KOREAN 201 LESSON 2

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PREFACE

This effort post was written for the people in the Korean 201 UReddit.com class (link below), but I'm posting it in the /r/korean subreddit because I know that they frequent it and that it'll also probably be read by a lot of the people there and be informative for them. Hopefully people will appreciate this and not be a dick about the content of it.

For anyone else reading this... all you need to know before being able to follow along with this effort post is just how to read. Maybe the basic particles/postpositions/whatever (like the subject marker, topic marker, object marker, et cetera), too.

This was written by /u/tagus on Reddit and it took me several hours so please don't be a dick and pass this off as your own. This took me several days to write up (and I'd really prefer to just talk about it instead of writing it because I was able to teach all of this stuff in 2 hours over Mumble to people anyway, which is a huge time saver for me, personally).

http://ureddit.com/class/103655/

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TABLE OF CONTENTS (ctrl+f the titles to skip immediately to them):

1. All about numbers

A. The difference between Western languages and Eastern languages

B. The "Korean Korean" numbers

i. what they are

ii. when they are used

iii. examples

C. The "Sino Korean" or "Chinese Korean" or "Japanese Korean" (depending on who you talk to) numbers

i. what they are

ii. when they are used

iii. examples

2. How to conjugate verbs in general

A. The difference between Eastern languages and Western languages

B. Politesse

i. there are many ways to conjugate verbs for many kinds of levels of politesse... but all except 3 are kind of archaic nowadays.

C. The two or three or whatever (it depends on who you talk to) ways of conjugating verbs

i. the most common way (-요)

ii. the more formal way (-ㅂ니다/-습니다)

iii. the more informal or rude way (just take off the -요 at the end)

D. The two verbs for "to be"

i. If you've ever tried to learn Spanish or Portuguese... it's just 이다=ser and 있다=estar. If you've ever tried to learn Japanese, 이다 is "desu/da" and 있다 is both aru and iru. Ok, you can skip this section now.

ii. If you haven't tried to learn Spanish or Portuguese or Japanese... well then I guess I have to actually explain it.

iii. 있다, however, is used in at least one situation where estar isn't in Spanish or Portuguese: it can also be used as tener or ter, respectively.

E. The only big exception to a lot of rules, 하다

3. How to do imperative sentences

A. the most common say (-(으)세요)

B. the more formal way (-(으)십시오 aka -(으)십쇼 aka -(으)십죠)

C. the more informal or rude way (-(어/아)라)

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1. All about numbers

A. The difference between Western languages and Eastern languages

In Western languages, we have a specific way of counting things and a specific way of talking about those things. In Eastern languages, these things are not as unique or specific. Whereas in a Western language we would say something like, "one apple, two apples, three apples, etc", in an Eastern language we would say something that is at first glance rather weird, like "one thing apple" (as you would usually do in Chinese) or "apple one thing" (as you would usually do in Korean and Japanese).

Apart from the word order, the word I used as "thing" just now is a special topic when teaching numbers. Teachers usually call it a "counting word." It's an important thing to understand if you're serious about learning almost any Eastern language... but at this level it's only worth mentioning and briefly describing. To put it simply, a counting word is just like I said a moment ago: the word thing in "one thing apple." In Eastern languages, the actual word that they would use in place of "thing" can depend most of the time on what the 'thing' being counted actually is. You often wouldn't use the same word for counting newspapers or books as you would with counting pens or pencils, for example.

Something that all of the Eastern languages have in common, though, is a general purpose counting word that can be used for counting damn near anything, but only really used by native speakers when they can't actually remember what the real counting word should be. In Mandarin, it's ge. In Japanese, it's ko. In Korean, it's 개. Now, I personally can't speak for any other Asian languages, but I'd bet money that most other ones have something similar to this in their languages.

Examples:

In Western languages: Two books

In Korean (and Japanese): Book two things

In Mandarin: Two thing book

In Western languages: Twelve bottles

In Korean (and Japanese): Bottle twelve things

In Mandarin: Twelve thing bottle

If you can wrap your head around this concept, then the rest of this "chapter" or whatever will be a lot easier to understand for you.

In Korean, there are two different sets of words for counting things that need to be explained. However, it is important to clarify something here: a person who knows Korean well could write an entire novel on when exactly you should use one number system over another... because there is no real abstract idea behind knowing which one to use. It's very much a trial and error process, when it comes to learning, because reading such a novel would be extremely boring...

About the two counting systems: one of them is known as a uniquely Korean way of counting and is usually used for counting things by hand (like the Count in Sesame Street), whereas the other exists because of foreign influences on their culture throughout the region's history and is usually used for discussing larger, abstract amounts of things like money.

Again, it is not possible to discuss when to use one system or another . My personal advice is to just learn it as you go. No one is going to get angry at you for using the wrong one. At worst, you'll have to repeat yourself because the person you're talking to might not be used to hearing someone say the wrong one of the two number systems and then correct you afterward. So it's not a big deal.

Also, just to get it out of the way, though, I want to mention that the number zero is kind of a weird thing in Korean. I almost want to say that it's sort of independent of these two number systems (don't quote me on that)... so I'll just mention the three words that I personally know of now: 공, 용, and 방. The first one is used in general, the second one is used for talking about phone numbers, and the last one is used as a sort of informal slang or "fail" sound effect of some sort. I personally never understood the last one... but the first and second one are what you'll hear most of the time. So yeah.

B. The "Korean Korean" numbers

Of the two counting systems, this one is known as the traditional way to count things in general. It's usually taught as a uniquely Korean way of counting.

i. what they are

1: 한 or 하나

2: 두 or 둘

3: 세 or 셋

4: 네 or 넷

5: 다섯

6: 여섯

7: 일곱

8: 여덟

9: 아홉

10: 열

11: 열한 (notice how it's "10" and then "1", just like most other languages)

12: 열두

...

20: 스무 or 스물

(I've lived in Korea for many years now and I've only heard the word for 20 in this number system used once... so I'm sure that this is enough to familiarize yourself here)

If you'll notice, for a few of these there are two versions. It would take a while to explain properly when to use one or the other... a simple way to suffice for now would be that when you are saying the number for the purpose of counting something... you want to use the first one. When you're not, use the second one.

There are a few circumstances where it's not like that... but again, I could write an entire novel on this so my advice is to just go with it for now since this isn't exactly an Advanced class.

ii. when they are used

As was stated a few paragraphs ago, the "Korean Korean" way of counting is normally used when counting small amounts of things or when using numbers in most normal conversations. Again, think of the Count in Sesame Street.

Also, this number system is used for saying the months of the year. In Eastern languages in general, they say "1 month" instead of January, "2 month" instead of February, et cetera. Korean is no exception here. (For example, the word for month is 월, so January would be 1월 or 한월).

iii. examples

Please note that even though I'm putting spaces between every specific word here, it is very common for native Korean speakers to not have any space between the number and the counting word.

One apple

사과 한 개 -- (사과 = apple, 개 as a counting word was explained in the beginning of this "chapter")

Two books

책 두 권 -- (책 = book, 권 is the counting word for things that are bound, like books or magazines)

Two people

사람 두 명 -- (사람 = person, 명 is one of the *several* counting words for people - if you're curious, Google it)

May (a.k.a. "5 month")

다섯 월 -- (월, or 달 in certain contexts, is the counting word for months)

C. The "Sino Korean" or "Chinese Korean" or "Japanese Korean" (depending on who you talk to) numbers

Korea has of course had lots of foreign influence over the past couple thousand years. Mostly from the Chinese and Japanese. As a result of this, when you Learn any of these East Asian languages you'll find a lot of overlap and borrowed words between them. For the Korean language, this is one such example.

Whereas the more traditional way of counting things in this language is more reserved for counting smaller things that you could count on your hand or whatever, this other way of counting is normally used when describing large quantities. Again, though, it's important to reiterate that the specific circumstances about knowing which one of these two counting system to use could fill out an entire novel... so just go with it for now.

i. what they are

1: 일

2: 이

3: 삼

4: 사

5: 오

6: 육

7: 칠

8: 팔

9: 구

10: 십

11: 십일

12: 십이

...

20: 이십 (notice how it's "2" and "10"... just like most other language)

30: 삼십

40: 사십

...

100: 백

1 000: 천

10 000: 만

1 000 000: 억

Compared to the "Korean Korean" way of counting, this seems like a more simple and straightforward way of doing things. Because of that, there's not much to clarify here in this section of the Chapter.

ii. when they are used

The simplest way to explain when to use this number system is to simply say: "whenever you wouldn't use the other way." Since that's a lame cop out, though, here's a little more information: whenever discussing large amounts of things (such as money) or what day of the month it is, you want to use this way of counting.

iii. examples

Two hundred dollars

이백 달라 (달라 = dollar)

February 14th

2월 14일 (read: 두 월 십사 일)

2. How to conjugate verbs in general

When you look up any verb in whatever dictionary, it will always end in the same syllable: -다. You also see this everywhere in news articles and public documents, for example.

