Nuance Dictionary / Foundation
서술어 seo-sul-eo
Predicate — the verb or adjective that ends the Korean sentence
What does 서술어 mean?
서술어 (seo-sul-eo) means: Predicate — the verb or adjective that ends the Korean sentence.
In Korean, a predicate can be a verb (to eat) or an adjective (to be pretty). Both can end a sentence. In English, an adjective needs a 'be' verb, but in Korean, the adjective itself becomes the predicate.
🔊 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 서술어
◆ Academic/Pedagogical — You will never hear a native order coffee using this word, but it is the cornerstone of every Korean grammar classroom and linguistics textbook. It groups verbs (동사) and adjectives (형용사) together because both can end a sentence on their own. For serious learners, understanding the 서술어 is the secret to mastering why Korean adjectives act like verbs and why sentences always pivot on that final slot.
◆ Technical/Programming — While everyday speakers rarely toss this term around outside of a grammar test, you will hear it constantly among NLP researchers, prompt engineers, and AI developers building Korean language models. It represents the structural anchor of a sentence—the engine that governs case markers and argument structure. If you are training a model or debugging why an LLM is misinterpreting a Korean sentence's subject-object relationship, you are dealing directly with 서술어 extraction.
◆ Technical/Programming — While everyday speakers rarely toss this term around outside of a grammar test, you will hear it constantly among NLP researchers, prompt engineers, and AI developers building Korean language models. It represents the structural anchor of a sentence—the engine that governs case markers and argument structure. If you are training a model or debugging why an LLM is misinterpreting a Korean sentence's subject-object relationship, you are dealing directly with 서술어 extraction.
🎙️ 서술어는 표기 그대로 읽지 않아요 — 실제로는 [서수러]로 소리나요 (연음법칙). 발음 연습하기 →
How it's actually used
- 한국어 문장은 보통 서술어로 끝나요.
hangugo munjang-eun botong seosuro-ro kkeutnayo.
Korean sentences usually end with a predicate.
💡 Highlights the SOV word order structure of Korean. - 이 문장에서 서술어는 형용사예요.
i munjang-eseo seosuro-neun hyeong-yong-sayeoyo.
The predicate in this sentence is an adjective.
💡 Used to describe the grammatical function at the end of a clause. - 한국어 문장의 가장 큰 특징은 서술어가 항상 맨 마지막에 온다는 점이에요.
hangguk-eo munjang-ui gajang keun teukjing-eun seosureoga hangsang maen majimak-e ondaneun jeom-ieyo.
The biggest feature of Korean sentences is that the predicate always comes at the very end.
💡 Used when explaining basic Korean grammar rules.
Related words in Foundation
목적어 mok-jeok-eo어순 eo-sun조사 jo-sa한자어 수사 hanja-eo su-sa고유어 수사 go-yu-eo su-sa