Interrogative sentences in Korean

The Korean text pronunciation feature (🔊) is only available for Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Opera browsers.

Verb, Adjective + ㅂ니까 / 습니까

습니까 - if a word ends in a consonant, ㅂ니까 - if ends in a vowel

In this lesson we will learn how to ask a question. To do this, we will use the endings -ㅂ니까? / -습니까? / -입니까?

-ㅂ니까 / -습니까 are an interrogative sentence (question) endings in the polite formal speech style.
Add -ㅂ니까 to a verb or adjective stem that ends with a vowel and -습니까 to a verb or adjective stem that ends with a consonant.
Stem is a part of a verb or adjective which is left after removing the last syllable -다 ( e.g. 가다 → 가, 예쁘다 → 예쁘, 듣다 → 듣 ).

See examples,
(click on translation and grammar buttons)

비가 옵니까?

Korean

오다

English

rain

to come

Is it raining? (literally: Rain comes?)

오+ㅂ니까?

가방이 큽니까?

Korean

가방

크다

English

bag

big

Is the bag big? (literally: Bag big?)

가방 크+ㅂ니까?

기분이 좋습니까?

Korean

기분

좋다

English

mood

good

Do/does smb. feel good? (literally: Mood good?)

기분습니까?

우리가 먹습니까?

Korean

우리

먹다

English

we

to eat

Are we having a meal? (literally: We eat?)

우리습니까?

연필이 있습니까?

Korean

연필

있다

English

pencil

to have

Do/does smb. have a pencil? (literally: Pencil have?)

연필습니까?

Noun, Pronoun + 입니까

When the final word of a sentence is a noun or pronoun, use -입니까.
(Advanced information: 입니까 = helping verb 이다 + ㅂ니까)

See examples,
(click on translation and grammar buttons)

이것은 시계입니까?

Korean

이것

시계

English

this

watch, clock

Is this a watch?

이것 시계입니까?

저는 학생입니까?

Korean

학생

English

I

student

Am I a student?

학생입니까?

오늘은 수요일입니까?

Korean

오늘

수요일

English

today

Wednesday

Is today Wednesday?

오늘 수요일입니까?

Quick reference (click to open)

Vowels: a, e, i, o, u

Consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j

Syllable: Bra-zil (2 syllables), Ar-gen-ti-na (4), In-di-a (3), Viet-nam (2), thin-king (2), beau-ti-ful (3), good (1)

Batchim: is a final consonant in a syllable. → Bra-zil (batchim: 'l'), Ar-gen-ti-na (batchims: 'r' and 'n'), In-di-a ('n'), Viet-nam ('t', 'm')

Romanization: is a conversion of text (not pronunciation ! ) from different writing system (Korean, Arabic, Russian, etc.) to the Roman (Latin) alphabet.

IPA: is an alphabetic system of phonetic (pronunciation) notation.

Noun: road, user, sister, table, sky

Pronoun: I, my, we, you, they, her

Verb: to go, to study, to think, to feel

Adjective: cold, kind, hungry, curious, expensive

Adverb: quickly, nicely, never, exactly, urgently

Preposition: from, to, on, in, with, till

Conjuction: and, because, if, but, while

Declarative sentence: I learn Korean.

Interrogative sentence: Do you learn Korean?

Imperative sentence: You must learn Korean!

Exclamative sentence: Wow, you learn Korean!

Verb / Adj. stem in Korean: part of a verb or adj. which is left after removing the last syllable -다 ( e.g. 가다 → 가, 예쁘다 → 예쁘, 듣다 → 듣 ).