Daybreakin Things

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Long wait, isn't it? ;)

This time, I will introduce some Korean greetings which you can use when you meet a Korean.
You should be familiar with Korean characters for more convenient reading. (Read references at the first lecture!)

You should pronunce separately each block of alphabets which are representing each Korean syllable. However, pronunciation of those alphabets is not same to English. (For exampe, 'a' is not [ei], just [a(h)].) There are also sound-linking rules for more fluent speaking, but they only make the things complicated, so I don't recommend them yet. Of course, the best way to learn pronunciation is making a Korean friend. =3=3

1. Hello / Hi / Good bye
Korean doesn't distinguish the begging greeting and the ending greeting. All we say the same thing.
Note that many words and phrases of Korean has both honorific form and friendly form. Honorific forms are used when you say to older or higher-positioned people than you. Friendly forms are used to say to your friends or younger people.

안녕하세요. [An nyeong ha se yo] : A honorific form of 'hello/hi'.
안녕. / 안녕? / 안녕! [An nyeong] : A friendly form of 'hello/hi'.
안녕히 계세요. [An nyeong hi gye se yo] : A honorific form of 'good bye'. (The friendly form of this is same to 'hello', that is, '안녕'.) But this is used only when we depart from the host.
안녕히 가세요. [An nyeong hi ga se yo] : Same to '안녕히 계세요', but only used when we are the host and the target is guest, or send off somebody.
잘 있어. [Jal It seo] : A friendly form of '안녕히 계세요.'
잘 가. [Jal ga] : A friendly form of '안녕히 가세요.'

2. See you (later/again/etc.)
또 봐요. [Tto Bwa yo] : A honorific form of 'see you'.
또 봐. [Tto Bwa] : A friendly form of 'see you'.
나중에 봐요. [Na joong e bwa yo] : A honorific form of 'see you later'.
나중에 봐. [Na joong e bwa] : A friendly form of 'see you later'.

You may notice that '~요' makes a phrase to be a honorific form. I will mention about this at later lectures on verbs.

3. Thank you
고맙습니다. [Go map seup ni da] : A honorific form of 'thank you.'
고마워. [Go ma wo] : A friendly form of 'thank you.'
감사합니다. [Gam sa hap ni da] : A 'more' honorific form of 'thank you', derived from a Chinese word '감사(感謝)'.

In fact, there are so many variations of these phrases. The reason of that will be reviewed in later lectures.

4. Good night.
Actually, most Koreans don't use different greetings such as 'good morning', 'good afternoon', 'good evening', 'good night'.
안녕히 주무세요. [An nyeong hi joo moo se yo] : A
honorific form of 'good night / have a nice sleep'.
잘 자. / 잘 자라. [Jal ja / Jal ja ra] : A friendly form of 'good night / have a nice sleep'.

'안녕(
寧)' means being safe, comfortable, and not worried. This is originally a Chinese word, but became greetings of Korean at some time (I don't know exactly).

<Example>
More detailed description on grammar will be provided later.

안녕하세요? 나는 XYZ입니다. = Hello. My name is XYZ.
나[na] : I or me
는[neun] : a postposition that changes an word into a subject. (so '나는' means 'I'.)
~입니다[ip ni da] : similar to 'be' verb, in a
honorific form and present tense. Basic form is '~이다'. This is not exactly a verb, actually, but an adjective verb. (details later)

벌써 밤 11시네. 잘 자라. = It's already 11pm. Good night.
벌써[bul sseo] : already
밤[bam] : night
시(
)[si] : a unit of time, one hour. This is used for pointing a particular time. To count a span of time, you should use '시간()'.
~네[ne] : a far variation of '~이다', in a different style and also present tense.
'It' (the subject) is omitted at the first sentence.

선물 고마워. = Thank you for this present.
선물[seon mool] : present
There is no corresponding Korean word for 'for' in this case. (Strictly, we can think a postposition after '선물' is omitted.)

Next time, I will list some basic Korean vocabulary, only for nouns. (Verbs and adjective, adverbs should be explained after understanding verb form variations.) I think Chinese people would feel more easy because many nouns are actually from Chinese words.

* MODIFIED: respective -> honorific (commented by Dongseong Han)