This is the Korean language's equivalent of "to" in English, "-er/-ir/-ar" in Spanish, "-re/-er/-ir" in French, "-are/ire/ere" in Italian, "-en" in German, "-ru" in Japanese... et cetera. If you've ever tried to learn another foreign language before, then you can pretty much skip this little intro to the chapter.

If not, then this requires some explanation:

By default, when a verb is not referring to anyone and has no context, we (in English) tend to just put the word "to" in front of a verb. If you remember your whatever-your-native-language class back in Primary/Elementary school when you were younger... then you probably remember the word "infinitive" being used. This is the fancy term for what I'm describing.

In Korean, the infinitive form of a verb is what you get when you see a word that ends in -다. It's that simple.

So, whenever you conjugate or change the verb... you have to take off the "-다" syllable and replace it with something, just like in almost every single language out there in the world. There really are only a handful of exceptions to this pattern, to be honest.

Examples:

To go

가다

To eat

먹다

Now that that's explained, let's start talking about the point of this chapter.

A. The difference between Eastern languages and Western languages

The specific ways that we change verbs based on context is called conjugation. It's an important word to know and if you've never tried to learn a foreign language before, then you better get used to it because knowing what that word means will save you a lot of confusion and time later on... regardless of what foreign language you want to try and learn in the future.

Anyway, here's the first big, major, huge, important thing to know in this Chapter:

In Western languages, we conjugate verbs based on who we are talking *about*. I walk. You walk. He walks. Yo soy. Tu eres. Sie laufen. Ich laufe. Vous cheminez. Nous cheminons. We change the dictionary forms or our verbs based on the subject of the sentence. This is true for every single Western language.

In Eastern languages (or at least with Japanese and Korean anyway), we conjugate verbs based on who we are talking *to*.

Pause for a minute now and think about that.

No.

Seriously.

You won't understand anything about verbs until you can wrap your head around what I just said there.

I'm not joking.

Make sure you understand what was just said before continuing. You'll just get confused really easily otherwise.

B. Politesse

In Korean and Japanese, we don't conjugate verbs based on who we are talking about. The subject that goes with the verb has absolutely nothing to do with how we conjugate it. What matter is who we are talking to.

For example, if I were talking to the President of Korea, I would not conjugate my verbs the same way as I would if I were talking to a dog. I would also not conjugate my verbs the same way as I would if I were just talking to a random person I've just met. There is a level of politesse inherent in both Korean and Japanese and it comes mostly from the way that you conjugate your verbs.

The difference between an intermediate and advanced speaker of Korean (and this goes for Japanese as well) is simply their knowledge and practice of the different ways to conjugate verbs... and then of course there's vocabulary as well that makes a big difference in skill with speaking a language, but that goes for any language to be honest.

Just like how earlier you learned about the basic endings on nouns (like -는, -를, -에, -에서, etc), now I'm going to start talking about the things that you can put onto the ends of verbs to add more context, meaning, and emotion to them.

As always with anyone who is starting out learning the language, though... it's always best to start with the most common, declarative ways first.

C. The two or three or whatever (it depends on who you talk to) ways of conjugating verbs

So, when it comes to conjugating verbs in terms of politeness, there are really just 3 common ways to do it nowadays. When learning how to do stuff with verbs in Korean, you will see these same 3 "levels of politesse" pop up again and again, so there's no reason not to discuss them now. Once upon a time there were of course more ways to do it, but nowadays those other ways are mostly archaic or used in rare circumstances, usually to try and evoke the feeling of tradition or whatever.

Usually, when people learn this language in a classroom the explanation is started off by just teaching the same three declarative sentence conjugations that every beginner learns. The explanations about when to use each one are important to remember because you'll see them come up all the time as you learn more.

i. the most common way (-(어/아/여)요)

90% of the time when speaking -- or even listening, really -- to people in Korean, you will hear people end their sentences with something that has the "요" sound at the end of it. This is the part of the lesson where you figure out what they're (usually) doing when they say that.

First, though, I need to explain the context: This level of politesse is standard for people that you don't know very well (read: not close friends or family), but are not your superior or leader or whatever. In general, if you are not speaking formally (which is the next conjugation that I'll talk about) or you are not speaking to a close friend, animal, or someone you feel like being rude to (which is the one after that), then you will be using this conjugation.

