Lesson 26: ~는 것 Describing Nouns with Verbs

Introduction
Okay, it is time to kick it up a notch.

Most of what you learned in Unit 1 was taught simply to be a foundation to what you will
learn here in Unit 2 (and later in Units 3, 4, 5 etc…). Of course, the content you learned
in Unit 1 was very important (foundations are important) but here in Unit 2 it will be
slightly different.

When learning Korean, you eventually reach a point where the only thing you are
learning is other ways to end sentences. There are hundreds upon hundreds of different
things that you can add to the end of sentences (to end them or to connect them to
other sentences) to give a sentence a different meaning. I’m not going to lie: most of
what you will learn from here on out (aside from vocabulary) will be these sentence
enders/connectors.
Not today, though. Today you will learn the most important aspect (in my mind) of
Korean grammar. It took me months to fully grasp this concept – but not because it is
terribly difficult, but rather because I did not have good enough explanations when
learning it. That is why I am here. I am going to break down this concept for you like
crazy – spanning four lessons.
I am talking, of course, of ~는 것.

Understanding this concept will literally make your ability to create sentences increase
dramatically. Lets get started.

This lesson is long. Very long. Please read the entire lesson to fully understand
everything. If something is confusing, it will more than likely be resolved later in the
lesson.
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~는 것: Modifying Nouns with Verbs
Adjectives (in Korean and in English) get placed before nouns to describe them. You
learned this a long time ago in Lesson 4. You learned that when you want to use an
adjective to describe a noun, you must add ~ㄴ/은 to the stem of the adjective. For
example:
예쁘다 = 예쁜
똑똑하다 = 똑똑한
젊다 = 젊은

To describe nouns in the following way:

Pretty girl: 예쁜 여자
Smart student: 똑똑한 학생
Young teacher: 젊은 선생님

Simple enough.

But, what you don’t know is that verbs can also describe nouns in this same way. It is
the exact same premise with adjectives, but it is very difficult for English speakers to
understand.
This same thing (verbs describing nouns) is also done in English, but is done differently
than in Korean. As you know, In English and Korean, when an adjective describes a
noun, the adjective comes before the noun:
However, In English, when a verb describes a noun, the verb comes after the noun. For
example:
The girl who walks
The student who studies
The teacher who eats
The word “who” was added in all three examples, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be
“who” in English. For example:

The girl that walks

The student that studies
The teacher that eats
In those three examples, “that” was added, and each example essentially has the same
meaning as when “who” was written instead. You don’t need to worry about if it should
be “who/that” or whatever because you are not learning English – you are learning
Korean.

The point I am trying to get at here, is that verbs can also describe nouns. In English,
verbs are placed after the nouns to describe them.

The next sentence is the most important sentence of the entire lesson:
In Korean, verbs are placed before nouns to describe them – very similar to how it is
done with adjectives.
How is this done? Like this:?

걷다 여자
공부하다 학생
먹다 선생님

Are those correct? Haha. No. Not by a long shot.

When you adjust adjectives to describe nouns, you know that you should add ~ㄴ/은 to
the stem of the word.
When you adjust verbs to describe nouns, you must add ~는 to the stem of a verb:
걷다 = 걷는
공부하다 = 공부하는
먹다 = 먹는

These are all verbs that can now be placed before a noun to describe it:

걷는 여자 = the girl who walks

공부하는 학생 = the student who studies
먹는 선생님 = the teacher who eats

Now, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking “Okay, that is great, but when
would I ever say ‘the girl who walks’ in a sentence?”

That is a good question. Really, you would never (or very rarely) say something like that
in a sentence – but understanding that sentence is the foundation for understanding
everything else about ~는 것.

Remember, in regular sentences (in English and Korean), it is very rare to just use the
present tense conjugation. For example, are these natural?:

여자는 걷는다 = The girl walks

학생은 공부한다 = The student studies
선생님은 먹는다 = The teacher eats
Are those natural? Yes, they are natural, but who would ever just say “the girl walks.”
Usually in every-day sentences, you would add more information or conjugate the
sentence in other tense:

여자는 학교에 걸었어요 = The girl walked to school

여자는 학교에 걸을 거예요 = The girl will walk to school
여자는 빨리 걷는다 = The girl walks fast
etc…

You can use the same information to describe the noun (the girl):

The girl who walked to school

The girl who will walk to school
The girl who walks fast

Lets stick to the one in the present tense for now:

The girl walks: 여자는 걷는다

The girl who walks: 걷는 여자

The girl walks fast: 여자는 빨리 걷는다

The girl who walks fast: 빨리 걷는 여자

Okay, so what’s the point? When would I ever want to say “The girl who walks fast”?

