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Unit 5: Lessons 101 - 125

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Last Updated on May 6, 2022

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 1
 Table of Contents
Lessons 101 – 108
Lesson 101: Internet speech, slang and abbreviations................................................ p. 3
Lesson 102: Quoted abbreviations (~ㄴ/는대)........................................................... p. 11
Lesson 103: Difficult words and grammar: 한, 약, ~(으)므로, 전반, 당하다…....... p. 17
Lesson 104: Attaching ~는/은 to more complicated things........................................ p. 24
Lesson 105: ~아/어지다 vs ~아/어뜨리다, ㅅ 받침, ~화, ~아/어하다, ~께서….... p. 33
Lesson 106: Whether (or not): ~든지......................................................................... p. 42
Lesson 107: Attaching ~도 to more complicated things............................................. p. 48
Lesson 108: The past perfect tense: ~았/었었다........................................................ p. 62
Lessons 101 – 108 Mini-Test...................................................................................... p. 66

Lessons 109 – 116

Lesson 109: It seems like, it looks like: ~나 보다, ~ㄴ/은/은가 보다...................... p. 69
Lesson 110: There is nothing one can do: 어쩔 수 없다............................................ p. 74
Lesson 111: At least it is not that bad: ~(이)라도...................................................... p. 78
Lesson 112: Softening sentences with 편................................................................... p. 84
Lesson 113: The many meanings of ~다가……………………................................ p. 89
Lesson 114: On one’s way: ~는 길............................................................................. p. 94
Lesson 115: I should have: ~ㄹ/을걸 (그랬다) ......................................................... p. 97
Lesson 116: While in the state of: ~ㄴ/은 채............................................................. p. 101
Lessons 109 – 116 Mini-Test...................................................................................... p. 106

Lessons 117 – 125

Lesson 117: Asking a question with ~던가............................................................. p. 109
Lesson 118: Recalling an experience with ~더라.................................................... p. 106
Lesson 119: The complex usage of ~더니............................................................... p. 119
Lesson 120: To do something for a while, and then reflect on it: ~다(가) 보면..... p. 125
Lesson 121: If you want to/in order to: ~(으)려면…………….............................. p. 130
Lesson 122: While doing something, one realized: ~다 보니(까) ......................... p. 133
Lesson 123: Having tried something, I can say: ~아/어 보니(까) ......................... p. 136
Lesson 124: To be worth doing something: ~ㄹ/을 만하다, 가치.......................... p. 139
Lesson 125: Expressing annoyance over repeating oneself: ~다니까..................... p. 146
Lessons 117 – 125 Mini-Test................................................................................... p. 149

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 2
Nouns: Verbs:
미 = beauty 차다 = to wear a watch
튀김 = something deep fried 이루다 = to achieve a goal
번개 = lightning 절약하다 = to try to save something
천둥 = thunder 접촉하다 = to come in close contact
특기 = special skills, specialties
해병 = marines Adjectives:
만두 = dumplings 징그럽다 = to be gross, creepy
각종 = all sorts of, all types of 신선하다 = to be fresh
금연 = not smoking
Adverbs and Other Words:
실물 = an object seen or experienced in person
늘 = always
전국 = the whole country
각 = each
마찬가지 = the same thing
각각 = each and every
각자 = each individual
Introduction
This lesson will be a bit of a change of pace. After one hundred lessons of
HowtoStudyKorean, you probably have a good base of official, written Korean grammar.
In this lesson, you will learn some ways that Korean is often changed during speaking.
They say that in order to be a musician, you need to study music to learn the rules in
order to know how to break them. I think this is a good analogy for learning the concepts
taught in this lesson.

You will learn some common abbreviations that are used in Korean speech (and in
writing when speech is represented through quoting). In addition, you will learn the most
common internet abbreviations and slang terms that you can use in texts and messaging.
Let’s get started!

Abbreviating or Omitting Particles: 난, 건, 걸, etc…

Here in Lesson 101, you are probably aware of most of the content presented in this
lesson. However, if you have been studying Korean outside of Korea (and thus, can’t
meet Korean people that often) these concepts might be new to you.

It is common to abbreviate the particles ~는 or ~를 by attaching just ~ㄴ or ~ㄹ to a noun.

Naturally, the noun must end in a vowel. For example:

나를 can be abbreviated to 날
너를 can be abbreviated to 널
나는 can be abbreviated to 난
너는 can be abbreviated to 넌

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 3
It is possible to abbreviate 저는 to 전, but doing this generally is seen as informal –
which sometimes means it would be inappropriate.

These types of abbreviates often occur in speech. However, often the speaker isn’t even
making a conscious effort to abbreviate these words. Rather, their pronunciation of
“나를” (for example) might sound closer to “날” in a sentence. The most common place
you will see these abbreviations is in internet messaging like on Facebook or Kakao (the
Korean messaging app). It is also possible to see these used in literature where direct
quotes are used. In these cases, authors often try to write in a way that mimics the sound
of a real sentence as if it were spoken. Below are some examples:

난 어렸을 때 해병이었어 = When I was younger I was a marine

넌 누구를 기다리고 있니? = Who are you waiting for?
난 천둥이 치는 소리를 들었어 = I heard thunder
아버지는 날 위해 튀김을 사 주었어 = Dad left bought some fried food for me

This abbreviation can technically be done to any noun that ends in a vowel. While this is
most commonly done with 나 and 너, it is also very common to do it with “것.”

Remember first that “것” can be shortened to “거” with no difference in meaning. For
example:

저는 신선한 것을 먹고 싶어요 = I want to eat something fresh

저는 신선한 거를 먹고 싶어요 = I want to eat something fresh
저는 내일 각종의 만두를 먹을 거예요 = I am going to eat various types of dumplings tomorrow
저는 내일 각종의 만두를 먹을 것이에요 = I am going to eat various types of
dumplings tomorrow

~를 or ~는 can be abbreviated to attach directly to “거” just like with 너 or 나:

거+를=걸
거+는=건

For example:

이건 얼마예요? = How much is this?

그걸 하지 마세요 = Don’t do that please!
저는 신선한 걸 먹고 싶어요 = I want to eat something fresh

As I said, this abbreviation rule can technically be done with any word that ends in a
vowel. Though you will see (and hear) 난/넌/날/널/걸/건 a lot in Korean, you will find
that this is done much less commonly with other nouns. The most common place that you
will find these constructions is in texting or other forms of internet messaging.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 4
For example:

나의 침댄 너무 딱딱해! = My bed is too hard!

여긴 금연 구역이라 여기서 담배를 피우지 마세요 = This is a non-smoking area, so
please don’t smoke here

It is also quite common to omit these particles completely. Again, doing this is most
common in speech or forms of writing that try to mimic speech (like direct quotes in
stories or internet messaging). For example:

Instead of saying:
나는 밥을 먹고 싶어 = I want to eat (rice)

It would be common to simply say:

나 밥 먹고 싶어 = I want to eat (rice)

It’s based on the idea that in Korean, if something can be assumed, you don’t really need
to say it. That is, if you can assume the particles are there, then saying them is
unnecessary. For example:

나 이 손목시계 늘 차고 있어 = I always wear a watch

나 만두 먹기 싫어 = I don’t want to eat dumplings

While we are on the topic of texting and internet messaging, I want to introduce you to
other forms of “internet” speech.

Internet Speech (ㅋㅋ, ㅠㅠ, 넘, ㅇ)

If you have ever had a text-conversation with Korean people (especially somebody
younger than 25, and especially if it is a female), you will have seen that the grammar
and word constructions can be very different than what you are used to. The following
are very common in Korean texts and messaging:

ㅋㅋ = It doesn’t matter how many of these you include in a message, the meaning is like
“lol” in English. It stems from the fact that the pronunciation of “ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ” sounds
like somebody chuckling. Typically, the more ㅋ characters there are, the more you are
laughing. This is less commonly represented as “ㅎㅎ….”

ㅠㅠ = Similar to above, it doesn’t matter how many of these you include in a message –
although there are usually two of them. The letters represent two eyes with tears pouring
out of them – indicating that you are sad. Some people input more than two to emphasize
that they are very sad. You can sometimes hear people joking about the pronunciation of
these two as “you you,” which would be the pronunciation of “유유.” This is less
commonly represented as “ㅜㅜ.”

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넘 = This is an abbreviation of 너무. It can be placed in sentences just like “너무,” and
some people often include more than one as if to emphasize “very very…” For example:
난 넘넘 배고파! = I’m sooooo hungry!

^^ = This represents a happy face. When Korean people smile, their eyes usually make a
half-moon shape, which is what each one of these “^” symbols represent.

낼 = This is an abbreviation of 내일.

꺼 = This is an abbreviation of 것, or 거. Many people pronounce “거” as “꺼” (although,

many foreigners have a hard time distinguishing between these two sounds for the first
few years of learning). The most common place you would see “꺼” is following the
word “내” as “내 꺼” (my thing/mine). For example:

넌 내꺼야! = You’re mine!

그게 내꺼! = That’s mine!

ㅅ instead of ㅆ = For no real reason, people on the internet will often substitute ㅅ for
ㅆ when it is used as the bottom of a syllable. For example, instead of “있어” they will
write “잇어”

No spaces = It is also common to see Korean people write text messages or posts on the
internet (more commonly Facebook posts instead of something like a message board)
with no spacing between their words. This makes it very difficult for a foreign learner to
process, but it usually only takes a second for your brain to realize where one word ends
and the next one starts. Here’s an example that I found on one of my Facebook friend’s
wall: 응너혼자잘다녀와

그러니까
This word isn’t necessarily internet speech or slang, but it is quite common in speech in
general, and I don’t believe I have formally introduced it yet. Although common, it takes
some time for your brain to realize exactly what it means (and how it can be used)
because any definition you see online won’t be able to define exactly what it means.

The best way to use “그러니까” is by itself (or before a clause, but separated from it),
used after somebody mentions some fact – usually their opinion about something. By
saying “그러니까” the best translation to English is “That’s the thing!” or “I know
right?!” For example:

Person 1: 아~ 김연아가 올림픽 금메달을 못 따는 걸 믿을 수 없어ㅠㅠ

= Ahh… I can’t believe 김연아 didn’t win the gold medal at the Olympics
Person 2: 나도! 그 러시아에서 온 선수가 많이 넘어졌는데 어떻게 이길 수 있어?
= Me too! That skater (athlete) from Russia fell so many times, how could she win?
Person 1: 그러니까! = That’s the thing!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 6
“그러니까” doesn’t have to be by itself. Sometimes it is followed by another clause.

그러니까! 김연아가 러시아 선수보다 훨씬 잘했어~

= That’s the thing! 김연아 did so much better than the Russian skater!

Here are more examples:

Person 1: 데이트가 어땠어? = How was the date?
Person 2: 음~ 괜찮았는데 남자가 조금 못생겼어 ㅠ = Oh… it was okay, but the guy
was a little bit ugly
Person 1: 아 진짜? 그 건 안 돼~ 남자랑 사귀려면 남자가 잘생겨야 돼 = Really?
That’s not good! If you go out with a boy, he should be handsome
Person 2: 그러니까! = That’s the thing!

Person 1: 어제 전국에서 천둥 번개가 칠 거라고 했는데 하루 종일 맑았어

= They said it was going to thunder and lightning all day but it was sunny all day
Person 2: 그니까! 난 골프 계획을 다 취소했는데
= I know, eh! I even canceled all of my golf plans

Person 1: 박스가 커 보이는데 실물로 보면 엄청 작아

= It looks big on the box, but when you see it is person it is very small
Person 2: 그니까! 나도 마찬가지로 박스 때문에 샀는데 연 다음에 실망스러웠어
= That’s the thing! I also bought it because of (what was on the) box, but after opening it I was disappointed

Person 1: 그 선생님이 우리 딸이 체육을 못 해서 좋은 대학교에 못 가겠다고 했어

= That teacher said that our daughter isn’t good at P.E. and therefore won’t be able to go
to a good university
Person 2: 모든 학생들이 각각의 특기가 있는데 어떻게 그런 말을 할 수가 있어?
= Every student each has their own specialities, how could he say something like that?
Person 1: 그러니까 나 엄청 화났어 = That’s the thing! I was so mad!

When used like this, some people on the internet or on phones change “그러니까” to
“그니깡”. It’s good to be aware of, but I don’t suggest you do it unless you are a teenage
(or 20-something) girl.

When used connected with an actual clause (and not just used by itself as shown above),
you can see it as the meanings of 그렇다 + ~(으)니까. By putting these two together,
you get 그러니까 which is similar to “그래서” and means “that is why/that is the reason
why…”. For example:

그러니까 에너지를 절약해야지! = That’s why we need to save energy!

그러니까 그것을 만지기 싫어. 너무 징그러워서 = That’s why I don’t want to touch it. It’s too gross.
그러니까 학생들이 반의 목표를 위해 각자의 역할을 잘 해야 돼요
= That’s why students in the class each need to do their role well in order to achieve the
class goal

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 7
 그치
The word “그치” is also hard to translate into words. It is often used after one says a
statement and is asking the listener to agree with what he/she said. In practice, this is
quite similar to the ending ~지/죠 which was introduced in Lesson 93 as it is actually an
abbreviation of “그렇지”. For example:

날씨가 너무 덥지? = The weather is very hot, eh? (isn’t it?)

날씨가 너무 더워, 그치? = The weather is very hot, isn’t it!?

우리가 어제 산 토마토가 엄청 신선하지 = The tomatoes we bought yesterday are fresh, eh?
우리가 어제 산 토마토가 엄청 신선해, 그치? = The tomatoes we bought yesterday are
fresh, aren’t they!?

The formal equivalent of 그치 is 그쵸 (abbreviated from 그렇죠). For example:

어젯밤에 안개가 많이 꼈죠? = There was a lot of fog last night, eh?
어젯밤에 안개가 많이 꼈어요, 그쵸? = There was a lot of fog last night, wasn’t there?

Here’s an example I pulled off of one of my friend’s Facebook pages:

저사진진짜잘찍엇어그치 = I took that picture well, didn’t I?

Based on what I have written in this lesson, you should be able to decipher this as:

제가 사진을 진짜 잘 찍었죠? = I took that picture well, didn’t I?

그치/그쵸 can also be used by itself when the listener wants to show agreement to what
was just said. This usage is very similar to the meaning of 그러니까 (when it is also used
by itself). For example:

한국피자가 제일 맛있다! = Korean pizza is the most delicious pizza!

그치! = (I agree!)
그러니까! = (That’s the thing!)

Person 1: 한국말을 제대로 배우려면 HowtoStudyKorean 웹사이트 레슨을 잘 따라야

돼! = If you want to learn Korean the right way, you should follow the
HowtoStudyKorean lessons.
Person 2: 그치! 다른 웹사이트는 문법을 잘 설명하지 않거든! = (I agree!) Because
other websites don’t explain grammar that well!
Person 1: 그니깡! = That’s the thing!

Note that using 그치 and 그쵸 are almost exclusively reserved for speaking. The only
time you would ever see them written is through some sort of messaging system where
the written dialogue is trying to mimic an actual dialogue.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 8
 Abbreviations of 아이
아이 is used to refer to a baby. It is often abbreviated to 애. As an adult, it is common to
refer to children (roughly 12 years and lower) as 애, but it seems strange for me to refer
to children of that age as 아이. As a teacher, I often refer to all of my students as 애, but I
would never call them 아이. For example:

애들이 미술 수업 시간 동안 미의 기준을 배우고 있어요

= During art class students learn about the standard of beauty

얘, 걔 and 쟤 are abbreviations of 이 아이, 그 아이 and 저 아이 respectively. In

addition to the age ranges indicated above, it is common for friends to refer to themselves
as 애 in these abbreviations. For example:

쟤가 누구야? = Who is that?

쟤가 우리 선생님의 딸이야 = That (person) is our teacher’s daughter
얘가 내가 전에 말한 친구야 = This is the friend that I was talking about
걔가 코로나에 걸린 사람과 접촉해서 걔도 걸렸어요 = That kid was a close-contact
with a person who caught COVID, so he caught COVID too

ㅇ ending
In addition to all of the above, one of the cutest things you can do in Korean (when
speaking or writing) is adding ~ㅇ as the 받침 to a word without one. Notice that I say
“one of the cutest things.” Young Korean girls will use this form all the time, both in
speaking and in writing. When an older person does it (older than about 30 or so), they
are most likely doing so as a joke. An older Korean man would sound very funny using
this form.

Nonetheless, I (a 36 year old male) do this sometimes when I message my wife or when
I’m feeling cute or something.

This typically isn’t added directly to nouns (although it could sometimes, it is totally up
to the speaker), and is more commonly attached after conjugating a verb or adjective. For
example:
먹었어 ~ 먹었엉
배고파 ~ 배고팡

Some examples:
난 다 왔엉! = I’m here! (I came the whole way)
내일 안 갈 거양 = I’m not going tomorrow

~ㅇ can also be added after 요 or ~습니다 to conjugate a polite ending in a cute way.
Note however that in most situations, using ~ㅇ with formal conjugations would sound
ridiculous. The only time this could be done is if using polite speech with your friends as
a joke.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 9
For example, I could write this to my girlfriend:

내일 맛있는 걸 사 줘용! = Buy me something delicious tomorrow, please!

Or,
감사합니당! = Thank you!

I would say that the most common unconjugated word that this ~ㅇ is attached to it “네”
(yes).

Saying “넹” would be a cute way to say “yes.”

Alright, that’s enough cuteness for one lesson. In the next lesson, we'll start learning
some real Korean grammar again!

That’s it for this lesson!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 10
Nouns: Verbs:
혼잡 = congestion 삶다 = to boil in water
글씨 = handwriting 붙잡다 = to hold onto, to detain
체격 = person’s physical build 떠오르다 = to come into somebody’s head
앞줄 = front row 조퇴하다 = to leave work early
노인 = old man 징수하다 = to collect money, fees
연간 = annual 인상하다 = to raise a price
야시장 = night market 삭감하다 = to lower a payment
미역국 = seaweed soup 달성하다 = to achieve a goal
결혼기념일 = wedding anniversary day
Adverbs and Other Verbs:
Adjectives: 예순 = sixty
훌륭하다 = to be excellent 혹은 = or
마리 = counter for animals
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn more ways to abbreviate Korean sentences. In the previous
lesson, you learned common ways that Korean people shorten their sentences in
messaging or when talking on the internet. In this lesson, you will learn how to
abbreviate conjugations of quoted sentences. Let’s get started.

Conjugating ~ㄴ/는다고 하다 to ~ㄴ/는대

In Lesson 52, you started learning about quoted sentences, and how you can add
~ㄴ/는다고 to indicate that something is said, written or thought. The predicating verb is
typically something like 말하다 (to speak), 생각하다 (to think) or some other verb that
can indicate that words or thoughts were expressed.

For example, when quoted in the present tense:

아들은 미역국을 좋아한다고 해요 = Our son says that he likes seaweed soup

This abbreviation can only be used when you are relaying a quote that was said by
another person. For example, it would be unnatural to say something like this:

우리가 가기 전에 나는 배고프대

The same thing can be done with adjectives in the present tense, but remember the
different rules for quoting adjectives from Lesson 52 (and more generally for conjugating
adjectives in general from Lesson 5). For example:

저의 친구들은 저의 글씨가 예쁘다고 해요 = My friends say that my handwriting is pretty

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 11
In both of those situations (with verbs and adjectives), ~다고 해(요) can be contracted to
~대(요). See how this abbreviation is done by examining the sentences below, which are
adapted to reflect this new grammatical principle:

아들은 미역국을 좋아한대요 = Our son says that he likes seaweed soup
저의 친구들은 저의 글씨가 예쁘대요 = My friends say that my handwriting is pretty

The tense of the quoted clause is irrelevant. ~대(요) is a contraction of ~다고 해(요).
This means that the part before ~다고 해(요) could be the stem of an adjective, ~ㄴ/는~,
~았/었~, or ~겠~ . In other words:

~하다고 해요 can contract to 하대요

~한다고 해요 can contract to 한대요
~했다고 해요 can contract to 했대요
~하겠다고 해요 can contract to 하겠대요

Below are more examples of the first two listed above, where the quote is referring to
something in the present tense:

야시장에 가기 싫대요
= He says he doesn’t want to go to the night market

그 남자가 체격이 좋대요

= They say that man has a good build

그 노인이 앞줄에 앉고 싶으시대요

= That old man says he wants to sit in the front row

눈이 안 좋아서 앞줄에 앉아야 된대요

= His eyes aren’t good so he says he needs to sit in the front row

우리 애들은 강아지 두 마리를 키우고 싶대요

= Our son says he wants to raise two puppies

저의 선생님이 저의 한국어 실력이 아주 훌륭하대요

= My teacher says that my Korean skills are very good/excellent

우리 아빠가 그 사진을 보면 엄마 생각이 머릿속에 떠오른대요

= Our dad says that when he looks at that picture, he thinks of mom

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 12
Below are some examples where the quote is in the past tense:

감자를 아직 안 삶았대요
= He says that he hasn’t yet boiled the potatoes

우리 부장님이 연간 매출 목표를 달성했대요

= Our boss says that we met the goal of sales in a year

And here is an example of it being used in the future tense:

선생님이 오늘 조퇴하겠대요
= The teacher says he will leave early today

You can also attach grammatical principles to ~대~. For example, sometimes you want to
specifically state that the actual act of speaking the quote happened in the past. In this
case, you can attach ~었다 to it. For example:

애가 밥을 다 먹었댔어요

This allows you, then, to conjugate either the action, the act of speaking, both, or neither.
For example:

야시장에 가기 싫대요 = He says that he doesn’t want to go to the night market

야시장에 가기 싫댔어요 = He said that he doesn’t want to go to the night market
야시장에 가기 싫었대요 = He says that he didn’t want to go to the night market
야시장에 가기 싫었댔어요 = He said that he didn’t want to go to the night market

That being said, I feel that all four examples are trying to convey the same information
(both in English and Korean). In Korean, even if the speaker wants to indicate that the
quote was spoken in the past, it is still common to use the present tense contraction ~대~
and not ~댔~. When using these contractions, you are relaying what somebody else has
already said. Therefore, by default, the spoken portion of the sentence is already in the
past. As a result, even if you use the present tense contraction ~대요, context can indicate
that this quote was spoken in the past.

You might be looking at this and thinking “wait a minute, he showed us examples at the
beginning of the lesson where the spoken portion of the sentence occurs in the present.”
Look at those sentences again:

아들은 미역국을 좋아한대요 = Our son says that he likes seaweed soup

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 13
Maybe your son likes seaweed soup now, but when did he say that? In order for you to
know that he said it (and to be conveying it as is the purpose of this sentence), you must
have heard this in the past. The Korean sentences at the beginning of the lesson shown in
the present tense could be interpreted (and translated) to the past tense. It doesn’t really
matter.

아들은 미역국을 좋아한댔어요

These contractions (and the ones discussed below) are very common in speech, but you
will almost never see them written, unless it is a direct quote of what somebody said.
Note that because of the way these constructions are pronounced (specifically with verbs
in the present tense), to an untrained ear they could be very easily mistaken for ~는데
(which you studied in Lessons 76 and 77). For example:

아들은 미역국을 안 먹는데

아들은 미역국을 안 먹는대

This contraction can be applied to 이다, but the rules are a little bit different. Let’s look
at this next.

Abbreviating Quoted Sentences with 이다

This same type of contraction can be done to abbreviate quoted sentences ending in 이다.
In Lesson 52, you learned how to quote with verbs, adjectives and 이다. You learned that
when quoting a sentence that ends in 이다, ~(이)라고 can be added to the final noun. For
example:

너무 어려운 문제라고 해요 = He says it is a difficult problem/question

그 사람은 선생님이라고 해요 = That person says he is a teacher

“~(이)라고 해(요)” can abbreviated to “(이)래(요). For example:

너무 어려운 문제래 = He says it is a difficult problem/question

그 사람은 선생님이래요 = That person says he is a teacher
그 노인이 예순 아홉 살이래요 = That old man says he is sixty years old
그 커플이 오늘 결혼기념일이래요 = That couple says it is their anniversary today

As we saw earlier ~대~ can change to ~댔~ to suggest the words were expressed in the
past. ~래~ can change to ~랬~. For example:

너무 어려운 문제랬어 = He said it is a difficult problem/question

그 사람은 선생님이랬어요 = That person said he is a teacher

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 14
That being said, even if the speaker indicates that the quote occurred in the past tense, it
is still common to use the present tense contraction ~(이)래(요). For example:

In Lesson 9, you learned how to create the indication of future tense by adding ~ㄹ/을
것이다 to a noun. For example:

저는 밥을 먹을 것이에요 = I will eat rice

저는 밥을 먹을 거예요 = I will eat rice

As the final conjugating word of these sentences is 이다, ~(이)래(요) can be used to
abbreviate them when they are quoted. For example:

슬기가 내일 학교에 갈 것이에요 = Seulgi will go to school tomorrow, or

슬기가 내일 학교에 갈 거예요 = Seulgi will go to school tomorrow

슬기가 내일 학교에 갈 것이라고 했어요 = Seulgi said that she will go to school tomorrow, or
슬기가 내일 학교에 갈 거라고 했어요 = Seulgi said that she will go to school tomorrow

슬기가 내일 학교에 갈 것이래요 = Seulgi said that she is going to school tomorrow, or
슬기가 내일 학교에 갈 거래요 = Seulgi said that she is going to school tomorrow

Here are more examples:

그 가게가 물건 가격을 다 인상할 거래요

= That store says they will continue to raise the prices of goods

정부가 그 세금을 내일부터 징수할 거래요

= The government says that it will collect that tax starting from tomorrow

회사 매출이 줄어서 직원들의 월급을 삭감할 거래요

= The company's sales are lower, so they say they will cut workers’ pay

Due to the similar structure with quoted sentences with 이다 (Lesson 52) and quoted
imperative sentences (Lesson 54), the abbreviated forms of both look very similar. Let’s
talk about this next.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 15
 Abbreviating a Quoted Command
In Lesson 54, you learned how add ~(으)라고 to quote a command. For example:

엄마가 빨리 오라고 했어요 = Mom says/said “come quick!”

엄마가 천천히 먹으라고 했어요 = Mom says/said “eat slowly”
여자 친구는 반지 혹은 목걸이 사라고 했어 = My girlfriend says/said “buy a ring or
necklace”

Again, the final “했어요” in the sentences above are conjugated in the past tense. When
abbreviating this, context allows it to often be used in the present tense. I talked about
this already in the two previous sections.

These quoted commands can also be abbreviated. The manner in which it is done is very
similar to how quoted sentences with 이다 are abbreviated. When abbreviating quoted
imperative sentences, “~(으)라고 해요” can abbreviate to “~(으)래(요). The three
sentences above can be abbreviated to:

엄마가 빨리 오래요 = Mom says/said “come quick!”

엄마가 천천히 먹으래요 = Mom says/said “eat slowly”
여자 친구는 반지 혹은 목걸이 사래 = My girlfriend says/said “buy a ring or necklace”

Abbreviating ~자고 하다 and ~냐고 하다

In Lesson 44, you learned how to add ~자 to a verb to suggest that an action be done
together. For example:

밥을 먹자! = Let’s eat!

내일 공원에 가자! = Tomorrow, let’s go to the park!

In Lesson 53, you also learned that you can quote these types of sentences by attaching
~고 to ~자. For example:

아빠가 밥을 먹자고 했어 = Dad said “Let’s eat”

여자 친구가 야시장에 가자고 했어 = My girlfriend said “let’s go to the night market”
교통 혼잡 때문에 걸어가고 했어 = He says “says/says “because of the traffic
congestion, let’s walk.”

“~자고 해(요)” can abbreviated to “~재(요). For example:

~자고 했어(요) can abbreviate to ~쟀어(요). When abbreviating this, context allows it to
often be used in the present tense. For example:

아빠가 밥을 먹재요
= Dad says/said “Let’s eat”

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 16
여자 친구가 야시장에 가재
= My girlfriend says/said “let’s go to the night market”

교통 혼잡 때문에 걸어가재
= He says “says/says “because of the traffic congestion, let’s walk.”

갑자기 남자 친구가 헤어지재서 여자가 붙잡을 거래요

= All of a sudden the boyfriend said “let’s break up,” so the girl says she will try to get
him back

In Lesson 53, you also learned that you can quote questions by using ~(느)냐고 (for a
verb) and ~(으)냐고 (for an adjective). For example:

그 여자가 예쁘냐고 물어봤어요 = He asked “is the girl pretty.”

삶은 감자를 꺼내도 되냐고 물어봤어요 = She asked if it is okay to take out the boiled potato

In these cases, “냐고 물어보다/하다” can be contracted to “냬”. For example:

그는 여자가 예쁘냬 = He asked “Is the girl pretty?”

삶은 감자를 꺼내도 되냬 = She asked if it is okay to take out the boiled potato

This type of grammar often shows up on the TOPIK tests. A question like this is quite
common:

Which of the following is incorrect?

(1) 엄마는 나한테 밥을 많이 먹지 말래

(2) 엄마는 나한테 밥을 먹재
(3) 엄마는 나한테 밥이 있냬
(4) 엄마는 밥을 빨리 먹었대 했어
(5) 엄마는 밥을 먹을 거래

The answer being number (4). 했어 shouldn’t be placed after “먹었대” because
“먹었다” already includes this conjugation.

That’s it for this lesson!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 17
Nouns: Verbs:
소녀 = little girl 그치다 = for rain to stop
소년 = little boy 모시다 = to serve, to attend on someone
회비 = membership fees 말리다 = to dry
서양 = western countries 마주치다 = to bump into, to make eye contact
동양 = eastern countries 암살하다 = to assassinate
문명 = civilization 선고하다 = to sentence
속도 = speed, velocity 공격하다 = to attack
선약 = previous engagement
농업 = agriculture Adverbs and Other Words:
차례 = order 정성껏 = putting your heart into something
손상 = damage, harm, injury
도난 = theft
사기 = fraud
사기꾼 = swindler, fraud man
실생활 = real life
동호회 = club for people with same interest
귀중품 = valuables
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn a variety of grammatical principles that are similar to those
that you have learned previously. Despite the similarities with its previously taught
counterpart, each grammatical principle taught in this lesson is more difficult (and less)
common with the one taught earlier. I will use this lesson to introduce you to:

한 and 약 (similar to ~쯤)

~(으)므로 (similar to ~아/어서 or ~기 때문에)
전반에 (not to be confused with 보통 or 일반적으로)
당하다 (similar to passive verbs)

Let’s get started!

Estimating a Number or Amount with “한” and “약”

I first introduced ~쯤 in the vocabulary list of Lesson 22. In that lesson, you saw that
you connecting particle ~쯤 to make an estimation about something, often a time.
Attaching this to words or numbers translates to “about/approximately.” For example:

회비가 얼마쯤 나와요? = About how much is the membership fee?

비가 몇 시쯤 그칠까요? = What time do you think the rain will stop?
서양 문명이 언제쯤 시작됐어요? = About when did Western civilization start?
우리가 내일 한 2 시쯤 도착할 거예요 = We will arrive tomorrow at about two o’clock
어제 가게에 사람 스무 명쯤 왔어요 = Yesterday, about twenty people came to the store

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 18
Using ~쯤 is a perfectly acceptable way to express that your sentence is an approximation,
and most learners of Korean learn this particle fairly early in their Korean studies.

Another way to make an approximation is by placing 한 before the part of the sentence
that you are approximating. This usage is very common in speech, but not very common
in writing (unless it is a quote that is written down). Unlike the sentences with 쯤, it is not
common to use 한 to ask a question.

그 차의 속도가 한 150 킬로였어요

= The speed of that car was about 150 km/h

우리가 내일 한 2 시에 도착할 거예요

= We will arrive tomorrow at about two o’clock

어제 가게에 사람 한 스무 명이 왔어요
= Yesterday, about 20 people came to the store

한 10 분 뒤부터 차례 대로 입장할 거예요

= In about 10 minutes, they will enter in their order

우리 등산 동호회에 회원이 한 100 명 있어요

= There are about 100 members in our hiking club

제가 우리 아빠를 한 10 년 동안 정성껏 모셨어요

= I’ve poured my heart into attending to my dad for ten years

그 소녀가 한 3 살이었을 때 엄마가 돌아가셨어요

= When that little girl was three years old, her mother passed away

Person 1: 몇 개 필요하세요? = How many do you need?

Person 2: 한 열 개… = about ten…

Person 1: 내일 친구가 몇 시 올 거예요? = What time is your friend coming tomorrow?

Person 2: 한 아홉 시… = About nine o’clock

쯤 can be used in sentences with 한. For example:

우리가 내일 한 2 시쯤 도착할 거예요 = We will arrive tomorrow at about two o’clock

어제 가게에 사람 한 스무 명쯤 왔어요 = Yesterday, about 20 people came to the store

약 is another word that can be used to have the same meaning and function as 한. By
placing 약 before a number or quantity, you can indicate that it is an approximation of
some sort. However, 약 is significantly less common than 한 or ~쯤. Nonetheless, it is a
word that you should be aware of. Some examples:

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 19
캐나다 인구는 약 35,000,000 명이에요 = Canada’s population is about 35 million
캐나다 인구는 한 35,000,000 명이에요 = Canada’s population is about 35 million
캐나다 인구는 35,000,000 명쯤이에요 = Canada’s population is about 35 million

Therefore/Because: ~(으)므로
In previous lessons (most notably Lessons 37 and 38) you have learned how to say
“because/therefore” using a few different methods. For example:

저는 돈이 없어서 그것을 못 사요 = I can’t buy that because I don’t have any money
저는 돈이 없기 때문에 그것을 못 사요 = I can’t buy that because I don’t have any money
저는 돈이 없으니까 그것을 못 사요 = I can’t buy that because I don’t have any money

There are actually many other ways that you can create essentially this same (or a very
similar) meaning. You will be introduced to a lot of these alternate forms in later lessons
(coming up, you might want to check out Lesson 146 or Lesson 147). Let’s talk about
another one here.

By connecting two clauses with “~(으)므로,” you can create the meaning of “because” or
“therefore.” This grammatical form is more common in formal writing. For example:

이불을 강한 햇빛에 말리므로 더 빨리 말랐어요

= I dried the blanket in the strong sun so it dried quickly

제가 이 케이크를 정성껏 만들었으므로 맛있게 드세요

= I put my heart into making this cake, so please enjoy it

성적이 낮았으므로 그 학생은 좋은 대학교에 못 갔어요

= That student couldn’t go to a good university because of his/her low grades

우리 부장님이 그날 선약이 있으므로 못 가실 것 같아요

= Our boss has plans that day, so he probably won’t be able to go

그 사람이 대통령을 암살했으므로 징역 100 년이 선고되었어요

= That person was sentenced to 100 years in prison because he/she assassinated the president

농업을 배우면 실생활에 도움이 많이 되므로 사람들이 배우는 것이 좋아요

= If you learn farming, it is very helpful for daily life, so it is good for people to learn it

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 20
Notice above that this grammatical form can be added constructions conjugated into the
past or present tense, just like ~기 때문에.

As you know, you can use the grammatical principle ~아/어서 with the word 그렇다 to
form 그래서. In the same way, you can use ~(으)므로 with 그렇다 to form 그러므로.
The meaning of 그러므로 is very similar to 그래서 – but is used in more formal
situations or in print. For example:

동양 문명이 서양 문명보다 농업을 먼저 시작했어요. 그러므로 발달이 더

빨랐습니다
= Eastern civilization started farming before Western civilization. Therefore, their
development was faster.

In general: 전반
The two words that are used in English that translate to “generally” in Korean are 보통
and 일반적으로. For example:

저는 보통 월요일에 운동해요 = I generally exercise on Mondays

저는 일반적으로 그 사람을 직장에서 보지 못해요 = I generally don’t see that person at work

Notice that in the examples above, “generally” could be substituted for “usually,” and the
sentences would have the same meaning.

While the word 전반 translates to in general, its meaning is different than 보통 or

일반적으로. When using 전반, you are indicating that something is done across the
board, in a general sense, amongst all things. For example:

저는 한국 역사 전반에 관심이 있어요

= I am interested in Korean history in general (I am interested in all parts of Korean
history).

Notice the difference between the sentence above and the following sentence:

저는 한국 역사를 보통 좋아해요
= I generally/usually like Korean history

More examples:

서울시는 영어 원어민에 관한 예산 전반을 줄이고 있어요

= The City of Seoul is lowering the budget for native English speakers in general (across the board)

미국 통화가 요즘에 비싸지고 있어서 물품 값이 전반적으로 올라가고 있어요

= The price of goods in general (across the board) is increasing because the US dollar is
increasing

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 21
 To Occur/Receive, or an Alternate Passive Sentence Ender: 당하다
당하다 be me used as a verb, or attached to nouns to change them to verbs. Either way,
its purpose is to indicate that one receives or experiences some sort of negative outcome.

A good example is to talk about the word 부상, which translates to some form of injury
or wound. If you imagine the sentence below:

교통사고에서 사람 다섯 명은 부상을 ________

What verb do you put in the blank? How do you indicate that one “got” an injury?
당하다 can be used to create this meaning. For example:

교통사고에서 사람 다섯 명은 부상을 당했어요 = Five people were injured in the car accident

Here are more examples:

집에 가는 동안 사고를 당했어요
= I got into an accident on my way home

그 왕따 학생은 다른 학생들한테 괴롭힘을 당했어요

= That outcast was humiliated by other students

회의에 가러 급히 운전하는 중에 사고를 당해서 회의에 늦게 갔어요

= While going to a meeting, driving recklessly, I got into an accident and was late for the
meeting

복도에서 제가 좋아하는 여자를 마주쳐서 친구들한테 놀림을 당했어요

= I bumped into the girl I like in the hallway and was made fun of by my friends

~당하다 can be attached to nouns to turn them into a verb that one experiences a
negative outcome. 거절하다 is a verb that means “to reject,” which means you can use it
in sentences like the following:

아버지는 자기 아들의 요구를 거절했어요 = The father refused his son’s demand

However, if you want to indicate that you were rejected, you can change 거절하다 to
거절당하다. This allows you to indicate that you received that negative outcome. For
example:

그는 그 여자한테 데이트를 하자고 했는데 거절당했어요

= He asked that girl on a date, but got rejected

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 22
As you can imagine, ~당하다 is used when a person is getting the short end of the stick
in some situation. In other times, when a non-person is rejected, it would be more
appropriate to use the usual “되다” form. For example:

새로운 예산이 사장한테 거절되었어요

= The new budget was rejected by the CEO

There are many words to which ~당하다 can be attached. For example:

심한 교통사고로 인해 머리를 손상당했어요

= I injured my head due to the severe accident

그녀는 밤에 낯선 남자들한테 공격당했어요

= She was attacked by unknown men at night

제가 2 년 전에 사기당해서 요즘에 돈을 엄청 아껴 써요
= I was scammed two years ago, so I really need to be careful with my money these days

여행을 하는 동안 머물렀던 호텔에서 귀중품을 도난당했어요

= My necklace was stolen from the hotel I was staying at while traveling

That's it for this Lesson!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 23
Nouns: Verbs:
부위 = part 새다 = to stay up at night
배려 = good deed 반품하다 = to return something
정신 = mind, soul, consciousness 매표하다 = to sell tickets
정신과 = psychiatry 매진하다 = to sell out
거지 = homeless person 제출하다 = to submit (applications/resume)
전문 = specialty 목격하다 = to witness
전문가 = specialist 순환하다 = to circulate
전문점 = speciality store 성장하다 = to grow, to develop
일거리 = job, work to do
노약자 = the old and weak Adjectives:
매표소 = ticket office 우울하다 = to be depressed
놀이동산 = amusement park
Adverbs and Other Words:
자세히 = detailed/elaborate/carefully
정신없이 = frantically
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about the particle ~는/은. Wait a second, didn’t I learn about
~는/은 in Lesson 1? Isn’t that the particle that I have been using in every one of my
Korean sentences since I started learning Korean? Isn’t this Lesson 104? Why am I
learning about ~는/은 in Lesson 104?

Haha. As you learned in earlier lessons, ~는/은 is quite complicated. In this lesson, you
will revisit ~는/은 and learn how to apply it to more complicated sentences.

Using ~는/은 to state that a comparison has taken place

Attaching ~는/은 to a noun to indicate that that word is the subject/topic of the sentence
was something you learned about in Lesson 1. In later lessons, you learned that ~는/은
has more than one purpose. Specifically, in Lesson 2, 17 22 and 24; you learned that
~는/은 can be used to:

 Indicate a subject of a sentence

 Indicate a general fact
 Indicate a comparison

This comparison function of ~는/은 is often added to other particles or other grammatical
principles to add this subtle meaning. Let’s look at some examples in order to explain this.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 24
Adding ~는/은 to ~에 and ~에서
~는/은 can be added to the particles ~에 and ~에서 in order to indicate a comparison to
some other situation. Look at the following example:

한국에서는 사람들이 김치를 많이 먹어요 = In Korea, people eat a lot of Kimchi

In this sentence, one is saying that, in Korea people eat a lot of Kimchi. Embedded within
the meaning of ~는/은 in this case is the comparison to some other situation. In the
previous sentence, for example, somebody might have said that in some other country,
people don’t eat a lot of Kimchi. This would have prompted the speaker to say the
sentence above: to state that, (while people in other countries don’t eat a lot of Kimchi)
people in Korea do eat a lot of Kimchi.

The role of ~는/은 in this sentence is in the parentheses in the previous sentence. That is
– it compares something in one sentence to something else. “Something else” can be
mentioned prior in the conversation, or it can be implied.

Let’s look at another example:

이 가방에는 귀중품이 없어요 = There are no no valuables in this bag

In this sentence, one is saying that, in this bag there are no valuables. Embedded within
the meaning of ~는/은 in this case is the comparison to some other situation. It’s possible
that a person in the airport asked if there were valuables in the bag that was about to be
sent to the airplane. You might want to respond with something like “no, not in this bag,
(but there are valuables in another bag).”

The role of ~는/은 in this sentence is in the parentheses in the previous sentence. That is
– it compares something in one sentence to something else. “Something else” can be
mentioned prior in the conversation, or it can be implied.

Often the context is given in the same sentence with ~는/은 being attached to the
situation it is being compared to. For example:

그 가방에는 귀중품이 있는데 이 가방에는 귀중품이 없어요

= There are valuables in this bag, but not in this bag

Let’s look at many more examples:

미국에는 일거리가 없어요

= There are no jobs in America (compared to another country)

티켓을 매표소에서는 살 수 있어요

= You can purchase tickets at the ticket office (compared to another place)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 25
놀이동산에 여름에는 사람이 많아요
= There are many people at the amusement park in the summer (compared to another season)

공원에서는 사람들이 축구를 할 수 없다

= People can’t play soccer in the park

우리학교에서는 영어원어민 선생님 10 분이 있습니다

= At our school, there are 10 native English speakers

요즘에는 일거리가 없어 손을 놓고 있는 사람도 적지 않다

= These days (compared to sometime before), there aren’t many places to work, so there
are many people who don’t have a job

몇 달 전에 서른 살이 되어서 우울했는데 이제는 전혀 우울하지 않아요

= A few months ago, I was depressed that I was going to be thirty years old, but now
(compared to that time), I’m not depressed at all

--------------

Sometimes, however, the situation that is being compared to is actually stated within the
sentence. You may have noticed that we sell Korean stories specifically geared towards
helping foreign learners of Korean get reading practice tailored to their level. Within one
of these stories (Set 1, Story 4) is the following sentence:

5 년 전에 잡지 사는 게 돈 낭비라고 생각했는데, 요즘에는 잡지 읽을 때가 얼마나

좋은지 모른다

I would translate the sentence to:

5 years ago, I thought buying a magazine was a waste of money, but these days
(compared to before) I can’t explain how good it is when I read a magazine.

Another scene from a different story is about a little girl who went to the zoo with her
father.

Though she had a lot of fun, she wished her mother would come as well. After the girl
comes home, she says to her mother:

“나중에는 꼭 엄마도 같이 동물원에 가자! 나랑 약속해!”

I would translate this sentence to: Next time (compared to the previous time/this past time
when you didn’t come), let’s go to the zoo together! Promise me!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 26
Adding ~는/은 to 수
In Lesson 45, you learned about the noun 수 and how it can be used in sentences with
있다 and 없다 to indicate that one is able or not able to do something. For example:

밥을 먹을 수 있어요 = I can eat rice

밥을 먹을 수 없어요 = I can’t eat rice

It is possible to attach ~는 to 수 in order to indicate that the “situation that can happen” is
compared with some other situation that “cannot happen” (or vice-versa). For example:

밥을 먹을 수 있어요 = I can eat rice

This is a simple sentence and nothing is being compared

밥을 먹을 수는 있어요 = I can eat rice

In this example, the speaker is indicating that he/she can eat rice, but not something else.
Knowing what the other thing (that cannot be eaten) is ambiguous in this sentence
because no prior context is given. However, in an actual conversation, the speaker likely
described some other food that he/she cannot eat. Likewise:

밥을 먹을 수는 없어요 = I cannot eat rice

In this example, the speaker is indicating that he/she cannot eat rice, but can eat
something else. Knowing what the other thing (that can be eaten) is ambiguous in this
sentence because no prior context is given. However, in an actual conversation, the
speaker likely described some other food that he/she can eat. Here are some other
examples:

선풍기를 틀 수 있어요 = I can turn on the fan

(에어컨을 틀 수 없지만) 선풍기를 틀 수는 있어요
= I can turn on the fan (but not the air conditioner)

이 쪽으로 들어갈 수 있어요 = You can go in through this way

(문으로 들어갈 수 없지만) 이 쪽으로 들어갈 수는 있어요
= You can’t go in through the door, but you can go in through this way)

In the two examples above the first 수 is theoretically being compared with the second 수.
Therefore, it is also acceptable to attach ~는 to the first 수 in the sentence. For example:

에어컨을 틀 수는 없지만 선풍기를 틀 수는 있어요

= You can’t turn the air conditioner on, but you can turn the fan on

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 27
문으로 들어갈 수는 없지만 이 쪽으로 들어갈 수는 있어요
= You can’t go out that door, but you can go out this way

Understanding how ~는/은 works and how versatile it can be, you can see how it could
be attached to other nouns like 수 that have a special place in sentences. Below you can
see the resulting sentences and meanings when it is added to 적, 필요 and 줄:

망가진 컴퓨터를 고치려고 컴퓨터 전문가에 맡긴 적은 없어요

= I haven’t yet taken my broken computer to a specialist to get it fixed

그 고기 부위를 사려고 고기 전문점을 갈 필요는 없어요

= In order to purchase that type of meat, you don’t need to go to a specialty store

이력서를 작성을 했는데 온라인으로 제출을 할 줄은 몰라요

= I wrote up a resume, but I don’t know how to apply online

The versatility of ~는/은 allows it to be added to many other grammatical principles.

Below you can see the resulting sentences and meanings when it is added to:

~(로)부터
~까지
~(으)로는
~(으)면
~지는 말다

일이 다 끝나고 어머니로부터는 연락이 없었다

= After work, there was no contact (I wasn’t contacted) by my mother (implied here is
that the person was contacted by other people, but not his mother)

시험 전 날까지는 밤을 샜는데 당일에는 일찍 잤어요

= I stayed up all night until the day of the test, but on the day of the test I went to sleep
early

정부에서 주는 장학금으로는 대학교를 졸업할 수 없었어요

= Without having received the scholarship from the government, I wouldn’t have been
able to graduate university

운동을 그렇게 하면은 몸을 다칠 수 있어요

= You can hurt yourself if you exercise like that (compared to other ways where you
won’t hurt yourself

그 제품을 바로 반품하지는 말고 조금 더 사용해 보고 결정하세요

= Don’t return that product right away, use it a bit and then decide

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 28
 Adding ~는 to ~지 않다 (~지는 않다/~진 않다)
This same usage of ~는/은 is often placed after “~지” in “~지 않다.” For example,
instead of saying:

시간이 오래 걸리지 않을 것이에요 = It won’t take a long time

시간이 오래 걸리지는 않을 것이에요 = It won’t take a long time

~는/은 is used here to indicate that the situation is different than some expectation. In the
sentence above, the speaker would be telling this to the listener who, for some reason, has
the expectation that it will take a long time. By using ~는/은, the speaker is trying to say
say “(despite what you expect,) it won’t take long.”

~지는 is almost always contracted to ~진 as per what was taught in Lesson 101.

Let’s look at another example:

저는 요리를 잘 하진 않습니다

Imagine you are in a cooking class – which would make the listener expect that the
speaker is good at cooking. Then, by saying “저는 요리를 잘 하진 않습니다,” the
speaker is trying to say “(despite what you expect,) I am not good at cooking.”

I truly feel that understanding this usage of ~는/은 can only happen by being exposed to
many examples, so I will keep showing you more sentences.

One day, I started getting a weird feeling in my esophagus. The feeling persisted for a
few weeks, so I went to the doctor. He told me it was nothing to be worried about, but I
was skeptical about what he was saying (I was really worried). He was telling me that he
knew exactly what it was, and assured me that I would be fine. At which point, I asked
him:

“Do a lot of people complain of this feeling?”

I specifically asked him that because he really made it seem like he had seen this 1000
times before (by telling me he knew exactly what it was and telling me not to worry). His
answer was:

그런 사람이 많진 않아요

Again, here, the purpose of the ~지는 (or ~진) is that the fact is against my expectations.
He made me assume that many people had this feeling, so when I asked “do many people
complain of this feeling?” he responded with:

그런 사람이 많진 않아요 = (despite what you expect,) there aren’t that many people

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 29
Here are more examples:

그 가수가 인기가 많은데 티켓이 아직 매진되진 않았어요

= That singer is very popular but the tickets still haven’t haven’t sold out

일반 자리가 없다고 노약자 좌석에 앉는 사람이 많진 않아요

= There aren’t many people who would sit in the seats for the old and weak when there
are no regular seats available

네, 그 상황을 직접 목격했는데 10 년 전이라서 잘 기억나진 않아요

= Yes, I witnessed that situation/event directly, but it was ten years ago so I don’t
remember it well

그 사람의 전문이 화학이라서 생물도 잘 아실 줄 알았는데 그렇진진 않아요

= That person’s specialty is Chemistry so I thought he would be good at Biology as well
but he is not

Downplaying a Fact: ~긴 하다
When you attach ~는 to ~기 after a verb or adjective, you create a special meaning. This
is a very hard meaning to express and it took me years to fully understand. When
attaching ~는 to ~기, the speaker is downplaying the situation that was said in the clause.
In what way the fact is downplayed depends on the context of the conversation, but
sometimes it can just be due to somebody trying to be modest.

After ~는 is used, you can conjugate the sentence either with 하다 or by using the same
verb or adjective that was attached to ~기. For example:

~기는 is almost always contracted to ~긴 as per what was taught in Lesson 101.

생각이 있긴 있어 = I have an idea, or

생각이 있긴 해 = I have an idea

I heard this example on TV the other day. A group of people were sitting around a table
discussing how they could get their toy back from their neighbor’s house after it flew
over the fence. One of the people in the show said “생각이 있긴 있어”. The subtle
meaning of this principle instead of just saying “생각이 있어” is that the person may
think that his idea isn’t very good, or maybe he is too shy to say his idea (again, possibly
because it isn’t very good) – and it somehow downplaying what he is about to say.
Another example:

하고 싶은 말이 있긴 있어요, or
하고 싶은 말이 있긴 해요 = I have something I want to say (but it might not be that
good, or there is some other reason that is preventing me from wanting to say what I want
to say)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 30
날씨가 춥긴 추워요, or
날씨가 춥긴 해요 = It’s cold (but it’s not that cold… it’s just a little bit cold)
공부를 열심히 하긴 했어 = I studied hard (but not that hard)

Because the use of this principle downplays what you are saying, it is very common
for~지만 or to be used to connect to the next clause that indicates what happens as a
result of this. For example:

돈이 있긴 하지만 조금 부족해요
= I have money, but just not enough

재미있긴 하지만 조금 이상해요

= It’s funny, but a little bit strange

계획이 있긴 있었지만 갑자기 취소되었어요

= I had plans, but they got cancelled

하고 싶은 말이 있긴 하지만 조금 부끄러워요
= I have something I want to say, but I’m a little bit shy

우리 학교 애들이 똑똑하긴 한데 노력을 안 해요

= The kids at our school are smart, but they don’t try hard

우리 도시에 거지가 조금 있긴 한데 많진 않아요

= There are some homeless people in our city, but not many

아이디어가 있긴 있지만 그 아이디어가 좋은지 모르겠어요

= I have an idea, but I don’t know if it is good

일을 다 하긴 했지만 정신없이 해서 한번 더 확인해야 될 것 같아요

= I did all the work, but I did it without really thinking, so I’ll probably have to check it again

Here are some examples of this same concept in the novel I’m reading now:

정신과 의사도 의사이긴 하지만 보통 인간의 삶을 살릴 수 없는 의사다

= Psychiatrists are doctors too, but usually doctors that can’t save people’s lives

물론 수업 시간에 그 주제에 대해 배우기는 했지만 너무 짧게 배우고 시험 전날

하룻밤만 공부했기 때문에 금방 잊어버렸다
= Of course, during class we learned about that subject, but it was very short and I only
studied before the night of the exam so I forgot everything immediately

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 31
 What about X?
Finally (phew!), there is one other small usage of ~는/은 that I would like to bring up. By
placing ~는/은 after a noun, and only stating that noun (with ~는/은), you can ask for
clarification on that specific noun.

For example, imagine I was at school, and a teacher asked me what I did over winter
vacation. After telling him, I could ask the question back to him by saying:

선생님은?
Or, more formally:
선생님은요?

A common one that you will hear is:

Person 1: 집에 도착했어요 = I arrived home

Person 2: 밥은? = Have you eaten yet (What about rice/food?)
Person 1: 아직 안 먹었어요 = I haven’t eaten yet

Making a translation that fits all examples is very difficult. The purpose of ~는/은 here is
to ask about the situation you mentioned. For example, if I was telling somebody about
all of the furniture in my house, somebody could say:

“침대는?”

That would translate to “what about your bed? Tell me about your bed? Tell me the
situation about your bed?”

Another example:
Person 1: 저는 내일 엄마와 오빠랑 같이 밥을 먹을 거예요 = Tomorrow, I am going to
eat with my mom and brother
Person 2: 아빠는? = What about your dad? Why isn’t your dad going?
Person 1: 아빠는 일을 해야 돼서 못 가요 = Dad has to work, so he can’t go

Okay, that’s it for Lesson 104!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 32
Note: You may have learned some of those words already:
무너지다 = to be collapsed 서구 = western
무너뜨리다 = to collapse something 서구화 = westernization
헝클어지다 = to be tangled 현대 = modern
헝클어뜨리다 = to tangle something 현대화 = modernization
부서지다 = to be smashed/crushed 일반 = general
부서뜨리다 = to smash/crush 일반화 = generalization
부러지다 = to be broken/fractured 합리 = rationality
부러뜨리다 = to break/fracture 합리화 = rationalization
흐트러지다 = to be messy/untidy 대중 = mass/popular
흐트러뜨리다 = to make messy/untidy 대중화 = popularization
구부러지다 = to be bent 평준 = standard
구부러뜨리다 = to bend 평준화 = standardization
터지다 = to explode 다양 = diversity
터뜨리다 = to make explode 다양화 = diversification
산업 = industry
산업화 = industrialization
상업 = commerce
상업화 = commercialization
가속 = acceleration
가속화 = acceleration
차별 = differentiation
차별화하다 = differentiate
간소 = simplicity
간소화 = simplification
활성 = vitality
활성화 = vitalization
표준 = standard
표준화 = standardization
Introduction
The title of this lesson is: Grammatical principles that I can’t believe I haven’t taught you
yet – and I better teach them to you now before we get too deep into more difficult
grammatical principles in Unit 5. In this lesson, you will learn a variety of smaller
grammatical principles that you absolutely need to know to be able to
speak/read/understand Korean.

In the summer of 2014, I had a few weeks off from work and set a goal for myself to read
a Korean novel in a week. I did this for two reasons. One, I wanted to challenge myself
and benefit from the vocabulary increase and reading practice I would get from reading
the book. Two, I wanted to see if, in that entire book, there were any grammatical
principles that I hadn’t introduced in my lessons yet.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 33
From start to finish, there were only a handful of grammatical principles that I hadn’t
introduced by this lesson. All of the grammatical principles that I haven’t introduced yet
will be in upcoming lessons.

However, there were some small things that, when reading them, I realized I hadn’t spent
a large amount of time describing. I would like to take the opportunity in this lesson to
teach you them formally.

~아/어지다 vs. ~아/어뜨리다

In the vocabulary list of Lesson 38 you can find the words 떨어지다 and 떨어뜨리다.
Words ending in ~아/어지다 are often intransitive words (which means they can’t act on
nouns) that have a transitive (meaning they can act on nouns) ~아/어뜨리다 equivalent.
Note that this is not the grammatical principle ~아/어지다 that gets added to adjectives –
for example: 나쁘다 + ~아/어지다 = 나빠지다).

Words ending in ~아/어지다 indicate that something occurs – usually without indicating
who/what caused the action to occur. For example:

병이 탁자에서 떨어졌다 = The bottle fell from the table

However, words ending in ~아/어뜨리다 have a subject (which is usually a human, but
not always) that actually does the action to the object. For example:

나는 병을 떨어뜨렸다 = I dropped the bottle

Now, here is a host of other words that I would like to introduce you to that follow this
same pattern:

쓰러지다 = for something to collapse

쓰러뜨리다 = to collapse something

건물이 쓰러졌다 = The building was knocked down

바람은 건물을 쓰러뜨렸다 = The wind knocked down the building

-----------

무너지다 = for something to collapse

무너뜨리다 = to collapse something

건물이 무너졌다 = The building collapsed

그 폭발은 건물을 무너뜨렸다 = That explosion collapsed the building

-----------

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 34
헝클어지다 = for something to be tangled
헝클어뜨리다 = to tangle something

줄이 완전히 헝클어졌어요 = The string is completely tangled

애기가 케이블을 헝클어뜨렸어요 = The baby tangled up the cable

-----------

(부서지다 = to be smashed/crushed – already introduced in Lesson 63)

부서뜨리다 = to smash/crush something

내 핸드폰이 부서졌어 = My phone is/was smashed

나는 내 핸드폰을 부서뜨렸어 = I smashed my phone

-----------

(부러지다 = to be broken/fractured – already introduced in Lesson 63)

부러뜨리다 = to break/fracture something

높은 데에서 넘어져서 뼈가 부러졌어요 = I fell from a high place, so I broke my bone

제가 화가 많이 나서 연필을 부러뜨렸어요 = I was so mad that I broke the pencil

-----------

흐트러지다 = to be messy/untidy/scattered
흐트러뜨리다 = to make something messy/scatter things around

오랫동안 앉아 있어서 자세가 흐트러졌어요 = I sat for so long that my posture got messed up
친구가 제 머리를 일부러 흐트러뜨렸어요 = My friend deliberately messed up my hair

-----------

구부러지다 = to be bent
구부러뜨리다 = to bend something

옷걸이가 완전히 구부러져 있어요 = The clothes hanger is completely bent

저는 옷걸이를 완전히 구부러뜨렸어요 = I completely bent the clothes hanger

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 35
 -----------

누그러지다 = for somebody’s heart to soften/melt

누그러뜨리다 = to soften/melt somebody’s heart

친구의 편지를 받아서 마음이 누구러졌어요 = I received my friend’s letter and my heart melted
친구의 편지가 제 마음을 누구러뜨렸어요 = My friend’s letter melted my heart

—--------

(터지다 = to explode – already introduced in Lesson 36)

터뜨리다 = to explode something

풍선에 물을 많이 넣어서 풍선이 터졌어요 = Too much water was put into the balloon and it exploded
칼로 풍선을 터뜨렸어요 = I popped/exploded the balloon with a knife

—--------

I was once confused with the difference 쓰러지다 and 무너지다, as the essentially mean
the same thing. 쓰러지다 is used when something were to fall over, like a tree getting
blown down. 무너지다 is used when something collapses within itself and doesn’t topple
over, like when somebody purposely implodes a building to collapse on itself to prevent
debris from hitting the next building. The end result is the same – that both structures
have been leveled to the ground, but the process of them falling is slightly different.

~ification: 화 (化)
화 is a Hanja character that is found in many Korean words to mean “change.” Some
very common examples are:

변화 = change
화장실 = bathroom/restroom
화학 = chemistry

If you have been keeping up with your Hanja studies, you should know the character for
화 is 化.
화 is often placed after the noun form of a –하다 verb in Korean to indicate that the noun
represents some sort of change. The most common way that this changes the translation
of the noun is by the addition of ~ification to the English word. For example:

국제 = international/global
국제화 = changing into being international/global… which is better translated to:
국제화 = internationalization/globalization

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 36
If you look at the vocabulary list of this lesson, you can see that you can do this to many
nouns. In addition, you can add “하다” to the words with ~화 attached to turn them into
verbs. For example:

활성화하다 = to vitalize
일반화하다 = to generalize
산업화하다 = to industrialize
상업화하다 = to commercialize
가속화하다 = to accelerate
현대화하다 = to modernize
합리화하다 = to rationalize
차별화하다 = to differentiate
서구화하다 = to westernize
다양화하다 = to diversify
대중화하다 = to popularize
국제화하다 = to globalize
평준화하다 = to standardize
간소화하다 = to simplify

Here are some example sentences of those words being used in sentences:

운동은 피의 순환을 활성화해요

= Exercise vitalizes blood flow

그 상황을 일반화하는 것은 어려워요

= It is hard to generalize that situation

산업화는 경제 성장을 가속화할 수 있어요

= Industrialization can accelerate the development of the economy

우버는 택시 서비스를 상업화해서 성공했어요

= Uber succeeded in commercializing the service of getting a taxi

요즘에 오래된 도시를 현대화하는 곳이 많아요

= These days there are a lot of old cities that are modernizing themselves

산업화를 빨리 할수록 경제가 더 빨리 성장해요

= The quicker industrialization happens, the quicker the economy develops

그 살인자가 많은 사람을 죽인 것을 자꾸 합리화해요

= That murderer keeps rationalizing all of the people he killed

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 37
수학 수업을 할 때 수업 내용을 차별화하는 것이 좋아요
= When you do a math class, it is good to differentiate the contents of the class

중국 정부가 중국을 서구화하는 것을 반대하는 것 같아요

= It seems like the Chinese government is resisting the westernization of China

새롭게 문을 연 식당은 디저트를 다양화해서 유명해졌어요

= The newly opened restaurant got popular because it diversified its deserts (had a lot of deserts)

한국은 태권도를 많은 나라에서 대중화하려고 노력하고 있어요

= Korea is trying to popularize Taekwondo in many countries

요즘에 그 회사가 브랜드를 더 더욱 국제화하려고 하고 있다

= That company is trying more and more to globalize its brand

한국고등학생의 성적을 표준화하는 것은 학생들의 입학에 도움이 된다

= The standardization of student grades in Korean high schools will help the students
enter University

우리 웹사이트의 목표는 한국문법을 간소화해서 쉽게 가르치는 것이에요

= The purpose of our website is to simplify grammar and teach it easily

Adding 이 to Names
If a Korean name ends with a 받침, you will commonly see 이 added between the name
and the particles ~는/은, ~이/가 and ~를/을. This is mostly related to pronunciation, and
is quite colloquial.

For example, I have a friend named 희연. When I say “희영은” this actually sounds
closer to “희여는”, which causes ambiguity as to what the person’s name actually is. Is
her name 희여 or 희연? To prevent this, it is common and colloquial to say a sentence
like this:

희영이는 이빨을 부러뜨렸어요

This would be the same with all names that end in a 받침. Even though there are a lot of
letters in the Korean alphabet, you will probably only ever see the following used as the
받침 on the final syllable of a Korean name: ㄱ, ㅁ, ㄴ, ㅇ, ㄹ, ㅂ. This is not done with
names that end in a vowel, as this wouldn’t cause any ambiguity.

Here are some examples:

은혁이가 시험준비를 하고 있어요 = 은혁 is preparing for the exam

기범이는 희영이를 만나러 어제 학교에 갔어요 = 기범 went to school yesterday to meet 희영

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 38
In all cases, it’s not necessary to include 이. For example, it would be fine to say the two
sentences above without 이 in them. If you ask a Korean person what the difference is,
they would say “ahh, it just sounds ‘느끼해’”. “느끼해” is usually the word Korean
people use to describe when they eat too much pasta, bread, or something greasy,
although it is also used to describe the feeling one gets when they hear something so
lovey-dovey that it is corny. It’s hard even for me to completely understand this feeling
of “느끼해”, and even if I did understand it, it would be hard to explain in words. You’re
better off just using the rule of adding “이” to names ending in a 받침 to be safe, unless
you are writing a romance novel and want to sound “느끼해”.

Adding ~아/어하다 to Adjectives

You have probably come across these sets of words before:

부끄럽다
부끄러워하다

슬프다
슬퍼하다

기쁘다
기뻐하다

부럽다
부러워하다

부끄럽다
부끄러워하다

… and other adjectives that have ~아/어하다 attached to them.

What is going on here? What is the difference between these two forms?
These adjectives above (and others like them) with ~아/어하다 attached are used in
sentences where the speaker is talking about another person and trying to describe what
they are feeling. For example:

그는 너무 부끄러워했어요 = He was very shy

Notice the adjectives listed above. What is common among all of those adjectives? They
are specifically describing what somebody else is feeling. If you are talking about another
person, how can you know what they are feeling? You can call them pretty; you can call
them handsome. Those are based on your own opinion. In these cases, where the
adjective being used is describing another person’s feelings, it is more natural to add
~아/어하다 to the adjective.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 39
That is not to say, however, that you will never see a sentence like this:

그는 너무 부끄러웠어요 = He was very shy

It would be weird to say the sentence above, but you might be able to find a sentence like
that in a novel. In novels, authors need to describe the characters in a book, who most of
the time are just figments of their own imagination. Therefore, in this case, it would be
acceptable to not use ~아/어하다 because the author knows for certain the emotion that
is being elicited by the other person.

As you have learned, 싶다 (from ~고 싶다) is an adjective. It is also used to indicate

what somebody wants. It is hard for one person to inherently know what another person
wants, so ~아/어하다 is often added to 싶다. For example:

희영이는 밥을 먹고 싶어해 = Heeyoung wants to eat (rice)

In all of the examples above, I indicated that adjective+~아/어하다 can be used when the
speaker is not the subject of the sentence, and is specifically used with words that
describe a feeling that one experiences. Therefore, these would (typically) be incorrect by
themselves:

제가 너무 부끄러워했어요
제가 너무 기뻐했어요

제가 너무 슬퍼했어요
제가 너무 부러워했어요

In the examples above, if I changed the subject to another person, the sentences would be
correct.

However, it is acceptable to use the ~아/어하다 form of an adjective when the speaker is
the subject of the sentence if there is an object in the sentence. For example, all of these
are correct:

제가 가난을 너무 부끄러워했어요 = I am shy about/of my poorness (the fact that I’m poor)
제가 친구의 성공을 너무 기뻐했어요 = I am very happy/glad about/of my friend’s success
제가 친구의 죽음을 너무 슬퍼했어요 = I am sad about/of my friend’s death
제가 남의 성공을 너무 부러워했어요 = I am envious about/of others success

It is actually possible to remove the objects in the sentences above, but only if the object
can be immediately assumed from the context. This is essentially the same as changing
좋다 to 좋아하다 and 싫다 to 싫어하다. You couldn’t just walk into a room and say”

“나는 좋아해”

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 40
Instead, you need an object to specify what it is specifically that you like. For example:

“나는 과자를 좋아해”

However, if your friends were all talking about 과자, and you were going around the
room one by one and saying if they liked it or not, you could respond with just “나는
좋아해”. In that same respect, you couldn’t just say the examples above unless there was
some sort of immediate understanding of what object was being referred to.

Formal Subject Marker ~께서(는)

The particle ~께서 is used to indicate the subject of a sentence when the subject is a
person who deserves a high amount of respect. For example:

아버님께서 밥을 드셨습니다 = The father ate

이 잡채는 장모님께서 만드신 것이에요 = This 잡채 was made by my mother in law
할아버지께서 옛날에 런던에서 사셨어요 = Our grandfather lived in London a long time ago
지금 교장선생님께서 잠깐 말씀을 하시겠습니다 = Now, the principal will speak for a moment
우리 부장님께서 오늘 오후에 출발할 예정이십니다 = Our boss is scheduled to depart
this afternoon

This can be done any time somebody deserves a lot of respect, but it isn’t completely
necessary. It is more common in writing, and when speaking in very polite situations. For
example, if a vice principal of a school were to introduce the principal to a room of 100
parents, the vice principal would probably use ~께서. Failing to use the honorific ~요 or
~ㅂ/습니다 forms when speaking to somebody who deserves respect would most likely
get you thrown out of a room; yet most people wouldn’t care if you failed to use ~께서.

However, very few people would use the subject marker “~께서” on a daily basis. It’s
usually reserves for very formal situations.It’s also quite common to see “~는” added to
~께서. It could have no function at all, or it could have one of the many subtle functions
that ~는 carries with it. In all cases, it totally depends on the context of the conversation.
Nonetheless, all the example sentences above could have “~는” added to “께서” for
example:

아버님께서 밥을 드셨습니다 = The father ate

아버님께서는 밥을 드셨습니다 = The father ate (but somebody else, maybe the mother,
didn’t)

That’s it for this lesson!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 41
Nouns: Verbs:
뱃속 = inside a stomach 솟다 = to soar/rise up
수두 = chicken pox 분리하다 = to separate/divide/segregate
보물 = treasure 탐험하다 = to explore
절망 = despair/hopelessness 환전하다 = to exchange money/currency
정오 = noon 유통하다 = to circulate, to ventilate
해돋이 = a sunrise
야식 = nighttime snack Adjectives
명함 = business card 유익하다 = to be beneficial, useful, helpful
화산 = volcano 엄청나다 = to be enormous, to be
범위 = range/scope of something tremendous
실감 = a realistic feeling
Adverbs and Other Words:
분자 = molecule
아무튼 = anyways, in any event
멀미 = motion sickness
어차피 = anyways, in any event
중동 = the Middle East
차멀미 = motion sickness from a car
물놀이= playing in the water
비극적 = tragic
객관적 = objective
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to add ~든지 to the end of a clause. Although this
grammatical principle has a fairly straightforward meaning across the board, it can be
used in a bunch of different ways. Let’s get started!

Listing Out Possibilities or Outcomes: ~든지 (간에)

The general umbrella explanation of how this particle can be used is when one wants to
indicate that there are many possibilities or outcomes that can occur. ~든지 is added to
the possibilities/outcomes that could occur, and the following clause is not a selection of
one of those possibilities (like ~중에), but rather either of them could occur or be correct.
The translation is usually something like “whether A, or whether B….”, or “It doesn’t
matter if A, or B…”. As usual, it is fairly difficult to describe this in words, but easier
once we have seen examples. So let’s look at one:

포크를 사용하든지 젓가락을 사용하든지 더 편한 것을 사용하세요

= It doesn’t matter if you use a fork or use chopsticks, use the one that is more
comfortable, or,
= Whether you use a fork or chopsticks, use the one that is more comfortable

In this sentence, the two clauses that have ~든지 attached to them are:
포크를 사용하든지
젓가락을 사용하든지

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 42
The use of ~든지 at the end of those clauses indicates that they are both possible
outcomes for the upcoming clause.

Let’s look at some more examples:

보물을 찾든지 못 찾든지 절망에 빠지면 안 돼요

= Whether we find the treasure or not, we can’t lose hope (fall into despair)

경기에서 이기든지 지든지 열심히 해야 됩니다

= It doesn’t matter if you win or lose the game, you should try hard

그 가수를 내일 만나든지 못 만나든지 곧 만난다는 것이 실감이 안 나요

= Whether I meet that singer tomorrow or not, it doesn’t feel real that I will meet her soon

유통기한이 지났든지 안 지났든지 어차피 먹어야 해요

= It doesn’t matter if the expiration date has passed or not, anyways you have to eat it

우리가 내일 가든지 내일모레 가든지 어차피 가야 돼요

= It doesn’t matter if we go tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, anyways, we have to go

그 규칙에 동의하든지 안 하든지 그 규칙을 따라야 돼요

= It doesn’t matter if you agree with the rule or not, you have to follow it

서울로 이사하든지 부산으로 이사하든지 집값은 똑같아요

= It doesn’t matter if I move to Seoul or if I move to Busan, the cost of housing is the same

자전거를 타든지 달리기를 하든지 그냥 마음대로 아무거나 해

= It doesn’t matter if you ride a bike or walk, just do anything you want

대학교에 진학하든지 진학하지 않든지 열심히 공부해야 돼요

= It doesn’t matter if you go to University or not, you need to study hard

결과가 우리가 예상한 것이든지 아니든지 우리는 결과를 발표할 것입니다

= It doesn’t matter if the results are what we expected or not, we are going to announce them

수영장에서 물놀이만 할 수 있으면 숙소가 좋든지 안 좋든지 애들은 신경 안 써요

= As long as you can swim, it doesn’t matter if the accommodation is good or not, the
kids won’t care

뱃속에 아기가 자라고 있어서 차를 타 면 빨리 가든지 느리게 가든지 차멀미가 날 거예요

= I’m pregnant (have a baby in my belly), so if we go by car, it doesn’t matter if we go
slow or fast, I am going to be car sick

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 43
콜롬버스 탐험에 대해 조사하든지 다른 주제에 대해 조사하든지 주제를 얼른
정해야 돼요
= Whether you investigate the adventures of Columbus or investigate a different subject,
you need to choose/set your subject quickly

하와이에 가서 화산을 보러 가든지 해돋이를 보러가든지 제일 중요한 것은

안전하게 여행하는 거에요
= When you go to Hawaii, whether you go to see a volcano or go to see the sunrise, the
most important thing is traveling safely

오랜만에 엄마가 해 준 음식을 먹을 거라서 맛있든지 맛이 없든지 먹고 나서 기운이

엄청나게 솟을 거예요
= I’m going to have food cooked by my mom for the first time in a while, so it doesn’t
matter if it will be delicious or not, once I eat it I will be ecstatic

~든지 can be attached to any adjective, verb or 이다. Therefore, you often see it used
with nouns, connected to 이다. If the noun that 이다 is attached to ends in a vowel, the
이 can merge with the stem and you don’t see it. For example:

밥이든지 피자든지 빨리 골라!

= It doesn’t matter if it is rice or pizza, but choose quickly!

수두든지 아니든지 병원에 꼭 가 봐야 돼요

= Whether it is chicken pox or not, you definitely need to go to the hospital

미국 돈이든지 캐나다 돈이든지 빨리 환전하자

= It doesn’t matter if it is American money or Canadian money, let’s convert it quickly (soon)

야구(이)든지 축구(이)든지 내일 정오에 하자

= It doesn’t matter if (we play) it is baseball or soccer, let’s play tomorrow at noon

Just by the nature of these types of sentences, it is common for the end of the sentence to
have the expression “I don’t care” or something similar. For example:

우리가 가든지 안 가든지 나는 신경을 안 써

= I don’t care if we go or not

The Hanja character 간 (間) means “between” and is a good word/character to know
because it comes up a lot in Korean when referring to the relationship or interactions
between things. For example:

부부지간 = between husband and wife

부모 자식 간 = between parents and children
분자간 힘 = the force between molecules (intermolecular force)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 44
I can’t imagine when you would use that last one in your daily life, but I’m a chemistry
teacher and I use it a lot.

It is common to use 간에 after the final ~든지 in sentences. Technically 간에 could be

added to any of the examples above (from the very beginning of the lesson until now).
However, adding this in the sentence sometimes adds a slight negative connotation to it
(the only reason I say “sometimes” is because languages are very complex and it's
possible that it won’t have this negative feeling – but more times than not it will).
Because of this, it is a little bit more common to find “간에” used after “~든지” when the
speaker doesn’t care about the outcome. For example:

우리가 내일 가든지 내일모레 가든지 간에 어차피 가야 돼요

= It doesn’t matter if we go tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, anyways, we have to go

But note that the following are all acceptable, and adding “간에” makes the feeling
slightly more negative if the situation allows for it.

포크를 사용하든지 젓가락을 사용하든지 간에 더 편한 것을 사용하세요

= It doesn’t matter if you use a fork or use chopsticks, use/choose the one that is more
comfortable (whether you use a fork or chopsticks…)

경기에서 이기든지 지든지 간에 열심히 해야 됩니다

= It doesn’t matter if you win or lose the game, you should try hard (whether you win or lose…)

In all of the situations described so far, there were two different words that ~든지 was
connected to in a sentence. This doesn’t always have to be the case, as the situation of the
sentence can describe that something must be done among a choice of other things. For
example:

네가 내일 무엇을 하든지 간에 밖에 나가야 돼

= It doesn’t matter what you do tomorrow, but you have to go outside

Often the outcomes/possibilities are an action or not doing that action. This is often
accomplished by using ~든지 말든지. For example:

우리가 가든지 말든지 나는 신경을 안 써

= I don’t care if we go or not

시험이 있든지 말든지 간에 학교에 가야 돼요

= It doesn’t matter if there is an exam or not, you have to go to school

쓰레기를 분리하든지 말든지 재활용 차가 와서 수거해 갈 거에요

= It doesn’t matter if we separate the garbage or not, the garbage/recycling truck is going
to come and take it away

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 45
이 범위를 공부를 하든지 말든지 여기서 시험문제가 나올 거예요
= It doesn’t matter if you study this area/part of content, there will be an exam question
from this part

제가 야식을 먹든지 말든지 이미 저녁을 많이 먹어서 살이 찔 것 같아요

= It doesn’t matter if I eat at night or not, I’ve already eaten a lot of dinner so I’m going
to gain weight anyways

그 사람한테 명함을 주든지 말든지 그 사람이 이미 제 연락처를 가지고 있어서 상관

없어요
= It doesn’t matter if I give my business card to that person or not, he already has my contact

Words that ~든지 is commonly attached to

Allow me to introduce a few words that you will commonly find ~든지 attached to.

It is common to find ~든지 attached to the common question words 뭐, 누구, 언제 and
어디. Some people learn these constructions as actual words and not as words connected
to ~든지 but the end result is the same. You can see the meaning of each construction
next to each example below, but the general meaning is “It doesn’t matter
who/what/when/where.” For example:

뭐든지 = Whatever /It doesn’t matter what

한 달 동안 뭐든지 먹어도 돼요
= For one month, you are allowed to eat whatever you want (for one month, it doesn’t
matter what you eat)

누구든지 = Whoever/It doesn’t matter who

누구든지 사람들이 믿을 수 있는 친구가 필요해요
= It doesn’t matter who it is, people need a friend they can trust (everybody needs a
friend they can trust)

언제든지 = Whenever/It doesn’t matter when

우리 집에 언제든지 오세요
= It doesn’t matter when you come to our house (come to our house anytime!)

어디든지 = Wherever/It doesn’t matter where

어디든지 앉아도 돼요
= Sit anywhere! (It doesn’t matter where you sit)

벌어지다 is often used to indicate that there is some sort of space or gap between two
things. For example:

우리 아버지가 앞니 사이가 벌어져 있어요 = Our dad has a gap in his front teeth
가방에 크게 벌어져 있는 구멍이 있어요 = There is a big hole in my bag

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 46
Another meaning of 벌어지다 is similar to 생기다 or 일어나다, where it indicates that
something arises. For exampleL

어떤 일이 벌어졌어요? = What came up?

중동에서 전쟁이 벌어졌어요 = A war started/came up in the Middle East

~든지 is commonly attached to 벌어지다 in this usage. It is often preceded by 무슨

일이… to create the meaning of “whatever happens/regardless of what happens.” For
example:

무슨 일이 벌어지든지 간에 그녀랑 결혼할 거예요

= Regardless of what happens, I’m marrying her

무슨 일이 벌어지든지 간에 이 문제를 객관적으로 해결해야 돼요

= Regardless of what happens, we need to solve this problem objectively
—----------

Three notes about ~든지 before we finish:

 In all of the example sentences in this lesson, it is acceptable to eliminate 지 from
~든지 (간에).
 ~던지, a grammatical principle that has not been introduced in this course yet, is
often confused with ~든지. Sometimes even Korean people confuse them.
 Remember that ~든지 can also be used in sentences with 상관없다 – which you
learned about in Lesson 74. For example:

우리가 언제 가든지 상관없어요 = It doesn’t matter when we go

우리가 어디 가든지 상관없어요 = It doesn’t matter where we go
제가 누구랑 가든지 상관없어요 = It doesn’t matter who I go with
운전면허를 언제 받든지 상관없어요 = It doesn’t matter when you get your driver’s license
학생들이 어떻게 반응하든지 상관없어요 = It doesn’t matter how the students react
네가 배고프든지 상관없어 = It doesn’t matter if you are hungry
우리는 거기에 가든지 말든지 상관없어 = It doesn’t matter if we go there
그게 비싸든지 말든지 상관없어 = It doesn’t matter if it is expensive

That’s it for this lesson!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 47
Nouns: Verbs:
떼 = some crowd or “school” of things 잡히다 = to be caught
장롱 = wardrobe (closet not built into wall) 인식하다 = to recognize
피망 = bell pepper 일광욕하다 = to sunbathe
개념 = concept, idea 반납하다 = to return something that one borrowed
문어 = octopus 설치하다 = to install, to equip
폭력 = violence 입양하다 = to adopt
동전 = coin 변장하다 = to disguise
조끼 = vest 봐주다 = to let somebody off the hook
전등 = lamp, light 파산하다 = to go bankrupt
손전등 = flashlight 지정하다 = to designate
태평양 = the Pacific Ocean
제삼자 = a third party Adjectives:
승용차 = passenger car 지저분하다 = to be messy, untidy
잠자리 = dragonfly
거미줄 = spider web
지팡이 = walking stick, cane
Introduction
By now, you have been exposed to the particle ~도 and its function for a while. You are
probably quite familiar with how it works, and the meaning it creates when it is added
directly to a noun.

This particle was first introduced way back in Lesson 4. Since then, you have learned a
ton of additional grammatical principles – each with their own special meaning and
function.

The purpose of this lesson is to familiarize you with these grammatical principles when
they are combined with ~도. Sometimes, the meaning that is created by combining ~도
with another grammatical principle is just the sum of their individual meanings. However,
sometimes their meaning can be something that is a bit unexpected. Let’s get started.

Adding ~도 to Simple Grammatical Principles

~에도
By placing ~도 after the particle ~에, you can indicate that a location, in addition to
another location, is a certain way. This is quite straight-forward, and the meaning can
easily understood when sentences without ~도 are placed beside a sentence with ~도. For
example:

식당 밖에 사람이 많아요 = There are a lot of people outside the restaurant

식당 밖에도 사람이 많아요 = There are a lot of people outside the restaurant as well

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 48
로션을 얼굴에 발라야 돼요 = You should put lotion on your face
로션을 얼굴에도 발라야 돼요 = You should put lotion on your face as well

놀이터에 아기들이 없어요 = The kids are not at the playground

놀이터에도 아기들이 없어요 = The kids are not at the playground either

태평양에 고래가 있어요 = There are whales in the Pacific Ocean

태평양에도 고래가 있어요 = There are whales in the Pacific Ocean as well

그 기능이 승용차에 설치돼 었어요 = That function is installed in the car

그 기능이 승용차에도 설치돼 었어요 = That functoin is installed in the car as well

~ㄹ/을 때도
In Lesson 42, you learned how to use ~ㄹ/을 때 to indicate a time that an action takes
place For example:

여자 친구를 만날 때 그녀한테 키스를 할 거야 = When I meet my girlfriend, I’m

going to kiss her

In this sentence, 때 acts as a noun that is being described by the previous clause. In other
words, 여자 친구를 만날 describes 때. The construction “여자친구를 만날 때” could
be translated to “the time in which I meet my girlfriend.”

By attaching ~도 to 때, their meanings are combined together to indicate that an action

occurs at that time in addition to other times. The most common English translation for
this is “even when.” For example:

그 여자가 일광욕을 할 때도 로션을 안 발라요

= Even when that girl is sunbathing she doesn’t put on any lotion

북한 사람들이 북한에서 탈출할 때도 잡혀서 죽을 가능성이 있어요

= It is possible for North Korean people to be captured and killed even when they are
trying to escape the country

집에서 있을 때뿐만 아니라 한국 사람들은 외식할 때도 김치를 먹어요

= Not only when they are eating at home, but even when Korean people eat out for dinner
they eat kimchi

때도 is often used twice in a sentence in order to indicate that there are times when one
event occurs, and times where another event occurs. For example:

이길 때도 있고 질 때도 있어요 = Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose

(There will be some times where you will win, and there will be some times where you
will lose)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 49
 ~에게도 and ~한테도
By attaching ~도 to ~에게 or ~한테, their meanings are combined together to indicate
that an action is happening to something in addition to other things. For example:

나는 그 사람에게 선물을 주었어 = I gave that person a present

나는 그 사람에게도 선물을 주었어 = I gave a present to that person as well
그런 일을 하는 것은 나한테도 어려워 = It is hard for even me to do that kind of work
한국경제가 발전하는 것은 캐나다 및 미국에게도 중요하다 = Improving the Korean
economy is important to Canada as well as the United states

~에서도
By attaching ~도 to ~에서, their meanings are combined together to indicate that
something is being done at a location in addition to other locations. For example:

물이 저 구멍에서도 나와요 = Water comes out from that hole as well

그 쿠폰을 VIPS 에서도 쓸 수 있어요? = Can you use that coupon at VIPS as well?
인터넷을 집에서도 설치해야 돼요 = You have to install/set up the internet at home as well
병원에 사람이 너무 많아서 환자가 복도에서도 자고 있어요 = There are so many
people at the hospital, so there are even patients sleeping in the hallway

~(으)로도
~(으)로 has many functions. Below are examples of ~도 being attached to ~(으)로 in
some of its different usages. In all cases, you are simply combining the meanings of the
two particles:

책을 기계로도 반납할 수 었어요

= You can also return the book using the machine

그 맛을 피망으로도 만들 수 있어요
= You can also create that taste using peppers

그 영화가 일본어로도 번역되었다

= That movie is also translated to Japanese

제주도가 신선한 공기로도 유명해요

= Jeju is also famous for its fresh air

우리가 피자를 점심으로도 먹었어요

= We also ate pizza for lunch

요즘에는 사람들이 컴퓨터로도 통화할 수 있어요

= These days, people can also talk over (using) computers

비상상태에서는 의자를 구명조끼로도 쓸 수 있다

= In an emergency situation, you can also use your seat as a life jacket

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 50
 ~(으)로부터도
Just by the nature of ~부터, ~도 isn’t added to it very often. For example, if you look at
an example of a sentence with ~부터 :

저는 공부를 내일부터 시작할 거예요 = I will start studying from tomorrow

Placing “도” after “부터” would just be nonsense:
저는 공부를 내일부터도 시작할 거예요 = I will start studying from tomorrow… as
well … ?

This doesn’t make sense.

However, you can attach ~도 to ~(으)로부터 where one indicates from where something
was received from. For example:

나는 할머니로부터도 돈을 받았어 = I also received money from grandma

그 정보를 제삼자로부터도 들었어요 = I also heard that information from a third party

~까지도
If you understand why ~도 can’t be attached to ~부터 as described above, you should
have the same feeling about adding it to ~까지. For example, imagine the following
sentence:

저는 내일 서울까지도 갈 거예요 = I will go to until Seoul … as well… ?

This doesn’t make sense.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to another way that ~까지 can be
used. This usage is technically the same as the one described way back in Lesson 12,
however, it does not typically translate to “until.” Just to refresh, it is probably a piece of
cake for you at this point to understand these types of sentences:

3 시까지 기다릴 거예요 = I will wait until 3:00

그 여자를 지금까지 좋아했어요 = I liked that girl until now
저는 그 회사에서 5 월까지 일할 거예요 = I will work at that company until May

~까지 can also be used to express the extent to which something happened. For example:

친구가 문어까지 먹었어요 = My friend even ate octopus

Imagine your friend came to Korea and tried a whole bunch of different Korean foods.
You were impressed with this, and you were telling another friend how many different
foods he ate while he was in Korea. You could say something like “친구가 잡채와
빈대떡과 김치찌개와 볶음밥과 문어를 먹었어요”. However, by just saying
“문어까지”, in effect what you are saying is “he ate everything – and even went so far as
to eat octopus!”

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 51
Notice the quite subtle difference with this sentence:

친구가 문어도 먹었어요 = My friend ate octopus as well

In this example, although the speaker is indicating that the friend ate some other food in
addition to octopus, he/she is not stressing that there were many other foods that the
friend may have eaten.

Here is another example:

나는 숙제까지 다 했어 = I even finished my homework

In this example, the speaker is indicating that he had many things to do. Not only did he
finish the other tasks that needed to be done (like cleaning, doing the dishes, walking the
dog, etc…), but even went as far as to finish his homework!

This usage can actually be added to other parts of the sentence as well. For example:

할머니까지 오셨어요 = Even grandma came (it went so far that even grandma came)

In this example, the speaker is indicating that many people came to some event… and it
even went so far that the grandmother (who – by context – would be somebody who
usually doesn’t come because of her age or something). But in this case, the speaker is
stressing that “so many people came, even grandma, who never comes!”

While ~도 isn’t usually added to ~까지 when used as was taught back in Lesson 12, it is
not uncommon to see ~도 added to ~까지 when it is used as described here. However, in
this case, notice that both ~까지 and ~도 have very similar meanings. Doubling them up
and creating ~까지도 adds even more emotion and emphasis indicating to what extent
something occurs.

친구가 문어까지도 먹었어요 = My friend even ate octopus

나는 숙제까지도 다 했어 = I even finished my homework
할머니까지도 오셨어요 = Even grandma came too
제가 책상뿐만 아니라 장롱까지도 옮겼어요 = I didn’t just move the desk, but also the
wardrobe

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 52
 Adding ~도 to More Complicated Grammatical Principles
~는지도
In Lesson 30, I introduced ~는지 and the purpose of attaching ~도 specifically to future
tense conjugations. If you haven’t read that lesson yet, I suggest you review that lesson
briefly before continuing.

In addition to the purpose discussed in Lesson 30, adding ~도 to ~는지 can stress that the
uncertain clause is one of other things that are also uncertain. For example:

이것이 무엇인지 몰라요 = I don’t know what this is

이것이 무엇인지도 몰라요 = I don’t even know what this is

For example, imagine if somebody asked you:

“Do you know how to use this?”

You could respond with:

“I don’t even know what it is!”

When used in the future tense, it is possible that ~도 could have the meaning described in
Lesson 30, or it is possible that it has the meaning being described here. The context of
the situation will make it clear. For example:

엄마가 올지 모르겠어요 = I don’t know if mom will come

엄마가 올지도 모르겠어요 = I don’t know if mom will come
엄마가 올지도 모르겠어요 = I don’t even know if come will come

More examples:
불교가 무엇인지 몰라요 = I don’t know what Buddhism is
불교가 무엇인지도 몰라요 = I don’t even know what Buddhism is

문을 어떻게 열지 모르잖아! = You don’t know how to open the door!

문을 어떻게 열지도 모르잖아! = You don’t even know how to open the door!

그 개념이 무엇인지 잘 몰라요 = He doesn’t know what that concept is

그 개념이 무엇인지도 잘 몰라요 = He doesn’t even know what that concept is

설거지를 어떻게 제대로 하는지 몰라요 = I don’t know how to do the dishes properly
설거지를 어떻게 제대로 하는지도 몰라요 = I don’t even know how to do the dishes properly

사람들이 이런 음악을 왜 좋아하는지 모르겠어요 = I don’t know why people like this kind of music
사람들이 이런 음악을 왜 좋아하는지도 모르겠어요 = I don’t even know why people like this kind of music

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 53
 ~는데도
In Lessons 76 and 77, you learned how to use ~는데 in sentences. As you know from
those lessons, the meaning of ~는데 is often hard to express in English – but the closest
we can do (for one of the usages) is to say that the meaning is similar to ~지만, but not as
strong; and it often provides background information for the upcoming clause.

~는데도 is very similar, but the addition of ~도 makes the “even though” feeling
stronger than if it were just ~는데. Therefore, using ~는데도 is very similar to using
~지만 in a sentence. The common dictionary translation I’ve always remembered is “in
spite of” or “despite,” but “although” or “even though” would also be acceptable. For
example:

열심히 공부했는데도 시험에 떨어졌어요

= Despite studying very hard, I failed the exam

나쁜 짓을 했는데도 엄마가 왜 봐주는지 몰라요

= I did something bad, and despite that, I’m not sure why my mom let me off the hook

도마뱀이 변장을 했는데도 여우가 잡아 먹었어요

= Despite the lizard camouflaging itself, the fox still caught it

날씨가 추웠는데도 우리는 야외공연을 보러 갔어요

= Despite the cold weather, we went to see an outdoor performance

할아버지가 지팡이가 없었는데도 일어나셔서 전등을 켰어요

= Even though grandpa didn’t have his cane, he got up and turned on the light

제가 자꾸 그만하라고 했는데도 친구가 말을 계속 했어요

= Even though I kept telling him to stop, my friend kept talking

건강이 점점 나빠지는데도 그 가수가 계속 공연하고 싶대요

= In spite of her health deteriorating (going down), the singer said she wants to continue
with the performance

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 54
 ~고도
In Lesson 17, you learned how to use ~고 in sentences. In this lesson, you learned that its
general purpose is to indicate that one action happens after another. You can place ~도
after the particle ~고 to stress that even after the first action occurs, the second action
occurs. For example:

제공되는 음식을 다 먹고 아직 배고프다고 했어요

= After eating all the provided food, he said he was still hungry

제공되는 음식을 다 먹고도 아직 배고프다고 했어요

= Even after eating all the provided food, he said he was still hungry

문을 완전히 열고 강아지가 들어오지 않았어요

= After opening the door, the dog didn’t come inside

문을 완전히 열고도 강아지가 들어오지 않았어요

= Even after opening the door, the dog didn’t come inside

손전등을 켜고 떨어진 동전을 못 찾았어요

= After turning on the flashlight, I couldn’t find the coin that dropped

손전등을 켜고도 떨어진 동전을 못 찾았어요

= Even after turning on the flashlight, I couldn’t find the coin that dropped

(Note that because of the situations, both the second examples above (the ones with
~고도) actually sound much more natural than the first examples)

Here’s a good example from the book I am currently reading (Hector and the Search For
Happiness, in Korean):

그 모든 불행한 일을 겪고도 미소를 그렇게 자주 짓는 것은 어렵지 않아요

= Even after experiencing (going through) all that unhappiness, it is not difficult to smile
often like that

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 55
 ~다가도
In Lesson 88, you learned that ~다가 can be used to indicate that one was doing an action
while some other situation arises. For example:

공부를 하다가 그녀에 대한 생각이 났어요 = While I was studying, I thought about her
제가 집을 청소하다가 잃어버린 열쇠를 찾았어요 = While I was cleaning the house, I
found the key that I lost

By placing ~도 after ~다가 you can indicate that a situation arises during one particular
action in addition to other actions. This is often translated to “even while one was
doing…” For example:

공부를 하다가도 그녀에 대한 생각이 났어요 = Even while I was studying, I thought about her

Here, the speaker is saying that he thinks about the girl a lot – while doing many different
actions. Not only does he think about her when he is studying, but when doing other
things as well. Let’s look at many more examples:

제가 울다가도 가끔 웃음이 나요 = Even when I cry I laugh sometimes

밥을 먹다가도 눈물이 났다 = Even while (when I am/was) eating, I cried

피자를 먹다가도 김치를 먹고 싶었어요

= Even while I was eating pizza, I wanted to eat kimchi

공부를 하다가도 그녀에 대한 생각이 났어요

= Even while I was studying, I thought about her

남자친구와 사귀다가도 다른 남자랑 데이트를 하고 싶었어요

= Even while she is going out with her boyfriend, she wants to go on dates with other guys

거미가 거미줄을 만들다가도 잠자리가 있는지를 확인할 수 있어요

= Even while making its web, a spider can still check if a dragonfly is present

In Lesson 88, you learned that ~다가 can be used to express that one does an action after
another action. You would think that adding ~도 to this would create a meaning similar
to ~고도, which would have a meaning like ‘even after.’ However, adding ~도 to ~다가
does not have that meaning. Therefore, the following wouldn’t make sense:

저는 학교에 갔다가도 (or 가다가도) 친구 집에 갔어요

그 사람들이 아침에 왔다가도 (or 오다가도) 급히 갔어요

However, I don’t want to say that in all situations where the meaning of “~다가” is “one
action happens after the other” that adding “~도” would be incorrect. For example, if we
look back to this sentence:

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 56
학생은 열심히 공부하다가 잠이 들었어요 = The student studied hard and then fell asleep

I introduced that sentence in Lesson 88 to mean “the student studied hard and then fell
asleep.” However, I also talked about the fact that this sentence could also have the
meaning of “the student studied hard, and then while studying hard, fell asleep.” Because
of this, adding ~도 to ~다가 in this situation would be acceptable. For example:

학생은 열심히 공부하다가 잠이 들었어요

= While studying hard, the student fell asleep

학생은 열심히 공부하다가도 잠이 들었어요

= Even while studying hard, the student fell asleep (the student was sleeping in many
situation s, and even fell asleep when he was (trying) to study hard)

~면서도
In Lesson 62, you learned how to use ~(으)면서. Although ~(으)면서 is commonly used
to indicate that two actions occur simultaneously, you learned that it can also be used
when two clauses oppose each other. For example:

그 여자가 식당을 열고 싶다고 하면서 요리를 못해요

= That girl says she wants to open up a restaurant, but she doesn’t know how to cook

저의 와이프가 외국 브랜드를 좋아하면서 한국에서 만들어진 제품만 사요

= My wife likes foreign brands, but only buys products made in Korea

그 사람이 한국에서 살면서 한국어를 할 수 없어요

= That person lives in Korea, but he can’t speak Korean

You can attach ~도 to these types of sentences. For example:

그 여자가 식당을 열고 싶다고 하면서도 요리를 못해요

= That girl says she wants to open up a restaurant, but she doesn’t know how to cook

저의 와이프가 외국 브랜드를 좋아하면서도 한국에서 만들어진 제품만 사요

= My wife likes foreign brands, but only buys products made in Korea

그 사람이 한국에서 살면서도 한국어를 할 수 없어요

= That person lives in Korea, but he can’t speak Korean

Their respective meanings are very similar, Korean people will often tell you that their
meanings feel the same. That being said, the use of ~도 makes me feel like saying
“~(으)면서도 would be more stressed or emphasized.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 57
 Adding ~도 to Pseudo-Nouns
줄
In Lesson 85, you learned how to use 줄 to indicate a lapse of judgment in what you
think. For example:

네가 간 줄 알았어 = I thought you went

네가 가고 있는 줄 알았어 = I thought you were going
네가 갈 줄 알았어 = I thought you would go

You can attach ~도 to 줄 to indicate that the fact you don’t know is just one of other facts
that you also didn’t know. In order for the use of ~도 to be appropriate, there has to be
some other facts (usually from context) that are being referred to as “the other things you
don’t know.” I’d like to explain these situations with some simple examples:

부산으로 이사한 줄도 몰랐어요 = I didn’t even know you moved to Busan

For example, if you are catching up with a friend and he is telling you about what he has
been up to for the last little while. He tells you a bunch of things that you didn’t know,
including that he moved to Busan. In this case, you can stress that you didn’t know all of
these things, even the fact that he moved to Busan (which you should have known,
because that is a big piece of news to not be aware of).

그 영화를 좋아하는 줄도 몰랐어요 = I didn’t even know that you liked the movie

For example, if you walked into your friend’s house and you saw that he had a bunch of
memorabilia from a movie (like posters and stuff like that). You could say this sentence
to express that you didn’t even know that he liked it, let alone like it so much to go as far
as buy all of this memorabilia.

그 회사가 파산한 줄도 몰랐어요 = I didn’t even know that company went bankrupt

For example, if you are talking with your friend about a company, and your friend
indicates that the company not only went bankrupt, but as a result of the bankruptcy the
CEO fled to Japan and started the company again there. You could say this sentence to
express that you didn’t even know that the company went bankrupt, let alone the other
facts about the CEO fleeing to Japan and starting the company again.

상어가 떼를 지어 다니는 줄도 몰랐어요 = I didn’t even know that sharks traveled in groups

I find it funny how different animals in English have different names for their “groups.”
You can have a parliament of owls, a pride of lions and a murder of crows. Therefore,
allow me to re-translate the sentence above:

상어가 떼를 지어 다니는 줄도 몰랐어요 = I didn’t even know there was a such thing
as a shiver of sharks

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 58
 ~ㄹ/을 수도 있다
In Lesson 45 you learned how to describe 수 to indicate the ability (or inability) to do an
action. When adding ~도 to 수, in this grammatical principle, the meaning that is created
usually is not indicating that a person/thing can do something in addition to some other
action. For example, if I were to say:

나는 축구를 할 수 있다

This translates to “I can play soccer”

However, by attaching ~도 to 수 in the following example:

나는 축구를 할 수도 있다

The meaning that is created is not “I can play soccer too.” Note that in order to express
this meaning, the following should be done:

나는 축구도 할 수 있다

Instead, adding ~도 to 수 indicates that the action/situation in the previous clause is also
possible. For example:

비가 올 수도 있다 = It is possible that it will/might rain

Note that a better translation might technically be “there is a possibility that it will rain.”
However, I personally prefer the translation of “it is possible that…” when using 수도.
It is for this reason that the following is slightly unnatural:

비가 올 수 있다

This sentence would translate to something like “It can rain.”… but… what? What can
rain? What has the ability to rain? It is more natural to talk about the possibility that it
could rain. For this reason, it is more natural to say “비가 올 수도 있다.” To go back to
the first example of “나는 축구를 할 수도 있다”. That sentence does make sense, but
only in the situation when you are talking about the possibility of you playing soccer.

나는 내일 축구를 할 수도 있다 = It is possible that I can play soccer tomorrow

The purpose of ~도 is to indicate that there are other possibilities. I could play soccer
tomorrow. I might play soccer tomorrow. There might be other things that I might do, and
one of them could be soccer.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 59
Likewise, look at this sentence:

계획이 변할 수도 있어요
= It’s possible that the plans can change

The plans could change. They might change. It’s possible that they could change, but it is
also possible that they won’t change.

Below are many more examples:

친구가 올 수도 있어요
= It’s possible that my friend can come

계획이 변할 수도 있어요
= It’s possible that the plans can change

일이 내일까지 끝날 수도 있어요
= It’s possible that we could finish the work by tomorrow

임신이 안 되면 애기를 입양할 수도 있어요

= If you can’t get pregnant, you could always adopt

물건을 훔칠 때 주변에 아무도 없어도 카메라가 얼굴을 인식해서 잡힐 수도 있어요

= When you steal something, even if there is nobody there, you can get caught by a
camera recognizing your face

교장선생님이 그 선생님을 국제부 부장으로 지정할 수도 있어요

= It’s possible that the principal will designate that teacher as the head of the international department

When using 수도 followed by 없다 instead of 있다, the meaning expressed is very

similar to not including ~도 at all. The only difference is that the speaker is stressing that
he can’t do something. The best way to translate this to English is to add the word “even”
to the sentence. For example:

나는 축구를 할 수도 없어
= I can’t even play soccer

방이 너무 지저분해서 움직일 수도 없어요

= You can’t even move because her room is so messy

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 60
Two common words that this is used with just by the nature of the words themselves are:

생각하다:
선생님이 되지 않은 것을 생각할 수도 없어요
= I can’t even think about not being a teacher

그 일자리에 지원하는 것을 생각할 수도 없어요

= I can’t even think about applying for that job

상상하다:
아내랑 이혼하는 것을 상상할 수도 없어요
= I can’t even imagine divorcing my wife

그렇게 많은 돈을 가지고 있는 것을 상상할 수도 없어요

= I can’t even imagine having that much money

That’s it for this lesson!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 61
Nouns: Verbs:
붓 = paint brush 존재하다 = to exist
여유 = sufficiency in time/space 녹음하다 = to record audio
시장 = mayor 수비하다 = to defend
흉터 = scar
연꽃 = lily pad, lotus flower Adjectives:
풍경 = landscape 질기다 = to be tough, leathery
애교 = charm 알뜰하다 = to be frugal, thrifty
연금 = pension 풍족하다 = to be rich, to be well off
멸치 = anchovy
Adverbs:
지름 = diameter
아예 = not at all
지름길 = shortcut
초보 = beginning, beginner
초보자 = beginner
녹음실 = recording studio
불꽃 = flame/flare/blaze
불꽃놀이 = fireworks
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn the meaning of a grammatical principle that, by this point,
you have probably noticed a few times in your Korean studies. Have you ever seen words
in the past tense conjugated with an additional ~었~? As in, 했었다 instead of 했다? In
this lesson, we will look at the meaning of this additional ~었~. Let’s get started.

The Past Perfect: ~었~

You learned way back in Lesson 5 how to conjugate verbs adjectives and 이다 to the past
tense using ~았/었다. For example:

제가 고등학교 때 불꽃놀이를 아주 좋아했어요

= When I was in high school I really liked fireworks

어렸을 때 멸치를 아예 안 먹었어요

= When I was young I didn’t eat anchovies at all

사람들이 그 시장이 나쁘다고 했어요

= People said that mayor is bad

제가 운전을 처음 배웠을 때 초보 운전자 스티커를 붙이고 운전했어요

= When I first learned how to drive, I drove around with a “beginner driver” sticker (on my car)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 62
You can attach an additional ~었~ to these past tense conjugations is to indicate that that
action has since finished and is no longer occurring. Note that in most situations, when
something is conjugated into the regular past tense this could be the case. For example, if
we look at the first sentence above:

제가 고등학교 때 불꽃놀이를 아주 좋아했어요

In this sentence, the speaker is indicating that he/she liked fireworks. Just by the context
of the sentence, it can probably be assumed that the speaker no longer likes fireworks.
However, this is not specifically indicated and it is only implied from the situation in the
sentence. Therefore, the person could technically still like fireworks, but there is no way
of knowing from this one sentence.

The same could be said for the next sentence as well:

어렸을 때 멸치를 아예 안 먹었어요

In this sentence, the speaker is indicating that he didn’t eat anchovies at a young age.
From this sentence alone, it is possible that he eats anchovies now. It could also be
possible that he still doesn’t eat anchovies. The only information that is given is that he
did not eat them when he was younger. We can’t make any assumptions regarding the
present tense without more information.

The purpose of adding the additional ~었~ to a past tense conjugation is to eliminate this
ambiguity. For example:

제가 고등학교 때 불꽃놀이를 아주 좋아했었어요

In this sentence, the use of ~었~ indicates that the situation in the past, it is not
continuing to the present. In English this is called the “Past Perfect Tense,” which
describes that something happened in the past and is no longer happening in the present.
Compare this simply to the “Past Tense,” where it is ambiguous as to whether the action
has continued to the present or not. For example:

어렸을 때 멸치를 아예 안 먹었었어요

= When I was young I didn’t eat anchovies at all (but now I do)

사람들이 그 시장이 나쁘다고 했었어요

= People used to say that mayor was bad

제가 운전을 처음 배웠을 때 초보 운전자 스티커를 붙이고 운전했었어요

= When I first learned how to drive, I drove around with a “beginner driver” sticker (on
my car) (but now I don’t)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 63
~았~ is often used with 갔다 to indicate that one went somewhere and has since returned.
When the speaker is the subject (the person who went) in a sentence like this, the
meaning is essentially the same regardless of if you use ~었~ or not. For example:

저는 붓을 사거 서울에 갔어요
= I went to Seoul to buy paint brushes (it would be assumed that you are no longer in Seoul)
저는 붓을 사러 서울에 갔었어요
= I went to Seoul to buy paint brushes (and it is stated that you are no longer in Seoul)

저는 연금을 받으러 캐나다에 갔어요

= I went to Canada to receive my pension (and it is ambiguous if he is still there or not)
저는 연금을 받으러 캐나다에 갔었어요
= I went to Canada to receive my pension (and I am no longer there)

If the speaker is not the subject of the sentence, the effect of ~었~ is more apparent. For
example:

아빠가 풍경을 보러 제주에 갔어요

= Dad went to Jeju to see the landscape (and it is ambiguous if he is still there or not)
아빠가 풍경을 보러 서울에 갔었어요
= Dad went to Jeju to see the landscape (and he has come back)

One way of conjugating this into English is to use the word “had.” For example:

제가 고등학교 때 불꽃놀이를 아주 좋아했었어요

= When I was in high school I had liked fireworks

어렸을 때 멸치를 아예 안 먹었었어요

= When I was young I had never eaten anchovies

제가 운전을 처음 배웠을 때 초보 운전자 스티커를 붙이고 운전했어요

= When I first learned how to drive, I had driven around with a “beginner driver” sticker (on my car)

사람들이 그 시장이 나쁘다고 했었어요

= People had said that major was bad

Below are many more examples:

오래 전에는 공룡이 실제로 존재했었어요

= A long time ago dinosaurs had once actually existed

제가 어렸을 때 얼굴에 흉터가 있었었어요

= When I was younger I used to have a scar on my face

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 64
옛날에 그 도시에는 사기꾼이 엄청 많았었어요
= A long time ago in that city, there used to be a lot of scammers

그녀가 애교가 많아서 그녀를 잠깐 좋아했었어요

= She has a lot of carm, so I used to like her for a little bit

어렸을 때 등교할 때마다 이 지름길로 다녔었어요

= When I was young I used to take this shortcut everytime I went to school

거기 가기 전에는 연꽃이 얼마나 예쁜지 몰랐었어요

= Before I went there I had no idea how beautiful the lotus flowers were

제가 옛날에 이 녹음실에서 노래를 많이 녹음했었어요

= I used to record a lot of songs in this recording studio

그전에는 돈이 없어서 싼 질긴 고기밖에 못 먹었었어요

= Before then, we didn’t have any money so we couldn’t eat anything but cheap, tough meat

옛날에 돈이 없어서 아주 알뜰했었지만 지금 여유가 생겨서 풍족하게 사고 싶은

것을 사요
= A long time ago we didn’t have any money so we were very thrifty, but now we’ve got
some to spare, so we are living well and can buy what we want

That’s it for this lesson!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 65
All finished Lessons 101 – 108? Now it is time to test yourself on what you learned in
those lessons! Before moving on to the next group of lessons in Unit 5, make sure you
can understand all the concepts covered here. Good luck!

The answers are at the bottom of the test!

1) Read the conversation between two teenage Korean girls and answer the question
below:

- 쟤 누구지?
- 우리 오빤 쟤랑 3 개월 동안 사귀었어 ㅋㅋ
- 진짜?!
- 응~ 어때? 못생겼지?
- 진짜 못생겼어~ 너의 오빤 멋있으니까 예쁜 여자를 만나야 돼
- 그니까! 아는 여자 중에 예쁜 여자가 있어? 알고 있으면 알려줘
- 알았엉

Which of the following best describes the conclusion of the conversation above:

a) The two girls don’t like each other

b) One of the girls will look for a girl to introduce to her friend’s brother
c) A brother of one of the girls likes the other one
d) A brother of one of the girls is ugly

2) Choose the incorrect sentence:

a) 엄마는 점심을 이미 먹었대요

b) 아빠는 식사를 할 거래요
c) 동생은 저녁을 먹고 있대요
d) 저는 점심을 먹고 싶대요

3) Choose the incorrect sentence:

a) 속도제한이 줄었으므로 운전을 하실 때 그 새로운 속도제한을 지키기 바랍니다

b) 우리 학교에서는 학생들이 미국 역사 전반에 대해 배워요
c) 저의 친구는 내일 3 시에 한 미국에 갈 것입니다
d) 나는 고등학생이었을 때 놀림을 많이 당했어

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 66
4) Which of the following would not be a natural response to the following statement:

어제 엄마는 ‘아름다운 미용실’에 갔어

a) 요즘에는 그 미용실에 가는 아주머니가 많아요

b) 진짜? 내가 알기로는 그 미용실에 가는 사람이 많진 않은데
c) 아빠는?
d) 엄마는 아름답고 아빠는 잘생겨요

5) Choose the sentence that has the underlined word being used incorrectly:

a) 제가 밥을 많이 먹어서 배가 터뜨렸어요
b) 요즘에는 일본 정부는 일본을 서구화하고 있다
c) 제가 그 남자를 처음에 만났을 때 걔는 너무 부끄러워했어요
d) 교장선생님께서 어제 미국에서 돌아오셨어요

6) Which of the following would be the most natural clause to fill the blank below:

________________________________ 가장 중요한 것은 우리 언젠가 만나는 거야

a) 내일 오든지 내일모레 오든지 간에

b) 어제 오든지 오늘 오든지 간에
c) 오늘 말든지
d) 누구든지 와도

7) Choose the incorrect usage of the particle ~도 below:

a) 비 때문에 우리는 내일 축구를 못 할 수도 있어요

b) 아들은 설거지까지도 다 했어요
c) 한국 경제는 많이 발전했는데도 부자가 많아요
d) 그 아저씨는 집에 있을 때도 담배를 피워요

8) Choose the incorrect sentence:

a) 그 여자는 10 년 전에 예뻤었어요
b) 그 학생은 수업을 듣다가도 음악을 들어요
c) 요리사가 밥이 부족하데요!
d) 내일 학교에 가든지 말든지 숙제를 다 해야 돼

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 67
Answers:

1) B
2) D
3) C
4) D
5) A
6) A
7) C
8) C

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 68
Nouns: Verbs:
온수 = hot water 헹구다 = to rinse
욕조 = bathtub 갇히다 = to be locked in
내복 = under-clothes worn to keep warm 담그다 = to soak in
미로 = a maze 권하다 = to give advice
탁구대 = ping pong table 추정하다 = to estimate
휴게실 = resting room, lounge 깨뜨리다 = to smash
무더기 = pile, heap of something 지적하다 = to point out
자존심 = self esteem 수신하다 = to receive a signal
날아가다 = to fly away
Adjectives: 헌신하다 = to devote
아쉽다 = to be unfortunate 대피하다 = to evacuate and take shelter
엎다 = to put face down
엎드리다 = to lay face down
엎드러지다 = to fall on one’s face
엎드러뜨리다 = to make one fall on their face
Introduction
In this lesson, you will how to attach ~ㄴ가/은가/는가/나 보다 to the end of a sentence.
That’s a funny looking grammatical principle, isn’t it? Let’s get started.

To guess, think, suppose, to look like: ~ㄴ가/은가/는가/나 보다

By attaching ~ㄴ가/은가/는가/나 보다 to words at the end of a sentence, the speaker
indicates that the sentence is a guess, and it thought to be true. The way it is attached to
words is very interesting, especially to a Korean grammar nerd like me.

~ㄴ가 보다 is attached to 이다 and adjectives where the stem ends in a vowel

여기가 휴게실인가 봐요 = I guess this is the resting room
시험이 어려운가 봐요 = I guess the exam is hard

~은가 보다 is attached to adjectives where the stem ends in a consonant

그 사람이 싫은가 봐요 = I guess he doesn’t like that person

~는가 보다 is attached to all verbs and all versions of 있다 and 없다

온수가 잘 안 나오는가 봐요 = I guess hot water doesn’t really work (come out) well
애기가 지금 욕조에 있는가 봐요 = I guess the baby is in the bathtub
그 학생이 자존심이 없는가 봐요 = I guess that student doesn’t have any self-esteem

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 69
Alternatively, ~나 보다 can be attached to 이다, adjectives or verbs.
여기가 휴게실이나 봐요 = I guess this is the resting room
시험이 어렵나 봐요 = I guess the exam is hard
그 사람이 싫나 봐요 = I guess he doesn’t like that person
온수가 잘 안 나오나 봐요 = I guess hot water doesn’t really work (come out) well
애기가 지금 욕조에 있나 봐요 = I guess the baby is in the bathtub
그 학생이 자존심이 없나 봐요 = I guess that student doesn’t have any self-esteem

Some Korean learning sources state different rules for this grammatical principle. In fact,
I have gotten many emails over the years claiming that my description of this
grammatical principle is incorrect because it goes against other sources. I assure you,
those are correct. Are some of the above sentences more common than others? Yes, I will
get into that now.

In reality, I would almost always use ~ㄴ/은가 보다 with adjectives and 이다, and ~나
보다 with verbs. This is the common and natural way to do it in Korean, but there is no
rule saying you can’t use ~는가 보다 with verbs, 있다 and 없다, and no rule saying you
can’t use ~나 보다 with adjectives and 이다. In fact, the ~ㄴ/은/는가 and ~나 are
grammatically the same particles that you learned in Lesson 21, where they were used as
questions-creating particles.

Another interesting note is that 보다 in these sentences is an adjective. The only practical
implication of this is ending the sentence simply as “보다” is grammatically correct,
whereas ending it as “본다” would be grammatically incorrect. For example:

시험이 어려운가 보다 – correct

시험이 어려운가 본다 – incorrect

Let’s get into how we can use and distinguish this grammatical principle from other ones
you have learned.

In Lesson 35, you learned about using ~ㄹ/을 것 같다 to indicate that something is a
guess. Let’s compare ~ㄴ가/은가/는가/나 보다 to that. For example:

시험이 어려울 것 같아요 = The exam is/will probably be hard

시험이 어려운가 봐요 = I guess the exam is hard

In the first sentence using ~ㄹ/을 것 같다, the speaker is mostly guessing based on
intuition without any immediate experienced reason. For example, imagine you are a
student in a class and the contents of the class are very challenging. Your professor
makes the exam. The night before the exam you tell your friend who is also in the class
that the exam will probably be hard.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 70
However, in the second sentence using ~ㄴ가/은가/는가/나 보다 the speaker has a
direct reason or evidence that supports this guess. For example, imagine you are a proctor
in an exam room watching students write an exam. During the test, you see/hear many
students sigh, and even some students completely stop writing the exam and start
sleeping without answering all the questions. This is evidence that supports that the exam
is difficult.

Let’s look at another example.

Imagine you are at a restaurant and you see a foreigner eating some Korean BBQ. After
each piece of meat, he eats a big piece of kimchi. At this point, because it is something
that you are directly experiencing and something that you have direct evidence of, you
can say this sentence.

그 외국인이 김치를 좋아하는가 봐요

= I guess that foreigner likes kimchi/it looks like that foreigner likes kimchi/I suppose
that foreigner likes kimchi

However if you actually didn’t know he likes kimchi or not, and were just guessing that
he might (maybe because kimchi is delicious and everybody likes it), you could say:

그 외국인이 김치를 좋아할 것 같아요

= That foreigner probably likes kimchi

Here are some more examples:

사과가 너무 비싼가 봐요
= I guess the apples are too expensive (maybe because you realized that nobody is buying
any apples, so you have the evidence to lead you to believe that the apples are too
expensive)

내복을 입어야 되는가 봐요

= I guess I need to wear long-johns (long-underwear) (if you imagine it’s winter and you
look outside and you realize that it is going to be freezing cold)

우리가 내일 아쉽게 못 가나 봐요
= Unfortunately it looks like we won’t be able to go tomorrow (if you imagine you had a
road-trip planned for tomorrow but your car just broke down and are now realizing you
won’t be able to go)

그 학생이 밥을 살 수 있는 돈이 없는가 봐요
= I guess that student doesn’t have any money to buy food (If you imagine you are on a
school field trip as a teacher and it is lunch time for the students. However, one of the
students is just sitting by himself not eating anything, and looks very sad)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 71
정부에게 불만을 표현하고 싶은 사람이 많은가 봐요
= It looks like there are a lot of people who want to express their complaints towards the
government (If you imagine you are walking around the downtown of your city and you
see a bunch of protesters protesting something at city hall)

여기는 사람들이 사업을 하는 것보다 취업을 권하나 봐

= I guess people here recommend you to get a job rather than running your own (This
could be anything, but imagine you are at university doing a marketing degree. The
professors at the university might all make slight comments that starting up your own
business isn’t the best way to go, and they recommend more that you just get a job for
some company)

This grammatical form can be attached to sentences conjugated in the past and future
tense by attaching ~는가 보다 or ~나 보다 to ~었~ or ~겠~, regardless of it is a verb,
adjective, 이다, 있다 or 없다, for example:

미로가 어렵진 않았나 봐요

= I guess the maze isn’t difficult

빨래를 아직 안 헹궜나 봐요
= I guess the laundry hasn’t rinsed yet

누가 그 제품의 단점을 지적하지 않았나 봐요

= I guess nobody pointed out that product’s flaws

경찰관이 엎드린 사람을 보고 죽은 것으로 추정했나 봐요

= It seems as though the police saw that man laying on the ground and presumed he was dead

건물에 아무도 없는 것을 보니 모든 사람들이 지진에 잘 대피했나 봐요

= I saw that there was nobody in the building, so I guess they all were able to evacuate
from the earthquake

곰이 걷는 것이 어색하는 것을 보니 평생 우리에 갇혀 있었나 봐요

= The way that bear walks is weird, I guess he was trapped in a cage his whole life

쓰레기가 이렇게 무더기로 쌓여 있는데 한번도 청소를 안 했나 봐요

= With this much garbage piled up, I guess they never cleaned the place even once

그 사람이 오랫동안 헌신해서 어머니를 돌봐서 어머니가 거의 다 나았나 봐

= That person dedicated himself to looking after my mother for a long time and now it
looks like she is almost better

급하게 가다가 접시를 바닥에 엎어서 다시 요리해야 되겠나 봐요

= I was walking too fast and I dropped my plate flat on the ground so it looks like I’ll
have to cook again

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 72
When the past tense is being used, regardless of verb, adjective or 이다, ~나 보다 is
much more common and natural. Here are some more examples:

수신이 안 됐는가 봐요
= I guess there is no reception/It looks like there is no reception

아기가 접시를 깨뜨렸는가 봐요

= I guess the baby broke the plate/it looks like the baby broke the plate

새로운 탁구대가 왔는가 봐요

= I guess the new Ping-Pong table arrived/It looks like the new Ping-Pong table arrived

“~네(요)”, which you learned about in Lesson 83, is often added to sentences where the
speaker learns something new. Because of the nature of the sentences we are creating
with ~ㄴ가/은가/는가/나 보다, it is very common to add the grammatical principle
“~네(요)” to 보다. For example:

시험이 어려운가 보네요 = I guess the exam is hard/the exam looks hard
사과가 너무 비싸나 보네요 = I guess the apples are too expensive
내복을 입어야 되는가 보네 = I guess I need to wear long-johns (long-underwear)
아기가 접시를 깨뜨렸나 보네 = I guess the baby broke the plate
수신이 안 됐나 보네 = I guess there is no reception/It looks like there is no reception

That’s it for this lesson!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 73
Nouns: Verbs:
검 = sword 혼내다 = to be mad at somebody
겹 = layer 혼나다 = to be scolded, to be yelled at
밀 = wheat 구기다 = to wrinkle, to crumple
고대 = ancient 삐지다 = to sulk
수익 = profit 깎이다 = to be disgraced
분기 = a quarter (of a year) 깎이다 = to be peeled, to be sharpened
정의 = definition 벗어나다 = to get out of/break away from
장비 = equipment, apparatus
체면 = one’s reputation Adjectives:
명성 = one’s reputation 거칠다 = to be rough/course/uneven
은어 = slang 소심하다 = to be timid
강철 = steel 기특하다 = to be admirable, commendable
흔적 = trace, evidence
응급 = emergency
음급실 = emergency room
사춘기 = puberty
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use 어쩔 수 없다 and its various forms in sentences.
Though not quite a grammatical principle (it’s more of a word combined with ~ㄹ/을 수
없다) its usage is fairly common and quite difficult – enough to warrant me to write a
lesson about it. Let’s get started.

There is nothing one can do about something: 어쩔 수 없다

In Lesson 94 you learned about the word 어쩌다 and how it is used in sentences to
indicate that something happened by chance (or, in effect, was not under the control of
the acting agent in a sentence). You learned that this word is most commonly found in
sentences that end in the grammatical principle ~게 되다. For example:

어쩌다 응급실에 가게 되었어요 = I ended up going to the emergency room

Because “어쩌다” ends in “~다”, people often assume that it is a verb or an adjective.
However, if either of these were the case, there would be no way that 어쩌다 could be
placed unconjugated at the beginning of a sentence like we see above. Therefore, 어쩌다
when used this way is an adverb.

Korean dictionaries also have an entry for 어쩌다 as a verb. Because of the slight
similarities in meaning with the adverb and verb form of 어쩌다, you might think that
they are actually the same word, but they technically are not related.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 74
어쩌다 (in its verb form) is most commonly used by combining it with ~ㄹ 수 없다 to
create 어쩔 수 없다. The whole construction (which I suggest you treat as one unit) is
used when one wants to express that there is nothing that can be done in a situation.

In its most simple form, it can be used by itself:

어쩔 수 없어요 = There’s nothing I/we/you can do…

You can make a more complex sentence by putting a clause before 어쩔 수 없다 to give
more information to the listener/reader as to what you are talking about. For example:

흔적이 없어서 어쩔 수 없어요

= There is no evidence, so there is nothing we can do

애기가 삐져서 어쩔 수 없어요

= The baby is upset, there is nothing we can do

강아지가 소심해서 어쩔 수 없어요

= The dog is very timid, there is nothing we can do

장비를 안 가져와서 어쩔 수 없어요

= We didn’t bring the equipment, there is nothing we can do

밀이 있었으면 좋겠지만 어쩔 수 없어요

= It would be nice if we had some flour, but there is nothing we can do

상황이 조금 안타깝지만 어쩔 수 없어요

= The situation is unfortunate, but there is nothing we can do (about it)

It is also possible to turn the situation into a noun using ~는 것 to allow 어쩔 수 없다 to

act on that entire situation. For example:

명성이 깎이는 것은 어쩔 수 없어요

= There’s nothing I can do about my fame being tarnished

강철을 사용해야 되는 것은 어쩔 수 없어요

= There’s nothing we can do, we have to use steel

학생들이 저를 싫어하는 것은 어쩔 수 없어요

= There’s nothing I can do about the students not liking me

컴퓨터를 고장 내고 아빠한테 혼나는 것은 어쩔 수 없어요

= After breaking the computer, there is nothing I can do about dad scolding me

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 75
부장님이 다른 회사에 가서 1 분기의 수익이 떨어진 것은 어쩔 수 없어요
= Our boss went to another company, there’s nothing we can do about our first quarter’s
profits dropping

사춘기의 청소년들이 말을 할 때 은어로 말하는 것은 어쩔 수 없는 것이에요

= When kids go through puberty, there’s nothing you can do about them using slang
when talking

It’s also possible to apply the ~는 것 principle to 어쩔 수 없다 (어쩔 수 없는) to turn it

into a clause that can describe an upcoming noun. The noun that is being described then
changes to a noun that one cannot do anything about. For example:

Note that it is often hard to translate these sentences directly into English. What might
sound natural in Korean might not sound natural in English if it is translated directly.

부장님을 싫어하는 것은 어쩔 수 없는 일이에요

= Hating your boss is inevitable

우리가 어쩔 수 없는 문제에 도달했어요

= We arrived at the problem that we can’t do anything about

이게 어쩔 수 없는 상황이니 다른 생각을 해봅시다

= Because this is a situation we can’t control (can’t do anything about) let’s think about
something else

아이들이 사춘기를 지나가는 것은 어쩔 수 없는 일이다

= Going through puberty is something that all kids go through

Finally, it is also possible to change 어쩔 수 없다 to 어쩔 수 없이 to act as an adverb.

어쩔 수 없이 can then be placed in sentences to indicate that one does an action
“unavoidably” or because he/she had no choice in the matter. For example:

부모님께 어쩔 수 없이 진실을 알려줬어요

= I had no choice but to tell my parents the truth

응급 환자가 있어서 어쩔 수 없이 기다려야 돼요

= There is an emergency patient, so you will have no choice but to wait

고대 사람들이 어쩔 수 없이 검을 들고 다녀야 되었어요

= Ancient people had no choice but to walk around with a knife all the time

용돈이 깎여서 어쩔 수 없이 이번 주부터 아껴 써야 돼요

= My allowance was cut, so I’ll have no choice but to start saving from this week

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 76
피부가 너무 거칠어서 어쩔 수 없이 병원에 가야 되겠어요
= My skin is so rough, I’ll have no choice but to go to the hospital

종이를 구겨서 버렸으니까 어쩔 수 없이 다시 그려야 되겠어요

= I crumpled up the paper and through it out, so I’ll have no choice but to draw it again

부장님이 저를 매일 혼내서 저는 일을 어쩔 수 없이 그만두었어요

= Because the boss would get mad at me every day, I had no choice but to quit

그 단어의 정확한 정의를 몰라서 사전에서 어쩔 수 없이 찾아 봤어요

= I don’t know the exact meaning of that word, so I’ll have no choice but to look it up in
the dictionary

우리가 너무 빨리 가고 있었기 때문에 어쩔 수 없이 발생한 사고였어요

= Because we were going so fast, the accident was unavoidable

날씨가 추워서 밖에 나가려면 어쩔 수 없이 옷을 두 겹 이상 입어야 돼요

= It is so cold outside, when we go out we’ll have no choice but to wear (more than two) layers

가장 친한 친구의 여자 친구에게 키스를 해서 그 친구에게 어쩔 수 없이 거짓말을 했어요

= After kissing my best friend’s girlfriend, I had no choice but to lie to him

That’s it for this Lesson!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 77
Nouns: Verbs:
생신 = high respect word for birthday 적다 = to write down
위생 = hygiene, sanitation 여기다 = to regard, to consider
조카 = nephew, niece 장을 보다 = to do groceries
기사 = article in a paper/magazine 조언하다 = to give advice, to advise
기사 = somebody who handles equipment 사임하다 = to resign
해골 = skull/skeleton 자살하다 = to commit suicide
금색 = gold (color) 충돌하다 = to collide, to crash
은색 = silver (color) 부딪치다 = to bump into
마술 = magic 부딪히다 = to be bumped into
마술사 = magician
이면지 = scrap paper Adjectives:
대걸레 = mop 까다롭다 = to be picky
항공권 = plane ticket 뛰어나다 = to be outstanding, to be excellent
열쇠고리 = key chain
Adverbs and Other Words:
마디 = counter for words, spoken things
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to add ~(이)라도 to nouns. Though this grammatical
principle looks similar to (and sometimes even translates similarly to) ~더라도 (which
you learned in Lesson 99), ~(이)라도 is in fact a separate grammatical principle with a
separate usage and meaning. Let’s get started.

Adding ~(이)라도 to Nouns

~(이)라도 typically gets attached to nouns in a sentence. Let’s assume for simplicity's
sake that it can only attach to nouns while I describe it here. When you attach ~(이)라도
to a noun, the speaker is indicating that; even though that particular noun is not the most
preferred option, it is better than the other possible options. In its simplest form, you
might see a sentence like this:

우리가 빵이라도 먹을래?

It is hard to translate the ~(이)라도 in these types of sentences naturally to English. A

simple translation of the sentence above would be something like “Shall we eat some
bread?” However, the use of ~(이)라도 makes the translation more complicated. A better
translation might be:

“We should eat something, and bread isn’t really what either of us wants to eat, but it
wouldn’t be that bad either.”

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 78
The use of ~(이)라도 expresses that somebody is slightly dissatisfied with the fact that
the most preferred option is not available – but at the same time – somewhat satisfied that
there is at least a good option that can be taken.

Below are more examples with my attempts at translating this nuance into English:

여기까지 오셨으니 제가 커피라도 사 드릴까요?

= You came all the way here, so can I at least buy you a coffee? (You came all the way
here, which was really nice of you. I feel like I need to thank you somehow. I know
coffee isn’t much, but how about I buy you a coffee?)

네가 힘들게 운전하고 있어서 내가 기름값이라도 줄게

= You are driving (which is difficult), I will at least pay for the gas (You are the one who
is doing all the effort of driving and everything, so let me at least pay for the gas, which I
know is not much, but it’s better than nothing [or a lot of other things])

배가 고파서 라면이라도 먹어야 될 거예요

= I’m hungry, so I should eat something like ramen (I’m hungry, and I should eat
something. Ramen isn’t my first choice, but it’s better than nothing [or a lot of other
things])

너무 조용하니 노래라도 틀어줄까?

= Because it is so quiet, should I turn on some music? (Because it is so quiet, we should
do something to break this silence. I guess maybe the best thing would be to start talking
or something, but turning on music would be better than nothing [or a lot of other things])

기다리면서 잡지라도 줄까요?

= While you wait, can I offer you a magazine? (While you wait, I know you’re going to
be bored and you’d probably rather not be here. However, a magazine might help you
overcome this boredom and will be better than nothing).

미국에 가면 열쇠고리라도 기념품으로 갖고 싶어요

= When I go to the US, I want to get a keychain as a souvenir (When I go to the US, I
want to buy a souvenir. A keychain wouldn’t be the best thing to buy, but it’s still better
than nothing)

혹시 소스를 조금이라도 주면 안 돼요?

= Would you be able to give me just a little bit of sauce? (I would prefer if you were able
to give me a lot of sauce, but even if you give me a little it would also be okay)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 79
Below are many examples without the extra nuance given:

나랑 부딪쳤는데 사과라도 한 마디 안 하니?

= You bumped into me, you’re not even going to give me one word of an apology?

내일 시간이 없어서 지금 장이라도 볼 까요?

= We won’t have any time tomorrow, would you want to at least do the groceries today?

조금 있다가 청소하게 대걸레라도 준비해 줘

= We’re going to clean in a little bit, please get at least the mop ready

중요한 것을 적어야 되는데 이면지라도 주세요

= I need to jot something important down, please give me some scrap paper or something

저를 안 도와줄 거면 조언이라도 해 줄 수 있어요?

= If you’re not going to help me, can you at least give me some advice?

너무 말라서 해골 같이 보이는데 뭐라도 조금 먹어요

= You’re all skin and bones, you’ve got to eat something, even if it is a little bit

그 뛰어난 학생들에게 칭찬이라도 해 줘야 되지 않겠어요?

= Don’t you think we at least need to praise the outstanding students?

버스 기사님이 하루 종일 일하셔서 커피라도 사 드리고 싶어요

= The bus driver has been working all day, I want to at least get him a coffee or
something

뒤에 있는 차가 우리 차와 충돌했는 미안하다는 말이라도 없었어요?

= The car behind us crashed into us, they didn’t even give us an apology?

10 대의 자살을 사회 문제로 여기고 학교라도 나서서 도울 수 있으면 도와야 해요

= We should consider teenage suicide a societal problem, and if schools can help to
tackle the problem, they should help

그림이 조금 어두워 보여서 은색이나 금색처럼 밝은 색이라도 써서 수정하는 게

어때요?
= The painting is a bit dark, so how about fixing it by using some light colors like silver
and gold?

그 회사 대표가 곧 사임한다고 들어서 미리 사임 전에 이메일로라도 알려 줬으면

좋겠어요
= That company’s representative is going to resign soon, it would have been nice to at
least received an email saying he would resign

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 80
 Adding ~(이)라도 to Adverbs
~(이)라도 can also be attached to some adverbs. This allows the speaker to indicate that
an action will happen in a way/form that is not the most preferred option, but is better
than other possible options. For example:

우리가 지금이라도 가야겠어요

= We need to go right now (It would have been better if we left earlier, but that time has
already passed so there is nothing we can do about it. But now, even though it is not the
best option, we need to go right now)

그 일을 혼자라도 해야 될 것 같아요
= I’ll probably have to do that job by myself (I would prefer if I didn’t have to do it by
myself, but I’ll still be able to do it by myself)

우리가 오늘이라도 가는 게 어때요?

= What do you think about going today? (I would have preferred if we went yesterday [or
some other day – depending on the situation], but today would also be okay. What do you
think about going today?)

숙제를 다 하고 내일이라도 주세요

= Please do all of your homework and then give it to me tomorrow (I would prefer if you
gave it to me today [or some other time – depending on the situation], but tomorrow
would be okay as well)

Below are examples without the nuance given:

천천히라도 걷는 것보다 뛰는 것은 나아요

= It’s better to run slowly than to walk

사무실 위생을 위해 손을 잠깐이라도 씻어 주세요

= For the sanitation of our office, please wash your hands, even for a little bit

It can also be attached to adjectives that have been changed to an adverb by attaching ~게:

이렇게라도 만날 수 있어서 좋아요

= It’s nice to meet you, even if it is like this

우리가 청구서를 늦게라도 낼 거예요

= We are going to pay the bill, even if it is a little late

할아버지 생신 선물로 돈을 적게라도 모아서 드리자

= Let’s gather money, even if it is a little, and give it to grandpa on his birthday

영화를 볼 때 영화관에서 조용히라도 말을 하지 말아 주세요

= Please don’t speak in the movie theater while watching a movie, even if it is quietly

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 81
 Adding ~(이)라도 to Counters
It common to add ~(이)라도 to counters. For example:

그 기사를 한번이라도 보여주면 안 돼요?

= Can you show me that article just once? (I would prefer it if you showed it to me many
times (or for a longer amount of time), but even if you show it to me once I’ll be happy)

조카가 하나라도 있었으면 좋겠어요

= I wish I had a nephew, even if I only had one (I wish I had many nieces/nephews… but
even one would be better than nothing)

오늘 우리 가게에 손님이 한 명이라도 왔으면 좋겠어요

= I wish at least one customer would come into our store today (I would prefer it if many
people came into the store today, but even if one person came into the store I would be
happy)

이런 행사를 열면 마술사 한 명이라도 불러야 되지 않겠어요?

= If we’re going to run an event like this, don’t we at least bring in a magician? (It would
be better if we brought in something else, or maybe even more than one magician, but at
the very least we better call a magician)

애기가 까다로운 것을 알고 있지만 과일 한 개라도 줘 보는 게 어떨까요?

Adding ~(이)라도 to a Location with ~에

It is also possible to add this to a location (with ~에 attached). This allows the speaker to
indicate that he/she goes to a location that is not the most preferred option, but is better
than other possible options. For example:

우리가 할 것이 없어서 공원에라도 같이 가는 게 어때요?

= We have nothing to do, so how about going to a park or something (We have nothing to
do, and I’d rather do (go) somewhere else, but going to the park wouldn’t be so bad,
would it)?

비가 내리고 있으니 영화관에라도 갈래요?

= Now that it is raining, do you want to go to the movies or something? (I’d rather go
somewhere else, but it’s raining so what else can we do? How about going to the movies?)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 82
 Adding ~(이)라도 to Question Words
Finally, it is also possible to add ~(이)라도 to some of the common question words that
you learned back in Lesson 21 and Lesson 22. Because of the nature of these question
words, the following translations are often used when combined with ~(이)라도:

어디라도 = anywhere (it doesn’t matter where)

언제라도 = any time (it doesn’t matter when)
누구라도 = anybody (it doesn’t matter who)
뭐라도 = anything (it doesn’t matter what)
무엇이라도 = anything (it doesn’t matter what)
어떻게라도 = any way (it doesn’t matter how)

For example:
저의 여자 친구가 어디라도 간다면 저는 같이 가고 싶어요
= It doesn’t matter where my girlfriend goes, I want to go with her

언제라도 우리 집에 항상 와도 돼요
= It doesn’t matter when it is, you can always come to our house

누구라도 그 문제를 풀 수 있어요

= It doesn’t matter who it is, anybody could solve that problem

가기 전에 뭐라도 (무엇이라도) 같이 먹자!

= Before you go, I don’t care what it is, but let’s eat something!

이 일을 어떻게라도 오늘밤까지 끝내야 돼요

= It doesn’t matter how, but we need to finish this work by tonight

These words are similar to the words you learned in Lesson 25, 아무 데나, 아무 때나,
아무나, 아무 거나 and 아무렇게나. I would argue that there is a slight difference
between them, and the nuance comes directly from the meaning of ~(이)라도. When
using ~(이)라도, you are indicating that you are unsatisfied slightly with the option.
Therefore, for example, when looking at these two options:

가기 전에 아무 거나 같이 먹자!
가기 전에 뭐라도 같이 먹자!

The first sentence implies that anything food would be satisfactory. However, the second
example implies that there would be a better option, but something is better than nothing.
I hope my detailed lesson and explanation of the nuance of ~(이)라도 helps you
understand why this would be implied in this sentence.

That’s it for this lesson!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 83
Nouns: Verbs:
복 = blessing 빌다 = to beg
급여 = wage, salary 떠들다 = to chat
천사 = angel 할퀴다 = to scratch, to claw at
면역 = immunity
어휘 = vocabulary Adjectives:
악몽 = nightmare 서늘하다 = to be cool, chilly
압력 = pressure 속상하다 = to feel upset, sad
비옷 = rain clothes
십대 = teenage years, teenage
열흘 = ten days
공짜 = free
면접 = interview
면접관 = interviewer
직장인 = office worker
의지력 = willpower
배낭여행 = backpacking
소개팅 = blind date
추상적 = abstract
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use 편, both as a noun and as a grammatical principle
to make your sentences softer and more humble. Let’s get started.

편 as a Regular Noun
편 can be used as a regular noun, which refers to a “side.” In this sense, it is most
commonly combined with a word that refers to a direction to point to that side. For
example:

뒤편 = the back side

왼편 = the left side
오른편 = the right side
반대편 = the opposite side (or the opposite direction)
건너편 = the opposite/other side (usually of a street or something that you can cross)

These constructions can go into sentences where applicable. For example:

여기가 비옷을 파는 가게인가요?

= Is this a store that sells rain clothes?

면접하는 곳이 건물 뒤편에 있어요

= The place for the interview is behind the building

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 84
편 can also be used on its own. When used like this, it refers to being on the “side” of a
person in terms of support. For example:

친구가 내 편으로 오라고 빌었어

= My friend begged me to come to his side

아빠가 내 편이 아니라고 해서 속상해

= It’s sad/unfortunate that dad says he is not on my side

네가 의지력이 강해서 네 편을 하고 싶어
= You have a lot of willpower so I want to be on your side

선생님이 내 편이라는 것은 복 받은 거야
= I’m so lucky that the teacher says he is on my side

무슨 일이 생기든지 나는 항상 너의 편이야
= Whatever happens, I am always on your side

우리 딸은 천사라서 항상 좋은 사람의 편에 설 거야
= Our daughter is an angel, so she will always be on the side of good people

편 as a Grammatical Principle
편 can also act as a noun that is being described by an adjective or a verb connected to
~는 것. The adjective/verb + 편 combination has a meaning that is very similar to that of
just the adjective/verb on its own. The only difference is that 편 makes the meaning
slightly softer. For example, I could say:

그 사람이 돈이 많아요
= That person has a lot of money

If I say this sentence, it might have a negative effect because maybe – for example –
people will treat that person differently if they find out he/she has a lot of money.

However, if I say:

그 사람이 돈이 많은 편이에요

The meaning is softer than was expressed without the use of 편. Instead of straight out
saying “yes, he/she has a lot of money,” you are more humbly saying “Yeah, that person
has a fair amount of money.”

우리 아이는 똑똑해요 = Our son is smart

우리 아이는 똑똑한 편이에요 = Our son is fairly smart

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 85
Because of the use of the word 편, a common translation for these types of constructions
is “on the … side.” For example:

우리 아이는 똑똑한 편이에요 = Our son is on the smart side

Other examples:

저의 남자친구가 잘생긴 편이에요

= My boyfriend is on the handsome side (fairly handsome)

제가 벌고 있는 급여가 높은 편이에요
= The salary I earn is fairly high (on the high side)

이 배낭여행용 가방이 비싼 편이었어요

= This backpacker backpack was fairly expensive

어제 소개팅한 사람이 잘생긴 편이었어요

= The person I went on a blind date with yesterday is daily handsome

In each of the examples so far, the speaker would be downplaying something that is very
good. In effect, this is a way to speak in a humble way in Korean. The opposite can be
done with words that have a negative connotation to them. That is, when you use this
type of construction with a negative word, you are expressing that – even though
something is bad – it’s not that bad. For example:

저는 키가 작은 편이에요 = My height is on the small side (I’m quite short)

바퀴의 압력이 높은 편이에요 = The pressure in this tire is on the high side
저의 남자친구는 못생긴 편이에요 = My boyfriend is on the ugly side
어제 꾼 악몽이 무서운 편이었어요 = The nightmare I had last night was on the scary side
고양이가 할퀸 상처가 꽤 심한 편이에요 = The wound from the cat scratching me is
quite serious

The situation doesn’t need to be inherently negative or positive in order to use this
~는/은/ㄴ construction. All it does is it softens the word being used and turns the severity
of its meaning down a little bit. For example:

그 그림이 추상적인 편이에요

= That painting is quite abstract

한국말을 할 수 있는 외국인이 드문 편이에요

= Foreigners who speak Korean are on the rare side

제가 내일 해야 할 면접은 중요한 편이에요

= The interview I have to do tomorrow is quite important

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 86
한국어 어휘를 외우는 것은 어려운 편이에요
= Memorizing Korean vocabulary is quite difficult

어른들은 면역이 아이들에 비해 강한 편이에요

= The immunity of adults is quite a bit stronger than that of kids

봄에는 아침에는 서늘하고 낮에는 따뜻한 편이에요

= In the spring, the mornings are cold but the days are quite warm

열흘 동안 여행을 가는 것은 직장인한테는 꽤 긴 편이에요

= Traveling for ten days, for an office worker, is quite a long time

십대 남자 아이들에게 수업을 가르치는 것은 힘든 편이에요

= It is quite difficult teaching classes to teenage boys

Just by the nature of the sentences ~는/은/ㄴ 편 is used in, it is quite easy and common
to use this grammatical principle with adjectives. However, it can be used with verbs as
well. For example:

제가 운동을 자주 하는 편이에요 = I exercise fairly often

When used with verbs, you’ll notice that the sentence often has an adverb in it as well. If
you imagine the sentence above without the use of the adverb 자주, you get:

제가 운동을 하는 편이에요 = I exercise… fairly? I fairly exercise…?

You need something else in there in order for it to make sense. It doesn’t necessarily need
to be the adverb 자주. For example:

제가 운동을 잘 하는 편이에요 = I exercise fairly well

제가 운동을 열심히 하는 편이에요 = I exercise fairly hard

When used with verbs, a common translation that goes in these sentences is “tend(s)
to…” For example:

제가 운동을 잘 하는 편이에요
= I tend to exercise well (the English translation doesn’t really work in this situation)

제가 운동을 열심히 하는 편이에요

= I tend to exercise hard

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 87
Below are many more examples:

저는 수영을 잘하는 편이에요

= I swim fairly well

제가 매일 늦게 자는 편이에요
= I tend to go to bed fairly late

제가 달리기를 빨리 하고 있는 편이에요
= I am running fairly quickly

그 여자 아이들이 수업 시간에 많이 떠드는 편이에요

= That girl chats quite a bit during class

잘 모르는 사람들이 공짜로 주는 음식을 먹는 것을 싫어하는 편이에요

= I don’t really like eating food that was given to me for free by people I don’t know

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 88
Nouns: Verbs:
실 = thread 짜다 = to weave a thread
환율 = exchange rate 비추다 = to shine a light
갈등 = conflict 비치다 = for a light to shine
통장 = bankbook 거치다 = to pass through, to go through
목사 = reverend 끌리다 = to be drawn, pulled, attracted to
육아 = infant care 청취하다 = to listen
간접 = indirect 복용하다 = to take medicine
간접흡연 = second hand smoke
기후 = climate Adjectives:
기후변화 = climate change 시리다 = for one’s bones or teeth to be cold
조각상 = statue 과다하다 = to be excessive
대나무 = bamboo 헐렁하다 = for clothing to be loose
호객꾼 = touts
색연필 = colored pencils
청취자 = listener
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use 길 as a noun that can replace 것 in the ~는 것
principle. Don’t be confused! This grammatical principle isn’t describing a road… Well,
it kind of is. It has a special meaning that we can study as a separate grammatical
principle. Let’s get started.

On my way to/from… : ~는 길이다

By this point, you are probably very familiar with how to use the word 길 in Korean. It
translates to “street” or “road”, and there is nothing overly complicated. For example:

제가 저 길에서 살아요 = I live on that road

이 길의 이름이 뭐죠? = What is the name of this road/street?
어떤 길을 찾고 있습니까? = What road are you looking for?

치마가 너무 길어서 치마가 바닥에 끌렸어요

= My skirt was so long it was dragging along on the street

그 길을 거쳐서 할아버지가 사는 동네에 갔어요

= We passed that road and went to the neighborhood that grandpa lives in

이 길을 계속 따라가면 대나무 숲이 나올 거예요

= If you keep following this road, you will reach the bamboo forest

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 89
In addition to this simple meaning, when used as the noun in the ~는 것 principle (so, for
example, ~는 길), it can take on a different meaning. When 길 is described by a
preceding phrase, we can express that somebody is on their way to or from a place. For
example:

제가 집에 가는 길
제가 회사에서 오는 길

I have taught you well enough by now for you to know that you can’t end a sentence that
way. We need to attach something to that noun and conjugate it! By using 이다, we can
complete our sentences:

제가 집에 가는 길이에요 = I am on my way (going) home

제가 회사에서 오는 길이에요 = I am on my way (coming) from work

This grammatical principle only works if the verb is some action where one is coming or
going. In addition to 가다 and 오다, other common possibilities are:

들어가다 = to go in
들어오다 = to come in
나가다 = to go out
나오다 = to come out
내려가다 = to go down
내려오다 = to come down
올라가다 = to go up
올라오다 = to come up
돌아가다 = to go back
돌아오다 = to come back

For example:

제가 산을 올라가는 길이에요
= I am on my way (going) up the mountain

지금 회사에서 나오는 길이에요

= I’m on my way out of the office

우리는 경기장에 들어가는 길이에요

= We are (on our way) going into the stadium

이가 매일 시려서 이제 치과에 가는 길이에요

= My teeth are sore everyday so I’m on my way to the dentist now

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 90
약을 과다하게 복용해서 부작용 때문에 병원에 가는 길이에요
= I took too much medicine, and because of the side effects I’m on my way to the hospital

어제 산 옷이 너무 헐렁해서 교환하러 가는 길이에요

= The clothes I bought yesterday are too loose, so I’m on my way to exchange them

우리 딸 육아를 도와주려고 지금 집에서 나가는 길이에요

= I’m on my way out now to help look after my daughter

옷이 젖어서 안이 다 비쳐서 새로운 옷을 사 오는 길이에요

= My clothes got all wet and you can see everything inside so I’m on my way back from
buying new clothes

In this form, the verb describing “길” is only in the present tense. However, you can
express that you were (or will be) on your way going or coming somewhere by changing
the tense of 이다. For example:

제가 산을 내려가는 길이었어요 = I was going down the mountain

I imagine this would be more natural if you used it to answer a question. For example:

야! 아까 전화를 왜 안 받았어? 내가 전화를 몇 번 했는데…

= Hey! Why didn’t you answer your phone earlier? I called you a bunch of times…
미안해~~ 내가 그때 산을 내려가는 길이었어
= Sorry… I was on my way down the mountain at that time

Another example:
내가 어제 너를 봤어! 어디 가는 중이었어?
= I saw you yesterday! Where were you going?
난 어제 공부하러 학교에 가는 길이었어
= I was on my way to school to study

The ~는 길이다 construction doesn’t need to be used at the end of a sentence. By

connecting other grammatical principles to 이다, you can also use it between two clauses.
The most common thing that you will see used here is ~아/어서. For example:

목사님이 지금 교회에 오시는 길이라고 했어요

= The reverend said he is on the way to the church now

색연필을 사러 가는 길인데 혹시 필요한 것이 있어요?

= I’m heading out to buy some colored pencils, by chance do you need anything?

제가 지금 집에 가는 길이라서 20 분 후에 또 전화하면 안 돼요?

= I am on my way home right now, so can you call me back in 20 minutes?

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 91
 ---------
This isn’t to say that it is incorrect to place other verbs (and their preceding clauses)
behind the ~는 길 form. It just means that constructions without the use of a ‘coming’ or
‘going’ verb don’t have this “on my way from/to”. For example:

큰 집이 많이 있는 길의 땅값은 비싸요
= The price of land on the street with a lot of big houses is expensive

시민들이 홍수로 인한 피해를 입은 길을 복구하고 있다

= The citizens are restoring the street that was damaged by the flood

The examples above show ~는 길 being used just as if 길 was a normal noun and not
some sort of special grammatical principle. However, if the verb in the preceding
describing clause is related to coming or going the constructions usually have this “on my
way” meaning. However, if the entire construction is not finished by 이다 it can have a
similar, but slightly different meaning. Notice the following:

제가 산을 올라가는 길이에요 = I am on my way (going) up the mountain

제가 산을 올라가는 길에 있어요 = I am on the road that goes up the mountain

The first one specifically indicates that the speaker is “on his/her way” up the mountain.
However, the second one (without the use of “이다” – and thus – without the use of this
grammatical principle) is just like the grammar in any other sentence, and doesn’t take on
this special meaning.

While on my way to/from: ~는 길에

In addition to the usages described above, it is also common to see ~에 attached to 길 in
the ~는 길 form. The meaning that is expressed here is; while one is on route coming or
going somewhere, he/she stopped to do something. For example:

제가 집에 가는 길에 빵을 사 줄까요?
= On my way home, should I buy some bread (for you)?

집에 오는 길에 맛있는 것을 사 주면 안 돼요?
= On your way home, can you buy something delicious please?

친구를 만나러 나가는 길에 책을 반납할 거예요

= On my way out to meet a friend, I will return the book

음식을 가져오는 길에 포크를 갖다 주세요

= On your way back from getting/bringing food, can you get/grab me a fork?

I love this grammatical principle. Easy to use, easy to understand, and it makes your
Korean that much stronger.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 92
 There is no way of/to… ~ㄹ/을 길이 없다
Another usage of 길 isin the grammatical principle ~ㄹ/을 길이 없다. This literally
translates to something like “there is no direction/road to do…” but a better translation
that more accurately describes what this grammatical principle means is “There is no way
of…”. First, let’s look at some easy examples:

그 사람을 살릴 길이 없다 = There is no way to save that person

그 사실을 확인할 길이 없다 = There is no way of checking that fact

The most common verb that you will find before ~ㄹ/을 길이 없다 is 알다, which
altogether would create “there is no way of knowing….”. For example:

죽은 그 사람이 누구인지 알 길이 없어요

= There is no of knowing who that dead person is

우리 프로그램의 청취자가 몇 명 있는 지를 알 길이 없어요

= There is no way of knowing how many listeners our program has

우리 가 미국에 2 개월 후에 갈 거니까 그때의 환율을 알 길이 없어요

= We are going to America in two months, so there is no way of knowing the exchange rate at that time

Here are some other examples with other verbs being used:

기후변화를 측정할 길이 없어요

= There is no way of measuring climate change

부러진 조각상을 고칠 길이 없어요

= There is no way of fixing that broken statue

어제 잃어버린 통장을 찾을 길이 없어요

= There is no way of finding the bankbook that I lost yesterday

손전등이 없어서 빛을 비출 길이 없어요

= We don’t have a flashlight so there is no way for us to shine a light

해외여행을 할 때 호객꾼을 피할 길이 없어요

= There is no way of avoiding touts when you travel abroad

낯선 사람이랑 좁은 데에서 산다면 갈등을 피할 길이 없어요

= There is no way of avoiding conflict if you live in a small space with somebody you don’t know well

암에 걸린 이유는 간접흡연 때문인지 오염 때문인 지 알 길이 없어요

= There is no way of knowing if the reason you caught cancer was because of second
hand smoke, or because of pollution
That’s it for this lesson!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 93
Nouns: Verbs:
당 = sugars 감추다 = to hide, to conceal
제철 = the right season for something 절하다 = to bow
화물 = freight, cargo 부수다 = to break, smash, destroy
용지 = printer paper 처방하다 = to prescribe
혈액 = blood 기부하다 = to donate
빨대 = drinking straw 검출하다 = to detect
건설 = construction 쫓아다니다 = to run after, to chase after
광장 = plaza, square
조수 = assistant Adverbs and Other Words:
남매 = brother and sister 마침 = just in time, just at the right time
입맛 = one’s taste is food
고지방 = high fat
저지방 = low fat
소방차 = fire truck
상대방 = the other person
집중력 = concentration
처방전 = prescription
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn another noun that is often described by ~는. In this lesson,
you will learn how to use ~는 김에. Let’s get started.

While one is doing something,the opportunity to do something else is taken: ~는 김에

In the previous Lesson, you learned how to use ~는 길 to express that one is on his way
to/from somewhere. ~는 길 often takes the form ~는 길에, which is used to express that,
while one is on his/her way to/from a place, he/she takes the opportunity to do another
action. For example:

광장에 가는 길에 처방전을 가지고 갈 거예요

= On the way to the plaza, I will pick up my prescription

You learned, however, that this can only be done with words related to coming or going.
~는 김에 can be used with any verb and allows the speaker to indicate that one takes the
opportunity to do one action while another action is happening. For example:

새로운 침대를 사는 김에 새로운 베개도 사자

= While we are buying a new bed let’s buy some new pillows too

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 94
Notice in the example above that the English translation is “While…”. Though this is
often the most natural way to say these types of sentences in English, be careful to not
confuse them with sentences including ~(으)면서 which would have an identical
translation. There meanings might sometimes be similar, but the specific meaning of ~는
김에 is to indicate that while already doing one action, the person can take that
opportunity to do the next action (which would be easier or more convenient now that the
first action is already taking place). More examples:

다시 식당에 들어가는 김에 빨대도 갖다 주세요

= While you’re going into the restaurant again, get me a straw, please

애기랑 소방서에 가는 김에 소방차를 구경했어요

= While going to the firestation with the baby we’re also going to check out the fire trucks

계약을 연장하는 김에 퇴직금에 대해 얘기할까요?

= While I am renewing my contract, shall we also talk about my severance pay?

이 문제를 감추는 김에 모든 문제도 감추는 게 어때요?

= While we’re hiding this problem, why don’t we hide these other problems too?

