# 한국에 언제 안오세요?



## idialegre

A penpal wrote to me, 한국에 언제 안오세요?

Is this another example of using the negative verb as a matter of politeness? It seems strange to me. I could easily understand

한국에 왜 안오세요?

but it seems odd with 언제...


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## Etradissiv

It means "Aren't you coming to Korea sometime (in the future)?".
언제 in this sentense means sometime.
If you say 한국에 언제 오세요?, it means "When are you coming to Korea?" and here 언제 means "when?".
한국에 왜 안오세요? = Why are you not coming to Korea?


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## alice313

I think your penpal doesn't sure if you're going to come to korea and he/she want to know about this.
I guess '한국에 언제 안오세요?' is actually a combination of two questions;한국에 언제 오세요? (When will you come to korea?) and 한국에 안오세요?(Ain't you coming to Korea?).
Of course it's not that grammatically correct sentence I believe.
It seems like your penpal really want to know whether you come to korea or not, and when, if you're going to visit here.


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## idialegre

Thanks! I get it now.


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## irani11

Hi, 
Interesting idea it is that you regard this as a polite expression, idialegre. After some thinking, I'm still questioning whether there is English expression that equates to this. Maybe it is simple as is provided by other members, and I am only complicating myself. Nevethless, I sense the speaker's tone cautious about being direct, so it makes some sense that you view this as a polite way of speaking. 

Probably, "Are you not coming to Korea some time? (by any chance?)"
or Aren't you not coming to Korea ... ?    (Now, I am being pulled into this storm of confusion, so I'm through with this^^)

한국어 공부 열심히 하세요~ ㅋㅋ


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## idialegre

Hi, Irani11!

The reason I asked whether it was a polite form was because of what I learned from another thread I started:

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2190575&highlight=있어/없어

When I posted this thread, I didn't know that could mean "at any time" or something like that. I thought it only meant "when." And of course in English, "When are you not coming to Korea?" sounds very strange. So that's why I asked about it.

As to your question about whether there is an English equivalent, I would say that there is. People occasionally say things like, "Might you not be coming to Korea one day?" But it sounds very British to me. We Americans tend to be very direct. And of course there's the regular negative question, "Aren't you coming...?"


매일 한국어 공부 열심히 하고 있어요! But what does the ᄏᄏ mean???


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## terredepomme

> what does the ᄏᄏ mean???


It means lol


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## irani11

> But what does the ᄏᄏ mean???



As terredepomme said, it means lol 

"크크크" 이렇게 웃는 소리를 "ㅋㅋㅋ" 이런 식으로, 사람들이 인터넷이나 문자메시지 상에서 아주 많이 사용하는 거예요. 

모든 사람들이 다 쓰는 건 아니고 저같이 정신연령 수준이 좀 떨어지는 사람들이 자주 쓴답니다 ^^ 

꼭 웃겨서 웃을 때에만 쓰는 건 아니고, 제가 그랬던 것처럼 괜히 무안할 때에도 쓰곤 해요.

나름대로 쉽게 쓴다고 써 본건데, 어떻게 이해가 잘되셨는지 모르겠네요.


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## Etradissiv

When you ask a question in the negative in Korean as in other languages, you expect a positive reaction by suggesting doing so indirectly and more delicately.

Let's see an example:
A: Who is that man?
B: He's Jim's cousin that we met at last Chistmas party. Don't you remember?
A: Oh, yes, now I remember.

By saying "Don't you remember?", you're not really asking a question, but you are rather implying that I'm surprised that you don't remember it (him) or that you should remember it (by now).

Another example: your son is watching TV for quite a while but doesn't show a sign to do the homework. So, you say: 너 숙제 안 하니? (Aren't you doing your homework?) You are not really asking a question here, but rather implying this: Go and do your homework already!

I don't think asking a question in the nagative in Korean has much to do with being polite, but it is more like anticipation of a positive reaction or a subtle suggestion.

As for "한국에 언제 안오세요?", it's a gramatically correct sentence. There is nothing wrong with it and we Koreans say like this all the time.

너 우리집에 언제 놀러 안 오니? (Aren't you coming to visit me sometime?)
너 나하고 언제 영화 보러 안 갈래? (Don't you want to go to see a movie with me sometime?)

언제 in the above sentences is not an interrogative "when" but means unspecified time in the near future (sometime or some day).

언제 한번 만나자. (Let's see each other sometime.)

Sometimes, 언제 means "whenever" as in the following:
그 사람 언제 보아도 정말 좋아요. (He is very nice whenever I see him.)
이 노래는 언제 들어도 좋아. (I like this song whenever I listen to it.)

Well, hope this added a little more to your understanding Korean.


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