The thing is, now that you have made the noun “the girl who walks fast” (“ 빨리 걷는
여자”) you can now place that noun in sentences that:

– end in an adjective
– end in a verb
– end in 이다

You have been doing the exact same things with adjectives since Lesson 4.
예쁜 여자 = Pretty girl
– 예쁜 여자는 어려요 = The pretty girl is young
– 저는 예쁜 여자를 만났어요 = I met a pretty girl
– 저는 예쁜 여자예요 = I am a pretty girl
The three sentences above include a noun that is being described by an adjective.

빨리 걷는 여자 = The girl who walks fast

– 빨리 걷는 여자는 어려요 = The girl who walks fast is young
– 저는 빨리 걷는 여자를 만났어요 = I met a girl who walks fast
– 저는 빨리 걷는 여자예요 = I am a girl who walks fast
The three sentences above include a noun that is being described by a verb

Those sentences may not be that common in either English or Korean, but that is the
basis of this entire lesson. It is important to realize that entire clauses (including clauses
that include complex grammatical principles within them) can be put before this ~는 것
form. These clauses can also include subjects within them. Typically, the subject within
a clause that is used to describe an upcoming noun has the simple subject marker
“~이/가” attached to it. Just like when a noun is being described by an adjective, once
you have a noun that is being described by a verb (or by an entire clause), you can put
it wherever you want in the sentence. Below are many more examples:

제가 만나고 있는 사람은 예뻐요 = The person I am meeting is pretty

제가 보고 있는 영화는 재미있어요 = The movie I am watching is funny
제가 먹고 있는 음식은 맛있어요 = The food I am eating is delicious
저는 제가 자주 가는 곳에 가고 있어요 = I am going to the place I often go to
친구는 제가 자주 가는 곳에 가고 있어요 = My friend is going to the place I often go
Actually, I feel like this is getting a little bit too complicated. I want to break this down
one more time.

This sentence should be simple to you:

친구는 학교에 가고 있어요 = My friend is going to school

Simple enough. Subject – place – verb.

If you want to describe that school, you could do so with adjectives:

큰 학교 = big school
작은 학교 = small school|
나쁜 학교 = bad school
… or verbs:
제가 자주 가는 학교 = The school I go to often

Then, it is simply a matter of putting those nouns into sentences:

친구는 큰 학교에 가고 있어요 = My friend is going to the big school

친구는 작은 학교에 가고 있어요 = My friend is going to the small school
친구는 나쁜 학교에 가고 있어요 = My friend is going to the bad school

친구는 제가 자주 가는 학교에 가고 있어요 = My friend is going to the school that I go to

often
Incredibly complicated at first, incredibly simple once you get the hang of it. The only
problem is that it is difficult for English speakers to get used to because we describe a
noun with a verb after the noun.

Many more examples:

과학을 좋아하는 여자 = the/a girl that likes science

저는 과학을 좋아하는 여자들을 좋아해요 = I like girls that like science
제가 보고 있는 시험 = The exam I am writing
제가 보고 있는 시험은 어려워요 = The exam I am writing is difficult
제가 사귀고 있는 여자 = The girl who I am going out with
제가 사귀고 있는 여자는 미국에 갔어요 = The girl who I am going out with went to the
US
엄마가 요리하는 음식 = The food that my mother cooks
엄마가 요리하는 음식은 항상 맛있어요 = The food that my mother cooks is always
delicious
공부하지 않는 학생들 = students who do not study
공부하지 않는 학생들은 똑똑하지 않아요 = Students who do not study are not smart
제가 공원에 가는 날 = the day(s) I go to the park
저는 공원에 가는 날에 항상 행복해요 = I am always happy on the days I go to the park
이 동네에서 축구를 잘 하는 청소년들 = children who are good at playing soccer in this
neighborhood
이 동네에서 축구를 잘 하는 청소년들이 많아요 = There are a lot of children who are
good at playing soccer in this neighborhood
Actually, Korean people have the same problem with this concept when translating to
English. If you meet a Korean person who can’t speak English well, they will always say
sentences like this in their ‘Korean style.’

