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adjectives prefer active voice

# Posted: 25 Dec 2007 13:21 KST - Edited by: _joseph_
... Re-Sideview ...

yes, adjectives prefer the active voice

Koreans prefer the active voice because, though it is less accurate, it is simpler. For a native English speaker, it seems grammatically incorrect and nonsensical, and is hard to accept (let alone come up with).

1. 밀리는 파도
a) the waves (which are) pushing up
b) the waves which have been pushing up

I lost the context here, but assume that the waves are being pushed instead of doing the pushing. My Korean helpers don`t know why it works like that, they can`t explain who is pushing the waves, but they say it`s just one of those things ...

2. 자신이 가진 모든 것

everything that you have

3. 맞다. To hit.

화살에 맞은 사슴. the deer who was hit by the arrow

I would swear this is a mistake, it should be 화살에 맞힌 사슴

The normal one (active) is used here instead of the passive. You will notice that 맞다 is not thepassive tense,but the English sentence is .

햇볕에 탄 .... suntanned

you would expect a passive.

4. confusing translation, which shows that not all adjectives are passive (하다 is simply a 타동사)

세상에 필요하지 않은 것은 없다.
was needed?
is needed?
Doesn`t 필요하지 않은 것 mean the thing which is needing?

5. 속도가 붙은 차

a car which is racing fast .. .. would think would be passive, but it`s not, because in Korean, the speed is making the car run fast. I`m sorry I can`t explain better, but I always read this as the car which is applying speed not the car to which speed is applied.

6. 어머니는 나를 키운 집에

키우다 is a 크다의 사동사 and here it says the house which raised me instead of the house in which I was raised.

7. 아픈 주사를 놓는 얄궂은 의사

now, the shot actually isn`t hurting, it is making sb hurt, but they use the simpler expression in the adjective, per the custom.

얄궂다: just an adj used to denigrate sb

8. 위에서 알 수 있듯이

as can be seen from the above [ passive ]
as seeing above [ active ]

preferred

9. 햇빛 쏟는 거리

why?

배다 is to be pregnant (the other meaning is to infiltrate, penetrate). Here, though, it is a simple adjective not a verb so it can simply modified. So obviously we have:

새끼를 밴 어미 사슴. A pregnant deer.

and it`s the adjective, there is no tense and no passive/causative issues.

but:

손바닥에 배인 땀

anyways, I think that adjectives are neither active nor passive, right? the deer simply is pregnant it is not either doing pregnant or getting done pregnant to it. Maybe that is the reason why even for active verbs they simply use the normal, unembellished active voice instead of the passive voice.

Joseph, copying from: boss Posts: 125 native korean # Posted: 27 Apr 2008 22:26 KST - Edited by: Joseph, copying from: boss ... Re-Sideview ... 바르다 is here used passively 케이트의 피부는 기름을 바른 것처럼 미끈했다 another example of the adjective being passive 다시 어두워진 동굴 the cave which became dark again
이원호 장편소설 보스 boss

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