Korean Basics: making a sentence

Maybe you can remember back to school days, or you’re an English teacher yourself? A sentence in English always needs at least 2 things, and normally more. But the two main things are:

• a subject – they, she, it, the cat, a bird, my evil twinetc. etc.
• a verb – eat(s) / swim(s) / run(s) / murdered etc. etc. (a doing word)

So “yes!” is not a sentence and “hungry” is not a sentence either, although you can kind of get what they mean. But what happens if you say “love”? Can you understand the meaning? Who do you love? Who loves you? Do you hate love? Is love great? can your evil twin love? It’s confusing, and it definitely is not a sentence.

In the last basics post I talked about verb endings and politeness. When we use them, it means that we are talking to someone. In English, it's the oppposite, our sentences show that someone is talking, that's why we always need a subject. Without a subject it's difficult to guess who is talking (see above).

Love in Korean is 사랑하다sarang-hada. This is the base form (remember) So when we put an ending on it means that there must be someone you're talking to because you are either showing, or not showing respect.
So imagine your mum is in front of you and you say 사랑해요sarang-hae-yo. In English this literally translates as "love" But of course, if your mum's in front of you, a better translation would be "I love you".

Korean, unlike English, does not need a subject, and often it does not need an object either (what comes after a verb, not before, like the "you" in "I love you"). You can work it out from the situation. So any verb with an ending on it, is in fact a sentence in Korean. So take any verb and put an ending on it! Congratulations! You're speaking Korean in full sentences

But of course sometimes you need to put these words in. Imagine there are three girls/boys in front of you. You want to tell one you love them. If you just say 사랑해요sarang-hae-yo they'll all think you love them!

(-은/는) -대로 That's the way I like it!

(-은/는) -대로(-eun/neun) -daero is a really useful little conversation helper which basically means "the way it is/does". Way and road are synonyms by the way... Just to help you remember.
-대로 -daerocan attach to verbs using -은/는 -eun/neun and it can attach to nouns on it's own.
Have a look at the example sentences:

• 요리 책대로 김밥 만드렀어요yori chekde-ro gimbab mandeu-reosseo-yo - I made kimbap the way it is in the cookery book
• 컴퓨터를 설명서대로 맞췄어요komp-yuto-reul seolmyeongseo de-ro ma-cheosseo-yo - I set the computer up according to the instructions (more lit. I set the computer up the way it is in the instructions

It's tempting to translate this ending as "like" - "I cooked it like it is in the cookery book" / I set the computer up like it is in the instructions. But this is a mistake. It means in the same way as it says/does/is.

• 마이클 젝선 춤 추는 대로 췄어요Michael Jackson chum chuneun dae-ro chu-weosseo-yo - I danced the way Michael Jackson dances (NOT I danced like Michael Jackson)
• 선냉님 말하는 대로 한국 말 하고 싶어요seonsengnim malhakneun de-ro hanguk mal hago ship-eo-yo - I want to speak Korean the way the teacher does (NOT I want to speak Korean like the teacher)

Both the above examples show that you do not want to be like the teacher or Michael Jackson, you only want to do what they do in the same way. Just like you don't want to be like the cookery book, you want to cook the way it tells you to cook!