기억하다 / 기억나다

[luoruosi]

I've been learning Korean for a couple months and I'm not finding any resources explaining if there is a difference between "기억하다" and "기억나다".
If I say "너를 기억하다," does it carry a different meaning than "너를기억나다"?
For anyone who speaks Mandarin - is 기억하다 essentially 记得 while 기억나다 is 想起来？
Thank you

 

[pcy0308]

Hello luoruosi,
"기억하다" is simply "to remember". Depending on different contexts, it could be interpreted as "to commemorate", "to recall", etc., but essentially, it refers the very act of "remembering/recollecting" something.
Though "기억나다" can be translated as "to remember", think of it as "to come to one's mind" or "to surface in one's mind". "기억나다" puts more emphasis on the object/person that is "being remembered". Therefore, the sentence "너를 기억나다" would be incorrect. "(나는) 너가 기억난다" would be a better example. Hope this helps.

 

[nagomi]

기억하다 sounds more of "I remember it" or while 기억나다 is "it came to my mind when I didn't intended to".

 

[Hyeonsu Bang]

I'd like to just drop a bit of more information.
기억하다: I remember/she remembered/he said he remembered..
기억나다: it suddenly occurred to me i've left my bag in the train.

 

[Pizza221b]

To explain grammatically, 기억하다 works like a transitive verb; the thing you remember will be used as an object:
(민호는) 그 날을 기억했다. Minho remembered that day.

whereas 기억나다 works like an intransitive verb; the thing you remember will be used as a subject:
(민호는) 그 날이 기억났다. Minho remembered that day. Or That day occurred to him.

The latter sentence has two subjects (Minho and that day) which is possible in Korean.

 

[a three-nation challenger]

There is a lot of useful information out of reply among Koreans.
Though I'm Korean, I learn a lot from the comments.