Korean Lessons ᚛ Level 1 - My First Steps in Korean (Lessons 1 to 30) ᚛ Lesson 23 - Possession in Korean [의]
We continue our journey in the world of particles with the particle that allows us to indicate the belonging of something, it is 의.
Be careful, when it comes to the possessive particle 의, it is usually pronounced 에.
In Korean, to indicate the belonging of something to someone, the following form is used:
[possessor]의 [possessed]
You can notice that the possessor is indicated before the possessed object, as in English.
지유의 핸드폰
→ Jiyu's phone
On either side of the particle 의 we have:
선생님의 차
→ the teacher's car
On either side of the particle 의 we have:
오빠의 펜
→ my big brother's pen
On either side of the particle 의 we have:
저의 가방이에요.
→ It is my bag.
곰의 발은 커.
→ The bear's feet are big.
Note: after someone's name that ends in a consonant, we do not add 의 but 이의.
In practice, this particle is very often omitted in order to simplify sentences.
The expressions of the previous section can therefore be repeated by omitting the particle 의, as follows:
지유 핸드폰
→ Jiyu's phone
선생님 차
→ the teacher's car
오빠 펜
→ Oppa's pen
Be careful, with Korean personal pronouns, which we will see in the next lesson, the 의 particle cannot be omitted.
나의 가방
→ the bag of "I" = my bag
It is incorrect to write: 나 가방
너의 자전거
→ the bike of "you" = your bike
It is incorrect to write: 너 자전거
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