새해라서 할아버지를 보러 가는 김에 절도 하고 올 거예요

= While going to see my grandpa for new years, I’m also going to take the opportunity to
bow to him

공부하는 습관을 잡는 김에 집중력도 높이려고 하고 있어요

= While trying to start some good study habits, I’m also trying to increase my concentration

큰 트럭을 빌리는 김에 제일 무거운 화물을 실어서 보냈어요

= While renting a big truck, we should load up the heaviest cargo and send it

외식하는 김에 입맛을 돌아오게 하는 제철 음식을 먹을 거예요

= While going out to eat, I’m going to eat something seasonal to get my taste/appetite back

저지방 우유의 효과를 설명하는 김에 고지방 우유의 효과도 설명할게요

= While explaining the effects of low-fat milk, allow me to also explain the effects of
high-fat milk

건설 현장을 지나가는 김에 우리도 우리 땅에 무엇을 지을지 얘기했어요

= While passing the construction site, we talked about what we would build on our land too

사물실에서 나가는 김에 조수한테 용지를 저한테 전달해 달라고 해 주세요

= While leaving the office, please tell my secretary to bring me some printer paper

병원에 가는 김에 혈액 검사를 했는데 의사 선생님이 당이 검출됐다고 했어요

= While at the hospital I got my blood checked out, and the doctor said sugars were detected

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 95
This is the same idea and concept as above, but 김에 is often described by 말하다. This
allows the speaker to take the opportunity to do an action as some situation is being
talked about. For example:

그 남매에 대해 말하는 김에 그 남매의 부모에 대한 문제도 말할게요

= While we’re on the topic of those siblings, let me tell you about the problems of their parents

돈에 대해 말하는 김에 병원에 대한 기부가 얼마나 중요한지 설명할 거예요

= While we’re on the topic of money, I will explain how important donations are to our hospital

In a similar sense, the speaker can take the opportunity to do an action as some situation
is brought up. You can accomplish this by describing 김에 with 말이 나오는. For
example:

말이 나오는 김에 그 문제의 해결법에 대해 얘기하자

= Now that we are talking about that/Now that you mention it, let’s talk about solutions to that problem

말이 나오는 김에 놀이동산에 언제 갈지 결정하지

= Now that we are talking about it, let’s decide on when we are going to the amusement park

말이 나오는 김에 말하는데 저를 안 쫓아다녔으면 좋겠어요

= Now that we are talking about it, I wish you wouldn’t follow me around

That’s it for this lesson!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 96
Nouns: Verbs:
동양화 = oriental painting 보상하다 = to compensate (for a loss)
서양화 = western painting 대여하다 = to rent
바탕 = foundation/basis for 딸꾹질하다 = to hiccup
표지 = a sign on the road
표지 = cover of a book/magazine Passive Verbs:
만료일 = expiration date (usually not food) 만료되다 = to be expired
김 = steam
Adjectives:
초밥 = sushi
건조하다 = to be dry
과도 = fruit knife
식칼 = kitchen knife Adverbs and Other Words:
국자 = ladle (for soup) 주황색 = orange (color)
자선 = charity
자선가 = philanthropist
예수님 = Jesus
신장 = kidney
보조개 = dimple
가사 = lyrics
약점 = weak point
승무원 = crewman/flight attendant
세균 = germ
수칙 = rules/regulations
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn about a grammatical principle that looks like it has an
entirely different meaning and purpose than it actually does. I remember when I saw
~ㄹ/을걸 for the first time, I said to myself “Oh, I can probably guess what that means!”
Boy was I wrong. Let me teach it to you. Let’s get started.

I Should Have Done: ~ㄹ/을 걸 (그랬다)

You can place ~ㄹ/을걸 at the end of a sentence to express that you should have done
something in the past (but didn’t). The meaning is fairly simple, and attaching it to a
clause is quite simple as well:

나의 가방을 가져올걸 = I should have brought my bag (but I didn’t)

친구 집에 갈걸 = I should have gone to my friend’s house (but I didn’t)
가사를 더 잘 외울걸 = I should have memorized the lyrics better (but I didn’t)
아까 그 표지를 더 자세히 볼걸 = I should have looked at that sign better (but I didn’t)
우리가 봤던 원피스를 살걸 = I should have bought the dress that we saw (but I didn’t)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 97
This grammatical principle is typically used when the speaker is talking about him/herself
(when the subject is “I” or “we” or something like that). When talking to him/herself the
person regrets whatever decision was made in the past that wasn’t done (or was done, as
you will see later in this lesson).

The word 그랬다 is often placed after the ~ㄹ/을걸 construction for no real reason – and
I have never seen or heard anything to suggest that adding “그랬다” changes the
meaning in any way.

For example:
가사를 더 잘 외울걸 그랬어 = I should have memorized the lyrics better
아까 그 표지를 더 자세히 볼걸 그랬어 = I should have looked at that sign better
우리가 봤던 원피스를 살걸 그랬다 = I should have bought the dress that we saw

Just like ~구나 or other forms of “self-speech”, it may be more appropriate to express
something more formally. Even if the sentence is directed at yourself, there could be
somebody listening to you – in which case, it is possible to conjugate these sentences
formally. I have seen some people claim that adding “요” directly to “~ㄹ/을걸” is
possible. However, Korean people say that would be unnatural. For example:

가사를 더 잘 외울걸요…
Wouldn’t be correct.

Instead, you can conjugate the word “그랬다”. For example:

가사를 더 잘 외울걸 그랬어요 = I should have memorized the lyrics better

아까 그 표지를 더 자세히 볼걸 그랬어요 = I should have looked at that sign better
우리가 봤던 원피스를 살걸 그랬어요 = I should have bought the dress that we saw

The word “그랬다” can theoretically be conjugated any way, but the most common way
you will see it conjugated is by adding ~나 or ~나 보다 (as you learned in Lesson 109).
For example:

가사를 더 잘 외울걸 그랬나 봐 = It looks like I should have memorized the lyrics better
공부를 더 열심히 할걸 그랬나 봐 = It looks like I should have studied harder
밥을 먹을걸 그랬나 봐요 = It looks like I should have eaten

When the whole sentence finishes with “그랬나”, it is most often in a form of a question.
The question is usually directed at oneself, but it is not uncommon for a listener to
answer the question. For example:

Person 1: 오기 전에 밥을 먹을걸 그랬나? = Should I have eaten before coming here?

Person 2: 우리가 곧 나가서 곧 먹을 거야! = (no), We are going to go out and eat soon

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 98
It's also possible to use the first person plural to talk about something that we should have
done. In cases like these, it is common to attach ~나 or ~지 to 그랬다 to create a
question that you are asking to the people around you. For example:

우리가 그 표지를 더 자세히 볼걸 그랬어 = We should have looked at that sign better
우리가 동물원에 더 일찍 올걸 그랬지? = We should have come to the zoo earlier (eh?)
우리가 초밥을 시킬걸 그랬나? = Should we have ordered sushi?

Person 1: 우리 딸이 오늘 학교에서 점심을 살 거야

= Our daughter is going to buy lunch at school today

Person 2: 아이에게 돈을 조금 더 줄 걸 그랬나?

= Should we have given her more money?

In my experience, this grammatical form is most often used when the speaker is the
subject of the sentence or when referring to "we." However, it is possible to use this form
when talking about another person. For example:

Person 1: 아! 난 버스를 놓쳤어. = Oh no! I missed the bus

Person 2: 일찍 나갈 걸 그랬지! = (I told you that) you should have left earlier

Negative Sentences with ~ㄹ/을 걸 (그랬다)

By making a negative sentence with “안” or “~지 않다”, you can create the opposite
meaning of what is described above. That is, to indicate that you shouldn’t have done
something in the past (but did). Some examples:

이 무거운 가방을 안 가져올걸 = I shouldn’t have brought this heavy bag

아침으로 초밥을 안 먹을걸 = I shouldn’t have had sushi for breakfast
오늘 학교에 안 올걸 = I shouldn’t have come to school today
그 걸 엄마에게 말하지 말걸 = I shouldn’t have told my mother that

All the other forms you learned above with the positive sentences can also be applied to
these sentences as well:

이 무거운 가방을 안 가져올걸 그랬나? = Should I have not brought this heavy bag?
아침으로 초밥을 안 먹을걸 그랬어 = I shouldn’t have had sushi for breakfast
오늘 학교에 안 올걸 그랬나 봐 = I guess I shouldn’t have come to school today
그 걸 엄마에게 말하지 말걸 그랬나? = Should I not have told my mother that?

우리가 동물원에 안 올걸 그랬지? = We shouldn’t have come to the zoo (eh?)

우리가 초밥을 안 시킬걸 그랬나? = Should we have not ordered sushi?

There is also a fairly difficult adverb than can sometimes be used to express the same
meaning as the sentences created so far. I would like to introduce you to that next.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 99
 괜히: Something That You Didn’t Need to Do
The word “괜히” is often translated to “in vain” in English, but that isn’t really a perfect
translation. In fact, it is difficult to come up with a perfect translation for this word
simply because we don’t have a similar word in English. 괜히 is an adverb, and can be
placed in sentences (just like any other adverb) in indicate that one did something that
didn’t need to be done. I feel it is best to teach this word by presenting sentences using
this word and not using this word side-by-side. For example:

나는 무거운 가방을 가져왔어 = I brought the heavy bag

나는 무거운 가방을 괜히 가져왔어 = I brought the heavy bag in vain

The first sentence is easy, and I am sure you understand it completely. In the second
sentence, the purpose of “괜히” is to indicate that the person ended up realizing that
he/she didn’t need to bring the bag. If I think of an example… maybe a bunch of people
were going camping and I wasn’t sure if I should bring a tent or not. I decided to put the
tent in a bag (which ended up being really heavy), and when I got to the campground I
saw that my friend also brought a tent. At which point, I can say:

나는 무거운 가방을 괜히 가져왔어 = I didn’t need to bring this heavy bag

In this situation, I could also say:

텐트를 괜히 가져왔어 = I didn’t need to bring the tent

As you can see… 괜히 is put in the sentence where one realizes that he/she didn’t need to
something (usually because it was already done – or because it was pointless to do it).
Another example:

나는 우유를 샀어 = I bought milk

나는 우유를 괜히 샀어 = I bought milk, but I just realized that I shouldn’t have because
you also bought milk (or because we already had milk.)

So, just because of the nature of the sentence and the meaning that this creates – 괜히 can
sometimes be used to make a sentence with a similar meaning to ~ㄹ/걸 (그랬다). For
example:

오늘 학교에 안 올걸 = I shouldn’t have come to school today

오늘 학교에 괜히 왔어 = I shouldn’t have come to school today

이 무거운 가방을 안 가져올걸 = I shouldn’t have brought this heavy bag

나는 무거운 가방을 괜히 가져왔어 = I shouldn’t have brought this heavy bag

식사준비를 안 할걸 = I shouldn’t have prepared this meal

식사준비를 괜히 했어 = I shouldn’t have prepared this meal

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 100

Nouns: Verbs:
숫자 = number/figure/numeral 제작하다 = to produce/manufacture
속옷 = underwear 채점하다 = to grade a school test
비품 = equipment 가리다 = to hide/cover up/conceal
제작비 = production cost 알아채다 = to notice, to be aware of
바위 = rock/stone 마음을 먹다 = to make up one’s mind
침 = needle 발휘하다 = to demonstrate one’s ability
사연 = story 적다 = to write down, to jot
비닐(봉지) = vinyl (plastic bag) 찌르다 = to pierce/stab/prick/poke
홍차 = black tea 향하다 = to face
변기 = toilet 찔리다 = to be pierced, stabbed, pricked
올빼미 = owl
가시 = thorn, fish bones Adjectives:
주변 = surroundings, the vicinity of 질리다 = to be sick and tired of
수량 = quantity 신속하다 = to be quick, prompt
대량 = large quantity
Adverbs and Other Words:
소량 = small quantity
과연 = indeed/sure enough
위층 = upper level
Introduction
In this Lesson, you will learn about the grammatical principle “채”, which I’m sure you
have come across by this point. 채 is another noun that can be used as the noun in the ~는
것 principle that takes on a special meaning. In this lesson, you will learn how it can be
used. Let’s get started.

While in the state of: ~ㄴ/은 채(로)

If you have picked up any Korean book (especially novels), you most likely have come
across this grammatical principle. This grammatical principle is incredibly common in
novels and stories, but only fairly common in speech. You essentially can’t read any
Korean literature without understanding the meaning of “채(로)”.
Okay, now we know that this is important – but what does it mean? As I already
mentioned, “채” is placed as a noun in the ~는 것 principle (most commonly used when
~는 것 is in the past tense form of ~ㄴ/은). For example:

모자를 쓴 채(로)
(There doesn’t seem to be any difference in meaning if “로” is used or not)

The purpose of “~ㄴ/은 채” is to indicate that the state of the clause describing it
continues until (and usually beyond) the action in the next clause. I want to stress the
word “state” in that sentence.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 101

When I say “모자를 쓴 채”, it does not mean that the person actively put on his hat. It’s
possible that he put on his hat in an earlier sentence – but that information is irrelevant to
our current sentence. All that is relevant is that the hat is currently on his head… and that
state (the hat being on his head) will continue until (and beyond) the next action.

So… let’s finish that sentence. If I were to say, for example:

선생님이 모자를 쓴 채 학교에 들어갔어요
…that sentence translates to: The teacher went into the school with a/the hat on his head

As usual, it’s hard to come up with an English translation that fits all scenarios. The most
common translations are “with” or “while.” For example:

The teacher went into the school with a/the hat on his head
The teacher went into the school while wearing a hat

Despite the similarities in translations, it is important to fully understand the difference

between ~ㄴ/은 채 and ~(으)면서. When using ~(으)면서, both actions are actively
happening at the same time and are processing/continuing together. For example, if I
were to say:

선생님이 모자를 쓰면서 학교에 들어갔어요

Although this sentence is grammatical correct, it is pretty ridiculous and only in very rare
situations would somebody actually need to say this. Here, the person is saying that while
he went into the school, he put his hat on. As in, the moment he entered the school, he
took his hat and put it on his head. 99.9% of the time, it would be more appropriate to
say:

선생님이 모자를 쓴 채 학교에 들어갔어요

Regardless of the translation, it is important that you remember that the clause is in its
non-active completed state. The verb itself does not have to be a passive verb. It just
needs to be a verb where – once the action is done one time – it can proceed in its
completed state until something changes.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 102

Many verbs are like this, and here is a list of some of the more common verbs that you
will find being used with “채”:

신다 = to put on shoes
켜다 = to turn on
끄다 = to turn off
덮다 = to cover, close
가리다 = to cover
앉다 = to sit
서다 = to stand
넣다 = to put into
놓다 = to put onto
감다 = to close one’s eyes
모르다 = to not know

Let’s look at many examples:

저는 돈을 탁자에 놓은 채 집을 떠났어요
= I left the house with the money on the table

그는 불을 끈 채 집에 그냥 앉아 있었어요
= He was just sitting (there) with the lights off

음식을 입에 넣은 채 말해서는 안 돼요
= You shouldn’t talk with food in your mouth

슬기는 슬기가 아픈지도 모른 채 일을 했다

= Seulgi worked without knowing she was sick

그 남자는 눈을 뜬 채로 죽었다
= That man died with his eyes open

미국 사람들은 신발을 신은 채 집에 들어가요

= American people go into their houses with their shoes on

너무 더워서 속옷을 안 입은 채 밖에 나갔어요

= I went outside without wearing my underwear because it was so hot

여자는 변기를 신문으로 덮은 채 화장실에서 나왔어요

= The girl came out of the bathroom with the toilet covered by newspaper

아이는 TV 을 켜놓은 채 방에서 나왔어요

= The child came out of the room with the TV turned on

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 103

Notice that even though the clause before ~ㄴ/은 채 feels like it is in the passive voice
(because it is in its “completed” state), the active verb is actually used.
From my experience, I’ve noticed that most of the verbs that are used before ~ㄴ/은 채
are words that have a passive equivalent. For example:

앉다 (to sit) || 앉아 있다 (to be sitting)

감다 (to close one’s eyes) || 감겨 있다 (for one’s eyes to be closed)
놓다 (to put onto) || 놓아 있다 (to be put onto)
(… and most of the others from the longer list above)

It’s not always the case (for example, 모르다 – which is not something that can be
expressed in the passive voice and is commonly used before ~ㄴ/은 채).
In the cases where the active verb also has a passive equivalent, it is sometimes
acceptable to place the passive word and/or conjugation before ~ㄴ/은 채. For example:

우리는 TV 를 켜놓은 채 3 일 동안 휴가를 떠났어요

= We went on a holiday for three days with the TV turned (left) on

TV 가 켜진 채 우리는 3 일 동안 휴가를 떠났어요

= We went on a holiday for three days with the TV turned on

우리는 불을 끈 채로 영화를 봤다 = We watched a movie with the lights off

우리는 불이 꺼진 채로 영화를 봤다 = We watched a movie with the lights off

The only difference between the active and passive forms is the distinction of who
actually did the action. For example, by saying “우리는 불을 끈 채로”, you are
indicating that “we” turned the lights off, and then did the next action. However, by
saying “불이 꺼진 채로” you are not indicating specifically who turned the lights off –
you are just saying that they are off when the next action occurred.

This form would also be acceptable:

우리는 불이 꺼져 있는 채로 영화를 봤다 = We watched a movie with the lights off

I don’t want to start describing the difference between those two because that isn’t the
purpose of this lesson. If you’re wondering what the difference between these three are:

우리는 불을 끈 채로 영화를 봤다
우리는 불이 꺼진 채로 영화를 봤다
우리는 불이 꺼져 있는 채로 영화를 봤다

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 104

… Essentially nothing. Only the nuance of who/what turned on the light. They can be
distinguished if we look at just the clause before ~ㄴ/은 채 as a separate clause:

우리는 불을 껐어요 = We turned off the light

불이 꺼졌어요 = The light was turned off
불이 껴져 있어요 = The light is off

But that’s as far as I’m going with that in this lesson. Distinguishing their meanings isn’t
as important when used with ~ㄴ/은 채로 because, in effect, they describe the same thing.

Now, back to this lesson. I just want to say one more thing before I finish. Notice that I
included the words “and beyond” in the description at the beginning of the lesson. I said:

“The purpose of “~ㄴ/은 채” is to indicate that the state of the clause describing it
continues until (and usually beyond) the action I the next clause. I want to stress the word
“state” in that sentence.”

I specifically wrote “and beyond” to insinuate that in sentences with “채”, even though
the second action is completed it doesn’t mean that the clause describing “채” also is
completed. For example, in our sentence:

선생님이 모자를 쓴 채 학교에 들어갔어요

The “and beyond” description is just to indicate that – just because the person enters the
school (and thus, the second action completes itself), doesn’t mean that he takes his hat
off. Instead, the completed state of him wearing the hat will continue until the situation
explains otherwise. This is the same with all of the examples I provided. For example, if
we looked at this one:

너무 더워서 저는 여름에 속옷을 안 입은 채로 밖에 나가요

… it means that the person goes outside without wearing underwear. But, it doesn’t mean
that once he gets outside that he puts underwear on. Rather, it means that this state of
“not wearing underwear” will continue even past the next action.

Finally, here are some examples of this grammatical principle behind used in the book I
am currently reading:

두 사람은 불을 켜지 않은 채 침대에 누웠다

= The two people lied on the bed without turning on the lights

다음 날 아침 일어났을 때 그녀는 아무 말도 남기지 않은 채 떠났다

= The next morning when they woke up, She left without leaving any words (without
saying anything)

그 여자는 손을 뻗은 채 나를 향해 걸어왔다
= The girl walked towards me with her arms out

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 105

All finished Lessons 109 – 116? Now it is time to test yourself on what you learned in
those lessons! Before moving on to the next group of lessons in Unit 5, make sure you
can understand all the concepts covered here. Good luck!

The answers are at the bottom of the test!

1) Choose the correct ending to the following dialogue:

‐ 언제 도착할 거예요? 우리는 다 기다리고 있어요!

‐ 죄송해요! 저는 거의 다 왔어요! 이제 회사에서 ________

a) 나가는 길이에요
b) 일하는 김이에요
c) 일하나 봐요
d) 나갈 걸 그랬어요

2) Choose the correct ending to the following sentence:

그 남자가 삼성에 근무해서 평범한 사람보다 돈이 더 ___________

a) 많은 길이에요
b) 많을 걸 그랬나?
c) 많았었어요
d) 많은 편이에요

3) Choose the correct ending to the following sentence:

과학 선생님이세요? 어렸을 때 공부를 열심히 ______________

a) 하는 길이었어요
b) 했나 봐요
c) 할 걸 그랬나 봐요
d) 하는 편이에요

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 106

4) Choose the correct ending to the following sentence:

생각보다 날씨가 조금 추워서 장갑을 __________

a) 가져올 길이 없어요
b) 가져왔나 봐요
c) 가져올 걸 그랬나?
d) 안 가져오는 것이 어쩔 수 없어요

5) Choose the correct grammatical principle/word to use in the blank below:

우리가 언젠가 헤어질 것은 ______________이에요

a) 어쩔 수 없는 사실
b) 편
c) 김
d) 길

6) Choose the correct grammatical principle/word to use in the blank below:

물을 __________ 화장실에서 나왔어요

a) 틀어놓은 거라도
b) 틀어놓은 편이라서
c) 틀어놓은 길에
d) 틀어놓은 채

7) Choose the correct grammatical principle/word to use in the blank below:

목이 아주 말라서 _________ 마셔야겠다

a) 물이 있는 길에
b) 물을 마시는 편이라서
c) 물을 사는 김에
d) 물이라도

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 107

8) Choose the correct grammatical principle/word to use in the blank below:

제가 ______________ 그 이야기를 해 주세요

a) 여기 가는 게 어쩔 수 없이
b) 여기 가는 거라도
c) 여기 가는 김에
d) 여기 가는 채로

Answers:

1) A
2) D
3) B
4) C
5) A
6) D
7) D
8) C

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 108

Nouns: Verbs:
이자 = interest (from a bank) 박살내다 = to smash
학생증 = student ID 제시하다 = to exhibit
열람실 = reading room (in a library) 표하다 = to express
파리 = fly 추위/더위를 타다 = to be sensitive to cold/heat
옥상 = rooftop 유발하다 = to motivate
턱걸이 = chin-up 빨다 = to wash clothes, to launder
철봉 = chin up bar/horizontal bar
차원 = dimension Passive Verbs:
애국 = patriotism 박살나다 = to be smashed
애국자 = patriot 부딪히다 = to be bumped/crashed into
강좌 = lecture/course
Adjectives:
방식 = way/means/method
효율적이다 = to be efficient/effective
효율 = efficiency
저렴하다 = to be cheap/inexpensive
강도 = robbery
갈매기 = seagull
표준어 = standard language
향신료 = spice
짝수 = even number
홀수 = odd number
반쪽 = half
Introduction
In this lesson, you will be introduced to the grammatical principle ~더~ and the meaning
it creates in a sentence. You will apply your knowledge of –더- by combining it with
another grammatical principle to create ~던가. Let’s get started.

Recalling a Fact from Experience: ~더~

The grammatical principle ~더~ is interesting. As you can see, there are connecting lines
both before and after “더” – which indicates that it not only gets attached to something
when it is used, but something also attached to it as well. It would rarely (if ever) be used
by itself – as you will always see another grammatical principle attached to it.

To to show you what I mean by “not only does it attach to something, but something also
attaches to it,” here are grammatical principles that you will learn in upcoming lessons:

~더~ + ~ㄴ/가 = ~던가 (for example = 아프던가)

~더~ + ~라 = ~더라 (for example = 아프더라)
~더~ + (으)니 = ~더니 (for example = 아프더니)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 109

You were first introduced to ~더~ in Lesson 27 when you saw how it can be used to
describe upcoming nouns with ~던 and ~았/었던.

The specific meaning that ~더~ creates in a situation heavily depends on the grammatical
principle that attaches to it. However, constructions with ~더~ usually contain the
meaning of ~더~ plus the meaning of the next grammatical principle. Therefore, before I
introduce you to the meanings of the constructions including ~더~ in the upcoming
lessons, I would like to remind you of the meaning of ~더~ from Lesson 27.

When you see ~더~ used as part of a grammatical principle, it signifies that the speaker is
recalling (or requesting that somebody recall) some fact from the past that was
experienced. It is hard to give you specific examples now because you haven’t studied
the complete constructions yet. However, if you keep this in mind when you learn about
things that include ~더~, it will help you with your understanding. It will also help you
differentiate between two similar looking grammatical principles, differing only in their
inclusion of ~더~. Let’s look at an application of ~더~ to create ~던가.

Asking Questions to Yourself Using ~던가

In Lesson 21, you learned how to ask questions. You learned that one way to end a
sentence with a question is to add ~ㄴ/은가. You can add ~ㄴ/은가 to ~더~ to form
“~던가,” which is a specific way to ask a question that we can discuss.

In that lesson, I mentioned that ~ㄴ/은가 is mostly used with adjectives and not with
verbs. However, it is acceptable to attach the construction ~던가 to verbs.

The most common way ~던가 is used is when the speaker is asking a question to
himself/herself. For example:

내가 이 책을 읽었던가? = Did I read this book?

As in the example above, ~던가 is usually used when the speaker is unsure of something
that was experienced, and therefore something that probably should be known. However,
for some reason – perhaps a lapse in memory – the speaker can’t remember for sure and
is asking himself to draw on this experience for clarification.

We would do this in English too. For example, imagine you are at your house and look at
your bookcase and see about 100 books. As an avid reader, you read a lot and because of
that you can’t remember sometimes which books you have read, and which books you
haven’t. You pull one book out, and ask yourself to try to recall if you have read it before:

내가 이 책을 읽었던가? = Did/have I read this book?

Technically, you should know if you have read the book or not. It’s your experience.
However, sometimes you can’t remember perfectly.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 110

In the example above, “~았/었” is attached to the word before ~더~ to indicate that this
experience occurred in the past. Usually the speaker is asking about an experience that
occurred in the past, however a present tense conjugation is possible. For example:
내가 이 책을 읽던가?
This would translate to something like “Am I reading this book?” or “Do I read this
book?” Would this make sense in any situation? This sounds like the speaker has
Alzheimer’s disease and can’t remember if he was reading the book or not.” Or,

그 사람이 화요일에 가던가?

I can’t even translate this one because it doesn’t make sense. I could try to translate it to
something like “is this person went on Tuesday…”
However, look at the following examples, both of which are possible:

이 과자가 비싸던가? = Is this candy expensive?

이 과자가 비쌌던가? = Was this candy expensive?

Both sentences essentially have the same meaning – mainly because if something was
expensive it is usually still expensive in the present tense. There is only a very subtle
nuance between the two sentences. The difference in nuance is that the second sentence
(using ~았/었) is referring to a specific time in the past when he/she bought the candy
and is asking himself to try to recall if it was expensive or not. The first example (in the
present tense) isn’t really referring to a specific experience from the past, but more of a
general experience that can currently be applied. That is, the speaker is asking himself his
experience about a general truth. Here are many more examples:

아빠가 이 선물을 나에게 줬던가? = Did dad give me this present?

어제 설거지를 했던가? = Did I do the dishes yesterday?
파리를 죽였던가? = Did I kill the fly?
거기에 갈매기가 많던가? = Are there many seagulls there?
그 강좌를 들었던가? = Did I take that class?
옥상에 올라가도 되던가? = Am I allowed to go to the rooftop?
어렸을 때 턱걸이를 할 수 있었던가? = Was I able to do chin-ups when I was younger?
그날에 학생증을 가져왔던가? = Did I bring my student card that day?
그 방식이 효율적이던가? = Is that method effective?
어렸을 때 강도가 들었던가? = Were we robbed when we were younger?
서울 사람들이 표준어를 쓰던가? = Do people in Seoul use the standard language?
인도 사람들은 향신료를 많이 쓰던가? = Do Indian people use a lot of spices?
아버지가 추위를 많이 타던가? = Does dad get cold easily?
숫자 “3”이 홀수이던가? = Is “3” an odd number?
내가 책을 도서관에 반납했던가? = Did I return the book to the library?
우리가 어제 만났던가? = Did we meet yesterday?
선생님이 캐나다 사람이던가? = Is our teacher Canadian?
그 차가 내 친구 차던가? = Is that car my friend’s car?

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 111

You typically cannot use ~던가 to ask yourself anything but a “yes” or “no” question.
For example, the following sounds unnatural in Korean:

내가 이 책을 무슨 날에 읽었던가?
This would be asking yourself “what day did I read this book?” – which requires an
answer other than “yes” or “no”. Thus, this sentence is awkward.

You must be thinking to yourself – alright, so when I make a sentence like this, I just
can’t use a “question word” like 언제, 어디, 뭐, etc… Right? Good thinking, but
unfortunately it is not that simple.

Remember, in Lesson 25 you learned how to use question words – not to ask questions
but to refer to something (like a place, time, person, etc…) that is ambiguous. For
example, depending on how it is used “뭐 먹었어요?” could have two meanings:

뭐 먹었어요? = What did you eat?

뭐 먹었어요? = Did you eat something?

Therefore, it is possible to use question words in sentences ending with ~던가, but only if
they are used in this way to refer to something ambiguous. Let’s look at some examples:

-------------------------------
내가 이 책을 언제 읽었던가?

This sentence does not translate to “When did I read this book?” Instead, “언제” is
referring to an ambiguous time and therefore translates to:

내가 이 책을 언제 읽었던가? = Did I read this book at some time?

-------------------------------
그 사람이 어디 갔던가?

This sentence does not translate to “Where did that person go?” Instead, “어디” is
referring to an ambiguous place and therefore translates to:

그 사람이 어디 갔던가? = Did that person go to some place?

-------------------------------
오빠가 나한테 뭐라고 했던가?

This sentence does not translate to “What did my brother say to me?” Instead, “뭐” is
referring to an ambiguous thing (that is said) and therefore translates to:

오빠가 나한테 뭐라고 했던가? = Did my brother say something to me?

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 112

 Asking Questions to Somebody Else Using ~던가
When asking yourself a question, it is quite common to use ~던가. However, it would
only be used in informal situations to ask a question to another person (usually an older
person asking a question to a much younger person). I don’t want to spend too much time
on this, but it is something that you should be aware of. Some examples:

슬기가 많이 아프던가? = Is Seulgi really sick?

The above would be more likely to be said as:
슬기가 많이 아픈가? = Is Seulgi really sick?

네가 생선을 먹던가? = Do you eat fish?

네가 핸드폰을 샀던가? = Did you buy a cell-phone?

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 113

Nouns: Verbs:
국내산 = domestically made product 하차하다 = to get off of a train/bus
가옥 = house 챙기다 = to bring, pack up
선진 = advancement, development 이동하다 = to move to a different area, to migrate
선진국 = advanced/developed country 긁다 = to scratch
진료 = medical treatment 매다 = to tie up
능동 = active 조정하다 = to adjust
피동 = passive 격려하다 = to encourage
콘센트 = wall socket/outlet
조상 = ancestor Adjectives:
여드름 = pimple/acne 멋지다 = to be stylish/cool
열정 = passion
Adverbs and Other Words:
차고 = garage
또한 = also/as well
거실 = living room
이리저리 = here and there
뻥 = joke
도중 = in the middle of
선출 = election
가운데 = the middle
Introduction
In this lesson, you will continue to learn about ~더~. Specifically, you will learn about
~더라~, which is a common ending to a sentence. But what does it mean? Let’s gets
started.

Stating a Fact from Experience: ~더라

In the previous lesson, you learned about ~더~ and how it can be placed between two
things to have a meaning that expresses experience. You learned how it can attach to a
verb/adjective, and then how ~ㄴ/가 gets attached to it to form a compound meaning.

In this lesson, you will learn another grammatical principle that is often compounded
with ~더~. By attaching ~라 to “~더~” we end up with ~더라, which can be placed at the
end of a sentence attached to a verb/adjective.

First of all, what meaning does just “~라” have?

