Lesson 3

Simple Questions

Use question words to ask about people, places, and things.

Korean question words follow the same grammatical position as their English equivalents but combine with different question endings. 누구 (who), 어디 (where), 뭐 (what, casual) / 무엇 (what, formal), 언제 (when), 왜 (why), 어떻게 (how), 얼마 (how much). In polite speech, all of these typically appear in sentences ending with -아요/어요 or -이에요/예요 with a rising intonation marking the question.

A key difference from English: Korean does not require subject-verb inversion to form questions. 'You are a student' is 학생이에요, and 'are you a student?' is also 학생이에요? — the only difference is the intonation. Even with question words, the word order stays subject-object-verb. 'Where are you going?' is 어디 가요? not 'go you where?'. This is identical to Japanese in structure, so Japanese speakers can build questions in Korean almost by reflex.

이에요/예요? (Polite Question)

Turn a polite statement into a question by rising intonation or adding a question mark.

이것이 책이에요?igeosi chaegieyoIs this a book?

이분이 선생님이에요?ibuni seonsaengnim-ieyoIs this person a teacher?

Question Words + Copula

Place question words (어디, 누구, 무엇) before the copula to ask simple questions.

어디예요?eodiyeyoWhere is it?

그 분은 누구예요?geu buni nuguyeyoWho is that person?

누구nuguwho

Examples그 사람은 누구예요?geu sarameun nuguyeyoWho is that person?

어디eodiwhere

Examples화장실이 어디예요?hwajangsiri eodiyeyoWhere is the restroom?

뭐/무엇mwo/mueotwhat

Examples이것은 뭐예요?igeoseun mwoyeyoWhat is this?

언제eonjewhen

Examples시험이 언제예요?siheomi eonjeyeyoWhen is the test?

어떤eotteonwhich / what kind of

Examples어떤 음식을 좋아하세요?eotteon eumsigeul joahaseyoWhat kind of food do you like?

어디에서eodieseofrom where

Examples이거는 어디에서 샀어요?igeoneun eodieseo sasseoyoWhere did you buy this?

Cultural & Language Note

Korean forms questions without inverting the word order — 학생이에요 is 'you are a student' and 학생이에요? is 'are you a student?', separated only by rising intonation. This works exactly like Japanese, where 学生です becomes 学生ですか. English speakers must unlearn subject-verb inversion here; Japanese speakers can simply carry over the habit they already have.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

뭐 and 무엇 are not interchangeable in register: 뭐 is casual and by far the more common in speech, while 무엇 belongs to writing and formal contexts. Saying 무엇을 드시겠어요 to a friend sounds stiff. Learners also drop the rising intonation and produce a flat sentence that a Korean listener will hear as a statement rather than a question.