I couldn’t study enough yesterday because I was busy writing up the Austrian Grand Prix post. Since that gave me a guilty conscience, I’ve decided to launch this new section of the blog. Let’s study Korean with Goguma.
But Goguma, do you actually know enough to teach Korean?
Let me explain this properly. I’m nowhere near a teacher, I’m still a beginner with Korean myself. I’m doing this by following my grammar book, and honestly it’s mostly to help myself study. If you want to learn Korean properly, get professional help and find yourself a Korean teacher. That said, stick around if you’re curious about picking up a bit of Korean together and having a good time (hopefully 😅).
Got it, Goguma. I don’t want to learn Korean seriously, but I’m curious and want to have a good time. What grammar are we covering today?
Today we’re looking at 것 같아요. This translates as it seems that or I think that. But there’s an important nuance: it’s an impression or assumption, and it can be based on what you see, hear, the circumstances, or a feeling. It might sound like a small detail, but in Korean these nuances matter; deducing something from context isn’t the same as seeing it directly. So remember, this structure is based on what you perceive, no matter the source.
Understood, professor Goguma, we only use this when we’re inferring based on what we perceive. I want to know how it’s applied.
Okay, like everything in Korean, it’s complicated and depends on the type of word we’re using. To keep things simple and go step by step, I’m only going to cover the present tense today. In another post I’ll talk about the past and future forms of this structure.
Alright, Goguma. Skip the preamble and get to the point. How is it used?
Fine, it basically depends on whether it’s a verb, adjective, or noun.
- Verb 👉 stem + -는 것 같아요.
- Adjective 👉 stem + ㄴ/은 것 같아요.
- Noun 👉 noun + 인 것 같아요.
Okay, but I won’t believe it until I see it. Give me an example, Goguma.
Let’s go through some examples.
- Verb.
- 비가 오는 것 같아요. It means “it seems like it’s raining.” You’d say this because you’ve seen or heard something that suggests it’s actually raining.
- 친구가 집에 가는 것 같아요. “It looks like my friend is heading home.” Same idea here. You see your friend doing something, like grabbing their coat or keys, and that leads you to infer they’re about to leave.
- Adjective
- 날씨가 좋은 것 같아요. “It seems like the weather is nice.” Same concept: maybe you looked out the window and saw it was sunny.
- 그 영화가 재미있는 것 같아요. “It seems like the movie is fun.” In this case, it could be a movie you’ve already watched, or it might not be. Maybe you’re deciding what movie to go see and you saw the poster or read a review.
- 사장님은 바쁜 것 같아요. “It seems like the boss is busy.” Same idea again: something led you to that conclusion. But watch out. If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice this construction is different. Here, since the stem ends in a vowel, ㄴ is added instead of 은, like we saw before. So it becomes 바쁜.
- Nouns
- 저 사람은 학생인 것 같아요. “It seems like that person is a student.” Same idea, but with a noun this time: something you’ve noticed leads you to that conclusion.
- 제 동생은 의사인 것 같아요. “It seems like my younger sibling is a doctor.” This one only really makes sense if you’re only now finding out your younger sibling is a doctor. It sounds a bit odd not to already know that if it’s your own sibling — imagine you two haven’t been in touch in a long time, like something out of a K-drama 😉.
Ugh, that’s a lot of text and I don’t want to waste a second. Give me the short version.
Fine, here’s the quick version.
- See a verb ➡️ it’s an action ➡️ -는 것 같아요
- See an adjective ➡️ it describes a state or quality ➡️ check whether the stem ends in a vowel ➡️ -ㄴ 것 같아요 ➡️ or a consonant ➡️ 은 것 같아요
- See a noun ➡️ an identity or name ➡️ -인 것 같아요
Thanks, I’ve understood it, but it doesn’t come naturally yet. What do I do?
Now all that’s left is to practice, and with time and a whole lot of (and I mean a lot of) persistence, it’ll start coming naturally.
Did any of this make sense? Want to practice a bit? Leave me a comment and we’ll work it out together.
