What's the difference between these "break" verbs: 깨다/깨지다/깨뜨리다?

Question

깨다, 깨지다, and 깨뜨리다 come up as "break" when looked up. What's the difference, how are they used?

Answer 1

Hello! I'm Mina Yeon. This is a very important question in Korean. Because there are different ways to add some meaning to Korean verbs. Let's say there are three kinds of way to make Korean verbs: 1.Basic Korean verb, 2. Active Voice verbs, 3. Passive voice verbs.

1. You know what "basic Korean verbs" mean, right? (ex:먹다, 가다)
2. With Active Voice verbs, you can make the verbs the way that the subject is the one who act the action by adding some affixes. (ex: 먹이다)

먹이다 = 먹 (verb root) + 이 (active affix) + 다 (termination affix)

ex: 엄마가 아기 밥을 먹이다. (The mom feed her baby some food.)

so, "The mom is the one who act the action of verb 먹다.

3.With Passive Voice verbs, you can make the verbs the way that the subjects are influenced by action when you add some special passive affixes (ex: 먹히다)

먹 (verb root) + 히(passive affix) + 다(termination affix)

ex: 토끼가 먹혔다. (The rabbit got eaten.)

So, by considering these three types of Korean verbs, we can go back to your question about "깨다/깨지다/깨트리다". We can analyze these verbs like below.

1. 깨다 is a basic verb.: 깨 (verb root) + 다 (termination affix) *meaning: break

2.깨지다 is a passive voice verb: 깨(verb root) + 지 (passive affix) + 다 (termination affix) * meaning: broekn

ex: 컵이 깨졌다 The cup is broken.

3.깨뜨리다 is a active voice verb: 깨 (verb root) + 뜨리 (active affix) + 다 (termination affix)

ex: 내가 그 컵을 깼어. I broke the cup.

As you study Korean deeply more, eventually we'll see many other passive affixes like "-이, -히, -리, -기 other than "-지" in "깨지다" and other active affixes like "-이, -히, -리, -기, -우, -구, -추, -이우 etc. other than "- 뜨리" in "깨뜨리다".

I know. It's a lot. :) But don't worry. It is just a Korean grammar knowledge that helps you analyze how a Korean verb is formed and what meaning the verb has exactly. It'll definitely help you to know and memorize the meaning of Korean verbs! Thank you for reading my answer and hope this answer is helpful to you!!

Answer 2

The difference between 깨다/깨뜨리다 and 깨지다 is in whether the subject is doing the breaking, or if the subject is being broken.

깨다 and 깨뜨리다 are both used for the former case, so the sentence "I broke a plate." can be written as

접시를 깼습니다.

접시를 깨뜨렸습니다.

whereas "The plate broke." would be

접시가 깨졌습니다.