# 왜 이러니



## xBlackWolfx

Me again, and no, I haven't really learned any more about Korean since the last thread. I broke down and decided to buy Living Language Essentials: Korean, but it won't arrive until Friday.

In the mean time, I would like to inquire about this sentence since I can't seem to find the 러 part in a dictionary. Supposedly this line translates as 'Why are you being this way?'. I've figured out that 왜 means 'why', 이 means 'this' and I've been assuming that 니 simply indicates a question like the 'ka' particle of Japanese.

Anyway, this line is actually the title of my favorite T-ara video. And besides that, I've clearly heard it several times in a few other videos, so I decided it might be worthwhile to actually get an understanding of this sentence.


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## Rance

이러니 is not a noun but a verb.
Natural form of *이러니* is *이러다* which is actually shortened form of *이리하다*(it means not simply "*this*" but "*do like this*").
Instead of breaking 이러- apart, it is the root within the conjugated form.


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## xBlackWolfx

Honestly, I thought it was weird that 이 would be attached to a verb anyway.

I guess I need to actually read that book a bit before I try to figure out another Korean sentence. It would appear that Korean's verb conjugations are a lot more complex than I expected.


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## Hit Girl

Depending on the context, it could be:
- Why are you behaving like this/why do you behave this way
- Why are you doing this/why do you do this
- Why are you being this way/why are you like this, etc...

An example in the language that is somewhat structurally parallel to Korean and with which you're more familiar:
どうして こうなの?
So let's say you recognize こ as a morpheme that has something to do with 'this', but if you break こう down and look up "う" in the dictionary, it won't yield much to help you understand the above sentence.
(Not sure whether う exactly corresponds to 러. Just making a comparison)
I agree it's a good idea to read the book you ordered first before trying to dissect every single syllable


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