koreanfeels

documenting my feels about learning the korean language. part study-aid, part journal.

[koreanfeels]

Word of the Day: 입술

Realized I was doing a lot of 동사 and haven't given a single 명사 yet! I'll try to be a little more varied in the future - maybe even some adverbs!

Word of the Day: 입술 lips

태민이 두터운 입술을 내밀면 키가 아마 그한테 사탕을 줄 거예요. If Taemin pouts his fat lips, Key will probably give him candy.

[koreanfeels]

Translation: Lyrics to "Talk" by 10cm

Decided to translate some 10cm songs because they generally sing in full sentences at a meandering sort of pace and they also articulate clearly. I've included a little vocabulary list at the bottom so that I can keep track of what words to make flashcards for.

If you don't know who 10cm are, I recommend you check them out immediately.

Talk - 10cm Translation by koreanfeels

어쩐지 느낌이 좋지 않다 싶었지 서로가 서로의 말을 돌려 들었지 넉 잔의 커피와 두 갑 담배 태우고도 돌아와 웃으며 텔레토빌 보았지만 Somehow, the feeling wasn't right We heard each other's words in circles Had four cup's coffee and two packs of cigarettes Then went home and laughed while watching Teletubbies

Talk, talk, talk, talk to me now I can hear your sound, I can hear your bell tolls 이해와 오해의 너무 잔혹한 차이 너와 나 우리는 매우 경솔한 사이 넉 잔의 커피와 두 갑 담배 태우고도 돌아와 웃으며 텔레토빌 보았지만 Understanding and misunderstanding's cruel differences You and me, so rash with each other Had four cup's coffee and two packs of cigarettes Then went home and laughed while watching Teletubbies

Talk, talk, talk, talk to me now I can hear your sound, I can hear your bell tolls

아침에 눈떠 뒤척인 얘기 꿈에서 만난 여자 이야기 자리를 비운 그 삼자 뒷얘기 뭐든 어떻든 너의 이야기 Talk about waking in the morning, tossing and turning Talk about a woman met in a dream Talk behind the back of that person who left the room Whatever and however it is, your talk 사랑 때문에 죽고 사는 일 우연히 만나 반하고 잠자고 너무너무 뻔한 유치한 얘기 그게 무어든 어떻든 가볍든 무겁든 너의 얘기 The matter of dying and living because of love Meeting by chance, falling in love, and sleeping Talk that is almost way too childish Whatever and however Be it light, be it dark, your talk   Talk, talk, talk, talk to me now I can hear your sound, I can hear your bell tolls

My Feels and Vocab List

This is my first time translating lyrics, and man, is it ever awkward! I want to be as literal as possible, but that gets clunky really quickly. I hope this is okay?

The very first line bothers me, which is an awful place to realize that you are stuck. I'm not 100% sure what 싶었지 is related to in this case. Does 않다 modify 싶다? Or is it a standalone phrase? Please feel free to send me a message if you can explain how to parse this. No, really. Please do.

Also, "사랑 때문에 죽고 사는 일" was written as "사람 때문에 죽고 사는 일" when I cross-checked my lyrics with another site, but I listened to that part of the song about a bajillion times over and I'm fairly certain that he says love and not people. Are there official lyrics lying around anywhere?

Anyway, here's some vocab:

넉 four, a variant of 넷 that apparently exists to confuse me

오해하다 to misunderstand, to be mistaken

잔혹하다 to be cruel

유치하다 to be childish

우연히 accidentally, by chance

[koreanfeels]

Word of the Day: 축축하다

Word of the Day: 축축하다 to be wet, moist

갑자기 비가 와서 민호 옷이 축축했어요. It rained suddenly, so Minho's clothes were wet.

[koreanfeels]

Word of the Day: 맑다

Word of the Day: 맑다 to be clear, unclouded

날씨가 맑아서 민호는 밖에 가고 축구하고 싶어요. Because the weather is clear, Minho wants to go outside and play soccer.

[koreanfeels]

you misspelled socks, just letting you know ^^

Ahhh, I totally did! I don't have hangul stickers for my keyboard, so I've had to slowly learn how to touch-type and it's a hit-or-miss process sometimes. :3

It's fixed now. Thanks for pointing that out!

