LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

EVERYTHING/ALL

Everything/All

모든
The most common way to say "every _____" is to place the word '모든' before a noun. 모든 looks, sounds, and acts like an adjective, but it can not be used to predicate a clause or sentence. This means that you won't see the word "모든" at the end of a sentence, just like in English. For example, you can't say something like:

He is every...

Even though 모든 ends in ~ㄴ (which is the same as all adjectives when placed immediately before a noun to describe them – 예쁜, 아름다운, 똑똑한), the dictionary form of 모드다 does not exist.

However, as I mentioned, (like an adjective) "모든" can be placed before a noun. If you place "모든" before a noun, it has the meaning of "every _____." For example:

모든 것 - everything
모든 사람 - all people/every person
모든 과일 - all fruits/every fruit
모든 선생님 - all teachers/every teacher

Those can now go in sentences very easily:

모든 아시아 사람들은 젓가락을 잘 쓴다 - All Asian people use chopsticks well
모든 학생들은 하루 종일 잤어 - All students slept all day

다
Another possible word to use in similar situations is 다. 다 is used as an adverb in sentences to indicate that "all" of something is done.

One way this is done is to use it in a sentence with an object to indicate that some action was completed without leaving anything behind. For example:

저는 라면을 다 먹었어요 - I ate all the ramen
저는 숙제를 다 했어요 - I did all of my homework
저는 소설을 다 읽었어요 - I read the whole book – or – I read all the books

In these situations using "모든" and "다" create a slightly different meaning. '다' is more about doing one action to completion and leaving nothing behind. 모든 is indicating that the action was performed on all possible nouns after "모든". For example, if I say:

저는 라면을 다 먹었어요 - I ate all of the ramen

In this sentence, I am indicating that I have completed the action of "eating ramen" and nothing was left behind. In other words, there is no ramen left in my bowl because I ate it all.

However, in this sentence:

저는 모든 라면을 먹었어요 - I ate every ramen

This sentence is a little bit ambiguous and a little but unnatural because in most situations you wouldn't say this. However, bear with me as I use it to explain the difference in nuance. In this situation, there might have been many different types of ramen at my house. I would use this sentence to indicate that I ate/tried "every one of them." It is ambiguous as to whether or not I finished eating them, which means that there could still be some left – either in my bowl or in the cupboard.

If you did actually eat every one of them and finished all of the ramen in your house, it would be more natural to use "저는 라면을 다 먹었어요" because the action was completed and nothing was left behind.

This is why I provided two translations for this sentence:

저는 소설을 다 읽었어요 - I read the whole book
저는 소설을 다 읽었어요 - I read all the books

Depending on the situation, that sentence could be translated to either of those English translations. In the first sentence, the action of 'reading' was completed on the subject (one book) without leaving any pages behind within that book. In the second sentence, the action of 'reading' was completed on the subject (more than one book) without leaving any pages behind in any of those books.