Grammar
N보다 N 줄다
Meaning
IntermediateN boda N julda
Packs a baseline and the size of a change into one clause. The noun before 보다 is what the new figure is measured against, the quantity right after it is how far the figure moved, and the verb at the end says which way: 전년 동월보다 19만 1000명 줄어 is down 191,000 from the same month a year earlier. The quantity slot takes either a count (19만 1000명) or a rate (2%, 15.8%), and the verb slot takes any of the change verbs — 줄다 and 늘다 in plain style, 감소하다 and 증가하다 in the formal Sino-Korean of official statistics — with the frame itself unchanged. What the frame never supplies is the new total. That is a separate number the sentence may or may not also carry.
Form
보다 attaches straight to the baseline noun, with no space and no change for a final consonant (전년 동월보다, 지난해 같은 달보다). The quantity follows with a space, then the verb: N보다 + 3만 명 + 늘었습니다. The quantity normally stands bare with no particle, though 이/가 appears when it is treated as the subject (3만 명이 줄었습니다). Sino-Korean verbs drop into the same slot unchanged (2% 감소했습니다, 15.8% 증가했습니다) and are what official releases use. The mid-sentence connective forms 줄어 and 늘어 (and 감소해, 증가해) are everywhere in news writing, where the figure is chained on to whatever the sentence says next instead of ending it. Percentages take 퍼센트 and percentage points take 퍼센트포인트, and both fill the same slot: 0.4%포인트 하락했습니다.
Examples
방문객이 지난해보다 3만 명 늘었습니다.
Visitors rose by 30,000 from last year.
지난해 같은 달보다 2% 줄었습니다.
It fell 2 percent against the same month last year.
Common mistakes & nuance
Two misreadings, both common. The first is taking the quantity for the new total. 전년 동월보다 19만 1000명 줄어 says the drop was 191,000, not that 191,000 people are in work, and the rate version behaves the same way — 2% 줄었습니다 is a two percent fall, not a level of two percent. The second is skimming past what the baseline actually names. 지난해 같은 달보다 and 지난해 같은 기간보다 compare like with like, one month against the same month or a five-month stretch against the same five months, and that is not the same claim as a comparison against last year as a whole; anything seasonal comes out differently under the two. When a percentage turns up with no 보다 and no 대비 phrase anywhere near it, the baseline has been left out rather than made obvious. One more distinction to hold on to: a fall stated in 퍼센트 is measured against the old figure, while one stated in 퍼센트포인트 is the plain gap between two percentages, so 실업률이 0.4%포인트 올랐다 and 실업률이 0.4% 올랐다 are different sizes of news.
Similar grammar
- N보다
The particle on its own, which is where the baseline rule is set out: whatever sits in front of 보다 is what the comparison is measured against, and putting it on the wrong noun inverts the sentence. This frame adds two fixed slots after it — a quantity and a change verb — so the sentence stops being a plain comparison of two things and becomes a report of how far one figure moved.
- N 대비
The same job in a stiffer register. 대비 attaches to the baseline noun with no particle and almost always heads a percentage (전년 대비 5% 증가), which is the shape earnings releases and government statistics use; 보다 is the ordinary particle and reads as normal Korean, so it carries counts as readily as rates. The trap is identical in both — the noun in front is the baseline — and articles routinely run two baselines in one paragraph, 전년 동기 against 전 분기, where the same result can be a rise on one and a fall on the other.
- N에서 N(으)로
The other way to report the same movement, carrying the other half of it. This frame gives the baseline and the size of the change and stays silent about the new total; N에서 N(으)로 gives both endpoints and stays silent about the size. Statistics paragraphs often use them back to back, which is where it matters whether the number in front of you is a level or a difference.