4
Upper intermediate
The links between clauses get finer — concession, consequence, purpose and circumstance — and the written language joins the spoken one: the style of newspapers and reports, with endings of its own.
Subjects beyond daily life — work, education, the environment, society — can be followed and discussed, and one idea now has several phrasings to choose from.
The verb and its endings4
Passive and causative
44The long passive: -아/어지다 and 되다Most verbs have no passive suffix: they take -아/어지다, and 하다 verbs swap 하다 for 되다.4Causative suffixes: 이, 히, 리, 기, 우, 구, 추A syllable inside the verb turns "eat" into "feed" and "wear" into "dress someone" — a new verb for a fixed set.4When Korean uses a passiveEnglish reaches for the passive far more often than Korean, which prefers an active sentence with the doer left out.4Suffix causative or -게 하다: direct and indirect먹이다 is putting food in someone's mouth; 먹게 하다 is getting them to eat — the suffix is hands-on.
Clauses and how they join9
Before a noun, and verbs as nouns
24The remembered past before a noun: 내가 다니던 학교-던 describes a noun by something that used to happen or was going on, and often by something that has since stopped.4The written nominaliser -음: 있음, 없음, 알림-음, or an m added after a vowel, turns a verb into a noun in notices, memos, forms and formal writing.
Linking clauses, further
64Because something went wrong: -는 바람에-는 바람에 names a sudden, unplanned event that caused something unwelcome.4The more … the more: -(으)ㄹ수록As one thing grows, another grows or shrinks with it — English “the more … the more”.4Even if, supposing the worst: -더라도-더라도 is a stronger, more hypothetical “even if”: supposing the worst, the decision still stands.4Whereas, on the other hand: 반면에반면에 sets two facts against each other — one side, and the opposite side.4So that, until: -도록-도록 says what an action is meant to make possible — or how far it goes.4Since I will, since it will: -(으)ㄹ 테니까-(으)ㄹ 테니까 gives as a reason what the speaker will do, or what will surely be the case, and asks the listener to act on it.
Reported speech
1Stance, set patterns and the written style14
Further patterns
84Depending on: 에 따라(서) and 에 따른에 따라(서) says what something varies with, or what an action follows; before a noun it becomes 에 따른.4While you are at it: -는 김에-는 김에 says that one action is the occasion for doing a second, extra one.4Two birds with one stone: -(으)ㄹ 겸-(으)ㄹ 겸 names one of several purposes behind a single action; between nouns 겸 means “and at the same time”.4No use even if: -아/어 봤자-아/어 봤자 says that even if you do something, it will be no use, or the result will be small.4There is no way: -(으)ㄹ 리가 없다-(으)ㄹ 리가 없다 says that something cannot possibly be so.4On the way: -는 길에-는 길에 after a verb of going or coming says that something happens on the way.4On top of that: -(으)ㄴ/는 데다가-(으)ㄴ/는 데다가 adds a second fact that points the same way as the first.4By and due to: 에 의해(서), (으)로 인해(서)에 의해(서) names the agent of a passive, (으)로 인해(서) names a cause — both in news, notices and writing.
The written style
64The plain written style: -ㄴ/는다, -다, -았다Written texts end their sentences in the plain style: verbs in -ㄴ/는다, adjectives in -다, the past in -았/었다.4Linking in writing: -(으)며 and -고-(으)며 joins clauses in writing, both as “and” and as “while”; written texts alternate it with -고.4In order to, formally: -고자-고자 states a purpose or an intention in formal writing and speeches; -고자 하다 means “intend to”.4Because, in writing: -(으)므로-(으)므로 gives an objective reason in notices, documents and formal writing.4Written connectors: 및, 등, 또는, 혹은, 즉Written Korean joins nouns with 및 and 또는, closes lists with 등 and restates with 즉.4Formal vocabulary: Sino-Korean 하다 verbsFormal writing replaces everyday native verbs with precise Sino-Korean ones: 보다 becomes 관람하다, 사다 becomes 구입하다.