Learn how to make questions and question tags in Korean
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Intro |
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| Michael: How are questions made in Korean? |
| Kyejin: And what about question tags? |
| Michael: At KoreanClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following scenario: Da-yeon Bak is asking his neighbor whether they'll join their party. Mark Morris wants to join but seeks confirmation from his wife. |
| "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Da-yeon Bak: 파티에 오실 거예요? (Patie osil geoyeyo?) |
| Dialogue |
| Da-yeon Bak: 파티에 오실 거예요? (Patie osil geoyeyo?) |
| Mark Morris: 우리 갈 거예요...아닌가요? (Uri gal geoyeyo...aningayo?) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Da-yeon Bak: 파티에 오실 거예요? (Patie osil geoyeyo?) |
| Michael: "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Mark Morris: 우리 갈 거예요...아닌가요? (Uri gal geoyeyo...aningayo?) |
| Michael: "We are going, aren’t we?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, you will learn how to form questions in Korean. There are several ways you can do that, but the most common one is by using the interrogative expressions “who,” “where,” “when,” “what,”, "why,” and “how.” For instance, if you want to ask for someone’s name, you can say, |
| Kyejin: 이름이 뭐야? (Ireum-yi mwoya?) |
| Michael: or “What is your name.” Here, we used the interrogative pronoun, |
| Kyejin: 뭐 (mwo), |
| Michael: meaning, “What?”, and this is commonly used in colloquial speech. This word can be used by itself too, like when you didn’t fully understand what someone you’re close to, like friends, said and you need them to repeat the statement. This is actually a shortened form of |
| Kyejin: 무엇(mueot). |
| Michael: This is generally used in formal settings and on papers and is mostly followed by particles. So it’s most likely to be used in a complete sentence, such as when you’re asking, |
| Kyejin: 무엇을 도와드릴까요?? (Mueos-eul dowadeurilkkayo?) |
| Michael: “What help (may I) give?” or “How may I help you?”. Another interrogative expression you can use is |
| Kyejin: 누구 (nugu) |
| Michael: or “Who?” It can be used as the subject, adverb, or object in a sentence when paired with the right particle. It’s also primarily used when confirming someone’s identity, such as when you ask, |
| Kyejin: 누구세요? (Nuguseyo?) |
| Michael: or “Who is it?”, or “Who are you?” Moreover, when this word is placed in the subject of a sentence, it would look like |
| Kyejin: 누구가 (nuguga), |
| Michael: paired with the subject marking particle. This phrase can be shortened to |
| Kyejin: 누가 (nuga) |
| Michael: such as when you ask, |
| Kyejin: 누가 오나요? ? (Nuga onayo?) |
| Michael: “Who comes?” Next, we have the word |
| Kyejin: 언제 (eonje) |
| Michael: which is the word for “when” in Korean. Here are some examples on how we use it: |
| Kyejin: 비가 언제까지 오나요?(Biga eonjekkaji onayo?) |
| Michael: “Until when will it rain.” Here, it’s used with the particle |
| Kyejin: 까지 (kkaji) |
| Michael: which refers to the end of a certain range. We can also use it as an adverb, like: |
| Kyejin: 우리 언제 떠날까요? (Uri eonje tteonalkkayo?) |
| Michael: “When do we leave?” Moving on, we have our next interrogative expression, which is |
| Kyejin: 어디 (eodi) |
| Michael: or “Where?” The word stands for a place that one does not know. |
| Kyejin: 어디 살아요? (eodi sal-ayo?) |
| Michael: This means “Where do you live?” Now, what if you want to ask a “Why” question? In that case, you are going to use the word |
| Kyejin: 왜 (wae) |
| Michael: The Korean word for “Why?” It’s an adverb that can also be translated as “for what reason”, or “how come”. Here’s an example: |
| Kyejin: 고양이를 왜 좋아하세요? (Goyang-ileul wae joh-ahaseyo?) |
| Michael: “Why do you like cats?” And, finally, we have the interrogative expression, |
| Kyejin: 어떻게 (eotteoke) |
| Michael: or “How?” This expression is made up of an adjective |
| Kyejin: 어떻다 (eotteota) |
| Michael: and an ending |
| Kyejin: 게 (ge). |
| Michael: We can use it like this, |
| Kyejin: 어떻게 지내십니까? (Eotteoke chinae shimnikka?) |
| Michael: “How are you doing?” |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Da-yeon Bak says "Are you coming to our party?" |
| Kyejin: 파티에 오실 거예요? (Patie osil geoyeyo?) |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Mark Morris says "We are going, aren’t we?" |
| Kyejin: 우리 갈 거예요...아닌가요? (Uli gal geoyeyo...aningayo?) |
| Michael: In both sentences, we don’t observe the use of any of the interrogative words we’ve covered so far. That’s because another way you can form questions in Korean is by simply raising your intonation at the end of your statement. That’s how Da-yeon turned her line into a question. Also, there are some sentence-final endings used to make questions like: |
