Word order: the verb comes last

English says “I drink coffee”: subject, verb, object. Korean says “I coffee drink”: 저는 커피를 마셔요 (jeoneun keopireul masyeoyo). The subject is the person or thing doing the action, the object is what the action is done to, and the verb always comes last.

Descriptive words such as “expensive” or “good” are verbs in Korean, so they come last too: 이 가방은 비싸요 (i gabangeun bissayo), this bag is expensive. Other information usually goes between the subject and the verb, in this order: time, place, object.

Korean is consistent: the word that matters most in a phrase comes at the end, and everything that describes it comes before. Words such as “this”, “my” and adjectives go before the noun: 이 책 (i chaek, this book), 제 친구 (je chingu, my friend), 큰 방 (keun bang, a big room).

Small words that English puts in front of a noun, such as “in”, “at” and “to”, come after it in Korean. These are the particles: 회사에 (hoesae, to the office), 회사에서 (hoesaeseo, at the office). Place words work the same way: 역 앞에 (yeok ape) is literally “station front at”, in front of the station.

Because particles mark the role of each word (는 for the topic, 를 for the object and so on), the order before the verb is fairly free. Only the verb has to stay at the end. The usual order is subject first, but a word can move to the front to become the topic of the sentence.

As a rule of thumb, the new or important information goes just before the verb. 저는 한국어를 회사에서 배워요 (jeoneun hangugeoreul hoesaeseo baewoyo) puts the focus on where: I learn Korean at work.

Korean leaves out anything that is clear from the situation, especially the subject. Asked 어디 가요? (eodi gayo?, where are you going?), you answer 회사에 가요 (hoesae gayo, going to work), with no “I”. Korean also avoids saying “you”: people use the name with 씨 (ssi), a title such as 선생님 (seonsaengnim, teacher), or nothing at all.

In speech, particles are often dropped too, especially the object particle: 커피 마셔요 (keopi masyeoyo), I drink coffee. A sentence can be just a verb: 좋아요 (joayo), (that's) good.

In the polite style, a question has exactly the same words as a statement. Only the voice changes: it rises at the end of a question. 학생이에요. (haksaengieyo.) means “I'm a student”; 학생이에요? with a rising voice means “Are you a student?”.

Question words such as 뭐 (mwo, what), 어디 (eodi, where) and 누구 (nugu, who) stay in the place of the answer; they don't move to the front. Careful with answers to negative questions: 네 (ne, yes) means “that's right”. So 안 매워요? (an maewoyo?, it's not spicy?) is answered 네, 안 매워요 (ne, an maewoyo): “right, it's not spicy”.