Translate: Where have all the flowers gone?

[Eddie]

Where have all the flowers gone? = 꽃들이 다 어다로 갔나?

This is the sentence I've come up with when talking with my Korean friends.

Where did all the flowers go? = ?

Two questions....

1) Is my first sentence's translation correct? If not, what should it be?

2) How would you translate the second sentence? The first English sentence seems to have a passive tense, like something happened to the flowers. The second English sentence seems to have an active tense, like the flowers themselves went somewhere on their own.

I'm confused about both the English and the Korean.

[manyakumi]

Where have all the flowers gone?
= 꽃들이 다 어디로 가 버렸을까?

Where did all the flowers go?
= 꽃들이 다 어디로 갔을까?


Just in my opinion.

[Eddie]

By the way, "Where have all the flowers gone?" is the title of a favorite song of mine.

[Eddie]

Where have all the flowers gone?
= 꽃들이 다 어디로 가 버렸을까?

Where did all the flowers go?
= 꽃들이 다 어디로 갔을까?


Just in my opinion.

Then how would you translate my first Korean sentence into English?

꽃들이 다 어디로 갔나? =

[manyakumi]

Then how would you translate my first Korean sentence into English?

꽃들이 다 어디로 갔나? =

Same with the one above.

꽃들이 다 어디로 갔나?
꽃들이 다 어디로 갔을까?
꽃들이 다 어디로 갔을까나?
꽃들이 다 어디로 갔지?
꽃들이 다 어디로 갔어?

-> Where did all the flowers go?

Difference between them?
It's so hard to explain... hehe

[Eddie]

Then how would you translate my first Korean sentence into English?

꽃들이 다 어디로 갔나? =

Same with the one above.

꽃들이 다 어디로 갔나?
꽃들이 다 어디로 갔을까?
꽃들이 다 어디로 갔을까나?
꽃들이 다 어디로 갔지?
꽃들이 다 어디로 갔어?

-> Where did all the flowers go?

Difference between them?
It's so hard to explain... hehe

Anyone else?

[holdfast]

Then how would you translate my first Korean sentence into English?

꽃들이 다 어디로 갔나? =

Same with the one above.

꽃들이 다 어디로 갔나?
꽃들이 다 어디로 갔을까?
꽃들이 다 어디로 갔을까나?
꽃들이 다 어디로 갔지?
꽃들이 다 어디로 갔어?

-> Where did all the flowers go?

Difference between them?
It's so hard to explain... hehe

Anyone else?

manyakumi is the native speaker here, and he's absolutely right - they mean the same thing, really. you could use any of them and people would understand you. the nuance might be slightly different, but i can't attempt to explain the difference either. not to use it as a cop-out, but you can't really understand all of those nuances until you hear them all a lot......... sorry i can't be more helpful. but you're safe using any of those.

[carsont]

I probably know the least out of everyone who's posted, but I'll take a crack at some of these. At least if I'm wrong and someone can point it out it'll help...

꽃들이 다 어디로 갔나?

I think this is a bit gentler, like "Where did all of the flowers go, I wonder?" or maybe "Where could all of the flowers have gone?". I think -나 and -나요 are sometimes used to ask a question "out loud", as it were, rather than a directed question expecting an answer.

꽃들이 다 어디로 갔을까?
꽃들이 다 어디로 갔을까나?

I'm not sure about these. I hear them a lot but they haven't been covered in my textbook at the point I'm up to. My impression is that it might also have similar nuances to "I wonder where all the flowers went?" or "Where could all of the flowers have gone?".

꽃들이 다 어디로 갔지?

I believe this is more casual or tentative, like "Say, where did all the flowers go?" for 갔지, or perhaps "May I ask where all of the flowers went?" if it were 갔지요.

[manyakumi]

꽃들이 다 어디로 갔나?

I think this is a bit gentler, like "Where did all of the flowers go, I wonder?" or maybe "Where could all of the flowers have gone?". I think -나 and -나요 are sometimes used to ask a question "out loud", as it were, rather than a directed question expecting an answer.

I think this explanation totally makes sense.
It gives us a gentle, somewhat less tensioned nuance.

꽃들이 다 어디로 갔을까?
꽃들이 다 어디로 갔을까나?

I'm not sure about these. I hear them a lot but they haven't been covered in my textbook at the point I'm up to. My impression is that it might also have similar nuances to "I wonder where all the flowers went?" or "Where could all of the flowers have gone?".

Same here too.
Because of using "나", the 2nd one sounds less tensioned than the 1st one.
It might be felt as the speaker is pulling one's leg in spite of that the speaker already knows "where the flowers are".

꽃들이 다 어디로 갔지?

I believe this is more casual or tentative, like "Say, where did all the flowers go?" for 갔지, or perhaps "May I ask where all of the flowers went?" if it were 갔지요.

It might be different in cases.

When the stress is at 갔지? then it could mean as..
"All the flowers went to somewhere, right?"

When the stress is at 어디로,
"Where did all the flowers go?"

Or you could say this as "self-asking-out-loud".
And in this case, the nuance could be..
(To himself) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (To others)

1 to 3 out of 10 levels.

[Eddie]

manyakumi wrote:

꽃들이 다 어디로 갔나?


I think this is a bit gentler, like "Where did all of the flowers go, I wonder?" or maybe "Where could all of the flowers have gone?". I think -나 and -나요 are sometimes used to ask a question "out loud", as it were, rather than a directed question expecting an answer.

The Korean I initially spoke with chose this particular sentence as her translation because the original sentence is a song title that is more philosophical than literal. Her reason for choosing this version sounds similar to your explanation of it here.

Thanks for your help guys!