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- "여자는 책을 손으로 씁니다."
54 Comments
2236
Write something down: make a note, usually hand-written--so I think the "by hand" is either redundant, or meant to emphasize that it's not typed.
- 1331
I tend to agree. In English, the idiom "write down" is used to mean write something that already exists (e.g. I write my teacher's instructions--the instructions already existed), not to compose something new. I could see "down" being used here if the woman already composed the book in her head before writing it down, or if she was listening to an audiobook and decided to write it down for some reason, but those are unlikely scenarios, and in most contexts, we wouldn't use "down" to translate this sentence.
I think the combination of "순으로" (by hand) and "씁니다" (to write, instead of "작다", which is also to write) means that the woman is copying the book by hand. "씁니다" is apparently like writing brainlessly and w oh thout creativity (like copying something thats already written), and "씁니다" is like thinking while you write (a song or a long message to someone thats not just "coming home; be there in 10"
This is the first time seeing this and I'm really not a fan of this sentence.
Does this mean she's writing down something ON a book?
Is she writing in a NOTEbook?
I find it hard to believe that this is meant to be she's writing a book. Why use the word down? That's just dumb.
I'm guessing she's writing a book in a handwritten manner not typed with a computer, phone, etc.
- 352
It might not be entirely correct to use the word down as far as the actual ords in the Korean sentence, but if they mean the woman is writing a book by hand, then the meaning is the same to use the word down. It's the sam either way. Some would add the word, others wouldn't.
It's not the best english, but neither is the "correct solution." One of those things that doesn't translate well I guess.
It's too hard, when you aren't a native english speaker. Especially, when it suggests me to translate "손으로" like "with hand". I was slightly surprised, but write it down, and unfortunately it was wrong(( This only confused me((
- 25
The connotation of "write [s.th] down" fits better with the connotation of 전다, I feel. You write down lecture notes, phone numbers, recipes, etc, things that don't require a lot of effort or creative thought at the moment lf writing. A book is simply written; "a woman writes the book by hand" both feels better to an English speaker and more precisely translates the Korean sentence. The phrase "write [s.th] by hand" already shows clearly the thing written is handwritten, adding "write down" into the mix is redundant and sounds clunky to a native speaker.
I had it wrong too by answering "The woman writes a book with her hand". The Korean to English translation for this sentence is definitely unnatural in English. But do understand manually taking notes. "Down" was not specified by a Korean word.
- 25
Basically "with" or "using"; (으)로 is the instrumental case marker, a noun with this marker is being used to perform the verb in this clause. So in this context, it says the hand(s) 손 is/are being used to write 쓰다.
why is "with hands" incorrect? Isnt "by hand" and "with hands" technically the same?
- 341
By all means correct me on the Korean but . . .
"A woman writes the book by hand." "여자는 책을 (기계에 의해 아니고) 손으로 씁니다." (directly, not by machine)
"A woman writes the book with hand." "여자는 책을 (손을 버리지 않고) 손으로 씁니다." (not without hand)
"A woman writes the book with her hand." "여자는 책을 (발로보다는) 손으로 씁니다." (not with her foot, say)
The sense of 'with' that's the same as 'by' in English always takes a determiner. Without a determiner it's more of the sense of including. As it's a body part here it would be strange with 'a' or 'the'; only the personal pronoun 'her' is accepted (or maybe 'one' as opposed to two hands, etc). That's why we have to use 'by hand' instead (and I've wasted too much time online futilely trying to search for any explanation of when to use 'with' with or without a determiner) . . .
Is it say, she is writing the book down by hand, as in, she is hand writing the book down? Or something like that?
Wait, when is it proper to use -는 instead of -가 at the end of "woman" or "man" or other nouns?
I think 는 used to noun "A" like 여차는 = A woman and 가 or "The " like 여차가 = The woman.
- 25
No, 는/은 and 가/이 do not have direct counterparts in English, and Korean doesn't have articles like "the" or "a/an". 는/은 marks the conversational topic and 가/이 marks the subject of the sentence.
If you're referring to a specific woman, you could use 이 "this", 그 "that (near you)", or 저 "that (over there)" before 여자, or if you're talking about a group of women you could use 여자들. Either way you would still need to use 는/은 or 가/이 to mark which nouns in the sentence are doing what.
Could "A woman writes a book" be accepted? Since we technically already know that she's using her hands.
- 25
The verb here specifies it's written by hand, so the translation must also. In English, you can write a book without writing it out by hand (i.e. typing it).
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