# 당신은 당신 아들이 어떤 사람이 되기를 원합니까?



## Hit Girl

당신은 당신 아들이 어떤 사람이 되기를 원합니까?

*1. What kind of person do you want your son to be?*

Is the above translation correct? Someone commented that because the verb is "want", I should've used "to become", such as:

*2. What kind of person do you want your son to become?*

I don't know what the rationale is. 
Is there any reason #2 is better than #1 or #1 is wrong?


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## Rance

Both expressions sounds perfectly fine in English.
You can ignore the comment as it sounds wrong to me.
There is no reason for "want" and "become" to be paired.
However since you have used "되기를", second expression is more truthful to original sentence.
If you have said, "당신은 당신 아들이 어떤 사람이길 원합니까?", first expression sounds more suitable.


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## Hit Girl

Thanks Rance


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## Hyperpolyglot

I think it is an implied insult, this question would seem as threatening, it would probably meant "You want your son to be beaten up or dead?" or something of that sort, but it is only implied, not clearly stated.

As far as I know, when a fight is about to broke out, you use 당신 with your opponent in questioning, so this would be a negative/insulting question directed at one's son being insulted upon.


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## Rance

I disagree.
Without any context given, that sounds a very farfetched scenario.
Maybe true if example was "당신은 당신 아들이 어떻게 되길 원해?"


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## Hyperpolyglot

Rance said:


> I disagree.
> Without any context given, that sounds a very farfetched scenario.
> Maybe true if example was "당신은 당신 아들이 어떻게 되길 원해?"



Another reason why I believed that this is a fight is because of the lack of honorific in use in the question, for all I know, 당신 can be used as a respectful form of "you", but in can be used in a quarrel.

The question lacks 요 at the end, so this is a casual speech, plus when you address someone else's son, the asker didn't use 아드님, so the combination of both lack of 요 and 아드님 suggests the disrespectful attitude the asker, and along with the usage of 당신, it is very likely an insult


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## eunju park

I am new so I might not be able to pick up the most appropriate tone here but I agree with Rance.  Hyperpolyglot's approach is very delicate but seems to be off.  The first example of Korean sentence means literally and doesn't have any sarcastic or twisted meaning.


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## Rance

It is quite common that in movies or drama a villain, not a brute type one, would use a overly polite tone to threaten someone.
So I understand this might be confusing.

There are a few things you are misunderstanding.
It might be necessary to break down the honorifics used.
-ㅂ니까 is 합쇼체 while -요 is 해요체.
해요체 is more colloquial and 합쇼체 is more formal and polite.
Hence the sentence is not as casual as you believe.

아드님 shows very high respect while 당신, althought not a disresctful expression, does not show that much of respect in comparison.
당신 is generally used in 하오체, hence the combination of 당신 + 아드님 is seldom used.
당신 아들 sounds more natural.
There are cases when you do find expressions like 당신 아드님 like in Bible, but in such case 당신 no longer refers to the second person but the third.


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## Hyperpolyglot

Rance said:


> It is quite common that in movies or drama a villain, not a brute type one, would use a overly polite tone to threaten someone.
> So I understand this might be confusing.
> 
> There are a few things you are misunderstanding.
> It might be necessary to break down the honorifics used.
> -ㅂ니까 is 합쇼체 while -요 is 해요체.
> 해요체 is more colloquial and 합쇼체 is more formal and polite.
> Hence the sentence is not as casual as you believe.
> 
> 아드님 shows very high respect while 당신, althought not a disresctful expression, does not show that much of respect in comparison.
> 당신 is generally used in 하오체, hence the combination of 당신 + 아드님 is seldom used.
> 당신 아들 sounds more natural.
> There are cases when you do find expressions like 당신 아드님 like in Bible, but in such case 당신 no longer refers to the second person but the third.



You are right, I totally forgot about the super formal question form ㅂ니까


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