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Oh, and there's one really succinct way of expression that's not found in English: One can say something like 난 라면 - literally "I am ramen" (or something like

Oh, and there's one really succinct way of expression that's not found in English: One can say something like 난 라면 - literally "I am ramen" (or something like that - it's a bit fuzzy because the "be" verb is omitted). It would be a ridiculous sentence by itself, but if your friend just asked "I'll have noodles, how about you?" then it's a perfectly fine response. Similarly you could even say 난 프랑스 ("I am France") if the question was "I visited New York this summer, it was really nice, did you go somewhere?"

hydrok9 4y ago
In English you could say I am FOR salmon though!
LudwigNagasena 4y ago
Isn't 난 just 나 (I) +‎ ㄴ (topic marker)? So it seems like 난 라면 should be translated more or less as "As for me, ramen" and 난 프랑스 as "As for me, France".
- yongjik 4y ago
  You are absolutely correct - I oversimplified. On the other hand, nobody says "As for me, ramen" in English (it's not even shorter than "I'll have ramen"), so there's that.
creamyhorror 4y ago
You could just say "Ramen", "Ramen for me", "I want ramen", or maybe even "Me, ramen". But I get your point - it's more common in English to use a longer sentence. The same thing is pointed out about Japanese too - "watashi wa ramen" for "As for me, ramen" - it has the same topic-comment structure as Korean.
l3000 4y ago
I may want to add that as a person who had a lot of exposure to Korean (but is not native). Directly translating for instance “나는 라면” with the example context you mentioned, feels like „in my case, Ramen“. The 는/은 is describing the 나 in a way that is contrasting whatever was said in the current context. It is certainly used for saying something that is different from the other. „Well in MY case, it is …“, but it may work for other cases too, I am not totally sure.
pigsty 4y ago
English has one word answers for those questions. It’s just conversationally dry and people will assume you’re not interested.

hydrok9 4y ago

In English you could say I am FOR salmon though!

LudwigNagasena 4y ago

Isn't 난 just 나 (I) +‎ ㄴ (topic marker)? So it seems like 난 라면 should be translated more or less as "As for me, ramen" and 난 프랑스 as "As for me, France".

yongjik 4y ago
You are absolutely correct - I oversimplified. On the other hand, nobody says "As for me, ramen" in English (it's not even shorter than "I'll have ramen"), so there's that.

creamyhorror 4y ago

You could just say "Ramen", "Ramen for me", "I want ramen", or maybe even "Me, ramen". But I get your point - it's more common in English to use a longer sentence. The same thing is pointed out about Japanese too - "watashi wa ramen" for "As for me, ramen" - it has the same topic-comment structure as Korean.

l3000 4y ago

I may want to add that as a person who had a lot of exposure to Korean (but is not native). Directly translating for instance “나는 라면” with the example context you mentioned, feels like „in my case, Ramen“. The 는/은 is describing the 나 in a way that is contrasting whatever was said in the current context. It is certainly used for saying something that is different from the other. „Well in MY case, it is …“, but it may work for other cases too, I am not totally sure.

pigsty 4y ago

English has one word answers for those questions. It’s just conversationally dry and people will assume you’re not interested.