Thoughts about words, capital-L Language, little-L languages, and other junk.

Monday, August 31, 2015

Korean Mnemonics 5: The Mnemonic That Wasn't

This was all set to be the best Korean Mnemonics post yet. (Which is saying something!) There are a number of similar words for different kinds of responses (reply to written inquiry, reply to spoken question, immediate response, and so on), and I was having trouble keeping them straight.

I realized that one of these words—for "incorrect answer"—came premade in English: 오담 (odam, or, like, "oh damn" sort of). Perfect! I felt pretty good about this for maybe a whole day. Before I realized I had misread this and all the other "reply" words. It's not 오담 (odam). It's 오답 (odap), which doesn't lend itself quite so readily to any memory tricks.

For the record, here are the other words in my list (which I have basically decided to forget):

답 (dap, "answer to written question")
응답 (eungdap, "response, usually immediate")
정답 (jeongdap, "correct answer")
대답 (daedap, "answer to spoken question")
회답 (hwedap, "reply to written inquiry")
답장 (dapjang, "written reply")

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