KOREAN LANGUAGE TUTORIAL

LESSON 74

Korean Lesson: Lessons 74

Sentence Connector: 아/어
In previous lessons, you learned about adding 어 or 아 to words/sentences as part of a grammatical form. Almost all grammatical forms require the use of adding 어 of 아 in addition to some other letters. However, by simply adding 아/어 to a word, you can also create a meaning. The problem is, the meaning is very subtle and is not said very often in conversation, but it is very common on literature. All of my examples come from books that I have read. Here is the first example:
그는 고개를 들어 그녀를 바라봤어요
This sentence could be broken down into two separate clauses:
그는 고개를 들었어요 = He lifted his head
그는 그녀를 바라봤어요 = He stared at her
In speech, I would much rather say that sentence as:
그는 고개를 들고 그녀를 바라봤어요 = he lifted his head and starred at her
The meaning between ~고 and ~어/아 is essentially the same in this example. In both cases (using 고or 어), the person lifted his head, and then stared at the girl.
The problem is, adding 아/어 as a connector does not necessarily mean that you are doing something after the preceding clause. Look at this example:
제가 당신을 위해 정성 들여 만든 음식입니다
If you translate it directly, it means “This is food that I put effort into for you” – but that sounds a little bit unnatural in English. It is more naturally translated to “I put a lot of effort into making this food for you” – even though if you translate it word for word, it doesn’t look like that.
Regardless of what the English translation is, the Korean sentence can be broken into two clauses:
제가 당신을 위해 정성 들인다 = I put effort for you (I tried for you/etc..)
이것은 제가 만든 음식입니다 = This is food that I made
Put together, this sentence means “I put a lot of effort into making this food for you.” In this example as well, you can replace “~어” with “~고”:
제가 당신을 위해 정성 들이고 만든 음식입니다 = I put a lot of effort into making this food for you.
However, in these examples (with “들여” and with “들이고”), the meanings of ~어 and ~고 respectively don’t necessarily mean “after.”
Instead, adding ~어 or ~아 is what I like to call a “simple connector.” There isn’t any real meaning with adding ~아/어, it just connects two sentences that could otherwise be separate.
Some other examples that I found while reading the book “The Alchemist” in Korean (some of the words in the examples are difficult [it’s a really difficult book], so I purposely put some of the words in the vocabulary section of this lesson. These words aren’t typically words that you would learn at this stage of learning Korean, but they are all words that you will need to know eventually)
그는 자신의 아름다움에 매혹되에 결국 호수에 빠져 죽었다 = He was captivated by it’s beauty, and then (so) he eventually drowned in the lake.
Could also be separated into:
그는 자신의 아름다움에 매혹되었다 = He was captivated by it’s beauty
그는 결국 호수에 빠져죽었다 = He eventually drowned in the lake
Another one from the same book:
(the main character’s name is Santiago [산티아고]):
산티아고는 가게 앞 길가에 쭈그리고 앉아 배낭에서 책 한 권을 꺼내 들었다 =
Santiago sat/squatted in-front of the store and pulled a book out of his bag.
This sentence could also be separated into two sentences:
산티아고는 가게 앞 길가에 쭈그리고 앉았다
산티아고는 배낭에서 책 한 권을 꺼내 들었다
Again, in these two examples, the purpose of adding “아/어” is simply done to connect two clauses, and doesn’t have any real meaning. In most cases, the meaning gets implied after reading both clauses.
It is important that you understand this subtle (almost non-existent meaning), but this is a grammatical form that you just need to see often enough to completely understand. With the examples and descriptions I have provided, you should have no problem deciphering sentences with this grammatical form. However, there are two specific words that often get connected to ~아/어, which I will talk about next.
To learn from something: 통해
The word “통하다” has many meaning depending on the situation. One meaning of “통하다” is “to move/flow through.” For example:
이 방에서 공기는 잘 안 통해요 = Air doesn’t flow well in this room
This meaning of “through” that 통하다 has can be used in a variety of other situations. You can use “통해” whenever you are indicating that you learned (/heard) something from someone or something. When 통하다 is used in these sentences, 아/어 is often added to it, which creates “통해.” For example:
저는 저의 교감선생님의 가르침을 통해 한국말을 배웠습니다 = I learned Korean from (through) my Vice Principal’s teachings
나는 친구를 통해 그 남자의 전화번호를 받았어요 = I got that man’s phone number from (through) a friend
친구를 통해 소문을 들었다 = I heard a rumor from my friend
However, when you say that you learned something from a person (and are not indicating that you learned from something they did [i.e. their teachings]) you should attach the particles 에게서/(으)로부터/한테서 instead of using “통해” for example:
나는 저의 여자 친구한테서 한국말을 배웠어 = I learned Korean from my girlfriend
Another word that ~아/어 is often attached to is 서두르다. I will talk about this next.
To hurry: 서두러
The verb “서두르다” means “to hurry” and can be used as a stand alone verb. For example:
왜 이렇게 서둘러요? = Why are you rushing like this?
우리가 안 서둘렀더라면 늦었을 거에요 = If we didn’t rush, we would have been late
The weird thing is, is that this word is more commonly used in the middle of a sentence, and not at the end – almost as if it were an adverb. It is, in fact, not an adverb – rather, it is the verb 서두르다 plus the connecting form ~아/어. I can’t really explain it that well without showing examples first:
우리는 서둘러 나갔어요 = We hurried outside
선생님들은 서둘러 학생들에게 수업을 가르쳤어요 = The teacher hurried to teach his students the class
비가 와서 밖으로 나가서 서둘러 차로 뛰었어요 = I went outside and hurried to my car because it was raining
As you can see, the word 서둘러 doesn’t necessarily need to be in those sentences. All of those previous sentences would have essentially the same meaning if I were to write them as:
우리는 빨리 나갔어요
선생님들은 학생들에게 수업을 빨리 가르쳤어요
비가 와서 밖으로 나가서 빨리차로 뛰었어요
… which is why I recommend thinking that 서둘러, when used in these types of situations, is more of an adverb than a verb (even though it is a verb).
There are many ways that you can add 아/어 to a verb to create this “simple sentence connector,” but there is no need to exhaust every example. The important thing is that you are aware of the subtle meaning of adding 아/어 to a verb connected to another clause – and that you know about 통하다 and 서두르다.