Grammar
N 대비
Meaning
Advanceddaebi
Sets the baseline for a percentage. Earnings stories run two baselines at once — 전년 동기 대비 (against the same quarter a year ago) and 전 분기 대비 (against the quarter just gone) — and the same result can be a rise on one and a fall on the other, as Nexon's revenue is here. Losing track of which baseline a number belongs to is the single easiest way to misread a Korean earnings report.
Form
Attaches directly to a noun with no particle: N + 대비. The noun is the baseline, and the figure being compared follows. It almost always precedes a percentage or a change: 전년 대비 5% 증가.
Examples
지난해 대비 관광객이 두 배로 늘었습니다.
Compared with last year, visitor numbers have doubled.
지난달 대비 이용자가 5% 늘었습니다.
Users rose 5 percent compared with last month.
Common mistakes & nuance
The word before 대비 is the baseline, and getting that backwards inverts the sentence. Earnings and statistics articles routinely carry two baselines in one paragraph — 전년 동기 대비 against the same period a year earlier, and 전 분기 대비 against the quarter just gone — and the same result can be a rise on one and a fall on the other. When a headline gives a percentage with no 대비 phrase, the baseline has been left out, not made obvious.
Similar grammar
- N보다
Both compare. 보다 belongs to ordinary sentences and can compare anything; 대비 is statistical register and expects a figure to follow.
- N에 비해
Closest in meaning and slightly less clipped. 대비 is the compressed form preferred in headlines and tables, where 에 비해 would take too much room.