Spacing,띄어쓰기(ttuieosseugi) is really important in Hangul, else it could lead to misunderstanding/misinterpretation. Because either each character gives a meaning or gives no meaning. And sometimes combination of different character might give different meaning.

For Hangul, the basic rule of thumb is that there are spaces between words that are each 2 or more syllables in length, while there is no space between 2 one-character words or between a one-character word and a 2-or-more-character word. (The rules are of course actually much more complicated than this and depend upon the grammatical categories of the words in question, but this rule of thumb generally holds for nouns, which constitute most of the words in article titles.) cr: Wikipedia

Spacing i mean, 저는 한국 사람입니다(√),
and not spaces after every characters, 저 는 한 국 사 람 입 니 다(X).

For a incorrect spacing, it might give a wrong/different meaning,

Example 1
아버지가 방에 들어가신다 (abeojiga bang-e deul-eogasinda)
Father entered the room.

and with wrong spacing,
아버지 가방에 들어가신다 (abeoji gabang-e deul-eogasinda)
Father entered the bag. 

열차(yeolcha)
Train 

열 차(yeol cha)
Ten cars. 

However you can't write Hangul without any spacing,

Example 2
저는대학생이에요
Iamastudent

The correct one would be,
저는 대학생이에요(jeoneun daehagsaeng-ieyo)
I am a student.

Example 3
절대로 안돼(jeoldaelo andwae)(X)
절대로 안 돼(jeoldaelo an dwae)(√)

먹 고 싶어요(meog go sip-eoyo)(X)
먹고 싶어요(meoggo sip-eoyo) (√)

하고싶어요(hagosip-eoyo)(X)
하고 싶어요 (hago sip-eoyo)(√)

잘지내셨어요? (jal jinaesyeoss-eoyo?)(X)
잘 지내셨어요?(jal jinaesyeoss-eoyo?)(√)

할수있다(halsuissda)(X)
할 수 있다(hal su issda)(√)

Example 4
나는 공부를 잘못해서  시험에 합격하지 못했다
I didn't pass the exam, because I studied wrongly. 

나는 공부를 잘 못해서 시험에 합격하지 못했다
I didn't pass the exam, because I didn't study well.


General rules :
1. Whenever there is  particles (은/는, 이/가, 을/를, 에, 에서, 으로, 등등), there must be space after that.

2. 이다 (ida) attaches to the character right before it.

3. For 고 싶다/고 싶어 ,  고 is attached to character before it and has a space between 고 and 싶다/싶어.

4.Usually after the character, 잘 there's space. Except for 잘못(jal-mot), which means error/mistake,  (refer Example 4 above) and some other words that can't stand alone.

Tips: You have to read more, to get used to the spacings of character in Hangul.Well, sometimes on Twitter, people write sentences without space, due to the character limit. It would be best if you choose a proper learning book to learn the spacings.

Labels: Hangul, Spacing

Thursday 8 November 2012 | 2 comment[s] | back to top