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At 2+ years in Area 51 we have to close this proposal. Keep this proposal alive by restarting it. See discuss.area51.stackexchange.com/q/5798. – Robert Cartaino♦ Apr 11 at 21:47

closed as not a viable proposal by Robert Cartaino♦ Apr 11 at 21:47

This proposal will not result in a useful, productive, or viable Q&A site.

This proposal is now in the Commitment phase — example questions are locked!

33 Example Questions (3 closed)

active oldest votes

up vote 17 down vote

added by Caleb Apr 15 '11 at 21:44

I searched it and it means "급회전하다" – Donghoon Lee Jan 21 '12 at 3:58

up vote 14 down vote

added by Louis Apr 14 '11 at 11:25

	I think that's almost the same as using English spaces – Donghoon Lee Jan 21 '12 at 3:59
	Not really. There are definitely specific rules for spacing. I put a space after any particles (이/가, 은/는, 을/를, 고 -like ~고 있다, 로, etc), as well as after numbers but before their counters (eg, 2 개, 책2 권). Don't try and learn by looking at people's writing, because a lot of people don't know where to put spaces. Look at books, ads and other things that will be correct for sure, and look for where they put spaces and you'll get used to it. It's not hard as long as you pay attention to it. – 정은영 Jan 22 '12 at 17:54
	Stupid character limits. Here are some more spacing rules: sayjack.com/blog/2010/06/04/… and here is a cool auto-spacer that you can use to help until you get the hang of things: s.lab.naver.com/autospacing? – 정은영 Jan 22 '12 at 17:55

up vote 13 down vote

added by Louis Apr 14 '11 at 11:11

	Idon't think so. When I pronounce ㅂ니다 as ㅁ니다, I feel the difference. – Donghoon Lee Jan 21 '12 at 3:39
	Korean doesn't have a plosive final consonant, it's swallowed. Lip positioning at the ㅂ is completely closed, making it sound like a ㅁ. – Mike G Jan 30 '12 at 21:56

up vote 11 down vote

added by Louis Apr 14 '11 at 10:59

	I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think they are interchangeable, I don't know how to explain in English but i will do my best, haha so, 이/가 is used when you describe something or someone and when you answer the question, for example,who ate the pizza? 누가 피자를 먹었어요? (nooga[who] pizza-reul meo-gut-eo-yo[ate]) Sam ate it 샘이 먹었어요 (sam-i-meo-gut-eo-yo), 은/는 is used when you describe something or someone specifically, (everyone had pasta but) Sam ate a pizza (다들 파스타를 먹었지만) 샘은 피자를 먹었어요 – Mei Doori Park Jan 25 '12 at 9:48
	I found an example on the website, here it is :D hope it helps, 오늘 예뻐요. 오늘은 예뻐요. Both sentences (based on context, of course) would translate roughly to "You look pretty today." However, since the latter uses the contrastive marker (emphasizing "today"), the implication with that sentence is that the person you are talking to doesn't normally look pretty, but today she does. The first sentence doesn't have this implication. Many times you will see 은/는 translated as "As for ..." (Pimsleur Korean does this quite often) – Mei Doori Park Jan 25 '12 at 9:51
	which can help with understanding the implied difference in meaning. Using the above second example, you could say that actually means: "As for today, you look pretty." This makes the implied meaning a bit more obvious than simply translating it as: "You look pretty today." – Mei Doori Park Jan 25 '12 at 9:52

up vote 10 down vote

added by Elfira Jun 8 '11 at 3:18

	We don't have r/l sounds. ㄹ is totally different sound. To find the tongue position will help it. I think it's between l and r. it is my guess, find good book or searching – Donghoon Lee Jan 21 '12 at 3:45
	I found it easy to treat it as a rolling R in Spanish. It's not perfect, but it's close. – Mike G Feb 3 '12 at 14:32

up vote 10 down vote

added by Quorite Jun 22 '11 at 21:40

When you add ㅇ in the end of sentence, it is cute but mostly it used in chatting and girl to girl and boy to girl is fine. but man to man is a little bit strange – Donghoon Lee Jan 21 '12 at 3:48

up vote 10 down vote

added by Quorite Jun 22 '11 at 21:53

There are about 4 types of Korean dialects. The accents, some words are different. But everyone knows standard Korean from TV or nowadays Busan dialect(Gyungsangdo dialect) is also common in TV. – Donghoon Lee Jan 21 '12 at 3:54

up vote 10 down vote

added by James W Jul 3 '11 at 1:40

"이다" is formal. "있다", "있어요" is common. – Donghoon Lee Jan 21 '12 at 3:51

up vote 10 down vote

added by James W Jul 3 '11 at 16:39

because we didn't know much about the sounds. The old people pronunciation were terrible. Now it is closer to the real sound than it used to be – Donghoon Lee Jan 21 '12 at 3:47

up vote 10 down vote

added by Leftium Jul 8 '11 at 18:20

A little bit simple, but it would get the site some recognition by students of Korean. – tjameson Jul 11 '11 at 1:39