Instead of saying: “girls that like science,” they say:

“like science girls’

Instead of saying “the exam I am writing,” they say:

“I write exam”

Instead of saying “the girl I am going out with,” they say:

“I go out with girl”

Instead of saying “the food my mother cooks,” they say:

“my mother cooks food”

Anyways, enough of what Korean people say.

It is hard to translate the definition of this concept directly in English, but it sometimes
translates to ‘who,’ ‘when,’ or ‘that.’ These words however don’t need to be in the
sentence in English, as you will see in the following examples. Each of the following
pairs of sentences have the same meaning in English:

My friend is going to the school I go to often

My friend is going to the school that I go to often
The exam I am writing is difficult
The exam that I am writing is difficult
The girl I am going out with went to the US
The girl who I am going out with went to the US
The girl that I am going out with went to the US
The food my mother cooks is always delicious
The food that my mother cooks is always delicious
Students that do not study are not smart
Students who do not study are not smart
I am always happy on the days I go to the park
I am always happy on the days that I go to the park
I am always happy on the days when I go to the park
“That” can be used in most situations. If the noun you are using is a person, “who” can
be exchanged for “that.” If the noun you are using is a time, “when” can be exchanged
for “that.”

I’m going to say this one more time. Read it a few times to make sure you understand it
completely (it is complicated). The noun that you create by describing it with a verb can
be placed anywhere that other nouns can be placed!

Lets describe one more noun and see where it can be placed:

내가 가르치는 학생들 = the students that I teach

Placed as the subject of a sentence:

내가 가르치는 학생들은 수업을 듣고 싶지 않아 = The students that I teach don’t want to
come to class
Before 이다:
그 사람은 내가 가르치는 학생이다 = That person is a student that I teach (I teach that
student)
Placed in any clause within a sentence:
내가 가르치는 학생들이 수업에 오기 전에 나는 교실을 청소했어 = Before the students
that I teach came to class, I cleaned the classroom
.. okay, I think you get it.

So far in this lesson you have learned how to describe nouns using verbs in the present
tense:

The place I go
The food I eat
The student I teach

But what about the past tense?

The place I went

The food I ate
The student I taught
Or the future tense?

The place I will go

The food I will eat
The student I will teach

Lets talk about those now.

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~는 것 Past Tense (~ㄴ/은 것)

You can also describe nouns with verbs in the past tense to make nouns like:

The place I went

The food I ate
The student I taught

To do this, instead of adding ~는 to the stem of a verb, you must add ~ㄴ/은. You must
add ~은 to stems ending in a consonant (먹다 = 먹은), and ~ㄴ should be added directly
to stems ending in a vowel (가다 = 간):

제가 간 곳 = The place I went

제가 먹은 음식 = The food I ate
제가 가르친 학생 = The student I taught

The general idea is the same as the present tense; the verb is simply conjugated into
the past. More examples:

엄마가 요리한 음식은 너무 맛있어요 = The food my mom cooked is delicious

저는 엄마가 요리한 음식을 다 먹었어요 = I ate all the food my mom cooked
제가 어제 만난 사람은 저를 다시 만나고 싶어요 = The person I met yesterday wants to
meet me again
남은 음식을 포장하고 싶어요 = I want to pack up the food that is left over
내가 회사에 가지 않은 날에 병원에 갔어 = On the day I didn’t go to work, I went to the
hospital
선생님은 학생들이 물어본 질문에 답했어요 = The teacher answered the question that
the student asked
옛날에 담배를 많이 피운 환자가 많아요 = There are a lot of patients who smoked a lot a
long time ago
내가 작년에 가르친 학생 한 명은 벌써 의사가 되었어 = One of the students I taught last
year has already become a doctor

~는 것 Future Tense (~ㄹ/을 것)

You can also describe nouns with verbs in the future tense to make nouns like:

The place I will go

The food I will eat
The student I will teach

To do this, instead of adding ~는 to the stem of a verb, you must add ~ㄹ/을. You must
add ~을 to stems ending in a consonant (먹다 = 먹을) and ~ㄹ should be added directly
to stems ending in a vowel (가다 = 갈):

내가 갈 곳 = The place I will go

내가 먹을 음식 = The food I will eat
내가 가르칠 학생 = The student I will teach

Many more examples:

