What is the frame of reference for "come" (오다) and "go" (가다)?
As in, if I'm outside a house, and a person I'm talking to is between myself and the house, should I tell him to "go" to the house or "come" to the house?
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Sign up to join this communityWhat is the frame of reference for "come" (오다) and "go" (가다)?
As in, if I'm outside a house, and a person I'm talking to is between myself and the house, should I tell him to "go" to the house or "come" to the house?
In short: "오다" and "가다" represent the speaker's viewpoint, while "I come" and "I go" represent the listener's.
So when ㄱ is asking ㄴ to come over and ㄴ responds, it would be like:
ㄱ: 여기로 와줄래요? (lit. "Would you come over here?")
ㄴ: 지금 갈게요! (lit. "Going right now!")
while in English it would be:
ㄱ: Would you come over here?
ㄴ: I'm coming!
"거의 다 왔어"
could seem idiomatic, but can make sense this way: Let's say you'd finally arrived there, then you would say "다 왔다"
, not *"다 갔다"
, because in your point of view, the direction of the movement was towards your location right now. So you would say "거의 다 왔어"
too. On the other hand, when you're telling your past experience, you could say "거의 다 가서 길이 막혔지"
(I was almost there but got stuck in traffic) instead of "거의 다 와서 ..."
, especially when it has nothing to do about your location right now.
– puzzlet
Jul 1 '16 at 2:00
We can use English as a pretty good comparison in this case. The rules will be pretty similar.
If you are outside a house, and a person you are talking to is between yourself and the house, you should say "집으로 가세요".
If you are outside a house, and you are between a person you are talking to and the house, you should say "집으로 오세요".
'가다 (go)' and '오다 (come)' are not significantly different between Korean and English. But there are a few exceptions.
In English, when you are asking a host if you can join the party, you ask "Can I come to the (your) party?". However, in Korean, you should say "파티에 가도 돼요?" If you ask "파티에 와도 돼요?", it would sound weird.
In English, when your mom asks you to come down for dinner, you say "I am coming now". But, in Korean, you should say "지금 가요" or "지금 가고 있어요". It would sound weird, too if you say "지금 와요" or "지금 오고 있어요".
It is common to use 'to come' as if you were in the listener's direction in English, but it is not the case in Korean.
If you move from an A place to B and you are in A, you say "B로 가다" no matter where a listener is.