Sharing sadness halves it while sharing happiness doubles it.

Hi all. I was thinking about what was happening around the world... many different kinds of natural disasters and hardships in different countries. If there is one thing that is common between them though, I think it is people and community that are looking after one another. The governments are doing their best but I don't think it is governments or any institutional systems themselves that really hold this world together. In my humble opinion, it is love for humanity that does that. It's got to be love that gives the fire fighters and workers courage to go inside the Fukushima nuclear plant despite the dangerous radiation level. Send them your love and prayers. That will be the easiest way of participating in their mission. One day, when everything gets back to normal we will share the prosperity too. :)


Sharing sadness halves it while sharing happiness doubles it.
슬픔은 나누면 반이 되고 기쁨은 나누면 배가 된다.


슬픔은, sulpumum, sadness + suffix
나누면, nanumyon, if shared or divided (나누다)
반이, bani, half + suffix
되고, duego, become (되다)
기쁨은, gibbumun, happiness + suffix
배가, bega, double + suffix


슬픔은 나누면 반이 되고 기쁨은 나누면 배가 된다.
sulpumum nanumyon bani duego gibbumum nanumyon bega duenda.


"반 + noun" can be used to describe a half of something. For example:

A: Would you like a piece of cake?
B: 반토막(tomak, piece)만 주세요. Just give me half of it, please.

A: How long does it take to get there?
B: 반나절(najerl, half day)이 걸려요. It takes a quarter of a day.

As you may have guessed, 배 is used with counting words, 하나, 둘, 셋, 넷, 다섯, 여섯.. and so on. Let's leave out 하나 because it cannot be used with 배 that already means double. One thing you need to remember is that when 둘, 셋 and 넷 come before 배, they loose the final consonant. So, it goes like 두배, 세배, 네배, 다섯배, 여섯배... And 두 in 두배 can be cancelled because it is redundant.

A: How is your harvest this year?
B: 올해는 (두)배로 거뒀어요. I harvested twice as much this year.

A: Which restaurant out of these two is better?
B: 이 식당이 몇배는 좋아요. This restaurant is several times better.

Bye for now!

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