Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chaz47]

One of my coteachers asked me about this one today. Is there a difference between:

by (one)self
for (one)self

Apparently it was on the most recent exams in my middle school. The book said that there was no difference but one student claimed his hagwon taught him otherwise.

It feels intuitively correct to call them the same. I've tried out a half a dozen sentences experimenting and can't see any difference.

[kat2]

I think its slightly different:

I took a vacation by myself. (alone)
I took a vacation for myself. (for my benefit, and no one's elses)

[chaz47]

That's a good one thanks.

I think the example she gave me was something like:

We had to set up our tent by ourselves.
We had to set up our tent for ourselves.

I thought the second sounded a bit odd but seemed grammatically correct.


Keep those examples coming.

[some waygug-in]

A similar example:

I make money by myself. (alone)

I make money for myself. (for my own use)


I'm sure there are others.