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Marc
What does 나가 in 내가 제일 잘 나가 mean?
What does 나가 in 내가 제일 잘 나가 mean?
These lyrics from a song of 2NE1 is translated as "I am the best".
If I now try to follow the construction of the sentence:
내가 = Pronoun I with a subject marker
제일 = most
잘 = good
And to me this already seems enough to be translated as "I am the best".
But then 나가 comes after it. 나가다 means to go out. So I thought it was something like: I am the best and I go out partying. And the latter part is not translated on the lyrics websites for brevity. But in other information I found, I read that it means, go forward. So it would literally mean, I go forward the best? I am best in going forward? That really does not make any sense to me. So,
What does 나가 in 내가 제일 잘 나가 mean?
What is a more or less literal translation of this sentence that clarifies the Korean grammar that constructs it.
Dec 30, 2016 9:38 PM
Answers · 10
2
"내가 제일 잘 나가"
First, "내가 제일 잘" without 나가 is not a well formed sentence. 잘 is an adverb requiring a verb after it.
나가 means "go forward" or "make one's way forward (instead of being stuck in the same place)".
It means being successful at what one is doing.
You can say things like: 잘 나가는 배우 (popular actor), 잘 나가는 회사 (successful company), etc.
Translated literally, it's something like "I make the greatest headway", meaning "I'm the one farthest out front", etc.
Edit: I see it has fused into one word "잘나가다". So no space should be in it, although the meaning is the same.
December 31, 2016
2
잘나가다 is a verb. It means "to keep on succeeding"
잘나가다 : 사회적으로 계속 성공하다.
나가 composed as 나가(다) + 아
나가다 means "go out" or "go forward".
아 is an ending suffix.
In the meaning of "go forward", 나가다 is contracted form of "나아가다"
나가 is informal declarative present tense ending.
The following are all the same meaning with defferent speech level.
나간다.
나가.
나가요.
나갑니다.
December 31, 2016
I can see that some people have already answered the question but I also want to point out that 나가 also means "Get out". So if you tell someone that, they're more likely to think you;re saying "Get out". I also searched it on 2 Korean translators to make sure before giving this information.
http://translate.naver.com/#/ko/en/%EB%82%98%EA%B0%80 - Naver
http://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-meaning-of/korean-word-a8d314b979abf5387c15eefcee3936d1135bd9e6.html - Word Hippo.
December 31, 2016
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Marc
Language Skills
Dutch, English, French, German, Korean, Spanish
Learning Language
Korean
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