Korean grammar, 네요 vs 군요, -네 vs 군(구나)



박명수 from MBC 무한도전


Korean grammar 네요 and 군요,
both endings are regarding exclamation over newly known fact.

A : 밖에 비가 오네요? (It's raining outside.)
B : 아 그렇네요! (Ah, yes it is!)

A : 밖에 비가 오네요?
B : 아 그렇군요!


Although above two examples are correct, but there are some differences between -네요 and -군요.

1)Nuances
-네요(네) is frequently used in real life, as it is more colloquial than -군요(군/구나).
군요 is mostly used in texts, and if it used during conversation, the listener could feel slightly awkward about hearing it.

2)Newly known "past" fact
   A : 저 어제 아파서 수업에 못 갔어요. (I was absent from class because I was sick.)
   B : 아 그랬군요. (o) (Ah, you were sick.)
   B : 아 그랬네요. (x)
  Regarding newly known "past" fact, only 군요 can be used, and 네요 can't.

3)Different meaning
   A : 이 문제의 답은 1이 아니고 2에요. (The answer of this question is 2, not 1.)
   B : 아 그렇군요. (I got it after your explanation.)
   B : 아 그렇네요. (I see. I think it same as you.)
   군요 and 네요 have slightly different meaning in this case.

Korean language, Hangukeo&Hangeul, Korean&Hangul

Korean language?

Korean language is a language used by Koreans. It belongs to the agglutinative and the Altaic family of language. Korean word order is S+O+V, and modifiers locate before the modified words.


What's the difference between Korean(Hangukeo) & Hangeul?

Han-guk-eo means the language Korean use(spoken language), and the Hangeul means the letters to record the Hangukeo(written language).


History of Hangeul

Koreans had borrowed & used Chinese letters for a longtime before Hangeul was created, which was full of contradictions as the spoken language and written language were totally different, and most of people had difficulties to learn Chinese. These circumstances were beneficial to noble families as they monopolized the difficult written language as well as authority & powers.

Old Korean from Wikipedia

King Sejong felt sorry about this problem and create the Hangeul in 1443, modeling the sky(ㅣ), the land(ㅡ), and the human(ㆍ) for vowels,
and modeling the articulators for consonants.
- Vowels (21 pcs)
ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ ㅐ ㅒ ㅔ ㅖ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅢ
- Consonants (19 pcs)
 ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ
After Hangeul was created, it had been spread to weaker people(working classes & women) very fast.
Now Koreans celebrate it as the "Day of Hangeul" on October, 9th every year.

Pls find further information here in the official Hangeul site "Want to know about Hangeul?" from Korean government.

Korean grammar, 잖아 vs 거든, 잖아요 vs 거든요



From Korean TV program "Radio Star"

 잖아 and 거든(2) have common usage indicating "reason", that's why students are confused which one to use when they have to say the reason of their action or state.

잖아요 :  reason, confirmation, proposal
거든요 :  reason, topic

The biggest difference is, "잖아요" gives a reason the listener already knows, while "거든요" 's listener doesn't know the information before.

See the examples below :
한국어를 잘하시네요. (Your Korean is good.)
-제가 한국어 공부를 열심히 하잖아요. (I study Korean very hard. (as you already know))
-제가 한국어 공부를 열심히 하거든요. (I study Korean very hard. (new information))

***But please pay attention when you use one of the expressions with intonation.

저랑 어제 약속했잖아요~! (You made a promise to me yesterday! (Why did you forget?))
나는 숙제 벌써 다 했거든? (I already did my homework.(Are you getting mad to hear that? :p))

"잖아요" could have nuance when you say it with a strong accent that the speaker is telling off the listener like 'Why are you saying that?' or 'Didn't you know that?'.
"거든요" could have nuance when you say it with rising intonation that you are showing off the fact.

Korean grammar, 는데 vs 지만 (은/는데 vs 지만)

는데(1) and 지만 are sometimes very confusing to students because both connective endings(or conjunctions) can express opposite situation from the other clause.

지만 clearly does this function, but 는데 is not limited to this.

Pls find below examples :

이 옷은 비싸지만 예뻐요. (o) (These clothes are expensive but pretty.)

이 옷은 비싼데 예뻐요. (o)

비가 오는데, 우산이 있어요? (o) (It's raining, by the way, do you have an umbrella?)

비가 오지만, 우산이 있어요? (x)

비가 오는데 밖에 나가지 마세요. (o) (It's raining, so don't go outside.)

비가 오지만 밖에 나가지 마세요. (x) (It's raining, but don't go outside???)

"는데" is used to describe a situation to make the other clause makes sense, which includes opposition, time, reason, or condition. As most of the students learn "는데" as limited meaning(opposition), which is relatively easy to learn, they could experience difficulties to make sentences.

"지만" is more strongly used in the opposite situation than "는데" is. 

Some Koreans make similar mistakes like "눈이 내렸는데 우산을 쓰지 않았다".

It's not definitely wrong sentence, but "눈이 내렸지만 우산을 쓰지 않았다" is better in this case.

Korean grammar, 니까 vs 어서 (아/어서 vs (으)니까)

There are lots of expressions regarding the reasons in Korean grammar.

니까(1) and 어서(2) are representative Korean grammar expressing reasons,

but many students have difficulties to figure out the difference between them.

1)The biggest difference is, that 아/어서 cannot be used with imperative(ordering) or proposing clause.

비가 오니까 택시를 타고 와(o)(Take a taxi as it's raining.)
늦었으니까 우리 뛰어가자(o)(Let's run as it's late)
비가 와서 택시를 타고 와(x)
늦어서 우리 뛰어가자(x)


2)The other differences are regarding nuances when you say a sentence using 니까 or 어서.

어서 express common sense or general(objective) reasons of an action or state,
while 니까 talks about personal opinion or subjective reasons, and in this case the listener doesn't notice the fact in advance.

머리가 아파서 약을 먹는 거야.(o)
(I take a pill because I have a headache - providing that taking pills when you are sick is common sense.)
머리가 아프니까 약을 먹는 거야.(o)
(I take a pill because I have a headache - giving an explanation to the listener why I have to take pills.)

In this regard, 니까 has a tendency to be used in colloquial(spoken) language more frequently than 어서.

Even native Koreans cannot explain the differences easily, and there are numerous articles comparing 어서 with 니까, so don't get into a panic about these grammars :)

Download another explanation pdf file here from the European Association for Korean Language Education if needed.