3. Longer Sentence Structures

Longer Sentence Structures

Of course, You need to learn a bit more to make a long sentence structure but maybe it will confuse you a bit because Korean grammar is quite free even it seems like it has no rule. You will learn about  them later in details so you should just read them very very roughly to protect your brain and interests for Korean language. DO NOT STUDY THEM OR READ THEM CAREFULLY right now.

Sentences With An Indirect Object

Korean grammar puts an indirect object before a direct object often to make longer sentence structures. I taught you the position of each word isn’t much important in Korean grammar in previous lesson.

It applies to any sentence no matter how long or short it is. There is a natural order but that doesn’t mean it has to be in that order. Anyway… This one is same to English so it’s not hard right? Great, keep that mindset.

Subject + Indirect Object + Direct Object + Verb
저는 준에게 치킨을 줬어요
I gave Jun fried chicken

Korean grammar uses the indirect object marker to make an indirect object. Remember, Korean grammar always uses markers(particles) to make a subject or an object.

Chicken = Fried Chicken?

I wrote chicken in Korean but fried chicken in translation. Chicken in English normally means fried chicken to Korean, not animal.

In Another Order

You can write a direct object first also to make longer sentence structures. It’s possible thanks to markers since they show the components of sentence. They tell you what is an indirect object no matter where it is. YAY freedom for grammar.

Subject + Direct Object + Indirect Object + Verb
저는 치킨을 준에게 줬어요
I gave Jun fried chicken

Both are perfectly natural and Koreans use both ways in formal Korean and informal Korean. Korean grammar is quite free from rules and it’s the one small reason why translators aren’t so natural for Korean (every single translator sucks for Korean!) or why many foreigners sounds very unnatural when they speak Korean.

LONGER With Modifier

Now you can understand Korean grammar is less limited for sentence structures. For now, You don’t need to memorize them all. Just remember one single thing : Korean grammar often starts with a subject and always ends with a verb.

Prepositional modifiers (Korean has postposition instead of preposition but I’ll keep prepositions for you guys for now) in Korean grammar are more free. They can be placed literally anywhere except the end of sentence. To me, A native Korean, next each sentence seems to have a slightly different nuance. You will learn it in the postposition lesson.

Subject + Preposition + Direct Object + Verb
저는 손으로 치킨을 잡았어요
I grab a chicken with (my) hands

A grammatical modifier is placed on the position for the direct object buuuuuut also.

Subject + Direct Object + Preposition + Verb
저는 치킨을 손으로 잡았어요
I grab a chicken with (my) hands

Preposition + Subject + Direct Object + Verb
오늘 저는 치킨을 잡았어요
I grab a chicken today

Subject + Preposition + Direct Object + Verb
저는 오늘 치킨을 잡았어요
I grab a chicken today

Subject + Direct Object + Preposition + Verb
저는 치킨을 오늘 잡았어요
I grab a chicken today

The Subject Dropping

You will learn Korean grammar drops a subject or an object very often. It’s a bit tricky to understand or use it. For now, you don’t need to struggle to learn them in details because it’s really hard. But, I will teach you so basic things about it because it’s very essential to understand 100% natural Korean.

1. When the sentence is not a question and has ‘I(1st person pronoun)’ as a subject, you can drop the subject.

Direct Object + Indirect Object + Verb
치킨을 준에게 줬어요
(I) gave chicken to Jun

2. When the sentence is a question and has ‘you(2nd person pronoun)’ as a subject, you can drop the subject.

Direct Object + Indirect Object + Verb + ?
치킨을 준에게 줬어요?
Did (you) give chicken to Jun?