The Past Tense Particles

Dialogue

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Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

Lesson conversation
INTRODUCTION
Brandon: The Past Tense Particles. I’m Brandon!
Kyejin: 안녕하세요. And I'm Kyejin.
Brandon: Kyejin, what are we going to learn in this lesson?
Kyejin: In this lesson you’ll learn how to use the past tense particles; 았, 었, and 였.
Brandon: The conversation takes place in a house.
Kyejin: It’s between Sangwon and Yeonsu.
Brandon: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Korean. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.
상원: 연수야, 화장실이 여기에 없었어? 여기에 있었다고 생각했는데..
연수: 응, 화장실은 내 방 옆에 있어.
상원: 아, 연수 네 방 옆에 있는지 몰랐어.
연수: 응, 그런데 우리 여동생이 지금 화장실에 있어.
상원: 여동생은 아직 안 끝났어?
연수: 응. 조금만 더 기다려.
Brandon: Listen to the conversation one time slowly.
상원: 연수야, 화장실이 여기에 없었어? 여기에 있었다고 생각했는데..
연수: 응, 화장실은 내 방 옆에 있어.
상원: 아, 연수 네 방 옆에 있는지 몰랐어.
연수: 응, 그런데 우리 여동생이 지금 화장실에 있어.
상원: 여동생은 아직 안 끝났어?
연수: 응. 조금만 더 기다려.
Brandon: Listen to the conversation with English translation
상원: 연수야, 화장실이 여기에 없었어? 여기에 있었다고 생각했는데..
Sangwon: Yeonsu, wasn’t the bathroom right here? I thought that it was here.
연수: 응, 화장실은 내 방 옆에 있어.
Yeonsu: No, the bathroom is next to my bedroom.
상원: 아, 연수 네 방 옆에 있는지 몰랐어.
Sangwon: Ah... I didn't know that it's next to your room.
연수: 응, 그런데 우리 여동생이 지금 화장실에 있어.
Yeonsu: Yeah, but my younger sister is in the bathroom right now.
상원: 여동생은 아직 안 끝났어?
Sangwon: You’re younger sister still isn’t finished?
연수: 응. 조금만 더 기다려.
Yeonsu: Yeah. Just wait a bit longer.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Brandon: In the dialogue, Sangwon said “our sister”. It seems like Korean people often say “our” when they mean “my”.
Kyejin: That’s true. Koreans often use the term 우리 (uri), which literally means "we" or "our" when we actually want to mean "my." Even though the items or people, for example a boyfriend, a husband, or a son, are not shared, we use the pronoun 우리 (uri). Some of my married friends often say things like 우리 남편 too, which literally means “our husband.”
Brandon: Is this related to the old days when people shared most of their items with the other people living in their town or in their family?
Kyejin: It is. Also, Koreans were considered to be part of a group, so it was more common to express ownership using 우리 meaning "we,” and “ours" than 내 meaning "my” or “me" in Korean. So 우리나라, which literally means "our country" can be understood to mean that the speaker considered themselves to be a part of the Korean people as a whole, using 우리 which means “our.”
Brandon: Ok, I understand. Let’s move on to the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Brandon: Let take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is..
Kyejin: 화장실 [natural native speed]
Brandon: toilet, bathroom
Kyejin: 화장실 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Kyejin: 화장실 [natural native speed]
Next we have..
Kyejin: 방 [natural native speed]
Brandon: a room
Kyejin: 방 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Kyejin: 방 [natural native speed]
Next we have..
Kyejin: 여동생 [natural native speed]
Brandon: younger sister
Kyejin: 여동생 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Kyejin: 여동생 [natural native speed]
Next we have..
Kyejin: 조금 [natural native speed]
Brandon: a little bit, a bit
Kyejin: 조금 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Kyejin: 조금 [natural native speed]
Next we have..
Kyejin: 끝나다 [natural native speed]
Brandon: to be over, to end
Kyejin: 끝나다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Kyejin: 끝나다 [natural native speed]
Next we have..
Kyejin: 아직 [natural native speed]
Brandon: not yet, still
Kyejin: 아직 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Kyejin: 아직 [natural native speed]
Next we have..
Kyejin: 기다리다 [natural native speed]
Brandon: to wait
Kyejin: 기다리다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Kyejin: 기다리다 [natural native speed]
The last word is..
Kyejin: 생각하다 [natural native speed]
Brandon: to think
Kyejin: 생각하다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Kyejin: 생각하다 [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Brandon: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. First up is...
Kyejin: 아직
Brandon: Which means "yet,” “still,” or “so far" You use this word to inquire or explain about a situation, person, or object that remains in an unchanged constant state.
Kyejin: But listeners, note that 아직 (ajik) must be used with negative adjectives like 안 meaning "not" or 못 meaning "cannot."
