🇺🇸 Translation
[17’S Seungkwan] The picture that I didn’t upload… I hope this will cheer you up on today’s hot day
📙 Lesson point
How to say “The hot day today” in Korean
Hello, everyone! We’re going to learn three things today. First, we’ll learn about the Korean adjective, ‘덥다’ and other adjectives that have similar meanings to it. Next, we’ll take a look at how to use these adjectives in conversational forms. The final lesson point will be about how to use these adjectives to modify nouns.
After reading today’s post, you’ll not only be able to understand the meaning of the adjective ‘덥다,’ but you’ll also be able to understand the difference between ‘덥다’ and similar adjectives and use this adjective in various forms. Moreover, we’ll look into the actual expression that Seungkwan of SEVENTEEN used for his X post. Let’s begin!
The Korean adjective ‘덥다’ vs ‘뜨겁다’
First, let’s look at the meaning of the Korean adjective ‘덥다.’ It has the meaning of “to be hot,” but ‘뜨겁다’ is also an adjective that has the same meaning. Let’s look at how the meanings of these two words differ. ‘덥다’ is used to describe that the weather is hot and ‘뜨겁다’ is used to describe that an object is hot.
오늘 날씨가 정말 덥다.
Today’s weather is really hot.
커피가 정말 뜨겁다.
The coffee is really hot.
On an extra note, there are also different words for the different meanings of calling something “hot.” For the meaning of a taste being spicy, it is “맵다,” and for the meaning of being popular and attracting, we use “핫하다” or “섹시하다.” Let’s keep in mind that ‘덥다’ and ‘뜨겁다’ means ‘hot’ as in literally-high-temperature kind of hot!
How to conjugate ‘덥다’ and ‘뜨겁다’ in conversational forms
Now, let’s learn how to say these adjectives in conversational style. In Korean, there are various ways to say a certain adjective in dialogue style depending on informal/formal situations and non-polite/polite manners.
First, to say an adjective in an informal situation in a non-polite manner, you need to remove ‘-다’ and add ‘-아/어’ to the end of the adjective. Next, to say an adjective in an informal situation but in a polite manner, you need to add the ending honorific ‘-요’ to the end of the previous form. Lastly, to use an adjective in a formal situation and in a polite manner, you just need to remove ‘-다’ from the original form and add the ending honorific ‘-습니다’ to the end. Now, let’s look at how to adjust these rules to ‘덥다’ and ‘뜨겁다.’ Take a look at the tables below.
| 더워 | informal | non-polite |
| 더워요 | informal | polite |
| 덥습니다 | formal | polite |
| 뜨거워 | informal | non-polite |
| 뜨거워요 | informal | polite |
| 뜨겁습니다 | formal | polite |
Advanced examples for ‘덥다/뜨겁다’
오늘 날씨가 정말 더워.
Today’s weather is really hot.
교수님, 교실이 너무 더워요.
Professor, the classroom is too hot.
앤디씨, 요즘 날씨가 정말 덥습니다.
Mr. Andy, the weather these days is really hot.
그 커피는 정말 뜨거워.
That coffee is really hot.
엄마, 이 음식은 너무 뜨거워요.
Mom, this food is too hot.
피터씨, 이 돌은 정말 뜨겁습니다.
Mr. Peter, this rock is really hot.
How to use ‘덥다/뜨겁다’ to modify nouns
Lastly, let’s look at how to use these adjectives to modify a noun. It’s very simple. All you need to do is removing ‘-ㅂ다’ from each of the original forms and adding ‘-운’ to the end.
덥다 → 더운 + noun 뜨겁다 → 뜨거운 + noun
Let’s look at some examples.
더운 날씨: hot weather
더운 하루: hot day
더운 날: hot day
뜨거운 커피: hot coffee
뜨거운 피자: hot pizza
Seungkwan says: “오늘 더운 하루 힘이 되길 바라면서”
To wrap up, let’s look at the post that Seungkwan of SEVENTEEN posted on X. Seungkwan used the Korean adjective ‘덥다’ in the form of ‘더운’ to modify the noun, ‘하루,’ which means “day.” As Seungkwan posted a picture of himself holding an ice cream cone, he seems to be saying that he hopes his picture will cheer up his fans in such a hot day like today!