As much as: ~만큼 First and foremost, ~만큼 can be attached directly to a noun to mean “as much as (that noun).” For example: 나만큼 = as much as me 밥만큼 = as much as rice 한국 사람만큼 = as much as a Korean person This particle acts similar to the particle “~처럼” but with the meaning of “as much as” instead of “like.” These noun-particle combinations can now go in sentences: 그는 나만큼 축구를 잘해 = He plays soccer as well as me (he plays soccer well, as much as me) 과일은 밥만큼 건강에 좋아요 = Fruit is as healthy as rice is (fruit is good for your health as much as rice) 저는 한국 사람만큼 한국말을 할 수 있어요 = I can speak Korean as much as a Korean person can Of course, because ~만큼 can be attached directly to nouns, it can also be attached directly to nouns being described by a verb or adjective (using the ~는 것 form). The same translation of “as much as” is usually used in these situations. For example: 게임을 하는 것만큼 일을 열심히 하면 성공할 수 있다 = If you work as much as you play games, you can succeed 고기를 먹는 것만큼 야채를 먹어 야 한다 = one should eat vegetables as much as they eat meat 저는 한국 사람들이 한국어를 말하는 것만큼 한국어를 말하고 싶어요 = I want to speak Korean as (much/) well as a Korean person speaks “만 큼” can also act as the noun being described by a clause conjugated using ~는 것 (that is, as ~는 만큼 and not necessarily as ~는 것만큼). When it is used like this, the translation is often different, but it essentially has the same meaning as was described previously. The most common translation of this usage is “to the point/extent” that. The clause before 만큼 can be conjugated to the past, present and future tenses. For example, it can be described by a clause that is conjugated in the past tense: 우리가 이 파티를 즐긴 만큼 너도 즐겼으면 좋겠어 = I hope you enjoyed the party to the extent that we enjoyed it (notice the past tense of “즐긴” describes 만큼 makes “to the extent that we ‘did’ or ‘enjoyed’”) 저는 어제 돈을 번 만큼 오늘 쓸 거에요 = I am going to use money to the extent that I earned yesterday (again, “번” (벌도 + ~ㄴ/은) is in the past tense which describes “만큼” in the past tense which is “to the extent that I earned” The present tense: (The most common way to see 만큼 described by a clause in the present tense is when the previous clause ends with “원하다” to make constructions like “as much as you want.”) 네가 원하는 만큼 먹어 = Eat to the extent that you want 우리 아들은 동료들이 배울 수 있는 만큼 배우지 못해요 = Our son can’t learn to the extent that his classmates can All of these sentences given above where 만큼 is being described by a preceding clause – the 것만큼 from can be used as well. Therefore, the following sentences are also acceptable: 우리가 이 파티를 즐긴 것만큼 너도 즐겼으면 좋겠어 = I hope you enjoyed the party as much as we enjoyed it 저는 어제 돈을 번 것만큼 오늘 쓸 거에요 = I am going to use as much money as I earned yesterday 네가 원하는 것만큼 먹어 = Eat as much as you want 우리 아들은 동료들이 배울 수 있는 것만큼 배우지 못해요 = Our son can’t learn as much as his classmates can The only reason I separate these two usages (that is, the usage of ~는 만큼 compared to ~는 것만큼) is because my Korean-Korean dictionary separates them into two usages. I have asked multiple Korean people and they all say that the usages above using ~는 것만큼 and ~는 만큼 have the same meaning. However, ~는 만큼 cannot be exchanged with ~는 것만큼 when the describing clause in conjugated into the future tense. For example, while these are correct: 그는 학교에 갈 수 없을 만큼 아파요 = He is sick to the point that he won’t go to school 그 것은 제가 볼 수 없을 만큼 무서워요 = That thing is scary to the point that I can’t look 우리가 차에 다 들어갈 만큼 공간이 있어요? = Is there space for all of us to go into the car? The following would all sound unnatural in Korean: 그는 학교에 갈 수 없을 것만큼 아파요 그 것은 제가 볼 수 없을 것만큼 무서워요 우리가 차에 다 들어갈 것만큼 공간이 있어요? 만큼 is also often described by a clause that is ridiculous and that will not happen. The speaker uses these types of sentences as a metaphor to describe to what extent something is happening. The easiest example of this would be something like: 나는 죽을 만큼 너를 사랑해 = I love you to the point that I am going to die In this case, obviously the speaker won’t die from loving the person to much. However, the speaker wants to express some sort of hyperbole in describing “how much” something is being done. In these cases, the clause describing “만큼” should be in the future tense. Other examples: 밥도 못 살 만큼 가난해요 = He is so poor he can’t even buy rice 죽을 때까지 믿을 수 없을 만큼 저를 배신했어요 = He betrayed me to the point that I can’t trust him for the rest of my life 이 케이크는 제가 매일매일 먹을 수 있을 만큼 맛있어요 = This cake is delicious to the point that I could eat it everyday 제가 표현할 수 없을 만큼 학생들에게 감동을 받았어요 = I’m impressed from the students to the point that I can’t express myself (I can’t express how much I am impressed from my students) Before I go any further, I want to briefly mention two idiom-type words related to 만큼. First, the word “눈곱” is a noun that means the bits of crust that people get in their eyes. I guess the common word for them is “sleep,” but I’ve heard people call them “eye boogers” or whatever. Either way, 눈곱 is the word for that in Korean – and this word is often used to describe something very small. The particle ~만큼 is often attached to 눈곱, and is used in sentences to mean “not in the slightest bit.” For example: 나는 너를 눈곱만큼도 좋아하지 않아 = I don’t like you in the slightest bit Note that his literally translates to “I like you as much as the sleep in my eyes.” Another idiom that you might want to use is “하늘만큼 땅만큼.” The words 하늘 and 땅 mean “sky” and “land” respectively, but when you want to explain how much you love somebody, it is a cute way of saying that you love somebody “thiiiiiiiiiiiiis much.” The literal meaning is something like “I love you from the earth to the sky” or something like that. If you happen to have a Korean significant other, he or she would be very impressed (and happy!) if you told him/her something like “나는 너를 하늘만큼 땅만큼 사랑해.” Though that is it for the particle (~)만큼, I would still like to talk about the word “정도”, which can sometimes be similar to (~)만큼.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 12:07:30 +0000
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