LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

~적/적으로/적이다

~적 is a common suffix that can be added after some nouns of Chinese origin (적 (的) is of Chinese origin). At first, there is no way to anticipate or expect which nouns this can be added to. As you progress through your Korean studies, you can sort of start anticipating this, but still, the only real way of knowing if ~적 can be added to a particular noun is if you have specifically learned that it can. The goal of this lesson isn't to teach you all of the words that ~적 can be attached to (that would take forever). Rather, the goal of this lesson is to show you how you can recognize and use these words when you come across them.

Adding ~적 to a noun changes it into a descriptive word that has the meaning of "relating to, or having the properties of' the original noun. For example:

문화 - culture
문화적 - relating to, or having the properties of culture

경제 - economy
경제적 - relating to, or having the properties of economy

역사 - history
역사적 - relating to, or having the properties of history

However, the translations above are nonsense and a more accurate way to translate words with ~적 is to add "-al" to the English word. For example:

문화 - culture
문화적 - cultural

경제 - economy
경제적 - economical

역사 - history
역사적 - historical

Adding "-al" doesn't always work with the English word, though. For example:

과학 - science
과학적 - relating to, or having the properties of science
과학적 - scientific

충동 - impulse/shock
충동적 - relating to, or having the properties of impulse
충동적 - impulsive

The main point of this lesson is to teach you how you can understand the meaning of a word ending in ~적 even if you have never seen it before. This still happens to me fairly regularly – I will read something, and come across a word I have never seen before ending in ~적.

For example, if you knew that the word "민주" meant "democracy" What do you think "민주적" would mean? A descriptive word that has the properties of democracy – that would be "democratic."

민주 - democracy
민주적 - democratic

Though these descriptive words can be used in sentences, it is easy for a beginner to understand them when they are used by adding ~이다 or ~으로.

Adding 으로
Adding '으로' to the end of ~적 changes the word into an adverb. These adverbs usually have the ending 'ly' in English. Below are the most common examples of using ~적으로 with example sentences for each:

문화 - culture
문화적 - cultural
문화적으로 - culturally

한국은 지난 50년 동안 문화적으로 많이 변했어요 - Korea has changed a lot culturally in the period of/during/for the past 50 years

경제 - economy
경제적 - economical
경제적으로 - economically

그것은 경제적으로 가능하지 않아요 - That isn't economically possible

역사 - history
역사적 - historical
역사적으로 - historically

한국과 미국은 역사적으로 좋은 관계가 있다 - Historically, Korea and the US have had a good relationship

과학 - science
과학적 - scientific
과학적으로 - scientifically

그들은 그 문제를 과학적으로 풀었다 - They solved that problem scientifically