I am looking for a gift for my friend.

Hi. I ran again this morning and did a bit better by running 6K! And I don't feel exhausted which is even greater! A couple of trainings that I did during the week is paying off, I think. :) Since I don't feel like I need a six hour nap like I did last week, I am going to go out and do some gift shopping for a friend whose birthday is coming up. :)


I am looking for a gift for my friend.
친구에게 줄 선물을 찾고 있어요.


친구에게, chinguaegae, friend + suffix for target of action
줄, jul, give (주다)
선물을, sunmuleul, gift + suffix
찾고, chatgo, looking (찾다)
있어요, yitsoyo, is/am doing something (있다)


친구한테 줄 선물을 찾고 있어요.
chinguaegae jul sunmuleul chatgo yitsoyo.


줄 is a verb and the base form is 주다. By changing the ending to -ㄹ style, it make '친구에게 줄' an adjective phrase describing 선물.

If you are familiar with Korean, you will know there are honorific forms. If not, you can read about it from here. Let's cover that as today's expression is a good example. :)

If you are looking for something for your mother, you should be saying:
어머니께 드릴 선물을 찾고 있어요.

께(ggae) is an honorific form of 에게 and there is a similarity in how they sound. On the other hand, 드리다(derida) is completely different from 주다. There are a lot, I mean a lot of these. I think it is best to memorize them rather than trying to find a pattern. There is no royal road to learning. :(

'찾고 있어요' is a present continuous form see more explanation from here.

Try other nouns instead of 선물, for example, 기념품(ginyompum, souvenir). But make sure to change the suffix 을 to 를 if the ending sound of the noun is vowel. E.g. 김치(Kimchi)를.

Some ideas on what to buy in Korea is here.

Now, time for some shopping! :)

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