Hi there! I apologize again for the late response. That’s a good question. But, it’s hard to know without context. Some grammar change based on context.

My best guess is that it’s the grammar 는 거예요/는 거야 plus the particle 지 (assumption, agreement etc).

You might know this grammar. But, in case some people don’t. I’ll explain it again. I do have a post somewhere. I’ll put the usage here. (The conjugation can be found easily on google!^^)

ㄴ/는 거야 or the polite ㄴ/는 거예요 is a sentence ending that can be used in the present or past with both verbs and adjectives. It’s basically a more emotional way to talk instead of giving just basic information or straight facts. 

And, it’s used mostly in these situations:

–>giving new (or surprising) information

–>responding to something (with emotion)

–>telling a story to someone (this is because you’re typically telling new or surprising information haha)

–>recounting or clarifying information

Here are some examples:

그거 들었어? 소영이가 그 오빠랑 사귀는 거야! Did you hear that? Soyoung is dating that older guy!

This sounds more surprised like “I’m telling you something!” Instead of “그 오빠랑 사귀고 있어” which just conveys the information a little more dryly. So, if you don’t care, you might use 사귀고 있어. But if this is big news, 사귀는 거야 is more likely to be used. 

어제 남자친구가 갑자기 헤어지자고 한 거야. Yesterday, my boyfriend suddenly said we should break up! (let’s break up). 

이쪽으로 갈까? (Goes off in another direction.) 엥? 어디 가는 거야! 이리 와! Should we go in this direction? *goes off in another direction.* Eh? Where are you going??

*Like “Where on earth are you going” or “where exactly are you going?” or “where the hell are you going?”

So, my guess is you saw “는 거야” plus 지. They are often used together. 지 commonly conveys assumption, agreement or “checking” information with someone.

So, for example:

헤어지자고 하는 거지? You’re saying we should break up, right?

나랑 같이 가는 거지? You’re going with me, right?

This grammar is “nuance” on “nuance.” So, it takes a while to master using it. But, you can understand it this way! And once you understand it, it’ll be easy to recognize it in videos and conversation in the future!

But once again, I can’t promise this is correct. Because I’m not too sure about the context. But, regardless, this is crazy common. 

I hope this helped in some way. Feel free to ask more questions for clarification!

Hi there! I’m glad to hear from you. This is a good question. The placement of adverbs (부사) can be difficult. You could say that 연습 많이 했다 is a little more grammatically correct. But, that is because this is a 하다 verb. 하다 is used to make nouns into verbs, right? (noun: 연습 practice, verb: 연습하다 to practice). 

So, all 하다 verbs can be written with the particles 을/를. For example, 연습하다 and 연습을 하다 are exactly the same meaning-wise. 연습하다 is like the shortened form. 

Generally, adverbs and the “negative 안/못” are right next to the verb. 안 음식을 먹었어요. would be really awkward, right? 음식을 안 먹었어요. would be more natural. The negative 안/못 and adverbs like to be close to the verb. You can think of it as adverbs love verbs and don’t want to be separated. 

하다 verbs are unique because they are a noun + a verb. Because of this, adverbs typically are put between the noun and 하다.

For example:

공부를 많이 했다. I studied a lot.

연습(을) 자주 해야 돼요. I have to practice often.

But, this is not a hard rule when speaking. You’ll see some people say 많이 연습했어요. and it is not super awkward. But, in general adverbs are right next to the verb. You’ll even see 연습했어요 많이! It’s an interesting trait that Korean has. However, the father away the adverb is from the verb the more awkward it will become.

In the case of 안 and 못, it’s more important to put them right next to the verb. It can get awkward if you don’t. (But sometimes people say 안 공부했다– especially kids.)

However, it’s better to say it like this:

포기(를) 못 해요. / 포기(를) 안 했어요. I can’t give up./ I didn’t give up.

Let me know if any of this was confusing! I hope it helps. And good luck! 홧팅하세요! ㅎㅎ

Hi there, I am doing pretty good now!^^ And yes, that’s actually something I tackle in a lot of posts, like the post on 기대되다 and 흥분되다. These differences normally appear in subtle differences in usage for vocabulary that don’t match their translation.

One that I might have mentioned is the difference between “뭐 what” and “왜 why.” This is a surprisingly big difference. In the US, if I am looking at someone too long they might ask “What?” (Like what are you looking at lol), but in Korea if you say “뭐야? / 뭐예요?” it would be pretty aggressive or rude. It just isn’t used in that situation. Koreans will ask “why? 왜?/왜요?” (why are you looking at me?) It’s also the reason Koreans will awkwardly ask “why” in situations where (at least)  Americans wouldn’t use it.

But, it’s hard to dedicate one post because this is a pretty endless list. It’s just one of the challenges of Korean. But, I promise I’ll keep coming back to it. This is an area of Korean that I’m really interested in linguistically. So, I’ll definitely keep posts coming with this in mind. 

Hi there! I apologize for this answer being much too late. The best approach to listening is definitely listening to things you like! I think your approach is great. There are all kinds of theories about what work. Like listening once with subtitles then without or vise versa. But, taking the approach that is most enjoyable is always my main advice. If you hate to do it, you won’t do it. That’s just what happens. There are amazing study tips, but if you hate the method, it’s easy to give up. It happened to me a bunch. 

I do find that if you want to take a very “school” approach, watching three times (one without subtitles, one with Korean subtitles or a script, then once without subtitles again) really does help. I had to do it in school, and while it was annoying, I did hear a lot of the script by the third time.  

I find Korean subtitles to be helpful in the beginning. You can match the word to the sound, and you know what to be listening for.

Listening is hard because if you don’t know the word, you can hear it 100 times and never understand. So, actually the best thing for listening is building your vocabulary (and of course grammar). But, listening and looking for words or phrases is always good practice whether you understand or not. It’s hard to not improve if you couple exposure to Korean with studying (especially vocab). Whenever I learn a new word, I almost immediately hear it in conversation or read it somewhere. So, vocabulary expansion is really important. 

I hope this helps at least a little! And I’m super glad to have helped motivate you to keep going. Korean is tough, but it’s really rewarding at the end!