what is essay in korean

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Translation of essay – English–Korean dictionary

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(Translation of essay from the Cambridge English–Korean Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of essay

Translations of essay.

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(in films and television) a series of drawings or images showing the planned order of images

Making the most of it (How we talk about using opportunities)

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Learn how to write TOPIK essays well using Wongoji writing guidelines

The following are Wongoji basic writing guidelines that I found in a Nonsul (essay) notebook by PAPIER co, LTD. I’ve translated them into English to help you better understand how to properly write essays using Wongoji papers ( which is what the TOPIK test uses as well ).

Download Wongoji essay writing instructions PDF

The directions are included on the PDF print-out above, but here they are again for clarity:

Wongoji Basic Cryptography

By default, there aren’t any implicit principles for using wongoji . But usually using wongoji , there are some general forms to follow.

Essay wongoji were created to easily identify the fundamental elements of spelling, spacing, and so on. More than that, by dividing paragraphs, you can easily identify contents and see how much you’re writing. Therefore , certain forms will equip you with the ability to write descriptive paragraphs, so that when the grader first sees your writing, they’ll be left with a positive first impression.

In one box , write one character . Only for the alphabet (lowercase) and Arabian numbers should 2 characters be used in one box, but every sentence mark should also have its own box. (Uppercase alphabet characters also need their own box.)
For paragraphs , the first box should be left blank and you should start writing from the second box. This means it’s a new paragraph. Only do this for a new paragraph. (If there’s no empty box to leave a space between words in a line, don’t leave the next line’s first space blank. Rather, put a (V) mark after the last character and begin the next line with a consonant .)
Spacing and spelling rules should be followed, but when there’s a sentence mark that should usually be followed by a space like a comma (,) or period (.), generally don’t leave a blank.
Exclamation marks (!) or question marks (?) should be written in the center of the box, but quotation marks ( “ ” ) commas (,) and periods (.) should be written in the corner of the box nearest the letters they affect.
In the case that a sentence mark should be stamped at the end of a line, it shouldn’t be carried down to the next line, but rather placed inside the last box on that line. Starting a line with ‘.’ or ‘,’ should be carefully avoided.
When writing a dialogue , change to the next line for each full quotation mark ( “ ” ). The first box should be left blank and quotation marks should come in the second box.

FREE Practice Papers

Also, if you want, I’ve also created our own FREE 원고지 Practice Papers that you can use to practice.

Download Practice Wongoji PDF

Do you practice your topik essays with wongoji do you find this resources helpful.

120 Days to TOPIK #1 – Gather Resources

Gather your resources! This is one of my favorite parts of any new Challenge because it can be fun to look over the kinds of materials you WANT to use and the kinds of things you WANT to learn (plus, Continue reading 120 Days to TOPIK #1 – Gather Resources

How I Will Study for the TOPIK II in 120 Days (and You Can Join Me)

Well, that was unexpected. I recently wrote a post outlining my plan to cram for the TOPIK II in 30 days. I had been planning to take the test on July 19, 2015. But, I guess plans change. As it turns Continue reading How I Will Study for the TOPIK II in 120 Days (and You Can Join Me)

Thanks! Initially I thought a space had to be left AFTER every form of punctuation “.” “,” etc… but that makes almost two full blocks oven between the sentences so this makes sense. I was also never sure what that “V” was for at the end of the sentence.

Right. But Sarah has also said that you probably don’t need to write the “V” at the end in TOPIK. She said nobody usually writes the “V” even though it’s “conventional.”

Pingback: Take a Look at Some Sample TOPIK Answer Papers (Blank) and download Wongoji essay papers | Key to Korean
Pingback: 30-Day Challenge: Day #15 – Proper spacing (띄어쓰기) in Korean can Save a person’s life! | Key to Korean

What is counted as a 자 and what isn’t counted as a 자? I’m really confused by this because some sites said that spaces between words can be counted as a 자. How about the spacing before each paragraph/dialog/quotation? Is that counted as a 자 as well?

According to the TOPIK sample answers for essay, they said that if you exceed by 100 자 or do not meet the required amount of 자, they will minus 5 points. So if I exceed by 99 자, will I still get penalized for it?

Actually, EVERY box counts as a 자. “자” technically means “character” or “letter” and INCLUDES spaces.

For the most part on TOPIK, you WON’T be writing multiple paragraphs or quotations, so it isn’t something to really worry about during the test, but YES, the spacing before each should count as a 자 as well.

If you take a look at some sample TOPIK answer papers (in the back of the TOPIK Test Guide books, or located here on our website ), you can see that there are numbers going down the side of the page. This is to help with speedy counting of the number of 자 used. So long as you remain WITHIN the specified amount, you should be OK.

I’d also say, if you’re 99 in excess (and the penalty is 100), then you won’t be deducted. The numbers down the side of the paper make for simple counting and it will be easy to tell if you go “over” or not. They’ll just look down to see if you have 자 in the “forbidden area.”

