Skip to main content
13 votes
Accepted

Reference frame for come and go

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,...
puzzlet's user avatar
  • 395
11 votes
Accepted

What are the differences between 힘들다 and 어렵다?

In many cases, they are interchangeable. But 힘들다 is more focusing on the amount of effort you have to pay, especially physical effort. 등산은 힘들다(Hiking a mountain is hard) can be a proper example. ...
jungyh0218's user avatar
  • 1,574
10 votes
Accepted

What is the difference between 좋다 and 좋아하다?

Derivation of 좋아하다 좋다 is an adjective that means good. Appending the 하 to its infinitive form 좋아 creates a compound, where it is given a notion of feeling. Thus, 좋아하다 has a "raw" meaning of something ...
busukxuan's user avatar
  • 1,360
10 votes
Accepted

What is the difference between 싫다 and 싫어하다?

These are actually the same story grammatically as the 좋다 versus 좋아하다 case. 싫다 means to be despicable or worthy of hate, to be awful. This is a descriptive verb. 싫어하다 means to hate; it is an action ...
Vladhagen's user avatar
  • 3,979
9 votes

Difference between 앉으세요 and 앉으실게요

It doesn't sound grammatical to me, but I think they're trying to hard to sound "polite" by avoiding a command (imperative) form altogether. There are some such "over-polite" expressions that sound ...
jick's user avatar
  • 7,452
7 votes
Accepted

Etymology of '띄어쓰기 (word spacing)'

Originally, it's based on the word 뜨다 which has many meanings, but it seems the meaning that applies is an intransitive verb meaning "to come apart or be apart" (in Korean, the dictionary says "거리가 ...
gaeguri's user avatar
  • 6,014
6 votes
Accepted

What is the difference between 지 and 걸?

The way I see it, 지 when used without a pronoun like '어디'(where) generally stands for an unknown or uncertain thing, whereas 것 usually stands for something that is known. (걸 is just a contraction of ...
Нет войне's user avatar
6 votes
Accepted

Ways to say "circle" - curious about "원" in this sentence

Korean, like many other Eastern Asian languages and cultures, are rooted in Chinese origins. 원 is Korean transcription of Hanja - 圓 which derives from Chinese character of the same shape. This is used ...
Crosscounter's user avatar
5 votes
Accepted

Difference between 대해서 and 대한?

대한 is a modifier, whereas 대해서 acts as a conjunction. so -에 대한 will always be followed by a noun, whereas -에 대해서 should be followed by a verb phrase (the verb phrase might begin with a noun, but ...
gaeguri's user avatar
  • 6,014
5 votes

What is the difference between 헛갈리다 and 헷갈리다? What is the standard language?

헛갈리다 - This is a word used to describe a situation where things are severely jumbled up to the point of indiscrimination. 헷갈리다 - This is a word used to describe the sensation of your mind in whirl, ...
Phonics The Hedgehog's user avatar
5 votes

What is the difference between 쇠고기 and 소고기 (both 'beef') - both are correct, but when would I hear one over the other?

소 -> cow 소의 -> cow's 소의고기 -> cows's meet (beef) However, 소의 generally gets contracted into 쇠. This is due to the combination of vowel sounds (ㅗ at the bottom of 소 and the following 의 sound) Hence 쇠고기 ...
user17915's user avatar
  • 2,954
5 votes
Accepted

Double Negation in Korean "있어요" vs "없지는 않아요"

I hear the two as... I have a girlfriend. ...versus... It's not exactly that I don't have a girlfriend...
Andrew Cheong's user avatar
5 votes
Accepted

Difference 동일한 vs 똑같은

They are largely used interchangeably, and 똑같은 can be used instead of 동일한 in your example. There are some subtle differences however. When comparing two or more objects (either abstract or concrete), ...
Jeonghyeon Lee's user avatar
5 votes
Accepted

What is the difference between ~다면서 and ~다며

Hi random Korean passing by :D Your question is reeeeealllllly tricky..... 그는 A다면서 B했다. : He did B, even though A. (OR the same meaning as below) 그는 A다며 B했다. : He did B, saying/doing/etc A. So, ...
Lemon's user avatar
  • 528
5 votes

What's the difference between '아가', '아기', and '애기', meaning baby?

