how does one say "one of ..."

[yhenry]

"one of my favorite things to do is...."
or
"one of my friends gave me a present, etc"

Hi Mishio,

the construction you are looking for is
<superlative> <noun>중의 (for your first sentence)
<noun>중(에서/의) 한 <counter> (for your second sentence)
[please anybody who knows better correct me if I'm wrong!!]

가장 좋아하는것중의 수영하는 것이다 (2 times 것? maybe a native Korean can point out how to say that better?)

네 친구중에서 한 사람 선물을 주었어요.
or
네 친구중의 한 사람 선물을 주었어요.

Just to illustrate what I mean, this last example about the friends is exactly what I mean. Its a direct translation, and technically it is correct. But its odd.

네 친구 ga 선물을 주었어요.
OK I copy/pasted this and took out the weird parts and added a "ga" for clarity. anyways, "my friend" and "one of my friends" basically means the same thing anyways (in English) so go with the simple answer!

The part you took out is not actually weird as you think it is.
Only weird parts are due to no show.
Both sentences are missing the important subject marker '이' and indirect object of 'whom' to make a thought complete.

It should be like this; 네 친구중의 한 사람*이 *나에게* 선물을 주었어요
if you really want to say 'one of your friends' gave you a gift, that is.

If you say '내 친구가 선물을 주었어요', you mean 'a friend gave me a gift', meaning different from the other sentence.

Yes, there are many different ways to say things, but the best way to do for the sake of listeners is to convey the full thoughts in sentences, which is no doubt right thing to do for the sake of any speakers who wants to get his/her meaning across, unless you don't want to reveal all of your thoughts at at once and like to enjoy Q&A session after every short speeches.

Another thing about learning and speaking other language is that you must get to the standard form of it first just for the sake of the good founding and then go from there, if you really want to learn the language properly.

If you want the survival language for your short stay, why not pick up a little phrase here or there just get by?

If you want to speak right, sorry to say but you better get used to abide by the grammar rule.
Not that we all know all of that in order to speak Korean, but that only for you as KSL person, Korean as Second Language.
I think the same is true for you to speak English naturally.
You might not realized but you speak your language according to the English grammar rules, naturally.

So do we.

What do you think?

[John]

Kimchi, dude you are hilarious. thx for the laugh!

[kimchiandsoju]

Henry,

I would still argue that in English "My friend gave me a gift" and "One of my friends gave me a gift" has the EXACT same meaning.

Its like in math class when the teacher tells you to "Simplify this equation". I think the same idea works in language too, where you narrow things down to your intent and then move from there. Back to the example we have been using, what the original poster wants to know is "one of my friends" because that's how he/she says it in English, but I think the best answer is the one that conveys the real intent, the real meaning of what that person is thinking.

Anyways, I'm not very good at explaining my thoughts like this, and I think in that last post I did a horrible job of conveying what I meant. I didn't mean that you should settle for saying things wrong and that it's OK as long as people understand what you mean. Of course you should always strive to get better.

I'll never speak perfect Korean, and my accent will always be funny. But I think that part of getting better is learning to "detatch" a little bit and accept that its OK to say things wrong. You live in the US, so I think you understand. It would be nice if before each sentence you could have about 30 seconds to compose it perfectly in your head and THEN speak! But real life doesn't let you do that, so you speak with what you can and learn to get comfortable doing that and then progress from there. Just because you are comfortable saying something wrong doesn't mean you want to say it wrong, or that you stop learning to say things right, it just means that you do the best you can and drive on.

Seriously I think its so important to finally reach a point where you stop translating in your head before you speak and you just SPEAK. Its hard, but once I crossed that bridge life got a lot easier. It just takes practice and focus and a willingness to relax your brain a little bit.

But this is just how I feel, personally. I not a Korean teacher or an English teacher, and I am only speaking from my own experience. If you think that I am totally wrong, that's OK!

I can at least say that I've never gotten a bloody nose instead of a cup of coffee, so I do OK I guess. I can say "snow got in my eye" and "I hurt my leg while crossing the bridge" and feel pretty hilarious.


Completely off topic now... My friend has a story where he was in the subway in Seoul and an Ajushi called him a YangNom. So my friend said "If I'm a YangNom then you are a HanNom." The Ajushi stared at him for a second and then walked away. hahahahaha.

[yhenry]

I can say "snow got in my eye" and "I hurt my leg while crossing the bridge" and feel pretty hilarious.

For those who didn't feel hilarious; 눈에 눈이 들어오고 다리를 건너다 다리를 다쳤다

How about 배 타고 가다 배를 먹고 배가 아팠다?

[kimchiandsoju]

I can say "snow got in my eye" and "I hurt my leg while crossing the bridge" and feel pretty hilarious.

For those who didn't feel hilarious; 눈에 눈이 들어오고 다리를 건너다 다리를 다쳤다

How about 배 타고 가다 배를 먹고 배가 아팠다?

OH MY GOD I actually do say that one!!! hahahahah "I was riding a boat and..." (COLLECTIVE GROAN FROM EVERYBODY)

[javiskefka]

I'll never speak perfect Korean, and my accent will always be funny. But I think that part of getting better is learning to "detatch" a little bit and accept that its OK to say things wrong. You live in the US, so I think you understand. It would be nice if before each sentence you could have about 30 seconds to compose it perfectly in your head and THEN speak! But real life doesn't let you do that, so you speak with what you can and learn to get comfortable doing that and then progress from there. Just because you are comfortable saying something wrong doesn't mean you want to say it wrong, or that you stop learning to say things right, it just means that you do the best you can and drive on.

This man speaks the truth. It's ok to relax

I can say "snow got in my eye" and "I hurt my leg while crossing the bridge" and feel pretty hilarious.

For those who didn't feel hilarious; 눈에 눈이 들어오고 다리를 건너다 다리를 다쳤다

How about 배 타고 가다 배를 먹고 배가 아팠다?

LOL