All About !

(Before I get started, note that I will refer to my resources like this:
Talk to Me in Korean Level 1 Lesson 2 = TTMiK L1L2
Korean Grammar in Use Beginning to Early Intermediate page 1 = KGiU-B p.1
Korean Grammar in Use Intermediate page 1 = KGiU-I p.1)
Alright, so lets get a lock on this tricky little verb.
To start with, what is the exact meaning of ?
Well, as you may know, Korean almost always has different verbs for
the active and passive voice (in English, the two often look the same). So, for
example, you might have I break the window and The window breaks. The
first break is active - I am doing the breaking - and in Korean, we use the verb
. The second break is passive - the window is being broken - and we use
the verb .
There are various ways to make passive verbs in Korean. Some of them take
~//, as in / and /. Some of them take
~///, as in / and /.
The verb , however, is an exception. has its own, separate passive
form.
And that form.
Is .
So while is the active to do, is the passive to be done.
Examples:
. (I clean the room).
. (The room is cleaned.)
. (The scientist researched lung cancer.)
. (Lung cancer was researched.)
Please note that you cant substitute for in adjectives (descriptive
verbs). So you can say . (The room is getting clean.), but
not X" ." is only substituted for in action verbs.
For more on the passive voice, see TTMiK L6L21, TTMiK L6L23, and KGiU-
I p.158+162.
Now in the same way that is not only used as to do or to make, but has
been extended into all kinds of situations, has also been extended into lots
of other grammatical forms. The basic meaning, however, remains to be done
or to be made. More colloquially, it means to be okay or to work (as in to
function). If you get confused, think of an old schoolmarm being like, That is
simply not done!! She means, Thats not okay, right? Thats the same way
that to be done can be extended to the meaning of to be okay.
Alright, if you feel like you have a good understanding of the base meaning, lets
look at some grammatical forms that use the verb . These are roughly in
order of increasing difficulty, so if you start to feel lost, maybe take a break,
bookmark it, and come back in a few weeks or months to pick up where you left
off.
1. When used on its own after a noun, has the meaning of to be made,
or more colloquially, to become. Examples:
.
I want to become a singer.
[lit. As for me, I want a singer to be made.]
.
The tree became paper.
[lit. As for the tree, paper was made.]
2. ~// means to have to or must.
I talked about // here, but basically it joins two clauses by saying that the
first clause is a necessary condition for the second clause.
.
You must study in order to speak English well.
The ~// means that clause one (you studying) is necessary for clause
two (you speaking English well) to occur. For more on ~//, please
see KGiU-I p.182.
So the verb ending ~// literally means, For it to be okay, (clause 1)
is necessary, or (clause 1) must happen for things to work. Colloquially, it
means You must or I have to, etc.
Examples:
.
I have to go home now.
[lit. It only works if I go home now.]
.
We have to listen carefully.
[lit. Its only okay if we listen carefully.]
For more on ~// /, see TTMiK L2L20 and KGiU-B p.171.
3. ~// means to be okay, to be permissible.
~// means even if or even though something happens. For example:
.
Even though Korean is hard, its fun.
.
Even if I go to the party, Ill be bored.
For more on ~//, see TTMiK L3L20 and KGiU-B p.257.
So if you add after this even if, it means that even if something happens,
its okay. It works. So all together, this is a way to give someone permission to
do (or not do) something. In question form, its used to ask permission.
.
You can go now.
[lit. Even if you go now, its okay.]
.
You dont have to go now.
[lit. Even if you dont go now, its okay.]
?
Could I open the window?
[lit. Even if I open the window, is it okay?]
For more on ~// , see TTMiK L4L8, TTMiK L6L4, and KGiU-B
p.174+179.
4. ~() means to not be okay or to not be allowed.
~() means if.
.
If I sleep now, I wont be tired tomorrow.
So ~() literally means that if (something) happens, its not okay - by
extension, that you shouldnt do something.
.
You shouldnt sleep now.
[lit. If you sleep now, its not okay.]
.
You shouldnt eat in the classroom.
[lit. If you eat in the classroom, its not okay.]
For more on ~() , see TTMiK L4L9 and KGiU-B p.176.
