When Seeking Definitions

[trutherous]

Hello Fellow Students of Korean!

Here are a couple of important things to remember when asking for definitions or translations of Korean words:

1. Use the actual Hangul (한글) and not what it 'sounds like' in Romanization
2. Give context or a complete sentence if possible

The reasons for this should be obvious, because in any language there are words that sound alike and yet have different meanings. In Korean this is an especially prevalent situation, where as much as 50% of vocabulary may have 4 meanings or more depending on the Chinese root character.

For example:

"Can anybody tell me what 'PAY' means?"

The words 배, 베, 뵈, 빼 may all sound like 'PAY' to a beginning student of Korean, though pronunciations of each are subtly different, and in the case of 배 there are probably over 10 vastly diverse meanings for the exact same pronunciation.

A few possible meanings of just the word "배" (pae) include: stomach, pear, boat, saturated, pregnant, accustomed, knotted, a person, (背) opposing side.... and the list just keeps going.

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Ok - cool! - So let's be as precise and accurate as possible. And let's not forget our other online resources such as the Naver dictionary http://dic.naver.com/ using this tool instead of simply asking others for definitions will improve your Korean skill and increase your vocabulary exponentially. Yeah.. it's hard, but you know what we say "No pain, no gain."

[timandyou]

"What a good point, George!"

I am sure your insight will help other fellow students learn Korean effectively.
Thanks for your time and effort.
cheers,

Tim