벌써
beol-sseo
Korean 벌써 marks surprise, not the hour
The picture You look up and the clock hand sits far past the mark you expected, and your eyes go wide. 벌써 is arriving ahead of the mark you expected; 아직 is not having reached that mark yet.
Where the picture shows up in 벌써
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the clock ran ahead
벌써 여섯 시예요.
beol-sseo yeo-seot si-ye-yo
It's six o'clock already.
You are not half done, yet the hand has already swung past the sixth mark, and you freeze for a second.
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the work is already finished
그 일은 벌써 끝났어요.
geu i-reun beol-sseo kkeun-na-sseo-yo
That job is already done.
You reach for the papers on the desk and find them cleared away and squared off already.
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someone got there first
다른 사람이 벌써 신청했어요.
da-reun sa-ra-mi beol-sseo sin-cheong-hae-sseo-yo
Someone else already applied.
You come to join the line and the sheet you thought was blank already has another name on it.
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catching someone at the door
벌써 가세요?
beol-sseo ga-se-yo
Leaving so soon?
You see them pick up their coat, glance back at the clock, and your eyes widen.
Said with the pitch rising, it carries regret rather than a real question.
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the years ran ahead
여기 온 지 벌써 삼 년 됐어요.
yeo-gi on ji beol-sseo sam nyeon dwae-sseo-yo
It's been three years here already.
The stack of calendars you thought was thin turns out to be three volumes deep.
All of it in one picture
벌써 points at a spot that has run out ahead of what you expected. When the clock hand is ahead, six o'clock arrives 벌써; when the papers are cleared ahead of you, the job is finished 벌써. Another name on the sheet, a coat already in hand, three calendars deep — in every case the thing left behind is your own expectation. So 벌써 never tells you what time it is; it measures the distance between what you pictured and what is actually there.