-- korean vocabulary, verb endings, forum, study links, grammar explanations, dictionary

grammar reference home / common sentence structures

Korean sentences are all backwards!

# Posted: 29 Dec 2006 01:08 KST - Edited by: _joseph_
... Re-Sideview ...

This lesson is related to the lesson on the relative clauses from Sentence Order (IV). That section is put in the verb section because you have to turn a verb into an adjective to make it.

This short section is a short tutorial about how to read a sentence.

First, check out the vocabulary by reading the sentence forward.

Then, read the sentence backwards to check it for understanding.

My point is, Some sentences are just backwards

This is because of the common structure which students of Korean will find to be very familiar:

(topic) .... relative clause .... the subject of the sentence .... main verb

for example

내가 봤던남자는 바로 그였다

X이 ... topical marker 는 shows what we are talking about
봤던 남자는 ... the man which I saw
바로 .... translates to exactly
그였다 ... from 그+이다... means it is him

In English it would be the man who I saw was him, but in Korean note the sentence order. This is a common Korean sentence order.
Not many English sentences, either, have the subject come at their end!!
This is a good candidate for backwards reading, let's turn it around on its head just for fun:

그였다 바로 봤던남자는 내가

A literal translation of the reversed-ordered sentence is The man was exactly the man who I saw, I did
Downright Strange!

Good luck!

mint

Posts: 269
native korean

# Posted: 29 Dec 2006 22:53 KST
... Re-Sideview ...

Joseph,
Though I couldn't understand your whole sentences yet, first, I'd like to talk about a little strange part, or just a typo.

for example

나는 봤던남자가 바로 그였다

for example
내가 봤던 남자는 바로 그였다

X는 ... topical marker 는 shows what we are talking about
봤던 남자가 ... the man which I saw
바로 .... translates to exactly
그였다 ... from 그+이다... means it is him

내가 봤던 남자 ... the man who I saw
그였다 ... from 그+이다... means it was him

Please point out my mistakes in English anytime. Thank you.

_joseph_ Moderator Posts: 119,684 native english # Posted: 30 Dec 2006 10:09 KST ... Re-Sideview ... thanks mint.... i fixed that. yes, yes, yes, stupid mistake.......... do you read English sentences backwards at all? i'm curious. I do that a lot with korean sentences, they read much better backwards for me. seriously.

previous topic ::: next topic