Question: I am trying to pin down the difference between saying 축구 하는걸 좋아해요 and 축구 좋아해요: is there one? or is that just a more *fancy* way to say it?
축구 하는걸 좋아해요 and 축구 좋아해요 – Do you like soccer or do you like doing soccer?
- 축구 하는걸 좋아해요. I like to play soccer.
- 축구 좋아해요. I like soccer.
- 김치 좋아요. Kimchi is good.
- 김치 좋아해요. I like Kimchi.
Question: So *하는걸 좋아해요* is a sentence construct which only refers to *games* and *sports* or other skills?
Good question. Not necessarily only, but to answer the asked question, please keep in mind, 하다 means to do. So, 하 will likely refer to something about “do” right? …and so, 하는 것 implies doing something specific.
- 하는 것 좋다 – that’s good to do
~ let’s think that eating is a specific kind of doing ~
- KImchi is what is good to eat – 김치 먹는 것이 좋다
- Kimchi is what I like to eat – 김치 먹는 것을 좋아하다
- (것을 is used here because Kimchi is the object of what I like to eat. 을 is used for the preposition of object.)
Let’s move on to “I like doing” – 하는게 좋다, 하는걸 좋아한다
- 한국말하는게 좋다 – I like speaking Korean. It’s good to speak Korean
- 운동하는게 좋다 – I like exercising. It’s good to exercise.
…now, 하는걸 is a contracted form of 하는것을 (and you already learned that 을 is an object particle.) So, 하는걸 좋아한다 just means “I like doing” and 하는걸 좋아하지 않는다 – “I don’t like doing” (하는걸 안좋아해).
- 하다 → 하는걸 좋아한다 = I like doing
- 먹다 → 먹는걸 좋아한다 = I like eating
- 운동하는것을 좋아하는걸 좋아한다 = I like exercising.
- 운동하는것을 좋아하지 않는다 = I don’t like exercising.