MANNAM Korean class: That’s what he said!

MANNAM Korean class: That’s what he said!

 David has a younger sister. He is worried about her because she has flu these days. Mike asks David why he has a long face. David answers it is because of his sister. After the conversation, they went back to their business. Nancy is a co worker who works with David and Mike. Nancy noticed that David has worries too. So she comes up to Mike and asks, “David seems that he has worries these days. Do you know about anything?” “Yeah, he said his sister is sick. That’s what he said to me.” Mike said.

 Mike told Nancy about the fact that he heard. In Korean, there are some postpositional particles that make differences according to what kind of sentence the speaker says. If we translate what Mike said in Korean, it will be like “네, 그의 동생이 아프다고 했어요.”

‘동생이 아프다(Sister is sick)’ is the fact. If I am the person who is passing the news, I have to use the postpositional particle ‘~다고’. Not every particle is like this though. There are four kinds of this kind of particle depending what kind of sentence is used.

1.     Declarative sentence: ~다고

If A speaks in a declarative sentence, B listens to this and have to use ‘~다고’ to C.

Ex) ‘He said he was sick.’ ☞ ‘그는 아팠었다고 말했어요.’

2.     Interrogative sentence: ~냐고(느냐고)

To speak ‘~느냐고’ is a right way in grammar, but since people use just ‘~냐고’ it is established by Korean grammar that it is okay.

Ex) ‘He asked me if I am busy.’ ☞ ‘그는 나에게 바쁘냐고 물어봤어요.’

3.     ‘Let’s do ~’ sentence: ~자고

Ex) ‘He said let’s go on a picnic.’ ☞ ‘그는 소풍을 가자고 했어요.’

4.     Noun: ~(이)라고

 Ex) ‘He told me that is a flower.’ ☞ ‘그는 저것이 꽃이라고 말해 줬어요.’

Now that you have learned, do you know the difference between the four postpositional particles? Just knowing by your head is no use though. In MANNAM Korean class we also have the opportunity to speak each other to use it in real life. You can be like Mike who can choose and speak the right postpositional particles. Join MANNAM Korean class and be fluent!