If you understand Korean, you know that there is a lot of word-play in Korean lyrics. This thread was inspired by the recent one. In Jennie's "Solo". I thought she was swearing in that teaser, with bitch, naneun solo. Is she? Answer: probably. According to Melon the lyrics right before the chorus instrumental go:
빛이 나는 솔로
which roughly transliterates to bichi naneun solo.
Now, there are couple of things to note here. 빛 itself means light, shine and is pronounced roughly as bit. But if you add a vowel to it (such as 이) it gets pronounced as bichi (now, I'm not gonna explain why pronunciation changes, we ain't here to learn Korean). The reason this gets added is that when you attach 이 to something, that something becomes subject of the sentence. Grammar expression for this is that 이 is a subject particle or a subject marker. Which makes things interesting, because next is 나는 (naneun). 나 (na) means I and 는 (neun) is another particle. This time it is a topic particle. There is not much of a difference between subject and a topic, but it is not rare to have them in the same sentence. Then, obviously 솔로 which means solo. The interesting part is that the official translation on the video for the 빛이 나는 솔로 says I'm shinning solo. Korean songs can't really be considered the epitome of Korean grammar, especially when artistic freedom is at stake. The correct way to say I'm shining solo is 나는 솔로로 빛나고있어 (naneun soloro bitnagoisseo). Every sentence in proper Korean has to end with a verb. In this case, bitnagoisseo. This goisseo part is what makes it progressive a.k.a continuous tense, a.k.a -ing in English. Now, the progressive state is not used in Korean as much as it is in English, so to say I shine solo you'd say 나는 솔로로 빛난다 (naneun soloro bitnanda). To say shining solo without stating the subject or a topic you'd say 빛나는 솔로 (bitnaneun solo). But here comes Jennie's hommage to her foreign fans: she adds the subject particle 이, makes shine the subjects and herself a topic. This is now pronounced as bichi naneun solo which really resembles Bitch, I'm solo. Not only this, but the way she says 빛이 (bichi) is not the way a Korean person would say it. The "ee" sound in Korean is much stronger than in English. For example, the way you say "ee" in English word clean is how "i" in bichi should be pronounced. In the English word "bitch" there is that almost "eh" sound. And this is what you can hear when Jennie sings 빛이 나는 솔로. Not to mention that the song is a breakup song, so it makes it even more obvious that she is indeed swearing. Brilliant way to avoid censorship of KBS and at the same time swear at your ex.
There are other word-plays in so many YG songs, Teddy is a clever boy.
Do you know any word-plays in other songs?
빛이 나는 솔로
which roughly transliterates to bichi naneun solo.
Now, there are couple of things to note here. 빛 itself means light, shine and is pronounced roughly as bit. But if you add a vowel to it (such as 이) it gets pronounced as bichi (now, I'm not gonna explain why pronunciation changes, we ain't here to learn Korean). The reason this gets added is that when you attach 이 to something, that something becomes subject of the sentence. Grammar expression for this is that 이 is a subject particle or a subject marker. Which makes things interesting, because next is 나는 (naneun). 나 (na) means I and 는 (neun) is another particle. This time it is a topic particle. There is not much of a difference between subject and a topic, but it is not rare to have them in the same sentence. Then, obviously 솔로 which means solo. The interesting part is that the official translation on the video for the 빛이 나는 솔로 says I'm shinning solo. Korean songs can't really be considered the epitome of Korean grammar, especially when artistic freedom is at stake. The correct way to say I'm shining solo is 나는 솔로로 빛나고있어 (naneun soloro bitnagoisseo). Every sentence in proper Korean has to end with a verb. In this case, bitnagoisseo. This goisseo part is what makes it progressive a.k.a continuous tense, a.k.a -ing in English. Now, the progressive state is not used in Korean as much as it is in English, so to say I shine solo you'd say 나는 솔로로 빛난다 (naneun soloro bitnanda). To say shining solo without stating the subject or a topic you'd say 빛나는 솔로 (bitnaneun solo). But here comes Jennie's hommage to her foreign fans: she adds the subject particle 이, makes shine the subjects and herself a topic. This is now pronounced as bichi naneun solo which really resembles Bitch, I'm solo. Not only this, but the way she says 빛이 (bichi) is not the way a Korean person would say it. The "ee" sound in Korean is much stronger than in English. For example, the way you say "ee" in English word clean is how "i" in bichi should be pronounced. In the English word "bitch" there is that almost "eh" sound. And this is what you can hear when Jennie sings 빛이 나는 솔로. Not to mention that the song is a breakup song, so it makes it even more obvious that she is indeed swearing. Brilliant way to avoid censorship of KBS and at the same time swear at your ex.
There are other word-plays in so many YG songs, Teddy is a clever boy.
Do you know any word-plays in other songs?
