# 말았으면 한다



## idialegre

I have a problem understanding the grammar of the following sentence.

가장 중요한 부분을 잘못 그릴 수도 있지만 나를 탓하지 말았으면 한다.

I understand that the basic meaning is, "I might even paint the most important part wrong, but it's not all my fault." But I can't quite untangle the construction 말았으면 한다. Is it appreciably different from "나를 탓하지 마세요" ? I would appreciate it if someone could explain it to me!

Thanks!


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## vientito

으면 한다 is just another way of saying 으면 좋다 

sort of like " I hope blah blah blah" -> I hope that I am not to blame


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## idialegre

빨리 답장해서 정말 고마워요!


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## Kross

idialegre said:


> But I can't quite untangle the construction 말았으면 한다. Is it appreciably different from "나를 탓하지 마세요"?


 Hello, idialegre
These two expressions are very close in meaning. They are used to pre-empt any possible criticism from others about what the speaker is going to do any minute. They are well aware that the speaker is not good at it, but might be better at it than the rest people and thus is forced to do it. But there is a difference in nuance. While 말았으면 한다 sounds formal and polite, 나를 탓하지 마세요 is more casual and friendly. I personally think that the latter tends to be used among close people like family members, friends.


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## idialegre

Thanks for this explanation, Kross. I have one more question: I'm not quite sure why the verb 말았으면 appears in the past tense. Could you also say 나를 탓하지 말면 한다 ?


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## Kross

idialegre said:


> I'm not quite sure why the verb 말았으면 appears in the past tense.


 As it stands, 말았으면 is used in the present tense here. One of the past forms I can come up with now is 말았었으면 했다.



idialegre said:


> Could you also say 나를 탓하지 말면 한다 ?


 I am afraid to say that we don't use it that way. It doesn't sound right (to me). Through Naver search I found that ~았으면 하다 is an idiomatic expression. (source: http://contem301.blog.me/50010876813 )


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## idialegre

OK, I understand. Thanks!


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## RadkeRonnie

If you're asking why it's "말았으면" instead of "말면," it's because there's a construction that's very similar to English, and using English is the easiest way to explain. 

"뭐뭐뭐뭐 말았으면 한다" is like "It would be nice if you *didn't *do such and such." 

Notice the English verb is past tense. (Technically imperfect subjunctive, but whatever.)

Similarly,

"뭐뭐뭐 했으면 좋겠다" is like "It would be nice if you *did* do such and such," and 
"뭐뭐뭐 먹었으면 좋겠다" is like "It would be nice if you *ate *such and such," and
"어디어디 갔으면 좋겠다" is like "It would be nice if you *went *to such a place."

I can't explain exactly why in terms of linguistics, but usually when you add -면, the past/present root of the verb is the same as English.


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## idialegre

RadkeRonnie, thanks for the brilliant explanation! I'm embarrassed I didn't realize that it's the same in English...

It is confusing, though, that Korean offers many different ways of using -면: 하면, 했으면, 한다면, 했다면, etc... It's hard to keep them all straight.


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## Kross

Kross said:


> As it stands, 말았으면 is used in the present tense here. One of the past forms I can come up with now is 말았었으면 했다.



I revisit this thread to tell you that my previous explaination is not correct. The tense of your example is the past, not the present. (How stupid of me!!  I feel sorry about any trouble you might have had. )

국립국어원 confirmed that. (source: https://twitter.com/urimal365/status/458063461826588672 )


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## vientito

The similar usage to subjuntive is downright uncanny.  I would have thought that Korean language shares no historical proximity to Indo-European languages.


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