3.3 Particles II — Object, Place, and Direction — Epoché
What you will be able to do Mark the object of a verb with the right shape of the object ending: 문을 닫아요! after a consonant, 한국어를 공부해요. after a vowel. Choose between the two location endings, which is the one real trap of this lesson: 도쿄에 살아요. but 나는 도서관에서만 공부해요. Mark a destination and a direction, and say why Korean uses two different endings for what English calls "to". Mark a means, a material or a language with the same ending that marks a direction: 영어로 말해요! and 현금으로 낼게요. Say where the ending stands relative to the noun, and why the answer is the opposite of the English one. Prerequisites : 3.2, which gave you the topic and the subject endings and the habit of choosing a shape by the last letter of the noun. That habit is all you need here; the endings below are easier than those two, because each of them corresponds to something English already has. After the topic ending, everything else is a relief. The four endings in this lesson do the work that English does with prepositions, and for the most part they line up with an English word: one marks the object, one a destination, one a place where something happens, one a means. There is exactly one place where the correspondence breaks, and it breaks badly enough to be worth most of this lesson. The pattern All four attach to the back of the noun with no space, exactly like the two endings of the last lesson. Job After a consonant After a vowel object 문을 , 책을 한국어를 , 계산서를 destination, place, time 학교에 , 냉장고에 , 나중에 — one shape only place of activity, origin 가게에서 , 일본에서 — one shape only direction, means 집으로 , 현금으로 영어로 , 고기로 The object ending you have been reading since lesson 3.1 without being told its name. It marks the thing a verb acts on, and it has the two shapes you would expect. Korean Block by block English 음악을 좋아해요. [1] 음악을 music · 좋아해요 like I like music. 문을 닫아요! [3] 문을 the door · 닫아요 close Close the door! 이 책을 읽으세요. [4] 이 this · 책을 book · 읽으세요 read Read this book. 한국어를 공부해요. [2] 한국어를 Korean · 공부해요 study I'm learning Korean. 계산서를 주세요. [5] 계산서를 the bill · 주세요 give Check, please. The next ending is the busiest in the language. It marks a destination, a static location, and a point in time, and nothing distinguishes these three jobs except the verb that follows. Korean What the ending is doing English 나는 학교에 가요. [6] destination I go to school. 어디에 가요? [7] destination Where are you going to? 영화관에 가요. [8] destination Let's go to the cinema. 도쿄에 살아요. [9] static location I live in Tokyo. 우유는 냉장고에 있어요. [10] static location The milk is in the fridge. 책상 위에 책이 있어요. [11] static location The book is on the desk. 나는 작은 아파트에 살아요. [12] static location I live in a small apartment. 나중에 봐요. [13] time See you later. 질문에 답해 주세요. [14] the thing responded to Please answer the question. 감기에 걸렸어요? [15] the thing caught Did you catch a cold? The third ending also marks a place, and this is where English speakers lose weeks. It marks the place where an activity happens, and the place something came from. Korean What the ending is doing English 아이들은 가게에서 아이스크림을 먹었어요. [16] place of the activity The children had ice cream at the shop. 나는 도서관에서만 공부해요. [17] place of the activity I only study in the library. 한국에서 만나요! [21] place of the activity I'll meet you guys in Korea! 한국에서 태어났어요. [22] place of the activity I was born in Korea. 일본에서 왔어요. [18] origin I'm from Japan. 호주에서 왔어요. [19] origin I'm from Australia. 어디에서 오셨어요? [20] origin Where are you from? The last ending marks a direction, which is not quite a destination, and a means, which English would call "by" or "in" or "with". Korean What the ending is doing English 이쪽으로 오세요. [23] direction Please come this way. 칠판으로 가세요. [24] direction Go to the blackboard. 왼쪽으로 돌아주세요. [25] direction Please turn to the left. 오른쪽으로 돌아주세요. [26] direction Please turn to the right. 앞으로 쭉 가세요. [27] direction Go straight. 어서 집으로 돌아가세요. [30] direction Hurry home. 영어로 말해요! [28] means, a language Speak English. 현금으로 낼게요. [29] means, a method I'll pay in cash. How This Differs from English The endings come after the noun. English prepositions come before it. That sounds like a small mirror-image fact and it is not, because it changes the order in which a listener receives the information. An English speaker hears to and then waits to find out where; a Korean listener hears the place and then finds out what relation it stands in. The ending is the last thing in the block, which means that until it arrives the block is ambiguous, and it also means that you cannot begin a Korean phrase the way you begin an English one, with the relation and then the noun. The trap of this lesson is the pair of location endings, and it is worth stating as a rule that works. Use the first if the verb is about being somewhere; use the second if the verb is about doing something. Living, existing, standing, sitting and arriving take the first. Studying, eating, meeting, working, buying and being born take the second. Being somewhere Doing something somewhere 도쿄에 살아요. [9] I live in Tokyo. 한국에서 만나요! [21] I'll meet you in Korea! 우유는 냉장고에 있어요. [10] The milk is in the fridge. 나는 도서관에서만 공부해요. [17] I only study in the library. 나는 작은 아파트에 살아요. [12] I live in a small apartment. 아이들은 가게에서 아이스크림을 먹었어요. [16] The children had ice cream at the shop. English uses "in" and "at" for every row of that table, which is why the distinction has to be learned as a fact about Korean verbs rather than translated. The commonest error is to use the second ending with the verb for living, because "I live in Tokyo" feels like an activity to an English speaker. In Korean, living somewhere is a state, and states take the first ending. A second difference is that Korean has two ways of saying "to a place". The first ending names the destination and says nothing about the route; the last ending names a direction and says nothing about whether you arrive. 나는 학교에 가요. is going to school; 칠판으로 가세요. is moving towards the blackboard. English collapses both into "to", and only supplies "towards"