Day: January 21, 2009

The first lesson introduced in the Continuing Korean book is a verb ending which I have encountered twice from Elementary Korean, this is the -고 (-ko) verb ending. 

In my earlier posts, I have discussed a verb ending that expresses one’s desires and wishes, this is -고 싶어 (-ko shipo).  Few weeks ago I also made a post on another verb ending that features 고 again which is -고 있어 (-ko isseo).  This verb gives the regular polite ending verb a meaning that the action in progress.

This time, the topic is all about the one shape verb ending -고.  Just like the verb ending -지 (ji) and -겠-  (kett), this verb ending is attached to a word regardless if it ends in vowel or consonant.  Before I post on the things  I learned on its uses,  let’s refresh our minds with the pronunciation rules with respect to this ending added in various words.  Here are some of the rules in pronunction :

• Consonant ending verbs like 들 (deul) that ends in ㄹ change the final consonant to ㄷ before another consonant.  It is pronunced as ㄱ if the following ending starts with ㄱ and ㅈ for word ending starts with ㅈ.  들 which means listen becomes 듣 –> 듣고 (deukko) .
• Bases that ends in consonants ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ and ㅊ transforms to  a final consonant ㄷ before -고 is added see sample below:
  • 있 –> 있고 –> means ‘there is’ pronounced as 읻고. This sample tells me that past base will always take this pronunciation rule into consideration as – ㅆ is to be added in plain base form.
  • 벗 –> 벗고 —> means ‘remove’ is pronounced as 벋고
  • 찾 –> 찾고 –> means ‘seek’ is pronounced as 찯고For bases that ends with more than 2 consonant, only 1 will be pronounced like in the case below:
• • 읽–> 읽고 –> means ‘read’ will be pronounced as 일고 (ilko)
  • 없–> 없고–> means ‘lack of’ will be pronounced as 업고 (opko)
• For bases that normally ends in ㅎ the ㄱsound of  the ending 고 becomes aspirated as in ㅋ.  Here is an example 좋–> 좋고 –>  means to like becomes  조코 only in pronunciation.
• L extending bases adds 고 with the ㄹon the base.  Example would be 살고 (salkko – means to live) 팔고 (palko – means to sell)

This topic somehow made me review the  pronunciation guides learned from book one (Elementary Korean).