The thing is, although ~더라 is still used commonly in Korean, just using “~라” is
somewhat of an older grammatical principle that isn’t used anymore. Its general function
is simply to state a fact or current situation. The only time this ever really comes up
anymore is when attaching it to “아니다” to form “아니라”, which you learned about in
Lesson 95.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 114

If we combine the usage of “~더~” with “~라”, we end up with a grammatical principle
that is the combined meaning of both of these individual principles. That is, when the
speaker is expressing some fact that he/she witnessed and knows from some sort of first-
hand experience with that fact. Specifically, this fact must be something that wasn’t
already known to the person – and it must be something that he/she just came to realize
or learn because of this first-hand experience.

Let’s look at a very simple example:

가방이 무겁더라 = (from my own experience, I realized that) the bag is heavy

Notice the difference is nuance between these two:

가방이 무거워
가방이 무겁더라

In the first example, one is simply stating a fact – that the bag is heavy. In the second
example, the speaker is indicating that he/she has some direct experience with the
heaviness of the bag – and this allows him/her to say that the bag is heavy. In both
examples the end result is essentially the same (the speaker conveying that the bag is
heavy), but the second one has a more complex nuance.

Because this grammatical principle is only used when one indicates a newly learned fact
(from the experience), a sentence like this cannot be used:

내가 학교에 걸어가더라…

… In this case, nothing was learned, and there is nothing that one can convey based on
experience. However, you could say something like this:

학교에 걸어가는 게 힘들더라 = (from my own experience, I realized that) walking to

school is difficult

In the example above, there is something that the speaker realized for the first time (that
walking to school is difficult), and the use of “~더라” is to signify that this knowledge
came as a result of first-hand experience with walking to school.

As with most intermediate/advanced Korean grammatical principles, it is difficult to

come up with an English translation that fits all examples of ~더라. My favorite, the one
that I feel fits most situations is – “from my own experience, I realized/saw/noticed
that….”

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 115

Other examples:
한국말을 배우는 게 힘들더라 = (from my own experience, I realized that) learning Korean is hard
캐나다 날씨가 너무 춥더라 = I realized/noticed that Canadian weather is very cold
그 청소년은 여드름이 많더라 = I saw/noticed that that kid has a lot of acne
이민호는 정말로 멋지더라 = 이민호 is/was very stylish (from what I experienced)

So far I have only used examples of ~더라 attached to adjectives, but it is also common
to attach it to verbs or 이다. For example:

한국학생들이 공부를 열심히 하더라

= (from my own experience, I realized/noticed that) Korean students study really hard

문제는 컴퓨터더라
= (from my own experience, I realized/noticed that) the problem is the computers

콘센트가 침대와 책상 가운데에 있더라

= from my experience, I remember that the outlet is between the bed and the desk

이 고기는 국내산이더라
= from my experience, I saw that this meat is from Korea

I am very happy to be able to explain the subtle difference between conjugating the word
before ~더라 in the present tense (for example, 하더라) and conjugating it in the past
tense (for example, 했더라). Because the use of “~더라” already expresses one’s
experience from the past, some people are confused about what effect the past tense
conjugation can have on this grammatical principle. Let me explain.

By saying, for example:

어제 비가 오더라
You are saying that you personally saw/experienced it raining. In other words, you
literally saw water fall from the sky.

However, by saying:
어제 비가 왔더라
You are saying that you personally saw/experienced the fact that it did rain, but you
didn’t actually see it rain. For example, maybe you saw/experienced that the ground was
wet yesterday, but you didn’t actually see the rain falling from the sky.

In most situations, it is usually more common to use the present tense conjugation before
~더라. However, if the situation allows for it, the past tense is possible.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 116

A good translation for the past tense conjugation being used before ~더라 might be “I
saw/experienced that (something/somebody) had…”. For example:

어제 비가 오더라 = I saw it rain yesterday

어제 비가 왔더라 = I saw that it had rained yesterday

여자친구가 식당에서 밥을 먹더라

= I saw/noticed my girlfriend eating at the restaurant

여자친구가 식당에서 밥을 다 먹었더라

= I saw/noticed that my girlfriend had eaten all of her food at the restaurant (For example,
you get here, and you see that her plate is empty. You didn’t personally see her eating,
but you saw that she had eaten).

우리 선생님이 영어를 잘하더라

= I noticed/saw firsthand that our teacher is good at English

우리 선생님이 (어렸을 때) 영어를 잘했더라

= I noticed/saw firsthand that our teacher had been good at English (and here, you need to
ask yourself – in what situation would this actually be said?)

It is also quite common to use ~더라 to ask a question. These questions, like “던가” are
usually addressed to oneself. However, depending on the situation they can sort of be
addressed to a listener. This is similar to how ~구나 works; that is, even though the
sentence is directed at oneself, the speaker might be deliberately saying it to get a
response from a listener.

Regardless, the purpose of using ~더라 to ask a question can be seen if we look at the
following examples:

빵이 얼마였더라? = How much did the bread cost?

빵이 얼마였어요? = How much did the bread cost?

In the first example, the use of “~더라” implies that the speaker knew how much the
bread cost… but for some reason can’t remember. He/she knew or somehow experienced
the price in the past, but currently can’t think of it. For example, if you went to the
grocery store and bought some bread in addition to other items. When you got home, you
looked in your wallet and realize that you have less money than you thought. You start
thinking about how much each item cost, and then you can ask yourself “빵이
얼마였더라?” Notice here that if you went to the grocery store with a friend, and came
back together – you could say the same sentence. Even though the question is directed to
yourself, your friend could also hear the question and answer it.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 117

Conversely, the second example implies that the speaker has/had no idea how much the
bread costs. For example, if you were sitting at home and your mother came home with
bread. You had no idea how much it cost, so here you can ask her “빵이 얼마였어요?”

Another example:

슬기가 어디 갔더라 = Ah, where did Seulgi go, again? (I can’t remember where she
went, but I was with her and I saw her leaving, but I just can’t remember where she went)

슬기가 어디 갔어? = Where did Seulgi go? (You have no idea where she went)

Other examples:

내가 언제 태국에 갔더라
= Ah, when did I go to Thailand, again? (I can’t remember, but obviously I have the
experience of going to Thailand, but I just can’t remember when it was)

내가 언제 졸업했더라
= Ah, when did I graduate again (what year)? (I can’t remember, but obviously I have the
experience of graduating, but I just can’t remember when it was)

내가 어디서 버스를 내렸더라

= Ah, where did I get off the bus, again? (I can’t remember, but obviously I have the
experience getting off the bus, I just can’t remember where it was I got off)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 118

Nouns: 전부 = total/all
등받이 = something to lean on 건기 = dry season
바퀴 = counter for turns around something 우기 = wet season
탈북자 = North Korean defector 최저 = the lowest
복지 = welfare
계곡 = valley Verbs:
실험실 = laboratory 실험하다 = to conduct an experiment
난방 = heating 뺏기다 = to have something taken away
일기 = weather 구걸하다 = to beg, to panhandle
일기예보 = weather forecast
녀석 = guy/fellow (informal) Adjectives:
놈 = guy/jerk/chap 느끼하다 = to be greasy/oily/rich
성경 = bible
Adverbs and Other Words:
기독교 = Christianity
따위 = etc…
천주교 = catholic
소용이 없다 = for there to be no use
하느님 = god
똑바로 = straight/upright
신자 = believer
식수 = drinking water
시위 = protest/demonstration
Introduction
In this lesson, we will finish with our group of lessons about ~더~. Specifically, in this
lesson, you will learn how to use ~더~ in combination with ~(으)니 (Lesson 81) to
connect two clauses. The construction ~더니 is very similar to other clause connectors
like ~아/어서, ~(으)니(까) and ~기 때문에, but as always there are some specific usages
you should know about. Let’s get started.

To Notice/Experience… and Then… : ~더니

This is one of the grammatical principles that foreign learners of Korean have a lot of
trouble with. With good reason, too – its meaning and usage are very similar to many
other grammatical principles that you have already studied. My goal for this lesson is to
teach you the situations where you will be more likely to find this grammatical principle
being used.

You can probably already guess the meaning of ~더니 without even reading my
explanations. It’s quite simply the combination of ~더~ (to experience/notice/learn/see
something first hand) which you have studied since Lesson 117, plus the meaning of
~(으)니 that you studied in Lesson 81. As always, it’s hard to come up with a translation
that will fit every scenario, but a good translation might be “to
experience/notice/learn/see something first hand, so…”.
I would like to separate my explanation of ~더니 into two usages that I have noticed.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 119

 When the speaker is talking about himself/herself: ~더니
Typically, when the speaker is talking about himself/herself (when the speaker is the
subject of the sentence), you will see a sentence that has a form like this:

내가 스타박스 커피를 마셨더니 기분이 좋아졌어

So… you might be looking at that sentence and asking yourself “Okay… this looks just
like any sentence… what form are you talking about.”
Let me explain.

Typically – and I really do mean typically, as I’ve noticed this for years now, when the
speaker is also the subject of a sentence, you will see this type of form:

((1) speaker) – ((2) some action that the speaker did) – ((3) past tense ~았/었) – ((4)
~더니) – ((5) some emotion or description that happens as a result of what the speaker
did).

I would like to talk about each number above individually to describe this “form” that I
am talking about.

1) As I said, this form is typically used when the speaker is the subject. The only
reason I say “typically” instead of “always” is because you never know when
there may be exceptions in languages. I’d like to say “always”, but I’m just going
to say “typically”
2) This one doesn’t really matter. Some action that the speaker did in the past.
3) When the speaker is the subject of the sentence, I have noticed that the clause is
conjugated into the past tense. For example, this sentence is awkward in Korean
내가 스타박스 커피를 마시더니 기분이 좋아졌어
4) Why use ~더니? Actually, in my opinion, it’s not even about the use of ~니. ~니
is just there to connect the two clauses really. Then what is the purpose of ~더~
here? Why not just use one of the other clause connectors that you have already
learned? To answer that, you need to remember what the purpose of ~더~ is;
which is to indicate that the speaker has seen/experienced something first-hand.
5) This could really be anything that makes sense in the context of the sentence, but
as you will see in the examples below; this is usually some sort of emotion or
feeling (typically an adjective) that was elicited as a result of the first clause.

You have to remember that 슬기 has no understanding of Korean grammar. She just
knows what sounds natural/correct to her. Without knowing any of the things that I just
described previous, I asked her “Make me some sentences using ~더니 where you are the
subject of the sentence.”

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 120

This is what she came up with:

논술문제를 열심히 썼더니 손이 아파요

= I (had the experience of) writing the essay question - and because of that - my hand is sore

몸이 아파서 마사지를 받았더니 몸이 더 이상 아프지 않았어요

= Because my body was sore, I (had the experience of) receiving a massage –and because
of that –my body is not sore anymore

따뜻한 물에 들어갔더니 잠이 오기 시작했어요

= I (had the experience of) going into the warm water – and because of that - I started to fall asleep

제가 곰곰이 생각했더니 정답이 생각 났어요

= I (had the experience of) thinking really hard – and because of that – I thought of the answer

하루 종일 걸었더니 너무 피곤해요
= I (had the experience of) walking all day – and because of that – I am very tired

하루 종일 걸었더니 다리가 아파요

= I (had the experience of) walking all day – and because of that – my legs are sore

내가 매일 케이크를 먹었더니 10 킬로가 쪘어

= I (had the experience of) eating cake every day – and because of that – I gained 10 kilograms

The first thing I did was change all of the conjugations before ~더니 to a present tense
conjugation. She said all of those sounded unnatural.

The next thing I did was ask her what the difference between these two would be:

하루 종일 걸었더니 다리가 아파요

하루 종일 걸어서 다리가 아파요

Her answer: “both sound exactly the same to me.”

The only thing I can guess is that the example with ~더니 just gives the listener a tiny bit
more information/feel (specifically that the person experienced the action) and makes the
sentence just that much more complex.

So now your question is: “Okay, so when would I use ~더니 instead of ~아/어서 or ~기
때문에, or any other grammatical principle like this?”

That’s what I’m saying. When you want to express a sentence in the form that you see in
the sentences above, I suggest that you use ~더니 over other grammatical principles.
Likewise, you will be more likely to see/hear ~더니 be used in these situations as well.
Now, what if the speaker is not the subject of the sentence?

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 121

 When the speaker is talking about somebody else: ~더니
When the speaker is not the subject, and thus, talking about somebody else in a sentence
that has two clauses connected by ~더니, I have noticed a different trend than what was
described above.
Let’s look at an example:

슬기가 체육시간에 너무 많이 달리더니 다음 수업을 들을 수 없었어요

= I personally saw/experienced Seulgi run a lot during P.E. class, so she didn’t attend the next class

The clause before ~더니 is something specifically experienced by the speaker. Right
away, we can see how this would differ from the following sentence:

슬기가 체육시간에 너무 많이 달려서 다음 수업을 들을 수 없었어요

= Seulgi ran a lot during P.E. class, so she didn’t attend the next class

The difference is that in the first example, the speaker of the sentence saw/experienced
first-hand that Seulgi ran a lot in P.E. class; whereas in the second example, no indication
is given as to whether the speaker actually saw Seulgi running. For example, it could be
her friend in another class, or even her parent who obviously wasn’t in school that day.
Imagine that the teacher of the next class called her parents and asked why she didn’t
attend the class. The parents could say the following because they didn’t actually
experience Seulgi running:

슬기가 체육시간에 너무 많이 달려서 다음 수업을 들을 수 없었다

However, if the teacher of the next class asked the P.E. teacher why Seulgi didn’t attend
the class, the P.E. teacher could say:

슬기가 체육시간에 너무 많이 달리더니 다음 수업을 들을 수 없었어요

Another example:
슬기가 2 개월 동안 일자리를 구하려고 노력하더니 결국 좋은 일자리를 구했어요
= I personally saw/experienced Seulgi trying to get a good job for two months, and she
eventually got a job

Here, maybe Seulgi’s parents or close friends could say this sentence. Regardless of who
it is, it would have to be somebody close enough to her to have seen/noticed that she was
looking for a job for that long of a time period, and to know that she finally got it.

Another example:
젊었을 때 돈을 아끼지 않고 쓰더니 결국 그 남자는 거지가 되었어요
= I personally saw/noticed him not saving his money and using it, so he eventually
became a beggar /homeless person (maybe a neighbor can say this, or a close friend to
the man who has known him since he was younger)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 122

A good question now becomes – what if the clause before ~더니 is conjugated into the
past tense? Conjugating this clause to the past tense has the same effect that was
described in Lesson 118, where it was done to sentences ending in ~더라.

Let’s use the good old “it’s raining” sentence to distinguish between when this is
appropriate and when it is not. Check out the following two sentences:

어제 비가 오더니 오늘 하늘이 맑아요

= I saw that it was raining, and/so now the sky is clear

어제 비가 왔더니 오늘 하늘이 맑아요

= I saw that it had rained, and/so now the sky is clear

Both of those are possible and grammatical correct. As was described in the previous
lesson, the use of the past tense ~았/었더니 indicates that you saw/experienced that
something had happened, and you didn’t directly see/experience it actually happening.
Specifically, with the use of the past tense conjugation, you are indicating that the clause
before ~았/었더니 has stopped. For example:

비가 왔더니…
I saw /experienced that it had rained… (and by context it is no longer raining)

그녀가 먹었더니…
I saw/experienced that she had eaten… (and by context she is no longer eating)

However, the use of the present tense doesn’t specifically indicate that the situation in the
first clause has stopped. It’s possible it has stopped if the situation explains itself that way,
but it does not directly indicate that there is a stop in the state that was happening in the
first clause. For example;

비가 오더니…
I saw /experienced that it was raining… (and it’s possible it is still raining)

그녀가 먹더니…
I saw /experienced that she was eating….(and it’s possible she is still eating)

Because of all of this, only one of the following sentences makes sense:

어제 비가 오더니 오늘도 비가 온다
어제 비가 왔더니 오늘도 비가 온다

Which one?

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 123

The first sentence indicates that you saw/noticed/experienced that it was raining, and that
state has continued to the present and it is still raining today.

The second sentence indicates that you saw/noticed/experienced that it had rained. It had
stopped raining… and now it is raining today as well. The state of the rain stopped and
continued until the present… wait… what?
The second sentence is incorrect.

If we go back, we originally started with these sentences:

어제 비가 오더니 오늘 하늘이 맑아요 = I saw that it was raining, and/so now the sky is clear
어제 비가 왔더니 오늘 하늘이 맑아요 = I saw that it had rained, and/so now the sky is clear

Really, those two sentences are almost identical despite their slight nuances. So what I
want to say here is – sometimes the past tense of ~았/었더니 can be almost identical to
the present tense of ~더니. However, it is also possible that, depending on the situation,
one of the sentences might be incorrect.

Another example:
아까 문이 닫혀 있더니 지금은 열려 있어요
= I saw/experienced that the door was closed earlier, and it is still open now
(this sentence is okay)

아까 문이 닫혀 있었더니 지금은 열려 있어요

= I saw/experienced that the door had been closed (but would now be closed), and now it
is still open
(this sentence doesn’t make sense)

Now that we’re aware of how all that works, let’s go back to the original sentences that
were presented. The following past tense sentences of each of those (because of the
situation) are all acceptable and grammatical correct. There might be a slightly different
nuance in the meaning, but you should be okay with that by now:

슬기가 체육시간에 너무 많이 달렸더니 다음 수업을 들을 수 없었어요

= I personally saw/experienced that Seulgi had ran a lot during P.E. class, so she didn’t
attend the next class

젊었을 때 돈을 아끼지 않고 썼더니 결국 그 남자는 거지가 되었어요

= I personally saw/noticed that he had not saved his money and had used it all, so he
eventually became a beggar /homeless person

슬기가 2 개월 동안 일자리를 구하려고 노력했더니 결국 좋은 일자리를 구했어요

= I personally saw/experienced that Seulgi had tried to get a good job for two months,
and she eventually got a job

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 124

Nouns: Verbs:
그네 = swing/trapeze 시청하다 = to watch TV
단풍나무 = maple tree 잠기다 = to sink
시청률 = ratings 서식하다 = to inhabit
시청자 = viewer 압도하다 = to overwhelm
시청각실 = audio-visual room 녹다 = to melt/dissolve
후문 = back door/back gate
외투 = overcoat Passive Verbs:
경향 = tendency/trend 매달리다 = to be hanging
서식지 = habitat
Adjectives:
쌍꺼풀 = double eyelid
안도하다 = to be relaxed/relieved
해양 = ocean
역력하다 = to be clear/obvious/apparent
지중해 = Mediterranean Sea
힘겹다 = to be hard/tough/difficult
청원 = petition
우울하다 = to be gloomy/blue/depressed
내과 = internal medicine
빙하 = glacier Adverbs and Other Words:
해수 = seawater/saltwater 영영 = forever/for good (usually leaving)
해수면 = sea level
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to connect two clauses with ~다니, which will be your
first real introduction into the world of compounded quoted grammatical principles. I just
made up that term off the top of my head, but let’s get started.

Indicating an Emotion after hearing what somebody says: ~다니

How is this grammatical principle formed?
As you progress to more and more advanced grammar in your Korean studies, you will
often come across a grammatical principle that looks like a grammatical principle that
you already know but placed after ~다~ (or after ~(이)라~ in the case of nouns).
For example, look at what is being introduced in this lesson: ~다니. ~(으)니 is a
grammatical principle that you learned about in Lesson 81, and it is being placed after
~다~. Whenever you see this, the clause before “~다” is often a quoted sentence, and this
entire quoted sentence is then attached to whatever the next grammatical principle is. The
grammatical principle that is attached to ~다~ (in our case, ~(으)니) typically just
follows its usage and meaning, but only compounded onto the fact that it is attached to a
grammatical principle. From this lesson forward, I’m going to refer to these as
compounded quoted grammatical principles because that is exactly what they are.
Okay, I’m not sure if you were able to follow that description above. Without examples,
it might be hard. Let’s look at the following example:

네가 떠나다니 너무 슬퍼

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 125

Remember what I said: “The clause before “~다~” is a quoted sentence.” Therefore, in
the example above, the following is a quote:

네가 떠나(다)~

But… how is that a quote? That doesn’t look like a quote.

When you see these compounded quoted grammatical principles, the “~다~” represents
an abbreviation. It is an abbreviation of:

~ㄴ/는다고 하다 (remember that the rules change when quoting an adjective)

Therefore, the sentence from above could actually be written as this:

네가 떠난다고 하니 너무 슬퍼 = I am sad because you said you are leaving

However (as this lesson is going to describe) these types of sentences are often
abbreviated to only include ~다니 between the two clauses.

As I mentioned before, there are many other compounded quoted grammatical principles,
each that will be introduced in its own lesson when it becomes important. At this level,
this is really the only important one that you need to worry about. However, it would be
good to remember that if you see a grammatical principle attached to ~다~ instead of
being directly attached to the verb/adjective – you are most likely looking at a
compounded quoted grammatical principle.

Just one example to show you what I mean before we move on. The following:

그녀가 예쁘다더라
Is actually an abbreviation of:
그녀가 예쁘다고 하더라

I don’t want to get into the meaning of ~다더라 (although I bet you can already guess it)
or any other compounded quoted grammatical principle. At this point, I just want you to
be familiar with what you are looking at in case you come across one of these while
studying on your own.

Back to our original sentence:

네가 떠나다니 너무 슬퍼

The next thing I want you to realize is that the verb ~다니 attaches to does not have the
usual quoted conjugation attached to it. As a quoted clause, you would probably expect
that the sentence should look like this:

네가 떠난다니 너무 슬퍼

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 126

However, “떠나다니” is correct. Also note that this distinction doesn’t need to be made
for adjectives, because ~ㄴ/는 isn’t added to a quoted adjective.

What does this grammatical principle mean?

Okay, now that we understand what this grammatical principle is composed of, we can
start talking about the meaning that it has. Much like ~더니 form the previous lesson,
~다니 is typically used in one specific type of sentence. Let’s look at the example from
before again, because ~다니 is almost always used this specific format:

네가 떠나다니 너무 슬퍼

The format is: The speaker repeats something that another person said (which is placed
before ~다니 as the quoted part of the sentence), and then the speaker indicates his/her
emotion or feelings as a result of hearing that fact. A simple translation for the sentence
above would be:

네가 떠나다니 너무 슬퍼 = I’m sad that you are leaving

However, you need to remember that the first part of the sentence is actually a quote.
Therefore, detailed (but less flowing) translation would be:

네가 떠나다니 너무 슬퍼 = Now that/because I have heard that you are leaving, I am sad, or
네가 떠나다니 너무 슬퍼 = After hearing that you are leaving, I am sad

The most common emotions that are used after the quoted sentence are adjectives that
express one is sad, happy, surprised or impressed. Let’s look at a bunch of examples, all
of which you will see follow a similar format:

슬기가 대학원에 가다니 믿을 수 없어

= I can’t believe Seulgi is going to graduate school (now that I have heard that Seulgi is
going to graduate school, I can’t believe it)

너의 부모님이 이혼하시다니 안됐다

= It’s too bad that your parents are getting a divorce (now that I have heard that your
parents are getting a divorce, it is too bad)

우리 집 앞에 경찰서가 생기다니 다행이다

= Thankfully a police station is being built in-front of our house (Now that I have heard
there is a police station being built in-front of our house, I am thankful)

북극에 있는 빙하가 다 녹다니 큰 일이다

= It is a big problem that all the glaciers in the north pole are melting (After hearing that
all the glaciers in the North pole are melting, (I can see that) this is a big problem

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 127

너의 아버지도 오시다니 기뻐
= I am glad that your dad is coming as well (Now that I have heard that your father is
coming as well, I am glad)

네가 나에게 고맙다니 내가 더 고맙다

= After hearing you say ‘thank you’ to me, I feel more thankful

The clause before ~다니 can also be conjugated into the past tense. This makes the
quoted part of the sentence in the past tense. I’ve used some of the examples above in the
examples below so you can see how they might differ slightly:

네가 떠났다니 너무 슬퍼
= I’m sad that you left (Now that/because I have heard that you left, I am sad)

슬기가 대학원에 갔다니 믿을 수 없다

= I can’t believe Seulgi went to graduate school (now that I have heard that Seulgi went
to graduate school, I can’t believe it)

너의 부모님이 이혼하셨다니 안됐다

= It’s too bad that your parents got a divorce (now that I have heard that your parents got
a divorce, it is too bad)

네가 나에게 고마웠다니 내가 더 고맙다

= After hearing that you said ‘thank you’ to me, I feel more thankful

I’m not going to give the full “quoted sentence” translation for the upcoming sentences.
Mainly because it is redundant and I think you get the idea:

그 토끼의 서식지가 다 없어졌다니 안됐다 = It is too bad that that rabbit’s habitat disappeared
너의 강아지가 죽었다니 너무 안됐다 = It is too bad that your dog died

놀이터에 있는 그네가 망가졌다니 믿을 수 없다

= I can’t believe that the swing in the playground broke

우리가 만든 드라마의 시청률이 떨어졌다니 너무 실망스러워요

= I’m very disappointed that the ratings for the drama we made dropped

Depending on the situation, it is also possible to end a sentence with ~다니 in this form.
That is, use the sentences above, but to not indicate your emotion after “~다니” is said.
When this is done, the emotion that would be said is assumed from context. For example,
if somebody just said the following:

너의 부모님이 이혼하셨다니…

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Assuming the speaker wasn’t some weirdo who wanted to start dating your mother or
father after the divorce (and wanted to tell you about it), you can assume from the context
that the speaker would want to say something like “it’s too bad.”
Another good example would be:

너의 강아지가 죽었다니…

You always need to remember that Korean people love shortening their sentences!

~ㄴ/는다니
Earlier in the lesson I stressed that the grammatical principle we were dealing with was
“~다니” and not “~ㄴ/는다니.”

You must be asking yourself “what meaning does “~ㄴ/는다니” have, then?”
You probably won’t believe this – I didn’t believe it when I first learned it – but this has
the same meaning as described above, except for that the quoted part of the sentence is in
the future tense. For example:

슬기가 대학원에 간다니 믿을 수 없어요

This would translate to:

I can’t believe Seulgi will go to graduate school (now that I have heard that Seulgi will
go to graduate school, I can’t believe it)

I don’t know about you, but this – to me – absolutely doesn’t look like it should be the
correct translation. However, in cases like this, I either have to trust my instinct, or trust
what Korean people tell me. The Korean people around me are telling me that the
translation above is correct.

Other examples, which are the same as the examples earlier, just conjugated differently:

너의 부모님이 이혼하신다니 안됐다

= It’s too bad that your parents will get a divorce (now that I have heard that your parents
will get a divorce, it is too bad)

우리 집 앞에 경찰서가 생긴다니 다행이다

= Thankfully a police station will be built in-front of our house (Now that I have heard
there will be a police station built in-front of our house, I am thankful)

북극에 있는 빙하가 다 녹는다니 큰 일이다

= It is a big problem that all the glaciers in the north pole will melt (After hearing that all
the glaciers in the North pole will melt, (I can see that) this is a big problem

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Nouns: Verbs:
백신 = vaccine 굶다 = to starve
상사 = one’s superior/boss 굶기다 = to make one starve
체계 = system 추구하다 = to pursue
골격 = skeleton 세뇌하다 = to brainwash
회오리바람 = cyclone/tornado 뒷담화하다 = to talk behind one’s back
지혜 = wisdom 트림하다 = to burp
고아원 = orphanage 구분하다 = to divide
교재 = teaching materials
미용사 = hairdresser Adjectives:
체구 = build/frame 건장하다 = for one’s build to be burly
차도 = street/road 유유하다 = to be leisurely
댓글 = comment 매력적이다 = to be charming
취향 = taste/preference 평행하다 = to be parallel
기호 = taste/preference
장식품 = ornament/decoration
조리 = cook/cooking
조리실 = kitchen
밀림 = jungle
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to connect two clauses by using the grammatical
principle ~다 보면. The grammar within this principle is actually the addition of a few
different grammar concepts piled together, but its meaning is simple enough to describe
in a short lesson.

Over the next few lesson I am going to be focusing on grammatical principles that
connect two clauses with the use of 보다. Each of these lessons will introduce a
grammatical principle that is easy to explain and understand. I was tempted to present all
of these in one lesson because of their simplicity but decided against it. As you continue
to reach higher and higher lessons here at HowtoStudyKorean, I can only assume that
your understanding of Korean grammar is very good.

From this point forward, you may notice lessons that are significantly shorter than earlier
lessons. This is not because I am getting lazy or because I have lost my motivation to
provide the best lessons possible. Rather, it is simply because there is very little to
explain – mainly because everything was explained so thoroughly in earlier lessons.

In no means will lessons always be like this from this point. Don’t worry – there are still
quite a few grammatical principles that will take a long time to explain perfectly (look up
all the meanings for the word 싶다 if you are getting to the point where you are starting
to say to yourself ‘I know everything about Korean grammar.’). You have come a long
way, but you still have a long way to go.

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In these shorter lessons, in lieu of providing unneeded explanations, I will do my best to
provide as many original examples as possible for you to get accustomed to each
grammatical principle. Now, let’s get started.

If one does something for a while, the next action will occur: ~다 보면
Just to quickly go into the mechanics of what we are looking at here; the ~다(가) 보면 is
actually made up of: ~다(가) (to indicate that one does an action and then stops) + 보면
(and then if they look at it/reflect on it). Note that the “가” is often omitted.

Let me show you an example of this grammatical principle being used in a simple
sentence first:

네가 그렇게 열심히 일하다 보면 승진하게 될 거야

Here, the speaker is indicating that if the first clause happens for a while – either
continuously or repeatedly over some time period, the second clause is likely or will be
sure to occur. The sentence above would translate to:

네가 그렇게 열심히 일하다 보면 승진하게 될 거야

= if you continue to work hard like that (for some period), you will (likely be) promoted

One way I often translate these types of sentences is to use the word “bound to”.
For example:

네가 그렇게 열심히 일하다 보면 승진하게 될 거야

= if you continue to work hard like that (for some period), you are bound to get promoted

However… I want to be careful about specifically using the word “bound” because that is
a word that is usually reserved for the translation of another grammatical principle that
you will learn in a later lesson.

Nonetheless, the specific translation doesn’t matter. What matters is that you understand
what the speaker is trying to express; that is, if one does something for a period of time,
the second action will occur.

Here are many more examples:

이 길을 계속 따라가다 보면 찾고 있는 시장이 나타날 거예요
= If you keep following this road, the market you are looking for will appear/come into view

고아원에서 봉사를 하다 보면 감사하는 태도로 살아야겠다는 생각이 들어요

= After volunteering (repeatedly) at an orphanage, I thought/realized that I must live my
life with a thankful attitude

혼자서 살다 보면 부모님을 보고 싶은 것은 당연한 게 아니에요?

= If you (continue to) live alone, isn’t it obvious that you will want to see (miss) your parents?

