Learn some common suffixes in Korean
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are some suffixes in Korean? |
| Kyejin: And why are they useful to know? |
| Michael: At KoreanClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ben Morris is attending his Korean classes. When his teacher Seon-yeong Sim announces a test, Ben gets frightened and says, |
| Ben Morris: 선생님, 저 지우개가 없어요. (Seonsaengnim, jeo jiugaega eopseoyo.) |
| Dialogue |
| Seon-yeong Sim: 받아쓰기 시험 볼 거예요. (Badasseugi siheom bol geoyeyo.) |
| Ben Morris: 선생님, 저 지우개가 없어요. (Seonsaengnim, jeo jiugaega eopseoyo.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Seon-yeong Sim: 받아쓰기 시험 볼 거예요. (Badasseugi siheom bol geoyeyo.) |
| Michael: "We're going to do a dictation test." |
| Ben Morris: 선생님, 저 지우개가 없어요. (Seonsaengnim, jeo jiugaega eopseoyo.) |
| Michael: "Teacher, I don't have an eraser." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we are going to talk about suffixes, |
| Kyejin: 접미사 (jeopmisa). |
| Michael: Prefixes and suffixes come hand-in-hand when learning about affixes and derivatives in Korean. Similar to prefixes, suffixes are also attached to a word to expand its meaning and to form a new word. But the big difference is that suffixes are added after a word or the stem of the word while prefixes are added beforehand. Also, suffixes may change the part of speech of such words, and we’ll talk more about this in detail throughout this lesson. Just like there are numerous suffixes in English like “-ness,” “-less,” “-ly,” and so on, there are a handful of suffixes in Korean as well. Words formed with suffixes are called |
| Kyejin: 접미 파생어 (jeopmi pasaengeo), |
| Michael: “derivatives with prefixes.” Thus, learning about prefixes will not only expand your vocabulary but also will make it a whole lot easier for you to guess the words you are not familiar with and understand the sentence structure. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Seon-yeong Sim says: "We're going to do a dictation test?" |
| Kyejin: 받아쓰기 시험 볼 거예요. (Badasseugi siheom bolgeoyeyo.) |
| Michael: “We’re going to do a dictation test.” In this sentence, there is a derivative formed with a suffix; it is, |
| Kyejin: 받아쓰기 (badasseugi), |
| Michael: “dictation.” The Korean word for “dictation” is created with the suffix |
| Kyejin: -기 (-gi). |
| Michael: This suffix has a very interesting feature; you can turn a verb or an adjective into a noun by placing this suffix after the verb/adjective stem. The Korean word for “dictation” is also formed that way. It originally started out from the verb |
| Kyejin: 받아쓰다 (badasseuda) |
| Michael: which means “to dictate” or “to write down what someone says or reads.” Here, the suffix |
| Kyejin: -기 (-gi) |
| Michael: was added to its stem |
| Kyejin: 받아쓰- (badasseu-) |
| Michael: and formed a noun meaning “dictation,” |
| Kyejin: 받아쓰기 (badasseugi), |
| Michael: similar to how the suffix “-tion” turns the English verb “dictate” into a noun by its attachment afterward. And the rest of the sentence |
| Kyejin: 시험 볼 거예요. |
| Michael: literally means “test, (we’re going to) take.” All together, it’s "We're going to do a dictation test." |
| Kyejin: 받아쓰기 시험 볼 거예요. (Badasseugi siheom bolgeoyeyo.) |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Ben Morris: says: "Teacher, I don't have an eraser?" |
| Kyejin: 선생님, 저 지우개가 없어요. (Seonsaengnim, jeo jiugaega eopseoyo.) |
| Michael: You normally need a pencil and an eraser when taking a quiz, but it seems like Ben doesn’t have an eraser with him. So, he tells the teacher about it, starting with: |
| Kyejin: 선생님 (seonsaengnim) |
| Michael: “teacher.” This word is formed with the suffix |
| Kyejin: -님 (-nim) |
| Michael: which is used to turn the title into an honorific term. The word |
| Kyejin: 선생 (seonsaeng) |
| Michael: itself means “teacher,” “instructor,” or “doctor,” but we can show our respectfulness by using the derivative formed with the suffix, |
| Kyejin: -님 (-nim), 선생님 (seonsaengnim). |
| Michael: Next, the sentence goes on with |
| Kyejin: 저 (jeo), |
| Michael: “I” |
| Soeon: 지우개가 없어요. (jiugaega eopseoyo.), |
| Michael: “I don’t have an eraser.” In this sentence, there’s another derivative created with a suffix. Can you guess what it is? |
| It’s |
| Kyejin: 지우개 (jiugae), |
| Michael: “eraser.” It’s formed with the suffix |
| Kyejin: -개 (-gae), |
