This is the first of a series of videos on Korean prepositions. Let me state the obvious and say Korean is a very different language from English and, because of that, a lot of words do not translate directly. I'd love to give you a list of English prepositions and their direct Korean translations, but it just isn't that simple. You're gonna learn how to describe position from a whole new perspective.
The two Korean prepositions we will learn in this video are 에 and 에서. 에 can mean at, to, in, or on depending on context. 에서 usually means from, out, or off. But, these two prepositions are not used in every instance when at, to, in, on, from, out, and off are used. We will take a look at when you can use them and when you can't use them. But first let's learn how to use them.
In Korean prepositions are suffixes that go after the object. Think about what that means for a second and consider this example:
I go to Korea.
Lets put these words in Korean order
remember the order is subject object verb
I Korea go
then add the preposition at the end of the object
I Korea-to go
and in Korean
저는 한국to 가요.
저는 한국에 가요.
Korea is the thing you are going to, so, it gets the preposition after it. And the preposition takes the place of the object marker.
Yes, in Korean the preposition is like an object marker. It is attached to the end of the object. Calling them prepositions is a bit inaccurate because the word preposition has that "pre-" in it, but since they come after the object it would be more accurate to call them post-positions. I'm going to continue to call them prepositions though.
Let's look at the other preposition 에서
We made the sentence I go to Korea.
저는 한국에 가요.
If we change the preposition 에 to 에서 them it means "I go from Korea" or "I go away from Korea"
저는 한국에서 가요.
Let's summarize it all on one page:
I eat at 12:00
저는 12:00에 먹어요.
and now let's learn about when you do not use them.
You do not use 에 when you have both 에 and 애서 in the same sentence. For example: "I go from A to B" or "I sleep from 10:00 to 6:00"
There are different prepositions for sentences like that. We'll learn those in a later video but here's a little sneak peak. 저는 A에서 B로 가요. 저는 10:00에서 6:00까지 자요.
-You don't use 에 / 에서 when the verb in your sentence is look 보다. For example
"I look at flamingos"
저는 플라밍고를 봐요.
봐요 means 'see' and 'look at'. It requires no addition of a preposition
-"I am from Canada."
No. You don't use 에 and 에서 when you are saying where you came from
-"I give it to you"
When the object of your sentence is a person or an animal do not use 에/에서
-"the inside" When you want to specify that something is inside something else.
For example if you wanted to say that you are inside the house, not just at the house there is a different word for inside. Don't just use 에 because that can mean "in", but also can mean "at" and "to" so it's not clear if you are actually in the house, or just beside the house. "I am inside the house" . "I am at the house"
and
We will learn the appropriate prepositions for all these situations and more in future lessons in this series. aha! cliffhanger... For now get some practice by translating these sentences. See ya next time fellow students and thank you for studying with me.
Watch the lesson here: https://youtu.be/B7mIWEVw-MA
