Unit 17: Question Words (언제, 어디, 누구, 왜, 어떻게)

To have a real conversation, you need to be able to ask questions! Today we will learn the 5 W's (and 1 H) in Korean.

The beauty of Korean is that you do not need to change the word order to ask a question. You just swap out the noun for a question word!

1. 언제 (eon-je) = When

You can put 언제 anywhere in the sentence (usually before the verb) to ask when something happens.

• 언제 가요? = When are you going?
• 언제 왔어요? = When did you come? (Past tense)

2. 어디 (eo-di) = Where

Because 어디 is a location noun, it must be paired with the location markers we learned in Unit 16 (에 or 에서).

• 어디에 있어요? = Where is it? / Where are you? (Existence)
• 어디에 가요? = Where are you going? (Direction)
• 어디에서 공부해요? = Where do you study? (Action) (Note: 어디에서 is often shortened to 어디서 in spoken Korean).

3. 누구 (nu-gu) = Who

누구 is used to ask "Who".

• 이 사람 누구예요? = Who is this person?
• 누구 만났어요? = Who did you meet?

(We will learn a special rule about '누구' when it is the subject of the sentence in Unit 19!)

4. 왜 (wae) = Why

왜 is very simple and usually placed right before the verb.

• 왜 안 왔어요? = Why didn't you come?
• 왜 화났어요? = Why are you angry?

You can also just say "왜요?" to ask "Why?" politely.

5. 어떻게 (eo-tteo-ke) = How

어떻게 asks by what method or in what manner something is done.

• 어떻게 했어요? = How did you do it?
• 어떻게 알았어요? = How did you know?

Summary

• 언제 = When
• 어디 = Where (+ 에 / 에서)
• 누구 = Who
• 왜 = Why
• 어떻게 = How