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There are 3 kinds of ages in Korea
(Korean) Seneun-nai(세는나이), man-nai(만 나이), yeon-nai(연 나이)
Seneun-nai is broadly used in everyday life in Korea. In seneun-nai, you are 1 year old the day you are born and 1 year older with every year that passes.
Man-nai is the internationally used age system. You are 0 years old when born and age as years pass. It is the age system you(non-Korean) are familiar with.
Yeon-nai is used in Korean government offices. Yeon-nai is calculated by subtracting your year of birth from the current year. By law, men have to receive medical exam for the military at the yeon-nai of 19.
To make the concepts more clearer if you were born on July, 2002, and if it is March 2020, then
- Your Seneun-nai is 1+17=18
- Your Man-nai is 0+17=17
- Your Yeon-nai is 2020-2002=18
On September 2020,
- Your Seneun-nai is 1+18=19
- Your Man-nai is 0+18=18
- Your Yeon-nai is 2020-2002=18
Korea has been legally using man-nai since 1962 but seneun-nai is still used often in daily life.
Seneun-nai was an age counting method in East Asian culture including China, Korea and Japan.
Some say it is because there was no “zero(0)” in East Asian numerical system and some say it is because you were born the moment you were conceived in your mother’s womb. Japan stopped using seneun-nai in 1902 and so did China since the 70’s but Korea still uses the system despite movements by NGOs to use man-nai in the 70’s. .
The legal age is your man-nai in korea. Man comes from the Chinese character that means some date or time is full.
So be careful, if you say you are 19 years old, Koreans might think you are a high school third grade student.
Written by Admin Hyun
Edited by Admin Yu
Hi! This is Admin Hyun.
Today’s grammar I want to introduce is ‘same vowel elision’(동음 탈락). Same vowel elision is not an irregular conjugation. Under the conditions, it always happens.
A phenomenon where an ending(어미) that starts with ‘-아’ or ‘어’ follows after verb’s or adjective’s(용언) stem(어간) that end with ‘-아’ or ‘어’, and as a result, the same vowel ‘아’ or ‘어’ is repeated(comes consecutively), one of the same vowels is omitted(elision)
ㅏelision (ㅏ 탈락)
- 가+아서 가서(go and-)
- 가+아 가(go)
- 가+았 + 다 갔다(went)
- 차+아서 차서(kick and-)
- 차+아 차(kick)
- 차+았 + 다 찼다(kicked)
ㅓ elision (ㅓ 탈락)
- 건너+어서 건너서(cross the street and-)
- 건너+어 건너(cross the street)
- 건너+었 + 다 건넜다(crossed the street)
- 나서+어서 나서서(take the lead and-)
- 나서+어 나서(take the lead, step ahead)
- 나서+었 + 다 나섰다(took the lead)
Keep in mind that if the stem ends with a consonant, same vowel elision doesn’t take place. For example,
- 먹 + 어 먹어(eat)
- 먹 + 었 + 다 먹었다(ate)
- 잡 + 아 잡아(catch)
- 잡 + 았 + 다 잡았다(caught)
Elision of vowels is a kind of ‘elision of phoneme(음운)’. Not only vowels but also consonants are subject to elision. For example, if in 딸(daughter)+님(honorific ending), ‘ㄹ’ is omitted when it is followed by ㄴ and becomes 따님(honorific form of daughter). Elision of phoneme is one of many ‘changes in phoneme’ which include alteration, elision, addition and contraction.
Written by Admin Hyun
Edited by Admin Yu
