Learning Korean 2

This is the grammar I've been working on lately:

1. The honorific suffix: -으시, which I would like to call the horrific suffix, because it's confusing and complicated.

This is my first systematic exposure to the honorific form. Before digging into this chapter, I had really only seen the honorific in memorized-as-a-whole forms, like 주셔서 감사합니다 (jusyeoseo kamsamnida "thank you for") or polite imperatives like 앉으세요 (anjeuseyo "please have a seat"). But now I see where those forms come from, which is nice. But understanding the ways 시 changes form, having to remember whether the construction in question calls for the bare stem or the 어/아 form, and trying to wrap my mind around the whole honorific system make using the honorific a challenge. I'll talk about Korean's honorific and politeness axes in a later post.

2. The so-called long negative: -지 않다

어제 아파서 아무것도 먹지않았어요. ("Because I was sick yestersay, I didn't eat anything.")

3. The "obviously, as you know" construction: -잖다

A. 잘 한국어를 하고 있어요! ("You're speaking Korean well!")
B. 저는 열심히 공부하잖아요. ("Well, as you know, I do study hard.")

4. The "worth doing/doable/understandable that" construction: -을 만하다

오늘은 저를 학교에 데리고 갈 만해요? ("Can you take me to school today?" "Is it doable to take me to school today?") Note that this is different from 오늘은 저를 학교에 데리고 갈 수 있어요? ("Are you able to take me to school today?") and 오늘은 저를 학교에 데리고 갈래요? ("How about taking me to school today?"), which is different from 오늘은 저를 학교에 데리고 가고 싶어요? ("Do you want to take me to school today?).

5. The "nothing but/no more than" construction: 밖에 안/못

저는 고양이들밖에 기르고 싶지않아요. ("I don't want to raise anything other than cats.") Remember that 밖 means "outside or outside of," and this construction is easy. I don't want to raise anything outside of (or anything beyond) cats.

6. About or concerning: -에 대해(서) / -에 관해(서)

우리 돈에 대해서 생각합시다. ("Let's think about money.")