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?
- Start with the dictionary form 읽다.
- Drop -다 → 읽.
- Since the final consonant ㄷ precedes a vowel ending, it irregularly changes to ㄹ in pronunciation (though the spelling remains 읽).
- 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”?
• is the humble pronoun for “I,” appropriate in polite speech.• is casual and (in ) is its possessive/pronoun root, both too informal for most everyday polite contexts.• = + marks the subject humbly and politely.