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Vocabulary
Nouns:
독재 = dictatorship
체제 = system, regime
보도 = report, news coverage
발언 = remark, statement, comment
편파 = biased
종례 = meeting with students at end of day
소신 = ones beliefs, convictions, opinion
시늉 = pretending
최우수 = best of the best
공산주의 = communism
공산주의자 = communist
민주주의 = democracy
민주주의자 = democrat
Verbs:
울먹이다 = to be on the verge of tears, to choke up
축복하다 = to bless
증진하다 = to enhance, to improve
후퇴하다 = to retreat
Adjectives:
부당하다 = to be unfair
씩씩하다 = to be brave, to be vigorous
섬뜩하다 = to be frightening, to be terrifying
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn a particle with a lot of meaning packed into it. In this lesson, you will learn about ~은/는커녕, which is used to stress a situation to the extreme. Let’s get started.
~은/는커녕: Far From
~은/는커녕 is attached to nouns directly, or verbs and adjectives by using ~기 to make the form ~기는커녕. The nuance it adds to a sentence is quite complex. Let’s look at a simple example to start:
비행기표는커녕 밥도 못 샀어요
Before I provide a translation, let’s break this sentence down. The speaker is indicating that they could not buy food. That is essentially the first thing somebody should buy if they don’t have a lot of money. It is one of our basic needs as a human. A plane ticket however, is far down the list of things we need. The sentence above would translate to something like:
= I couldn’t even buy a meal, let alone a plane ticket
Notice the progression of the sentence. For whatever reason, this was hard for me to get my head around when I first learned it. The thing that ~은/는커녕 is attached to should be less likely. Then, you should provide a more basic thing that didn’t even happen. If the most basic thing didn’t happen, then the less likely thing absolutely did not happen.
In English, this often translates to “far from” as seen in the following iteration of the translation above:
비행기표는커녕 밥도 못 샀어요
= Far from buying a plane ticket, I couldn’t even buy rice
Notice again that in this translation, it negates the first item and highlights that something even less likely or even worse follows.
In my mind, this is similar to ~조차, which you learned in Lesson 181. However, look at the sentence above with ~조차 instead of ~은/는커녕:
비행기표조차 밥도 못 샀어요
This sentence is grammatically illogical. It doesn’t show what the subject is failing to do with the plane ticket. If you could translate it, it would be something like:
Not even the plane ticket, I couldn’t buy a meal either
To me, this sounds illogical because it seems like “buying a meal” is somehow linked to “the plane ticket.”
Using ~은/커녕 gives the sentence a feeling of contrast and comparison. The noun attached to ~은/는커녕 refers to something more difficult, extreme, or less likely to happen. What follows it is more expected.
Below are many examples:
씩씩하기는커녕 울먹이기만 했어요
= Let alone being brave, they just looked like they were about to cry
정당하기는커녕 부당한 결정이었어요
= Far from being fair, it was an unjust decision
최우수는커녕 평균도 간신히 넘겼어요
= Let alone being the best, I barely passed the average
도와주기는커녕 시늉도 안 하더라고요
= Far from helping, they didn’t even pretend to help
축복하기는커녕 말 한마디도 안 해줬어요
= Far from blessing me, they didn’t even say a word
장난스럽기는커녕 섬뜩한 기분이 들었어요
= Far from being playful, it gave me a chilling feeling
관계를 증진하기는커녕 오히려 더 멀어졌어요
= Instead of improving the relationship, we’ve only grown more distant
그는 공산주의자는커녕 정치에 관심도 없어요
= He’s far from being a communist, he’s not even interested in politics
민주주의는커녕 독재 체제로 흘러가고 있어요
= Let alone democracy, it’s moving toward dictatorship
수업은커녕 종례도 없이 그냥 집에 가더라고요
= Forget the lesson, they went home without even a proper end-of-day meeting
공정한 보도는커녕 편파적인 발언만 가득했어요
= Far from fair reporting, it was full of biased remarks
소신 발언은커녕 분위기 때문에 아무 말도 못 했어요
= Let alone speaking my convictions, I couldn’t say anything because of the atmosphere
앞으로 나아가기는커녕 계속 후퇴하고 있는 것 같아요
= Far from progressing, it feels like we’re constantly retreating
That’s it for this lesson!