Korean Lessons ᚛ Level 4 - Intermediate Korean #1 (Lessons 91 to 120) ᚛ Lesson 110 - Indirect speech in Korean #2 [-냐고] [-자고] [-(으)라고]

Indirect speech in Korean #2 [-냐고] [-자고] [-(으)라고]

In this course: 라고 / 으라고 / 냐고 / 느냐고 / 자고

In the previous lesson, we saw how to quote a statement in indirect speech. Let’s now see how to quote a question, a suggestion, as well as the imperative.

Quoting a question

In Korean, to quote a question in indirect speech, the following sentence structure can be used:
[Topic / Subject] [Sentence + Stem]냐고 (물어보다)

General rule

그: “언제 서울에 와요?”
그는 나에게 언제 서울에 오냐고 물어봤어.
→ He asked me when I was coming to Seoul.

나: “지유 씨는 한국 사람이세요?”
저는 지유 씨한테 한국 사람이냐고 물어봤어요.
→ I asked Jiyu if she is Korean.

선생님: “학생이에요?”
선생님은 나에게 학생이냐고 물어보셨어.
→ The teacher asked me if I was a student.

언니한테 주말에 뭐 하냐고 물어봐.
→ Ask your older sister what she is doing this weekend.

할머니는 밥 먹었냐고 물어보셨어.
→ Grandmother asked if I had eaten.

그 외국인이 나한테 서울에서 왔냐고 물어봤어.
→ That foreigner asked me if I came from Seoul.

The stem ends with ㄹ

For verbs whose stem ends with ㄹ, the quoted question is obtained in the following manner:
Remove the final ㄹ of the stem, then add 냐고 according to the classic rule for building quoted questions.

The verb 살다 (= to live) has the stem 살, which ends with ㄹ. We first remove the final ㄹ of the stem, and we get 사. Then we add 냐고. Thus, the quoted question form of 살다 is 사냐고.