5.6 Everyday Verbs and Adjectives — Epoché
What you will be able to do Use the everyday verbs of motion, giving, speaking and daily action: 물 좀 주세요. and 손부터 씻어. Use fifteen adjectives to say something about almost any noun from the last five lessons: 날씨가 춥습니다. and 그 탁자는 길다. Say why the verb for giving and the verb for receiving are not a symmetrical pair in Korean. Use the verb for knowing and its separate negative, which is not formed with either negative of lesson 3.8: 그를 알아요? and 나는 몰라요. Ask permission with one fixed shape: 뭐 좀 물어봐도 돼요? Prerequisites : 5.5, and the whole of the third volume, whose grammar every sentence below uses. This lesson closes the Vocabulary volume of the phase and is the last one before the conversations. Nouns name things and verbs do the work. The verbs here are the ones a beginner needs every day, and most of them have already appeared once or twice in earlier lessons without being listed; this is where they are gathered. The adjectives are chosen to pair off, so that learning one gets you most of the other, and because Korean adjectives are verbs, as lesson 3.13 showed, everything in both lists conjugates the same way. Word list Giving, receiving and speaking Word Meaning Notes 주다 ko juda to give Note for English speakers Its respectful request form is how you ask for anything at all, as lesson 5.4 showed. Attached to another verb it means doing something for somebody. 받다 ko batda to receive, to get Note for English speakers Not the mirror image of giving: where English says "I got it from him", Korean often prefers to say that he gave it, with the giving verb. 보내다 ko bonaeda to send; to spend (time) Note for English speakers Two senses, which is why the phrase for having a nice day uses it. English needs two verbs. 말하다 ko malhada to speak, to say Note for English speakers Built on the noun for speech from lesson 3.14. The person spoken to takes a particle meaning "to", not an object ending. 묻다 ko mutda to ask Note for English speakers One of the irregular stems of lesson 3.16. In speech it is usually followed by the verb for trying, which softens it. Daily actions Word Meaning Notes 찾다 ko chatda to look for; to find Note for English speakers One verb for both the search and its success, so the sentence decides which is meant. 씻다 ko ssitda to wash (the body) Note for English speakers Used of hands, face and body. Washing clothes and washing dishes take two other verbs, and using this one for either is wrong. 놀다 ko nolda to play; to spend time with friends Note for English speakers Used of adults as well as children, where English "play" would be odd. Meeting friends for an evening takes this verb. 쉬다 ko swida to rest; to be off work Note for English speakers Also used of a shop being closed for the day. 시작하다 ko sijakhada to begin Note for English speakers A noun plus the verb for doing. There is a separate intransitive verb for something beginning by itself. 끝나다 ko kkeunnada to end, to be over Note for English speakers Intransitive: the thing ends. Making something end takes a different verb, and the pair is the one to remember. 알다 ko alda to know Note for English speakers Its stem loses a letter before certain endings. Its negative is a separate verb, not either of the negatives of lesson 3.8. 생각하다 ko saenggakhada to think Note for English speakers A noun plus the verb for doing. Asking what somebody thinks of something uses the question word for "how", not the one for "what". Fifteen adjectives These pair off. Learn one of each pair and the other is half learned, because the sentence patterns are identical. Word Meaning Notes 나쁘다 ko nappeuda to be bad Note for English speakers The opposite of the adjective for good. Its stem drops a vowel before an ending, which is the pattern of lesson 3.16. 낡다 ko nakda to be old, worn out Note for English speakers Of things only. A person's age takes a different word, and calling a person by this one is an insult. 높다 ko nopda to be high, tall Note for English speakers Of buildings, mountains and numbers. A tall person takes a different adjective. 길다 ko gilda to be long Note for English speakers Of objects and of time alike. Its stem drops a letter before certain endings. 짧다 ko jjalda to be short Note for English speakers Written with a cluster at the bottom, which closes to one sound by the rule of lesson 0.5. 무겁다 ko mugeopda to be heavy Note for English speakers One of the irregular stems of lesson 3.16, like most adjectives ending in that letter. 춥다 ko chupda to be cold (of weather) Note for English speakers Of weather only, as its opposite in lesson 3.13 was. A cold object takes yet another word. 따뜻하다 ko ttatteuthada to be warm Note for English speakers Of weather, of food and of people's characters, exactly as English uses "warm". 조용하다 ko joyonghada to be quiet Note for English speakers Its imperative is what a teacher says to a class. 시끄럽다 ko sikkeureopda to be noisy Note for English speakers Another irregular stem. Said of a place, a machine or a person. 한가하다 ko han'gahada to be free, unoccupied Note for English speakers Of a person with nothing to do. It is the opposite of the adjective for busy from lesson 3.16. Nouns and adverbs that go with them Word Meaning Notes 날씨 ko the weather Note for English speakers Takes an adjective directly, so Korean says that the weather is cold rather than that it is cold. 손 ko son a hand Note for English speakers Also the first element of many compounds, including the words for a handkerchief and for a guest. 탁자 ko takja a table Note for English speakers Sino-Korean. The word for a desk from lesson 3.2 is built on the same second element. 겉옷 ko geotot an outer garment, a coat Note for English speakers Built from the words for outside and clothes, which makes it transparent once you have both. 매우 ko mae'u very Note for English speakers More formal than the intensifiers of lessons 3.6 and 3.16, and commoner in writing than in speech. 우선 ko useon first of all Note for English speakers Stands at the front of the sentence an