까다로운 롤라와 토마토 먹이기 이야기

What does “까다롭다” mean in Korean?

까다롭다 describes someone who is hard to please — picky, fussy, never satisfied. The little sister in this story is so 까다로운 she refuses carrots, peas, potatoes, and above all tomatoes, which makes feeding her, as her brother puts it, 말도 못하게 까다로운 (“impossibly fussy”). The same word does double duty for things: a 까다로운 시험 is a tricky, demanding exam, and a 까다로운 규칙 is a fiddly, exacting rule.

It’s a native-Korean ㅂ-irregular adjective, so the ㅂ softens to a vowel before endings: the dictionary form 까다롭다 becomes the modifier 까다로운 (as in the title) and the polite 까다로워요. The split is worth memorising: aimed at a person it means “picky/choosy” (그 사람 입맛이 까다로워 — “he’s a picky eater”); aimed at a task, document, or condition it means “complicated, demanding, finicky” (절차가 까다롭다 — “the procedure is a hassle”). In the clip the brother only wins her over by renaming each rejected food — carrots become “orange-pong from Jupiter,” peas become “green drops” — turning her fussiness into a game.