아기 : Formal word for baby 애기 : Informal word 너 애기 있니 ? = 너 아기 있니 ? 애기가 빨리 생겼으면 좋겠다 Do you have a baby ? I expect that I will have a baby very soon. [Addition] 1) 애기 is used as a nickname ...
HK Lee's user avatar
  • 3,049
5 votes
Accepted

What is the difference between "이곳" and "여기"?

여기 = here. 이곳 = this place (이 = this, 곳 = place). I believe 여기 is the more informal one of the two. They are usually interchangeable, but 이곳 probably works better when you are referring to a place ...
user591415's user avatar
  • 1,224
5 votes

What are the different ways to say "why, what, where, who " in Korean?

To make it not too long, here are variants and related phrases of "what". 무엇: original pronoun for "what". 1) what (question word), 2) "something" in non-question ...
Tony's user avatar
  • 2,692
4 votes

What is the difference between 요즘 and 요새?

‘요새’ is an abbreviation of ‘요사이’ (in this period), which is a compound word of ‘요 (this)’ and ‘사이 (distance between two things; a period)’. ‘요즘’ is that of ‘요즈음’ (at this timing; in these moments), ...
Константин Ван's user avatar
4 votes

Function of '주리다' in '굶주리다'

According to the Daum dictionary, http://dic.daum.net/word/view.do?wordid=kkw000235678&supid=kku000301188, '주리다' and '굶주리다' has same meaning. 주리다 : 1. 먹을 만큼 먹지 못하여 배를 곯다 In english, (I'm not ...
dextto's user avatar
  • 389
4 votes

Are there equivalent to 때문에 with a positive/negative connotation?

Another negative one is 탓: (because / by fault of). It can be used after a verb in the form Verb+ㄴ/는 탓, or after a noun, usually Noun의 탓. It's usually in the form 탓에 or 탓으로: 늦잠을 잔 탓으로 버스를 놏쳤어요 비 오는 ...
gaeguri's user avatar
  • 6,014
4 votes
Accepted

Are there equivalent to 때문에 with a positive/negative connotation?

A positive one is the 덕분에 / 덕택에 construction, meaning "thanks to": 구 선생님 덕택에 한국어를 많이 배웠어요. => Thanks to you, Ms. Koo, I learned a great deal of Korean 흥부 덕분에 제비가 목숨을 구했다. => Thanks to Hŭngbu'...
Нет войне's user avatar
4 votes
Accepted

Etymology and Differences, '나래' and '날개'

According to the National Institute of Korean Language's etymology page, 날개 comes from -+-개, which is 다(to fly, Modern 날다) + -개(suffix meaning "a tool to do such action"). Other words with -...
MujjinGun's user avatar
  • 7,536
4 votes

Pronunciation of '주가 (stock price)' and '효과 (effect)'

This is 사잇소리. Basically, it's a phonetic phenomenon occurs in some compound nouns; a consonant is inserted in between two parts of the compound. (i.e. 주가 is considered as a compound 주(식) + 가(격), while ...
krim's user avatar
  • 1,149
4 votes

Pronunciation of '주가 (stock price)' and '효과 (effect)'

There is a tension between what most Koreans actually speak, and what the government-sanctioned authorities (i.e., 국립국어원 National Institute of the Korean Language) think we should speak. (Basically, ...
jick's user avatar
  • 7,452
4 votes

Difference between 바랍니다 and 바라겠습니다

Grammatically all of those seems to be correct sentences. But i would use 바랍니다 in this sentence because it sounds more polite and normal to me. (Actually, even on television news, anchor uses 바랍니다 in ...
Lee M.U.'s user avatar

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible