"Why is the pillow under the sheet?"
Translation:베개가 왜 침대보 밑에 있어요?
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I am sure this is an English to Korean issue, but does anyone have a good explanation or link to know where the question word goes in a sentence in Korean? Things like who, what, when, why, how. It seems to jump around the sentence based on something I am not seeing, yet.
Ex. "벽장 옆에 옷장이 왜 있습니까?" has "왜" right in front of the verb, while in this sentence it's between the subject and object. Does it really not matter?
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It might sound like I'm being unhelpful but the best thing to do is expose yourself to Korean language. Watch tv shows is good but even listen to podcasts or stuff in Korean. You will pick up words like 왜 especially since it is often emphasised. Over time you will get a feel for it.
Anyway the best I can try to say is imagine breaking the sentence into English chunks and it gives a clue as to the emphasis: 베개가 왜 침대보 밑에 있어? could be "The pillow, why is it under the sheet?" vs 베개가 침대보 밑에 왜 있어? could be "The pillow that's under the sheet, why is it (there)?" vs 왜 베개가 침대보 밑에 있어? could simply be "Why is there a pillow under the sheet?"
This is not sure information but I think that it depends on what you want to emphasize. Here you want to emphasize on the location (침대보 밑에) "why is the pillow under the sheet (and not above it)" whereas on the other sentence you are maybe emphasizing on the reason (왜) "why is there a wardrobe next to the cupboard (has it been placed here for a particular reason?)"
I am spelling it correct but it doesn't let me go ahead and its says that the answer is wrong.
Taking this from a different perspective, if you are wondering where you can put the prepositional phrase, I'm starting to get a feel for when I can put a prepositional phrase anywhere and when I have to put it in a specific place. This one, I think, should be after the subject because it isn't independent of the verb and subject. If you were asking "In the bedroom, why the is pillow under the sheet?" then "in the bedroom" could be anywhere, but "under the sheet" would be better after pillow. And, if this is not correct, I would benefit from someone explaining this in more detail because this observation only comes from watching Duolingo's default 100% correct answers for the past couple of years, so I am certain I am missing details.
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thanks, so much; I understand somehow what you are saying, but for me there are still sentences like mine, that are ok, where I cannot see the difference. I probably just need more study! ;)
We can all use more practice, so, I need more studying, too! Good luck!
It's easier if you copy-paste things from the answer, above, when talking about Korean so we can read the Korean and be more sure we are correct, but I would expect "The pillow" to be first unless "under the sheet" clarifies which pillow you are talking about. So, to say (in Korean) "Under the sheet pillow" your sentence could not just be "why is" afterwards. In English, you don't say, "hey, that pillow under the sheet (clarifying which pillow) why is?" Why is it what? So instead you would say, "Hey, that pillow under the sheet, why is it crumpled up?" So, in Korean in your example, you still need to know "why is what?" for it to make sense. Why is it under the sheet requires "under the sheet" to follow "The pillow", not precede it. (Anyone have a better explanation?)
