How do I say...?
Would someone please translate that exact question for me?
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Answers · 2
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"How do I say ...?" would be "...는 어떻게 말해요?" in strict translation.
But we tend to say it differently, especially if the "..." part is very short.
For example:
1. '사람'이 [은] 영어로 뭐예요? ... What is 사람 in English?
2. '사람'은 [을] 영어로 뭐라고 해요? ... What do you call 사람 in English?
3. '사람'은 영어로 어떻게 말해요? ... How do I say 사람 in English?
People tend to use #1 or #2 for simple things, and #3 for longer phrases and sentences.
An interesting point above is the 해요 and 말해요. They both mean "say" but we use 해요 and 말해요.
The reason is because -라고 in #2 is widely used in talking about speech ("그는 아니라고 했다"), so saying or hearing it instantly triggers the idea of speech in people's mind, so that the next 해요 is unequivocally taken as 말해요.
On the other hand, 어떻게 in #3 is heavily associated with non-speech actions ("어떻게 해요?" is almost always "What do I do"). So we state the full word 말해요 instead of the short form 해요 to avoid misinterpretation.
This type of contextual cuing seems to happen all the time in connection with word choices.
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