sino korean noun

[mtothealcolm]

My friend and I are studying together, and we had a problem today with the instruction for the sentence construction.

it said: sino korean noun + 중이다
or sino korean noun + 중에

My question is what is a sino korean noun? how do I recognize one, and what is the difference in their function from a regular noun?

thanks a lot.

[trutherous]

Hahaha you ask a great question! Many texts just assume that you know.

A sino-Korean noun is one of Chinese root, in other words based on Hanja or Chinese symbolic gliph.

I have to laugh at books that assume a beginning student can identify the difference or presume to teach the student in this way. If we could readily recognize the difference between a sino-korean and a pure-korean noun we would probably already be speaking Korean at a level far advanced of the book.

[timandyou]

First, I must say, "I do agree with George".
Sorry about the confusion that we gave you...

We should have NEVER assumed that you guys already know about Sino-Korean.
I will explain about this - Sino Korean nouns.

Yes, As George just mentioned here, "A sino-Korean noun is one of Chinese root, in other words based on Hanja or Chinese symbolic gliph".
those nouns are Korean but taken from Chinese characters.
For examples, many Korean names (almost) are Sino-Korean.
My Korean name is 영회 (Yeong-Hoe)
Even though my name 영회 is Korean and written in Korean, it has no meaning of itself. Simply pronounce my name "영회".
But, when I present my name with Chinese characters, it has meaning of "the good are coming into me"
Many Korean nouns are sino-Korean. That's why in old age, all the newspapers were written in both Korean and Chinese characters.
How about Japanese? Japanese has three characters - Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. What is Kanji? Where does it come from?
I don't know about that.... but one thing I am sure about is... Kanji is very similar to Chinese characters.
Which is the first? Who knows?

Sorry for the confusion!
best,

Tim

[mtothealcolm]

i figured that it related to having a chinese root. and to be fair, the book isn't for complete beginners. it's actually a great book. my real question though is how can i recognize a sino-korean noun? do i just have to memorize them?

an example sentence the book gave was:
수업중이세요? (sp?)

so i now know "class" is a sino-noun. but is there a pattern?

a korean helped me with another example:
결혼하는중에 무슨 생각했어?

so can just add 는 to a verb to make it work in this sentence instead?

thanks again.

[timandyou]

Which lesson is that?
I don't understand why they even mentioned of 'Sino-Korean nouns' in order to explain that sentence, 수업중이세요??????
Actually it's out of topic. I don't quite get the point!

and about 결혼하는중에 무슨 생각했어? ????
결혼하는 중에...?? and 'Sino-Korean nouns'???

Which lesson is that, can you let me know?
First, in order to explain this grammar point - ~~중에 "in the middle of something", you don't need to know what the 'Sino-Korean nouns' are.
It's often used when to say "in the middle of Verbing something" . For examples, 먹는 중에 "while eating", 보는 중에 "in the middle of eating", 하는 중에 "while doing", 일하는 중에 "while working"...

The Grammar rule is this -
Verb stem + 는 중에
For examples,
먹다 "to eat" = 먹 is 'Verb-Stem' ; therefore "while eating" is 먹+는 중에 = 먹는 중에.
보다 "to see/to watch" = 보 is 'Verb-Stem'; therefore "while watching" is 보+는 중에 = 보는 중에.
하다 "to do" = 하 is 'Verb-stem'; therefore "in the middle of doing" is 하+는 중에 = 하는 중에.
일하다 "to work" = 일하 is 'Verb-Stem'; therefore, "while working" is 일하+는 중에 = 일하는 중에.

If the lesson came from KC101, I am really sorry for the confusion that we gave you.
If not, I really don't care about the text book. "Good luck with the text book^^"
cheers,

Tim

[manyakumi]

my real question though is how can i recognize a sino-korean noun? do i just have to memorize them?

Unfortunately, YES.
You will be able to distinguish them through very long term learning.
Maybe 5~6 years? I'm not sure.

an example sentence the book gave was:
수업중이세요? (sp?)
so i now know "class" is a sino-noun. but is there a pattern?

There is one big pattern.
All sino-nouns are breakable into a single syllable which has its own meaning.

ex)
수업 = 수(받다,to be given) + 업(일,work)

However, you'll get in trouble to distinguish these from one syllabled pure Korean nouns.
Such as...

날 (day)
달 (moon/month)
해 (sun/year)
별 (star)
손 (hand)
발 (foot)
입 (mouth)
...


But don't worry too much.
Even the natives can't distinguish all sino-nouns perfectly.
And that doesn't matter at all.



Sean.

PS) BTW, it's very nice to know you.
Hope you are having fun learning Korean language.
Good luck to you!
^^

[mtothealcolm]

the book i'm using to study is "Basic Sentence Patterns in Korean (for foreign students)" by John H. Koo

it's old, but it's pretty good. My friend used it while studying at one of the universities.

anyway, my mistake. i said that example sentence from memory. it was kinda wrong.

it actually says: Sino-Korean Noun + 중이다: to be in the middle of (doing something), to be in progress

1. 그분은 수업중이에요.
He is in class.

then it says:

Sino-korean Noun + 중에: while (conj.)..., during ...

1. 수업중에 말하지 마세요.
Don't talk while the class is in session.


again thank you for the help. that's a great hint about sino-korean nouns.

[trutherous]

But don't worry too much.
Even the natives can't distinguish all sino-nouns perfectly.
And that doesn't matter at all.

I agree 100% with Tim

Just learn the sentence patterns and you will learn from use and familiarity with the language which ones fit without having to think about it. Rules are there, but we usually only understand the rule after we are somewhat familiar with a thing by osmosis -then we say "AH! That's why it's done like that!"

Having said that, you should definitely understand the difference between sino-Korean numbers and pure Korean numbers, and when to use one or the other.

Keep up the great work!

[timandyou]

Wow~~ what a great work you guys, 영훈님, 감독님, mtothealcolm and me 하하~~
First, George, it's NOT me who you were agreeing with. 하하하~~ It's Sean님.
Was that a joke? if that was, NICE one! If not, you were very MEAN to Sean. 하하하~

감사합니다 신님 그리고 영훈님~~
Thank you mtothealcolm too.
cheers,

Tim

[mtothealcolm]

thanks. also, I already know mostly about sino-korean numbers which is why I had a pretty good guess about what sino-korean nouns were. I think sino-korean to the korean language is like latin to the English language.

granted, 2 number systems are sometimes annoying. but i guess english is similar in some ways.

[trutherous]

First, George, it's NOT me who you were agreeing with. 하하하~~ It's Sean님.

Whu wha what? I agreed with Sean? !! NO! It can never be! ㅋㅋㅋ ㅎㅎㅎ looks like we may share a meal and some drink in January -- I'll keep you up to date when I will be there and where...

나