KOREAN LANGUAGE TUTORIAL

LESSON 18

Korean lessons: Lesson 18

That ___/This_____
You can see in the vocabulary above that the word for “this” is 이 in Korean.
We use 이 in Korean when we are talking about something that is within touching distance (for example: this pen [the one that I am holding])
The words for “that:” 그 and 저.
We use 그 when we are talking about something from a previous sentence. For example: “I don’t like that man [when your friend mentioned him in a previous sentence].
We use 저 when were are talking about something that we cannot touch because it is too far away.
Using these is very simple and is just like English. By placing 이, 그 or 저 before a noun you can say "this/that _______":

That person = 저 사람 This person = 이 사람
That man = 저 남자 That woman = 저 여자

Using This/That with 이다
Remember, 이다 can be used to say am/is/are. So, if we want to say this:
“That person is a doctor”
- We can start by putting those words into the Korean structure:
That person는 doctor is
- And then change the English words to the appropriate Korean words:
그 사람은 + 의사 + 이다
그 사람은 의사이다
(그 사람은 의사예요)
More examples:
그 사람은 선생님이다 = that person is a teacher (그 사람은 선생님이에요)
이 것은 탁자이다 = this thing is a table (이 것은 탁자예요)
저 것은 침대이다 = that thing is a bed (저 것은 침대예요)
그 사람은 남자이다 = that person is a man (그 사람은 남자예요)
그 사람은 여자이다 = that person is a woman (그 사람은 여자예요)
If you were to pick up another Korean textbook, I am sure the first chapter would be much easier than this. Trust me though; learning this at the start will be very useful to you later on. When I was learning how to speak Korean, it took me months to realize some of these things (not because they were hard, but because I was using a text book that never taught me the reason why things the way they are in Korean).
Before you move on, make sure you understand the simple Korean sentence structure presented in this lesson. Also, "remember that these sentences are technically incorrect (or very very uncommon) because they have not been conjugated".
JLR