So it's important to know how to do this one when it comes to verbs. You could stop reading after finishing this section of this whatever-you-want-to-call-it and not step on any toes most of the time when speaking to people. It really is that common of a thing.

Here's how it works:

* If the last VOWEL of the verb ends is either the 오 or 아 sound, then put -아요 at the end.

* If the last VOWEL is the verb is pretty much anything else, then put -어요 at the end.

... and that's pretty much it!

If you'll notice, though, I also had a third thing, -여요. Most of the time, this is exactly the same as putting -어요 there anyway, but when you say it fast enough then people will tend to make that -여요 sound anyway... so I didn't bother talking about it.

In general, though, -여요 is what you get when the verb ends with the 이 sound. Let's do some examples so I can show you what I mean.

Examples:

[I/you/he/she/etc] go

가다 --> 가아요 --> 가요 *

[I/you/he/she/etc] eat

먹다 --> 먹어요

[I/you/he/she/etc] look

보다 --> 보아요 --> 봐요 *

* You will find when learning Korean that if you can get away with writing something in fewer syllables... chances are it's commonplace for people to do it anyway. Since 가아요 has two 아 sounds together, people just shorten it to 가요 anyway. As for 보아요, people normally combine 오 and 아 together in that other to make 와 anyway, so yeah.

Also, please remember that just like in many Romantic languages (except for French), it is not necessary to specify the pronoun in a sentence if it is understood already who is being discussed. I left them out here because not only is it okay to do that in Korean in general but also because we're talking about verbs here and I wanted to just focus on that.

Later on, at the end of this Chapter, I will explain about one very important kind-of-an-exception-but-not-really-I-guess verb called 하다.

Also, as a last comment about this way of conjugating verbs: I purposefully left out a few details (like... what if the verb ends in a 아 sound but has a ㅎ letter at the end? does anything change?) when discussing this to save time. There are special cases where you do more to the verb than just add those simple things, but those will be explained later on in time. You don't need to worry about them for now. Just be aware of them.

ii. the more formal way (-ㅂ니다/-습니다)

As I mentioned in the previous section, this conjugation has almost the exact same level of politesse as the previous "-요" conjugation of the verb.

This way of conjugating verbs is used when you are talking to an employer, a police officer, a government official, or in general anyone who is "higher up" than you on the social ladder, so to speak. It is also used when you say simple formal things, like "thank you."

Here's how it works:

* If the last syllable of the verb ends in a consonant, put -습니다 at the end.

* If the last syllable of the verb ends in a vowel, put -ㅂ니다 at the end.

That's all there really is to it, actually.

Examples:

[I/you/he/she/etc] go

가다 --> 갑니다

[I/you/he/she/etc] eat

먹다 --> 먹습니다

[I/you/he/she/etc] look

보다 --> 봅니다

iii. the more informal or rude way (just take off the -요 at the end)

As the title of this little section says, the last of the three main ways of conjugating verbs is pretty much the same as the first one... just take off the "-요" at the end.

As for when to use this, it's basically in any of the following situations:

* You feel like being rude to someone for whatever reason

* You're talking to someone significantly lower than you on the social ladder

* You're talking to an animal

* You're talking to yourself

The general thing people usually say when teaching about this in a classroom or whatever is that it's essentially just an informal or oftentimes rude way of talking.

That's really all you need to know, to be honest.

Examples:

[I/you/he/she/etc] go

가다 --> 가아 --> 가

[I/you/he/she/etc] eat

먹다 --> 먹어

[I/you/he/she/etc] look

보다 --> 보아 --> 봐

D. The two verbs for "to be"

In several of the Western languages, there are two ways of translating the English verb "to be." In Spanish and Portuguese, you say ser and estar, for example. In Japanese, there are three: "desu/da", iru, and aru. For all of these languages, there is a specific context and connotation that tells you which one you should use.

Korean is just like that and this next section is going to be about explaining this stuff for you.

i. If you've ever tried to learn Spanish or Portuguese... it's just 이다=ser and 있다=estar. If you've ever tried to learn Japanese, 이다 is "desu/da" and 있다 is both aru and iru. Ok, you can skip this section now.

The title of this section is pretty self-explanatory so I'm not going to write anything here. The actual explanation for those of you who haven't tried to learn those languages before...

ii. If you haven't tried to learn Spanish or Portuguese or Japanese... well then I guess I have to actually explain it.

