"We now understand."

Translation: 우리는 이제 이해했습니다.

[CF00l]

우리는 이제 理解했습니다.

[YunisR]

Why is it in past tense if the translation is present tense?

[oee16]

• Korean past tense is different to British past tense in that it does not imply "completion in the past".

• Korean past tense is used to indicate an action/event started in the past whether the action/event goes on into the present is irrelevant.

• Here, it implies that "the understanding" already happened before the actual statement is made.

• The Time-Span of korean tenses is a difficult concept to grasp. Just have to practice.

[JoshuaSoh5]

thing is, korean uses past tense for times when we would use perfect present tense. "we have now understood" is less natural but it's more direct that the sentence given

[oee16]

(1) Personally, I think the English sentence should be rephrased as:

"We understand it now."

= (coll.) "We've got it now."

= "It's all clear to us now".

etc.

(2) "We understand." when used without direct object, means "of course./fair enough...".

This is why "We now understand" sounds awkward.

(3) Time adverb "now" should be placed at the beginning or end of the sentence if wished to focus on the time factor.

[LesChristiansen]

Now we understood