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~는 둥 마는 둥: Incompletely or Halfheartedly
~-다는/냐는/라는/자는 둥: Going on and on with nonsense
Vocabulary
Nouns:
총각 = bachelor
하인 = servant
허파 = lung
내심 = inwardly, secretly
눈살 = brow
이승 = this life
저승 = after life
저승사자 = grim reaper
참석자 = attendee, participant
주최자 = host, organizer
Verbs:
낙찰하다 = to auction
주최하다 = to host something
화장하다 = to cremate
결단하다 = to decide
파혼하다 = to break off an engagement
몰아붙이다 = to press or push people forcefully with words or actions
Adjectives:
불건전하다 = to be unhealthy, to be unwholesome
후덥지근하다 = to be humid, to be stuffy, to be muggy
Adverbs and Other Words:
둥 = doing something halfheartedly
어영부영 = aimlessly
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn another way to use 말다 by applying it to a grammatical principle that allows you to indicate that an action is done halfheartedly or with a lack of focus. Let’s get started.
~는 둥 마는 둥: Incompletely or Halfheartedly
In many previous lessons, you saw how you can use 말다 in a sentence, often with a grammatical principle that is attached to something and 말다 as well. For example:
Lesson 167: ~ㄹ/을 까 말까
Lesson 168: ~거나 말거나
Lesson 169: ~ㄹ/을락 말락
Lesson 190: ~(으)나 마나
The vocabulary list in this lesson introduces the word 둥. 둥 isn’t a regular noun, but rather a pseudo-noun that can only be used when described by something. You have seen many pseudo-nouns in previous lessons:
적 in Lesson 32:
그 사람은 저승사자를 본 적이 있다고 주장했지만 아무도 믿지 않았어요
= That bachelor claimed he had seen a grim reaper before, but no one believed him
수 in Lesson 45:
그 하인의 눈빛을 보면, 내심 어떤 결단을 내렸을 수 있다는 생각이 들어요
= Looking at the servant’s eyes, I feel like he might have made some kind of decision inwardly
리 in Lesson 133:
이승에서 그렇게 불건전한 삶을 산 그가 저승에서 편히 쉴 리가 없어요
= After living such an unwholesome life in this world, there’s no way he could rest peacefully in the afterlife
참 in Lesson 156:
화장하려는 참이었는데 갑자기 저승사자가 나타나 모두의 눈살이 찌푸려졌어요
= Just as they were about to cremate the body, the grim reaper suddenly appeared, and everyone frowned
둥 can be used similarly to 적, 수, 리 and 참 above. That is, it can only be used when described by something. In this construction, 둥 is typically preceded by a verb in ~는 form, then followed by 마는 둥, forming the fixed structure: ~는 둥 마는 둥. Just like the pseudo-nouns that you learned about in previous lessons, it’s hard to give 둥 a meaning on its own. Rather, it makes more sense to give the entire construction of ~는 둥 마는 둥 a meaning.
You can use ~는 둥 마는 둥 to express the feeling of someone seeming to do something but also seeming not to do it. In a sense, the action occurring isn’t happening very well. It’s happening incompletely or halfheartedly. If it is a person doing the action, they are not taking it seriously.
Here is a simple example:
아들은 공부하는 둥 마는 둥
= My son was halfheartedly studying
The sentence above is not complete yet. These sentences usually finish by indicating, instead of the action that should be happening in the first clause, what is actually happening instead. For example, if we finish the sentence above, you can think of an action that a person often does when they should be studying:
아들은 공부하는 둥 마는 둥 컴퓨터만 했어요
= My son was halfheartedly studying, and was just on his computer
아들은 공부하는 둥 마는 둥 친구랑 얘기했어요
= My son was halfheartedly studying and was talking to his friends
Below are many more examples:
후덥지근한 날씨에 저는 청소를 하는 둥 마는 둥 땀만 흘렸어요
= On that muggy day, I barely cleaned at all and just sweated the whole time
그 총각은 결혼 준비를 하는 둥 마는 둥 하더니 결국 파혼하고 말았어요
= That bachelor prepared for the wedding halfheartedly, and in the end, the engagement was called off
행사를 주최하는 둥 마는 둥 어영부영 넘어가니 참석자들의 불만이 컸어요
= Since the event was hosted so sloppily, the participants were quite dissatisfied.
아저씨는 경매장에서 물건을 낙찰하는 둥 마는 둥 하다가 큰 손해를 봤어요
= The man placed bids at the auction halfheartedly and ended up taking a big loss
그 사람은 허파에 바람이라도 들었는지 수업 시간에 떠드는 둥 장난치는 둥 정신이 없었어요
= It was like he had air in his lungs because during class, he wouldn’t stop talking or goofing off
Let’s continue on in the next section to see another use of 둥.
~-다는/냐는/라는/자는 둥: Going on and on with nonsense
It is also possible to have quoted sentences describing 둥. In Lesson 52, you learned how to quote in Korean. In Lesson 52, you saw how you can add:
~ㄴ/는다고 to quote a verb
~다고 to quote an adjective
~(이)라고 to quote 이다
~(으)라고 to quote a command
~자고 to quote a suggestion
~느냐고 to quote a question
In all of the above, ~고 can be eliminated and ~는 can take its place. In theory, this is a contraction:
~ㄴ/는다고 하는 contracts to ~ㄴ/는다는
~다고 contracts to ~다는
~(이)라고 contracts to ~(이)라는
~(으)라고 contracts to ~(으)라는
~자고 contracts to ~자는
~(으)느냐고 contracts to ~(으)느냐는
You have seen some of this to some extent before. For example, in Lesson 145 you saw how you can quote a command using ~라는, which is abbreviated to ~란 in that Lesson. You also saw similar forms in Lesson 161 where you saw ~는 attach to ~느냐 to describe an uncertainty.
Instead of simply being described by a verb, using the above forms, now a quoted sentence can describe 둥. This implies that the speaker is describing what somebody else says, often in a demeaning, complaining manner. Typically, one type of complaint (in the form of a quote) describes 둥, and then another version of the complaint describes 둥 again. For example:
애가 배가 아프다는 둥 숙제가 많다는 둥 계속 핑계를 댔어요
= The kid kept making excuses, saying things like his stomach hurt or that he had too much homework
Here, the speaker is annoyed at the kid. The use of ~-다는/냐는/라는/자는 둥 conveys the speaker’s annoyance towards all of the things the kid is saying. The kid is saying “his stomach is sore” and “he has too much homework,” among other things.
Below are some examples:
선생님이 조용히 하라는 둥 줄을 잘 서라는 둥 사람들을 몰아붙였어요
= The teacher kept barking orders, telling people to be quiet, to line up properly, and so on
그 총각은 결혼하자는 둥 여행을 가자는 둥 계획만 세우다가 결국 아무 것도 하지 않았어요
= That bachelor kept making plans, suggesting they get married or go on a trip, but in the end, he did nothing
그는 저승에도 이승처럼 규칙이 있느냐는 둥 심판을 받느냐는 둥 이상한 질문만 물어봤어요
= He kept asking weird things like whether the afterlife has rules like this world, or whether people get judged there
That’s it for this lesson!