So in Korean there are two verbs that can both be translated as "to be" into English: 이다 and 있다.

I could spend a very long time explaining when to use these two verbs... but to be honest there is so much information already out there for the other languages because they're more popular for people to try to learn that I'll just give a few links and let you do the reading that way.

Here's one for Spanish: http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/serest1.htm

Here's one for Portuguese: http://www.easyportuguese.com/Portuguese-Lessons/To-Be.html

Here's one for Japanese: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copula_(linguistics)#Japanese

For the last one, the section immediately afterward talks about the Korean equivalent... so I highly recommend reading that part as well because it can help you understand more efficiently than me filling up this effort post with even more words.

iii. 있다, however, is used in at least one situation where estar isn't in Spanish or Portuguese: it is also used as tener or ter, respectively.

Just like "aru" in Japanese, and unlike "estar" in Spanish or Portuguese, the verb 있다 can also be used to show that you posses something... just like the verbs "to have" in English, or "tener/ter" in Spanish or Portuguese, respectively.

It's important to note, though, that the way to make this meaning happen requires that the thing being possessed is labelled as the subject of the sentence (just like in Japanese).

Examples:

I have an apple.

I-topic apple-subj to-be

나는 사과가 있어요. *

* - Since we're talking about verbs here in this Chapter, I want to re-emphasize that in this example I could've just as easily said "있다", "있어", or "있습니다" instead of what I actually did choose to say in the example... and the actual translation back into English would not have changed at all. It's just a matter of subtext (read: politesse) when writing or saying this sentence out loud. That's all it means.

What's important to notice here is that this is very different from pretty much every Western language out there. Normally, the thing that you possess would be the object of the sentence... and yet here in Korean (and in Japanese as well), it's actually the subject.

Just to help you feel like this isn't some weird, random thing... here's how that same example would have looked in Japanese (I don't have the Japanese keyboard set up on this computer so pardon the romaji x_x):

boku wa ringo ga aru.

The word order and postpositions/particles in Japanese are exactly the same as in Korean. It's just that the individual words are different... which is of course normal because it's a different language.

Don't worry, you'll get used to it. It's not a big deal right now, but it's important to know about it, at least.

E. The only big exception to a lot of rules, 하다

So earlier I mentioned that there was one big exception to the whole "-요" conjugation rule based on what I've told you guys so far. Now I'm going to take the time to sort that out.

Based on what I've told you earlier, the way you would *think* to conjugate 하다 with the "요" conjugation would be something like this:

하아요 --> 하요. (not correct)

Unfortunately, this is not correct and to explain why requires some context and seemingly-irrelevant-at-first-glance backstory. You don't have to read this next section and if you want you can just scroll to the "---" thing after this indented section to just get straight to the point... but it's an interesting read if you care about Eastern linguistics or want a decent advantage going forward when learning Korean:

Just like how in Western languages there is a lot of overlap in both vocabulary and cultures (especially in Europe)... you also have that here int he Eastern world as well. The most obvious example is the use of Chinese (or in many cases, Chinese-like) characters and writing systems being used all over the Asian region. Vietnam traditionally uses it (not so much anymore because of western influence, though), Japan traditionally uses it... so yeah.

This is just like how most all Western countries use the Roman (aka Latin) alphabet for its writing systems. Because historically, Roman culture and practices had (and still have) a huge influence over culture and practices all over their part of the world.

But here's the relevance to this verb: it's not really a Korean verb.

If you've ever tried to learn Japanese before, you've of course encountered a verb called "suru." Well, this is Korean equivalent of "suru." If you understood that, then you can just skip past all of this backstory and go to the end of the section.

Basically, one of the relics of Chinese culture and influence... and this actually can be said for almost every Eastern language in general, is that a very large percentage of the vocabulary in Korean is not actually Korean. In English, we refer to those kinds of words as "Chinese-Korean" words... just like how I explained earlier about the number systems.

The verb 하다 is sort of a "catch all" word, comparable to: faire in French, suru in Japanese, hacer in Spanish, fazer in Portuguese, and to do in English. In French, for example, when they talk about the foreign concept of "playing jazz" or "making jazz", they use the word faire (as in, "faire de la jazz"). The verb 하다 is just like that.