[koreanfeels]

Word of the Day: 나다

This is one of those verbs like 하다, which has the effect of "verbing a noun". I'll provide more than one example to give an idea of how versatile of a word this is!

Word of the Day: 나다 to happen, to occur.

태민이 키 목소리를 진절머리 났어! Taemin was sick of Key's voice! (진절머리 나다 to be sick of, disgusted with)

온유가 걸려 넘어지고 지금 무릎이 피 나요. Onew fell down and now his knee is bleeding. (피 나다 to bleed)

민호 양말이 구린내가 나요. Minho's socks are smelly. (구린내가 나다 to be smelly)

[koreanfeels]

Word of the Day: 덮치다

You should have seen 남친's face when I tried this one out. Hilarious!

Word of the Day: 덮치다 to attack, to hold a person down, to swoop upon.

태민은 치마를 입고 있어서 오뉴가 태민 덮쳤어!

Taemin was wearing a skirt, and so Onew pinned Taemin down/attacked him!

[koreanfeels]

Word of the Day: 기다리다

Word of the Day: 기다리다 to wait

e.g. 민호는 2시부터 4시까지 식당에 기다맀지만 태민이 오지 않았어요.

Minho waited in the restaurant from 2 to 4 o'clock, but Taemin didn't come.

[koreanfeels]

Word of the Day: 심심하다

KF: 한국어를 공부해요. 그런데 따분해요. Wait, no. Can I use 심심해요 instead? That's a cuter word. 남친: 네, 괜찮아요. KF: 남친아 나는 심심해~! 남친: 아~ 귀여워!

Word of the Day: 심심하다 to be bored

e.g. 나는 심심한데 지금 밖에 갈 거예요!

I'm bored; I'm going to go outside now!

[koreanfeels]

Polite Style (해요체) ~아요/어요; also a lengthy explanation about vowel contractions

The Explanation:

Polite style is usually the first level of speech taught to foreigners, probably because it's generally hard to offend someone accidentally by speaking politely.

The dictionary form of a verb or adjective consists of the stem + 다. Polite style is formed by dropping the 다 ending and adding ~아요 or ~어요 to the verb or adjective stem:

작다 to be small; drop 다 and add ~아요: 정현 키가 작아요. Jonghyun is short. (lit. Jonghyun's height is small.)

먹다 to eat; drop 다 and add ~어요: 태민이 먹어요. Taemin is eating.

How do you know whether to use ~아요 or ~어요? You look at the vowel in the verb/adjective stem. Generally speaking, if the vowel in the stem is 아 or 오, use ~아요. If the vowel in the stem is anything else, use ~어요. There are some exceptions, the most common being that 하다 becomes 해요, despite the 아 vowel in the stem.

~아요 ending: 좁다 to be narrow > 오 in stem > 좁아요 짧다 to be short > 아 in stem > 짧아요

~어요 ending: 넓다 to be spacious, wide > 어 in stem > 넓어요 죽다 to die > 우 in stem > 죽어요

~해요 ending: 친절하다 to be kind > 하다 stem > 친절해요

Although this seems a little arbitrary, it's far from it.

Korean vowels are organized into "light" and "dark" vowels. Light vowels only couple with other light vowels, and dark vowels with other dark vowels. My Korean professor used this handy diagram to help remember which vowels are light and which are dark (excuse my very rudimentary art skills):

Notice that the ㅗ and ㅏ sides of the box are illuminated by the lamp light. These are the "bright" vowels. The ㅜ and ㅓ are the "dark" vowels.

You may have noticed that the examples above all had consonants at the end of the stem. When the stem ends in a vowel, it becomes a little more complicated because there is opportunity for vowel contraction.

In verb or adjective stems that end in 아 or 어, the vowels contract with the result being that ~요 alone is added to the stem:

가다 to go > 아 contracts with ~아요 > 가요

건너다 to cross > 어 contracts with ~어요 > 건너요

In verb or adjective stems that end in 오 or 우, these combine predictably with the polite ending to form the diphthongs 와 and 워:

오다 to come > 오 combines with 아 to form diphthong 와 > 와요

춤추다 to dance > 우 combines with 어 to form diphthong 워 > 춤춰요

But what about the rest of the vowels? How do they contract?

