안녕, 여러분! In an earlier lesson, we learned about the 6 basic question words: who, what, where, when, why, and how. In this vocabulary list, I want to teach some more question words we haven’t covered yet. Let’s start!
얼마나 = How / How much
The word 얼마나 (or sometimes just 얼마) is used when asking about quantities, be it money, time, etc. For example:
- 얼마나 기다려야 돼요? = How long do I have to wait?
- 얼마나 걸었어요? = How much did you walk?
- 얼마예요? = How much is it? (usually asked to a store worker when you want to know the price of an item)
- 얼마나 걸려요? = How long does it take?
- 걸리다 = to take (time)
몇 = How many
몇 is also used to refer to quantities or amounts, but the English translation of it would be “how many.” I would say it’s mainly used for countable objects or experiences (similar to what we use “how many” in English). Let’s see some examples:
- 몇 살이예요? = How old are you?
- 하루에 몇 번 이를 닦습니까? (found this sentence on Naver Dictionary) = How many times a day do you brush your teeth?
- 이 = teeth
- 닦다 = to wipe / to scrub / to brush
몇 시 = What time
While 몇
on its own means “how many,” 몇 시 means “what time.” 몇 시 is pretty simple–it’s just used to ask at what time something occurred. Here are some examples:
- 몇 시예요? = What time is it?
The next couple of sentences are also from Naver Dictionary (which is a great resource for sample sentences!):
- 몇 시가 좋으십니까? = What time is good for you?
- 은행 오늘 몇 시에 닫죠? = What time does the bank close today?
어느 = Which
어느 is pretty much used the same way we use the word “which” in English–you’re asking someone to pick from a selection of options. For example:
- 어느 셔츠 제일 좋아해? = Which shirt is your favorite? / Which shirt do you like the most? (informal)
- 제일 = most (precedes an adjective or verb)
- 우체국은 어느 쪽입니까? (from Naver Dictionary) = Which way is the post office?
- 우체국 = post office
- 어느 쪽 = which way
- 쪽 means “way,” and comes after a directional word. For example:
- 오른쪽 = right
- 왼쪽 = left
- 남쪽 = south
- 북쪽 = north
- 동쪽 = east
- 서쪽 = west
- 어느 아이폰 살까요? = Which iPhone should I buy?
- 아이폰 = iPhone
무슨 = What
무슨 can be a little tricky to distinguish from the word 무엇, which also translates to “what.” I think Naver Dictionary’s definition of 무슨 can hopefully show the slight difference: 무슨 means “what, what kind of, what sort of.” 무엇 is just a word meaning a plain straightforward “what,” while 무슨 is used when asking “what kind.” 무슨 also precedes a noun, while 무엇 is usually the noun itself. Let’s look at some sentences from Naver Dictionary to understand it better:
- 무슨 일을 하세요? = What kind of work do you do?
- Notice how 무슨 precedes the noun 일 to mean “what kind of work.”
- 그것은 무슨 책이에요? = What kind of book is that?
- 무슨 일이에요? = What’s the matter? / What happened? / What’s going on?
- Here, 일 doesn’t really mean “work” or “job.” I’m not sure of a literal translation for it in this case, as with most Korean, don’t worry about trying to literally translate everything but instead just focus on the meaning!
- 그게 무슨 뜻이죠? = What does that mean?
- 뜻 = meaning
Overall, notice how 무슨 precedes a noun in these sentences. You wouldn’t say “뭐 일” or “뭐 책” because 뭐 is already a noun (it’s actually considered a pronoun). Thus, it cannot be attached to another noun. That’s what 무슨 is for!
어떤 = What kind
어떤 is very similar to 무슨 but is used a little differently. The main difference is that 어떤 usually asks for descriptions of whatever you’re asking about. For instance:
- 그는 어떤 사람이예요? = What kind of person is he? / What is he like?
- In this sentence, you’re asking for a description of this person. You could respond with: 똑똑한 사람이에요 (He is a smart person) or 착한 사람이에요 (He is a kind person), for instance.
- 어떤 노래를 좋아하세요? = What kind of songs do you like?
- Again, this is asking for descriptions of the kind of food you like. To answer, you might say “fast” or “upbeat” or “slow” (adjectives, essentially)
- If you were to say “무슨 노래를 좋아하세요?” you would be asking more for a genre of songs, like rap, pop, etc (more like categories).
Looks like that’s about it for this lesson! If you want more help distinguishing some of these words that seem very similar, I highly recommend this Talk to Me in Korean video here: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvyAulhELw0
As always, feel free to ask me questions as well!! See you in the next lesson! 안녕!