Confusing Words & Grammar Patterns

There are quite a few a lot of words that I still often confused with each other. I decided to write them as I encounter them / get confused with them – in the hopes that writing them down and reading this page once in a while could help me remember and distinguish them from each other. If you have tips on how I can distinguish them easier or have an explanation on how one differs from the other/the rest, feel free to leave a comment. 🙂

DISCLAIMER: This list is highly subjective. I just decided to put this page up so that I can neatly compile words and grammar patterns that I’m often confused with and so that I can review them easily whenever I want to.

소설 and 수술

문자, 문제, 문장

– thanks to Secret Garden, I can now easily remember 문자 (Gil Ra Im’s ringtone: 문자 왔숑! 문자 왔숑!

왼쪽 and 오른쪽

TIP: 오른쪽 is right because just like Right, there’s an R on it (oReunjjok)

쉬다 and 쉽다

TIP: the one with the ㅂ is easy, because difficult also has ㅂ – 어렵다.

아쉽다 and 아깝다

노력, 실력, 시력

좀, 쯤

쯤, 정도, 약

퍼지다 and 펴지다

TIP: 어깨 펴고!

변하다, 버뀌다, 바꾸다

굽다, 곱다, 고르다, 급하다, 구하다

다가가(오)다,

돌리다, 올리다, 떠올리다

도로, 따로

소용, 소중하다, 조용하다, 중요하다

유리하다, 요리하다

바라다, 버리다

심하다, 심각하다

똑 exactly; 뚝 with a snap/suddenly; 딱 exactly, suddenly, just

GRAMMAR

-ㄹ/을 까요 vs 게요

-ㄹ/을 까요

1. Asking oneself a question or showing doubt over something.

저 가방에 뭐가 있을 까요? (I wonder what’s in that bag.)

그 사람 괜찮을 까요? (Will he be okay?)

2. Raising a question and attracting attention of others?

싦이 뭘 까요? (삶이 뭐라고 생각하세요?)

3. Suggesting doing something together.

여러분 시작할 까요?

도와 줄 까요? (Shall I help you?)

영화 보러 갈 까요?

-ㄹ/을  게요

1. You are changing your plan according to what the other person said
2. You want to check what the other person thinks by saying something and seeing their reaction
3. You decide to do something because of something the other person said
More sample sentences:

ex: 알았어! 공부할게요.

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