It might not be so simple if there's Hanja mixed in with the Hangeul. And what on earth would happen if there was some of the old obsolete letters? – hippietrail Nov 21 '11 at 8:40

Also the North Korean and South Korean alphabet order are actually different. – Leftium Dec 30 '11 at 15:19

up vote 6 down vote

added by Louis Apr 14 '11 at 11:20

closed as off topic by Caleb, kiamlaluno, Christopher Tyler, Leftium, tjameson Jul 11 '11 at 1:44

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

This question is probably better suited for SuperUser.com. It is possible to answer without interest/expertise in Korean language; just a basic understanding of computers/IME is needed. – Leftium Jul 8 '11 at 18:15

up vote 6 down vote

added by Quorite Jun 22 '11 at 20:25

It depends on ages. It is the highest for old people or conservative people. middle for around your age. low for younger people. – Donghoon Lee Jan 21 '12 at 4:01

up vote 5 down vote

added by Cohen Aug 26 '11 at 22:43

	I think you need to learn tongue positions, accents . I don't know if there are some books.. – Donghoon Lee Jan 21 '12 at 3:56
	There are (even with diagrams explaining :) ) I don't know their titles by heart but I have some I bought in Korea. – Cohen Jan 24 '12 at 13:08
	Hangul: Knowing how a word is spelled will correct assumptions of tones that you "think" you heard. Practice: You simply have to practice with a native speaker. Ideally by immersion. – Mike G Feb 3 '12 at 14:36

up vote 2 down vote

added by JiminP Jun 26 '11 at 17:23

Wait, what is "의태어" in English? – JiminP Jun 26 '11 at 17:25

Move slowly. It commonly describes the movements of babies. "아기가 엉금엉금 기어간다." Baby crawls slowly. – DevExcite Dec 17 '11 at 1:19

의태어 is "mimetic word" – Mei Doori Park Jan 25 '12 at 9:29

up vote 2 down vote

added by Leftium Jul 8 '11 at 18:41

	철수가 " ~~~~~~~~~~~~ "라고 말했어요 – Donghoon Lee Jan 21 '12 at 3:56
	Donghoon's way is good for quoted speech, but otherwise if you try to do reported speech without a direct quote and quotation marks, it gets messy and complicated, and you should check a book. The form changes depending on whether the reported speech is a noun, verb, or adjective, and whether it is future tense, whether it is a question, whether it is a suggestion of something to do together, etc. Eg. Students say the test is difficult: 학생들은 시험이 어렶다고 말해요. (다고 하다) He said he will study tomorrow: 내일 공부할 거라고 했어요. ( (으)ㄹ 거라고 하다) He said let's go eat lunch: 점심 먹자고 했어요. (자고 하다) – 정은영 Jan 22 '12 at 18:18
	There are more examples, but I ran out of space and you probably need a book to help you understand it anyway. It's usually in intermediate level books (level 3) – 정은영 Jan 22 '12 at 18:20

up vote 1 down vote

added by Leftium Jul 8 '11 at 18:31

up vote 1 down vote

added by Leftium Jul 8 '11 at 18:35

에 갔다오다 usually, I think, but usually when I see/hear 갔다오다 there is neither 에 or 에서 in front of it. (eg. 여행 갔다왔어요) I think that if you mean it as pacing or running around a place then you can use 에서 갔다오다. I'm pretty sure that it's not that commonly used, though. Also, as a second language learner of Korean, I am not 100% sure, so maybe someone can verify. This is how I understand it "중국에 갔다왔어요" -> I went to China and came back. "중국에서 갔다왔어요" -> I went here and there (all over) in China. (rare?) – 정은영 Jan 24 '12 at 6:17