5. ~ is used when an action gradually starts happening, or when
something starts one way but ends up a different way.
~ is used on action verbs to make descriptive clauses in Korean. Please note
that this is NOT talking about ~ when attached to descriptive verbs (e.g. -
loudly), which makes adverbs (see KGiU-B p.278). The result is basically the
same, i.e. that something is done in a certain way, but I just want to make it
clear that the following is only talking about action verbs.
So its kind of difficult to translate this directly into English, but you can imagine it
as putting an ~ly or ~y onto the end of a verb phrase to make it descriptive.
.
Please open the door so the wind can come in.
[lit. Open the door (wind-coming-in)-ly.]
.
Mom made me do my homework.
[lit. Mom did it so Im (doing-homework)-y.]
For more on ~ as it refers to both adjectives and verbs, see KGiU-I p.330.
So in this case, ~ mean that that adverb-esque clause was done or was
made, or essentially, that something became the case.
Maybe some examples would help? Haha.
.
I started studying harder.
[lit. I was made (hard studying)-y. / I became (hard studying)-y.]
.
The child started to like vegetables.
[lit. The child became (liking vegetables)-y.]
For more on ~ , see TTMiK L4L29, KGiU-B p.293, and KGiU-I p.165.
Please also note that to talk about something becoming an adjective, you can
NOT use ~ . You have to use ~//. You can find out more about
this in TTMiK L4L28 and KGiU-B p.290.
6. ~ means that something is bound to happen, or that it is sure
to happen eventually.
We talked about passive voice a little before, but passive voice in Korean is
actually a little more complicated than that. You can make basic passive with
~/// or ~// as follows:
.
I opened the window.
.
The window was opened.
However, the latter sentence is ONLY applicable at the moment when the
window is being opened. If you want to talk about the continuing state of the
window being open, you have to use ~// .
.
The window is open. /
The window was opened (and remains open).
.
The air conditioning is turned on. /
The air conditioning was turned on (and remains on).
For more on this ~// , see TTMiK L7L24 and KGiU-B p.287.
Now, if you recall, is essentially just the passive tense of . So you can
use this continuous passive (I dont know what else to call it, lol) with the ~
form I described above in #5. Literally it means that something starts to be
done a certain way and continues to be that way, but the nuance has morphed a
bit so that it actually means something is bound to happen or something is
certain to happen.
.
Im starting to study harder because I have a test.
.
If I have a test, Im bound to study harder.
[lit. If there is a test, studying harder starts to be done and continues to be done.]
If you want to use this form with an adjective to say that something is bound to
BE a certain way, remember that you cant use the ~ form with
adjectives/descriptive verbs, so you need to first turn it into an action verb. You
can do this by adding ~//. So:
.
She is pretty.
.
She is getting pretty.
X( .
She is getting to get pretty.)
^ This last one is redundant and ungrammatical, but its the missing link for the
next sentence step, which is perfectly acceptable:
.
She is bound to get pretty.
For more on ~ , see TTMiK L7L25.
***
Alright, we have now reached the limits of my understanding on all things -
related!! What an adventure, lol. Yall okay?
If you have any comments or questions related to or the grammar points
discussed here, please reblog, comment, or send an ask! And if theres any
grammar youre struggling with, please send me an ask and Ill do my best to
help!^^
I hope you all found this useful!
***
ETA: One more note!! You will often see people, both native and non-native
speakers of Korean, conjugate as .
This wrong!
Wrong wrong wrong!
Okay, as a linguist Im like contractually obligated to say that nothing a native
speaker does is technically wrong.
(but its wrong.)
Ahem. Why, you ask?
Well, the original verb, as you know, is . To conjugate it into the ~//
form, you have to add ~.
+ ~ = .
This is perfectly acceptable. In fact, you will often hear people saying in
the middle of a sentence, like . (I want to
become a doctor and help people.) or . (Its time, so lets
go.).
However, just as , which was originally conjugated as became
almost exclusively conjugated as , is itself going through a
transformation and becoming . + = . Get it?
So anywhere you would use a verb stem (e.g. the of ), use .
Anywhere you use a conjugated verb stem (e.g. ), use .
Thank you for your attention on this pressing matter.^^