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바쁘게 살다 보면 가끔 중요한 일을 잊어버려요
= If you (continue to) live a busy life, sometimes you will forget important things/tasks/jobs

새로운 단어를 계속 외우다 보면 점점 헷갈려요

= If I keep memorizing new words, I gradually get confused

밥을 계속 굶다 보면 건강이 나빠져요
= If you starve yourself (don’t eat enough) your health goes bad (will go bad)

슬기가 10 년 동안 연습하다 보면 올림픽 금메달을 딸 수 있을 것 같아요

= If 슬기 (continually) practiced for 10 years, she will probably be able to win an
Olympic gold medal

그 어려운 일을 계속해서 하다 보면 나중에는 아주 쉽게 할 수 있어요

= If you continue to do that difficult work/job, you will be able to do it very easily later

우리 딸이 학원에서 영어공부를 하다 보면 영어를 미래에는 미국사람만큼 할 수 있을 거야

= If our daughter studies English in a hakwon (private academy) (for a continuous amount of
time), in the future she will be able to speak English as much/well as an American

While making the sentences above, I tried making examples where the final clause of the
sentence was conjugated into the past tense. For example, I originally wrote this sentence
instead of the one you can see above:

김연아가 10 년 동안 연습하다 보면 올림픽 금메달을 땄어요

However, it was corrected to:
김연아가 10 년 동안 연습하다 보면 올림픽 금메달을 딸 수 있을 것 같아요

I can’t be 100% sure that these types of sentences cannot be conjugated into the past
tense. However, as you can see with the examples above, it appears to be more natural to
use this form when the main clause is in the future tense. As such, you can see that almost
all the sentences above are conjugated into the future tense. Even though some of them
have a present tense conjugation, words within the sentence express that the end result
can/will be in the future.
This is essentially because, as I said before, the grammatical principle basically creates an
“if” sentence because of “보면”. What you are essentially doing with this is saying that,
“if one does an action, and then looks back to reflect on it…”. Just like any sentence that
includes if (~면), you will see that the final clause is typically in the future tense, or has
some sort of indication of the future tense. For example:

네가 가면 나도 갈 거야 = If you go, I will go

밥을 안 먹으면 배고플 거야 = If you don’t eat, you will be hungry

Just like with any “if” sentence, a present tense conjugation is possible as long as the
situation allows for it. That’s it for this lesson!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 132

Nouns: Verbs:
제국 = empire 논쟁하다 = to argue about
가족사 = family history 밀치다 = to push, to thrust
화분 = flowerpot 물러서다 = to back up
싹 = sprout of a plant/blossom of behavior 싹트다 = to blossom/spring up
치매 = dementia/Alzheimer’s disease 너무하다 = to go too far
속보 = breaking news 복종하다 = to obey
가로등 = streetlight 매기다 = to rank/set something (price, etc)
서열 = rank 거두다 = to harvest/collect/gather/gain
장미 = rose 소홀하다 = to neglect
평등권 = equal rights 펼치다 = to open, to spread out
저항하다 = to resist
Adjectives:
세다 = for the power of something to be strong Adverbs and Other Words:
천하다 = to have a low status in life 방울 = counter for “drops” (like water)
사악하다 = to be evil/wicked/vicious
평등하다 = to be equal
누렇다 = to be golden yellow
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn another grammatical principle that requires the addition of
“보다” between two clauses. Specifically, you will learn how to use ~다 보니 to connect
two clauses. Let’s get started.

While doing something, one realizes: ~다 보니(까)

In the previous lesson, you learned how to connect two clauses with ~다(가) 보면. This
was used to express that if one does something for a continuous/repeated amount of time,
something will happen. ~다(가) 보니(까) is often shortened to ~다 보니. It is used to
indicate that - while (in the midst of) doing an action, one realizes something. Let’s look
at how this meaning is created.

This is essentially the sum of two grammatical principles with the word “보다” to
see/look. First, as you learned in Lesson 88, ~다(가) is used to indicate that – while one
does something another action occurred. For example:

눈길을 걷다가 넘어졌어요 = While I was walking on the snowy road, I fell

After ~다(가), we place “보니”, which is an addition of ~(으)니(까) (Lesson 81) and the
word “보다” to mean “now that I look.” The sum of everything together has a meaning
similar to “while one does an action, and then looks/reflects on what is happening…”.
The following clause is typically a realization that occurred due to the looking/reflecting
that occurred.

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We wouldn’t be able to add “보니” to the example above because that wouldn’t make
sense. For example:

눈길을 걷다가 보니 넘어졌어요… while I was walking… I realized that I fell?

Grammatically that might make sense, but the sentence is ridiculous. Remember that this
grammatical principle expresses that one realized something while doing another action.
How can you realize that you have fallen?

Instead, let’s look at an example that would be appropriate. Usually the most simple
example you could make with ~다 보니 would be something like this:

제가 공부하다 보니 12 시가 되었어요

As I said, the meaning in this sentence is not simply “While I studied, it became 12
o’clock.” Rather, the specific use of “보니” indicates that the person is/became aware of
what was going on, and the second clause is an expression of what the person became
aware of. A simple translation of the sentence above would be:

제가 공부하다 보니 12 시가 되었어요 = While I was studying, it became 12:00

A more complicated translation that more accurately expresses the nuances of ~다 보니

would be:

제가 공부하다 보니 12 시가 되었어요
= While I was studying, (and then looked at/reflected one what was happening) I realized
that it had become 12:00

In this form, the end of the Korean sentence doesn’t need to explicitly indicate that one
“realized” something. This meaning is implied within the grammatical principle itself.
However, it is quite common to see the final clause of the sentence conjugated using the
~게 되다 grammatical principle, which you learned about in Lesson 94. This essentially
adds the nuance that the result in the second clause occurred without the speaker being
aware of it happening (because he/she was too focused on the action in the first clause).

You need to be careful with what type of clause you use before ~다 보다. For example,
this sentence wouldn’t make sense:

학교에 가다 보니까 책을 안 가져왔어요

Here, the action that became “realized” (책을 안 가져오다) was something that occurred
in the past – before the process in the first clause began. In order to use ~다 보니, the
action that is being realized has to occur simultaneously with the realization – not that
one realized something prior to the another action happening. For example, in this
sentence:

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 134

운동하다 보니까 팔이 아팠어요
= While I was exercising, I realized that my arm was sore

This clause expresses that the person was exercising, and while exercising, he/she
realizes that his/her arm was sore. This realization occurred as a result of the first action,
and therefore is acceptable.

Let’s look at some simple examples:

친구들이랑 얘기하다 보니 시간이 엄청 빨리 지나갔어요
= While talking with my friends, I realized that time had gone by very quickly

그녀랑 사귀다 보니 그녀가 더욱 좋아졌어요

= While going out with her, (I realized/noticed that) she has become better and better

The actions that you’re doing don’t necessarily need to be currently happening in order
for you to use this grammatical principle. As you will see in the examples below, it is
possible to use ~다 보니 with a situation that you do many times. In effect, the action is
directly happening, the lifestyle of you “doing something regularly” is still happening.

햄버거를 계속 먹다 보니 살이 많이 쪘어요
=While/after eating hamburgers continually (over a period of time), I realized that I
gained a lot of weight

운동을 자주 하다 보니 몸이 건강해졌어요
= While/after exercising often, I realized that I got/became healthy

And now let’s look at some more complicated examples:

똑같은 내용의 방송을 보다 보니 저도 모르게 세뇌 당하게 되었어요
= While watching the same broadcast (over and over), I realized that, without my
knowledge, I had become brainwashed

댓글을 읽다 보니 세상에는 정말 다양한 사람들이 있다는 것을 깨닫게 되었어요

= After reading the comments I came to realize there really are all kinds of people in the world

In the next lesson, you will learn a grammatical principle that looks/sounds similar to ~다
보니 both in structure and in meaning. I don’t want you to get confused. ~다(가) 보니,
through the use of ~다가 within the grammatical principle itself, implies that the
realization occurs while one is still doing the first action. I don’t want to introduce the
grammar of the next lesson in this lesson, but keep that in mind when you read Lesson
123.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 135

Nouns: Verbs:
양심 = conscience 겹치다 = to overlap with/coincide with
문구 = stationary 염색하다 = to dye one’s hair
이성 = one’s reason/intellect 연애하다 = to go out with
고인 = the dead/the deceased 다짐하다 = to promise
유가 = price of oil 낮추다 = to lower/drop/reduce
원동력 = driving force 좌우하다 = to influence/affect/sway
저자 = writer/author 행진하다 = to march/parade
어김 = breach/violation/failure 구축하다 = to construct
발산하다 = to radiate/emit/give off
Adjectives: 검증하다 = to verify
서운하다 = to be hurt/sad 규명하다 = to investigate
진지하다 = to serious
획기적이다 = to be groundbreaking Adverbs and Other Words:
근본적이다 = to be fundamental 금방 = to soon/shortly/any minute
활달하다 = to be active 어김없이 = without fail
완연하다 = to be definite/obvious/clear 도저히 = stresses a ~ㄹ 수 없다 sentence
가늘다 = to be thin/fine
Introduction
In this lesson, you will continue to learn about grammatical principles that contain
“보다”. In this lesson, you will specifically learn about the grammatical principle: ~아/어
보니까. Let’s get started.

Now that I have done…/Having done… ~어/어 보니(까)

In Lesson 81, you learned how to add ~(으)니(까) between two clauses. This
grammatical principle is essentially the same as that, but with the addition of “~아/어
보다” before ~(으)니(까). I probably could have included it in the explanation given in
Lesson 81, but ~아/어 보니(까) is usually taught as a separate grammatical principle, so I
decided to introduce it in a separate lesson.

It’s meaning and usage is quite simple. One thing I want to recognize is that the word
“보다” in this case is not “to see.” Notice that in the previous two lessons you learned
grammatical principles that were connected like this:

~다(가) 보면
~다(가) 보니

Used like that, you should be able to recognize that the word “보다” is “to see.” The verb
before ~다가 is not physically connected to the word “보다”.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 136

However, in this lesson, you should recognize that we are connecting 보다 to the
preceding verb using ~아/어. Remember from Lesson 32 that this has the meaning of “to
try/to attempt”.

Therefore, the meaning that this entire grammatical principle expresses is not related to
“seeing/reflecting” as it was in the previous two lessons. Rather, the meaning is related to
attempting/trying an action.

You should remember from Lesson 81 that the meaning of ~(으)니(까) is something like
“because…” or “now that I have…”.

By using ~(으)니까 and ~아/어 보다, we combine their meanings to have the meaning
that – now that one has tried/attempted the first an action, he/she realizes or can
state/assert the second clause.

Let’s look at a simple example:

아이폰을 써 보니까 다른 핸드폰을 사용할 수 없다

= Now that I’ve used an IPhone, (I realize that) I can’t use another phone | or | Having
tried (using) the IPhone, I can (no longer) use another phone

The meaning/usage is fairly simple, mainly because you should already be familiar with
using ~(으)니까 by this point. At this point, I feel that all I can do to help you understand
this better is provide you with a bunch of original example sentences applying this
grammatical principle. Here you go:

외국에서 생활해 보니까 내가 한국사람이라는 게 너무 자랑스러웠다

= Now that I’ve tried/attempted living in a foreign country, (I know that, I can assert that,
I realized that) I am very proud to be Korean

밤을 새워 보니까 잠을 자는 것이 얼마나 중요한지 깨달았다

= Now that I’ve attempted to stay up all night, I realized how important sleep is | or |
Having tried staying up all night, I realized how important sleep is

한번 머리를 염색해 보니까 염색이 생각만큼 간단하지 않다는 걸 알게 됐다

= Now that I have tried/attempted to dye my hair, I realize/can assert that doing so is not
as simple as one thinks

연애를 한번 해 보니까 남자들을 더 잘 이해하게 되었다

= Now that I have tried/attempted having a boyfriend, I became able to understand men better

10 킬로 마라톤을 뛰어 보니까 뭐든지 할 수 있다는 자신감이 생겼다

= Now that I have tried/attempted running a 10km race, I have the confidence to do anything

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 137

대학생이 되어 보니까 고등학교 생활이 얼마나 좋았는지 느낄 수 있었다
= Now that I have been a University student, I can feel (realize) how good my high
school life was

과학 공부를 해 보니까 많은 과학 서적 내용이 검증이 필요하다는 걸 알게 됐다

= Having studied science, I now know that the material in science books require a lot of
verification

Just one quick thing before we finish. This grammatical principle can also be written/said
as ~아/어 보니. However, I feel that it is more common as ~아/어 보니까.

That’s it for this Lesson!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 138

Nouns: Verbs:
전문가 = specialist 내쉬다 = to exhale
들판 = field 고문하다 = to torture
원리 = principal/fundamentals 맛보다 = to taste
초승달 = crescent moon 주저하다 = to hesitate
보름달 = full moon 야영하다 = to camp
원두 = coffee beans 사격하다 = to shoot/fire a gun
해바라기 = sunflower 이별하다 = to part from
타조 = ostrich 피난하다 = to evacuate
정신력 = willpower/mental strength
묘지 = cemetery Passive Verbs:
피난민 = refugee 쥐가 나다 = to get a cramp
청바지 = jeans
Adjectives:
방세 = rent for a room
바람직하다 = to be desirable
바퀴벌레 = cockroach
Adverbs and Other Words:
보름 = fifteen days/half a month
평 = a Korean measurement
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn how to use the grammatical principle ~ㄹ/을 만하다 to
indicate that something is worth doing or possible. In doing so, you will see how these
types of sentences can also be expressed using the word 가치. Let’s get started.

To be Worth Doing: ~ㄹ/을 만하다

The grammar within ~ㄹ/을 만하다 is very similar to that of ~는 척하다, which you
learned in Lesson 98. In both ~ㄹ/을 만하다 and ~는 척하다, the you can see that the
~는 것 principle is being used to allow the preceding clause to describe 만하다 (in the
form of ~ㄹ/을) and 척하다 (in the form of ~는) respectively. As you know, most of the
time, the thing that immediately follows something like this a noun. For example:

저는 동생이 사과를 가져오는 것을 원해요

저는 내일 갈 수 없어요
저는 하고 싶은 말이 있어요
저는 스키를 할 줄 알아요

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 139

However, 만하다 (along with 척하다) doesn’t act like this. Instead, there is no noun and
the clause preceding ~ㄹ/을 is describing 만하다, which is adjective. You should
specifically remember that it is an adjective (and not a verb) so you know how to
conjugate it and also for something else that I will point out later.

Okay, as always, I like to give you my grammar notes about a particular grammatical
principle, but you don’t need to concern yourself too much with that.

Let’s look at the basic structure of how this can be used by looking at a simple example:

할 만하다

The construction above would translate to something like “to be worth doing.” The thing
is though, what we have essentially created is an adjective (remember I said that 만하다
was an adjective) that can describe things to say they are worth something. Therefore,
this form, as an adjective, is often used to describe a noun. For example:

그것은 할 만하다 = That is worth doing

Notice what is happening here. The noun of “that (thing)” is being described by the entire
construction of “할 만하다”. Let’s look at some other example:

그 밥은 먹을 만해요 = That food is worth eating

그 책은 읽을 만해요 = That book is worth reading
그 컴퓨터는 살 만해요 = That computer is worth buying
그 사람은 믿을 만해요 = That person is worth trusting
코코아는 맛볼 만해요 = Cacao is worth tasting

The grammatical principle ~아/어 보다 (from Lesson 32) is often used with these verbs
to add the feeling of “to try/attempt”. For example:

그 밥은 먹어 볼 만해요 = That food is worth eating (worth trying)

그 책은 읽어 볼 만해요 = That book is worth reading (worth trying to read)

In this form, (with or without ~아/어 보다) it is rare to find an object being used before
the verb. Think about this for a minute. If you look at this structure:

(그 밥은) [먹을 만해요] = (the food) + [is worth eating]

What noun could you possibly add to this sentence? It doesn’t make sense. A lot of
Korean learners assume that because a verb is being used that it is better to include the
noun as an object in the sentence.

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 140

For example, instead of writing this:
이 책은 읽을 만하다

They write:
이 책을 읽을 만하다

I know “읽다” is a verb. I also know “책” is a noun. However, you have to remember
that the entire construction of “(verb) + ~ㄹ/을 만하다” acts as sort of descriptive clause
that describes the noun as a subject – and the noun is not being acted on by the verb.

It is possible to include a noun before the verb in these cases, but typically only done
when the verb is “받다”. In these cases, we still have a descriptive clause describing a
subject, but the descriptive clause simply gets longer and more complex with the use of
the object. Using the construction “(subject) + (noun) + 받을 만하다” we create the
meaning of “(subject) deserves/is worthy of receiving (noun)”. For example:

그 선생님은 상을 받을 만해요 = That teacher deserves an award

그 의사는 많은 사람의 목숨을 살려서 칭찬을 많이 받을 만해요

= That doctor deserves a lot of praise for saving a lot of people’s lives (because he/she
saved a lot of people’s lives)

우리 할아버지는 한국전쟁에서 싸우셨으므로 존경을 받을 만해요

= Our grandfather deserves a lot of respect for fighting in the Korean war

Another time you might see a noun included before the verb in these situations is if the
verb is 하다, and the noun could actually be attached to 하다 to form a verb. For
example, there is no difference between these two sentences:

한국어는 공부할 만하다

한국어는 공부를 할 만하다

This isn’t incredibly important, but I hear ~ㄹ/을 만하다 used as a question every
weekend when I eat with my girlfriend’s parents, so I wanted to make sure that I
specifically mentioned it. I’m sure you could have figured out how this is done without
me showing it to you, but here we go – I hear this all the time:

밥은 먹을 만해? = Is the food worth eating?

(The direct translation above might be more accurately translated to “is the food good?”
or “does the food taste alright?)
한국은 살 만해요? = Is it worth living in Korea?
운전은 할 만해요? = Was it worth driving? (this is more likely to have another meaning
which is talked about later in the lesson)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 141

 More Complicated ~ㄹ/을 만하다 Sentences
It’s also possible to now use an entire clause ending in 만하다 to describe an upcoming
noun (remember, it’s an adjective, so it can do this). When this is done, notice that the
structure of the sentence changes. Now you are not describing an upcoming noun in this
form:

[먹을 만한] (식당을 알아요)? = (do you know) [worthwhile place to eat]?

Here, contrary to the structure of the sentence that we studied earlier, a noun could be
added. For example:

{밥을} [먹을 만한] (식당을 알아요)? = (do you know) [worthwhile place to eat] {rice}?
밥을 먹을 만한 식당을 알아요? = Do you know a good (worthwhile) place to eat rice?
책을 읽을 만한 데를 알아요? = Do you know a good place to read a book?

Other examples of this form being used with or without that extra noun:

살 만한 청바지가 있어요
= There are jeans that I want to buy (there are jeans that would be worthwhile buying)

수다를 떨 만한 장소가 많아요

= There are many places worth chatting

Often times people use ~ㄹ/을 만하다 to express that something is possible despite
maybe not being the best option. It’s hard to separate these two usages (one expressing
that something is “worthwhile” and the other expressing that something is “possible”)
because they often feel similar in a sentence. For example:

한국요리는 할 만해요?
= Is it worth cooking Korean food?
This sort of sounds awkward expressed this way, as I can’t think of an example where
somebody would want to say this. Instead, it could have the meaning of:

한국요리는 할 만해요? = It is still possible/are you able to cook Korean food?

The usage/translation is often interchangeable. I looked at many examples of this

“possibility” usage in the diction airy, and my brain was still telling me that those usages
were talking about something being “worthwhile.”

Here is a good example from a magazine that I saw where the usage of “possibility” can
be distinguished quite distinctly from the usage of “worthwhile”:

세계에는 모든 사람들이 충분히 먹을 만한 식량이 있지만 8 억명 이상은 항상 배가 고파요

= In the world, even though there is enough food for it to be possible for everybody to eat,
800,000,000 people are always hungry

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 142

Another example. From before, I showed you this sentence:
운전은 할 만해요?

Depending on the situation, this could have the nuance of “is it worth driving” or “is it
possible for you to drive?/can you drive?/are you able to drive?” I specifically say
“nuance” because, as I said, it is very difficult for me consider this another
meaning/usage.

Using 가치 to Express a Similar Meaning to ~ㄹ/을 만하다

The noun “가치” means “value/worth”, and can be used quite simply to express that
meaning. For example:

아이들은 밥을 건강하게 먹는 것에 대한 가치를 몰라요

= Children don’t know the value of eating healthy

청소년들이 노동의 가치를 배워야 돼요

= Young people should learn the value of physical labor

그 그림은 높은 가치가 있어요

= That picture has a high value

Because it has this meaning, 가치 can be used to form essentially the same meaning as
sentences with 만하다, but instead of being a grammatical principle, it is just a noun that
can be used as any other noun. For example:

이 커피가 5 천원을 내고 마실 가치가 있을까요?

= Do you think this coffee is/worth (the price of/paying) 5,000 won?

5 년 동안 노력해서 변호사가 될 가치가 있었어요

= It was worth it for me to work hard for five years and become a lawyer

그 영화를 세 시간 동안 볼 가치가 있었어요

= It was worth watching that movie for three hours

A lot of times, you will see ~ㄹ/을 만하다 used with 가치 in the same sentence. For example:

해외에서 한번이라도 살아볼 만한 가치가 있어요

= It is worth trying/attempting living in a foreign country at least once

외국어를 배울 만한 가치가 있어요

= It is worth learning a foreign language

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 143

Nouns: Verbs:
화재 = fire 명상하다 = to meditate
몸매 = one’s figure 누적하다 = to accumulate
동점 = a tie in a game 분배하다 = to divide
분류 = classification/categorization 혁신하다 = to innovate
부채 = folding fan 직감하다 = to know by intuition
소지품 = belongings 위반하다 = to violate/infringe
속담 = proverb 간주하다 = to consider
거스름돈 = change after buying something 출근하다 = to go to work
복근 = abdominal muscles 익다 = to ripen
개학 = start of school
재판 = trial (in courts) Adjectives:
단순하다 = to be simple/mindless
Adverbs and Other Words: 거만하다 = to be arrogant
좌석 여부 = RSVP 두껍다 = to be thick and heavy
가만하다 = to be still/motionless
Introduction
In this lesson, you will learn a Korean grammatical principle that you can use to make
your Korean sound extra sassy! You can use this grammatical principle when you are a
little bit annoyed at somebody, and what to show your frustration. Let’s get started.

I said that…:~니까
~니까 can be attached to a verb at the end of a sentence when a speaker wants to express
frustration/anger over the fact that he/she needs to repeat himself/herself to the listener.
When used in the present tense with a verb, ~니까 is attached directly to the “plain/diary
form” conjugation. For example:

Present Tense:
하다 + ~ㄴ/는다 + ~니까 = 한다니까
가다 + ~ㄴ/는다 + ~니까 = 간다니까
먹다 + ~ㄴ/는다 + ~니까 = 먹는다니까

In its most simple sense, you could see this meaning in the following exchange:

Person 1: 그것을 진짜 하고 싶지 않아 = I really don’t want to do that

Person 2: 아~ 같이 하자! = Ah… (come on…) let’s do it together!
Person 1: 안 한다니까! = (Ugh, I already said that) I’m not doing it!

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 144

Note here that the significance of the sentence before “~니까” being in the plain/diary
form is that these are actually quoted sentences. Remember that when you quote using
these verbs (or adjectives, or 이다), you must first conjugate them using the plain/diary
form and then attach ~고 to them. You’ll notice that the patterns that exist when quoting
sentences (learned back in Lesson 52) are the same as the patterns in this lesson. In fact,
this construction is actually a contraction of a quoted sentence (again, from Lesson 52)
followed by 하다 with ~(으)니까 attached (which you learned about in Lesson 81).
Therefore, when you hear somebody say something like this:

… 한다니까
It is actually a contraction of:
… 한다고 하니까

You would always see ~니까 used like this in the middle of a conversation (in response
to something) and not at the beginning because the speaker is expressing frustration that
he/she needs to say something again.

With most grammatical principles, you can attach “요” to the end of the construction to
make it more formal. In theory, you can do that here, but using ~ㄴ/는다니까 in itself is
quite rude – and therefore I advise against using it to somebody in a more superior
position than you. With your friends it is acceptable, but you should always remember the
negative “frustrated or angry” connotation that this brings.

It is also possible to attach this to a word conjugated into the past or future tenses. When
doing so, just like with the present tense conjugation above, ~니까 is attached directly to
the “plain/diary form” conjugation. Notice that this also follows the same pattern of
quoting in the past and future tenses. For example:

Past Tense:
하다 + ~았/었다 + ~니까 = 했다니까
가다 + ~았/었다 + ~니까 = 갔다니까
먹다 + ~았/었다 + ~니까 = 먹었다니까

Note that this is a contraction of ~았/었다고 하니까

Person 1: 그 일을 했어? = Did you do it (that job/work/task)?

Person 1: 했다니까! = (Ugh, I already said that) I did it!

Future Tense:
하다 + ~겠다 + ~니까 = 하겠다니까
가다 + ~겠다 + ~니까 = 가겠다니까
먹다 + ~겠다 + ~니까 = 먹겠다니까

Note that this is a contraction of ~겠다고 하니까

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 145

For example:
Person 1: 돈을 언제 줄 거야? = When are you going to give me the money?
Person 2: 내일 주겠다니까! = (Ugh, I already said that) I will give it (to you) tomorrow!

When used, it is most likely to be used in a very short sentence. Often the sentence is
made up of only the word that ~ㄴ/는다니까 is attached to – as the rest of the sentence
can be implied from the first time the speaker said the information, or from the sentence
that the speaker is responding to. Other examples:

아직 안 익었다니까! = (Ugh, I already said that) they haven’t ripened yet!

거스름돈을 안 줬다니까! = (Ugh, I already said that) you didn’t give me my change!
출근해야 된다니까! = (Ugh, I already said that) I have to go to work!

Person 1: 재 판 이 언 제 시 작 돼 ? = When does the case/trial start?

Person 2: 내 일 시 작 된 다 니 까 ! = I told you it starts tomorrow!

With Adjectives:
It is also possible to use ~니까 with adjectives. However, remember that the present tense
“plain/diary form” conjugation of adjectives is identical to the dictionary form of that
word. Therefore, in the present tense ~니까 is placed immediately after the dictionary
form of the word without any changes. Notice that this also follows the same pattern of
quoting with adjectives. For example:

(Remember that 있다, 없다 and 싶다 are all conjugated as adjectives):

Person 1: 영어를 잠깐 해 봐 = Try speaking in English

Person 2: 싫어~ = No/I don’t want to/I don’t like it
Person 1: 아~ 그냥 해 봐! = Common, just try it
Person 2: 싫다니까! = (Ugh, I already said that) I don’t want to!

Person 1: 내일 도서관에 갈까? = Shall we go to the library tomorrow?

Person 2: 아니. 난 진짜 가고 싶지 않아 = No, I really don’t want to go
Person 1: 왜? 재미있을 건데. = Why? It’ll be fun?
Person 2: 가고 싶지 않다니까! = (Ugh, I already said that) I don’t want to go

Person 1: 이 걸 버릴게 = I’m going to throw this out!

Person 2: 그 걸 먹고 싶다니까! = (Ugh, I already said that) I wanted to eat that!

Person 1: 내일 가고 싶은 사람이 있어? = Is there anybody who wants to go tomorrow?

Person 2: 있어! = There is (me)!

Person 1: 없어? = Nobody? (in this situation this person probably ignored Person 2’s response)
Person 2: 있다니까 = (Ugh, I already said that there is somebody who wants to go!)

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 146

 With 이다:
It is also possible to attach ~니까 to 이다. When doing this, “이다” should be changed to
“(이)라” just like when quoting with 이다. To jog your memory, this is how we quote
with 이다:

이게 내 거라고 했어요 = I said that this is mine

이게 내 것이라고 했어요 = I said that this is mine

This same principle applies to when adding ~니까 to 이다. For example:

Person 1: 이게 한국어로 뭐라고 불러요? = What do you call this in Korean?

Person 2: 부채라니까! = (Ugh, I already said that) it is a “부채”

이게 내 것이라니까! = (Ugh, I already said that) this is mine

In this same sense, you can attach ~니까 to 이다 when it is used with the future ~ㄹ/을
것이다 conjugation. For example:

Person 1: 내일 갈 거야? 안 갈 거야? = Are you going tomorrow or not?

Person 2: 안 갈 거라니까 = (Ugh, I already said that) I’m not going

Note that this is a contraction of ~(이)라고 하니까

With other Grammatical Principles:

In Lesson 48, you learned how to add ~자 to the end of a sentence to have the meaning of
“let’s…”. For example:

오늘 복근 운동을 하자! = Today, let’s do abdominal exercises

~니까 can be added to ~자 to indicate the same “I already told you” frustration that you
have already seen in other examples. For example:

Person 1: 빨리 가자! = Let’s go quickly!

Person 2: 잠깐만… 이것만 하고… = Just a minute… I just need to do this…
(…after some time goes by…)
Person 1: 빨리 가자니까! = (Ugh, I already said that) let’s go quickly.

Note that this is a contraction of ~자고 하니까

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 147

In Lesson 40, you learned how to say imperative sentences (make commands).
For example:

가만히 있어! = Stay still (don’t move)!

개학이 언제인지 알려 주세요 = Please let me know when the first day of school is
규칙을 위반하지 마세요 = Please don’t break the rules

In Lesson 54, you learned how to quote these imperative sentences by adding ~(으)라고
to the end of the verb/adjective being used. For example:

버스 기사님은 승객들에게 소지품을 꼭 챙기라고 했어요 = The bus driver told the
passengers to make sure they take their personal belongings with them

~니까 can be added to ~(으)라 in these sentences to indicate the frustration of “I already
told you to do….”. For example:

Person 1: 밥을 천천히 먹어! = Eat (the rice) slowly

*(Person 2 eats the rice quickly)*
Person 1: 천천히 먹으라니까 = (Ugh, I already told you to) eat slowly!

Person 1: 빨리 가! = Go quickly
*(Person 2 doesn’t go quickly)*
Person 1: 빨리 가라니까! = (Ugh, I already told you to) go quickly!

Note that this is a contraction of ~(으)라고 하니까

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 148

All finished Lessons 117 – 125? Now it is time to test yourself on what you learned in
those lessons! Before moving on to our Unit Test, make sure you can understand all the
concepts covered here. Good luck!

The answers are at the bottom of the test!

1) Choose the incorrect sentence:

a) 저 새가 갈매기던가?
b) 학생증을 도서관에 두고 왔던가?
c) 집주인이 옥상에 왜 올라갔던가?
d) 내가 원래 추위를 이렇게 많이 탔던가?

2) Choose the correct grammatical principle for the blank below:

어제 갔는데 그 학교 급식이 아주 맛있______

a) ~더라
b) ~더니
c) ~다니
d) ~다 보니

3) Choose the best way to finish the following sentence amongst the choices below:

제가 하루 종일 실험실에서 일했더니 _________________

a) 또 나가고 싶어요
b) 무슨 성분을 썼던가?
c) 이제 머리가 아파요
d) 무슨 실험을 했더라?

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 149

4) Fill in the blank with the correct choice below:

친구가 결혼식에 _______________ 조금 슬퍼요

a) 왔더니
b) 못 온다니
c) 오다 보면
d) 오니까

5) Fill in the blank with the correct choice below:

음식을 그렇게 __________ 배고플 거야

a) 먹다 보면
b) 안 먹다 보면
c) 잘 먹는다니까
d) 먹어 보니까

6) Choose the most natural ending to the following sentence from the choices below:

엄마랑 통화하다 보니까 _______________________

a) 밥을 먹고 있었어요
b) 가족이 잘 지내는 것을 알아요
c) 동생에 대해 얘기했어요
d) 고향이 얼마나 그리운지 깨달았어요

7) Fill in the blank with the correct choice below:

가격을 _______________ 그 가격에 제품이 잘 안 팔려요

a) 올려 보니까
b) 내려 보니까
c) 올리다니
d) 올 만해

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 150

8) Which of the following would you consider good advice?

a) 과자를 하루에 열 번 먹을 만한 가치가 있어요

b) 부모님과 싸울 만한 가치가 있어요
c) 어린이 시절을 잊어버릴 만한 가치가 있어요
d) 사랑에 빠지는 것을 어른이 될 때까지 기다릴 가치가 있어요

9) Read the following exchange between two people:

Person 1: 밥을 언제 먹을 거야?
Person 2: 밥을 안 먹어 . 나 방금 먹었잖아
Person 1: 뭐 먹어야 되는데
Person 2: _______________________

Which of the following would be the most natural response by Person 2:

a) 먹는다니까!
b) 먹었다니까!
c) 먹자니까!
d) 먹으라니까!

Answers:

1) C
2) A
3) C
4) B
5) B
6) D
7) A
8) D
9) B

© HowtoStudyKorean.com – Unit 5 151