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Korean Level 2 verb

그리다

geurida

Definition

To draw or paint a picture; also used to mean to long for or miss someone or something.

Example

동생은 매일 공책에 그림을 그린다.

Show translation

My younger sibling draws pictures in a notebook every day.

Etymology

Native Korean verb. The root 그리- is shared with 그리움 ("longing, yearning"), revealing that the act of drawing and the ache of missing someone were historically felt as the same gesture — tracing an absent outline in the mind or on paper.

Cultural note

Korean has a beautiful overlap in meaning here that English splits into two different verbs. Saying 엄마가 그립다 ("I miss my mother") uses the same root as 그림을 그리다 ("to draw a picture"). This poetic connection — longing as an act of sketching someone in the heart — is deeply felt in Korean literature and song lyrics.

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