Korean Pronouns

Learning Korean pronouns can be difficult and confusing, even for an intermediate level student. For today’s post, we’ll get to the bottom of understanding Korean pronouns and when they’re used.

First off, let’s start off with the singular first person pronoun on the formal level. To say ”I” or “me” in Korean you would use juh (저). The singular first person pronoun on the informal level is na (나). Na (나) also means “I” or “me.” It’s just that na (나) is informal while juh (저) is used when you want to express yourself formally. The plural first person pronoun on the formal level is juhhi (저희). Juhi (저희) means “we” or “us” or “our.” The plural first person pronoun on the informal level is uri (우리). Uri (우리) has the same meaning as juhi (저희). In Korean, the dominant usage of uri (우리) and juhi (저희) is for posessives. When you want to say ‘our house’ you would probably used the juhi (저희) or uri (우리). However when you want to say ‘we are here,’ you’re most likely to drop the ‘we’ altogether.

In Korean, the second person singular polite form is dangshin (당 신), while the second person singular informal form is noh (너). Both mean ‘you,’ but there’s a catch here. Dangshin (당신) can also mean ‘dear’ as in the affectionate term that married couples call each other. You don’t really need to worry about this pronoun because it’s usually dropped in conversation. It’s usually obvious when you’re talking to someone (through eye contact) and so you really don’t need the ‘you’ to address someone. The second person plural polite form is dangshindul (당신들) and the second person plural informal is noh-hidul (너히들). Both mean ‘you all.’ Again these forms are usually dropped and sometimes the title yorobun (여 러분), which means ‘everyone’ or ‘everybody’ is used instead.

The third person singular masculine form is ku (그) while the third person singular feminine form is ku-nyuh (그녀). Both forms mean ‘they’ or ‘them.’ The third person plural masculine form is kudul (그들) while the third person plural feminine form is ku-nyuh-dul (그녀들). Both plural forms mean ‘they all.’ Again in place of the ‘they all’ form sometimes yorobun (여러분) or ‘everyone’ is used instead.

Well, that’s it for today. Hopefully this clarified matters!