KOREAN LANGUAGE TUTORIAL

LESSON 62

Korean Lesson: Lessons 62

Quoted Imperative Sentences with 주다: ~달라고

In Lesson 40, you learned about how to create imperative sentences. For example:
밥을 먹어! = Eat!
열심히 공부해! = Study hard!
수고하세요! = Work hard!
In Lesson 52, you learned about how to make quoted sentences. For example:
저는 공원에 가고 싶다고 했어요 = I said I want to go to the park
저는 한국에 못 갈 거라고 했어요 = I said I won’t be able to go to Korea
And finally, you learned in Lesson 54 how to make quoted imperative sentences:
저는 그 사람에게 밥을 먹으라고 했어요 = I told that person to eat
저는 그 사람에게 열심히 공부하라고 했어요 = I told that person to study
저는 그 사람에게 수고하라고 했어요 = I told that person to work hard
However, when making imperative sentences (as you know), you can also add ~아/어 주다 to the ends of words to stress that the thing you are suggesting is something that you want done for yourself. For example:
밥을 먹어! = Eat!, compared to:
밥을 먹어 주세요 = Please eat!
열심히 공부하세요! = Study hard!
열심히 공부해 주세요! = Please study hard
Now, when quoting sentences that end in 아/어 주세요, you would think you could do:
밥을 먹어 주라고 했어요= I said “please eat!”
열심히 공부해 주라고 했어요 = I said “please study”
However, these sentences are not correct. Instead, when quoting imperative sentences that end in 아/어 주다, you must change ~아/어 주라고 to 아/어 달라고. For example:
밥을 먹어 달라고 했어요 = I said “please eat!”
열심히 공부해 달라고 했어요 = I said “please study”
More examples:
그 들에게 조용히 해 달라고 했지만 그들은 아직 너무 시끄러워요 = I told them to “please be quiet,” but they are still very loud
엄마에게 나를 위해 도시락을 싸 달라고 했어요 = I told my mom “please make a lunch box for me”
In fact, whenever you are simply saying “give me a noun” and using ~주다 (not ~아/어 주다), you need to use ~달라고 as well. Therefore, you can say:
휴지를 주세요! = Please give me a tissue
맥주 한 병을 주세요! = Please give me one bottle of beer
… but when you quote those sentences, because they end in 주다, instead of saying ~주라고, you must say ~달라고. For example:
휴지를 달라고 했어요 = I said “please give me a tissue!”
맥주 한 병을 달라고 했어요 = I said “please give me one bottle of beer!”
Note however that using ~달라고 is only done when the acting agent in the sentence is also the receiving person. It’s very confusing, but if I was quoting a sentence where I told Person 1 to tell Person 2 to give Person 1 something, I would use ~주라고 as normal. Look at this example:
저는 아빠한테 엄마에게 밥을 주라고 했어요 = I told my dad to tell my mom to give him rice.
Again, like I said, it’s confusing. Whenever you are quoting a sentence where you are asking somebody to give something to you, or when you are quoting a sentence when somebody is asking to give something to him/her, you can use ~달라고. However, in the rare cases that you are quoting a sentence when you are quoting a sentence where you told somebody to tell somebody to give something to another person, you should use 주라고. Now that you are completely confused, lets move on.
Favor: 부탁
The word 부탁 means “favor,” which can be used in sentences a noun to mean as such:
저는 부탁이 하나 있어요 = I have one favor
In English, however, when we ask for a favor, we usually express it in one of two ways:
Can I ask you a favor? Or,
Can you do me a favor?
In Korean, they use two strange ways of expressing that you would like a favor.
The first way that they do this, is by attaching ~하다 to the noun 부탁. This then creates the verb of “to request a favor.” For example:
저는 더 자세한 설명을 부탁했어요 = I asked for a more clear explanation.
The weird thing about that translation in English, is that the word “favor” isn’t in it. Technically, the sentence should be written like this is English:
I asked a favor for the explanation to be more clear…
…But that doesn’t sound as natural as “I asked for a more clear explanation”
The reason why it is weird is that (as I mentioned), even though “부탁하다” means “to request/ask for a favor” it often doesn’t get translated as such when translating a sentence into English.
In the sentence I showed you earlier, “부탁했어요” came after a noun. However, if the favor you are asking for is a verb, you must attach the ~달라고 ending to the verb, followed by 부탁하다. For example:
저는 그에게 더 자세히 설명해 달라고 부탁했어요 = I asked him to explain it more clearly
One more peculiar thing about the word “부탁하다” is that it is often said as “부탁드리다.” You learned in a previous lesson that the word “드리다” is used just like “주다” but when the receiving person deserves respect. When using the word “부탁” the person receiving the favor is you, and you should never use 드리다 when talking about yourself. However, adding 드리다 to 부탁 is the one exception to this rule, and it is very common to say “부탁드리다” instead of “부탁하다” when finishing these sentences:
엄마에게 그 것을 사 달라고 부탁드렸어요 = I asked my mother to buy that for me