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Korwid

Worth recognising — Korean grammar (21 entries)

· 4 min read

This is part 2 of 2, covering worth recognising — 21 entries.

The format and the FAQ are on part 1; this page is the entries themselves.

Worth recognising — under 100 lines

Twenty-one patterns that appear regularly but not constantly, and where the numbers deserve proportionally less weight.

A lower figure here means our method found fewer matches, which is not the same as the pattern being rare. Patterns whose written form contains bare jamo were excluded from counting altogether, and irregular contractions slip past a string match, so absence from the top of this list proves less than it appears to.

What these have in common is specificity. Each does a narrower job than anything above — marking an extent, a limit, a manner, a concession — and that narrowness is exactly why they show up less.

Read the ones whose English gloss surprises you and skip the ones that look obvious. The surprising ones are where a translation has been quietly smoothing something over.

  • 도록 (dorok) — It expresses that the preceding clause is the goal or reason for doing the action stated in the following clause. — counted in 82 lines. Full explanation.
  • 처럼 (cheoreom) — Expresses similarity or metaphor, can be translated as "like" in English — counted in 78 lines. Full explanation.
  • 밖에 (bakke) — Express the only thing or option available, no other possibilities available. — counted in 73 lines. Full explanation.
  • 전에 (jeone) — Used to say before a certain time or before an action — counted in 72 lines. Full explanation.
  • 더라고(요) (deorago) — Used to relate something that the speaker came to know through direct past experience. Usually conjugated in present tense. Often used as '-더라' in casual speech. — counted in 70 lines. Full explanation.
  • 아/어도 (eodo) — Indicates that the second clause will happens regardless of the described state or action of the first clause. — counted in 69 lines. Full explanation.
  • 에게 (ege) — Define a person or a living creature as the recipient or target of an action. — counted in 68 lines. Full explanation.
  • 동안 (dongan) — Indicates the time period when a certain action begins and lasts until it ends. — counted in 61 lines. Full explanation.
  • 따라 (ttara) — Follows a time expression and expresses that some action happened exclusively or unusually so in that period of time and does not represent the usual behavior or state of affairs. — counted in 61 lines. Full explanation.
  • 후에/뒤에 (hue / dwie) — Used to say something happens after a certain period of time — counted in 55 lines. Full explanation.
  • 기에 (gie) — Used to express the reason or cause for the speaker's action. Note that '-길래' is the conversational, spoken version of -기에. — counted in 50 lines. Full explanation.
  • 자고 (jago) — Used to indirectly convey someone's recommendation or suggestion. — counted in 41 lines. Full explanation.
  • 거나 (geona) — Used when one of either the preceding statement or the following statement can be chosen. — counted in 35 lines. Full explanation.
  • 치고 (chigo) — Used to show that something is unusual or noteworthy — counted in 34 lines. Full explanation.
  • 던데(요) (deonde) — Used to express surprise or disbelief toward a past event or particular situation based on something that the speaker saw or experienced. Expecting an answer from the listener. Can also be used to make a contradiction. — counted in 34 lines. Full explanation.
  • 마다 (mada) — When preceded by a temporal indication, it indicates the recurrence of an event. — counted in 33 lines. Full explanation.
  • 끼리 (kkiri) — Used to indicate that actions or interactions are done among members of the same group or category. — counted in 32 lines. Full explanation.
  • 만큼 (mankeum) — When added to the end of a noun, it describes something done as much as the noun. — counted in 28 lines. Full explanation.
  • 아/어야지 (eoyaji) — Express speaker’s strong intention for oneself or a strong suggestion to someone else. — counted in 26 lines. Full explanation.
  • 이자 (ija) — Indicate that someone or something is both A and B simultaneously. — counted in 25 lines. Full explanation.
  • 더니 (deoni) — Used when the speaker wants to refer to a change compared to the past that they have directly seen or experienced. The speaker themself cannot be the subject. — counted in 21 lines. Full explanation.

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