# 기억하다 / 기억나다



## luoruosi

I've been learning Korean for a couple months and I'm not finding any resources explaining if there is a difference between "기억하다" and "기억나다".
If I say "너를 기억하다," does it carry a different meaning than "너를기억나다"?
For anyone who speaks Mandarin - is 기억하다 essentially 记得 while 기억나다 is 想起来？
Thank you


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## pcy0308

Hello luoruosi,
"기억하다" is simply "to remember". Depending on different contexts, it could be interpreted as "to commemorate", "to recall", etc., but essentially, it refers the very act of "remembering/recollecting" something.
Though "기억나다" can be translated as "to remember", think of it as "to come to one's mind" or "to surface in one's mind". "기억나다" puts more emphasis on the object/person that is "being remembered". Therefore, the sentence "너를 기억나다" would be incorrect. "(나는) 너가 기억난다" would be a better example. Hope this helps.


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## nagomi

기억하다 sounds more of "I remember it" or while 기억나다 is "it came to my mind when I didn't intended to".


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## Hyeonsu Bang

I'd like to just drop a bit of more information. 
기억하다: I remember/she remembered/he said he remembered..
기억나다: it suddenly occurred to me i've left my bag in the train.


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## Pizza221b

To explain grammatically, 기억하다 works like a transitive verb; the thing you remember will be used as an object:
(민호는) 그 날을 기억했다.  Minho remembered that day.

whereas 기억나다 works like an intransitive verb; the thing you remember will be used as a subject:
(민호는) 그 날이 기억났다. Minho remembered that day. _Or _That day occurred to him.

The latter sentence has two subjects (_Minho_ and _that day_) which is possible in Korean.


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## a three-nation challenger

There is a lot of useful information out of reply among Koreans.
Though I'm Korean, I learn a lot from the comments.


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