Ce chapitre n'a pas encore été traduit — il s'affiche en anglais.

Word order

Korean is subject – object – verb, and the verb is the one thing that cannot move: it comes last, and everything that tells you the tense, the politeness and whether the sentence is a question or a command is attached to it. Before the verb, the order is freer than in English because the particles on each noun say what it is doing.

Korean	word by word	English
저는 커피를 마셔요.	I-topic coffee-object drink	I drink coffee.
커피를 저는 마셔요.	coffee-object I-topic drink	(As for coffee,) I drink it.
마셔요.	drink	(I) drink (it).

The particles

particle	marks	example
은 / 는	topic — what the sentence is about	저는 학생이에요.
이 / 가	subject — especially new or contrasted	비가 와요. It's raining.
을 / 를	object	밥을 먹어요.
의	possession	나의 책 → 내 책
에	to, at (place or time)	학교에 가요. 세 시에.
에서	at, in (where an action happens); from	학교에서 공부해요. 서울에서 왔어요.
에게 / 한테	to (a person)	친구한테 줘요.
(으)로	by, with, towards	버스로 가요. 왼쪽으로.
와 / 과, 하고, (이)랑	and, with	빵하고 우유
도	also	저도요. Me too.
만	only	하나만 주세요.
부터 … 까지	from … to	아홉 시부터 여섯 시까지

The pairs alternate by the last sound of the noun: 은/이/을/으로 after a consonant, 는/가/를/로 after a vowel. In speech the topic, subject and object particles are often dropped; the others are not.

Modifiers come first

Everything that describes a noun goes before it — adjectives, possessors, demonstratives, and whole clauses:

큰 집 — a big house · 내 책 — my book · 이 사람 — this person 어제 산 책 — the book (I) bought yesterday · 한국에서 온 친구 — a friend who came from Korea

A relative clause is just a verb in its modifying form (-ㄴ/-는/-ㄹ) put in front of the noun. There is no "who", "which" or "that".

Time first, then place, then the rest

어제 친구하고 학교에서 공부했어요. — "Yesterday I studied at school with a friend."

Drop what is obvious

Subjects, objects and "you" vanish whenever context supplies them. 먹었어요? — 네, 먹었어요. "Did you eat? — Yes, I did." A full sentence with every particle in place sounds like a textbook.

Verbs chain at the end

Several verbs in a row link with -고 (and then) or -아/어서 (and so, by doing):

밥 먹고 갈게요. — "I'll eat and then go." 걸어서 갔어요. — "I went on foot (by walking)."

If you speak Vietnamese

Everything flips. Vietnamese puts the verb before the object and every modifier after the noun; Korean puts the verb last and every modifier first. What survives the flip is the topic: 은/는 is thì, and both languages start a sentence with what it is about and drop whatever the listener already knows. And where Vietnamese ends a sentence with a particle (ạ, nhé, nhỉ), Korean ends it with a verb ending that does the same job (-요, -네요, -지요).

Le même chapitre en : Anglais · Français · Espagnol · Portugais · Allemand · Italien · Géorgien · Russe · Hindi · Chinois mandarin · Cantonais · Vietnamien · Japonais · Malais · Turc