LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

~스럽다

~스럽다 can also be added to some nouns to change them into an adjective, much like the function of ~적(이다). When doing this, ~스럽다 changes the noun into an adjective that has the "properties" of that noun. The two easiest examples to explain this change are:

사랑 - love
사랑스럽다 - "with the properties of love"

자연 - nature
자연스럽다 - "with the properties of nature"

For example:
그 여자가 아주 사랑스러워요 - That girl is something "with the properties of love"
그 여자의 머리 색깔은 자연스러워 - That girl's hair color has "the properties of nature"

Of course, those translations are nonsense. A more accurate translation of these words would be:

사랑스럽다 - lovely
자연스럽다 - natural

The only way of knowing if ~스럽다 or ~적 can be added to a word is if you have specifically learned that it can. Because one can never know which words ~스럽다 and ~적 can be added to.

Anyways, ~스럽다 can be added to nouns to make that noun a descriptive word:

The two examples above are fairly straight-forward. However ~스럽다 is sometimes added to words that seem to already have an adjective form. For example:

실망 - disappointment
실망하다 - to be disappointed
실망스럽다 - "with the properties of disappointment" (disappointing)

I'll do the best I can to distinguish between 실망스럽다 and 실망하다 for you.

실망하다 is used to describe a person's emotions. This could be referring to anybody's emotions; not necessarily just the speaker's emotions. For example:

저는 실망했어요 - I was disappointed
우리 아버지는 어제 실망했어요 - Our dad was disappointed yesterday

If you want to say that somebody is disappointed in a person using 실망하다, you must attach the particle ~에게/한테 to the person he/she is disappointed in. For example:

저는 친구에게 실망했어요 - I was disappointed in my friend
우리 아버지는 저에게 실망했어요 - Our dad was disappointed in me

If you want to say that somebody is disappointed in a non-person using 실망하다, you must attach the particle ~에 to the thing he/she is disappointed in. For example:

저는 영화에 실망했어요 - I was disappointed in the movie
우리 아버지는 식당에 실망했어요 - Our dad was disappointed in the restaurant

Hmmm... Adding ~에게/한테 to a person, and adding ~에 to a non-person. What does this remind you of? Remember, you learned this same rule when predicating sentences with passive verbs.

Well, 실망하다 is a verb. In English, it definitely feels like an adjective, but in Korean the dictionary (and the use of the particles ~에게/한테 and ~에) indicate that it is a verb. Here, 실망하다 is a verb (much like passive verbs) that cannot act on an object. Other verbs like this are 자다 (to sleep), 죽다 (to die), etc. This really means very little, and the only thing you need to take from this is:

In order to say one is disappointed, you can use 실망하다:

저는 실망했어요 - I was disappointed
우리 아버지는 어제 실망했어요 - Our dad was disappointed yesterday

In order to say one is disappointed in something/somebody, you can use 실망하다 along with the use of the particles ~에게/한테 (for a person) or ~에 (for a non-person). For example: