Family 가족

안녕하세요!!..

For this entry I’ll introduce you to a few more key words..

Father = 아버지
Mother =어머니
Child =아이
Son =아들
Daughter =딸
Husband =남편
Wife =아내
Younger sister = 여동생
Younger brother = 남동생

Korean has different words for “brother” and “sister” depending on whether they are older or younger. The words for older siblings also change depending on whether ‘you’ are male or female.

For male…
Older sister = 누나
Older brother = 형

For female…
Older sister = 언니
Older brother =오빠


You can make sentences about your family using the verb 있어요 -isseoyo {is/has} and -없어요eopsseoyo{isn’t/hasn’t}.

저는 오빠거 있어요. [jeo-neun oppa-ga isseoyo] { I have an older brother/older brothers}.

Jeo = ‘I’. while ‘neun’ is the subject particle. You can read the entry on ‘subject particle’ to learn more about it.

Oppa = older brother. While ‘ga’ is also another ‘subject particle’.

Here’s another example..

저는 남동생과 여동생이 없어요. {I don’t have any younger brother or/and younger sister}.

In this sentence, the particle –과 after ‘nam-dongsaeng’ (younger brother) means ‘and’. You can read ‘And…’ entry to learn more about it. The –이 after ‘yeo-dongsaeng’ is the subject particle.

So if you literally convert the sentence into English it would be something like..
‘ I(as for) younger brother and younger sister hasn’t/don’t have’.

Here’s another example.

저는 언니가 세 명 있어요. 그리고 오빠가 두 명 있어요. { I have 3 older sister. And 2 older brother}.

세명 = this is a combination of ‘3’ which is 세 and a classifier for counting people which is 명. Read entry on numbers to learn more on this.

두 명 = almost the same with the previous description except that here we have두 which is ‘2’.
그리고 = and.