Much like the bright/dark distinction, there is also a strong/weak distinction that dictates how vowels interact. My wonderful Korean professor explained this as a sort of Mortal Kombat tournament where the various final vowels fight against 어.

애 is the strongest vowel. It easily overpowers 어, and knocks it out of the picture completely. (The boring, linguistic reason for this is that 애 is already a diphthong, and so it can't combine to form another).

보내다 to spend time > 애 overpowers 어 and is unchanged > 보내요

으 is the weakest vowel. It doesn't even wait to encounter its opponent before lying down in defeat. (Get it? Because 으 looks like a person lying down?) When you encounter a stem that ends in 으, ignore it completely and refer to the vowel in the syllable before it to decide whether it takes ~아요 or ~어요. If there is no syllable, use ~어요.

바쁘다 to be busy > 으 is deleted, 아 is used > 바빠요

예쁘다 to be pretty > 으 is deleted, 어 is used > 예뻐요

쓰다 to use, to write > 으 is deleted, 어 is used > 써요

이 is a lover rather than a fighter, so when it encounters 어 it combines to form 여. I never really understood why it becomes 여 (wouldn't 에 be the more logical combination of 이 and 어?), but I just imagine that the 이 is sort of a slut, and so it jumps up onto the 어 to do the horizontal tango.

There is a notable exception to the 이 rule: honorific ~(으)시 combines to make the more logical ~(으)세요 polite ending. (If you really want to be confused, the past tense honorific is (으)셨어요, which follows the regular rule! What the hell, Korean?!)

치다 to hit > 이 combines with 어 > 쳐요

가다 to go + honorific (으)시 > 이 combines with 어 > 가세요 past tense: 가셨어요

My Feels:

You'll maybe notice I left out 에. I assume that 에 follows the same rule as 애, as it is also already a diphthong, but I can't think of anything right now except for the phrase "글쎄요" ("it's hard to say") that uses it, and I'm not even sure that the base of that is 글쎄다. Google search seems to think so, but Google search is often wrong. Feel free to correct me or offer suggestions.

[koreanfeels]

Word of the Day: 궁금하다

"Why are there random English lines in K-pop songs?" "Because sometimes the Korean is too adorable."

Don't believe me?

Word of the Day: 궁금하다 to be curious

e.g. 아주 궁금해, 응~ 사진 속 네가 / 순간 미소지어, 왜?!

I'm so curious, yeah~ in the picture you / smile for an instant, why?!

[koreanfeels]

Korean Word Order

I was wondering though, could you make a post about Korean word order? I'm still confused about how it works. I know it's SOV, but could you explain it in depth?

By request, here is a post on Korean word order. :D

The Textbook Explanation

In the simplest sense, Korean is a Subject-Object-Verb order language. This doesn't mean that there can be no other order, just that this is the standard set-up of a Korean sentence. For example:

키가 저녁을 준비해요. - Key prepares dinner.

Or more literally, Key-subject dinner-object prepares-verb.

This is the "neutral" word order. If one omits subject and object particles, this is the assumed structure of the sentence.

Rather than strictly SOV, Korean is a free-word order language. As long as the verb comes at the end of the sentence, the other elements can be reordered for emphasis. Some special copulas such as 이다 (to be) require that the subject always comes first, as well as some other exceptions such as double-nominative sentences (which have two subject particles) - but that's a little complicated for what we're doing here.

The reason that the word order can be so flexible is because Korean makes extensive use of particles (or post-positions) that indicate a word's particular grammar role in a sentence. For instance:

이 and 가 indicate that a word is the subject

을 and 를 indicate that a word is the object

The same words with different particles can make drastically different sentences:

태민이 봤어요. - Taemin watched. (Taemin with subject particle.)

태민을 봤어요. - I watched Taemin. (Taemin with object particle. Here, the subjectis implied)

Let's use a little more complicated of a sentence to illustrate the ways that word-order can be shuffled to emphasize different aspects of a sentence:

태민이 기숙사에서 오뉴하고 영화를 봤어요. 

