You can read Korean sentences. Then you open a news site and stop at the headline.
That is not a vocabulary gap. A headline is written in a compressed form of Korean that drops the particles, turns verbs into nouns, and lets punctuation do the work of a clause. It has to be decoded, not just read.
1 · Three parts, in this order
| Part | Korean | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Headline | 제목 · 표제 | The single most important fact, compressed |
| Lead | 리드 · 첫 문단 | Who, what, when, where — the whole story in two sentences |
| Body | 본문 | Detail, quotes, background, in falling order of importance |
2 · A lead, taken apart
지난달 국내 관광객 수가 전년 대비 12% 늘어난 것으로 나타났다.
jinandal gungnae gwangwanggaek suga jeonnyeon daebi 12% neureonan geoseuro natanatda.Domestic visitor numbers last month were up 12% on the same period last year.Invented figures — the shape is what matters, not the number.| Piece | Job |
|---|---|
| 지난달 | When |
| 국내 관광객 수가 | What the story is about |
| 전년 대비 | Compared with when — day 4 |
| 12% 늘어난 | The change — day 4 |
| 것으로 나타났다 | How we know — day 3 |
3 · The sentence ending changes
News is written in the plain written style you met in the writing and irregulars courses — -ㄴ/는다, not -습니다.
밝혔다 · 나타났다 · 늘었다 · 전했다.
And almost every sentence is in the past, even about things that are still true. A Korean article reports; it does not describe.
Day 1 words
보도
bodoa report, news coverage기사
gisaan article해당
haedangthe relevant, the one in question나타나다
natanadato appear, to turn out전년 대비
jeonnyeon daebicompared with the previous year국내
gungnaedomestic, within the countryWhich part of an article holds the whole story?
Which sentence style does news use?
Before the quiz
- I know an article is headline, lead, body — in falling importance.
- I read the lead and decide whether I need the body.
- I expect the plain written style and the past tense.
- I know every example here is written by us, not copied.