Lesson 28: Anomalies with ~는 것

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Vocabulary

Irregulars with ~는 것
Present Tense
Past and Future Tense

My Favorite Thing: 가장 좋아하는 것
~는 with 싶다, 있다 and 없다
Using 그 (and other smaller words) in ~는 것 sentences

Vocabulary

Click on the English word to see information and examples of that word in use. You will probably be able to understand most of the grammar in these example sentences, but some of the sentences might use grammar from later lessons. Use these sentences to give yourself a feel for how each word can be used.

A PDF file neatly presenting these words and extra information can be found here.

Nouns:
어른 = adult

어린이 = child, children

공주 = princess

영향 = influence

글 = some sort of writing

문학 = literature

지방 = district, local area

이웃사람 = neighbor

환경 = environment

농장 = farm

부분 = part, section

광고 = advertisement

농구 = basketball

배구 = volleyball

지구 = earth

방귀 = fart

고개 = head

방향 = direction

해외 = abroad, overseas

자체 = itself, its own

시대 = times, period, era

주의 = caution

Verbs:
연구하다 = to research

집중하다 = to concentrate

나누다 = to divide

이용하다 = to use

등록하다 = to register

메다 = to carry on one's shoulder

세우다 = to stand something up, to line something up

움직이다 = to move

정리하다 = to arrange

취소하다 = to cancel

지키다 = to protect, to defend

놓치다 = to miss (a train/bus/opportunity)

Adjectives:
적다 = to be few

강하다 = to be strong

불편하다 = to be uncomfortable

충분하다 = to be enough, to be sufficient

졸리다 = to be sleepy

솔직하다 = to be honest/frank

정확하다 = to be exact

친하다 = to be familiar with, to be close with

급하다 = to be urgent

Adverbs and Other words:
결국 = eventually

내내 = throughout a time

드디어 = finally, at last

그냥 = only, just

약간 = slightly/a little bit

철저히 = thoroughly

For help memorizing these words, try using our mobile app.

Irregulars with ~는 것

Present Tense

In Lesson 7 you learned all about Korean irregulars. In that Lesson, I wrote:

As with all languages, there are some irregular conjugations that you need to know. The irregulars apply at times when you add ~아/어/여 (or another vowel/consonant) to a verb/adjective stem (aside from conjugating, you have yet to learn other times when you must add a vowel to a word. You will learn about these later).

Irregulars can act differently depending on what vowel/consonant you are adding to them. Up to now, you have learned a lot about adding ~아/어 to verbs/adjectives and how irregulars change as a result of this addition. For example:

걷다 + 어/아 = 걸어
부르다 + 어/아 = 불러

However, adding ~는 것 to the stem of 걷다 or 부르다 does not change them.

The only irregular that comes into play when adding ~는 것 in the present tense is the ㄹ irregular.

The ㄹ irregular from Lesson 7 stated:

If the final letter of a stem is ㄹ AND you add ~ㄴ/~ㅂ to that stem, the ㄹ is removed and the ㄴ /ㅂ get added on directly to the stem. However, if you are adding ‘는’ or something starting with ㅅ to the stem – the ㄹ is removed and ~는/~ㅅ is added directly after the stem.

Here is a table showing how ~는 것 should be added to the stem of a verb from each respective irregular. Notice that the ㄹ irregular is the only case where the stem changes as a result of ~는 것.

Present Tense Addition of ~는 것
Irregular	Word	Application
ㅅ	짓다	짓는 것
ㄷ	걷다	걷는 것
ㅂ	돕다	돕는 것
ㅡ	잠그다	잠그는 것
르	부르다	부르는 것
ㄹ	열다	여는 것

Here are some example sentences:
저는 친구가 문을 여는 것을 봤어요 = I saw my friend opening the door
마음에 드는 부분이 있나요? = Do you have a part/section that you like?
저는 아는 것만 하고 싶어요 = I only want to do things that I know
옆에 사는 이웃사람이 너무 시끄러워요 = The neighbor who lives next to me is too loud
우리가 사는 지역이 조금 위험해요 = The area we live in is a little bit dangerous
농장에서 사는 게 싫어요 = I don’t like living on a farm
옆 집에서 사는 사람과 친해지고 있어요 = I am getting close to the person who lives next door

Past and Future Tense

Four irregulars come into play when adding ~ㄴ/은 것 and ~ㄹ/을 것:

ㅅ irregular
If a word stem ends in ㅅ, the ㅅ gets removed when adding a vowel.

ㄷ irregular
If a word stem ends in ㄷ, the ㄷ gets changed to ㄹ when adding a vowel.

ㅂ irregular
If a word stem ends in ㅂ, the ㅂ gets changed to 우 when adding a vowel.