| Michael: which implies the meaning of “a simple tool for doing a certain thing.” By adding this suffix to the stem of the verb, “to erase” |
| Kyejin: 지우다 (jiuda) >> 지우- (jiu-), |
| Michael: the new word |
| Kyejin: 지우개 (jiugae) |
| Michael: came into place. It stands for a simple tool for “erasing,” simply put, an "eraser!" Easy, right? |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: We have learned so far that suffixes |
| Kyejin: 접미사 (jeopmisa) |
| Michael: are placed after a word or a stem of a word to expand its meaning and to form a new word. Suffixes may change the part of speech of words, for example, verb into a noun, and so on. We considered three suffixes from the dialogue and their usages. First, there was |
| Kyejin: -기 (-gi), |
| Michael: which turns a verb or an adjective into a noun by placing this suffix after the verb/adjective stem. It’s similar to the English suffix “-tion” of “dictation,” |
| Kyejin: 받아쓰기 (badasseugi). |
| Michael: Some other derivatives formed with this suffix are |
| Kyejin: 더하기 (deohagi), |
| Michael: “addition,” |
| Kyejin: 곱하기 (gopagi), |
| Michael: “multiplication” |
| Kyejin: 걷기 (geotgi), |
| Michael: “walking,” or |
| Kyejin: 달리기 (dalligi) |
| Michael: “run” used as nouns when you’d say “Let’s go for a walk/run.” |
| Kyejin: Next, we had the suffix |
| Kyejin: -님 (-nim), |
| Michael: which is used to turn titles into an honorific term. Words formed with this suffix are |
| Kyejin: 선생님 (seonsaengnim), |
| Michael: “teacher.” |
| Kyejin: 부모님 (bumonim), |
| Michael: “parents.” |
| Kyejin: 손님 (sonnim), |
| Michael: “customer.” The final suffix we learned in this lesson is |
| Kyejin: -개 (-gae), |
| Michael: which implies the meaning of “a simple tool for doing a certain thing.” Here are some words created with this suffix: |
| Kyejin: 지우개 (jiugae), |
| Michael: “eraser.” |
| Kyejin: 베개 (begae) |
| Michael: “pillow.” |
| Kyejin: 마개 (magae) |
| Michael: “stopper.” |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Are there any other suffixes that are widely used by Koreans in daily speech? Definitely! Let’s take a look at a few. First, let’s talk about |
| Kyejin: -이 (-i) |
| Michael: This suffix has various usages, and we mentioned one in the previous lesson on particles. We place this suffix between Korean first names—that end in consonants—and particles to give it a smoother tone. Here are some examples: |
| Kyejin: 수진; 수진이, 수진이는 제 친구예요. (Sujin; Sujini, Sujinineun je chinguyeyo.) |
| Michael: “Sujin; Sujin is my friend.” |
| Kyejin: 자민; 자민이; 자민이가 보고싶어요. (Jamin; Jamini; Jaminiga bogosipeoyo.) |
| Michael: “Jamin; (I) miss Jamin.” But, we don’t place this suffix: 1) when you are saying the full name including the last name, 2) after first names ending in vowels, or 3) when calling on an English name. So “ |
| Kyejin: 1) 심선영이 누구예요? 2) 사라는 예뻐요. 3) 벤은 학생이에요. (Simseonyeongi nuguyeyo? Saraneun yeppeoyo. Beneun haksaengieyo.) |
| Michael: “Who is Seon-yeong Sim?”, “Sarah is pretty.”, “Ben is a student.” The suffix |
| Soeyon: -이 (-i) |
| Michael: is also used when turning a word into a causative or passive verb. Here is a verb and a sentence constructed with this verb: |
| Kyejin: 먹다; 밥을 먹다. (meokda; Babeul meokda.) |
| Michael: meaning “Eat; to Have(eat) a meal.” By adding the suffix (-i) after the stem of the verb, we can form a new verb, |
| Kyejin: 먹이다 (meogida), |
| Michael: meaning, “make someone eat,” “feed.” So, it’s turned into a causative verb, and it can be put into a sentence like this: |
| Kyejin: 아이에게 밥을 먹이다. (Aiege babeul meogida.) |
| Michael: “Feed a child (a meal).” The very same suffix can also be placed after adverbs and the stem of adjectives. And, in the case of adjectives, they are turned into adverbs when fused with this suffix. Let’s look at some examples. First, it’s |
| Kyejin: 많다 (manta), |
| Michael: which is an adjective meaning, “plentiful,” “many,” “a lot of.” By adding the suffix to the stem of this adjective, we can form an adverb |
| Kyejin: 많이 (mani), |
| Michael: meaning “much,” “in large amounts.” Let’s think of a sentence with this adverb. How about “(I) miss Jamin very much?” That would be said as |
| Kyejin: 자민이가 많이 보고싶다. (Jaminiga mani bogosipda.) |
| Michael: Wow, so the suffix (-i) was used twice in this sentence with varying usages we learned in this lesson! |
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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