Category: Pronunciation

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Introduction to Verb in -고 Form

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).

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1st Day – Formal School

After careful thinking and searching for a Korean Language School — I have enrolled my self in Korean Class 1 at the Univesity of the Philippines in Diliman.  This is my first day in a formal school to learn Korean and Hangul. 

I am just proud of what I have learned by myself.  The day 1 lesson is very basic and good thing I am done and over with it.  Its all about understanding the characters, vowel, consonants, some rules in writing and pronunciation. Exactly the same context in my Elementary Korean Book.  Looking at my recent entries, I have gone this far and decided to have formal schooling just now.  I don’t regret enrolling this late because it somehow gives me advantage to digest the lecture more than just worrying on understanding the characters. 

My fellow students were sighing and were really having a hard time with the characters and pronunciation.  I am truly looking forward with the succeeding lessons.  There are 4 courses and this is just 1 of the 4 so I am wondering if after completing the entire course — I can be just like my teacher who is not even a Korean but could fluently speak and write well in Korean.

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Say it Right…

I am at Chapter 4 of the book Elementary Korean. It’s getting exciting to read.  I am just adjusting on the pronunciation guide.  I like this Chapter because it seeks to explain some of the rules in pronouncing 한글characters. 

Two sounds in one character.  ㅂ,ㄱ, ㄹ andㄷ have dual sounds, chapter 4 of the Elementary Korean provided some rules on when ㅂ is pronounced ‘b’ or ‘p’ just like ㄱ can be ‘g’ or ‘k’.  But there is more to that in terms of pronunciation in 한글.

In my previous readings, I am confused when 것 (thing) is romanized as k-o-t when it should have been k-o-s.  This is where the basic pronunication will apply.  There is this rule on pronouncing final consonants of a word.  Only words ending in the following consonants can be pronounced or released ㄹ,ㅁ,ㄴand ㅇ like the following examples:

  • 물 water (mool)
  • 식당 restaurant (shik-tang)
  • 가 슴 chest (kasum)
  • 몬 mawn (window)

There is an exception for these characters ㅂ,ㄷ and ㄱ.  Its sound can be released BUT the word should be followed by a particle or a special verb -이에요 (i-e-yo).   Otherwise the consonant sound stay on the nose as if being swallowed (therefore not releasing it)…. this is really hard.   Sound of the other consonants is reduced as follows:

  • ㅂ,ㅍ,ㅃ —-> ㅂ (p)
  • ㄷ,ㅌ,ㅅ,ㅆ,ㅈ,ㅉ,ㅊ —-> ㄷ (t)
  • ㄱ,ㄲ,ㅋ —-> ㄱ (k)

Now I can say ㄷ is such a powerful character in terms of sound just imagine the sounds of all the characters that it can replace.  This is going to be tough thing to remember especially when you are seeing all 한글. 

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한글 a Day

I promise to learn new 한극 word or phrase a day.  I am about to get my 3rd Korean reference book and I really would like to improve my Hangul.  I have started with this craze the day I started with this blog.  I have learned so many words by just listening to Korean music, watching movies or dramas and thorugh my language exchange partners.   I have my books as reference in confirming some of the words. 

One practical thing that I learned in understanding 한글 is that the characters represents a syllable of a word or sometimes its the word itself.  The word is spelled as they sound.  Each block (square like formation) contains at least two characters or maximum of four.  Like the word Hangul:

ㅎ(h) + ㅏ(a) +  ㄴ(n)  and ㄱ (g) + ㅡ (u) + ㄹ (l)

Similar to the complexity of English spelling and pronunciation, I know I have such hardships as well in improving on this language.  I wish to have the same determination until I reached my desired fluency. 

One of the first words I learned is the usual greetings, unlike in English there are several ways to greet a person.  The greetings usually depends on the time of the day and there is just the simple hi and hello.  Well in Korea this is how they greet each other:

안녕하세요  pronounced as An-nyeong-ha-se-yo.  If you want to say hi, hello, good morning, good afternoon or good evening, this is the right greetings.  It is also used to say ‘how are you?’ to frequently encountered people.  There is s separate ‘how are you?’ for a person that you just met for the 1st time or have met after a long time.  

I also learned how to say goodbye trough reading.  There are two ways to say goodbye:

안녕히 계세요    an-nyeong-hi   kye-se-yo  said to someone who will be staying. 

안녕히 가세요    an-nyeong-hi   ka-se-yo  said to someone who will be leaving.

The word for the day its 사랑 (sa-rang) which means love.