When+ what? Please help me translate this :)

RuffJP · January 23, 2015, 5:01pm

when+ what? Please help me translate this

userstk · January 23, 2015, 9:25pm

I am not sure what exactly is unclear to you, so I’ll try to explain everything.

언제였을까
← 언제이었을까
← 언제(when) + 이었을까 (“was” in interogative ending). -을까 denotes asking oneself, not of others.

이었을까: self-interrogation form of 이었다 (“was”).
이었다: past tense of 이다: “is”
Ex: It was last year that I met him. → 내가 그를 만났던 것은 지난해였다 or 내가 그를 만난 것은 지난해였다.
…I wonder when it was that I met him? → 내가 그를 만난 것은 언제였을까?

So, 언제였을까 translates to “(I wonder) when it was”, or “When was it?”.

Translation of the whole sentence may be:
“우리 인생의 가장 아름다웠던 시절은 과연 언제였을까” → I wonder when the most beautiful time of our life (really) was.
Or, “When really was the most beautiful time of our life?”.

과연 means “really/just/exactly” in questions, or “indeed” in plain sentences. It is one of those words hard to translate.

By the way, this 언제였을까, or 언제였나 which has the same meaning with a more casual ending, appears quite often in song lyrics and poems. Here’s one line from a beautiful song (“그해 봄에”: That Year’s Spring) starting with this phrase.

언제였나 그대와 이 길을 걸었던 날 (equivalent to 그대와 이 길을 걸었던 날이 언제였나)
→ When was it, the day I walked this road with you

If you’re interested, you can listen to it at One Fine Spring Day MV [Subtheme] - YouTube. Everything is clearly pronounced in it.

RuffJP · January 23, 2015, 9:46pm

Thank you for the detailed explanation!! I was hung up the contracted form and the -을까 ending! 2 Things too many happening for a beginner2^^ I wish there were a dictionary that does this deconstruction for me…the Naver dictionary really can’t handle forms very well…do know of an alternative?

userstk · January 23, 2015, 10:32pm

Yeah, I can see that the various stem forms in Korean can be a challenge for new learners.
It could also be difficult for dictionaries to explain all of them in an easy and nice way.
I haven’t found any site or books that do it very well - but I haven’t looked very much either.

For the dictionaries at least, I think the two big Korean portals Daum (다음) and Naver (네이버) are probably the best.
Of the two, I am more familiar with Daum, and testing them a bit and reading some blogs, Daum might be better for Korean-English lookup.
If I google “다음영어 을까”, for example, I get to useful information while with Naver I seem to have harder time.
It is difficult to say in one brush, but 다음영어사전 might be something you want to check.

And good luck with your Korean learning