Japanese vs Korean grammar complexity
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94000d
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Japanese vs Korean grammar complexity
I've heard that Korean has more complex grammar than Japanese. In what ways is this true?
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vonPeterhof
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Re: Japanese vs Korean grammar complexity
Admittedly I'm much less familiar with Korean grammar than with Japanese, but my experience does match the idea that Japanese grammar often feels like a more "streamlined" version of Korean grammar: fewer basic forms, less variance and less irregularity. For a few examples:
-For Japanese verbs the dictionary form ("eat"), the infinitive ("to eat"), the plain non-past indicative ("[I/you/he/she/it/we/they] eat(s)") and the non-past determiner ("eating [person]" or "[person who] eats") are identical - in the case of "to eat" they're all 食べる. In Korean those are all different (먹다/먹어/먹는다/먹는).
-In politeness levels Japanese has very few grammatical distinctions between formal and informal non-polite speech - these forms are mostly distinguished by style, and the grammatical differences are mostly about the copulas ("to be"). In Korean formal and informal non-polite speech involve completely different verb conjugations.
-Japanese has no grammatical future tense, whereas Korean does.
-While the claim that Japanese only has two irregular verbs isn't entirely accurate, it's a far cry from Korean, where you have both exceptions from common conjugation patterns and exceptions from the exceptions.
It's definitely possible to bring up other examples, as well as a few counterexamples (like the fact that Korean adjectives are morphologically indistinguishable from verbs, whereas Japanese has two distinct categories of adjectives - those that are sort of like verbs and those that are sort of like nouns), but I think this illustrates the idea clearly. To me personally even the perfectly regular Korean verb conjugations appear much more variegated and often more arbitrary than Japanese ones, but that may just be my lack of practice.
-For Japanese verbs the dictionary form ("eat"), the infinitive ("to eat"), the plain non-past indicative ("[I/you/he/she/it/we/they] eat(s)") and the non-past determiner ("eating [person]" or "[person who] eats") are identical - in the case of "to eat" they're all 食べる. In Korean those are all different (먹다/먹어/먹는다/먹는).
-In politeness levels Japanese has very few grammatical distinctions between formal and informal non-polite speech - these forms are mostly distinguished by style, and the grammatical differences are mostly about the copulas ("to be"). In Korean formal and informal non-polite speech involve completely different verb conjugations.
-Japanese has no grammatical future tense, whereas Korean does.
-While the claim that Japanese only has two irregular verbs isn't entirely accurate, it's a far cry from Korean, where you have both exceptions from common conjugation patterns and exceptions from the exceptions.
It's definitely possible to bring up other examples, as well as a few counterexamples (like the fact that Korean adjectives are morphologically indistinguishable from verbs, whereas Japanese has two distinct categories of adjectives - those that are sort of like verbs and those that are sort of like nouns), but I think this illustrates the idea clearly. To me personally even the perfectly regular Korean verb conjugations appear much more variegated and often more arbitrary than Japanese ones, but that may just be my lack of practice.
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qeadz
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Re: Japanese vs Korean grammar complexity
http://dongsa.net/?search=%EB%A8%B9%EB%8B%A4
Forms of the verb "eat" in Korean. There are more, but this covers the most common? While in many cases the verb is conjugated for respect, in this case its one of a list of exceptions where actually a different word exists: 드시다
I have no clue how Japanese works, but this is an example of the forms Korean would use.
In addition Korean adjectives largely function like verbs, except when they dont
In some conjugations the rules for an adjective differ. There are some words which have dual meanings and in some situations they conjugate as a verb and in others as an adjective.
Perhaps someone more advanced in Korean will correct me, but I'm pretty sure I'm correct on the above.
Forms of the verb "eat" in Korean. There are more, but this covers the most common? While in many cases the verb is conjugated for respect, in this case its one of a list of exceptions where actually a different word exists: 드시다
I have no clue how Japanese works, but this is an example of the forms Korean would use.
In addition Korean adjectives largely function like verbs, except when they dont
In some conjugations the rules for an adjective differ. There are some words which have dual meanings and in some situations they conjugate as a verb and in others as an adjective.Perhaps someone more advanced in Korean will correct me, but I'm pretty sure I'm correct on the above.
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