🇰🇷 Korean #28 Most Spoken Language (82M speakers)

Korean uses a topic–comment structure with postpositional particles to mark roles. Verbs sit at the end and carry speech level, politeness, and tense/aspect. Hangul is phonetic and logical: letters (jamo) combine into square syllable blocks like 한 + 국 + 어. Everyday vocabulary blends native Korean, Sino-Korean, and modern English loans.

• Final consonant (batchim): picks particles (e.g., 책은 vs 학교는).
• Liaison: final consonant often links to the next vowel-initial syllable (맛있어요 pronounced /마시써요/).
• Tense consonants: ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ are fortis; aspirates ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅊ contrast with plain ᄀ ᄃ ᄇ ᄌ.
• Vowel harmony (historic): now mostly visible in certain suffix variants.

• Particles: topic 은/는, subject 이/가, object 을/를, location 에/에서, comitative 과/와, direction/instrument 으로/로.
• Politeness: informal polite -요, formal polite -습니다, plain -다. Honorific marker -시-.
• Tense/aspect: past -았/었-, progressive -고 있어요, prospective -(으)ㄹ 거예요.
• Word building: agglutinative suffix stacking: 가-겠-었-습니다.

Choose speech level and honorifics based on context: 하세요 (polite), 하십니다 (formal honorific), 해 (casual). Add -시- to honor subjects respectfully (가세요 “(you) go (hon.)”).

오늘 저는 한국어를 공부해요.
오늘 (today) • 저는 (topic) • 한국어를 (object) • 공부-해요 (study-POL)
SOV with topic and object particles; polite present ending -해요.

안녕하세요! • 감사합니다 • 잘 지내요?

• Keywords: Hangul alphabet, Korean particles, Korean honorifics, Korean verb endings, SOV word order, batchim rules.
• Intent fit: beginner pronunciation, particle picker, polite vs formal speech, basic conjugation, Hangul block composition.
• Entities: King Sejong, jamo, topic marker 은/는, subject marker 이/가, object marker 을/를.

하나, 둘, 셋, 넷, 다섯, 여섯, 일곱, 여덟, 아홉, 열 (native) • 일, 이, 삼, 사, 오, 육, 칠, 팔, 구, 십 (Sino-Korean)