Korean/Comparatives and superlatives
Introduction
editThis chapter talks about how to do comparisons in the Korean language and express superlatives. For those unfamiliar with the grammar terms, a superlative term basically expresses whether something is the best, the biggest, the tallest, etc.
Superlatives
editTo express a superlative in Korean, a speaker can use either 가장 or 제일 followed by the verb. One example is telling someone what your favorite movie is. Thus, to say that your favorite movie is the Matrix, you can say 나는 Matrix를 제일 좋아해요. This would literally translate to 'I like Matrix the most.'
Comparatives
editTo do a comparison in Korean, a speaker can use '보다 (더)' followed by a verb. Here are some examples.
- 나는 차보다 커피를 즐겨요. I like coffee better than tea.
- 나는 수학을 역사보다 좋아해요. I like math better than history.
If there are 2 objects being compared, the object that that is being compared against is placed right before the 보다. So in the examples above, the Korean word for tea, 차, is placed right before the 보다 and the Korean word for history, 역사, is put right before the 보다.
Degree of adjectives
editTo form varying degrees of adjectives, prefix an adjective with the adverbs 매우 or 아주:
- 비싸다: (to be) expensive
- 매우 비싸다: (to be) very expensive
- 아주 비싸다: (to be) extremely expensive