-보다

See also: 보다

Korean

Etymology

From 보 (bo, “to see”) +‎ 다가 (-daga, while; after).

Grammaticalization pathway: "after seeing [noun A], [noun B] is [adjective]" > "[noun B] is more [adjective] than [noun A]". This has occurred in other languages; compare Tibetan བལྟས་ན (bltas na).

First attested in the mid-eighteenth century, displacing previous 도곤 (Yale: twokwon) by the nineteenth century.

Pronunciation

(SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [po̞da̠]
Phonetic hangul: [보다]

Romanizations
Revised Romanization^?	boda
Revised Romanization (translit.)^?	boda
McCune–Reischauer^?	poda
Yale Romanization^?	pota

Particle

보다 • (-boda)

than; used to form comparisons, optionally with 더 (deo, “more”)
Synonyms: (Early Modern) 도곤 (-dogon), (Gyeongsang dialect) 카마 (-kama)

내 가 걔보다 키 가 크다.
Nae-ga gyae-boda ki-ga keuda.
I'm taller than him.

내 가 걔보다 키 가 더 크다.
Nae-ga gyae-boda ki-ga deo keuda.
I'm taller than him.

지리산보다 한라산 이 더 높다.
Jirisan-boda hallasan-i deo nopda.
Mount Halla is taller than Mount Jiri.

Audio: (file)

어제보다 오늘 이 손님 이 더 많다.
Eoje-boda oneur-i sonnim-i deo manta.
There are more customers today than yesterday.

Audio: (file)

Derived terms

보다 (boda, “relatively; more”)