ㄹ irregular
When adding ~ㄴ/은 or ~ㄹ/을 to the stem of a verb or adjective where the stem ends in ㄹ, ~ㄴ or ~ㄹ replaces the ㄹin the stem.

The first two follow essentially the same rule. In each case, the stem of the word originally ends with a consonant. For example:

짓다
걷다

Therefore, when we have to decide if we add ~ㄴ or ~은, we much choose ~은:

짓은
걷은

However, each of the respective rules indicates that the placement of a vowel immediately following the stem causes it to change. The above should be changed to:

지은
걸은

When adding ~ㄴ/은 to a verb that ends in ㅂ, the same rule applies as if you were adding it to an adjective. For example:

쉽다 + ~ㄴ/은 = 쉬운
돕다 + ~ㄴ/은 = 도운
Remember that the ㅂ in 돕다 changes to 오 only when ~아/어 (or one of its derivatives) is added to it. When any other vowel is added, ㅂ changes to 우.

When adding ~ㄴ/은 to a verb that ends in ㄹ, the same rule applies as if you were adding it to an adjective. For example:

길다 + ~ㄴ/은 = 긴
열다 + ~ㄴ/은 = 연

Here is a table showing how ~ㄴ/은 것 should be added to the stem of a verb from each respective irregular. Notice that this applies to the ㅅ, ㄷ, ㅂ and ㄹ irregulars:

Past Tense Addition of ~ㄴ/은 것
Irregular	Verb	Application
ㅅ	짓다	지은 것
ㄷ	걷다	걸은 것
ㅂ	돕다	도운 것
ㅡ	잠그다	잠근 것
르	부르다	부른 것
ㄹ	열다	연 것

The exact same thing is done for each respective future tense conjugation but with, ~ㄴ/은 replaced with ~ㄹ/을.

Here is a table showing how ~ㄹ/을 것 should be added to the stem of a verb from each respective irregular. Notice that this applies to the ㅅ, ㄷ, ㅂ and ㄹ irregulars and is exactly the same as the table above except for that ~ㄹ/을 is used instead of ~ㄴ/은:

Future Tense Addition of ~ㄹ/을 것
Irregular	Word	Application
ㅅ	짓다	지을 것
ㄷ	걷다	걸을 것
ㅂ	돕다	도울 것
ㅡ	잠그다	잠글 것
르	부르다	부를 것
ㄹ	열다	열 것

Here are some example sentences:

ㅅ irregular:
그 집을 지은 사람은 누구예요? = Who is the person that built that house?
저는 집을 지을 거예요 = I will build a house
Remember that the future tense conjugation of ~ㄹ/을 것이다 is actually just the future ~는 것.

ㄷ irregular:
그 사람은 서울에서 부산까지 걸은 첫 번째 사람이었다 = That person was the first person who walked from Seoul to Busan

ㅂ irregular
제가 도울 게 있나요? = Is there something I can help you with?
것이 is often contracted to 게 in speech.

ㄹ irregular:
그는 문을 열 사람이에요 = He is the person who will open the doors
저는 내일 시장에서 사과를 팔 거예요 = I will sell apples at the market tomorrow
그 광고를 만든 사람이 진짜 잘 만들었어요 = The person who made this advertisement did a really good job

My Favorite Thing: 가장 좋아하는 것

Saying “My favorite…” is one of the first things that people want to learn whenever learning a new language. In Korean, the grammar within this sentence is a little bit difficult (you only just learned it), so that is why you are just learning about it now.

There is no word in Korean for “favorite.” Instead, they use a combination of 좋아하다 (to like) and “제일/가장” (which you learned in Lesson 19). You have known how to use 제일/가장 with 좋아하다 for a long time now. Here are some simple sentences:

저는 우리 학교를 좋아해요 = I like our school
저는 우리 학교를 가장 좋아해요 = I like our school most

But you haven’t yet learned how to specifically say “My favorite ____ is…”

Let’s look at adjectives first. These should all be easy to you:

가장 큰 것 = the biggest thing
가장 작은 것 = the smallest thing
가장 어려운 것 = the most difficult thing

However, in those sentences, only adjectives are describing the noun. Now that you have learned how to describe nouns with verbs, you can now say:

내가 가장 좋아하는 것 = the thing that I like most (which is also – my favorite thing)

Notice that it is not “나의 가장 좋아하는 것.” Really, you are not saying “my favorite thing” – you are saying “the thing that I like most.” So even though in English we say “my,” in Korean you shouldn’t use 나의/저의 in place of 내가/제가 in these sentences.

