# 내 편지로 돕을 수있어? 난 내 친구 쓰고 있어.



## maghanish2

안녕하세요!

나한테 돕습니다?

I want to know if these sentences is correct.  They are confusing me.

Can you help me with my letter.  I am writing it for my friend.

내 편지로 돕을 수있어?  난 내 친구 쓰고 있어.

It is to a friend, so that is why I am using a very casual form of talking.  I hope you can help me!


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## geniustylist

In Korean language the subjects are often omitted.
(내가) 편지쓰는 것을 (당신이 or 네가) 도와 줄 수 있어요 ? (나는) 친구에게 편지쓰고 있어요.
Therefore the followig should be ok.  
편지쓰는 것 도와 줄 수 있어요 ? 친구에게 편지쓰고 있어요.


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## coffee99

Does this also make sense?
친구에게 편지 쓰는 것 도와 줄 수 있어요?
Or:
한국어로 편지 쓰는 것 도와 줄 수 있어요?

Thanks!!


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## THENSON9200

geniustylist said:


> In Korean language the subjects are often omitted.
> (내가) 편지쓰는 것을 (당신이 or 네가) 도와 줄 수 있어요 ? (나는) 친구에게 편지쓰고 있어요.
> Therefore the followig should be ok.
> 편지쓰는 것 도와 줄 수 있어요 ? 친구에게 편지쓰고 있어요.


 
*"Can You Help Me?"*
I'm curious about this sentence: "편지 쓰는 것 도와 주실래요?"  Wouldn't this imply that I have a slight expectation that the person I'm speaking to will help me?  To me, with my limited knowledge of Korean, this sentence seems more colloquial.  In addition, I think it's a better translation of "Can you help me" in this situation.  The reason I say that is because I see this as a polite request (i.e. "Can you help me?"), as compared to asking about ability (i.e. "Can you fly?").  What do other people think?

Also, I have an urge to put "에" in the sentence: "편지 쓰는 것에 도와주실래요?"  I don't know why, call it a gut feeling, but I feel like it makes sense.  Does adding the "에" work?  If so, does it change the meaning at all?  If not, can anyone think about a possible reason why I feel I could/should add it?

*"I'm writing it for my friend."*
When I read the sentence, "친구에게 쓰고있어요," I think of "I'm writing it _to_ my friend."  Isn't this a more accurate translation?  "I'm writing it _for_ my friend"...all I can think of is "친구 쓰는 것이에요;" however, that doesn't seem right either.


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## Tourmaline

maghanish2 said:


> 안녕하세요!
> 나한테 돕습니다?
> I want to know if these sentences is correct. They are confusing me.
> Can you help me with my letter. I am writing it for my friend.
> 내 편지로 돕을 수있어? 난 내 친구 쓰고 있어.
> It is to a friend, so that is why I am using a very casual form of talking. I hope you can help me!


 

It's not the thing you asked, but..
If you wanted to say 'help me' in higher form,
you should say '저를 도와주세요' not '나한테 돕습니다'. ^^;
'나한테 돕습니다' means 'I help me.' in Korean.


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## Dublabla

maghanish2 said:


> 안녕하세요!
> 
> 나한테 돕습니다?
> 
> I want to know if these sentences is correct. They are confusing me.
> 
> Can you help me with my letter. I am writing it for my friend.
> 
> 내 편지로 돕을 수있어? 난 내 친구 쓰고 있어.
> 
> It is to a friend, so that is why I am using a very casual form of talking. I hope you can help me!


 

Here's what I think is the most natural way given that the conversation happens between friends.

: *"편지 쓰는 것 좀 도와줄래?"* (Can you help me with my letter)
---You would be well advised to leave out the subject 'I' when it's about your story.
*"난 친구한테 편지 쓰고 있어."* (I am writing it for my friend)
-----Unlike english-speakers, Korean avoid using demonstrative pronouns(it 그것)
~에게(postposition, to) is less common than ~한테(postposition, to) when it comes to colloquial settings.

---------------------------------------------------------
If you want it to sound a little more polite : (To someone you don't know that well)
*"편지 쓰는 것 좀 도와주실래요?"* (Could you please help me with my letter)
Can be a suitable translation.

And if you want the most polite way,
I'd suggest : *"편지 쓰는 것 좀 도와주시겠습니까?" *

I'm going to give you some useful form to say "Could you help me with~"

*돕다(Dop-da--root-form, help) With Nouns :*

1)Noun (좀) 도와줄래? 
2)Noun(좀) 도와주세요. 
3)Noun (좀) '도와주시겠어요' 

e.g) 
1) 방 청소(noun, cleaning up the room) 좀 도와줄래? (between friends)
2) 방 청소 좀 도와주세요. (Someone you don't know very well)
3) 방 청소 좀 도와주시겠어요? (The most polite way)

*돕다(Dop-da--root-form, help) With verbs :*
1) Verb *는* 것 (좀) 도와줄래?
2) Verb *는* 것 (좀) 도와주세요.
3) Verb *는* 것 (좀) 도와주시겠어요? 

e.g)
1) 방 청소 하는 것 좀 도와줄래?
2) 방 청소 하는 것 좀 도와주세요.
3) 방 청소 하는 것 좀 도와주시겠어요?
cf) 방청소 하다 (Verb, clean up the room)

tips) How to conjugate the verb when it's combined with '는'
먹다(eat)+는 : 먹*는*
입다(Wear)+는 : 입*는*
쓰다(Write)+는 : 쓰*는* (cf. 편지 쓰*는* 것 좀 도와줄래?)
말하다(speak)+는 : 말하*는 *
(Cf. 영어로 말하는 것 좀 도와줄래? Can you help me to speak in English?)