제가 갈 곳은 제주도이에요 = The place I will go is Jeju-do

저는 할 일이 있어요 = I have something/work to do
저는 그 사람이 저에게 줄 선물을 받고 싶지 않아요 = I don’t want to accept the gift that
that person will give me
제가 받을 점수는 중요해요 = The score I will receive is important
In Lesson 9, you learned how to create a future tense conjugation by attaching ~ㄹ/을
것이다 to words. For example, in Lesson 9, you saw this sentence:
저는 밥을 먹을 것이에요 = I will eat rice
If you look closely, the grammar being used in this type of sentence is the same as the
grammar that I am presenting in this lesson. If you look at the two examples below:

저는 밥을 먹을 것이에요 = I will eat rice

제가 받을 점수는 중요해요 = The score I will receive is important
In both of the sentences above, the ~을 attached to the verb is performing the same
function – in that it is describing the upcoming noun.

Remember, “것” is a noun, and in the first sentence above, “것” is being described by
the word before it (먹다). For example, look how “것” is being described in the first
example::

밥을 먹을 것 = A thing that will eat rice

In theory, the full sentence (저는 밥을 먹을 것이에요) could translate to “I am a thing

that will eat rice.” However, it would never be translated like that because when ~ ㄹ/을
것이다 is used at the end of a sentence, it is usually done to create the future tense
conjugation that would translate to “one will do…” This isn’t imperative to your
understanding, but it is good to recognize that ~ㄹ/을 has the same function in both of
these types of sentences – which is describing the noun in-front of it.
There are many instances of a Korean grammatical principle having different English
translations depending on the type of sentence it is used in. There might be one thing in
Korean that represents many meanings in English, and there might be one thing in
English that represents many meanings in Korean. Try to step out of the “English box”
and understand that two vastly different languages will have very little similarities.

…Anyways…

…. All of this brings me to the last point of this lesson:

 So What’s the Point?: ~는 것
The name for everything you learned in this lesson is “~는 것” (or ~ㄴ 것 for past tense
and ~ㄹ 것 for future tense). So far, I have shown you many examples of other nouns in
place of “것”:

제가 먹는 음식 = The food I eat

제가 먹은 음식 = The food I ate
제가 먹을 음식 = The food I will eat

제가 가르치는 학생 = the student I teach

제가 가르친 학생 = the student I taught
제가 가르칠 학생 = the student I will teach

제가 가는 날에 = the day I go
제가 간 날에 = the day I went
제가 갈 날에 = the day I will go

Question:
So why is the grammar concept called “~는 것”?
Answer: (This answer is ridiculously important)
If you ever want to change a sentence (or any part of a sentence) into a noun, you must
do so by adding ~는 것 to the clause. … which leads to the next question:
Question:
Why on earth would I want to change a sentence into a noun?
Answer:
Look at the following example:
You know this already:

저는 사과를 원해요 = I want apples

Very simple sentence. Subject – object – verb,

But what if you wanted to say the following:

I want my friend to bring apples.

The structure is actually identical in the two sentences:

I want apples
I want my friend to bring apples

In both cases, I will put the thing that you want in brackets:

I want (apples)
I want (my friend to bring apples)

In Korean:

저는 (apples)를 원해요
저는 (my friend to bring apples)를 원해요

The first one is easy, you already know:

저는 사과를 원해요

But the second one? How would I say this in Korean?:

저는 (my friend to bring apples)를 원하다

How can you say “my friend brings apples” in Korean?

친구는 사과를 가져와요 = My friend brings apples

But! You need to change that sentence to a noun. THIS is the situation when you will
need to change clauses/sentences to nouns. Lets change that sentence into a noun:

친구가 사과를 가져오는 것

This is very hard to translate into English. 것 means “thing.” The rest of it is an adjective
describing that “thing.” If I had to translate it, I would say “the thing of my friend bringing
apples.”.. but, again, it cannot really be translated.

So, if we look at our sentences again:

I want (apples)
I want (my friend to bring apples)
Apples = 사과
My friend brings apples (noun form) = 친구가 사과를 가져오는 것

저는 (apples)를 원해요
저는 (my friend to bring apples)를 원해요

저는 (사과)를 원해요
저는 (친구가 사과를 가져오는 것)을 원해요

저는 사과를 원해요 = I want apples

저는 친구가 사과를 가져오는 것을 원해요 = I want my friend to bring apples

Wow, complicated.
Lets look at another example.

