What this guide is for

The assignment compares Korean word-class criteria with English parts of speech. It is written as an explainer for readers who learned English school grammar first.

It is not a full syntax textbook, and it is not a pronunciation contrast.

Categories that do not line up

English school grammar often lists noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, and interjection, sometimes with articles as a class. Korean school grammar divides words by morphological and syntactic tests that yield a different list, including particles (josa) and endings that attach to stems.

A Korean descriptive verb can take tense and speech-level endings. Calling it 'just an adjective' hides that fact.

Function in the sentence

English relies heavily on word order and prepositions. Korean marks many roles with particles and can omit a noun already clear from context. A useful exercise is to take one English sentence and show which Korean particle or ending does the work of a preposition or of an article.

Do not force every English label onto a Korean word. Say what test was used — whether the word inflects, whether it can be a predicate, whether it can take a particle.

Limits

School grammars disagree at the edges, in both languages. Linguists may use different class names from ministry textbooks. A short paper should name the grammar it follows and stay with that list. This is a guide to categories, not a claim that one language is more logical.

Sources

1. A named school-grammar of Korean cited in the source, such as a National Institute of Korean Language description of word classes, or a standard university morphology text.
2. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English language. Longman; or another named English reference grammar used in the source.
3. Sohn, Ho-Min (1999). The Korean language. Cambridge University Press, for typological contrasts if cited.

Last updated: November 13, 2026