Breakdown of jinanbeon ilgdeon chaegi jaemiissgo gamdongjeogieosseo.
Questions & Answers about jinanbeon ilgdeon chaegi jaemiissgo gamdongjeogieosseo.
What does -던 mean in 읽던, and how is it different from 읽는 책 or 읽은 책?
-던 is the attributive past-progressive ending. It shows that the action was ongoing at a past time.
- 읽던 책: “the book I was reading” (ongoing in the past)
- 읽는 책: “the book I am reading” (ongoing now)
- 읽은 책: “the book I read” (completed action)
Could I say 지난번에 읽던 책 instead of 지난번 읽던 책? What’s the difference?
Both are acceptable.
- 지난번 읽던 책: more colloquial; 지난번 directly functions as “last time.”
- 지난번에 읽던 책: slightly more explicit; -에 marks the time point “at the last time.”
The nuance is minimal; Koreans often drop -에 in casual speech.
Why is it 책이 (subject marker) instead of 책을 (object marker)? I thought the book was being read.
What does the connective -고 do in 재미있고 감동적이었어? Shouldn’t both adjectives show past tense?
-고 simply links two predicates (“and”). With descriptive verbs (adjectives) in Korean, you use the dictionary stem plus -고 regardless of tense, and then apply the tense ending only on the final predicate.
Hence:
- 재미있고 (stem 재미있다
- -고)
- 감동적이었어 (past tense on the second adjective)
Why is it 감동적이었어 and not just 감동적였어 or 감동적이야?
감동적 is a noun-like adjective (nominal). To make it a predicate, you attach the copula -이다, which in past informal becomes -이었어.
- 감동적이야: present informal (“is touching”)
- 감동적이었어: past informal (“was touching”)
- 감동적였어 is less common because after a consonant stem we usually write 이었어.
Could I say 재미있었고 감동적이었어 with both in past tense?
Although grammatically possible, it sounds redundant. Native speakers normally mark tense only on the final clause when using -고:
- Natural: 재미있고 감동적이었어
- Less natural/redundant: 재미있었고 감동적이었어
Why didn’t the speaker use 그리고 to connect the two adjectives?
What level of politeness is 재미있고 감동적이었어?
This uses the informal low style (반말). To make it polite (존댓말), you would say:
- 지난번 읽던 책이 재미있고 감동적이었어요.
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