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Learn Hardcore Korean: oneul hwasang hoeuiga isseoyo. - I have a video conference today.

Hardcore Korean
/Choosing a coworking space
/oneul hwasang hoeuiga isseoyo.

oneul hwasang hoeuiga isseoyo.

오늘 화상 회의가 있어요.oneul hwasang hoeuiga isseoyo.

I have a video conference today.

Breakdown of oneul hwasang hoeuiga isseoyo.

화상 회의hwasang hoeui

the video conference

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Questions & Answers about oneul hwasang hoeuiga isseoyo.

Why does the sentence end with 있어요? Does it mean to have or to exist?

In Korean, 있다 covers both ideas:

to exist / to be there
to have

In 오늘 화상 회의가 있어요, it literally means something like:

As for today, a video meeting exists

But in natural English, we usually translate it as:

I have a video meeting today
There is a video meeting today

So yes, 있어요 can often feel like have, even though the Korean structure works a bit differently from English.

Why is the particle 가 used after 화상 회의?

가 is a subject marker. Here, it marks 화상 회의 as the thing that exists.

So:

화상 회의가 있어요 = There is a video meeting / I have a video meeting

This is different from English, where we would normally say I have... with I as the subject. In Korean, the meeting itself is often treated as the thing that exists.

You may also hear 화상 회의는 있어요 in some contexts, but 가 있어요 is the most basic and natural pattern for saying that something exists or is scheduled.

Why is there no word for I in the sentence?

Korean very often omits the subject when it is obvious from context.

So 오늘 화상 회의가 있어요 can mean:

I have a video meeting today
We have a video meeting today
There is a video meeting today

The exact meaning depends on the situation. If you are talking about your own schedule, listeners will naturally understand it as I have a video meeting today.

What exactly does 오늘 do in the sentence?

오늘 means today. It functions as a time expression.

A useful thing to know is that time expressions in Korean often do not need a particle. So:

오늘 화상 회의가 있어요
literally: Today, there is a video meeting

You could add a particle in some cases, but very often just 오늘 by itself is perfectly natural.

Is 화상 회의 one word or two? What does each part mean?

It is written as two words:

화상 = image/video screen
회의 = meeting

Together, 화상 회의 means video conference, video meeting, or online meeting by video.

Even though it is written with a space, the two words function together as one noun phrase.

Can I also say 회의가 있어요 without 화상?

Yes. If the fact that it is a video meeting is not important, you can simply say:

오늘 회의가 있어요. = I have a meeting today.

Adding 화상 makes it more specific:

오늘 화상 회의가 있어요. = I have a video meeting today.

What level of politeness is 있어요?

있어요 is the polite informal style, often called -아요/어요 style.

It is appropriate in many everyday situations:

speaking politely to coworkers
speaking to someone you do not know well
general conversation

Other possible styles are:

있어 = casual
있습니다 = formal polite

So the same sentence could become:

오늘 화상 회의가 있어. casual
오늘 화상 회의가 있습니다. formal polite

Would 오늘 화상 회의가 있습니다 sound more formal?

Yes. 있습니다 is more formal than 있어요.

Compare:

오늘 화상 회의가 있어요. = polite, common in everyday speech
오늘 화상 회의가 있습니다. = more formal, businesslike, presentation-style

In workplaces, both can appear, but 있습니다 sounds more official.

Why is the word order different from English?

Korean and English organize sentences differently.

English:

I have a video meeting today.

Korean:

오늘 화상 회의가 있어요.
literally: Today video meeting exists.

Korean usually places the verb at the end, and information like time often comes earlier in the sentence. This is very normal in Korean.

Can the sentence mean There is a video meeting today as well as I have a video meeting today?

Yes. That is one of the important things to notice.

Because Korean often leaves out the subject, 오늘 화상 회의가 있어요 can be interpreted in more than one way depending on context:

I have a video meeting today
We have a video meeting today
There is a video meeting today

If you need to make it clear that it is specifically my meeting, context usually does the job, but you could also say something more explicit in a longer sentence.

How is 회의 pronounced? Why doesn’t it sound exactly like each syllable separately?

회의 is often romanized as hoe-ui, but in real speech the pronunciation can sound smoother and less separated than that spelling suggests.

Learners often hear it approximately like:

회이
or a compressed version depending on the speaker

This is normal. Korean vowel combinations often sound a bit different in natural speech than learners expect from the spelling alone.

Could I say 오늘 화상 회의 있어요 without 가?

In casual spoken Korean, people do sometimes drop particles, so you may hear something like:

오늘 화상 회의 있어요

However, for learners, the safer standard form is:

오늘 화상 회의가 있어요

Using 가 makes the structure clear and grammatically complete.

What would the negative version be?

The negative is:

오늘 화상 회의가 없어요.

Here, 없어요 is the polite form of 없다, meaning not exist / not have.

So it means:

I don’t have a video meeting today
There isn’t a video meeting today

Again, the exact English translation depends on context.

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