problem of translation with 가 and 를

[beline]

Good afternoon,

I have a problem with the translation of a sentence: 태현씨가 보고 싶어요.
and this is translated like this : " i want to see Taehyeon".

But knowing that there is the particle 가 which marks the subject of the sentence, I would have translated the sentence as: "Taehyeon want to see".

And if I wanted to translate " i want to see Taehyeon". I wrote 태현씨를 보고 싶어요.

could you tell me where I made my mistake?

thanks
beline

[manyakumi]

You didn't make any mistakes.

태현씨가 보고 싶어요 and 태현씨를 보고 싶어요 both mean "(I) want to see Taehyeon"

Subjects or objects of a sentence aren't up to only their particles but also verbs of the sentence.
보고 싶어요 can't be said by the others because they would never know my feelings.
So the subject of 보고 싶어요 is "I".
It wouldn't be "he" or "she" but always "the speaker" who knows the feeling wanting to see.

If you want to make a sentence meaning "Taehyeon wants to see.",
you are suppose to say "태현씨가 보고 싶어해요."


Confused...?

[beline]

yes it's very confusing but I thinkI understood:

if I am right then all the verbs expressing a feeling, the subject default is "I" whatever the name + 가.

So if we want to express the feeling of another person, we will use 하다 verb.

is that so?

but between 태현 씨가 보고 싶어요 and 태현 씨를 보고 싶어요, what is the sentence most used by Koreans?

P.S. : Thanks for the answer, manyakumi !

[manyakumi]

You're welcome, beline.

Actually Korean language has a different classification from English's.
That might causes some confusions, I guess.

좋다 : like
싫다 : dislike
싶다 : want/seem
사랑스럽다, 자랑스럽다, 혐오스럽다...etc.

These are not verbs in Korean but adjectives that explain someone's inside of mind.

When you use these kinds of adjectives you have to follow the rule above.
You cannot use objective marker right before these adjectives.

For example,

I like summer.

나는 여름이 좋다. (O)
나는 여름을 좋다. (X)
나는 여름을 좋아한다. (O)

나는 여름이 좋아요.
나는 여름을 좋아해요.
Both are also right.


She likes winter.

그녀는 겨울이 좋다. (Only available in this basic form)
그녀는 겨울을 좋다. (X)
그녀는 겨울을 좋아한다. (O)

그녀는 겨울이 좋아요. (X)
그녀는 겨울을 좋아해요. (O)

As you see above,
You can make an adjective into a verb by attaching 하다.


And especially,
__고 싶다 can have all 이/가/을/를 object markers.

between 태현 씨가 보고 싶어요 and 태현 씨를 보고 싶어요, what is the sentence most used by Koreans?

They are slightly different on their nuances.
Literally, they are all meaning "I want to see Taehyeon." but,

태현씨가 보고 싶어요.
-> I miss Taehyeon. (So I want to see him)

태현씨를 보고 싶어요.
-> I'd like to see Taehyeon. (I need to see him)

[beline]

Thank you again!

Thanks to your explanations very clear, I finally understood everything about this point here.

감사함니다.

[Taiho]

Thanks for this from me too. I went throught the whole "wa", "ga" or "wo" thing a few years ago with Japanese so this sounds very familiar. Also the concept of "-shitai" for something I want but "s-hitagaru" for indicating something that other people want in Japanese is very similar. Still it's really good to have the correct construction in Korean pointed out.

[yhenry]

Good afternoon,

I have a problem with the translation of a sentence: 태현씨가 보고 싶어요.
and this is translated like this : " i want to see Taehyeon".

But knowing that there is the particle 가 which marks the subject of the sentence, I would have translated the sentence as: "Taehyeon want to see".

And if I wanted to translate " i want to see Taehyeon". I wrote 태현씨를 보고 싶어요.

could you tell me where I made my mistake?

thanks
beline

I, as Korean, like to add a little more for you to say in confident and for the sake of conveying your thought as clear as possible.

The problem for us Korean is that we got so used to drop subject whenever convenient, causing sometimes misunderstanding or misguide, if not mischief.

My suggestion for you is that you can include the subject the doer in your speech so that the listeners can clearly know who do the action, for the benefit of both the speaker and the listeners.

If you use subject '나 는', you would have no trouble to translate or convey the thought in the sentence of 태현씨가 보고 싶어요 or 태현씨를 보고 싶어요.

나는 태현씨가 보고 싶어요 or 나는 태현씨를 보고 싶어요

If it is 태현씨 who wants to see, you should use the indirect quotation method; I heard that 태현씨 wants to see, using '다 or 어 해요'

태현씨가 보고 싶다 or 어 해요.

If you say this way, you can't be any clearer than that.
태현씨가 보고 싶어 한다(고) (that clause) 들었어요 I heard.
'고' is optional.

You can say it in many ways, but you don't want to be ambitious, confusing the listeners, in the name of communication.