Korean Lessons ᚛ Level 4 - Intermediate Korean #1 (Lessons 91 to 120) ᚛ Lesson 108 - Direct speech in Korean, quoting someone [-(이)라고] [-하고]
Direct speech in Korean, quoting someone [-(이)라고] [-하고]
The purpose of this lesson is to explain how to express in Korean the fact that someone said something.
In Korean, just like in English, there are two ways of doing this:
- With direct speech
- Jiyu said: "I am Korean."
- He had asked: "What time is it?"
- With indirect speech
- Jiyu said that she was Korean.
- He had asked what time it was.
We will first see how to express direct speech in Korean, while indirect speech in Korean will be covered in the next two lessons.
Quoting with -(이)라고
To quote someone, the following structure must be respected:
“[Quote]”(이)라고 하다
- If the quote ends with a vowel: “[Quote]”라고 하다
- If the quote ends with a consonant: “[Quote]”(이)라고 하다
선생님은 "꿈을 크게 가져."라고 하셨어요.
→ The teacher said: "Dream big."
직원은 "도움이 필요하시면 이 버튼을 눌러 주세요."라고 했어요.
→ The employee said: "If you need help, please press this button."
할머니는 항상 "절대 포기하지 마."라고 하셨어.
→ My grandmother always said: "Never give up."
철수가 "출발했어."라고 하면 30분 후에 너도 출발해.
→ When Cheolsu tells you: "I’ve left.", you leave too 30 minutes later.
Useful verbs for quoting
Although the verb 하다 is generally suitable for quoting, you may want to add nuance to what you are saying by using other quoting verbs.
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Quoting with -하고
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Summary table of structure
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Exercises
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Particles are omnipresent in Korean. They indicate the role of words in a sentence, nuance meaning, and make it possible to understand who does what, where, how, and why.
Particles are also often the aspect that causes the most difficulty for Korean learners. In grammar books, they are usually presented in the middle of long sentences, with complex vocabulary, without being clearly highlighted.
With Korean Particles, we made the opposite choice:
taking the time to explain each particle, one by one, using very simple sentences, accessible even to beginners.
