# 선행 같아요



## 82riceballs

A dialogue from my textbook:

A: 김 과장님께서 3년 동안이나 소년 가장을 후원해 오셨대요.
B: 저도 들었어요. 남몰래 하는 봉사 활동이야말로 진정한 선행 *같아요*.

Why is it 같아요 and not 인 것 같아요??
i.e. 남몰래 하는 봉사 활동이야말로 진정한 선행 *인 것 **같아요*.

Thanks in advance!!


----------



## Kross

You can use both of them after 선행 for the same meaning. Speaker B wants to speak his/her sincere and honest opinion on 김 과장's secret charitable activity in an indirect way.


----------



## 82riceballs

Ahh I see. Also I just remembered that I've also heard 천사같아 to describe someone so I guess you really can omit the 인 것 in 인 것 같다.


----------



## Rance

> 같다_[발음 : 	갇따]_ -iv (‘-ㄴ/는 것’, ‘-ㄹ/을 것’ 뒤에 쓰여) 																							*추측, 불확실한 단정을 나타내는 말.*



It looks like ~인 것 같아요 is probably the grammatically correct form.
But many people skip using 인 것 in practice.


----------



## frenglishguy

When you use '같아요', it indicates a more strong opinion of speaker himself or herself than '~인 것 같아요'. For example in English, even if both of two constructions are translated into 'like' or 'be likely to', in that conversation, '같아요' is more like, "It's a good act(good deed, goodness).", but when it comes to '~인 것 같아요', you can understand it like "I think...". But you can only apply this explanation to moment when there are two examples like what you questioned. Like in any other languges, there is a fine nuance in Korean.


----------



## Rance

Hmmm....I'm not so sure about that.
Usually when you use 인 것이다 without 같다, that certainly indicates a very strong opinion.
진정한 선행이다. (normal statement)
진정한 선행인 것이다. (Very strong opinion)
This expression is used quite often to express one's opinion in a extravagant fashion.
For example, "그것이야말로 바로 진정한 선행인 것이다!"

Though I do feel like there is some subtle difference which I just couldn't figure out or put into words yet, I don't feel like it's about strong opinion.
Would you provide me some examples which might help me out to reach your conclusion frenglishguy?


----------



## Kross

Rance said:


> Though I do feel like there is some subtle difference which I just couldn't figure out or put into words yet, I don't feel like it's about strong opinion.


 It looks that frenglishguy tried to say that ~같아요 sounds stronger than ~인 것 같아요, although both patterens are soft and mild expressios of his/her own thoughts. As we all know, being stronger doesn't always mean being strong. The comparative can only be used to express a comparision between two things or more, as it literally means.


----------



## frenglishguy

Rance said:


> Hmmm....I'm not so sure about that.
> Usually when you use 인 것이다 without 같다, that certainly indicates a very strong opinion.
> 진정한 선행이다. (normal statement)
> 진정한 선행인 것이다. (Very strong opinion)
> This expression is used quite often to express one's opinion in a extravagant fashion.
> For example, "그것이야말로 바로 진정한 선행인 것이다!"
> 
> Though I do feel like there is some subtle difference which I just couldn't figure out or put into words yet, I don't feel like it's about strong opinion.
> Would you provide me some examples which might help me out to reach your conclusion frenglishguy?



What I meant by the answer was that, like I said, you can only apply that explanation to the moment above. And I appreciate Kross' clarification. A strong opinion implies in that context that when it comes to comparison between such things, it is able to give some stronger expression of one's thought or one's opinion.


----------



## Rance

Kross said:


> It looks that frenglishguy tried to say that ~같아요 sounds stronger than ~인 것 같아요, although both patterens are soft and mild expressios of his/her own thoughts. As we all know, being stronger doesn't always mean being strong. The comparative can only be used to express a comparision between two things or more, as it literally means.



Frenglishguy was pretty clear about his argument and I highly doubt I missed his points.
Also I support your argument.
Perhaps what was not clear was my previous reply.
Somehow I didn't feel like the nuance had to with strength of opinion, but something else.



frenglishguy said:


> What I meant by the answer was that, like I said, you can only apply that explanation to the moment above. And I appreciate Kross' clarification. A strong opinion implies in that context that when it comes to comparison between such things, it is able to give some stronger expression of one's thought or one's opinion.



What seems obvious for one might be entirely missed for someone else, hence I requested for some examples. 
Any other examples as long as it fits the case would have been just fine.
I'd been pondering quite some time about this question and was hoping to see some fine examples from frenglishguy to enlighten me the way.
I can't deny that I felt disheartening after seeing him simply repeating Kross's reply.

Anyhow I could not reach to some concrete conclusion myself, but I spill out some of the thoughts I had.
When 같다 is used in the form of ~과 같다, it means it's almost identical.
For example, 그녀의 피부는 백옥과 같다.
But you can freely omit "과" and just say, "그녀의 피부는 백옥 같다."
Here you are not speculating at all but stating a strong opinion.
I was thinking that maybe that's the reason why "선행 같다" sounds stronger than "선행인 것 같다" for some.
Only caveat is that when one says "백옥(과) 같은 피부"(porcelain-like skin), that person knows that skin and porcelain are not the same but look alike(in color).
But in our example, it should be 선행 itself not something that is like 선행.
That's where my flow of thought got stuck, but maybe such usage may affect how one perceives the meaning slightly different, creating fine nuance.

PS: I should have used 천사 같다 instead of 백옥 같다. 천사 같다 usually refer to the abbreviated form of 천사와 같다.
천사와 같다 and 천사인 것 같다 are slightly different.

천사와 같다 implies that two subjects are very similar, but they are intrinsically different.
천사인 것 같다 implies that two subjects can be the same.


----------

