How to Say "The bear moves sneakily" in Korean | -아/어요 Grammar

Quick Answer: "The bear moves sneakily" in Korean is "곰이 살금살금 움직여요." (gomi salgeumsalgeum umjikyeoyo.). It uses the -아/어요 grammar pattern (Polite Ending (-아/어요)). Level: A1.

Curious how Koreans express "The bear moves sneakily"? The answer is "곰이 살금살금 움직여요.". Here you will see -아/어요 in action — a A1-level grammar point every learner needs.

Category: 동물

What does "The bear moves sneakily" mean in Korean?

The Korean sentence "곰이 살금살금 움직여요." translates to "The bear moves sneakily." in English. Korean learners love sentences like "곰이 살금살금 움직여요." because they are practical and memorable. Meaning "the bear moves sneakily", it teaches core vocabulary and grammar in a single, elegant package.

Pronunciation guide: gomi salgeumsalgeum umjikyeoyo.

Grammar Point: Polite Ending (-아/어요)

The -아/어요 ending is the standard polite speech level in Korean. Use -아요 after bright vowels (ㅏ, ㅗ), -어요 after dark vowels, and 해요 for 하다 verbs.

가다 → 가요, 먹다 → 먹어요, 하다 → 해요. This is the most common speech level in daily Korean.

Korean Sentence Structure Breakdown

Korean follows a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order, which is different from English (SVO). In "곰이 살금살금 움직여요.", the verb comes at the end of the sentence. Here is the word-by-word breakdown: • 곰이 (gomi) • 살금살금 (salgeumsalgeum) • 움직여요 (umjikyeoyo)

Try covering the verb and guessing the sentence meaning from context. Then reveal it — this builds your Korean reading intuition.

Why This Korean Expression Sounds Natural

The Korean phrasing sounds authentic because it avoids literal translation traps. Instead of mapping each English word to Korean, it repackages the meaning using Korean-native structures.

Cultural Insight

한국 설화에서 까치는 길조의 새로, 좋은 소식을 전해준다고 믿었어요. '까치가 울면 반가운 손님이 온다'는 속담이 있습니다.

Examples

곰이 살금살금 움직여요. — gomi salgeumsalgeum umjikyeoyo. — The bear moves sneakily.

곰이 살금살금 움직여요? — gomi salgeumsalgeum umjikyeoyo? — Does the bear moves sneakily?

주말에 곰이 살금살금 움직여요. — jumale gomi salgeumsalgeum umjikyeoyo. — On weekends, the bear moves sneakily.

Common Mistakes

Incorrect: 먹아요 → Correct: 먹어요. The stem 먹- ends in a dark vowel (ㅓ), so it takes -어요 not -아요. Match the vowel harmony.

Incorrect: 움직여요 곰이 살금살금 → Correct: 곰이 살금살금 움직여요. Korean uses Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) order. The verb must come at the end of the sentence, unlike English where it comes after the subject.

Quiz

How do you say "The bear moves sneakily" in Korean?

The correct Korean translation is "곰이 살금살금 움직여요.". gomi salgeumsalgeum umjikyeoyo.

Fill in the blank: 곰이 살금살금 ___

The correct ending is "움직여요". The polite -요 form is essential for everyday Korean conversation.