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Grammar / Level 4 / Lesson 112

사이시옷, 성, 화, 력: taking long words apart

By Daniel Buckley · 11 minute read · TOPIK 5

Vocabulary

  1. 바닷가 - the seaside, the beach
  2. 나뭇잎 - a leaf
  3. 햇빛 - sunlight
  4. 콧물 - a runny nose
  5. 가능성 - possibility, chance
  6. 중요성 - importance
  7. 고령화 - population ageing
  8. 세계화 - globalisation
  9. 경쟁력 - competitiveness
  10. 집중력 - concentration

바다 is the sea and 가 is the edge of something, so the seaside ought to be 바다가. It's written 바닷가, and that extra ㅅ belongs to neither word. If you've tried to look up 바닷 in a dictionary, you've met this problem already.

Reading Korean gets easier once you stop treating long words as single items. A newspaper noun like 경쟁력 is 경쟁, competition, with one small piece on the end. 적 and 스럽다 were the first of these pieces, and this lesson adds three more, along with that ㅅ.

사이시옷: the ㅅ between two words

When two words join into one, the sound at the join often changes. The second word's first consonant can go tense, or an extra ㄴ sound can appear. Korean spelling marks this by tucking a ㅅ under the first word, and that's a 사이시옷, a "between ㅅ".

So the ㅅ isn't a sound of its own. It's a flag that says two words meet here and something happens at the join. You never hear an s in 바닷가.

What the ㅅ does to the sound

  • The next consonant goes tense:바다 + 가 → 바닷가, sounds like 바다까해 + 빛 → 햇빛, sounds like 해삗
  • A ㄴ sound appears before ㅁ or ㄴ:코 + 물 → 콧물, sounds like 콘물비 + 물 → 빗물, sounds like 빈물
  • Two ㄴ sounds appear before a ㅣ sound:나무 + 잎 → 나뭇잎, sounds like 나문닙깨 + 잎 → 깻잎, sounds like 깬닙

For reading, you only need one trick. If a syllable ends in ㅅ and the word makes no sense, take the ㅅ away and try again. 혼잣말 gives 혼자 and 말, alone and speech, so it means talking to yourself.

  1. 바닷가에서 사진을 찍었어요.

    I took some photos at the seaside.

  2. 나뭇잎이 바람에 떨어졌어요.

    The leaves came down in the wind.

  3. 오늘은 햇빛이 너무 강해요.

    The sunlight is really strong today.

  4. 감기에 걸려서 콧물이 나요.

    I've got a cold, so I have a runny nose.

  5. 민수 씨는 가끔 혼잣말을 해요.

    Minsu talks to himself sometimes.

  6. 아랫집에 아기가 태어났어요.

    A baby's been born in the flat downstairs.

When the ㅅ isn't written

The sound change happens in far more words than the spelling shows. The ㅅ only appears when several conditions hold, so you can have the sound without the letter. You don't need these rules to read, but they explain the spellings that look inconsistent.

The ㅅ needs all of these

  • The first word ends in a vowel. After a consonant there's no room for the ㅅ.길 + 가 → 길가, sounds like 길까
  • At least one word is native Korean. Two Sino-Korean words don't take it, apart from six exceptions such as 숫자 and 횟수.개수, sounds like 개쑤
  • Neither word is a foreign loan.피자 + 집 → 피자집
  • The second word isn't already tense or aspirated.위 + 층 → 위층뒤 + 쪽 → 뒤쪽
  • And the sound really changes. No change, no ㅅ.머리 + 말 → 머리말인사 + 말 → 인사말

※ Plenty of Koreans get these wrong, and dictionary spellings like 맥줏집, a beer bar, look strange to a lot of people. Expect to see 맥주집 on real signs. If the spelling on a sign differs from this lesson, the sign may well be the one breaking the rule.

  1. 여름에 ___에서 수영했어요.

    I swam at the seaside in the summer.

  2. ___에 누가 살아요?

    Who lives upstairs?

  3. 저 ___은 항상 사람이 많아요.

    That pizza place is always busy.

성: the quality of being something

성 turns a word into the noun for its quality, where English would use "-ness" or "-ity". Many Sino-Korean 하다 adjectives work like this: drop 하다, add 성. It usually sounds like 썽, so 가능성 comes out as 가능썽.

Making a quality noun

  • Sino-Korean word plus 성:가능하다 → 가능성중요하다 → 중요성심각하다 → 심각성다양하다 → 다양성

  1. 이번에는 합격할 가능성이 높아요.

    There's a good chance I'll pass this time.

  2. 건강의 중요성을 이제야 알았어요.

    Only now have I realised the importance of health.

  3. 이 문제의 심각성을 모르는 사람이 많아요.

    A lot of people don't realise how serious this problem is.

  4. 이 제품은 안전성에 문제가 있습니다.

    This product has a problem with its safety.

  5. 다양성을 존중해야 합니다.

    We should respect diversity.

