What does 목적어 mean?
목적어 (mok-jeok-eo) means: Object — what receives the action, marked by 을/를.
Because there are object markers (을/를) to indicate the object, the position of the object is not fixed. It can even come before the subject (for emphasis).
◆ Grammar — In the English 'I eat rice', 'rice' is the object. In Korean, it is indicated with 을/를 or is omitted.
◆ Grammar — In the English 'I eat rice', 'rice' is the object. In Korean, it is indicated with 을/를 or is omitted.
🔊 From the story above
어순 — Eo-sun
주어 — ju-eo, "subject — the 'who' or 'what' doing the action"
목적어 — mok-jeok-eo, "object — what receives the action, marked by 을/를"
서술어 — seo-sul-eo, "predicate — the verb or adjective that ends the Korean sentence"
먹다 — meokda, "to eat"
먹었어요 — meogeosseoyo, "ate — past"
먹어요 — meogeoyo, "eat — present"
먹었어 — meogeosseo, casual
Other sides of 목적어
◆ academic-linguistic — Outside of middle school grammar class, TOPIK study sessions, or linguistics lectures, native speakers rarely say '목적어' in casual conversation. They don't think about sentences in these dry, structural formulas; they just feel where the particle -을 or -를 belongs. When you do hear this word in the wild, it signals a shift into meta-talk about Korean grammar, often when a teacher is explaining why a sentence feels slightly off to a struggling student.
◆ metaphorical-relational — While grammarians throw this word around for direct objects in a sentence, dating and social psychologists use it to describe a toxic power dynamic. When a native calls someone their 목적어, they are admitting—or accusing—that the person isn't an equal partner in the interaction, but merely a prop, a foil, or a vessel for their own obsession, manipulation, or convenience. It stings because it turns a living, breathing human into a grammatical footnote.
◆ programming-logic — When developers casually throw around '목적어' outside of a linguistics classroom, they are grafting grammatical concepts onto machine logic. It’s used to point out the exact data structure or variable state that a function or operation is about to mutate. It signals a mindset that views code execution as a strict sentence where data is the object being acted upon.
◆ metaphorical-relational — While grammarians throw this word around for direct objects in a sentence, dating and social psychologists use it to describe a toxic power dynamic. When a native calls someone their 목적어, they are admitting—or accusing—that the person isn't an equal partner in the interaction, but merely a prop, a foil, or a vessel for their own obsession, manipulation, or convenience. It stings because it turns a living, breathing human into a grammatical footnote.
◆ programming-logic — When developers casually throw around '목적어' outside of a linguistics classroom, they are grafting grammatical concepts onto machine logic. It’s used to point out the exact data structure or variable state that a function or operation is about to mutate. It signals a mindset that views code execution as a strict sentence where data is the object being acted upon.
Read the full story → · More on this word (part 2) →
🎙️ 목적어는 표기 그대로 읽지 않아요 — 실제로는 [목쩌거]로 소리나요 (경음화, 연음법칙). 발음 연습하기 →
How it's actually used
- 한국어는 목적어를 생략할 수도 있어요.
Hanguk-eun mokjeog-eul saengnyak-hal sudo isseoyo.
In Korean, you can sometimes omit the object.
💡 Use 을/를 as the object marker. - 이 문장에서는 사과가 목적어예요?
I munjang-eseoneun sagwaga mokjeog-eyo?
Is 'apple' the object in this sentence?
💡 Can be used when analyzing sentence structure. - 목적어 뒤에는 보통 을이나 를 같은 조사가 붙어요.
mokjeogeo dwie-neun botong eul-ina reul gateun josaga but-eoyo.
Particles like eul or reul usually attach behind the object.
💡 Common explanation when teaching Korean grammar.
Related words in Foundation
어순 eo-sun조사 jo-sa한자어 수사 hanja-eo su-sa고유어 수사 go-yu-eo su-sa단위 명사 dan-wi myeong-sa