๐ฏ Object Omission in Korean: How Native Speakers Do It Naturally

Have you ever noticed that Korean speakers often drop words from their sentences — especially the object? Don’t worry, they’re not being vague! Omitting objects is a natural and efficient part of Korean grammar. Once context is clear, Koreans prefer to keep things short and simple. Let’s explore how and when to omit objects, with examples that you can start using right away.
๐ When and Why Objects Are Omitted
In Korean, if the object of the sentence is understood from the context, it’s usually dropped. This makes conversation smoother and more natural. It happens often in daily speech, texting, and informal writing.
๐ฌ Full Sentence vs. Omitted Object
Here are longer example sentences showing how the object can be omitted in natural conversations:
- Full: ๋๋ ์ฑ
์ ์ฝ์์ด. – I read the book.
Omitted: ๋๋ ์ฝ์์ด. – I read it. - Full: ๊ทธ ์ฌ๋์ ์ํ๋ฅผ ๋ดค๋์. – He said he watched the movie.
Omitted: ๊ทธ ์ฌ๋์ ๋ดค๋์. – He said he watched it. - Full: ์๋ง๊ฐ ์์นจ๋ฐฅ์ ์ฐจ๋ ค์คฌ์ด์. – Mom made me breakfast.
Omitted: ์๋ง๊ฐ ์ฐจ๋ ค์คฌ์ด์. – Mom made it (for me). - Full: ์น๊ตฌ๊ฐ ์ ๋ฌผ์ ์คฌ์ด์. – My friend gave me a gift.
Omitted: ์น๊ตฌ๊ฐ ์คฌ์ด์. – My friend gave (it). - Full: ๋๋ ์ ํ๋ฅผ ๋ฐ์์ด. – I got a phone call.
Omitted: ๋๋ ๋ฐ์์ด. – I got it. - Full: ๋ ๊ทธ๊ฑฐ ์ฌ๊ณผํ์ด? – Did you apologize for that?
Omitted: ๋ ๊ทธ๊ฑฐ ํ์ด? – Did you do it? - Full: ์ฐ๋ฆฌ๋ ๋ฌธ์ ๋ฅผ ํด๊ฒฐํ์ด. – We solved the problem.
Omitted: ์ฐ๋ฆฌ๋ ํด๊ฒฐํ์ด. – We solved it. - Full: ๋ ์์ ๋ค ๋๋์ด. – I finished the homework.
Omitted: ๋ ๋ค ๋๋์ด. – I finished (it). - Full: ๊ทธ๋
๋ ํธ์ง๋ฅผ ์ผ์ด์. – She wrote a letter.
Omitted: ๊ทธ๋ ๋ ์ผ์ด์. – She wrote it. - Full: ์ ๊ฐ ์ผ์ดํฌ๋ฅผ ๋ง๋ค์์ด์. – I made the cake.
Omitted: ์ ๊ฐ ๋ง๋ค์์ด์. – I made it.
๐ When You Should NOT Omit
Don't omit the object if:
- The object hasn’t been mentioned yet (no context)
- You’re writing a formal essay or academic paper
- The sentence may cause confusion without it
Even though native speakers often omit objects, clarity is always more important. When in doubt, include the object!
๐ก Did You Know?
Many K-drama titles use object omission! For example, “์ฌ๋ํ๋ค ๋งํด์ค” literally means “Tell (me) you love (me),” with both subject and object omitted. It’s poetic and powerful.
I’m glad you made it this far! Mastering native patterns like object omission will bring you closer to thinking like a Korean speaker. Keep exploring — I’ve got tons more posts to support your journey! ๐