Korean Imperative Mood: 세요, 아/어, &아/어라
In Korean, understanding 세요 (seyo), 아/어 (a/eo), and 아/어라 (a/eora) in imperative tense plays an important role. First of all, 세요 is used to politely express a request or invitation.
For example, "이 자리에 앉아 세요" (Please sit here). Meanwhile, 아/어 followed by a verb base form is used to structure more casual commands. For example, "물을 마시세요" (Drink water). Furthermore, 아/어라 has a stronger tone and is more urgent in tone, often used in contexts that require quick decisions or strict orders.
For example, "그 문을 닫아라" (Close that door right now). A good understanding of the nuanced differences between 세요, 아/어, and 아/어라 allows Korean speakers to communicate requests or commands with the appropriate level of politeness and intensity in a variety of situations.
Imperative mood is often used to give instructions or to ask others to do something. The interjections that we will learn here are how to say "Do it!" or "Please!" which in Korean are often used together with the word '주다'.
Now let's start one by one!
Imperative Mood:
Now, we will learn to make the ending of a sentence that has a similar meaning. Here are various examples of sentences in Korean that mean "I will study":
> 나는 배우겠다
(I will learn)
> 나는 배우겠어
(I will learn)
> 저는 배우겠어요
(I will learn)
> 저는 배우겠습니다
(I will learn)
> 나는 배울것이다
(I will learn)
> 나다 배울거다I
(I will learn)
> 나는 배울것이야
(I will learn)
> 나는 배울거야
(I will learn)
> 저는 배울것입니다
(I will learn)
> 저는 배울겁니다
(I will learn)
> 저는 배울것이에요
(I will learn)
> 저는 배울거예요
(I will learn)
All of these examples mean exactly the same thing, the difference being the conjugation of the verb to indicate whether the sentence is formal or not.
In the imperative mood as well, there are many different ways that you can give orders to others. Let's go through these from the least formal, to the most formal.
Verb + 아 / 어
The easiest (very low respect) way to give an order in Korean is to add ~ 아 / 어 to the end of the verb. Example:
> 열심히 공부해!
Study hard!
> 이제 자!
Sleep now!
> 빨리 가!
Hurry up and leave!
In Korean, subjects are usually not used in sentences when giving orders. This is often done for informal language levels as it is considered concise and quick.
Imperative mood: Verb + ~아/어라
Another way to give orders in Korean is by adding ~아/어라 to the end of the verb. Here are some examples of imperatif mood sentences with 아/어라:
빨리가라! = Hurry up and go!
이제 자라! = Go to sleep now!
However, the ~아/어라 form is generally used by much older people (parents or grandparents) when they are giving orders to younger people.
Imperative Mood: Verb ~(으)세요
This word is used to indicate when we want to ask for help or ask someone with more respect (formal respect) to do something. For example:
수고하세요 = work hard! (to encourage or support someone who is about to do their job)
먼저 가세요! = Please go first!
안녕히가세요 = Bye! When "we" say goodbye to the person who is leaving.
안녕히 계세요 = Bye! When "we" as the person speaking is going to leave the person. The formal "계시다" is used in this sentence (계 + 시다 (formal ending) + 세요).
If ㅅ is added to a verb stem that ends in a consonant, 으세요 should be added.
Using ~세요 to Make Questions
While adding ~(으)세요 to verbs is usually to create a command sentence, you can also make questions with the suffix ~(으)세요. This is the formal way to ask a question. Nonetheless, you can use the suffix ~(으)세요 to create a question. For example:
어디 가세요? = Where do you want to go?
Imperative Mood: Verb + ~(으)십시오
However, by adding ~ (으) 십시오 to the end of the verb we will create a sentence in a formal form to give directions or ask a more respected person to do something.
Usually this grammar is reserved for speaking to people who deserve respect. Other than that, sometimes we will also see it in buildings/shops/restaurants/public services. For example:
> 여기서 내리 십시오
Get down here
(This sentence is usually located in public places such as, subways, or underground stations).
Mood Imperatif Negatif: ~ 지 말다
If we want to say "don't do ___", we need to use the word, 말다. 말다 literally means "don't do," but it is only used when connected to another verb with ~지. Example:
가지 말다 (don't go)
울지 말다 (don't cry)
However, this word '말다' is usually used for when telling someone not to do something. If we want to command someone to say "don't do _____!", then we need to use this grammar ~ 지 말다.
For example: 가다, then we can remove 다 and replace it with the following particle to give an order or request to someone:
가! (Go!)
가라! (I said go away!)
가요! (Please go!)
가세요! (Please go!)
가십시오! (Please go!)
가지말다! (Don't go!)
But 가지말다 is more often used by native speakers like this: 가지마라요, 가지마라, 가지마라, 가지마요. The only difference between the four words is the level of politeness, literally all four mean the same thing.
Don’t do! 하지 말고
We already know the conjunction '~ 고' is used to connect two clauses in Korean. Here, we can use "~ 고" with "말다" to say "don't do this, but / and...". For example:
> 식사 후 잠을 자지 말고 30분 동안 다른 일 하십시오
(don't sleep after eating, do something for 30 minutes)
Giving directions
Apart from giving orders as explained earlier, we can also give directions to others with this grammar. Here is an example of a common sentence used to give directions:
오른 쪽으로 가세요 = go to the right, if translated literally it means "please turn right".
왼 쪽으로 가세요 = walk to the left
직진 하세요 = walk straight
식당을 지나 가서 오른 쪽으로 가세요 = Pass the restaurant, then go right.
Ok I think it's enough for today. I will stop the explanation for this topic here and I will continue it on another article page so that it is not too long and finally makes you even more confused. See you next week on another topic! Have a nice day 😊
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