Compare it with 적 on the same noun. 사회적 means social, as in a social problem. 사회성 is sociability, what a person has when they get on easily with others: 그 친구는 사회성이 좋아요.

화: becoming something

화 names a process, and it's roughly English "-isation". 세계 is the world, so 세계화 is the world becoming one market. You'll see it constantly in news about society and the economy, and it's one of the fastest ways to get through a headline.

Add 되다 when something undergoes the change, and usually 하다 when someone brings it about.

Three shapes of 화

  • 화: the noun for the process.고령 → 고령화세계 → 세계화자동 → 자동화
  • 화되다: it underwent the change.공장이 자동화되었다
  • 화하다: someone made the change.정부가 시설을 현대화했다

  1. 한국은 고령화가 빠르게 진행되고 있어요.

    Korea's population is ageing fast.

  2. 세계화 시대에 외국어는 필수입니다.

    In an age of globalisation, foreign languages are essential.

  3. 공장이 자동화되면서 일자리가 줄었어요.

    As factories were automated, jobs were lost.

  4. 이 소설은 작년에 영화화됐어요.

    This novel was made into a film last year.

  5. 시는 낡은 시설을 현대화했다.

    The city modernised its old facilities.

※ Not every 화 at the end of a word is this one. The 화 in 전화 and 대화 is a different character, the one for speech, and 영화 is simply the word for a film.

력: the power to do something

력 means power or capacity. Put it on a noun and you get how much of that a person or a thing has. These words go with 있다, 없다, 좋다, 높다 and 떨어지다, because a capacity is something you can measure.

Noun plus 력

  • Of a person:집중 → 집중력기억 → 기억력상상 → 상상력시 → 시력
  • Of a company or a country:경쟁 → 경쟁력영향 → 영향력

Watch the sound. After ㅇ, ㅁ or ㄴ, the ㄹ of 력 usually becomes ㄴ, so what you hear is 경쟁녁, 상상녁 and 집쭝녁. After ㄱ both sounds shift, and 기억력 comes out as 기엉녁.

  1. 요즘 집중력이 많이 떨어졌어요.

    My concentration has really slipped lately.

  2. 기억력이 예전 같지 않아요.

    My memory isn't what it was.

  3. 아이들은 상상력이 풍부해요.

    Children have rich imaginations.

  4. 나이가 들면 시력이 나빠져요.

    Your eyesight gets worse as you age.

  5. 우리 제품은 가격 경쟁력이 높습니다.

    Our product is highly competitive on price.

  6. 그 배우는 영향력이 커요.

    That actor has a lot of influence.

  1. 이번 일의 위험성을 몰랐어요.

  2. 농촌의 고령화가 심각해요.

  3. 학생들의 이해력을 키워야 해요.

  4. 도시화로 숲이 사라졌어요.

  5. 이 일은 체력이 필요해요.

  6. 그 사람의 정직성을 믿어요.

Listen and type

1 / 3

Play it as often as you like.

Taking a long word apart

Essays and news stack these up. Read from the back: the last piece tells you what kind of word it is, and the rest tells you of what. In the first sentence below, 자동화 is a process and 경쟁력 is a capacity, so you know the shape of the claim before you know every word.

  1. 기업의 경쟁력을 높이려면 자동화가 필요하다.

    To raise a company's competitiveness, automation is needed.

  2. 스마트폰의 대중화로 생활이 크게 달라졌다.

    Life has changed greatly with the spread of smartphones.

  3. 다양성을 인정하고 창의력을 키우는 교육이 중요하다.

    An education that accepts diversity and fosters creativity matters.

Common mistakes

  1. 윗층에 살아요.

    위층에 살아요.

    층 is already aspirated, so no ㅅ.

  2. 갯수를 세어 보세요.

    개수를 세어 보세요.

    개수 is two Sino-Korean words, and it isn't one of the six exceptions, even though it sounds like 개쑤.

  3. 기억성이 좋아요.

    기억력이 좋아요.

    Memory here is a capacity, and that takes 력.

Check yourself

Quick check

1 / 6

콧물 is ___ + 물. Type the first word.

Take the ㅅ away.

Summary

What each piece tells you

  • 사이시옷: two words meet here. Take the ㅅ away to find them.바닷가, 햇빛, 콧물, 나뭇잎
  • 성: the quality of being something.가능성, 중요성, 심각성, 다양성
  • 화: the process of becoming something. Add 되다 or 하다 for a verb.고령화, 세계화, 자동화되다, 현대화하다
  • 력: the capacity to do something. Often heard as 녁.집중력, 기억력, 상상력, 경쟁력

Now you can say

  1. 요즘 집중력이 많이 떨어졌어요.

    My concentration has really slipped lately.

  2. 이번에는 합격할 가능성이 높아요.

    There's a good chance I'll pass this time.

  3. 한국은 고령화가 빠르게 진행되고 있어요.

    Korea's population is ageing fast.

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