The Personal World: Family, Friends, Home and School
What you must know
This domain rewards precise vocabulary organised into families: kinship terms (아버지, 어머니, 할머니, 오빠/형, 언니/누나, 동생), counters (명 for people, 마리 for animals, 개 for objects, 살 for age), and honorific forms used when speaking about elders (계시다, 드시다, 연세). Learn home and neighbourhood words (집, 방, 부엌, 화장실, 아파트, 시장, 은행, 공원, 버스 정류장) with the position words above, under, next to, in front of, behind (위, 아래, 옆, 앞, 뒤). For school life, master subjects (국어, 수학, 영어, 과학, 체육), timetable language (월요일, 몇 시에, 교실, 숙제), and daily routine verbs (일어나다, 씻다, 먹다, 가다, 배우다, 자다).
Sentence patterns to control
Use topic marking (저는/나는 …은/는) versus subject marking (이/가) to answer questions about who does what. Practise polite endings 합쇼체 (-습니다/ㅂ니다) for formal writing and 해요체 for conversation. Numbers split into two systems: native Korean for counters and hours (한 명, 두 살, 세 시) and Sino-Korean for minutes, money, dates and phone numbers (삼십 분, 천 원, 이월).
Traps
- Mixing number systems: 세 명 is correct, 삼 명 is not; 삼십 분 is correct, 서른 분 is not.
- Confusing 오빠/형 and 언니/누나 - the choice depends on the speaker's gender, not the sibling's.
- Age questions: 몇 살이에요? for peers, 연세가 어떻게 되세요? for elders.
- Listening items often give a time and then change it (수업은 세 시인데, 오늘은 두 시에 시작해요).
- Possessive 의 is usually dropped in speech: 우리 엄마, not 우리의 엄마.
Worked example
Question: 누나가 몇 명 있어요? - Answer options include two, three, four. If the recording says “저는 여동생이 한 명 있고, 누나가 두 명 있어요,” the trap is the 동생 mentioned first. Count only 누나: 두 명. Rule of thumb: underline the noun in the question and count only that noun.
Rule of thumb
Build a personal vocabulary grid (people × place × time) and rehearse one sentence per cell; most questions in this domain are simply that grid rearranged.