But I say, Why even test it? For the most part, you’re not really going to be ABLE to write so long. It’s best to FOCUS your writing to your main points and work on cleaning up your essay WITHIN the guidelines. You won’t get bonus points for going long. But you WILL get better points for spending your extra time editing and fixing rather than over-writing.

Good luck in TOPIK!~

By the way, you know that from July, there is NO MORE Beginner Writing section , right? Only Intermediates and Advanced students need to worry about that.

Dear Aaron, thank you for your article. One question I have though is how we can edit the TOPIK writing essays. Is there an official way to insert corrections without being penalised?

You cannot edit TOPIK writing essays AFTER the test.

However, DURING the test, if you make an error, you need to use the white-out tape (available at the tests if you ask the test proctors – or just bring your own).

Last time, to try to avoid needing to use white-out tape, I tried to write the essay FIRST in pencil and then go back over it all in pen. However, this method took WAY too long and I didn’t have time to complete the full writing portion.

Therefore, I think it’s a much better idea to just do you best in pen and if you make a mistake, use the white-out tape.

Pingback: TOPIK Wongoji Writing Rules Revisited

Korean Sentence Structure: The Complete Guide

Let’s learn about the korean sentence structure and master how to form different types of sentences, i want to learn....

Korean sentence structure can be a little confusing depending on how your first language works. The word order of Korean sentences is different from English, declarative statements and question statements look the same, and many Korean sentences seem incomplete and missing keywords.

In this article, we will guide you through the major features of Korean sentences so that you have a clear understanding of how Korean sentences are formed.

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The basic Korean sentence structure

The basic sentence structure of many languages is a subject and a verb, and this is also the case in Korean.

Sentence Type 1 - Subject + Verb (S+V)

In Korean, we often use particles with the sentence subject, so in the first sentence, 저 means ‘I’ and 는 is a particle. Similarly, in the second sentence, 민수 means ‘Minsu’, and 가 is a particle. However, the word order of the most basic Korean sentence structure is ‘Subject + Verb’ (S+V) - it’s the same as English sentences.

If we add the object of the verb, the word order of Korean sentences is different from English.

Sentence Type 2 - Subject + Object + Verb (S+O+V)

In Korean, the object of the verb 사과 (apple) is between the subject and the verb, and this differs from English as the object is always positioned after the verb in English (Minsu eats an apple ).

When we use objects, they are often used with object marking particles 을/를. We use 을 with nouns that end in a final consonant, such as 책 (book) which ends in the final consonant ㄱ, so we say 책을. However, with nouns ending in vowels, such as 사과 which ends in the vowel ㅘ, we use 를 and say 사과를.

S+O+V Examples

Expanding the sentence.

Quite often, we want to add more information in our sentences, so we want to say where or when something happens, where we go to, or who we do something with, and we can do that by using phrases like ‘at home’, ‘to school’, or ‘with my friend’. These phrases are called prepositional phrases in English. Let’s first take a look at an example sentence.

Sentence Type 3 - Additional information

In this sentence, we have the phrase 학교에서 meaning ‘at school’. 학교 means ‘school’, and 에서 is a particle and we use it to talk about something happening at a specific location, and in this sentence, we use 학교에서 to describe where Minsu eats an apple - at school.

In this sentence, the position of 학교에서 is before the object of the verb 사과를. However, the position of the two parts can change in Korean, so we can also say…

In the above sentence, 학교에서 (at school) has changed positions with 사과를 (an apple), and whenever this happens, we are putting more emphasis on the part that’s next to the verb, so in this sentence, the focus of the sentence is on where Minsu eats an apple, rather than what he eats.

However, a sentence can have multiple parts to show additional meaning.

Sentence Type 3 - More additional information

So we’ve added 친구랑 (with a friend), and this is positioned after 학교에서 (at school). However, the same sentence can be written in many different ways, with the order of the prepositional phrases and the object of the verb changing.

Here are examples:

민수가 친구랑 사과를 학교에서 먹어요.
민수가 학교에서 사과를 친구랑 먹어요.
민수가 사과를 친구랑 학교에서 먹어요.

As you can see, regardless of the order of the three phrases in the middle of the sentence, the sentence is grammatically correct and the meaning is also the same. However, in general, we emphasize the phrase that’s closest to the verb, so the first sentence emphasizes 학교에서 (at school) more and the second sentence emphasizes 친구랑 (with a friend) more. Nevertheless, while the position of the phrases can change, the subject is usually at the beginning of the sentence and the verb is always at the end of the sentence.

Understanding 이다

이다 is essentially a particle, but it functions like a verb, and we can use it like the English verb ‘to be’ and say sentences like ‘I am a teacher’, or ‘Minsu is a friend’.

Sentences that use 이다

이다 can be changed into different levels of formality, but regardless of the conjugated form of 이다, when 이다 is used in a sentence, it’s always attached to the complement (noun), so we write 저는 선생님 이에요 and NOT 저는 선생님 이에요 - there should not be space between 선생님 (a teacher) and 이에요 (am).

