The Basics: Particles (Part 2)

Also, only, until, since, and how to compare two things. These particles are important, as they add nuance once the basics are down.

Part 1 of this series covered the particles that build the skeleton of a sentence: who’s doing what, and where. This post covers the ones that add shading around that skeleton, narrowing something down to “only,” stretching it “until” a point, or holding two things up against each other to compare them.

-도: also, too

Attaches directly to a noun to mean “also” or “too.” It replaces -이/가, -은/는, and -을/를 when it’s used.

저도 학생이에요. = I’m also a student.
커피도 마셔요. = I drink coffee too.

Say it twice in the same sentence and you get “both… and”:

저는 한국어도 배우고, 일본어도 배워요. = I’m learning both Korean and Japanese.

-만: only

Marks something as the sole item, to the exclusion of everything else. Like -도, it replaces -이/가, -은/는, and -을/를.

물만 마셔요. = I only drink water.
저만 늦었어요. = Only I was late.

A common beginner mix-up: -만 attaches to the noun being limited, not to the verb. “I only eat” (as opposed to “I only drink”) is 먹기만 해요, which is a different structure entirely. But “I eat only rice” is simply 밥만 먹어요.

-까지: until, up to

Marks an endpoint, in time or in space.

저녁까지 일해요. = I work until evening.
서울까지 걸어갔어요. = I walked all the way to Seoul.

It also shows up idiomatically to mean “even,” when something reaches a point you didn’t expect it to:

그 사람까지 왔어요. = Even that person came.

-부터: from, starting at

The counterpart to -까지, marking a starting point rather than an endpoint. -부터 and -까지 show up together constantly.

아홉 시부터 일해요. = I work starting at nine o’clock.
월요일부터 금요일까지 일해요. = I work from Monday to Friday.

A quick way to keep them straight: -부터 answers “starting when,” -까지 answers “until when.” They’re not interchangeable even though English “from… to” makes them feel like a matched pair that could flip either direction.

-보다: more than, compared to

Marks the thing being compared against. The thing after -보다 is the baseline; the thing being described as more or less is usually marked separately, often with 더 (“more”).

오늘이 어제보다 더워요. = Today is hotter than yesterday.
저는 커피보다 차를 더 좋아해요. = I like tea more than coffee.

Word order can flip without changing the meaning. 어제보다 오늘이 더워요 works just as well since -보다 itself is what marks the comparison, not the position in the sentence.

Question: 덜 means less. Can you guess what 어제는 오늘보다 덜 더워요. means?

If you’re still getting comfortable with particles like -보다 in real time, practicing with speaking prompts can help lock them in through repetition.

Once particles are familiar, noun modifiers and essential verb endings show how Korean verbs describe nouns and place actions in time.

-처럼 and -같이: like, as

Both mean roughly “like” or “as,” and in casual speech they’re often interchangeable. -같이 is slightly more common in spoken Korean; -처럼 shows up a bit more in writing and similes, though the line isn’t strict.

아이처럼 웃어요. = She laughs like a child.
눈같이 하얘요. = White as snow.

Don’t confuse this -같이 with 같이 used on its own to mean “together” (같이 가요 = let’s go together). Same word, unrelated function, and context makes the difference obvious almost immediately.

Part 3 of this series covers noun modifiers.