Grammar
N상
Meaning
AdvancedN sang
상 is a Sino-Korean suffix (上) glued to a noun that names a system — a law, a rule, a contract, a procedure, a set of records, a theory — and the result means 'as that system reckons it'. 법률상 문제가 없다 is 'there is no problem in legal terms', 규정상 불가능하다 is 'the rules make it impossible', 서류상으로는 완료됐다 is 'on paper it is finished'. What the suffix does to a sentence is scope it: the claim is made inside the named framework and nowhere else, which is why legal and technical Korean reaches for it constantly. With some nouns that scoping tips over into open contrast with reality — 서류상, 명목상 and 형식상 all carry a quiet 'but actually not' — though the suffix itself only narrows the frame and does not deny anything on its own.
Form
Attach 상 directly to the noun with no space and no batchim rule: 법률상, 규정상, 계약상, 절차상, 통계상, 이론상. It goes on Sino-Korean nouns, and a multi-word official name counts as one (AI 기본법상, 개인정보보호법상). The result behaves as a noun-sized unit and can be used three ways: straight in front of the noun it qualifies (법률상 문제, 절차상 하자), with 으로 as an adverbial (이론상으로, 서류상으로는), or with 의 as a modifier (계약상의 의무). It never attaches to a verb ending — a clause has to become a noun first.
Examples
법률상 문제가 없다고 밝혔습니다.
They stated there was no problem in legal terms.
Common mistakes & nuance
Read 상 as a qualifier, not as decoration. 법률상 문제가 없다 does not say the thing was fine; it says the law does not object, and the sentence exists precisely to leave the rest open. Translating it away as a flat 'there was no problem' deletes the only hedge in the line. Two further things to know. First, one spelling covers two different suffixes: with a place-like noun, 상 means 'on the surface of' instead (인터넷상, 지구상, 해상) — nothing in the suffix tells you which reading applies, only the noun in front does. Second, a few 상 words have hardened into ordinary vocabulary and should not be parsed at all: 사실상 is the adverb 'effectively, in practice' rather than 'as the facts define it', and 사실상 확정됐다 means something is settled in all but name.
Similar grammar
- N 기준
Both narrow a statement, and they narrow different things. 기준 is a free noun that fixes the reference point of a measurement — as of when, counted how (2026년 기준, 매출 기준). 상 fixes the framework that supplies a definition — under which law, by which rule. 2026년 기준 위험지역 is the list as it stands this year; 법률상 위험지역 would be whatever the statute defines as one.
- -에 따라
에 따라 and 상 can both point at the same law and still make different claims. 에 따라 says an ACTION was taken in accordance with it (법률에 따라 처리했습니다 — we handled it as the law directs). 상 says a DESCRIPTION holds within it (법률상 문제가 없습니다 — under the law, nothing is wrong). One is about compliance, the other about definition, so they are not interchangeable even when the noun in front is identical.