LESSON 34
The Modifiers -eun and -n
In English we have expressions like the man WHO came yesterday or the man WHO came yesterday, the man WHO I saw yesterday or the man WHO(M) I saw yesterday. These are called relative clauses and usually contain a relative pronoun—who, which, that, where—though this is sometimes omitted: the man I saw yesterday.
In the equivalent Korean expression, there is no relative pronoun, and the relative clause goes in front of the noun it modifies; you say something like the came man, the seen. The verb in these modifying constructions appears in a special form we shall call the MODIFIER form.
The past tense modifier form has the ending -eun after a consonant base, -n after a vowel base:
anjeun saram 앉은 사람 the man who sat down
on saram 온 사람 the man who came
The meaning of the modifier form depends on whether the Korean verb corresponds to an English verb or an English adjective; in other words, whether the verb means DOES something or IS something. The meaning of the modifier form with PROCESS verbs (does something) is …that has done or …that someone has done: bon saram = the man that saw or the man that someone saw.
To make it clear which of these two meanings is involved you have to give the verb either a subject or an object:
Gimssi-reul bon saram.
김씨를 본 사람.
The man who saw Mr. Kim.
Gimssi-reul bon saram.
김씨를 본 사람.
The man who(m) Mr. Kim saw.
Then you can take the whole expression and make it the subject, or the object of a larger sentence, by putting an appropriate particle after the noun:
Gimssi-reul bon saram-i nae chingu eyo.
김씨를 본 사람이 내 친구에요.
The man Mr. Kim saw is my friend. / The man who saw Mr. Kim is my friend.
Gimssi-reul bon saram-eul na-do bwasseoyo.
김씨를 본 사람을 나도 봤어요.
I too saw the man Mr. Kim saw.
Gimssi-reul bon saram-i na-reul bwasseoyo.
김씨를 본 사람이 나를 봤어요.
The man who saw Mr. Kim saw me too.
Gimssi-reul bon saram-hante don-eul badasseoyo.
김씨를 본 사람한테 돈을 받았어요.
Mr. Kim got money from the man he saw. (Also could mean: I got money from the man Mr. Kim saw.)
Gimssi-reul bon saram-hante (Gimssi-ga) don-eul badasseoyo.
김씨를 본 사람한테 (김씨가) 돈을 받았어요.
Mr. Kim got money from the man who saw him.
Compare the following sets of sentences:
Geu saram-i doseogwan-eseo chaek-uel billyeosseoyo.
그 사람이 도서관에서 책을 빌렸어요.
That person borrowed a book from the library.
Doseogwan-eseo chaek-eul billin saram-i nugu eyo?
도서관에서 책을 빌린 사람이 누구에요?
Who was the person who borrowed a book from the library?
Geu saram-i doseogwan-eseo billin chaek-i museun chaek ieyo?
그 사람이 도서관에서 빌린 책이 무슨 책이에요?
What was the book that person borrowed from the library?
Geu namjaga mun-eul dadasseoyo.
그 남자가 문을 닫았어요.
The man closed the door.
You can see that these essentially correspond to English adjectives.
| keun jip | 큰 집 | a house that is big = a big house |
| meon dosi | 먼 도시 | a city that is far away = a far-away city |
| gakkaun hakgyo | 가까운 학교 | a school that is nearby = a nearby school |
| jeolmeun saram | 젊은 사람 | a person who is young = a young person |
| moksa in bun | 목사인 분 | a(n honored) man who is a preacher |
| gin gil | 긴 길 | a road that is long = a long road |
| jjalbeun gil | 짧은 길 | a road that is short = a short road |
| ppalgan moja | 빨간 모자 | a hat that is red = a red hat |
| hin ot | 흰 옷 | clothes that are white = white clothes |
| geomeun gudu | 검은 구두 | black shoes |
| pureun haneul | 푸른 하늘 | blue sky |
| joeun nal | 좋은 날 | nice day, nice weather |
| nappeun nalssi | 나쁜 날씨 | bad weather |
| nopeun san | 높은 산 | high mountains |
| najeun eondeok | 낮은 언덕 | a low hill |
| chuun bam | 추운 밤 | a cold night |
| jageun ai | 작은 아이 | a small child |