— Overview
Modality, in this account, is the speaker’s attitude toward the content of a sentence, shown in a verb ending. It is easy, the account says, to mistake that attitude for a feeling or a mood. What is meant is what the speaker intends, or the mode the sentence itself takes. The ending -neunda is read as two related stances: an objective report of a present fact, and an assertion about that fact. The method is to fix the same verb and the same subject, then change only the ending, so that the shift of stance can be heard.
On the sentence “she is walking on the snow path now,” -neunda reports and asserts; -getda marks a resolution or a will; -(eu)lkka asks a question; -neunya asks as well; -ja suggests or asks a favor; -eora commands; -guna marks surprise or admiration. Understanding modality, the account concludes, helps a person show an intended meaning more exactly, and use a wider range of endings. It cites An Ju-ho (2012), Kim Ji-eun (1998), and Park Jae-yeon (2006). Those readings are left as the account leaves them.
— Contents and key concepts
An attitude, not a mood
The word “modality” is uncommon enough, the account says, that many people are unsure what it means. The temptation is to hear a speaker’s attitude as a feeling or a mood. What is meant here is stricter. Modality is the speaker’s attitude toward the content of a sentence, shown in a verb ending: what the speaker intends, or the mode the sentence itself takes.
The ending under view is -neunda. It is read as two related stances. One is an objective report of a present fact. The other is an assertion about that fact. In the example sentence, “she is walking on the snow path now,” -neunda both reports and asserts. That reading is left as the account writes it, with citations to An Ju-ho (2012), Kim Ji-eun (1998), and Park Jae-yeon (2006).
The same verb, a different ending
The method is simple and comparative. First the ending to be analyzed is chosen, and its meaning is made clear. A basic sentence is then built with the same verb and the same subject. Only the ending is changed, so that the shift of stance can be heard. Report, assertion, will, question, suggestion, command, and surprise are to be distinguished in that way, and the peculiar stance of the original ending is then named.
On the walking sentence, -getda marks a resolution or a will; -(eu)lkka asks a question; -neunya asks as well; -ja suggests or asks a favor; -eora commands; -guna marks surprise or admiration. Understanding those shifts, the account concludes, helps a person show an intended meaning more exactly, and use a wider range of endings in Korean-language teaching and use. The comparisons are left as they are drawn. No later official count of endings is added.
Sources
- an account of modality as a speaker’s stance in Korean verb endings, reading -neunda as an objective report and an assertion, and comparing it with other endings on the same verb, with citations to An Ju-ho (2012), Kim Ji-eun (1998), and Park Jae-yeon (2006).
Last updated: 14 November 2026
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