This is an aphorism from my aphorism book.
두 손뼉이 맞아야 소리가 난다
du son.ppyeok.i maj.a.ya so.ri.ga nan.da
two palm-SUBJ meet-OFCOURSE(?) sound-SUBJ comes-out-PRES
With two palms meeting, sound comes out.
This has the meaning of “it takes a team [at least two] to get anything done.” It’s not quite the same as the English phrase “it takes two [to tango]”, which has a kind of negative implication about how it takes two people to do something bad (like argue or fight). The Korean seems positive in its valences.
I was (am) puzzled by the ending -야 on the finite verb form 맞 아. According to my grammar bible, the -야 ending is for nouns with that “even” or “of course” meaning. But it made sense to assume that’s what was being done here. I have a vague recollection of a verbal -야 studied somewhere, but I can’t remember the specifics and for the life of me I can’t find it right now in my grammar books.
[daily log: walking, 6 km]