| Kyejin: 은가 (eunga), 을까(eulkka) |
| Michael: Mark used the first one in his speech like: |
| Kyejin: 아닌가요? (aningayo?), |
| Michael: “aren’t (we)?” |
| Michael: The ending |
| Kyejin: 은가 (eunga) |
| Michael: and the stem of the adjective |
| Kyejin: 아니다 (anida), |
| Michael: meaning “not,” were conjugated, thus forming a question. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you’ve learned that there are two primary ways to form questions in Korean. The first one is by using interrogative words like “who,” “where,” “when,” “what,” “why,” and “how.” The second one is by raising your intonation at the end of a statement. Also, questions can be formed with certain endings. Now, let’s look at some more examples beginning with |
| Kyejin: 너 뭐 먹고 싶니? (Neo mwo meoggo simni?) |
| Michael: “What do you want to eat?” As mentioned, the word |
| Kyejin: 뭐 (mwo) |
| Michael: is one of the Korean interrogative words that mean “what.” It’s the shortened form of the word |
| Kyejin: 무엇 (mueot) |
| Michael: which is used in more formal situations, such as when you’re addressing a stranger or someone who’s more senior in age and rank. Let’s try a “where” question next, but this time, using the expression, |
| Kyejin: 어디 (eodi) |
| Michael: as an object, such as in the question, |
| Kyejin: 집이 어디예요? (Jib-i eodiyeyo?) |
| Michael: Literally, this translates to “Your house is where?” Here, we added the particle and ending chunk, |
| Kyejin: 이에요 (ieyo) , 예요 (yeyo) |
| Michael: after the word for “where,” to form “where is.” The proper translation would be, “Where do you live?” Again, the statement is intended to be a question with the ending spoken with a rising tone. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Now, let’s talk about question tags. In grammar, question tags are a form of “mini” questions that you ask for confirmation. “Is that right?” “Do you agree?” These are common examples of question tags. Let’s check out some examples in Korean: |
| Kyejin: 춥다, 그렇지? (chubda, geureochi?) |
| Michael: Here, we have the word |
| Kyejin: 춥다 (chubda) |
| Michael: which means “cold,” followed by the word, |
| Kyejin: 그렇지 (geureochi) |
| Michael: which is a confirmation that could mean “yes” or “right.” Together, they mean “It’s cold, right?” The difference-maker here is the ending, |
| Kyejin: 지(ji) |
| Michael: which is used when the speaker confirms and says something that the listener thought he/she already knew. We can use this ending by placing it next to the stem of verbs, adjectives, etc. Here are some examples of the ending placed in our daily conversation: |
| Kyejin: 덥지? (deopji), |
| Michael: “It’s hot, right?” |
| Kyejin: 맛있지? (masitji), |
| Michael: “It’s delicious, right?” But such speech is in informal, addressee-lowering politeness level. Then, how can we use question tags in a polite tone? It’s simple, by adding the particle |
| Kyejin: 요 (yo) |
| Michael: to the ending, thus forming |
| Kyejin: 지요 (jiyo) |
| Michael: It can be shortened to |
| Kyejin: 죠 (jyo). |
| Michael: Just like the previous question tag we discussed, this contraction is added at the end of the sentence, right after the verb or adjective stem. Let’s consider this example: |
| Kyejin: 시간이 참 빠르다. (Sigan-i cham ppareuda.) |
| Michael: “Time is so fast.” Without a question tag, this is a simple declarative sentence. Now, let’s try adding the tag, |
| Kyejin: 시간이 참 빠르죠? (Sigan-i cham ppareujyo?) |
| Michael: By doing so, we were able to form a question: “Time is so fast, isn’t it?” |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: Politeness is very important in Korean speech. One way Koreans convey politeness and show respect when communicating is attaching certain endings to the end of a verb or adjective in the sentence, which varies depending on the speech level being used. This can also be done when formulating questions. For highly formal questions, the two words often involved are |
| Kyejin: ㅂ니까 (bnikka) |
| Michael: and |
| Kyejin: 습니까 (seubnikka) |
| Michael: The first one is attached to stems that end in vowels, while the second one is attached to stems that end in consonants. Here’s an example: |
| Kyejin: 비가 옵니까? (Biga omnikka?) |
| Michael: “Is it raining?” In this case, we used the ending, |
| Kyejin: ㅂ니까 (bnikka) |
| Michael: Since the stem ends in a vowel. Here’s another one: |
| Kyejin: 날씨가 어떻습니까? (Nalssiga eotteoseumnikka?) |
| Michael: “How’s the weather?” This time, we used the second ending, since the stem in the sentence ends in a consonant. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Kyejin: 안녕히 계세요 (annyeonghi gyeseyo) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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