23 topics
Korean help, from batchim to speech levels
Korean asks you to hold two entire number systems in your head at once. Half past three is 세 시 삼십 분: the hour takes the native count, the minutes take the Sino-Korean one, and swapping them is the fastest way to sound like a first-week beginner. Hangul itself takes an afternoon to learn and is genuinely elegant, but the sound rules stacked on top of it are where the real work sits.
Where students get stuck
There are two sets of numbers and I keep using the wrong one
Native Korean numbers — 하나, 둘, 셋 — count hours on a clock, your age, and objects paired with a counter such as 개, 명 or 마리. Sino-Korean numbers — 일, 이, 삼 — handle minutes, dates, months, money, phone numbers, floors and anything above ninety-nine. That is why 3:30 is 세 시 삼십 분 with one system on each side of the clock. Also note that the native numbers change shape before a counter: 하나 becomes 한, 둘 becomes 두, 셋 becomes 세. Learning them in counter phrases rather than as a bare list avoids the whole problem.
What is written and what I hear do not match
They match perfectly once you know the sound rules, which are regular rather than exceptions. A final consonant, the batchim, slides into a following syllable that begins with a vowel, so 한국어 is said 한구거 and 음악 is said 으막. ㅎ largely disappears between voiced sounds, which is why 좋아요 comes out 조아요. Consonants also assimilate: 십육 becomes 심뉵 and 국물 becomes 궁물, because a stop before a nasal turns nasal itself. Read aloud with the rule named each time and within a couple of weeks your eye applies it before your mouth gets there.
은/는 and 이/가 both seem to mark the subject
은/는 marks the topic, the thing the sentence is about, often something already in play, and it carries contrast. 이/가 marks the grammatical subject and pushes it forward as new information. So an answer to 누가 왔어요 has to use 이/가, because the new name is the whole point of the reply. Both can appear in one sentence: 저는 김치가 좋아요 sets you as the topic and kimchi as the thing doing the pleasing, which is also why the thing you like takes 이/가 rather than an object particle. When you introduce yourself you use 저는, and when you answer who did it you use 이/가.
요, 습니다 or neither — which one do I say?
This is a social choice as much as a grammatical one. 해요체, the ending in 해요 and 먹어요, is the polite everyday level and the safe default with anybody you do not know. 합니다체 is a step more formal: news broadcasts, presentations, a job interview, speaking to your teacher in front of the class. 반말, the bare 해 and 먹어, is for close friends, younger people and family, and using it too early reads as rude rather than friendly. Separately from all three, honorific 시 and 께서 raise the person you are talking about, which is why a grandmother 주무세요 rather than 자요.
Korean has no word for who or that
Relative clauses in Korean run backwards from what English does. There is no relative pronoun; instead the whole modifying clause sits in front of the noun with a verb ending attached. The film I watched yesterday is 내가 어제 본 영화, literally I yesterday watched film. The ending on that verb carries the tense: 은 or ㄴ for past, 는 for present, ㄹ for future, so 보는 영화 is the film I am watching and 볼 영화 is the film I will watch. Find the noun at the end of the pile first, then read the clause in front of it as a description of that noun.
What's covered
Korean topics you can work through with a tutor, generate practice on, or turn into flashcards and a study plan.
Hangul and pronunciation
- Consonant and vowel shapes, and why they look that way
- Building syllable blocks
- Batchim and final consonant rules
- Resyllabification and nasal assimilation
- Plain, aspirated and tense consonant sets
Particles and sentence structure
- 은/는 topic against 이/가 subject
- 을/를, 에, 에서 and 으로
- Verb-final word order
- Modifying clauses before the noun
- Connectives: 고, 지만, 아서/어서, 니까
Verb endings and speech levels
- 해요체, 합니다체 and 반말
- Honorific 시, 께서 and special verbs
- Past, present and future forms
- Requests, suggestions and permission
- Reported speech
Numbers, counters and address
- Native and Sino-Korean numerals
- Counters: 개, 명, 마리, 장, 번
- Time, dates and money
- Age, family terms and job titles
Listening, speaking and exam prep
- TOPIK I and TOPIK II practice
- Listening at natural speed
- Short writing tasks and 쓰기
- Conversation practice on everyday topics
Korean questions
Can I practise speaking Korean out loud with it?
You can, by voice, in a live back-and-forth, and it answers by voice too. Set a situation — ordering food, a phone call, a class introduction — and tell it which speech level to stay in, which is useful practice on its own. There is no accent scoring built in, so anything it says about your speech is spoken feedback rather than a measurement, and it will tell you plainly when it did not catch a word.
I picked up my Korean from dramas. Is that a problem?
Only if nobody warns you. Dramas are full of 반말, because the characters are close, and that is exactly the register that lands badly with a teacher, an older relative or a stranger. Your listening is probably ahead of your class, which is worth keeping. The fix is to relearn the phrases you already know in 해요체 and to notice, in the next episode you watch, who is speaking down to whom and why.
Can it read my Korean textbook page?
Point the camera at the page and it will read the Hangul, including your own handwriting in a workbook, and work through a passage with you a line at a time. Screen sharing does the same for a PDF or an online course page. It is a quick way to ask about one grammar box without typing any Korean at all.
Will it write my TOPIK essay for me?
No, and handing in something you did not write would be obvious to a marker anyway. Write the response yourself and it will grade it against the criteria, telling you where the structure drifted, which endings were inconsistent, and where your vocabulary stayed below the level being tested. It will also quiz you on the grammar patterns that keep costing you marks.
Stuck on korean right now?
Talk it through out loud, share your screen, and watch it worked out step by step on a whiteboard.
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