~지/죠 Lesson

안녕하세요! It's Vaibhavi from India. In this lesson,you will learn how to add the suffixes ~지/~죠 to the end of a statement. ~지 and ~죠 the ability to turn statements into questions ~지 and ~죠.

UNDERSTANDING  ~지 and ~죠

In Korean, ~지 and ~죠 are used to turn a statement into questions, basically to confirm information or to imply that the speaker expects agreement. The choice between ~지 and ~죠 often depends on the level of formality and the speaker's intention. That is, ~죠 is the formal version of ~지.

For Example:

Statement: 오늘 날씨가 좋아. (Today's weather is good.)

Question: 오늘 날씨가 좋지? (Today's weather is good, isn't it?) (Informal setting)

Question: 오늘 날씨가 좋죠 ? (Today's weather is good, isn't it?) (formal setting)

The characters ~지 and ~죠 represent isn't it, with ~지 used in informal circumstances and ~죠 in formal ones.

Structure:

• Present tense: verb stem + -지(요)

• Past tense: verb stem + -았/었/였 + -지(요)

• Future tense: verb stem + -(으)ㄹ +거 + 지(요)

Let's look at some more examples:

1. 이 영화 재미있죠? (This movie is interesting, isn't it?)

2. 너 지금 집에 있지? (You are at home now, right?)

3. 회의가 오후 두 시에 시작하죠? (The meeting starts at 2 PM, correct?)

4. 프로젝트는 다음 주에 마무리해야 하죠? (The project needs to be completed by next week, right?)

5. 우리는 내일 만나기로 했지? (We decided to meet tomorrow, right?)

6. 이건 정말 맛있지? (This is really delicious, isn't it?)

Note that ~지 and ~죠 are used when the speaker already knows the answer and is only asking for confirmation.  ~지 and ~죠.

Notice that we added ~지 and ~죠 without a question word. 뭐, 언제, 누구, 왜 etc. However, the same approach applies when using ~지 and ~죠 with a question word but in this case the meaning is slightly different.

Example:

점심으로 뭐 먹었죠? (What did you eat for lunch?) = (점심으로 뭐 먹었어요?)

Now in this type of sentence the usage of ~지 and ~죠 indicates that the you know the answer but forgot what the 'answer' was.

Therefore, the literal translation would be: Oh! I can't remember what you ate for lunch.. tell me again?

~지 and ~죠 has one more important use.

We'll finish off by talking about the use of ~지 and ~죠 for self-questioning. You would just use the informal -지 since you are thinking aloud or talking to yourself.

It can be used to ask yourself questions such as "what did I do yesterday again?" or "where did I put my keys?" Typically, these type of statement contain a question word.

Example:

1. 지갑을 어디 뒀지? (Where did I put my wallet?)

2. 언제 가지? (When should I go?)

3. 어디 가지? (Where should I go?)

4. 뭐 하지? (What should I do?)

That’s it for this lesson! For more free lessons visit our website koreanstudyjunkie.com. See you in next lesson.