KOREAN LANGUAGE TUTORIAL

LESSON 42 (Part 3)

Many more examples:
제가 갈 곳은 제주도이다 = 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
Actually, you know this concept already – sort of.
In Lesson 9, you learned how to conjugate verbs into the future by adding ㄹ/을 to verbs and adjectives. When I explained that concept, I also explained that you wouldn’t be able to understand the grammar behind the reasoning for doing so. I just said “memorize it… you will be able to understand it eventually.”
Well, now is “eventually.” Adding ㄹ/을 to the stem of a verb to describe a noun in the following example:
제가 먹을 음식 (the food I will eat)
Has the exact same grammar (but not the same meaning) as:
저는 먹을 것이다 (I will eat)
Remember, “것” is a noun that means “thing.” Saying “저는 먹을 것이다” breaks down to:
제가 먹을 것 = a thing I will eat
+
이다 = is
= 저는 먹을 것이다
This literally translates to “I am a thing that I will eat”.. but you cannot translate it like that. Whenever a sentence ends in ~ㄹ 것이다, you need to just think of that as a “future” conjugation despite what the grammar within it suggests.
All incredibly complicated, but you don’t really need to worry about the intricacies of ~ㄹ 것이다. Just know that it is a future conjugation.
…
…. All of this brings me to the last point of this lesson:
~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
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) 좋아해요
저는 (watching movies) 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:
저의 꿈은 선생님이다 … but that tranlates to “My dream is teacher”…. Is that natural? My dream is teacher? Intead, it would sound more natural if you said:
저의 꿈은 선생님이 되는 것이다 = My dream is becoming a teacher
Just one more quick note specifically about translating from English to Korean or vice-versa. You don’t need to worry about this too much, but it does help if you understand it:
As I said earlier, when you translate “~는 (noun)” the meaning becomes “the (noun) that…” or “the (noun) who… ” or “the (place) where” as in:
달린 남자 = The man who ran/The man that ran
내가 간 곳 = The place where I went/the place that I went
This would also include if the noun you are talking about is “thing:”
내가 가져오는 것은 밥이다 = The thing that I am bringing is rice
내가 가장 원하는 것은 차야 = The thing that I want most is a car
However, when you want to turn an clause into a noun by using “~는 것” it “는 것”  usually translates to “to” or “~ing” :
저는 친구가 사과를 가져오는 것을 원해요 = I want my friend to bring apples
저의 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