Lesson 32 (Beginner 2A Lesson 8): Shall we go by foot?

We started the lesson with using Quizlet for revision. This is the first time since... well, the beginning of this term. It was still the groups competition (2 groups of 3), but since it's individual effort in that sense, it depended on your teammates. The first round I was paired with 2 people from my previous class (including my friend) and we won. The second round we also won, but this was a different group, with one person from my previous class (the same as in the first round, but not my friend) and one classmate who is new for this term, from another class. We probably restarted like twice since someone answered wrongly, that's how it goes. I thought we were gone but in the other team too, someone answered incorrectly and we won by a narrow margin.

For some strange reason the most common word that both groups tripped over was 크다 (to be big). In our second ronud, when I said we restarted twice, it's because someone chose 크다 as the answer wrongly twice.

In this lesson, we went through the first 2 grammar points of this chapter.

There was also some exposure to telling time (just examples with the hours with native numbers + 시 and also 반 for half hours) in some of the sentences for today for the first grammar point. If I am not mistaken, this is the first time seeing it in my course, though I'd already seen them in First Step Korean, and so I was able to explain it to my conversation partner in one of the breakout rooms. But the actual introduction of telling time comes later still.

Grammar

1. V-(으)ㄹ까요?

This is used to make suggestions or ask the listener's permission or intention about something. You only use this for questions, never in statements.

The subject is not stated. However, the implicit subject of the question is usually "we". Sometimes, it can also be "I", depending on the context.

Important: Be careful with the pronunciation of 까, it is not [카].

The rule is as follows:

• 받침 O + 을까요?
• 받침 X or ㄹ + ㄹ까요?

So for example, with 읽다, there is 받침 and so you add 을까요 (since you can't squeeze the ㄹ below), which gives 읽을까요?

• 책을 읽을까요? (Shall we read a book?)

With 가다, there is no 받침 so you can add the ㄹ below, and then tack on the 까요?

• 어디에 갈까요? (Where shall we go?)

As mentioned above, you can only use this form for questions. So if someone asks you a question, when you reply, generally you will use the present tense form (아요/어요/해요).

• 가: 내일 뭐 할까요? (What are you doing tomorrow?)
• 나: 친구를 만나요. (I'm meeting my friend.)

If you are speaking with close friends and you don't have to be polite or show manners, you can also use 자. Apparently, this is what you will hear when you watch K-dramas.

Naturally, you can add a time element to all questions, and in most cases you will use the particle 에 (See Grammar #2 in Lesson 17):

• 만날까요? (Shall we meet?)
• 내일 만날까요? (Shall we meet tomorrow?)
• 다음 주 금요일에 만날까요? (Shall we meet next Friday?)
  • A side note for saying "next (day of week)" is that 주 is preferred to be there, though technically you can still say 다음 금요일에...

As observed in these examples, the translation for sentences with V-(으)ㄹ까요? is usually "Shall we...?"

However, this is not the only possibility. You can ask about the time or place to do something:

• 언제 만날까요? (When shall we meet?)
• 몇 시에 만날까요? (At what time shall we meet?)
• 어다에서 만날까요? (Where shall we meet?)

The Thing About 뭘

In the textbook (page 189) that covers this grammar point, there's a post-it that talks about this 뭘.

I first came across it in the First Step Korean course on Coursera, and I put this down as a question at the end of the Lesson 29 post.

Basically, the textbook says that:

• 누구 + 를 → 누구를 → 누굴
• 뭐 + 를 → 뭐를 → 뭘

So, if you are being proper, the particle will be there. However, in more casual conversations, you'd combine the particle as shown (resulting in 누굴 and 뭘 respectively).

However, in spoken language, you not only combine, but can also omit the particle.

Which is why in many sentences I've seen so far where the object particle 를 should have been, it's not there, and we only have 뭐 and not 뭐를/뭘.

2. 'ㄷ' 불규칙

This is the ㄷ (디귿, di-geut) irregular verb conjugation.

The rule states that for some verb stems ending in 'ㄷ' and are followed by a vowel (i.e. ㅇ, "empty circle" as the teacher calls it), 'ㄷ' changes to 'ㄹ'.

In Chapter 7, we learnt the rule for ㅂ (비읍, bi-eup) 불규칙 irregular verbs (see Lesson 28 - it's more adjectives than verbs, actually). At the time, the teacher also said we'd be learning at least one irregular conjugations in the next chapters, or something along those lines.

Unlike the ㅂ rule which applies more universally to most words, this ㄷ rule does not apply generally to all ㄷ verbs, but only to certain words.

For now, we learn only two of them, but these two are common words in everyday usage, which is why we learn this rule:

1. 듣다 (to listen)
2. 걷다 (to walk)

Let's take 듣다 and 걷다, and compare it with 닫다 (to close) which isn't irregular:

To go by Foot

An example sentence that appeared due to 걷다 (to walk).

걸어서 가요 means to go (somewhere) by foot.

Pronunciation

This has come up before, but this was brought up again because of the pronunciation of 어떻게 [어떠케], which appeared in a speaking dialogue in the textbook.

Basically, ㅎ + ㄱ = ㅋ regardless of the order.

• ㅎ + ㄱ = ㅋ (as in 어떻게 [어떠케])
• ㄱ + ㅎ = ㅋ (as in 산책하다 [산채카다])

Vocabulary

About the Title

In case for some reason I forget why the post is named as such, it's named for the two grammar points.

The first is usually translated "Shall we...?" and the other one is the irregular ㄷ verb, of which "to walk" is one of them.

The "go by foot" is a reference to the new expression (걸어서 가요), but also because if I said "Shall we go for a walk?" I think the more correct verb to use is 산책하다, and "Shall we walk?" just doesn't sound quite right.