Everything2
Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Full Text
Everything2

Korean words for 'yes' and 'no'

created by Dystopian Autocrat

(thing) by Dystopian Autocrat (5.5 mon) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Thu Dec 19 2002 at 9:48:48

This is inspired by Glowing Fish's Chinese words for 'yes' and 'no' writeup.

It's interesting that a commonly used word for yes in Chinese is the verb "to be," because "yes" and "no" in Korean are "ye" and "a-ni-yo," literally "(it) is," and "(it) isn't." This shouldn't surprise one too much, though, because Korean is related in some ways to Chinese, in that it borrows a lot of words, and used to be written with Chinese characters before the invention of Hangul by King Sejong the Great.

Another commonly used negation is "an-dwei," although the "w" there is barely pronounced, so it sounds more like "an-dae." This is the negative form of the verb stem "dwei-da," which means something like "to become." However, that verb is also used as a part of grammar to form sentences that have a meaning along the lines of "it's okay (if ... happens)." So, using by itself in the negative form carries a connotation akin to "No way!" in English. As in: "Alex! Nak-ji tang meok-ja!" "An-dwei!" ("Alex! Let's eat some octopus soup!" "No way!").

Both a-ni-yo and an-dwei make use of the negative prefix "an," which can be used with any verb or adjective. It's common to respond to a question by repeating the verb as a statement, positive or negative depending on the answer. "A-jik bap meo-geo-sseo?" "An meo-geo-sseo." ("Have you eaten dinner/lunch yet?" "Nope.")

Note: As always, the "eo" used in the standard Romanization of Hangul represents a kind of neutral vowel sound, between "eh" and "oh," like the o in "hot," not an "ee-oh" sound, like "Leo."


printable version
chaos

Chinese words for 'yes' and 'no' Have you eaten (rice) yet? Hangul M&M's standard operating procedure for bored engineers
GNU coding standards Korean Japanese no Chinese
Fake proof that if one person in a room is a redhead, then all the people in that room are redheads Cracked heels and the quick and dirty repair of the sole jazz standard The Christmas story
Pucca Beck ye Mars
Korea Restaurant Iran Tutankhamun
grammar statement prefix
Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.
  Epicenter
Login
Password

password reminder
register

Everything2 Help

Cool Staff Picks
Nodes to live by:
George Washington
morphine
Two monks and a woman
DeLorean
The name that lasted a million years
Jazz Pianists
Kubla Khan
a method for everything
Curl
@
Dropload
Superman
The Orders of Roman Architecture
New Writeups
Vanish
The line between normal and not(place)
Vanish
insanity(thing)
beatrice
You've been slowly taking me over for nearly a year, do you know that?(idea)
Berek
YouTube(thing)
shaogo
How to Pretend to Have a Job(idea)
hapax
Les Provinciales(review)
zoeb
The Scene(review)
aneurin
Telephone Numbers for drama purposes(idea)
Alnilamski
Cosmicopolis(fiction)
eien_meru
measure(idea)
Dreamvirus
pussy willow(thing)
czeano
Three "T"s(idea)
UncleM
Vantage Point 2: Fractal Thread Count(idea)
LostPsion
First Fiction: Night(fiction)
Lysander Peregrine
How to Pretend to Have a Job(idea)
E2 is a by-product of the existence of The Everything Development Company