TeacherJoy

This is Part 2 of the connective ending “-고.”

Remember in Part 1, we learned that ‘-고’ connects verbs and sentences together? It’s kind of like the word “and” in English. It links two actions or situations.

But in Korean, when two actions are connected with ‘-고,’ they often happen one after another, in order.

Let’s see how it works.

We’ve got “손 씻다 (to wash hands)” and “식사하다 (to have a meal)” in their dictionary forms. Add ‘-고’ to the verb stem ‘씻-,’ and you get ‘손 씻고 식사하다.’

Now, let’s make it a formal request: “손 씻고 식사합시다.” In the 요-form, “손 씻고 식사해요.”

And remember, Koreans often add the particle ‘-도’ to show that they did more than one thing. So while “손 씻고 식사합시다” means “Let’s wash hands before eating,” “손도 씻고 식사도 합시다” means “Let’s wash hands and have a meal too.”

Adding ‘-도’ makes it sound more balanced and clear.

Now, an important grammar note.

When you list actions in Korean, you only add the tense once, at the end. Since Korean doesn’t have as complex a tense system as English, it’s typical to list things in the order they happened.

For example: “I studied and then rested.”
Study, 공부하다. Rest, 쉬다. So, 공부하고 쉬었어요. That’s perfect.

But “공부했고 쉬었어요” sounds unnatural. When you add tense to both verbs, it just lists two actions, and the sense of “first study, then rest” becomes unclear.

Another example.
We have “여기까지 택시 타다 (to take a taxi up to here)” and “왔어요 (came).” Add ‘-고’ to the stem ‘타-.’ “여기까지 택시 타고 왔어요.”

That’s how Koreans says they took a transportation to get somewhere. You might have learned “택시로 왔어요” first, but in real life, “택시 타고 왔어요” is more common.

And really one last one. Korean people often say “집에 안 가고 뭐 해요?” Literally, it sounds like “You didn’t go home, and then what are you doing?” But what it really implies is something more like, “Oh, I thought you already went home!” Kind of warm and casual.

So that’s how ‘-고’ works when linking actions in order. It’s simple, but it’s everywhere.