jega jalmos ilgeosseoyo.

I read it wrong.

Breakdown of jega jalmos ilgeosseoyo.

• 읽다: to read
• 저: I
• ~가: subject particle
• 잘못: wrongly

Questions & Answers about jega jalmos ilgeosseoyo.

Can you break down 제가 잘못 읽었어요 word by word?

• 제가 = 저 (humble “I”) + subject particle -가
• 잘못 = adverb “wrongly,” “incorrectly”
• 읽었어요 = past tense polite form of 읽다 (“to read”)
Altogether: “I misread (it).”

What exactly does 잘못 mean here, and why is it placed before the verb?

잘못 is an adverb meaning “incorrectly” or “in error.” In Korean, adverbs generally come immediately before the verb they modify. So 잘못 읽었어요 literally means “read incorrectly.”

Why is the verb 읽다 conjugated as 읽었어요 and not 읽았어요 or something else?

1. Start with the dictionary form 읽다.
2. Drop -다 → 읽.
3. Since the final consonant ㄷ precedes a vowel ending, it irregularly changes to ㄹ in pronunciation (though the spelling remains 읽).
4. Attach the polite past ending -었어요 → 읽었어요.
   So 읽었어요 is the correct polite past form, pronounced [일거써요].

Why use 제가 instead of 나는 or 내가 for “I”?

• 저 is the humble pronoun for “I,” appropriate in polite speech.
• 나 is casual and 내 (in 내가) is its possessive/pronoun root, both too informal for most everyday polite contexts.
• 제가 = 저 + -가 marks the subject humbly and politely.

The English sentence is “I misread it.” Where is the “it” in Korean?

Korean often omits objects when they’re clear from context. If you need to specify “it,” you can add:
• 제가 그 글을 잘못 읽었어요. (“I misread that text.”)
• 제가 책을 잘못 읽었어요. (“I misread the book.”)

Could I say 틀리게 읽었어요 instead of 잘못 읽었어요?

Not really.
• 틀리게 comes from 틀리다 (“to be wrong”) but isn’t commonly used to describe “reading wrong.”
• 잘못 읽었어요 is the natural, idiomatic way to say “I misread.”
If you used 틀리다, you’d more likely say 제가 틀렸어요 (“I was wrong”) rather than “I read wrongly.”

What politeness level is 읽었어요? How would I change it?

-었어요 is the polite informal style (존댓말).
• More casual (to close friends): 읽었어.
• More formal (to superiors or in writing): 읽었습니다.

Can I move 잘못 elsewhere in the sentence for emphasis?

Adverbs like 잘못 almost always precede the verb. You could front it for slight emphasis:
• 잘못 제가 읽었어요.
But this sounds awkward. The normal, idiomatic order is 제가 잘못 읽었어요.