이다 has two polite forms - 예요 & 이에요. We use 예요 if the noun ends in a vowel, so we use 예요 with 친구 (friend) as 친구 ends in the vowel ㅜ. However, 선생님 (teacher) ends in the consonant ㅁ, so we say 선생님이에요.

Example sentences that use 이다:

저는 김예지 예요 . [Jeo-neun Kim-Yeji-ye-yo.] - I am Yeji Kim.
민수는 친구 예요 . [Minsu-neun chin-gu-ye-yo.] - Minsu is a friend.
내일이 제 생일 이에요 . [Nae-il-i je saeng-il-i-e-yo.] - Tomorrow is my birthday.

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Korean adjectives

Korean adjectives function like verbs, so they take up the same position as verbs in a sentence, and they can be conjugated into different tenses. However, just like English adjectives, their main function is to describe nouns, most commonly the sentence subject.

Here’s an example English sentence that uses an adjective:

This is good.

In this sentence, the subject is ‘This’, the verb is ‘is’, and the adjective is ‘good’ and the adjective describes the subject ‘This’.

Here’s the same sentence in Korean:

이거 좋아요. (I-geo jo-a-yo.)

In this sentence, 이거 means ‘this’, and 좋아요 is the adjective and this word not only means ‘good’, but it also includes the meaning of the verb ‘is’, so 좋아요 means ‘is good’. Because Korean adjectives act like a verb and an adjective, we often call them ‘descriptive verbs’.

One other important point to note is that Korean adjectives are not used to describe actions, so they can never have an object - like verbs that describe actions.

Example sentences that use Korean adjectives.

날씨가 더워요 . [Nal-ssi-ga deo-wo-yo.] - The weather is hot .
가방이 비싸요 . [Ga-bang-i bi-ssa-yo.] - The bag is expensive .
저는 피곤해요 . [Jeo-neun pi-gon-hae-yo.] - I am tired .
고양이가 예뻐요 . [Go-yang-i-ga ye-ppeo-yeo.] The cat is pretty .
Korean questions

The conjugated form of the verb or the adjective is different depending on speech level. Let’s take the verb 가다 (to go) as an example.

Different speech levels of 가다

The formal form of 가다 is different for declarative statements and question statements. For declarative statements, it’s 갑니다, but for questions, it’s 갑니까. However, for the polite form and the casual form, the conjugation of 가다 is the same regardless of whether we are forming declarative statements or question statements.

Questions and statements (formal speech)

Between the declarative statement and the question statement, the only difference is the final syllable - it’s either ‘다’ or ‘까’. However, as with English, when we ask questions in Korean, we have to raise the tone at the end. In contrast, declarative statements are said with a falling tone at the end.

Example questions that use verbs and adjectives in formal form:

음악을 좋아합니까 ? [ Eum-ak-eul jo-a-ham-ni-kka? ] - Do you like music?
민수는 집에 있습니까 ? [ Minsu-neun jib-e i-sseum-ni-kka? ] - Is Minsu at home?
강아지가 예쁩니까 ? [ Gang-a-ji-ga ye-ppeum-ni-kka? ] - Is the dog pretty?

Questions and statements (polite speech)

To make verbs and adjectives into casual forms, we simply remove 요 at the end of the polite form, and similar to the questions that use verbs and adjectives in their polite form, the declarative statement and the question statement are exactly the same. Like the sentences that use verbs and adjectives in polite form, declarative statements are said with a falling tone at the end, but question statements are said with a rising tone at the end.

Omitting known information

In Korean, particularly in speech, if certain information is known to both the speaker and the listener, then that information can be omitted from the sentence. Here’s a common question people ask each other in Korean.

Omitting the sentence subject

In Korean, when we direct a question to someone, we often omit the pronoun ‘you’ as the other person will implicitly understand that the question is about them. However, as well as questions being directed at someone, if we know who or what the question is about, we often omit the sentence subject.

So if we are talking about a certain dish, and we want to ask whether that dish is delicious, we would just ask…

맛있어요? [Ma-si-sseo-yo]? - Is it delicious?

And 맛있어요 is the polite form of 맛있다 (to be delicious), so to ask ‘Is it delicious’, we simply use the adjective 맛있어요 (to be delicious), and we can omit the subject ‘it’.

Going back to the question ‘Did you eat lunch?’, after someone has asked 점심 먹었어요? (Did you eat lunch), we often reply by saying…

네, 먹었어요. [Ne, meo-geo-sseo-yo.] - Yes, I ate.

In this sentence 네 means ‘yes’ , and 먹었어요 means ‘ate’, so all we are basically saying is ‘Yes, ate’. We don’t need to say that ‘I’, and we don’t need to say we ate 점심 (lunch). All of these things are understood based on the context.

Recap on Korean sentence structure

So in this article, we went over:

Word order: SVO (English) Vs. SOV (Korean)
Use of different phrases and the changing order of these phrases
Use of Korean adjectives (descriptive verbs)

To improve your understanding of these concepts and your ability to use Korean sentences, it’s important for you to practice using Korean and to read and hear Korean sentences regularly, so why not head over to the Busuu app, and start using Korean today !

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