나는 사서 고생을 하는 경향이 있어.
I tend to ask for trouble.
[Words]
- 사다: buy
- 고생하다: go through hardship, have difficulty (고생 = hardship, trouble, or difficulty)
- 경향이 있다: tend to-v (경향: tendency or inclination)
[Phrase Analysis]
나는 { (사서 고생을 하는) 경향이 있다 }.
- 나는: first-person pronoun 나(I) + auxiliary particle 는 → subject of the whole sentence
- 사서: 사다(buy)'s stem 사- + a connective ending -아서(expresses method) → 사아서 → 사서 (two ㅏs are overlapped, so one is dropped out)
- 고생하는: 고생하다(go through a hardship)'s stem 고생하- + a determiner-transforming/adnominal ending -는
- 경향이: subject of the predicate clause
- 있다: predicate of the predicate clause
[Meaning]
Imagine a situation when you don't have to go through hardship but you bother yourself by doing so. It's like you buy that hardship and take it as yours. That is '사서 고생을 하다'.