Lesson 29
With this lesson, you will learn the Korean words for “all” and “more” as well as how to apply these words to Korean sentences to sound more natural.
다 = all, entirely, whole
더 = more
For many sentences in English where a speaker would use adjectives and nouns, Korean speakers use adverbs and verbs. This often becomes a challenge when translating, as things do not quite translate directly, but having this knowledge as a learner of Korean will ultimately lead to more natural-sounding Korean.
Take a look at how 다 [da] is used:
Ex)
(1) 다 주세요. [da ju-se-yo.]
= Give me all of it.
(2) 우유 다 주세요. [u-yu da ju-se-yo.]
= Give me all the milk.
(3) 다 했어요. [da hae-sseo-yo.]
= I have done all of it.
(4) 다 왔어요? [da wa-sseo-yo?]
= Are we there yet? (lit. Did we all come? / Did we come to all of it?)
= Did everyone come?
(5) 다 살 거예요? [da sal kkeo-ye-yo?]
= Are you going to buy all of it?
In some of the examples above, it looks as if the word 다 is working as a noun, and it is, but it has a stronger influence on the verbs and acts as more of an adverb.
커피를 마시다 [keo-pi-reul ma-si-da]
= to drink coffee
커피를 다 마시다 [keo-pi-reul da ma-si-da]
= to drink all the coffee
In the second sentence previously, the English word “all” was used to describe “the coffee”, but in Korean, the word 다 was used to describe the action of drinking (마시다).
책을 읽다 [chae-geul ik-tta]
= to read a book
책을 다 읽다 [chae-geul da ik-tta]
= to read all of the book
= to finish reading the book
Q: Then how do you say, “all of the book” or “the entire book”, if the word 다 only modifies
verbs?
A: You can use other words like 전체 [jeon-che] or 전부 [jeon-bu]. “The entire book” is 책 전체 or 책 전부, but this might not sound very natural when used out of proper context. In most cases, it is better to use 다.
Let’s look at how 더 [deo] is used.
Ex)
(1) 더 주세요. [deo ju-se-yo.]
= Please give me more.
(2) 더 있어요. [deo i-sseo-yo.]
= There is more.
(3) 더 사고 싶어요. [deo sa-go si-peo-yo.]
= I want to buy more.
(4) 옷 더 사고 싶어요. [ot deo sa-go si-peo-yo.]
= I want to buy more clothes.
(5) 뭐가 더 좋아요? [mwo-ga deo jo-a-yo?]
= Which is better?
The explanation for 다 also applies to the word 더, especially when modifying verbs. It may look as if 더 is used as a noun in sentences (3) and (4), but, it is not! When saying “더 사고 싶어요” or “옷 더 사고 싶어요”, the meaning is closer to “I want to do the ‘action of buying’ more" rather than “I want to buy more” or “I want to buy more clothes.”
10분 기다려 주세요.
= Please wait for 10 minutes.
10분 더 기다려 주세요. [sip-ppun deo gi-da-ryeo ju-se-yo.]
= Please wait for ten more minutes.
In English, the phrase is said as “10 more minutes”, but in Korean, it literally translates to “do the action of waiting for 10 minutes + more”.
Sample Sentences
전화 다 했어요? [jeon-hwa da hae-sseo-yo?]
= Did you finish talking on the phone?
= Did you make all the phone calls?
= Did everyone make a phone call?
준비 다 했어요. [jun-bi da hae-sseo-yo.]
= I did all the preparation.
= I prepared everything.
= I finished the preparation.
= All of us are prepared.
더 보여 주세요. [deo bo-yeo ju-se-yo.]
= Show me more.
= Show me more of it.
더 공부하고 싶으면, TTMIK에 오세요. [deo gong-bu-ha-go si-peu-myeon, TTMIK-e o-se-yo.]
= If you want to study more, come to TTMIK.
= If you want to do more studying, come to TTMIK.