Some Tricky Particles
The 2-shape particle euro/ro has the shape ro after vowels, and euro after all consonants except l; after l the shape is lo: gi ch’aro, bareun pyeoneureo, oen pyeoneureo.
The meanings of the particle are as follows:
| (1) Manner as |
Hoewoneu-ro gaiphaeseoyo. 회원으로 가입했어요. |
| I signed in as a member. | |
| (2) Function as |
Hanguk-e haksaeng-euro wasseoyo. 한국에 학생으로 왔어요. |
| I come to Korea as a student. | |
| (3) State is; and |
Jeo sonyeoneun Gim seonsaengui ttal-lo Busaneseo salgo iseoyo. |
| 저 소녀는 김 선생의 딸로 부산에서 살고 있어요. | |
| That girl is Mr. Kim’s daughter and is living in Pusan. | |
| (4) Direction toward; to |
Oenjjok-euro gaseyo. 왼쪽으로 가세요 |
| Go to the left. | |
| (5) Means with, by |
Na-neun yeonpil-lo pyeonji-reul sseoyo. 나는 연필로 편지를 써요. |
| I’m writing this letter with a pencil. | |
| Bihaenggi-ro wasseoyo? | |
| 비행기로 왔어요? | |
| Did you come by plane? |
The 2-shape particle eun/neun has the shape eun after consonants, neun after vowels. For example: jip-eun, hakgyo-neun. The tricky thing about this particle is its meaning and use. As a tag translation you can try as for: as a tag meaning you can think of it as the TOPIC indicator.
What this particle does is take something and set it aside as a sort of stage-setting, as if to say—at the very beginning of your sentence—“Now this is what we’re going to talk about.” The word or phrase in front of it refers to the least unknown ingredient in your communication—the part you’d be most likely to drop if you were going to send a postcard. For this reason, the phrase with this particle nearly always comes at the very beginning of the sentence. (Sometimes it is preceded by an adverb put out of place at the beginning for a kind of special emphasis.)
In Lesson 5 you learned that, depending on the situation, the dispensable part of your news—what the other person probably knows already—may be the subject, the object, the place, the time, or anything EXCEPT THE VERB EXPRESSION.
So, if you want to take out any of the phrases in front of the verb and put them at the beginning in order to lessen the emphasis on them, you can then add the particle eun/neun to still further cut down their emphasis. When you do this to the subject or object, the ordinary particles (i/ga or eul/reul) do not occur.
For any other phrases, you can add the topic particle right after whatever particle would ordinarily be there. Let’s take an example: Geu haksaeng-i jigeum hakgyo-eseo Hangungmal-eul gongbu haeyo. That student is now studying Korean at school. With differences of emphasis, this can be said in any of these ways:
Geu haksaeng-eun jigeum hakgyo-eseo Hangungmal-eul gongbu haeyo.
그 학생은 지금 학교에서 한국말을 공부해요.
Jigeum geu haksaeng-i hakgyo-eseo Hangungmal-eul gongbu haeyo.
지금 그 학생이 학교에서 한국말을 공부해요.
Hakgyo-eseo geu haksaeng-i jigeum Hangungmal-eul gongbu haeyo.
학교에서 그 학생이 지금 한국말을 공부해요.
Hangungmal-eul geu haksaeng-i jigeum hakgyo-eseo gongbu haeyo.
한국말을 그 학생이 지금 학교에서 공부해요.
But just how do you use this emphasis? It is used, for one thing, when you are making different statements about two different subjects or objects in order to play up their points of CONTRAST:
Hotel-eun boineunde cheolttoyeok-i an boyeoyo.
호텔은 보이는데 철도역이 안보여요.
The hotel I see. But I can’t see the railroad station.
When you first mention a subject, you usually use the subject particle. But if you keep on talking about the same thing, you either repeat the subject (in the same or slightly different words) with the topic particle, or you just don’t mention it:
Nae chingu-neun Miguk-eseo wasseoyo. (Geu-neun) Miguk saram ieyo. (Geu saram-eun) gunin-euro Hanguk-e waseoyo. (Geu sarameun) yukgun janggyo eyo. (Geu saram-eun) Seoul-eseo salgo isseoyo.
내 친구는 미국에서 왔어요. 그는 미국 사람이에요. 군인으로 한 국에 왔어요. 그는 육군 장교에요. 그는 서울에서 살고 있어요.
My friend came from America. He is an American. He came to Korea as a serviceman. He’s an army officer. He’s living in Seoul.
The one-shape particle do is a kind of opposite; it has the meaning too, also, indeed, even. This particle reinforces the emphasis on the preceding word with reference either to some other part of the sentence or to something outside the sentence:
Geu haksaeng-do yojeueum hakgyo-eseo Hangungmal-eul gongbu hago isseoyo.
그 학생도 요즈음 학교에서 한국말을 공부하고 있어요.
That student is studying Korean in school now too (as well as someone else). OR Even that student (to my surprise)….
Geu haksaeng-i jigeum hakgyo-eseo Hangukmal-do gongbu hago isseoyo.
그 학생이 지금 학교에서 한국말도 공부하고 있어요.
That student is now studying Korean at school too (as well as at home or somewhere else). That student is studying Korean at school now too (as well as other subjects).
Notice that the English words too and also are ambiguous in reference wherever you put them in the sentence, but the Korean particle do always refers to the word preceding it. Notice also that the subject and object particles are not used when you use do (just as they are not with the topic particle).
Since the particle do reinforces the emphasis, we might expect the phrase with which it occurs to be moved over near the end of the sentence, and this sometimes happens, but it seems to be unnecessary since the particle itself lends all the emphasis needed.
Now notice the translation of the following sentences:
Bap-do meokgo ppang-do meogeoyo.
밥도 먹고 빵도 먹어요.
Or:
Bap-do ppang-do da meogeoyo.
밥도 빵도 다 먹어요.
I eat both rice and bread.
Achim-edo ilhago bam-edo ilhaeyo.
아침에도 일하고 밤에도 일해요.
Or:
Achim-edo bam-edo da ilhaeyo.
아침에도 밤에도 다 일해요.
I work both in the mornings and in the evenings.
Yeonpil-do sago pen-do saseoyo.
연필도 사고 펜도 샀어요.
I bought both a pencil and a pen.
Migug-eseodo ogo ilbon-eseodo wasseoyo.
미국에서도 오고 일본에서도 왔어요.
They came from both America and Japan.
Jip-do itgo cha-do iseoyo.
집도 있고 차도 있어요.
Or:
Jip-do cha-do da iseoyo.
집도 차도 다 있어요.
I have both a house and a car.
Gim seonsaeng-do, Ma seonsaeng-do, Jang seonsaeng-do mannasseoyo.
김 선생도, 마 선생도, 장 선생도 만났어요.
I saw Mr. Kim, and Mr. Ma, and Mr. Chang, all three.
When you have do after each of two affirmative phrases, the translation is both… and… If there are more than two phrases, the translation comes out and…, and …, and …, all 3 (or 4, or 5).
Now look at some negative sentences:
Achim-edo bam-edo il haji anayo.
아침에도 밤에도 일하지 않아요.
I work neither in the morning nor at night.
Jip-do cha-do eopseoyo.
집도 차도 없어요.
I haven’t got either a house or a car.
Gim seonsaeng-do, Ma seonsaeng-do, Jang seonsaeng-do manaji anasseoyo.
김 선생도 마 선생도 장 선생도 만나지 않았어요.
I haven’t met neither Mr. Kim, nor Mr. Ma, nor Mr. Chang.
The translation is neither… nor… or not either… or….