Josa (Korean particles)
lastmod 2015-06-02created 2015-06-021 edits
Josa (助詞) (also tossi, 토씨), or particles, are a part of speech that attach to substantives (che-eon, 체언) to establish their relationship with other words or to add a special meaning. Representative examples are ‘~이(가)’ (~i/ga), ‘~을(를)’ (~eul/reul), and ‘~에게’ (~ege). Because particles carry no substantive meaning, they are a kind of grammatical morpheme. In Korean grammar, gwangyeeon (관계언) or geollimssi (걸림씨) refers to particles.
Particles are broadly divided into case particles (gyeokjosa, 격조사), auxiliary particles (bojosa, 보조사), and conjunctive particles (jeopsokjosa, 접속조사).