Learning Korean possessive pronouns and particle is one of essential part of basic grammar. Itโs relatively easy to understand. However, you should know Korean pronouns first before you learn the possessive form. Basically, Korean pronouns consist of 3 categories and each has singular and plural form: first person, second person, and third person. First-person pronouns consist of ์ (jeo) for โIโ in formal form, ๋ (na) for โIโ in casual form, while ์ ํฌ (jeohui) or ์ฐ๋ฆฌ (uri) is for โweโ. Second-person pronouns consist of ๋ (neo), ๊ทธ๋ (geudae), and ๋น์ (dangsin) for โyouโ in singular form. Meanwhile, ๋ํฌ (neohui), ๋ํฌ๋ค (neohuideul), ๊ทธ๋๋ค (geudaedeul), and ๋น์ ๋ค (dangsindeul) are plural form of โyouโ. Third-person pronouns consist of ๊ทธ (geu) for โheโ in singular, ๊ทธ๋ (geunyeo) for โsheโ in singular, ๊ทธ๋ค (geudeul) for โtheyโ in plural (male), and ๊ทธ๋ ๋ค (geunyeodeul) for โtheyโ in plural (female).
1. Korean Possessive Pronouns Basic Rules
In order to form Korean possessive pronouns, you only need to add particle ์ (e) after noun. Its formula is like putting โs after noun in English. However, this rule is exceptional for particular pronouns such as ์ (yae), ๊ฑ (gyae), ์ค (jyae), ์ฐ๋ฆฌ (uri), and ์ ํฌ (jeohui). You donโt need to add particle ์ to those pronouns. Particle ์ can be attached to the end of nouns, pronouns, names, and titles. Letโs see the examples below:
๊ทธ์ฌ๋์ ๊ฐ๋ฐฉ (Geusaramui gabang) = that personโs bag
์์ค์ ์คํ ๋ฐ์ด (Seojune otobai) = Seojunโs motorbike
์ ์๋์ ์ฑ
(Seonsaengnime chek) = teacherโs book
2. Korean Possessive Pronouns for First Person (My)
There are two types of first-person pronouns based on honorific level. ๋ (Na) is casual term of โIโ while ์ (jeo) is the formal one. To form a possessive, we should add particle ์. However, since it meets with pronoun that ends with vowel, it makes the different sound and pattern. Meanwhile, it is not necessary to add particle ์ for plural form like ์ฐ๋ฆฌ (uri) and ์ ํฌ (jeohui). ์ฐ๋ฆฌ (Uri) means โourโ in casual way and ์ ํฌ (jeohe) also means โourโ but in formal way.
๋+์ = ๋์ -> ๋ด (Nae)
์ + ์ = ์ ์ -> ์ (Je)
์ฐ๋ฆฌ + ์ = ์ฐ๋ฆฌ์/ ์ฐ๋ฆฌ (Urie/ uri)
์ ํฌ + ์ = ์ ํฌ์/ ์ ํฌ (Jeohuie/ jeohui)
3. Korean Possessive Pronouns for Second Person (Your)
Similar to first-person pronouns, second-person pronouns has two types based on honorific level. ๋ (Neo) and ๋น์ (dangsin) are casual terms of โyouโ in singular form. For the formal or polite way, you should address directly with names or titles. Meanwhile, it basically adds suffix -๋ค after pronoun/ noun to create plural form. You can say ๋ํฌ (neohui), ๋ํฌ๋ค (neohuideul), and ๋น์ ๋ค (dangsindeul).
๋ + ์ = ๋์ -> ๋ค (Ni)
๋น์ + ์ = ๋น์ ์ (Dangsine)
๋ํฌ + ์ = ๋ํฌ์ (Neohuie)
๋ํฌ๋ค + ์ = ๋ํฌ๋ค์ (Neohuideure)
๋น์ ๋ค + ์ = ๋น์ ๋ค์ (Dangsindeure)
4. Korean Possessive Pronouns for Third Person (His/ Her/ Their)
Basically, third-person pronoun does not only refer to his, her, or their but also any nouns. It can be name and title. You may also address them with that personโs, those peopleโs, and so on. However, letโs out the examples with the common ones like ๊ทธ์ (geue) for โhisโ and ๊ทธ๋ ์(geunyeoe) for โherโ in singular. Both are commonly used in written. Alternatively, you may address with ๊ทธ์ฌ๋์ (geusarame) that means that personโs. However, it is commonly used in casual way. For formal or polite way, you should address with ๊ทธ๋ถ์ geubune).
๊ทธ + ์ = ๊ทธ์ (Geue)
๊ทธ๋
+ ์ = ๊ทธ๋
์ (Geunyeoe)
๊ทธ๋ค (Plural) + ์ = ๊ทธ๋ค์ (Geudeure)
๊ทธ๋
๋ค (Plural) + ์ = ๊ทธ๋
๋ค์ (Geunyeodeure)
๊ทธ์ฌ๋ + ์ = ๊ทธ์ฌ๋์ (Geusarame)
๊ทธ๋ถ + ์ = ๊ทธ๋ถ์ (Geubune)