Lesson 8 - The Particles That Make it All Clear - The Object Particle

Hello everyone!  

We’re back with another grammar point, and it’s part of the Particles Series! We’ve talked about the Subject and Topic particles some time ago (if you don’t remember it, check here), and now we can move on to the next step: the object particle. 

As part of the group of particles in Korean, the object particle has the function to help the person distinguish the parts of the sentence. This particle, in particular, has the main goal to highlight what the object of the sentence is (like its name hints).  

This is probably one of the easiest particles in Korean, but it still can be confusing to some people.  

The object particle changes depending on the ending of the noun to which it will be attached to. If the noun ends with a consonant, the object particle will be -을, otherwise, you will have to use -를.   

Let’s look at some examples, shall we? 

내가 피자를 먹어요. 

I eat a pizza 

그는 책을 읽어요. 나는 편지를 써요. 

He reads a book. I write a letter. 

As you can see, this particle highlights the object of the sentence, which is that bit of the sentence which answers the question ‘what’. So, if we look at the three sentences above, we can analyse them and see why the object in each of them is that one.  

Let’s only look at the first example: 

내가 피자를 먹어요. 

I eat a pizza 

The first thing you have to find when trying to understand a sentence is the main verb. In this case, it is the verb 먹다 to eat.  

Now that we know what the verb is, we can move on to the subject. Let’s look at the word 나 attached to the subject particle 가, which, as we stated previously, it becomes 내가 (if you don’t remember, check here), making it the subject we were looking for.  

Before moving on to the analysis of the sentence, let me remind you that if you stick to the rule of ‘if it answers the question what? then it is the object of the sentence’  it will help you understanding the sentence better. 

So, now that the rule is clear, let’s go back to the sentence. Look only at the subject and the verb: you will have 내가 먹어요, which means I eat. Now, the question ‘what?’ should come naturally to you. What is that I eat? And you’ll know the answer to it.  

Note that in conversations you won’t always hear the object particle as it can be omitted by native speakers. 

Let’s look at more examples: 

나는 음식을 많이 사요 

I buy a lot of food 

민수 씨가 그를 정말 싫어해요 

Minsoo doesn’t really like him  

우리 아버지는 영어를 정말 잘 해요 

Our dad speaks English really well 

그 중국 사람이 스페인어를 공부해요 

That Chinese person studies Spanish 

우리가 영화를 많이 봐요 

We watch a lot of movies 

This was a very quick post, and I really hope you found it useful. I’ll see you next time with another grammar post! 

VOCABS SET ON QUIZLET: 1 

KPOPOLOGY WEBSITE: Home, KPOPOLOGY Explains 

DROPBOX FILES: Main folder, Lesson 8 Practice 

I will see you next time with another grammar post!

 구름