Annyeonghaseyo, chingudeul! This section guides you learn the basic Koreanlearn the basic Korean, particularly Korean interrogatives and the examples of the sentences. Basically, Korean interrogatives consist of ๋ฌด์/๋ญ (mwot/mwo) = what, ๋๊ตฌ (nugu) = who, ์ด๋ (eodi) = where, ์ (wae) = why, ์ด๋ป๊ฒ (eotteohke) = how, ์ผ๋ง (eolma) = how many/much, and ์ธ์ (eonje) = when. To compose an interrogative sentence, those interrogative words are followed by verb/ noun/ adjective ended by suffix ๊น (kka) for formal sentence, suffix ์ (yo) for casual/ informal sentence, or without suffix for ๋ฐ๋ง (banmal). We can also add suffix ์ผ/์ด์ผ (ya/iya) to create banmal forms.
Note: to compose a formal interrogative sentence, we only change suffix ๋ค (da) to ๊น (kka). Letโs see the examples: ์ ๋๋ค (imnida) -> ์ ๋๊น (imnikka) or ํฉ๋๋ค (hamnida) -> ํฉ๋๊น (hamnikka). Meanwhile, there is no change in informal interrogative sentence and banmal form. We only need to emphasize the intonation in the end of the sentence. However, for the beginners, it is better to learn Korean formal or informal interrogatives forms first instead of banmal forms.
1. ๋ฌด์/๋ญ/๋ฌด์จ (Mueot/ Mwo/ Museun โ Korean Interrogatives for โWhatโ
๋ฌด์ (Mueot) and ๋ญ (mwo) are basically used to ask โwhatโ. The difference between them are in the context. We use ๋ฌด์ (mueot) frequently for more formal sentence while we use ๋ญ (mwo) for informal sentence or casual conversation. ๋ฌด์จ (Museun) is used to ask referring to specific noun. Letโs see in the sentences below:
์ด๊ฒ์ ๋ฌด์์
๋๊น (Igeos-eun mueosimnikka)? = What is this? -> here we use ๋ฌด์ (mueot) and suffix ๊น (kka) to form the formal sentence.
์ด๋ฆ์ด ๋ญ์์ (Ireumi mwohaeyo)? -> Whatโs your name?
๋ฌด์จ ๋๋ผ๋ง ์ข์ํฉ๋๊น (Museun deurama johahamnikka)? -> What drama do you like?
2. ๋๊ตฌ (Nugu) โ Korean Interrogatives for โWhoโ
๋๊ตฌ (Nugu) is part of Korean interrogatives to ask โwhoโ or refer to person as subject or object. So, we have 2 patterns here to differ the usage. First, if we refer to person as subject, we use the form ๋๊ตฌ๊ฐ (nuguga) shortened to ๋๊ฐ (nuga). Second, if we refer to that person as object, so we use ๋๊ตฌ๋ฅผ (nugureul). Letโs check the sentences below to make the difference between two patterns clearer:
๋๊ฐ ์ปคํผ๋ฅผ ๋ง์ญ๋๊น (Nuga keopireul masimnikka)? -> Who drinks the coffee?
์์ค์ ๋๊ตฌ๋ฅผ ์ข์ํด์ (Seojuneun nugureul johahaeyo)? -> Whom does Seojun like?
3. ์ด๋ (Eodi) โ Korean Interrogatives for โWhereโ
์ด๋ (Eodi) is used to ask certain place, destination, or place of origin. Thatโs why we will find the different patterns in the sentences. If our question refers to where something takes place or destination without movement, then we use ์ด๋์ (eodiel. Meanwhile, we use ์ด๋์์ (eodieseo) to refer place of origin or where the activity takes place and requires movement. Please see in the sentences below:
์๋ด์จ๋ ์ด๋์ ์ด์์ (Sodam-ssineun eodie sarayo)? -> Where does Sodam live in?
์ฌ์ฅ๋์ ์ด๋์ ๊ฐ๋๊น (Sajangnimeun eodie kamnikka)? -> Where does boss go?
์ ์์นด๋ ์ด๋์์ ์์ด์ (Jessicaneun eodieseo wasseoyo)? -> Where does Jessica come from?
4. ์ โ Korean Interrogatives for โWhyโ
In order to ask why or to question a reason/ purpose in Korean language, we use ์ (wae). It can be put either in the beginning or in the middle of the sentence depending on its context. We commonly put it in the middle if the sentence for informal or casual conversation. Here are the examples:
๊ทธ๋ถ์ ์ ์ธ๋๋ค์์์ ๊ฐ์? (Gebuneun wae Indonesiae gayo?) -> Why does that person go to Indonesia?
์ ๋น์ ์ ๋๋ฅผ ์ฌ๋ํฉ๋๊น? (Wae dangsineun nareul saranghamnikk?a) -> Why do you love me?
5. ์ธ์ (Eonje)
We use ์ธ์ (eonje) to ask โwhenโ or to question about certain time of the activity. Example in a sentence: ์ธ์ ์ข ํ์ ๊น์น๋ฅผ ๋จน์์ด์? (Eonje Jonghyuneun kimchireul meogeosseoyo?) -> When did Jonghyun eat kimchi?
6. ์ด๋ป๊ฒ (Eotteohke)
Korean interrogatives to ask โhowโ or to question about the way something works are ์ด๋ป๊ฒ (eotteohke) and ์ด๋กํด (eotteokhae). Both phrases are slightly similar but those actually have the different context. ์ด๋กํด (Eotteokhae) derives from ์ด๋ป๊ฒ added by suffix ํด (hae). We use this form more to express something unpredictable or how we react to that action. Letโs find out in the sentences below:
์ด๋ป๊ฒ ์์์ต๋๊น? (Eotteohke arasseumnikka?) -> How do you know that?
๋์ด ์์ด์. ๋ ์ด๋กํด์? (Doni eobseoyo. Na eotteokhaeyo?) -> I lost my money. How should I do?
7. ์ผ๋ง (Eolma) & ๋ช (Myeot) โ Korean Interrogatives for How Much/ How Many
๋ช (Myeot) is used to ask the quantity, especially the countable things such as people, animals, or stuff. We can also use ๋ช (myeot) to ask about the time (hour). Meanwhile, we use ์ผ๋ง (eolma) to ask about the uncountable things like price (money), time (duration), or how long the activity occurs. Letโs see the sentences below:
์ด ๊ฐ๋ฐฉ์ ์ผ๋ง์์? (I gabangeun eolmayeyo?) -> How much does this bag cost?
๋ช ์๊ฐ์ด์์? (Myeot siganieyo?) -> What time is it?
๋ช ๋ช
์ด์์? (Myeot myeongieyo?) -> How many people?