You could take 가장 out to simply mean “the thing that I like”

내가 좋아하는 것 = the thing that I like

Or change the subject:

저의 친구가 가장 좋아하는 것 = The thing that my friend likes most

Now that you have created the noun of “the thing that I like most” you can place it in sentences:

제가 가장 좋아하는 것은 음식이에요 = My favorite thing is food
음식은 제가 가장 좋아하는 것이에요 = Food is my favorite thing

You can also replace “것” with any other noun:

제가 가장 좋아하는 음식은 김치예요 = My favorite food is kimchi
제가 가장 좋아하는 날은 금요일이에요 = My favorite day is Friday

As I said before, people often don’t realize the power of the ~는 것 principle. Now that you can describe nouns with verbs, you can say much more complicated (and natural) sentences. Look at the following example:

내가 가장 좋아하는 것은 영화야 = My favorite thing is movies

This sentence is natural, but you could more precisely describe what you like if you used ~는 것. For example, you could say that your favorite thing is “watching movies” or “making movies.” You learned in Lesson 26 how to make these nouns:

영화를 보는 것 = watching movies
영화를 만드는 것 = making movies

내가 가장 좋아하는 것은 영화를 보는 것이다 = My favorite thing is watching movies

The easiest mistake to make in that sentence is (incorrectly) not changing the latter part of the sentence to a noun. Many learners of Korean would just say the following:

내가 가장 좋아하는 것은 영화를 봐…

But that just translates to “My favorite thing watches movies.” You need to say “My favorite thing is watching movies” which requires you to change the second clause of the sentence to a noun and then add 이다 (is).

친구는 선생님이다 = My friend is a teacher
내가 가장 좋아하는 것은 영화를 보는 것이다= My favorite thing is watching movies

… heh, complicated. That’s why I waited until this lesson to teach it to you.

If you specifically want to say that your “favorite thing about X is Y” you can attach “~에 있어서” to a noun in the sentence. ~에 있어서 typically translates to “when it comes to…” in English. For example:

한국에 있어서 내가 가장 좋아하는 것은 한식이야 = My favorite thing about Korea is Korean food
(or, “When it comes to Korea, my favorite thing is Korean food”)

Not only can you do that, but now that you have learned about the ~는 것 principle, you can create more complex nouns throughout the sentence. For example, instead of saying the sentence above, you could say:

한국에서 사는 것에 있어서 내가 가장 좋아하는 것은 한식이야
= My favorite part about living in Korea is Korean food

한국에서 사는 것에 있어서 내가 가장 좋아하는 것은 한식을 매일 먹는 것이야
= My favorite part about living in Korea is eating Korean food every day

~는 With 싶다, 있다 and 없다

There are a few words that seem a lot like verbs but are actually adjectives.

In Lesson 17, you learned about 싶다 and how it can be used to say that one “wants” to do an action. For example:

저는 한국어를 배우고 싶어요 = I want to study Korean
저는 캐나다에 가고 싶어요 = I want to go to Canada

In that lesson, I told you that 싶다 is an adjective. As such, you must treat it as any other adjective when describing a noun. This means that if you want to describe nouns in the present tense using 싶다 you must add ~ㄴ/은:

예쁜 사람 = beautiful person
똑똑한 사람 = smart person
내가 만나고 싶은 사람 = the person (who/that) I want to meet

Below are many examples:

제가 가장 만나고 싶은 사람은 유재석이에요 = The person who I want to meet most is 유재석
배구를 하고 싶은 사람이 없어요 = There isn’t anybody who wants to play volleyball
이 수업을 등록하고 싶은 사람이 적어요 = There aren’t many people who want to register for this class
이 수업을 등록하고 싶은 사람이 충분하지 않아요 = There aren’t enough people who want to register for this class
먹고 싶은 것이 있어요? = Do you want something to eat? (literally – do you have something that you want to eat?)
체육수업시간에 농구를 하고 싶은 사람이 있어요? = Is there anybody who wants to play basketball during PE class?

~았/었던, which you learned in the previous lesson, can be added to 싶다 to carry the meaning that it creates. Essentially, the speaker can indicate that there was something he/she “wanted” to do in the past but currently doesn’t want to do anymore. For example:

그것은 제가 말하고 싶었던 것이었어요 = That was what I wanted to say

—————————————-

In Lesson 5, you learned how to use 있다 to indicate that one “has” something. I explained that this usage of 있다 is an adjective. For example:

나는 펜이 있다 = I have a pen
나는 차가 있다 = I have a car

When using adjectives to describe nouns in the present tense, you know that you should add ~ㄴ/은 to the stem of the adjective. For example:

예쁜 사람 = beautiful person
똑똑한 사람 = smart person

Grammatically it should be correct to do this with 있다 as well:

펜이 있은 사람

But this is incorrect. Even though this usage of 있다 is an adjective, you must treat it as a verb when describing an upcoming noun. For example, the following is correct:

펜이 있는 사람

The same rule applies to 없다. For example:

펜이 없는 사람

Actually, when speaking to a large group of people (for example, a teacher speaking to a group of students), it is common to ask “is there anybody who has (or doesn’t have) x?” by using this form without a predicating word. That is, it is common to say:

펜이 있는 사람!? = Does anybody have a pen? (Is there anybody who has a pen)?
펜이 없는 사람!? = Does anybody not have a pen? (Does everybody have a pen)?