-에 갔다오다 (다녀오다) is the right answer, -에서 can be used with 오다 instead of 갔다오다. because it is used when you are from a specific location instead of an area. – Mei Doori Park Jan 25 '12 at 9:22

up vote 1 down vote

added by Leftium Jul 8 '11 at 18:38

Exclusive. If you say "4 미만", this means that 1, 2, 3, not containing over 4. If you want to say inclusive one, use 이하, 4 이하 contains 4. – DevExcite Dec 17 '11 at 1:17

up vote 1 down vote

added by Nathan Ellenfield Aug 11 '11 at 14:07

Debated by linguists. Some will say it is a language isolate, and others that it is part of the Altaic language family, along with Japanese and Mongolian. – 정은영 Jan 22 '12 at 18:26

up vote 1 down vote

added by hippietrail Nov 7 '11 at 20:58

	잘 = good. 지내다 = spend time. So; "Did you spend your time well?" (Directly translated). It is correct to use it as the English "how are you?". – Novas Nov 21 '11 at 8:31
	In Korean, people don't ask how people are nearly as much as people do in English. It's not something you'd ask unless you haven't seen them for a while. – 정은영 Jan 22 '12 at 18:21

up vote 1 down vote

added by YOU Nov 19 '11 at 17:35

Strictly speaking, there is a difference, but even most Koreans even don't know what is the difference. We distinguish them by context. – DevExcite Dec 17 '11 at 1:28

It's pretty similar to the difference between the "a" and "e" in "than" and "then". Many people mix those up in English or pronounce them too similarly to each other to distinguish. – hippietrail Jan 23 '12 at 7:06

up vote 1 down vote

added by Myeong, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Dec 25 '11 at 8:58

	That is correct. It sounds like [업:써요] – DevExcite Dec 19 '11 at 1:27
	you are right, up-sseo-yo – Mei Doori Park Jan 25 '12 at 9:24

up vote 1 down vote

added by adiabatic Dec 30 '11 at 11:47

	ㄱ is similar to the sound of g. Think about Google. Koreans write it as 구글. Those g's are really similar to 'ㄱ.' ㅋ is similar to the sound of k. Think about Nokia. Koreans write it as 노키아. – DevExcite Jan 2 '12 at 0:31
	ㄲ is somewhat hard to explain. It is the sound between ㄱ and ㅋ. ㄲ is stronger than ㄱand weaker than ㅋ. – DevExcite Jan 2 '12 at 0:34
	In English, Koreans are having hard time to distinguish between r and l, because both of them are ㄹ in Hangeul. But native speakers usually understands if a korean pronounce r as l thanks to the context. – DevExcite Jan 2 '12 at 0:37
	If you learn Korean a lot, I think you can distinguish between ㄱ, ㄲ, ㅋ by the context. – DevExcite Jan 2 '12 at 0:38

up vote 0 down vote

added by Louis Apr 14 '11 at 11:16

closed as off topic by John, Caleb, kiamlaluno, Tim N, Andrew Jun 5 '11 at 8:26

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

up vote 0 down vote

added by Elfira Jul 15 '11 at 4:56

up vote 0 down vote

added by Miguel Sep 20 '11 at 20:43

I learned Japanese a bit. They are really similar. But they are not identical. If you study advanced Japanese, there will be some differences. You will learn them. – DevExcite Dec 17 '11 at 1:26

up vote 0 down vote

added by FEQ Oct 22 '11 at 1:27

Grammatically, "-할 수 없다" is correct, because "수" is called "의존명사"(Dependant noun?). In grammar standard of Korean, "의존명사" should be alone(called "띄어 쓰기" in Korean, I don't know how to call this in English). – DevExcite Dec 17 '11 at 1:24

up vote 0 down vote

added by adiabatic Jan 7 '12 at 10:38

up vote 0 down vote

added by Quorite Jan 23 '12 at 6:09

Generally 새해 복 많이 받으세요 for both of them. – 정은영 Jan 24 '12 at 6:35

up vote 0 down vote

added by hippietrail Jan 23 '12 at 7:02

	laughing. Like hehehe. Similar to ㅎㅎㅎ – 정은영 Jan 24 '12 at 6:07
	Same meaning in English is 'lol(laugh out loud).' It came out from the sound of laughing, 크크크. – DevExcite Jan 26 '12 at 0:48
	Aha I've now seen it as kkk too. – hippietrail Jan 26 '12 at 1:11

up vote -1 down vote

added by Caleb Apr 15 '11 at 21:43

This isn't really a question about the Korean language, but more something that you would put in a community forum – Andrew Jun 5 '11 at 8:25

That's exactly what I intended it to be: an example of a valid question that would be off topic on this proposed site. Please read up on what the on topic / off topic / not a good example voting is about in the FAQ. – Caleb Jun 5 '11 at 14:18

up vote -1 down vote

added by Elfira Jun 8 '11 at 3:09

	I feel that this is more of a subjective question and quite broad. It would be a better on-topic example if it was narrower in scope in terms of learning level and subject, such as "What is a good beginner's textbook for Korean (grammar) and why?" or "What beginner Korean textbooks do not use romanization?" – Quorite Jun 22 '11 at 21:20
	This does seem like a possibly on topic issue but asked too broadly to be answered reasonably in the SE format. – Caleb Jun 23 '11 at 8:04