KOREAN LANGUAGE TUTORIAL

LESSON 29

Korean Lesson: Lessons 29

Korean Particles (and) 과/와, 랑/이랑 and 하고

과/와, 랑/이랑 and 하고 can all be used interchangeably to mean “and” in Korean.
과 and 와 are the same. 과 is attached to words ending in a consonant, 와 is attached to words ending in a vowel. Similarly, 랑 and 이랑 are the same. 이랑 is attached to words ending in a consonant, 랑 is attached to words ending in a vowel. 하고 can be attached to words ending in a vowel or consonant. These can be added fairly simply to nouns:

나는 사과와 바나나를 샀어 = I bought apples and bananas

나는 인천이랑 서울에 갈 거에요 = I will go to Seoul and Incheon
형하고 아버지는 영화를 봤어 = My brother and dad saw a movie
Each one can be used interchangeably, but 랑/이랑  is used more in conversation, whereas 하고 and 와/과 are used in writing. But, it depends on the person – I usually say “랑/이랑” when I speak, but I often hear people say “과/와” or “하고.”

Korean Particles (with) 과 함께, 와 함께, 과/와, 랑/이랑 and 하고

Just when you thought this was going to be an easy lesson. Ha! This sounds crazy, but the same words can be used to mean “and” and “with” in Korean. It is always clear if you are trying to mean “and” or “with” because of the sentence structure. When these particles have the meaning “and,” a noun will always follow 과/와/랑/이랑/하고: 
For example:
나는 사과와 바나나를 샀어 = I bought apples and bananas
After 와, another noun is used, which means you are talking about apples AND bananas. But if I said this:
나는 친구와 갔어 = I went with my friend
There is no additional noun after 와, which means it can only mean “with.” More examples:

나는 아버지랑 공원에 갈 거야 = I will go to the park with my dad

선생님은 학생들과 박물관에 갔다 = The teacher went to the museum with the students

Also notice that you can actually use these particles to mean both “and” and “with” within the same sentence:
저는 밥을 친구랑 나의 어머니랑 먹었어요 = I ate (rice*) with my mom and my friend
*Korean people often use “밥” (rice) to simply mean “food.” It stems from the fact that Korean people eat rice with (almost) every meal – so if you ate, it means that you ate rice. You can say “밥을 먹었어” which can simply mean “I ate.”
When using 과 and 와 to mean “with,” 함께 is often used in the sentence as well. 함께 comes after using 과 and 와 but can only be used when they have the meaning “with,” and cannot be used when the meaning is “and”
저는 선생님과 함께 공부했어요 = I studied with my teacher
You can also use these particles to simply say that you are ‘with’ somebody. In order to do this, you must use 있다 along with the adverb “together”:

나는 친구랑 같이 있어 = I’m with my friend

Note that this meaning of “with” in Korean cannot be used like this:
I built a house with my hands
Remember, “my hands” are the method in which you did something, so (으)로 needs to be used in those situations (저는 손으로 집을 지었어요)

Korean Particles (to) 에게/한테/께

These three particles can all be used to indicate that you are doing (usually giving) something TO somebody. 에게, 한테 and 께 all have the same meaning, but 한테 is usually used in conversation, 에게 is usually written (although it is still said in conversation very often) and 께 is used when the person you are giving something to requires respect (께 is the honorific form of 에게/한테).
아버지는 아들에게 돈을 준다 = The father gives money to his son
나는 학생들한테 한국어를 가르쳤어 = I taught Korean to the students
Note that just because you use 께 doesn’t mean that your sentence needs to end in a polite way. 께 is used when the person who is being given is of high importance, regardless of who you are talking to. For example, if I was a teacher, talking to my student, talking about something being given TO the principal, I could say:
나는 책을 교장선생님께 줬어 = I gave the principal a book

Korean Particles (from) 에게서/(으)로부터

You learned in the previous lesson that 에서 can be used to mean “from” in a wide variety of situations. You can also use 에게서 to mean “from” but “에게서” is used in a more restricted way. 에게서has the meaning that is opposite of 에게/한테/께, which means it is used when somebody is receiving something from somebody. 에게서 gets attached to the person from whom you received something from.
나는 나의 여자친구에게서 편지를 받았어 = I received a letter from my girlfriend
A very similar particle is (으)로부터. I have read some textbooks claiming this is the honorific form of 에게서. I don’t think this is true – although I wish it were, because that would make it really easy to distinguish the two.
My grandmaster Korean grammar teacher couldn’t tell me the difference between 에게서 and 로부터 when I first learned them, although there is a difference. From what I have been able to piece together, 에게서 is used when receiving something from a person, whereas 로부터 is used when receiving something from a non-person thing (a company/the government/etc). This may not be 100% true all the time, but it is as close as I can get:
나는 돈을 정부로부터 받았어 = I received money from the government (the recording incorrectly says “받았어요“)
But, like I said, though 에게서 and 로부터 mean “from,” their usages are more limited than 에서 (which also means “from”). A lot of the times you can substitute 에게서/로부터 with 에서 with no difference in meaning.

Do something for somebody (을/를 위해(서))

If you want to say that you are doing something FOR (the benefit of) somebody, you can add 를/을 to the person who you are doing something for, followed by 위해(서):
나는 나의 여자 친구를 위해 꽃을 샀어 = I bought flowers for my girlfriend

나는 부장님을 위해서 이 것을 썼어 = I wrote this for my boss (the recording incorrectly says “썼어요“)

There doesn’t seem to be a difference between 위해 and 위해서.

This form is usually used when you are doing something for a person, but can also be used sometimes when you are doing something for a non-person:
저는 회사를 위해 열심히 일할 거에요 = I will work hard for the company
The important thing is that the thing in which you are doing something for must be a noun (that’s a confusing sentence – read it again if it went over your head). You can use 위해 to indicate that you are doing something for the purpose of a verb (I am going there to/for the purpose of see(ing) a movie) but you will learn about that in a later lesson when you learn how to change verbs into nouns.
Also make sure that you realize that ‘for’ can have many meanings in English. Just because you say ‘for’ in English, doesn’t mean that it can be translated directly to 를/을 위해. In Korean, ~를/을 위해 means for the benefit of. For example, in this sentence:

I am waiting for the bus – the ‘bus’ is the object in which you are waiting for, so, in Korean, you attach the particle 을/를 to ‘bus’ but not 을/를 위해:
나는 버스를 기다린다

About something ~에 대해
에 대해 can also be attached to nouns like 를/을 위해, but this has the meaning of “about.” It’s very easy to understand when used in simple situations:
나는 너에 대해 생각했어요 = I was thinking about you

나는 나의 아버지에 대해 말했어요 = I was talking about my father

나는 그 것에 대해 책을 쓸 거야 = I will write a book about it

One way that you cannot use 에 대해 is in the following sentence:

My favorite thing about you is your eyes.

I’d love to teach you that sentence in Korean, but it is just a little bit too complicated for you right now. Ah, what the heck – I’ll show you – but don’t expect to understand much of it:
너에 있어서 내가 가장 좋아하는 것은 너의 눈이다.