This is why ~는 (instead of ~은) is added to words like “재미있다 or 재미없다” and “맛있다 or 맛없다” when describing an upcoming noun. The inclusion of “to have” or “to not have” with 있다 and 없다 requires them to describe upcoming nouns by using ~는 instead of ~은. For example:

저는 재미있는 영화를 봤어요 = I watched a fun/funny movie
저는 맛있는 밥을 먹었어요 = I ate delicious rice/food

관심 translates to “interest” and is commonly used to indicate that one “is interested” (or not interested) in something. To indicate that one has (or does not have) interest in a topic, 있다 or 없다 can be used. For example:

저는 과학에 관심이 없어요 = I am not interested in Science
저는 과학에 관심이 있어요 = I have interest in Science
(When saying that one is interested in something, it is also common to replace 있다 with 많다 to indicate that one is really interested in a topic)

We can attach ~는 to 있다 and 없다 here to describe somebody who is interested. For example:

과학에 관심이 있는 사람이 없었어요 = There was nobody who was/is interested in Science

When using 있다 to indicate that something is in the “state” of an action using ~아/어 있다 (introduced in Lesson 18) or to indicate that one is progressively doing something using ~고 있다 (also introduced in Lesson 18), 있다 is seen as a verb. Therefore, as a verb ~는 should be attached, but this isn’t seen as “strange” because in this form it is a verb anyways. It is only “strange” when adding ~는 to 있다/없다 when it is an adjective.

Below are many examples of ~는 것 being used with 있다:

수업에 집중하고 있는 학생이 없어요 = There aren’t any students who are concentrating on the class
주문을 취소하고 있는 사람이 많아요 = There are a lot of people who are cancelling their order
이렇게 앉아 있는 것이 불편해요 = It is uncomfortable to sit like this
열쇠를 가지고 있는 사람이 드디어 왔어요 = The person who has the key eventually came
정부가 그 병을 연구하고 있는 회사에게 돈을 줄 것이다 = The government will give money to the company researching that disease

~았/었던, which you learned in the previous lesson, can be added to 있다 to carry the meaning that it creates. Essentially, the speaker can indicate that something “was” in a place in the past, but is currently not in the place anymore. For example:

그곳에 있었던 사람들은 다 죽었다 = All the people that were there died
그 자리에 앉아 있었던 사람이 다른 데로 갔어요 = The person who had been sitting there went to another place

———————-

Only in a few grammatical principles is it appropriate to add ~은 to 있다 or 없다 to create 있은 or 없은. When a grammatical principle creates a meaning that specifies that an action was done in the past and we are looking at the time since that action, ~은 can be used. Two practical examples where you can see this is when adding ~ㄴ/은 후 to a word (Lesson 24) and adding ~ㄴ/은 지 to a word (Lesson 30)

Using 그 (and other smaller words) in ~는 것 sentences

One thing that I want to mention before this lesson ends is how to include words like 이/그/나의/저의 in 는 것 sentences. It’s hard to describe what I mean without examples (it’s not really a “concept” so I better show you some examples.)

In English, we could say:
The person who I met. That would be easy to translate to Korean: 내가 만난 사람

However, in English, we could also say something like “that person I met.” Almost the same meaning, but not exactly the same. If you were to translate that directly, it would come out like this:

그 내가 만난 사람

But in Korean, they always place those small words that can go before nouns (이/그/저/나의/저의) immediately before nouns. So, instead of saying:

그 내가 만난 사람 you should say:
내가 만난 그 사람

It’s hard to translate some of these sentences into Korean. Look at next example. You will probably be able to understand it completely, but translating it to English is very difficult:

선생님이 본 나의 영화

It would translate to something like “my movie that the teacher watched” but that sounds a little bit unnatural in English. When these sentences come up, you should realize that the noun being described (영화 – movie) is being described by two different things:

나의 영화 = my movie, and
선생님이 본 영화 = the movie that the teacher watched

Even though it is unnatural to say the full sentence in English (my movie that the teacher watched), you should be able to understand the meaning without needing to translate it directly.

Okay, I got it! Take me to the next lesson! Or,

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