일
il
Why a job and an incident are the same Korean word
The picture A lump dropped in front of you that won't clear until you deal with it. Dropped daily, it's a job; dropped suddenly, it's an incident. 무슨 일 하세요 asks about the lump dropped in front of you every day; 무슨 일 있었어요 asks about a lump that landed all at once.
Where the picture shows up in 일
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many lumps to clear
오늘은 일이 좀 많아요.
o-neu-reun i-ri jom ma-na-yo
I've got a lot on today.
Several lumps stacked on the desk, not one of them cleared away yet
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the lump dropped daily
무슨 일 하세요?
mu-seun il ha-se-yo
What do you do for a living?
The same lump set down in the same spot every single morning
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a lump dropped suddenly
어제 무슨 일 있었어요?
eo-je mu-seun il i-sseo-sseo-yo
Did something happen yesterday?
An unfamiliar lump that landed with a thud yesterday, still sitting right where it fell
Same 무슨 일: with 하세요 it's a job, with 있었어요 it's an incident.
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the lump that's mine
그건 제가 알아서 할 일이에요.
geu-geon je-ga a-ra-seo hal i-ri-e-yo
That's mine to take care of.
Pulling one lump out of the pile toward yourself and setting it down in front of you
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the lump swelling
일이 커지기 전에 말씀드릴게요.
i-ri keo-ji-gi jeo-ne mal-sseum-deu-ril-kke-yo
I'll tell you before it blows up.
A lump left untouched swelling up until it spills over the edge of the desk
All of it in one picture
일 is a lump set in front of you that won't go away until you clear it. Several stacked on the desk means you have a lot on today; the same one set down every morning is your job. An unfamiliar lump that landed with a thud yesterday is an incident, and pulling one toward yourself makes it yours to handle. Leave a lump untouched and it swells until it spills off the desk — that is a thing blowing up. So 일 isn't about hard labor; it asks whose desk the lump is on and how big it has grown.