Brandon: For example, if you’re asking a friend if they have been to the store yet, you would never say..
Kyejin: 가게에 아직 갔어? (gage-e ajik gaseo?)
Brandon: It would always be expressed as..
Kyejin: 가게에 아직 못 갔어? (gage-e ajik mot gaseo?). The word 못 (mot) is added to create a negative clause, which is grammatically correct.
Brandon: Can you give us another example?
Kyejin: Sure. 밖이 아직 어두우니까 한 시간 정도 후에 운동하러 가자.
Brandon: Which means.. "Let's go work out in about an hour since it's still dark outside." Okay, next we have..
Kyejin: 화장실
Brandon: Which means.. "restroom” or “lavatory." You use this term to talk about a restroom, bathroom, lavatory, or public toilet.
Kyejin: 화장실 (hwajangsil) can be used for both "a restroom in someone's house" and "a public restroom." To mean "a public restroom" in a park, you can add the word 공중 (gongjung) meaning "public" to say 공중화장실 (gongjung-hwajangsil) "public restroom."
Brandon: Can you give us an example using this word?
Kyejin: Sure. I think the most useful phrase using this word is "화장실이 어디에 있어요?" (hwajangsil-i odie isŏyo).
Brandon: That literally means, "Where is the bathroom?" So when you want to know the whereabouts or location of a restroom, you can ask someone by saying...
Kyejin: 저기요. 이 식당에 화장실이 어디에 있어요? 잠깐동안 써도 될까요?
Brandon: Which means.. "Excuse me. Where is this restaurant’s restroom? Could I use it for a brief moment?" Okay, now let’s move on to the grammar.
Lesson focus
Brandon: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the particles that create the past tense.
Kyejin: We have three particles in this group - 았, 었, 였.
Brandon: The past tense particle is a verbal infix that you use to convey the past tense. You can use it in three cases.
Kyejin: First, 았. You use 았 for verbs that have ㅏ or ㅗ as the last vowel in the verb stem. Let’s use the verb 살다 which means “to live” as an example.
Brandon: Let’s put a verb into the past tense by using one of the past marking particles.
Kyejin: Okay. First, check the verb stem of the verb. 살- is the verb-stem of the verb 살다. And you can see that it has the vowel ㅏ.
Brandon: Then you can use this first past-tense particle, right?
Kyejin: Yes. You use 았 for verbs that have ㅏ or ㅗ as the last vowel in the verb stem, so you can put 았 next to the verb stem. So it becomes 살았-.
Brandon: Then, you can put a sentence-ending particle of your choice.
Kyejin: You can put the simple sentence-ending particle 다 to say 살았다 to mean “lived”. Or, you can use the sentence-ending particle 요, which we learned earlier. But in that case, you need to put 어 in between, so it should be 살았/어/요, 살았어요, to say “lived.”
Brandon: Okay, what about the next past tense particle?
Kyejin: Next, we have the particle 었. You can use it for verbs that don’t have ㅏ or ㅗ as the last vowel in the verb stem.
Brandon: This time, let’s use the verb meaning “to eat.”
Kyejin: Sure. “to eat” in Korean is 먹다. The verb stem of this verb is 먹, and the verb-stem is ㅓ. Since it’s not ㅏ or ㅗ, you need to use the past tense particle 었. So it becomes 먹었, or 먹었다 which means “did eat” with the sentence-ending particle 다. Or you can say 먹었어요 if you use the sentence-ending particle 요.
Brandon: Okay, and what’s the last one?
Kyejin: We have one more past-tense particle, which is 였. You can use this verb with the 하다 verbs. In Korean, you can simply make a verb by adding 하다 which means “to do” next to a noun.
Brandon: For example.. “to study” is..
Kyejin: 공부하다. 공부 is the noun meaning “study”, and 하다 is the verb meaning “to do” so it literally means “to do study.” There are also new verbs such as 인터넷하다 which literally means “to do internet.” With verbs that are made from the 하다 verbs, you need to use the past-tense particle 였.
Brandon: Then, how would you say “studied” in Korean?
Kyejin: 공부하- is the verb-stem of the verb. Since it has the 하다 verb, you can put the past tense particle 였, then one of sentence-ending particles. So it becomes 공부하였다 or 공부하였어요 and both mean “studied.” 하였다 can be shortened to 했다 and 하였어요 can be 했어요, so you can also say 공부했다 or 공부했어요, and they both mean “studied”.
Brandon : Good to know. Okay listeners, be sure to check the lesson notes to reinforce what you’ve learned in this lesson, and to find more examples with different verbs.
Outro
Brandon: And that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time! Bye!
Kyejin: 안녕히 계세요.

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Lesson conversation

Lesson focus

Outro