translation help please

[Gudrun]

I recently bought a Korean book to read to my son about a mouse that stashed an apple in the ground and when he returned it had been eaten. The mouse proceeds to ask every animal he meets if they had eaten his apple. All the animals start their reply with:
"내가 어떻게? 잘 생각해 봐." I understand the first sentence as "how do I?" or "how would I?" (better English), but I'm confused by
잘 생각해 봐. Does that mean "try to think about it"? I don't understand what the function of 잘 and 봐 is in this sentence.
Any help much appreciated.

[timandyou]

This is quite hard to clearly answer about it.
If I explain this clearly, I have to make a lesson for this, which takes a lot of time/effort for me. (that's too much for me right now).
I will simply explain your question about 잘 and 봐.

First, 잘 생각해봐 can be literally put,
잘 = better, well, more... (something like, "think more", "think better", "think wiser")
생각해 comes from 생각하다 "to think", "to consider".
and 봐 comes from 보자 "let's do"
So... the best translation I can think of is...

Let's give deep thought (about the matter/problem)! or why don't you give deep thought (about the matter/problem)!?.

Gudrun, this is too much work for me. I think this is enough for now.
cheers,

Tim

[Gudrun]

Thanks for your reply Tim!

I thought 봐 here was just the plain form of 보다 (as in 봐요).

It seems the more I study Korean, the more I discover just how much I don't know.

[timandyou]

You're welcome!
Here are tips for you. (Remember - learning and understanding Korean verbs would take a lot of time and study)
However, the most important thing to know about Korean verbs is to distinguish 'verb-stem' from various final ending forms (suffix).

For example,
*Standard - 보다 "to see"
*Informal Speech - 보 (verb-stem) + 아요 (suffix) = 보아요
note: if you say 보아요 over and over times, it becomes 봐요 (보 + ㅏ + 요). (봐 = 보 + 아)
*the plain form - 보 + ㅂ니다 = 봅니다.
*the past form - 보 + 았습니다 = 보았습니다.
*the suggestion form (shall we?) - 보 + ㄹ까요 = 볼까요?
*another suggestion form (let's do) - 보 + 자 = 보자.
and there could be more...

I hope you know all of those... (give yourself a lot of time to learn and practice on them)
cheers,

Tim

[manyakumi]

I thought 봐 here was just the plain form of 보다 (as in 봐요).

You were right, Gudrun.
Maybe Tim seemed to be confused by something.

Simply speaking,

보다
means 'to see'

해 보다
means 'to see what happens (by doing something) = to try'

생각해 보다
means 'to try to think'

생각해 보(verb stem) + 아 (imperative ending) = 생각해 봐


And as Tim explained,
잘 means 'well'/'better'/'more'/'carefully'....etc.


잘 생각해 봐.
Try to think better. = Think carefully.



Hope this helps.
Sean

[julialim]

Right!! manyakumi is right!

"(verb) 보다." means "try something" / "attempt something".

생각하다(think) -> 생각해 보다
먹다(eat) --> 먹어 보다
쓰다(use) -> 써 보다

imperative sentence
생각해 봐!
먹어 봐!
써 봐!

Usually it is used with "한번" once.
한번 생각해 봐! Think it over once.
한번 먹어 봐! Try this food once.
한번 써 봐! Give it a try !