Categories: Learn Korean

Learning Korean 101: Korean Interrogatives and Examples

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, ๋ˆ„๊ตฌ (nugu) = who, ์–ด๋”” (eodi) = where, ์™œ (wae) = why, ์–ด๋–ป๊ฒŒ (eotteohke) = how, ์–ผ๋งˆ (eolma) = how many/much, and ์–ธ์ œ (eonje) = when. To compose an interrogative sentence, those interrogative words are followed by verb/ noun/ adjective ended by suffix ๊นŒ (kka) for formal sentence, suffix ์š” (yo) for casual/ informal sentence, or without suffix for ๋ฐ˜๋ง (banmal). We can also add suffix ์•ผ/์ด์•ผ (ya/iya) to create banmal forms.

Note: to compose a formal interrogative sentence, we only change suffix ๋‹ค (da) to ๊นŒ (kka). Letโ€™s see the examples: ์ž…๋‹ˆ๋‹ค (imnida) -> ์ž…๋‹ˆ๊นŒ (imnikka) or ํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๋‹ค (hamnida) -> ํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๊นŒ (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/๋ฌด์Šจ (Mueot/ Mwo/ Museun โ€“ Korean Interrogatives for โ€œWhatโ€

Image Source: KBS World YouTube

๋ฌด์—‡ (Mueot) and ๋ญ (mwo) are basically used to ask โ€˜whatโ€™. 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. ๋ฌด์Šจ (Museun) is used to ask referring to specific noun. Letโ€™s see in the sentences below:

์ด๊ฒƒ์€ ๋ฌด์—‡์ž…๋‹ˆ๊นŒ (Igeos-eun mueosimnikka)? = What is this? -> here we use ๋ฌด์—‡ (mueot) and suffix ๊นŒ (kka) to form the formal sentence.
์ด๋ฆ„์ด ๋ญ์˜ˆ์š” (Ireumi mwohaeyo)? -> Whatโ€™s your name?
๋ฌด์Šจ ๋“œ๋ผ๋งˆ ์ข‹์•„ํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๊นŒ (Museun deurama johahamnikka)? -> What drama do you like?

2. ๋ˆ„๊ตฌ (Nugu) โ€“ Korean Interrogatives for โ€œWhoโ€

Image Source: TV Zum

๋ˆ„๊ตฌ (Nugu) is part of Korean interrogatives to ask โ€˜whoโ€™ 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 ๋ˆ„๊ตฌ๊ฐ€ (nuguga) shortened to ๋ˆ„๊ฐ€ (nuga). Second, if we refer to that person as object, so we use ๋ˆ„๊ตฌ๋ฅผ (nugureul). Letโ€™s check the sentences below to make the difference between two patterns clearer:

๋ˆ„๊ฐ€ ์ปคํ”ผ๋ฅผ ๋งˆ์‹ญ๋‹ˆ๊นŒ (Nuga keopireul masimnikka)? -> Who drinks the coffee?
์„œ์ค€์€ ๋ˆ„๊ตฌ๋ฅผ ์ข‹์•„ํ•ด์š” (Seojuneun nugureul johahaeyo)? -> Whom does Seojun like?

3. ์–ด๋”” (Eodi) โ€“ Korean Interrogatives for โ€œWhereโ€

Image Source: UTU KR

์–ด๋”” (Eodi) is used to ask certain place, destination, or place of origin. Thatโ€™s 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 ์–ด๋””์— (eodiel. Meanwhile, we use ์–ด๋””์—์„œ (eodieseo) to refer place of origin or where the activity takes place and requires movement. Please see in the sentences below:

์†Œ๋‹ด์”จ๋Š” ์–ด๋””์— ์‚ด์•„์š” (Sodam-ssineun eodie sarayo)? -> Where does Sodam live in?
์‚ฌ์žฅ๋‹˜์€ ์–ด๋””์— ๊ฐ‘๋‹ˆ๊นŒ (Sajangnimeun eodie kamnikka)? -> Where does boss go?
์ œ์‹œ์นด๋Š” ์–ด๋””์—์„œ ์™”์–ด์š” (Jessicaneun eodieseo wasseoyo)? -> Where does Jessica come from?

4. ์™œ โ€“ Korean Interrogatives for โ€œWhyโ€

Image Source: FM Korea

In order to ask why or to question a reason/ purpose in Korean language, we use ์™œ (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:

๊ทธ๋ถ„์€ ์™œ ์ธ๋„๋„ค์‹œ์•„์— ๊ฐ€์š”? (Gebuneun wae Indonesiae gayo?) -> Why does that person go to Indonesia?
์™œ ๋‹น์‹ ์€ ๋‚˜๋ฅผ ์‚ฌ๋ž‘ํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๊นŒ? (Wae dangsineun nareul saranghamnikk?a) -> Why do you love me?

5. ์–ธ์ œ (Eonje)

Image Source: JTBC VOD

We use ์–ธ์ œ (eonje) to ask โ€˜whenโ€™ or to question about certain time of the activity. Example in a sentence: ์–ธ์ œ ์ข…ํ˜„์€ ๊น€์น˜๋ฅผ ๋จน์—ˆ์–ด์š”? (Eonje Jonghyuneun kimchireul meogeosseoyo?) -> When did Jonghyun eat kimchi?

6. ์–ด๋–ป๊ฒŒ (Eotteohke)

Image Source: JTBC Drama Facebook

Korean interrogatives to ask โ€˜howโ€™ or to question about the way something works are ์–ด๋–ป๊ฒŒ (eotteohke) and ์–ด๋–กํ•ด (eotteokhae). Both phrases are slightly similar but those actually have the different context. ์–ด๋–กํ•ด (Eotteokhae) derives from ์–ด๋–ป๊ฒŒ added by suffix ํ•ด (hae). We use this form more to express something unpredictable or how we react to that action. Letโ€™s find out in the sentences below:

์–ด๋–ป๊ฒŒ ์•Œ์•˜์Šต๋‹ˆ๊นŒ? (Eotteohke arasseumnikka?) -> How do you know that?
๋ˆ์ด ์—†์–ด์š”. ๋‚˜ ์–ด๋–กํ•ด์š”? (Doni eobseoyo. Na eotteokhaeyo?) -> I lost my money. How should I do?

7. ์–ผ๋งˆ (Eolma) & ๋ช‡ (Myeot) โ€“ Korean Interrogatives for How Much/ How Many

Image Source: JTBC VOD

๋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 ์–ผ๋งˆ (eolma) to ask about the uncountable things like price (money), time (duration), or how long the activity occurs. Letโ€™s see the sentences below:

์ด ๊ฐ€๋ฐฉ์€ ์–ผ๋งˆ์˜ˆ์š”? (I gabangeun eolmayeyo?) -> How much does this bag cost?
๋ช‡ ์‹œ๊ฐ„์ด์—์š”? (Myeot siganieyo?) -> What time is it?
๋ช‡ ๋ช…์ด์—์š”? (Myeot myeongieyo?) -> How many people?

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