Korean Grammar Point
~๋„ค์š” [neyo] (Express surprise)

Used when the speaker discovers something new or unexpected.

Formation

Adjective/Verb stem + ๋„ค์š”

Examples

์˜ค๋Š˜ ๋‚ ์”จ๊ฐ€ ์ •๋ง ๋”ฐ๋œปํ•˜๋„ค์š”, ์•„์นจ์—๋Š” ์ถฅ๋‹ค๊ณ  ์ƒ๊ฐํ–ˆ๋Š”๋ฐ์š”.

Oneul nalssiga jeongmal ttatteuthneyo, achimeun chubdago saenggakhaetneundeyo.

The weather is really warm today, although I thought it was cold this morning.

๊ทธ๋…€๊ฐ€ ๋…ธ๋ž˜๋ฅผ ์ •๋ง ์ž˜ ๋ถ€๋ฅด๋„ค์š”, ์ด์ „์— ๋“ค์–ด๋ณธ ์ ์ด ์—†์–ด์„œ ๋ชจ๋ฅด๊ฒ ์–ด์š”.

Geunyeoga noraereul jeongmal jal bureuneyo, ijeon-e deureobon jeogi eopseoseo moreugesseoyo.

She sings really well; I havenโ€™t heard her sing before.

์™€, ์ด ์ผ€์ดํฌ๊ฐ€ ์ •๋ง ๋ง›์žˆ๋„ค์š”, ์ฒ˜์Œ ๋จน์–ด๋ณด๋Š” ๋ง›์ด์—์š”.

Wa, i keikeuga jeongmal masitneyo, cheoeum meogeoboneun masieyo.

Wow, this cake is really deliciousโ€”itโ€™s a taste Iโ€™m experiencing for the first time.

์–ด, ๋น„๊ฐ€ ์˜ค๋„ค์š”, ์šฐ์‚ฐ์„ ๊ฐ€์ ธ์™”์–ด์•ผ ํ–ˆ์–ด์š”.

Eo, biga oneyo, usaneul gajyeowasseoya haesseoyo.

Oh, itโ€™s raining. I should have brought an umbrella.

Long Explanation

The ending '~๋„ค์š”' is used to express surprise, realization, or a newly noticed fact. It can convey sentiments such as 'I see,' 'Oh,' or 'Wow,' indicating that the speaker has become aware of something.

Detailed Grammar Notes

Processing keyword: ~๋„ค์š” [neyo] (Express surprise)

Korean Grammar Point: ~๋„ค์š” [neyo] (Express surprise)

1. Introduction

In Korean, the sentence ending ~๋„ค์š” is commonly used to express surprise, admiration, or sudden realization upon noticing something for the first time. This grammar point adds a sense of spontaneity and personal reaction to statements, making conversations more lively and engaging.


2. Core Grammar Explanation

Detailed Explanation

  • Usage: ~๋„ค์š” is attached to verb stems to indicate that the speaker has just realized or noticed something, expressing surprise or being impressed.
  • Emotion Conveyed: Surprise, admiration, sudden realization.
  • Level of Formality: Polite speech level appropriate for most situations.

Meaning, Structure, Formation Diagram

Formation:

  1. For Verbs and Adjectives: Remove the verb/adjective ending ๋‹ค and attach ~๋„ค์š” to the stem.
  2. **For Nouns with ์ด๋‹ค:
    • Noun + (์ด)๋„ค์š”
      • If the noun ends in a consonant: ์ด๋„ค์š”
      • If the noun ends in a vowel: ๋„ค์š” Diagram:
Verb/Adjective Stem + ๋„ค์š”
Noun + (์ด)๋„ค์š”

Examples of Formation: | Verb/Adjective | Stem | + ๋„ค์š” | Result | |----------------|---------|----------|-------------| | ๋ง›์žˆ๋‹ค (to be delicious) | ๋ง›์žˆ | + ๋„ค์š” | ๋ง›์žˆ๋„ค์š” | | ์˜ˆ์˜๋‹ค (to be pretty) | ์˜ˆ์˜ | + ๋„ค์š” | ์˜ˆ์˜๋„ค์š” | | ๋งŽ๋‹ค (to be many) | ๋งŽ | + ๋„ค์š” | ๋งŽ๋„ค์š” | | Noun | Ending | + (์ด)๋„ค์š” | Result | |-----------|--------|-----------|-----------| | ํ•™์ƒ (student) | Consonant | + ์ด๋„ค์š” | ํ•™์ƒ์ด๋„ค์š” | | ์นœ๊ตฌ (friend) | Vowel | + ๋„ค์š” | ์นœ๊ตฌ๋„ค์š” |

3. Comparative Analysis

  • ~์š”: Simply makes a statement polite without expressing surprise.
    • ์˜ˆ: ๋ง›์žˆ์–ด์š”. (It is delicious.)
  • ~๊ตฐ์š”/๊ตฌ๋‚˜: Also expresses surprise or realization but is more formal (~๊ตฐ์š”) or informal (~๊ตฌ๋‚˜), and less commonly used in spoken Korean.
    • ์˜ˆ: ๋ง›์žˆ๊ตฐ์š”. (Oh, it is delicious.)
  • ~๋„ค์š” vs. ~๋„ค์š”?: When used with a rising intonation, ~๋„ค์š”? can turn into a question expressing surprise.
    • ์˜ˆ: ์ด๊ฑฐ ์ƒˆ๋กœ ๋‚˜์™”๋„ค์š”? (Oh, this just came out?)

