my-korean1-2nd-ed

82
Yes/No Questions
UNIT 3 피자 좋아하세요?
In the previous section we learnt how to make a simple statement such as
‘저 피자 좋아해요’. Turning this into a question is quite simple. You just
say ‘피자 좋아해요?’ with a rising intonation.
So if a sentence has a rising intonation at the end, it becomes a question:
a) 피자 좋아해요? (Do you) like pizza?
And if it has a falling intonation, it becomes a statement:
b) 저 피자 좋아해요. I like pizza.
You may be asking what has happened to the pronoun ‘you’ in the question
form. As mentioned in Unit 1 ‘Introducing Yourself’, the equivalent Korean
pronouns of ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘he/she’, ‘it’ and ‘they’ are normally omitted when it is
obvious in context to whom or what you are referring. In particular, the
Korean pronoun for ‘you’ is hardly ever used, unless the speakers are very
close. To use it in any other situation is very insulting. The most common
strategy when you are addressing someone is either to omit a subject
altogether, or to use the person’s name instead.
For example:
(1) (너) 피자 좋아해? (Do you) like pizza? (Casual)
(2) 로버트, 피자 좋아해? Robert, do you like pizza? (Casual)