Let's start our Korean lessons with the basic, important facts! In this chapter, you will learn things you have to know before you start learning Korean language! You will see about the basic word orders in a sentence and markers of Korean.
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1. Korean Basic Sentence Order
When we speak in English, for example, "I love you," we say a subject first and use a verb then add an object (if there is any). Will Koreans use the same? Take a look at the diagram below.
While English has an S(subject)-V(verb)-O(object) order, Korean says S-O-V order like "I you love." That is why people say you have to listen to the end when a Korean speaks because the important part (verb) comes last.
Korean order: Subject-Object-Verb
2. What Are Grammatical Markers?
Grammatical markers (also called particles depending on the teachers) are an important concept in the Korean language. Because in Korean, a noun can't be used in its bare form.
By adding a marker to a noun, it tells you what role this noun takes in a sentence. In Korean, those markers are called 조사 [jo-sa]. You will learn details about the different markers by following chapters, but just take a look for now to understand the basic structure rules of Korean.
In Korean, "I" is 저 [jeo], and "you" is 당신 [dang-sin]. If you look at the chart above, you can see red and blue words are attached. 는 (which I marked in red) is a topic marker that tells you the noun that is attached is the topic of the sentence.
을(that I marked in blue) is an object marker that makes the noun that ahead of this marker is the object of the sentence. So, when we say "저는 당신을 사랑해요"[jeo-neun dang-si-neul sa-lang-hae-yo] means "I love you".
Thanks to these markers, even if we scramble the order of the words, we can still deliver the meaning! Try to figure out "당신을(you) 저는(I) 사랑해요."
Even though 당신(you) comes to the first part of the sentence, it has an object marker, not the topic marker. 저(I) still have the topic marker, so "I" am the one who loves "you".
To say "I love you"... you can say like below...
저는 당신을 사랑해요. I you love
당신을 저는 사랑해요. you I love
사랑해요 당신을 저는. love you I
사랑해요 저는 당신을. love I you
당신을 사랑해요 저는. you love I
In English, they seem awkward, but all those are possible ways to say "I love you," in Korean. It is because we know who is a subject or object due to the markers. Even though you can say all of those, the most common way to say is "S(저는) - O(당신을) - V(사랑해요.)"
If you are curious about these scrambled orders...
Then when do people use those other sentences? It depends on what you want to emphasize. Also, these scrambled sentences make them a little more poetic than daily conversation.
As I mentioned, you have to listen to the end in Korean, Koreans put the importance to the end. So if you want to really emphasize that "I" am the one who loves you then you can say "사랑해요 당신을 저는." or "당신을 사랑해요 저는."
Well, you can scramble like that, but it is not that common. So through the lesson, you will learn the regular S-O-V forms!
3. Omitting Parts and Markers
Korean culture is well-known for its '빨리빨리[bbal-li bbal-li]' mindset, which means 'hurry-hurry' or 'quickly-quickly'. This is (maybe) why in daily conversations, some parts of a sentence or markers are often omitted to convey things quickly.
One of the most easily omitted parts of a sentence is the subject(topic). This is very different from English grammar, where you must include a subject in each sentence, no matter how many times you've already mentioned it.
However, in the Korean language, if the speaker and listener already know who the subject is in the conversation, it can be easily omitted. For example, in the sentence "저는 당신을 사랑해요" (I love you), the subject/topic of the sentence "I" (저는) can be omitted if the speaker and listener already know who is the one who loves.
저는 당신을 사랑해요.
= 당신을 사랑해요.
= 사랑해요.
Grammatical markers can be hidden as well. It usually happens in informal conversations. There are so many markers, whether omittable or not depending on which marker it is. As you go through my free Korean language course you will see details about it. For now, just to know there are markers to tell the grammar position, and some markers can be erased.
4. Wrap-up: Things to know before starting to learn Korean
The basic sentence structure of Korean is Subject - Object - Verb.
Grammatical Markers: Nouns need grammatical markers (also called particles) to show their roles in a sentence.
Some parts of a sentence and grammatical markers can be erased when the context is provided.
I hope this post helped you to understand Korean sentence structure and concepts of markers! If you have any questions, please leave a comment!
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