Grammar
명사 + 와/과 함께
Meaning
BeginnerN + wa/gwa hamkke
Attaches to a noun to mean 'together with ~,' expressing that an action is done jointly with a person, animal, group, or thing, or that something accompanies something else. More common in writing and slightly more formal than casual 하고 같이.
Form
Attach 와 to a noun ending in a vowel, 과 to a noun ending in a consonant, then add 함께: 강아지 (vowel-final) → 강아지와 함께; 가족 (consonant-final) → 가족과 함께. 함께 can be swapped for the more casual 같이, but 와/과 함께 is the more common choice in writing and formal speech.
Examples
저는 강아지와 함께 공원에 갑니다.
I go to the park together with my dog.
From: Korea's Pet Culture: More Households Keep Dogs and Cats
가족과 함께 저녁을 먹었어요.
I had dinner together with my family.
이 상품은 사은품과 함께 배송됩니다.
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Common mistakes & nuance
Choose 와 or 과 based on the sound the noun ends in, not its meaning as a whole word — a vowel-final noun takes 와, a consonant-final (batchim) noun takes 과. This is easy to mix up when writing quickly.
Similar grammar
- -(으)면서
명사 + 와/과 함께 attaches to a noun to show companionship — doing something together with a person or thing. -(으)면서 attaches to a verb to show that the same subject is doing two actions at the same time; it doesn't involve a companion noun.