Korean Language Blog

Today we’ll look at some Korean mythology. The first story has to do with the beginnings of mankind. A long time ago, a man named 지수 was starving from a famine that raged the entire countryside. To relieve his hunger, 지수 decided to climb a tall cliff to jump off of it and die. Before he was about to jump off, he noticed some grapes near the cliff. 지수 told his fellow countrymen about the grapes. In the mist of such hunger, several of the men ate a live animal near the grapes. One of the guardian gods saw this and punished everyone in anger. To this day, no human has immortality.

The next myth has to do with the birth of the Korean peninsula. One of the guardian gods named 황궁 took about three thousand men and traveled north to a place called 천산주. In Korean 천산주 means, “land of the heavenly mountains”. 황궁 had a grandson named 한인. 한인 received a heavenly heirloom that contained knowledge. With the heirloom 한인 taught people how to build a fire, how to farm, and how to domesticate certain animals. As the people became civilized, 한인 decided to return to the heavens. 한인 was the last of the heavenly gods and the people named the country 한국 after 한인.

This next myth has to do with the creation of the sun and moon. Once upon a time, there was an older brother named 해식 and a younger sister named 달식. 해식 and 달식‘s mother was a rice cake seller. On her way to selling rice cakes, she came upon a tiger. She pleaded her life to the tiger, and mentioned her children, in hopes that the tiger would pity her. Instead of pitying the woman the tiger ate the mother and used her clothes to disguise himself as the mother. When the tiger found the children, he used the powder from the rice cakes and stuck his hand under the door.

The tiger’s paw looked white and the children opened the door. As the children realized in horror that it was not their mother, they raced to the top of a tall tree. In an effort to eat the children, the tiger got an axe and tried to chop the tree. Then the children prayed to the gods and asked for deliverance. The gods felt pity for the children and let down a strong rope, which the children climbed. As the children climbed up to the sky, 해식 became the sun, and 달식 became the moon. (해 = sun and 달 = moon in Korean).

All these myths introduced here are the condensed versions. For a more thorough version, try Amazon.com.

In the last post we looked over the honorific polite and the honorific polite in the past tense. In today’s post we’ll take a look at the honorific deferential and the honorific deferential in the past tense. With a 하다 ending verb like 사랑하다 (to love), the honorific deferential would be 사랑하십니다 and 사랑하십니까 in the interrogative form. To form the honorific deferential, drop the 다 in 사랑하다 and add 십니다/십니까. With a verb like 가다 (to go), the honorific deferential will be 가십니다/가십니까. To form the honorific deferential, drop the 다 in 가다 and add 십니다/십니까.

The honorific deferential of ㄷ ending verbs like 걷다 (to walk) is 걸으십니다/걸으십니까. The ㄷ in 걷다 will change to a ㄹ and 으십니다/으십니까 will be added. With ㄹ ending verbs like 알다 (to know), the honorific deferential will be 아십니다/아십니까. To form the honorific deferential, drop the ㄹ of 알다 and add 십니다/십니까. For ㅂ ending verbs like 돕다 (to help) the honorific deferential will be 도우십니다/도우십니까. Drop the ㅂ of 돕다 and add 우십니다/우십니까. With 있다 (to be present, to have) the honorific deferential will be 있으십니다/있으십니까. Drop the 다 of 있다 and add 으십니다/으십니까.

Now let’s try forming the honorific deferential in the past tense. 사랑하다 will be 사랑하쎴습니다/사랑하쎴습니까. 가다 will be 가셨습니다/가쎴습니까. 걷다 will be 걸으셨습니다/걸으셨습니까. 알다 will be 아쎴습니다/아쎴습니까. 돕다 will be 도우쎴습니다/도우쎴습니까. 있다 will be 있으쎴습니다/있으쎴습니까. So if the honorific deferential of 이다 (to be) is (이)십니다/(이)십니까, what is the honorific deferential in the past tense? It will be (이)쎴습니다/(이)쎴습니까. If the honorific deferential of 아니다 (to not be) is 아니십니다/아니십니까, the honorific deferential in the past tense will be 아니쎴습니다/아니쎴습니까.

Depending on the situation, the honorific deferential can seem overly polite to use in a conversation. Depending on your relationship with someone, the deferential polite may be the right politeness level needed to show respect for someone, but yet not in the overly polite manner of the honorific deferential. For example, if you’ve take a class with a professor for a semester and the professor knows you on a first name basis, it could be a little awkward using the honorific polite. Using the honorific polite can signal to someone that you want to create a distance in the relationship, especially one that is hierarchical.

As you know, there are different levels of politeness in Korean. We’re going to take a step further to explore the honorific polite. The honorific polite is politer than the standard polite. The standard polite ending is just 요. So the verb 사다 (to buy) in the standard polite is 사요. However, the honorific polite ending is (으)세요. So the verb 사다 in the honorific polite is 사세요. With a 하다 ending verb like 공부하다 it’ll be 공부하세요. Notice that the honorific polite ending also contains the 요, but has the extra 세 that the standard polite doesn’t have.

For ㄷ ending verbs like 듣다 (to hear) it’ll be 들으세요. Here you place the 으 in front of the 세 because of the ㄹ. It’s too hard to pronounce it as 들세요 and therefore the 으 facilitates an easier pronunciation of the word. Then for ㄹ ending verbs like 열다 (to open), it’ll be 여세요. The ㄹ in 열 is dropped and because there is no ㄹ, notice you don’t need an 으 placed in the word. With ㅂ ending verbs like 돕다 (to help) it’ll be 도우세요. The ㅂ in 돕 is dropped and 우 is placed before 세. All these verbs are conjugated in the present tense of the honorific polite. The honorific polite past tense is conjugated in a similar manner.

The honorific polite past tense will have an (으)쎴어요 ending. 듣다 will be 들으쎴어요. Notice that the ㄷ changes to a ㄹ and 으쎴어요 is added. 열다 will be 여쎴어요 and 돕다 will be 도우쎴어요. The honorific polite past tense of 공부하다 will be 공부하쎴어요 and 사다 will be 사쎴어요. Now what if I told you the present tense of the honorific polite of the verb 있다 (to have, to be present) is 있으세요. What would be the honorific polite past tense of 있다? It would 있으쎴어요. Just replace the 세요 in 있으세요 with 쎴어요 and you’ll get the honorific polite past tense ending.

So with the copula 이다 (to be) the honorific polite ending will be (이)세요. When the word attached to the copula ends in an consonant, it’ll have an 이세요 ending like 선생님이세요 (선생님 = teacher). When the word attached to the copula ends in a vowel, it’ll have a 세요 ending like 학교세요 (학교 = school). Knowing this, how wold you conjugate the honorific polite past tense endings? It’ll be 선생님이쎴어요 and 학교쎴어요. With 아니다 (to be not), the honorific polite ending will be 아니세요, but the honorific polite past ending will be 아니쎴어요.

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