r/Korean

For action verbs, you can use ㄴ/은 to modify them into past tense:

가다 --> 간 or 먹다 --> 먹은

And you can make them descriptive verbs like this:

가다 --> 가는 or 먹다 --> 먹는

and the plain form is this:

가다 --> 간 or 먹다 --> 먹는

But for some reason in context, i can never tell which one is being used or when to use each one, so i misunderstand the meaning. How do you tell the difference?? I am constantly confusing them and using them wrong. Thank you!!

월요병 = “the Monday blues”

Literally, 월요병 means “Monday sickness.”

It’s the feeling you get on Monday when the weekend is over and you really don’t want to go back to work or school.

Examples:
월요병이 너무 심해요.
→ My Monday blues are really bad.

커피 없이는 월요병을 못 이겨요.
→ I can’t beat the Monday blues without coffee.

Even though 병(disease/illness) is part of the word, it’s not a real illness. Koreans use it jokingly to describe that tired, unmotivated Monday feeling.

Do you have a cure for 월요병? ☕😄

I have a dictionary with basic korean words and these I found out that "whose" in korean will be 누구 거 (whose thing, I guess). and I wonder if we could say 누구 거예요/누구 것임니다? and can we say 누구의 거예요?

ps sorry if this such a stupid question, I want to check myself if I'm right ㅠㅠ

Is there any Korean who can help me translate this like very accurate, i tried to use gemini or chatgpt to translate it but it gave me different meanings for each.

시윤이가 제일 좋아하는
티가 나는 사람은
나

I’m wondering if anyone has any tips on overcoming language burnout. I’m currently enrolled at a language school so i’m taking classes M-F (here in Korea) and have been living here for 1.5 years but this past semester has been very difficult for me. But I think part of the reason it has become difficult is because…i’m just tired of it? I truly want to learn, and I continuously study and put it a lot of effort but I am exhausted mentally. I understand a lot, but having conversations in korean has become draining. I feel like my speaking confidence has decreased so much that I avoid using it, and when I do, I question every single sound and trip over my words more than I did when I was first learning how to read. Passive learning and listening is fine, but producing speech has become difficult. I don’t talk as much in class. I know this is burnout but I don’t know how to get over it. Any advice would be appreciated 🩷

So I got in touch with my birth mother but me being 38 adoptee communication is a big hurdle. It’s strange reuniting with someone yet they’re a stranger because we from two different parts of the word. So is there an easy way to learn Korean?

I met so many intermediate Korean leaners always stay behind -요. 🤔
Korean have so many verb endings. (over 100+)

I know, you want to stay behind safe zone.
But, the verb ednings are really important part to create nuance of Korean.

The real feeling that english can't translate is there!

I tried translating the lyrics of Nineteen by B.I and had some grammar/definition questions:

1. What's the exact difference between 자유럽다 and 여유럽다? I can kind of tell the vibe of the difference but are there specific places where you would use one or the other?
2. "내 맘이 맘에 안 든다면" how is 맘이 맘에 set up?
3. "제발 쉽게 판단하려 하지 마" why is it 판단하려 with a ㄹ?
4. "무슨 말을 하건 내가 무슨 표정 짓건 그건 내 거니까" can you "build" an expression? I tried looking up the definition of 짓다 but I couldn't find it used anywhere with 표정.
5. "눈치 따윈 개나 주고 싶어" What does 따윈 mean and how is it used? I couldn't find the regular form of the verb.
6. "젊음이란 나다워야 해" I had a tough time matching up the English translation given with this phrase: "youth means I have to be myself"

Thank you in advance!

Yesterday I had my first TOPIK exam ever, I went to do TOPIK 1 because I haven't been constantly studying for over a year since I changed jobs. The exam place was a church in São Paulo, Brazil.

The process was very intuitive, all instructions were in my native language and we were not required to speak any other language, even our room proctor was having sure everyone speaked Portuguese, since some people from neighbor countries come here to take the exam.

The first part was 듣기 and the audio was played on a common CD player, the proctor opened the exam question book and the audio CD in front of us as part of the exam protocol.

The questions were fairly simple and I would even dare to say they were easier than the last 5 or 6 mock tests you do on TOPIK Guide website. The hardest ones were of course the last 6, since you have to deal with more context to answer two questions about the same dialogue. In the first 20 questions, where the quotes were smaller and more monotonous, I even felt sleepy

The same goes for the 읽기! But the process of answering it is way more comfortable because you can manage your own time and not depend on the CD playback to answer questions. At some point I had 30 minutes to finish and I started reviewing questions I found more tricky and marked with a star beforehand. Thanks to this I was able to answer a couple of questions more confidently after a second check.

Although you are not allowed to leave the exam room before the application ends, it's still a very reasonable time to do it.

Unfortunately you cannot take the question book home, which is quite sad as I really wished I could take it bake home :( But they let you bring home the pen you use, a two-sided sharp/common pencil which is cool as a souvenir.

I hope I can take this experience as an boost to come back to studies and to take TOPIK II next year!

I've been studying through the Become a Hangeul Master book from ttmik and there's one of the questions there that I didn't understand.
So I had to hear the audio to answer the question and to me it sounded like "넘는" but on the book the only options there were were: 1.널믄 2.넓은 3.넙른

Here’s the link to the audio: https://audio.talktomeinkorean.com/?id=23

It’s quiz 32 under unit 8. Could someone please explain why the answer is 3?

