Let's Learn Korean

Total words: 174

I am currently reading 생각하는 사과나무, a book, according to this page, for grade four students. For the most part the stories are short only 2-4 pages and are supposed to take less than 10 minutes to read. This is true for me as well. I generally find that the stories are not easy but also not too difficult to understand. I can usually guess unknown words from context - but not always. My question is grammar related and in the extended entry.

I’ve come across ...-며... several times in the past and according to my older edition of Korean Grammar for International Learners it means Two or more actions concurrently take place, or two actions take place side by side. How exactly is this different from -면서-, which I’ve learned to have the same meaning.

A sample sentence from the story I am reading 나그네가 땀을 닦으며 말했어요 translates roughly to The traveler wiped the sweat while talking. Couldn’t this also be written as 나그네가 땀을 닦으면서 말했어요 with no change in meaning?

Posted by 王音癡 on Wednesday Jan 18, 2006 in Korean around me Grammar | |

Enjoy this post? Share it with others.

The trackback URL for this entry is:

트랙백:

In this sentence I see no difference between ~면서 and ~며. You can also use ~며 as a simple ‘and’ in a list to spell the monotony of saying ‘~고...~고...~고’ which is doesn’t seem to be true of ~면서.

Posted by 마익 on Thursday Jan 19, 2006 at 09:03 AM
Thanks Mike. I talked to one of the teachers today and she said the same as you. The only difference being that she said -며- was more natural for writing and -면서- more natural for speaking.

------
호랑이 굴에들어가야 호랑이 새끼를 잡는다

Posted by 王音癡 on Thursday Jan 19, 2006 at 04:03 PM
Hi folks!

Just wanted to say that your Blog helps a lot when it comes to delving into the Korean language. My name’s David, I’m eighteen and a passionate student of Korean, even though its grammar ain’t a piece of cake … =) Akin to you, I’m currently reading (or trying to) a children’s book in Korean and came across this –며 as well … Thanks for sharing that stuff, guys!

Posted by David on Wednesday May 2, 2007 at 11:09 PM
David,
Thanks for dropping by. Feel free to post in the forums (not much action, but at least I read them)or leave comments. Hope to see you around.

------
호랑이 굴에들어가야 호랑이 새끼를 잡는다

Posted by 王音癡 on Thursday May 3, 2007 at 01:40 PM
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/asian/korean/intermediate/index_pattern_grammar/
I found this one quite useful… maybe you want to integrate into this blog, if you haven’t done so already. Thanks for your effort, a clear add to favorites ^^

Posted by siegfried on Tuesday Jan 29, 2008 at 09:55 PM
i want to join this blog to improve my grammar

Posted by sodaleng on Thursday Mar 6, 2008 at 11:24 AM
All you need to do is register

------
호랑이 굴에들어가야 호랑이 새끼를 잡는다

Posted by 王音癡 on Thursday Mar 6, 2008 at 03:07 PM