[Korean Culture & Language] The Importance of a Subject


Hello, this is Uptempo!

A ‘주어(subject)’ identifies the topic of a sentence. It tells us what the sentence is about. Every complete sentence contains a subject and a predicate. Without them, it is challenging for other people to understand what one is trying to say. 


The below video is titled ‘주어의 중요성.’ ‘주어’ means ‘a subject’ and ‘중요성’ means ‘the importance.’ The video illustrates how important it is to include a subject in a sentence to communicate clearly.


https://youtube.com/shorts/RHoBOLFErXQ?feature=share


Dong-jun talks to himself and says, “너무 많나? 아닌가? (Is this too much? Is it not?)”.

Then he asks Joong-wan, “형, (버터) 얼마나 넣어요? (Bro, how much of these should I use?)”

Joong-wan replies, “그거 (새우) 까 먹으면 얼마 없어 (When you peel them, they won’t be a lot.)”

Dong-jun then asks again, “아, 그럼 다 해? (Oh, so should I use them all?)”

Joong-wan answers, “응, 까 먹으면 별로 없어. 다 해.(Yeah, use all of them. It won’t be much once you peel them.)” 

He continues, “소금은 많이 뿌렸어? (Did you add a lot of salt?)

Dong-jun answers, “아니요, 아직 버터가 다 안 녹았어요. (No, the butter hasn’t melted yet.)”

Joong-wan screams, “버터는 녹이지 마! (Don’t melt the butter!)”

Dong-jun replies, “에? (What?)”

Joong-wan says “그 위에 소금을 넣으라니까. (I told you to add salt on top.)”

Dong-jun seems confused, looking at the butter, and asks “이 위에 소금을? (Add salt on this?)”

Joong-wan comes out of the kitchen and sees Dong-jun melting the whole butter stick. He says “야 그걸 왜…? (Hey, why are you…?)

The caption reads, ‘버터탕 (The butter stew)’



Have you ever had a misunderstanding with someone because you or they failed to include a subject in a sentence?

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