Last week we learnt how to say if the weather was cold and if a ‘thing’ was cold (check that out here) but this week we’re going to look at how to talk about having a cold. Pretty relevant since this cold weather just won’t shift!
The word ‘cold’ in Korean, as in, “I have a cold,” is 감기 (gam-gi). We use the verb 걸리다 (geol-li-da) when we want to say, “I have a cold/I caught a cold.” But first, the verb needs to be conjugated into the past tense! It might seem weird to use the past tense because you have a cold right now, at this moment, but if you think of it in the sense of, “I caught a cold,” we use the past tense too.
걸리다 in the formal past tense becomes 걸렸어요 (geol-lyeo-sseo-yo). You can remove the 요 (yo) part if you are speaking informally. The full phrase is 감기 걸렸어요 (gam-gi geol-lyeo-sseo-yo)/ I have a cold. This can easily be turned into a question, simply by using a question mark and changing your intonation – 감기 걸렸어요/ Do you have a cold?
Combining this week’s lesson and last week’s lesson, we can create a longer conversation!
Sample –
Person A: 요즘에 추워죠?/ Isn’t it cold these days?
Person B: 네, 추워요. 감기 걸렸어요…/ Yes, it is. I caught a cold…
Person A: 아, 진짜 감기 걸렸어요?/ Ah, you really caught a cold?
Person B: 네…/ Yeah…
Person A: 그럼 안에 가요/ Then lets go inside.
