-요
-yo
One word, four sentences: 가요
The picture A small cushion you set on the end of a sentence. Whatever the sentence is, the cushion makes it land gently. -요 is a cushion on the end; -습니다 is a suit the sentence puts on. One hands the words over softly, the other stands them up straight.
Where the picture shows up in -요
-
just telling you
지금 가요.
ji-geum ga-yo
I'm leaving now.
The sentence lies flat and the cushion settles onto its end, right where it stops.
-
asking, with the pitch up
어디 가요?
eo-di ga-yo
Where are you going?
The same cushion, but the end of the sentence bounces slightly upward off it.
Same letters. Only the intonation rises.
-
pulling you along
우리 같이 가요.
u-ri ga-chi ga-yo
Let's go together.
The cushioned sentence takes the listener by the arm and walks them along with you.
-
sending someone off
조심해서 가요.
jo-sim-hae-seo ga-yo
Take care on your way.
You lay the cushion on the back of someone leaving and give them a gentle push out the door.
It's an order in form, but the cushion keeps it warm.
-
stuck onto a bare word
저요?
jeo-yo
Me?
One bare word with no verb anywhere, and the cushion sitting on top of it.
No verb needed — 요 attaches to a lone word too.
All of it in one picture
-요 is one cushion, set on the end of a sentence. Let it settle flat and you are telling; let the end bounce off it and you are asking; use it to take someone's arm and you are inviting; lay it on a departing back and you are saying goodbye. It sits just as easily on a single bare word, which shows that what changes is never the meaning — only the touch. That is why a sentence with -요 on it, whatever face it wears, never pushes the listener away.