Newbie Question

[nick9863]

In English, when and where would both place at the beginning of a sentence generally.

Can someone please explain the following to me?

1. Hallasan eodie isseoyo? - [where] places after the subject
2. Eonje tougeunhae? - [when] places before the subject

Could the words in line 2 be reversed and still make sense?

Thanks

Nick

[trutherous]

In English, when and where would both place at the beginning of a sentence generally.

Can someone please explain the following to me?

1. Hallasan eodie isseoyo? - [where] places after the subject
2. Eonje tougeunhae? - [when] places before the subject

Could the words in line 2 be reversed and still make sense?

Thanks

No you shouldn't reverse the word order.

In example 2 you are asking when "some person" is leaving work right? So I think the "person" (omitted) is the subject, not the final verb "leaving work".

With the exception of adjectives or noun modifying phrases, everything in Korean grammar comes after the subject. The structure is SOV - Subject - Object - Verb (but you probably already know that) But the simplest sentences will have only a subject and a verb -SV (just like English) Unfortunately the subject is often omitted in Korean when it can be implied by the context, which is often a cause of confusion for students of the language.

해가 떴다 -The sun rose.
언제 떴어? -When did (the sun) rise?

I'm going to assume "tou geun hae" means 퇴근해 (it would be easier for me if you wrote Korean in Hangul)

(너) 언제 퇴근해? Lit: (You) when leave-work do?
Here is an alternative word order that I think is permissible and still makes sense:
(너) 퇴근 언제 해? Lit: (You) leave-work when do?

To make matters more confusing, the words 어디 and 언제 are sometimes used as pronouns in Korean, as in:
어디 있겠지 -It's got to be somewhere. In this case 어디 means "some place" and is not interrogative.

Anyway, the best thing is to just keep on learning the patterns as native speakers say them and the grammatical understanding will become clearer with time.

[kc101com]

Hi Nick,


Thank you for your comment! It's a question.

Korean structure, you could possibly use similar way as English since question words such as where is, when is, comes in the front.

Using the example that you have given to us,

1) Hallasan eodi isseoyo? or Eodi Hallasan itsseoyo?

-> Where is Hallasan?
-> Hallasan is where? : legitimate since in Colloquial, we ask that way as well, right?

2) Eonje Tougeun hae? or Tougeun Eonjehae?
(since Hae is the shortened word of to do so you it would be behind 'when')

-> When do you get off?
-> you get off when?

As you can see, both ways are fine. However, I would say the original sentence you have mentioned would be grammatically correct - yet the other way of using it also works in speaking Korean!

Hope this helps and please ask us anytime if you have further questions!:)


Thank you

Madison
Team Koreanclass101.com

[trutherous]

eh.. when it comes to languages I think everyone recognizes that there is a big difference between speaking and writing. Practically no English conversation adheres to the rules of Grammar and that is equally true of Korean. Nevertheless, if you adhere to the rules you are a lot more likely to be clearly understood and to sound less like Yoda. I think it's ok to break grammatical rules for the sake of style --only after one has a firm grasp of the conventions one is breaking. Anyway, in the online world if someone asserts that it is night someone else is bound to assert that it is in fact day... on the other side of the world.

Fabulous keep skill on the world with your Korean rocking! ???
~order makes a difference~ ~order a difference makes~
Keep on rocking the world with your fabulous Korean skill!

may the force be with you

[kc101com]

Love your word, trutherous!


That is absolutely true. There is always what's called colloquial and official.

I as well started to learn English by speaking in the beginning definitely with grammar studies.

Think it is really important to know the rules behind since it will get you on right track to learn a language besides being abel to practice by speaking!

Always great comments, trutherous. We appreciate your opinion

Thank you!

Madison
Team Koreanclass101.com