Could someone please translate these sentences for me?

I’m interested in learning Korean, and I would like to see some sentences translated just to get the gist of the language. I’ve more or less learned hangul, but it would be nice to see how these sentences look in Korean.

So if anyone could translate the following sentences, I would be very grateful:

The apple is red.

It is John’s apple.

I give John the apple.

We give him the apple.

He gives it to John.

She gives it to him.

Is the apple red?

The apples are red.

I must give it to him.

I want to give it to her.

I’m going to know tomorrow.

I have eaten the apple.

I can’t eat the apple.

If anyone cares to know, the sentences are from the 4-hour chef by Tim Ferriss :slight_smile: (Yes, it is a cookbook, but it had a cool section on language learning).

I got someone to help me translate these, so in case any other Korean learner is interested, here they are:

The apple is red.

사과는 빨갛습니다.

It is John’s apple.

이것은 존의 사과입니다.

I give John the apple.

나는 존에게 사과를 줍니다.

We give him the apple.

우리는 그에게 그 사과를 줍니다.

(We, him, the apple, give.)

He gives it to John.

그는 그것을 존에게 줍니다.

(He, it, John, gives)

She gives it to him.

그녀는 그에게 그것을 줍니다.

(She, to him, it, gives)

Is the apple red?

이 사과는 빨갛습니까?

The apples are red.

이 사과들은 빨갛습니다.

I must give it to him.

나는 그것을 그에게 주어야만 합니다.

(I, it, to him, give, must)

I want to give it to her.

나는 그것을 그녀에게 주고 싶습니다.

(I it, to her, to give, want)

I’m going to know tomorrow.

나는 내일 알게 될 것입니다.

(I, tommorrow, to know, am going to)

I have eaten the apple.

나는 그 사과를 먹었습니다./먹어왔습니다.

(I, the apple, have eaten)
→ have eaten could be translated in both ways as it could mean it has been since before or only the experience of eaten the apple.

I can’t eat the apple.

나는 사과를 먹을 수 없습니다.

(I, the apple, eat, can’t)

I’m also a fan of Tim Ferriss, but I was rather disappointed with his section on language learning in The 4 Hour Chef. He claims to have attained “fluency” in several languages in a short amount of time, but his advice in the book is really only applicable to absolute beginners to the language. It seems to me like his idea of fluency is being able to carry out a clumsy 5 minute conversation with someone on a limited range of topics (I could do that after six months of living in Korea as well). Now I’ve been studying for 4 years, and I still consider myself far from fluent. Really the only road to fluency is memorizing 10,000+ vocab words, and clocking in a few thousand hours of listening and reading. There are no shortcuts (although LingQ does make it a lot easier!).

As for your translations, the problem with Korean is that there are seemingly a hundred ways to say the same thing. The translations you have above are super-formal, and I’ve never actually heard anyone speak that way (outside of TV dramas). I’ll provide some translations below that are closer to the real spoken Korean you’ll hear if you visit the country. If you speak like your examples, people will understand you, but you’ll sound like you’re in the army :wink:

Note that I’m not a native speaker, so hopefully Alex or Monyou stumble upon this thread and correct me if anything below sounds awkward:

The apple is red.

사과는 빨간색이에요.
(사과 = the apple, 는 = topic marker, 빨간색 = red, 이에요 = is)

It is John’s apple.

존의 사과이에요.
(의 = possession marker (John’s). The word “it” is usually omitted if it’s implied)

I give John the apple.

저는 존에게 사과를 줘요.
(에게 = to, 를 = object marker – the thing that is being acted upon)

We give him the apple.

우리는 그에게 사과를 줘요.

He gives it to John.

그는 존에게 줘요.

She gives it to him.

그녀는 그에게 줘요.

Is the apple red?

사과는 빨간색이에요?
or
사과는 빨간색인가요?

The apples are red.

사과들은 빨간색이에요.
or just
사과는 빨간색이에요.
(Koreans don’t always use the plural marker “들”; it’s often omitted. 사과 could mean apple or apples depending on the context)

I must give it to him.

저는 그에게 줘야돼요.

I want to give it to her.

그녀에게 주고 싶어요.
(“I” and “you” are often omitted when they’re implied)

I’m going to know tomorrow.

제가 내일 알게 될거에요.

I’m going to give it to him tomorrow (better example of future tense, since “to know” isn’t really an action)

제가 내일 그에게 줄거에요

I have eaten the apple.

Doesn’t have a proper translation in Korean. Just use simple past tense:

제가 사과를 먹었어요. - I ate the apple

I can’t eat the apple.

Ambiguous statement.

저는 사과를 못 먹어요.
or
제가 사과를 먹을 수 없어요.
(I am physically incapable of eating the apple)

제가 사과를 먹으면 안 돼요.
(I’m not allowed to / not supposed to eat the apple)

I’m not a native speaker either, but what James says about there being tons of different ways to say things in Korean is true.

@jamesduffy - It feels to me like the 제가 in your latter sentences should be 저는 instead. An example might be “그 분은 제가 사과를 먹을 수 없는 것을 몰랐어요” if you want to use 제가. I could be wrong – definitely check with a native speaker before taking my word for it :slight_smile:

Also, I’ve gotten in trouble before using 그녀 since it’s actually really literary and shows up a lot in short stories and poems. I think “그 여자” is a safer choice here, or just simply “그 분”.

@alex - True, I probably should have kept them all as 저는 to avoid over-complicating things. There are cases for using 제가 over 저는, as it changes the emphasis of the sentence, but it depends entirely on context (which these sentences lack).

And yeah, now that you mention it I don’t think I’ve ever said 그녀 before. But I also tend to avoid it because it’s really similar to a bad word if your pronunciation isn’t perfect :wink: @Burappi: “그” is used for both “he” and “she”, or as Alex mentioned, you can say “그 여자” if you need to specify gender.

I have never quite bought the idea that translating a few sentences in a new language teaches you much. You still need lots and lots of exposure before these new patterns take hold. Most of the beginner content that you find will contain these patterns, and more than once, and you will still need months and many examples before you are comfortable with them. I found Ferriss’ piece on language learning quite misleading.

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