Taemin dormitory-at Onew-with movie watched.

"Taemin watched a movie with Onew at the dormitory."

This is the neutral SOV order. Without subject or object particles, the sentence is parsed in this way. But changing the word order can provide emphasis or draw attention to certain aspects of the sentence, by placing the more important elements first.

In English, to emphasize a particular word we stress it by saying it louder, or writing it in italics. If someone asked, "Who did Taemin watch the movie with?" we might say, "Taemin watched the movie with Onew in the dormitory." But in Korean, saying a particular part of the sentence louder doesn't necessarily mean that it's more important.

So let's say someone is asking, "Where was Taemin last night?" You might say:

기숙사에서 오뉴하고 태민이 영화를 봤어요. - Dormitory-at Onew-with Taemin movie watched.

Notice that 기숙사에서 dormitory-at has been moved to the front of the sentence, because it is being emphasized.

Similarly, if someone asked, "Did you watch TV last night?" You might clarify by saying:

영화를 태민이 오뉴하고 기숙사에서 봤어요. - Movie Taemin Onew-with dormitory-at watched.

The thing is, while object-first constructions are perfectly logical in Korean, you will very rarely hear this said out loud. It doesn't exactly sound awkward, but it's not the most fluid way to speak either.

My Feels

Not even going to lie, I had to ask my boyfriend to help me out with this one. I knew that word order affects the emphasis of a sentence, but no literature was very keen on telling me how! I ended up calling 남친 and begging for his guidance. After a long conversation about grammar, and him thinking of examples that were way over my head, we settled on: the emphasized word goes at the beginning of the sentence. Usually.

So thanks, anon! I learned something too. I hope this answered your question! :3

[koreanfeels]

Wow. I love your blog! :3 I was wondering though, could you make a post about Korean word order? I'm still confused about how it works. I know it's SOV, but could you explain it in depth? I can't find any site that will tell me..

Thanks!

I'll work on a post about word order as soon as I'm done exams. :)

[koreanfeels]

I'm on Arirang TV!

That's my boyfriend and me looking really pressed about being on camera at 1:03 hahahah... my Korean professor is seriously the cutest human being ever.

[koreanfeels]

Particles: ~한테/한테서, ~에/에서 (Giving and Receiving)

The Textbook Explanation:

Some vocabulary before we start:

~한테 to (a person); 께 hon.

~한테서 from (a person)

~에 to (a place)

~에서 from (a place)

The difference should be pretty clear, right?

Just in case it isn't: 한테 and 한테서 are used with giving things to and receiving things from people, like presents and phone calls.

오뉴는 태민한테 선물 줬어요. - Onew gave a present to Taemin.

오뉴는 태민한테서 전화가 와요. - Onew received a phone call from Taemin.

에/에서 are used with sending things to and from places like Seoul and Toronto.

나는 서울에 편지를 보냈어요. - I sent a letter to Seoul.

나는 토론토에서 전화를 받아요. - I received a phone call from Toronto.

My Feels:

For some reason, I am perpetually mixing up the verbs that go with giving and receiving. I do this with 사다/팔다 (buy/sell) all the time too, so I maybe I have a problem with opposites in general.

I made up this rhyme to help me remember the 한테/에 verbs:

보내다 means to send, and 주다 means to give

And 드리다 is how you give to dudes who don't have long to live.

[koreanfeels]

uoyvulihgfedcba answered your question: Clausal Connective: ~고

hmn. I thought 는데 is used to give subtil background information or as justification. not the direct way 때문에 does tho.

So perhaps the difference might be something like:

저는 점심을 먹었고 지금 책을 읽어요 - "I ate lunch, and now I am reading a book."

저는 점심을 먹었는데 지금 책을 읽어요. - "I (already) ate lunch; I'm reading a book now."

[koreanfeels]

Word of the Day: 화나다

After cancelling a date we had planned,

my boyfriend carefully asks, "화났어...?"

True story.

Word of the Day: 화나다 to be angry

e.g. 내일 너무 바빠서 내 여자 친구가 화났어요.

My girlfriend was angry because I am too busy tomorrow.