Hi! I will be learning from scratch and was wondering if Beginner 1A is a good place to start in King Sejong Institute? I'm planning on taking the online classes. I've seen that there are introductory courses as well, though none that are currently available to register for. Is it safe to skip those and start with Beginner 1A?

I saw that there's available materials for self paced learning but I do better with actual guidance T-T

Any advice is appreciated!

If you’re in Korea during the summer, you’ll hear these words a lot.

장마 = the rainy season (the period of continuous summer rain)
장마철 = the rainy season period/season (“철” means season or time of year)

Examples:
장마가 시작됐어요.
→ The rainy season has started.
장마가 끝났어요.
→ The rainy season is over.
장마철에는 비가 자주 와요.
→ It rains often during the rainy season.
장마철이라서 습해요.
→ It’s humid because it’s the rainy season.

A small tip:
장마 refers to the rainy season itself.
장마철 emphasizes the time or season when it happens.
Right now it’s 장마철 in Korea, so many people carry an umbrella every day.

What’s the rainy season like where you live?

I'm aware people sometimes drop particles like 은/는 in sentences when speaking but would that only apply to particles after nouns or would someone drop the 는 after 너는?

Is there a really good course, video, or guide that goes into stupidly elaborate detail on how to pronounce hangul? I want tongue placement, mouth shape, lips, how much to puff, comparisons and explanations. Ideally explained multiple ways. I'm terrible at this part of language learning and need all the help I can get. Thanks.

❣️단골 = a regular customer

저는 단골 카페가 있어요.☕️
거의 매일 커피 마시러 가요.
I have a 단골 café that I visit all the time.
I go there for coffee almost every day.

🇰🇷In Korean, 단골 is most commonly used for someone who regularly visits the same store, café, or restaurant. We also say 단골 손님, which means “regular customer.”

But Korean speakers also use 단골 to describe a place they often go to, like 단골 카페 or 단골 식당.
You can also use 단골 to describe something that appears frequently or repeatedly.

✅ Examples:
저는 이 식당 단골이에요.
→ I’m a regular at this restaurant.
타임슬립은 드라마 단골 소재예요.
→ Time travel is a common theme in Korean dramas.
김치찌개는 한국 밥상의 단골 메뉴예요.
→ Kimchi stew is a staple dish in Korean homes.

Do you have a favorite café or restaurant you’re a regular at? ☕

Tell me about your 단골!

The sentence is:

네. 트라우마가 저의 발목을 붙잡더라도 계속 이겨내야겠어요

Chatgpt translated it as "Yes. Even if my trauma holds me back, I'll keep overcoming it."

Chatgpt also said:

The phrase "발목을 붙잡다" literally means "to grab someone's ankle," but it's an idiom meaning to hold someone back, weigh someone down, or keep someone from moving forward.

My question is, if somebody uses phrase such as "grabbing ankle", does it mean the person is really really traumatised? Or is it a normal phrase to use to say "even if it holds me back"?

Thank you.

So, I do know in some languages, like Japanese, there seems to be onomatopoeia for the types of sleep, like light breathing, loud snoring, quiet snoring, just being deeply asleep, etc.

If the character is sleeping and it says "...쿠울" what would that signify? Or is it just "zzz..." ???

Hi all! I did not find a thread on this, apologies if I missed. TTMIK started doing these 6-week beginner bootcamps which goes through Levels 1 + 2. I've been stuck mid-way through Level 1 so many times and I am wondering if this may be an option to help me push past it. Any insight from people who may have participated in one of these bootcamps?

Hello!

I'm a native Korean speaker, and I've been wondering whether using very simplified Korean in class really helps learners.

I've noticed that many Korean teachers speak in very short, simple sentences when teaching. However, it sounds quite unnatural to me. I don't think even parents speak to their young children that way. To me, it sounds more like the way beginners speak than the way native speakers actually do.

For example, when teaching -ㄹ 거예요, a teacher might say:

T: 밥 먹어요. 내일 밥 먹어요. 알아요? 대답해요.
S: 밥 먹을 거예요.

Here's what I'm curious about:

If your teacher used more natural Korean (while still keeping it easy enough to understand), would that be more helpful? Or would it be too difficult for a beginner?

For example:

밥 먹어요. 내일 밥 먹어요. 어떻게 말하나요? 대답해 볼까요? 대답해 보세요.

Let's assume the students haven't learned expressions like -세요 or -ㄹ까요 yet. Would you still be comfortable hearing those expressions in your teacher's instructions, even if you hadn't learned them yet? Or would that just make things more confusing?

Personally, I never learned English this way. Even when I came across grammar or vocabulary I didn't know, I usually tried to figure out the meaning from the context. So I'm curious which approach learners actually find more helpful.

i know win + space switches languages, but when i switch to korean it goes straight to romanized input instead of 한글. i mean, next to the korean keyboard indicator there's an A, which means i'm using romanized input. when i click it to switch to the korean alphabet, it changes to 가, meaning i'm using 한글. is there a keyboard shortcut to switch between those without having to click the ime toggle every time?