11 Comments
It makes me wonder if the words have a difference in English when used that way. Methinks “the” has a more general meaning, but in certain contexts, it means the same thing.
Haha, I agree Kevin. To go further, I think I can clear this up somewhat. Since 그 refers specificly to something that was previously mentioned or both people know about it I can think of some contexts where 'the' makes more sense as the English translation.
If a teacher and a student were each saying the other one broke something and after talking about it the principle says to the vice principle "I believe the student" that would be the 그 in Korean, I believe. To my understanding 그 isnt used to diferientate spacially (pointing out someone in a lineup or in a crowd) its used to reference something in the mind, either something mentioned in the previous sentence of something both the speaker and listeners know about already. That isn't really something we have in English.
그 means 'that' and it also means 'he' (그녀 means 'she'). So this sentence means 'I believe that student' or 'I believe the (male) student'
I understand where your logic is going, but the 그 does not imply the gender of the student.
그 means "he" as a pronoun, but 그 학생 means "that student" because 학생 (student) is the noun and 그 (that) is a modifier to it. 그/그녀 (pronoun) + 학생 (noun) would be like saying "he/she student" which doesn't make sense. So 그 학생 is just "that student" and doesn't reveal gender.
In Korean, would the sentence 'I believe that student' be differentiated somehow from 'I believe in that student' ? Given that the meaning is slightly different in English.
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I don't really understand the use of informal pronouns with formal verb endings...
This sentence doesn't make sense to me, but it's fine because it's only exercise.