So any time you see something combined with the verb 하다 in Korean... just remember that the word itself is not "really" a Korean word but rather a sort of loan word from Chinese (often by way of Japanese) due to the historical ties between those three countries over the past couple thousand years. This is one of the main reasons why it's not so bad for Chinese people to learn Japanese or Korean: because most of the vocabulary is often very similar to old or archaic Chinese words anyway! It's a lot like a English person trying to learn German. The grammar is very different, but a lot of the vocabulary is really similar because of the historical roots of many of the words in the two languages.. and so it is with the Eastern languages, as well.

If you can wrap your head around the context that I've just explained here, then you will be much better off than most people as you go forward with trying to learn Korean... or really any Eastern language in general. I'm trying to be forward-thinking here.

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Now, to address the initial concern that I brought up about the "-요" form of this verb, 하다:

As I said earlier, you would think that 하다 would be something like "하요" based on what I've explained so far. In reality, though, Korean people traditionally conjugate this verb as "하여요." Nowadays, though, they prefer to just say "해요," which is an even more shortened version of what I just said. The reason why is kind of a mystery (to me at least), but my best guess is because people in general just like to shorten the most common words in their language.

So yeah. Just be aware of it.

3. How to do imperative sentences

So far, what has been discussed has been limited to conjugating verbs for simple declarative sentences, where the only subtext or connotation is a level of politesse or abruptness. What we're going to talk about next is how to tell other people to do things with those same levels of politeness or abruptness.

A. the most common say (-(으)세요)

At the same level of politesse as the "common -(어/아/여)요" form of conjugating a verb, we have the most common way to ask or tell someone to do something. Usually, when we translate this level of politesse into English we like to throw in the word "please" somewhere.

As usual, the thing in parenthesis here refers to whether the word itself (or in this case, the verb itself) ends in a consonant or vowel.

Please note that in the future when you learn this language, you will see this particular conjugation used in one or two other situations where it's not necessarily an imperative sentence... but you can learn about that later. For now, we're talking about imperative sentences and this is the most common way you will hear people do it.

Examples:

[Please] eat.

to-eat+imperative

먹으세요.

[Please] go.

to-go+imperative

가세요.

B. the more formal way (-(으)십시오 aka -(으)십쇼 aka -(으)십죠)

The difference, at least when translating this way of conjugating a verb into English, between this and the previous one is almost nonexistant. It is simply a higher level of formality... just like the difference between the "-요" conjugation and the "-ㅂ니다" conjugation that was discussed in the previous chapter.

I mentioned three different ways of doing this, but really they are all the same. Like most things in Korean, if you can get away with shortening the spelling of something then chances are that people already do it anyway. This is an example of that. If you don't see how they're the same, try saying the first one of the three faster and faster to yourself and then comparing the way it sounds with the other ones. It should sound pretty close, if not the same -- depending on your accent and reading ability, of course.

As usual, the thing in parenthesis here refers to whether the word itself (or in this case, the verb itself) ends in a consonant or vowel.

Examples:

[Please] run.

to-run+imperative

달리십시오. (달리다 -> to run)

[Please] leave.

to-leave+imperative

떠나십쇼. (떠나다 -> to leave)

(You can of course replace what I did with any of the three things given in the title of this section and it'd still be the same... so no worries if you don't like how I chose to write it)

C. the more informal or rude way (-(어/아)라)

PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS CONJUGATION UNLESS YOU ARE BEING A DICK OR TRYING TO PICK A FIGHT.

PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS CONJUGATION UNLESS YOU ARE BEING A DICK OR TRYING TO PICK A FIGHT.

PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS CONJUGATION UNLESS YOU ARE BEING A DICK OR TRYING TO PICK A FIGHT.

PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS CONJUGATION UNLESS YOU ARE BEING A DICK OR TRYING TO PICK A FIGHT.

There. Now that that's out of the way... this is the same level of politesse as the informal, or 반말 (which is the fancy word for this level of talking) way of telling people to do something. Everything I said earlier about when to use the -(아/어/여) conjugation for declarative sentences also applies here, so if you don't remember or just skipped up to here to see this section's information... sorry but you'll have to go back and check that out.

Go.

가라.

Get out.

나가라. (나가다 -> to go out)

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Sigh. This is the end of the lesson.

If you're interested in learning more, go to this link and read the info to show up for the Mumble classes or whatever that I have on Sundays:

http://ureddit.com/class/103655/

I highly doubt any of you actually read all of my words in this effort post and instead just scroll to the bottom because "holy this shit is a huge effort post"... so yeah. You're welcome and I hope that this helps you get better with Korean or whatever, I guess.