead of memorizing a random list.
  • Double & Cluster Batchim ㄲㅆ / ㄳㄵㄺㄻ…TOPIK 2 — The two things that can sit doubled in the bottom slot of a block — true tense consonants (ㄲ, ㅆ) versus two-letter clusters (ㄳ ㄵ ㄺ ㄻ ㅄ …) — and the rule that decides which member you actually pronounce.
  • Resyllabification 연음: When Batchim Slides OverTOPIK 1 — The single most important reading rule after learning blocks: a final consonant slides over to fill the empty onset of a following vowel, so the syllable boundaries you see on the page are not the ones you say — 한국어 is spoken [한구거], never 'han-guk-eo'.

Vowels 모음

  • The Vowels 모음: A Systematic SetTOPIK 1 — Korean's 21 vowel letters are not 21 unrelated shapes — they are a small basic core plus regular y-glide and w-glide expansions, and a letter's shape even tells you how it will stack inside the syllable block.
  • The Six Basic Vowels ㅏㅓㅗㅜㅡㅣTOPIK 1 — Precise mouth positions for Korean's six core vowels, drilling the two that break English speakers: the unrounded ㅓ (not ㅗ) and ㅡ, a high back unrounded vowel English simply does not have.
  • The Y-Vowels ㅑㅕㅛㅠ (and ㅒㅖ)TOPIK 1 — The iotized vowels are the cleanest gift in the whole script: one extra stroke on a basic vowel adds a y-glide and nothing else, so if you know ㅓ you already know ㅕ.
  • The W-Vowels ㅘㅝㅚㅟ (and ㅙㅞ)TOPIK 1 — The w-glide vowels look intimidating but decompose predictably: a rounded ㅗ or ㅜ contributes the 'w', the second vowel supplies the rest, and vowel harmony decides which pairs are even legal.
  • Vowels That Merged: ㅐ=ㅔ, ㅙ=ㅚ=ㅞ, and ㅢTOPIK 1 — Some vowels are still written apart but now sound identical — the reassuring truth is that natives can't hear the difference either, so you memorize the spelling instead of straining your ear.
  • Vowel Harmony 모음조화 (and Why 아 vs 어 Depends On It)TOPIK 1 — Korean sorts its vowels into 'bright' (양성: ㅏ, ㅗ) and 'dark' (음성: ㅓ, ㅜ, ㅡ, …) classes — a mostly-eroded system that nonetheless still decides 아 vs 어 in every conjugation and gives the mimetic vocabulary its light-vs-heavy feel.