I like movies.
저는 영화를 좋아해요
Simple sentence. Subject – object – verb

But what if you wanted to say

“I like making movies,” or

“I like watching movies”

Again, I will put the things that you like in brackets:

I like (movies)
I like (making movies)
I like (watching movies)

Movies: 영화
I make movies: 영화를 만들어요
I watch movies: 영화를 봐요

Into noun form?:

영화
영화를 만드는 것
영화를 보는 것

저는 (movies)를 좋아해요
저는 (making movies)를 좋아해요
저는 (watching movies)를 좋아해요

저는 (영화)를 좋아해요
저는 (영화를 만드는 것)을 좋아해요
저는 (영화를 보는 것)을 좋아해요

저는 영화를 좋아해요 = I like movies

저는 영화를 만드는 것을 좋아해요 = I like making movies
저는 영화를 보는 것을 좋아해요 = I like watching movies
I didn’t realize this when I first learned this grammar concept. In almost every sentence
you will ever say, you need to put this concept into use – whether you realize it or not.

Think about it, how often do you simply say “I want to eat food”? You usually make it
more complex by saying:

나는 그 사람이 먹고 있는 것을 먹고 싶어 = I want to eat what that person is eating

나는 우리가 지난 번에 같이 먹은 것을 먹고 싶어= I want to eat what we ate last time
나는 엄마가 요리하는 것을 먹고 싶어 = I want to eat my mom’s cooking
Etc…

Or, if you wanted to talk about what your dream is. Before this lesson, you could have
said this:

나의 꿈은 선생님이다 …

… but that translates to “My dream is teacher”…. Is that natural? My dream is teacher?
Instead, it would sound more natural if you said:

나의 꿈은 선생님이 되는 것이다 = My dream is becoming a teacher

Below are many more examples of a verb (with a clause before it) describing a noun
being used in sentences. The following sentences specifically use the vocabulary that is
introduced at the beginning of this lesson. In addition, these sentences are slightly more
complex than the simple sentences I have used to describe the ~ 는 것 concept up until
this point.

우리 학교의 목적은 국제고등학교가 되는 것이다 = Our school’s goal is becoming an

international school
소금을 많이 먹는 것은 건강에 안 좋아요 = It is not healthy to eat a lot of salt
담배를 피우는 것은 건강에 나빠요 = It is unhealthy to smoke cigarettes
저의 목적은 그 시험을 합격하는 것이에요 = My goal is to pass that exam
이 문제를 극복하는 것이 힘들 거예요 = It will be difficult to overcome this problem
모자를 쓴 학생을 알아보는 것이 어려워요 = It is difficult to recognize students wearing
hats
네가 지금 말하는 것이 틀려 = (the thing that) What you are saying not is incorrect
친구가 머리를 깎은 것을 알아보지 못했어요 = I couldn’t recognize that my friend cut his
hair
복도에서 뛰는 것은 위험해요 = It is dangerous to run in the hallway
병원에서 넘어져서 팔을 다친 아줌마가 약을 무료로 받았어요 = The older lady who fell
in the hospital and broke her arm received free medicine

————————-

Just one more quick note specifically about translating from English to Korean or vice-
versa. Translations are often ambiguous from English to Korean, so you don’t need to
worry about this too much.

When you use ~는 것 to describe an upcoming noun, the translation is often “who,”
“that,” or “where.” For example:

걷는 여자
= The girl who walks
= The girl that walks
내가 간 곳
= The place where I went
= The place that I went
This type of translation is also appropriate when describing a “thing.” For example:
내가 먹는 것은 밥이야
= The thing that I (am) eat(ing) is rice
내가 가장 원하는 것은 차야
= The thing that I want most is a car
However, when using ~는 것 to change a clause into a noun so that you can do
something with that noun in a sentence, the translation of “to” or “~ing” is usually more
appropriate. For example:

저는 친구가 사과를 가져오는 것을 원해요

= I want my friend to bring apples
나의 꿈은 선생님이 되는 것이다
= My dream is becoming a doctor
= My dream is to become a doctor
저는 영화를 보는 것을 좋아해요
= I like watching movies
= I like to watch movies
In terms of Korean grammar, the purpose of ~는 것 in all of these types of sentences
(i.e. whether it is being used to describe a noun or used to turn a clause into a noun) is
the same. However, in English these look like entirely different sentences. Again,
translations are often confusing and ambiguous. You don’t necessarily need to worry
about the different types of English translations. What is more important is that you
understand the Korean grammar presented here.