In this topic, you will lear some common prepositions of place and learn how to follow direction to get to places in Korea.
Vocabulary
Grammar Points
It can be translated ‘to’ or ‘toward’ in English. ~으로 is added to nouns that end on a consonant and ~로 is added to nouns ending on a vowel and the letter ㄹ, creating an ‘L’ sound.
E.g. 어디로 가세요? Where are you going to?
E.g. 집으로 가요. I’m heading to home.
에 is the most basic and essential postposition and means ‘at/in/on place’ as a location particle, ‘at/on time’ as a time particle, and it’s very similar to a lot of English locative prepositions. “에서” has two important functions. It is the origin, starting location: from (a place) and used with verbs such as 오다 (to come), 가다 (to go), 떠나다 (to leave), and 도착하다 (to arrive), as shown below:
E.g. The airplane comes from Korea. 비행기가 한국에서 와요.
“에서” is also used to indicate the place where we perform an action. It is used not to express that we are statically in a place, but rather that in that place we are performing an action, such as drinking, reading, etc. (Thus it can be translated as “in” or “at”, as is the particle 에, but it is used with action verbs)
E.g. I read books at school. 나는 학교에서 책을 읽어요.
It is used to speak politely or requesting politely and it is also used to give suggestions or calling/naming in a well-mannered way. When the verb stem ends in a vowel, -세요 is added, when it ends in a consonant, -으세요 is added.
E.g. 운동을 많이 하세요. Please do exercise a lot.
E.g. 큰 소리로 읽으세요. Please read out loud.
Here are some new words for you to learn before listening to the dialogue.
You will listen to the conversation between a man and a woman and answer the following questions:
Where is the woman inviting the man and why?
Where is the flower shop?
여자: 토요일이 내 생일이에요. 우리 집에 오세요.
Woman: Saturday is my birthday. Please come to my house.
남자: 그래요? 집이 어디에 있어요?
Man: Really? Where is your house?
여자: 서울병원 근처에 꽃집이 있어요. 꽃집 2층이 우리 집이에요. 2층으로 오세요.
Woman: There is a flower shop near Seoul hospital. My house is on the 2nd floor of the flower shop. Please come to the 2nd floor.
Junyoung tells Mira how to go to the museum. If you were Junyoung, how would you describe the direction to the museum? Please make your own dialogue after you have read the example below.
보기 Example
준영: 우리 토요일에 박물관에 가요.
Junyoung: Let’s go to the museum on Saturday.
미라: 좋아요. 박물관은 어디에 있어요?
Mira: That’s great. Where is the museum?
준영: 놀이공원 알아요? 놀이공원 앞에서 횡단보도를 건너세요. 그리고 똑바로 가세요. 그러면 박물관이 있어요.
Junyoung: Do you know where the amusement park is? Go across the zebra crossing and it’s in front of the amusement park. Then go straight. Then there is the museum.