-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)

1. than; used to form comparisons, optionally with 더 (deo, “more”)

   Synonyms: (Early Modern) -도곤 (-dogon), (Gyeongsang dialect) -카마 (-kama)

   내-가 걔-보다 키-가 크다.

   Nae-ga gyae-boda ki-ga keuda.

   I'm taller than him.

   내-가 걔-보다 키-가 더 크다.

   Nae-ga gyae-boda ki-ga deo keuda.

   I'm taller than him.

   지리산-보다 한라산-이 더 높다.

   Jirisan-boda hallasan-i deo nopda.

   Mount Halla is taller than Mount Jiri.

   Audio:

   (file)

   어제-보다 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”)