How to say “No” politely in Korean
We all care about others' feelings a lot, especially when we say NO. Typically, there are three ways to say NO indirectly/politely.
(1) 생각해볼게요 (I'll think about it)
This phrase gives an impression that you're taking...
Adverbs of Past Time in Korean
There are many adverbs to indicate past tense in Korean.
방금 = just now
아까 = a few hours ago
며칠 전에 = a few days ago
몇 달 전에 = a few months ago
몇 년 전에 =...
[Grammar] ~(으)ㄹ 거다 vs ~(으)ㄹ게 vs ~겠다
(Estimated reading time: 8 minutes)
It's been a very long time since my last blog post about grammar nuances (or about anything at all...) - the last one was ~(으)ㄹ 것 같다 VS ~(으)ㄴ/는 것 같다!...
~(으)ㄹ 것 같다 VS ~(으)ㄴ/는 것 같다
(Estimated reading time: 7 minutes)
~(으)ㄹ/(으)ㄴ/는 것 같다 is probably one of the most used grammar particles in everyday conversations, business settings and basically everywhere! You would have heard this so much in dramas that...
~고 있다 VS ~어/아/여 있다 – Important differences and uses
(Estimated reading time: 7 minutes)
Most Korean learners wouldn't be able to tell you the difference (myself included!) but there are very distinct differences and situations where only either can be used.
In this blog post,...
~지만 VS ~(으)ㄴ/는데; Important rules and various uses
There are many ways to express "but", "however", "though", basically an expression or conjunction to link two contrasting clauses. The most commonly used two expressions are probably ~지만 and ~(으)ㄴ/는데, therefore we'll explore the differences...
~어/아/여서 VS ~(으)니까 – Differences and important rules
These two - ~어/아/여서 and ~(으)니까 - are probably two of the most commonly confused grammar expression. To be very honest, I'm not sure about the difference at times. I'll list some very important...
[Grammar] Passive verbs
The most basic kind of conjugation applies to verbs (active).
How about conjugated verbs into their passive forms?
There are more (complicated) rules to conjugating verbs into their passive forms.
For verbs ending with…
ㅎ, ㅌ, ㅗ, ㅏ,...
[Grammar] ~(으)ㄴ 채로
~(으)ㄴ 채로 (~eun/eun chae-ro) – while in the state of (having done something), another thing happened/something else was done
This is not to be confused with ~(으)면서.
For ~(으)면서, you are referring to two actions being...
[Grammar] ~고자
~고자 (~go-ja) – so as to… (someone) did something
This is quite similar to ~(으)려고, ~(으)러 and ~도록, we would verbs before and after these grammar particles.
You can look at the second action after ~고자...