If you have any further questions, 
Feel free to ask me.
Hope this helps


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## maghanish2

고맙습니다 Dublaba!  

Your explanations are clear and very helpful!

I think I am starting to understand more.


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## microzenith

THENSON9200 said:


> *"Can You Help Me?"*
> I'm curious about this sentence: "편지 쓰는 것 도와 주실래요?" Wouldn't this imply that I have a slight expectation that the person I'm speaking to will help me? To me, with my limited knowledge of Korean, this sentence seems more colloquial. In addition, I think it's a better translation of "Can you help me" in this situation. The reason I say that is because I see this as a polite request (i.e. "Can you help me?"), as compared to asking about ability (i.e. "Can you fly?"). What do other people think?
> 
> Also, I have an urge to put "에" in the sentence: "편지 쓰는 것에 도와주실래요?" I don't know why, call it a gut feeling, but I feel like it makes sense. Does adding the "에" work? If so, does it change the meaning at all? If not, can anyone think about a possible reason why I feel I could/should add it?
> 
> *"I'm writing it for my friend."*
> When I read the sentence, "친구에게 쓰고있어요," I think of "I'm writing it _to_ my friend." Isn't this a more accurate translation? "I'm writing it _for_ my friend"...all I can think of is "친구 쓰는 것이에요;" however, that doesn't seem right either.


 

Hi, I've just joined the forum and noticed your questions. 
Well, I'll try my best to anwser them for you 

I would say you're quite right on assuming that a slight more expectation 
can be found in "편지쓰는것도와주실래요?" than in "편지쓰는것도와줄수있어요?", 
but the exact translations of these two sentences would be like this:
편지쓰는것도와주실래요? - Will you help me write my letter?
편지쓰는것도와줄수있어요? - Can you help me write my letter?
This is because "~할수있다"(to be able to do~) concerns the ability, 
as you have appropriately exemplified in "Can you fly?"(너는날수있니?).
Oh, but "~할수있다" can also indicate possibility... and in this case of helping to write letters, 
I would say it's better to understand it as a possibility, so "편지쓰는것도와줄수있어요?" would be more polite.
If you want to make it sound little bit more polite, "편지쓰는것도와주실수있어요?" can be used...

And as for the "~에" in "편지쓰는것에도와주실래요?", 
it doesn't work grammatically because “편지쓰는것” is the direct object of the verb “도와주다”. 
Instead you could use "~을", which is one of the objective postpositions in Korean.
“~에” is also a postposition, but not the objective one and it has various meanings, 
so I quite understand why you have this gut feeling!  
In fact it also has the meaning of “with”, and surely it would be natural for you to 
put “with” in “Can you help me _with_ my letter?”. But “at” or “to” would cover most of its meanings.

About your last question…
I think you’ve made a good point there 
“친구에게 쓰고 있어요.” is the accurate translation of “I’m writing it _to_ my friend.”, 
and with “I’m writing it _for_ my friend.” you’re saying that you wrote it instead of your friend, right? 
In that case, “친구 대신 써주고 있어요.” would be my recommendation. "대신" means "instead of".

Well I somehow feel you know quite a lot about the language! Keep up the good work!
Hope this helps and if you see any errors please let me know ...


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## maghanish2

Microzenith, in my original post the *for* didn't mean "instead of".  It can mean that, but this is not one of those cases.  Rather, it means more like "I a mwriting this *to give to* my friend".  

난 당싱이 이해하길 바랍니다.


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## nort9111

coffee99 said:


> Does this also make sense?
> 친구에게 편지 쓰는 것 도와 줄 수 있어요?
> Or:
> 한국어로 편지 쓰는 것 도와 줄 수 있어요?
> 
> Thanks!!


 

They make perfect sense =)
But 친구에게 편지 쓰는 것*을* 도와 줄 수 있어요?
and 한국어로 편지 쓰는 것*을* 도와 줄 수 있어요?
would be better.

However they both sound very.... um... 'reading out from a written text' kind of speach. It's not that they are a written form and shouldn't be spoken like that..... it just sounds a bit odd.

A more natural way to say it could be 친구한테 편지 쓰는데 좀 도와 줄 수 있어요? (or 있나요? is also common)


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## microzenith

maghanish2 said:


> Microzenith, in my original post the *for* didn't mean "instead of". It can mean that, but this is not one of those cases. Rather, it means more like "I a mwriting this *to give to* my friend".
> 
> 난 당싱이 이해하길 바랍니다.


 
Hello, maghanish2!
Yes, I see that you meant "to give to". 이해해요. 
I was trying to answer THENSON9200's last question, and I thought he/she could have meant "instead of". 
By the way I think it's a small spelling mistake, 
but "당신" is the right word...
Have a good day!


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## maghanish2

Oh, okay, thanks microzenith.

Yes, I meant 당신.


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## THENSON9200

Everyone, thank you for the information, especially Dublabla and microzenith for taking so much of your time to think about and write out all of your explanations.


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