To say “this” in Korean, put this adjective before a noun:
이 means “this” and is used to describe something close to the speaker. So, we can have:
To say “that” in Korean, use:
그 also attaches before a noun and is used to desribe something close to the person listening, not the speaker.
To say “that” to refer to something further away (far from both the speaker and listener), use:
e.g.
저 in this case does not mean “I” - you might be confused, because we’ve learned this word before.
저 자전거 wouldn’t make sense if 저 meant “I” (I bicycle??)
There is a way in Korean to say “my,” as in “my bicycle.” It involves 저 and we’ll cover it in a later lesson.
Conversation Practice
Informal:
지민: 저는 그 자전거를 갖고 싶어요.
진화: 이 자전거는 너무 비싸요.
Jimin: I want to have that bike.
Jinwa: This bike is very expensive.
Note how the topic marker 는 is used to switch the topic of conversation from Jimin to the bike itself when 진화 wants to talk about the bike and how expensive it is.
So far, we’ve only covered adjectives. You can also use “this” as a noun in Korean, as in “this thing.” To do that, we use:
This is a noun, and literally means “this thing.” Since it’s a noun, we can apply the topic marker when appropriate.
Similarly, these are also nouns in Korean:
Note that since these are nouns, the object marker should also be used, depending on what you’re trying to say and whether the topic marker has already established the topic.
이것, 그것, and 저것 are commonly shortened to 이거, 그거, and 저거 when speaking.