Learning new vocabulary in a foreign language is a never-ending struggle. It often feels like I've filled up every available space already, so when I try to learn a new batch of words they just overflow the tank and slosh over the sides and down the drain. So any little trick helps. Here's how my teacher helped me learn to remember the differences among three very similar-looking words.
1. 넣다 2. 놓다 3. 낳다
1. neohta 2. nohta 3. nahta
They're almost the same, the only difference being in the first vowel: ㅓ, ㅗ, or ㅏ.
And what's worse, 1. and 2. mean very similar things, too.
1. neohta means "put in," 2. nohta means "put on," and 3. nahta means "give birth." What's the trick? The shapes of those vowels are like little pictures: The ㅓ of 넣다 is going into the ㄴ. See it tucked into the crook of the ㄴ's elbow?
The ㅗ of 놓다 is lying flat on top of the ㅎ. Picture the top of a cookie jar or the lid of a pot resting on a countertop.
And in the ㅏof 낳다, you see a little line coming out of the big line.
These pictures tell the stories of the verbs' meanings: put in, put on, and give birth (something comes out).
Ingenious.
Three verbs down, seven million to go.
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