4. Examples in Context

Formal Situations

  • ๋‚ ์”จ๊ฐ€ ์ถฅ๋„ค์š”.
    • The weather is cold (I just noticed).
  • ์—ฌ๊ธฐ ๊ฒฝ์น˜๊ฐ€ ์•„๋ฆ„๋‹ต๋„ค์š”.
    • The scenery here is beautiful.

Informal Conversations

  • ์šฐ์™€, ์ด ์ผ€์ดํฌ ๋ง›์žˆ๋„ค์š”!
    • Wow, this cake is delicious!
  • ๋จธ๋ฆฌ ์Šคํƒ€์ผ์„ ๋ฐ”๊ฟจ๋„ค์š”.
    • You changed your hairstyle!

Written Context

  • ๊ทธ ์˜ํ™” ์ •๋ง ๊ฐ๋™์ ์ด๋„ค์š”.
    • That movie is really touching.
  • ์ƒˆ๋กœ ๋‚˜์˜จ ์ฑ…์ด ์žฌ๋ฏธ์žˆ๋„ค์š”.
    • The new book is interesting.

Spoken Context

  • ๋ฒŒ์จ ๋ฐค์ด ๋๋„ค์š”.
    • It's already night time!
  • ์‚ฌ๋žŒ์ด ์ •๋ง ๋งŽ๋„ค์š”.
    • There are so many people!

5. Cultural Notes

Cultural Relevance

  • Expressing Personal Impressions: Using ~๋„ค์š” reflects the Korean cultural tendency to share personal feelings and observations, fostering a sense of connection in conversation.
  • Politeness Level: ~๋„ค์š” is polite but not overly formal, making it suitable for most everyday interactions.

Idiomatic Expressions

  • ์ž˜ ์–ด์šธ๋ฆฌ๋„ค์š”.
    • It suits you well.
  • ์‹œ๊ฐ„ ์ฐธ ๋นจ๋ฆฌ ๊ฐ€๋„ค์š”.
    • Time really flies.
  • ์ƒ๊ฐ๋ณด๋‹ค ์–ด๋ ต๋„ค์š”.
    • Itโ€™s harder than I thought.

6. Common Mistakes and Tips

Error Analysis

  • Mixing up with ~์š”: Forgetting to use ~๋„ค์š” and just using ~์š”, which doesn't convey surprise.
    • Incorrect: ๋ง›์žˆ์–ด์š”. (It is delicious.)
    • Correct: ๋ง›์žˆ๋„ค์š”. (Oh, it is delicious!)
  • Overusing in Formal Writing: Using ~๋„ค์š” in very formal writing where neutral endings are more appropriate.

Learning Strategies

  • Mnemonic Device: Think of ~๋„ค์š” as expressing a โ€œnewโ€ realization (sounds like โ€œnewโ€), which helps recall that it is used for new discoveries or surprises.
  • Practice Noticing: While listening to Korean conversations, pay attention to when native speakers use ~๋„ค์š” to become familiar with its natural usage.

7. Summary and Review

Key Takeaways

  • ~๋„ค์š” is used to express surprise, admiration, or sudden realization.
  • Attach ~๋„ค์š” to verb/adjective stems, and (์ด)๋„ค์š” to nouns.
  • It adds a personal touch and conveys immediate reaction.

Quick Recap Quiz

  1. How do you form ~๋„ค์š” with the adjective ์ž‘๋‹ค (to be small)?
    • Answer: ์ž‘๋„ค์š”.
  2. Choose the sentence that correctly uses ~๋„ค์š”: a) ๋น„๊ฐ€ ์™€์š”.
    b) ๋น„๊ฐ€ ์˜ค๋„ค์š”.
    c) ๋น„๊ฐ€ ์˜ต๋‹ˆ๋‹ค.
    • Answer: b) ๋น„๊ฐ€ ์˜ค๋„ค์š”. (Oh, it's raining!)
  3. What emotion does ~๋„ค์š” convey?
    • Answer: Surprise, admiration, or sudden realization.

By incorporating ~๋„ค์š” into your Korean conversations, you can express your spontaneous reactions and make your speech more engaging and authentic.


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