Lesson 30 (Beginner 2A L6): And (고)

We are finishing Chapter 7 next week since we covered the last grammar point. That's really fast.

The lesson started with revision of last week's grammar, so with the help of the physical flash cards with pictures on one side and the verb on the other, we had to conjugate for both 지만 and then 습니다/ㅂ니다. There were a few variants. With the verb's infinitive shown or the picture side (which is harder), and we had to do both the present tense and the past tense.

We also went through the textbook for these grammar topics, in addition to the new grammar topic, since we did not touch the textbook in the last lesson.

I mentioned back in the second lesson of this term (Lesson 26) that we had a new student. Well, this was his last lesson as he's going into the army next Friday.

We also got the invoices for the next lesson term. The fee this round includes an extra $35 for the next textbook. Time really flies. It'll soon be a year since I started learning Korean.

Pronunciation

Update (16/08/20): See pronunciation rule from Chapter 10 in Lesson 41 for more clarity on this, this may not be the most accurate.

There was also one page on the handout that we did in this lesson. It was an exercise for the third grammar point (A/V-습니다/ㅂ니다), which brought up a pronunciation note (that is also in the textbook, I later saw).

Basically, the ㅆ sound in the syllable-final position (it's a /t/) is hard to pronounce before the 습니다 when you have the past tense, such as in 만났습니다.

So how it's actually pronounced is that instead of [습니다] it becomes [씁니다], and you don't pronounce the /t/ sound with the previous syllable.

• 만났습니다: [만나씁니다]
• 먹었습니다: [머거씁니다]

Grammar

4. A/V-고, N(이)고

The last time we saw 고, it was introduced to list events in order back in Lesson 19.

However, in this case, it does not necessarily mean that the events happen in sequence. (Indeed, it would make no sense for adjectives and nouns.)

This is simply used to connect two clauses that may not be sequential. It's simply "and".

I'm not certain how to distinguish between the two uses for the case of a verb since in some constructions they would be identical, but I think it's like for many things in language: it will depend heavily on context.

Notably for the verb here, the examples abounded with different subjects doing different actions. But back in Lesson 19, most of the sentences were focused on a single subject.

Let's look at some examples for each.

A-고

1. 오렌지가 싸고 맛있어요. (The orange is cheap and delicious.)
2. 날씨가 춥고 비가 옵니다. (The weather is cold and it is raining.)
   • A small aside here that for 비가 오다, 눈이 오다 and 바람이 불다, when someone asks how is the weather, you do not start with "날씨가". The literal meanings of those phrases: "the rain to come", "the snow to come" and "the wind to blow". Just like you won't say "The weather is the wind is blowing", it doesn't make sense to add the 날씨가.
   • So, by itself: 비가 옵니다.
3. 어제 날씨가 덥고 맑았습니다. (Yesterday, the weather was hot and sunny.)
   • Notice that if the entire sentence is in the past tense, you do not need to conjugate the 덥 to make it 더웠 as in the case of the "but" sentence where the first half it in the past and the second half is in the present (see the previous lesson).
   • This is also the straightforward version that we were taught also with 고 the first time.

V-고

1. 스티븐은 사진을 찍고 나나는 요리를 했어요. (Steven took pictures and Nana cooked.)
2. 저는 카페에서 커피도 마시고 숙제도 합니다. (I am drinking coffee and doing my homework at the café.)
   • I'm not doing homework after I drink coffee. The events are not sequential here.
   • The teacher seemed to have said something about using 도 for listing the events, but I'm not certain of its use here. She also mentioned that the events are not in order, but my uncertainty arises from what she's referring to, since the "not in order" part should be about 고, no?

N(이)고

This is the same as what was seen last lesson, that whether you have 이 depends on whether you have batchim or not:

• 받침 O: 이에요 + 그리고 = 이고
• 받침 X: 예요 + 그리고 = 고

It's rather interesting that it's meant to be short form of 그리고, which we learnt that it is "and" for connecting clauses and not things (which you will use 하고, and... I also talked about last week).

1. 저는 학생이고 언니는 회사원이에요. (I am a student and my sister is an office worker.)
2. 저는 기자고 일본 사람이에요. (I am a reporter and I am Japanese.)

Vocabulary