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Regarding my question about 한 집, is 집 a measuring word as well? Is that why?

Lesson 5

Key Words:
책 Book/s
학교 School/s
거기 there
여기 here
저기 over there
어디 where?

In Korean when talking about existance or location there are two words, one for positive and another negitive. They are
있어요(Positive) and 없어요(Negative). They are somewhat different than the copula.

Examples:
책이에요: It is a book/s
책(이) 있어요: There is a book/s

어디(에) 있어요?: Where is it?
학교(에) 있어요: Its at the school.
학교(가) 어디(에) 있어요?: Where is the school?
저기(에) 있어요: Its over there.
학교(가) 없어요: There is no school.

You should know that when I have the '/s' it means that we do not know if it is singular or plural. In Korean you do not say if it is one or the other, all nouns mean either.

The things inside the '( )' are called particles they show how you use whichever word in the sentence. 이 and 가 are used to mark the subject of the sentence. '이' goes after a word that ends in a consonant and '가' goes after vowels. 에 is uesd to mark the location of whatever we are talking about. You do not always need to use particles, but it makes it sound more complete.

You can also change the politeness levels by removing the 요 at the end of the sentence, being more casual. To be less casual you change 있어요 to 있습니다 and 없어요 to 없습니다 and to the question form 있습니까 and 없습니까 and then add the '?'.

Lesson 7: Particles

In Korean most nouns are marked with things called 'particles'. These things have no real translation into English, but in Korean they are needed to make the sentences have more meaning.

One kind of particle is the Subject Particle, they put the focus on the subject of the sentence. With a noun like 책 (book) we put the subject particle after that, since it ends in a Consonant, ㄱ, then that particle is 이. 책이. If the noun ended in a vowel then the particle would have been 가, such as in 잡지가 (magazine). The particles change to make it easier to say when speaking.

The next kind of particle is the Topic Particle, which marks the topic of the sentence. Which is '은' after a consonant and '는' after a vowel.
Exapmles:
그것읃 잡지에요. - That thing is a magazine
저는 미국사람이에요. - I am American

A particle that is easier to understand is the Particle '도', which means too, also, even and other things like that.
Example:
그 사람도 한국사람이에요. - That person is ALSO Korean.

Another easier particle is the possessive particle, '의'. One of the most important things to remember about this particle is that it is NOT pronounced like how it looks, its pronounced like '에'. It is used almost exaclty the same as the Japanese possessive particle and so if anyone is familiar to Japanese then this should be easy for you, if you still dont get it, thank God I'm here to explain. Its used like the ('s) in Endlish.
Examples:
김정일의 맥주이에요? - Is it Kim Jong Il's beer?
아니오, 저의 맥주이에요. - No, its my beer.
Sometimes you do not need the particle for 'Me', 'You' or 'I'. You can change the pronoun:
나 becomes 내
저 becomes 제
너 becomes 네.

Just thought I'd point out that in the pronunciation lesson, you said,

"ㄹ somewhere between a 't' and a 'd' sometimes it is pronounced more one way than another depending on the word."

Great lessons! ^.^

Im soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry, I have not posted in a long time, but I will post another lesson. I have been involved with so much stuff that I did not have time for this, I will get back to it.