Emily 에밀리
Best way to learn Korean sentence structure? I have a pretty large vocabulary, but I have trouble stringing words together in sentences. Taking courses is not an option at my university. I am wondering what has (or has not) worked for other people? 
Jun 26, 2016 11:54 PM
Comments · 10
3
The key to having a good sense of sentence structure is to expose yourself to a lot of good examples. So try to find good textbooks and grammar books or sites and keep practicing the sentences in them..  Try not to expose yourself to colloquially written weird sentences or too advanced or poetic ones until you're in early intermediate level, as they might work against your learning.

I hear good things about the textbooks and websites from Seoul National University (서울대학교), as well as Yonsei (연세대학교) and Sogang (서강대학교).  Get the textbook series from them and concentrate on going through them for a few months while trying not to do other things too much.  I believe doing this earnestly will give you better results than any other methods.

Once you finish this phase, you can broaden your scope and try different things since you now have a decent basics on grammar and sentence patterns.  You can try whatever works well for you, but I recommend reading over the others.  Find good reading materials, like faithful Korean translations of books you already read and loved, together with their English versions, and read them side by side.  The ideas is still to read the Korean text on your own with the help of the dictionary, but the English version can ease you over difficult passages.  This way you can take on higher level texts than you otherwise can and learn the advanced sentence patterns and  expand your vocabulary as well.  As you get better, you can even practice translating between the two languages which will help you with your writing skills.   

I believe the above is the best way to improve your comprehension and writing skills.  You can complement them with listening and speaking practices as you see fit, but never neglect reading good texts as it is the foundation for everything.

June 28, 2016
1

I'll just leave this link because I really liked it back then:

Basic Korean Sentence Structures:

http://www.howtostudykorean.com/unit1/unit-1-lessons-1-8/unit-1-lesson-1/

September 29, 2016
1

I agree with Joshua. I've been using the Korean grammar in Use books which I find really helpful. In addition, I practice 3 to 5 hours a week with my languages partners and I try to watch some korean programs with english subtitles.

Twochois.com have some great books (including those from Seogang and Yonsei I think) maybe you can find something that will interest you there :)

September 28, 2016
1
Emily you should pick up the Korean Grammar in Use texts from Darakwon. They are helping me get through the rut of one word responses. I have a fairly good vocab level in Korean and my comprehension isn't that bad, but I've always struggled with output when attempting to communicate in Korean. The first book from Darakwon is a bit advanced, even though it says beginner, it can be a challenge. The ISBN is 9798959951987, so you can copy/paste to amazon. 열심히 공부해요~
September 28, 2016
1

I think the best way to learn language is talking with natives. I am learning English at language school and italki recently and I found it really helpful whenever I speak not natural sentence they correct me immediately.

So, find someone who's a native speaker of Korean near your place. Or if you need someone to do language exchange online, maybe we can help each other. Good luck!

June 29, 2016
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Emily 에밀리
Language Skills
English, Korean
Learning Language
Korean
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