This week we’re learning some dramatic phrases with WINNER’s debut track, ‘Empty’.
거울 속에 내 모습은
(geo-ul sog-e nae mo-seub-eun)
거울 – This is the noun meaning ‘mirror’. Simple as that!
속에 – 속 means ‘inside’ and 에 is a location marking particle.
내 – This means ‘my’. It is a contraction of 나의 (na-ye), 나 meaning ‘I/me’ and 의 being a possessive particle.
모습은 – This is the noun that means ‘image’, followed by 은, the topic marking particle. It marks the noun as the topic of the sentence.
Put together, this phrase means, ‘My reflection in the mirror’.
Here are some more examples, but don’t worry if you don’t understand all the vocab; just try to spot the new grammar or words –
가방 속에 뭘 있어요? // What do you have inside your bag?
내 지갑 어디 있어요? // Where is my wallet?
내 마음이 너무 공허해 // My heart feels so empty – listen out for this one in the song!
머리가 복잡해
(meo-ri-ga bok-jap-hae)
머리가 – This is the noun for ‘head’, followed by a subject marking particle, letting us know that this is the subject of the sentence.
복잡해 – This comes from the verb ‘복잡하다‘ which means ‘to be complicated. So here, conjugated in the present tense, it means ‘It’s complicated’.
Altogether this phrase means, ‘My head is complicated.’ It isn’t always necessary in Korean to include all the information in the sentence, if the meaning is obvious. Here, we might have expected the speaker to use ‘내‘ in front of the rest of the phrase, to specify ‘my head’, but we can understand without this information because of the context.
Two more common phrases with the noun, 머리 –
머리가 좋아요 // I’m smart/you are smart/he is smart/etc. (lit. trans: Head is good.) The verb 똑똑하다 also means ‘to be smart’.
머리가 나빠요 // I’m dumb/ you’re dumb/he is dumb/etc. (lit. trans: Head is bad.)
