Lesson 87: To decide to do (~기로 하다)

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Vocabulary

Nouns:
하품 = yawn

Examples:
애기가 이제 하품을 많이 해서 집에 곧 가기로 했어요
= I decided to go home soon because the baby is yawning a lot now

어제 밤에 늦게 잠이 들어서 학교에서 수업을 듣는 내내 하품을 했어요
= I fell asleep late last night, so the entire time I was in class at school I was yawning

부품 = mechanical part

Common Usages:
부품 수리 = to fix a part

Examples:
그 부품이 고장이 나서 수리비가 얼마인지 알아보러 가기로 했어요
= That part is broken, so I decided to go to the store tomorrow to see how much the repair cost will be

수입차를 사게 되면 차가 고장 났을 때 부품이 없으면 오랫동안 기다려야 해요
= If you end up buying an import car when it breaks, there won’t be any parts so you will have to wait for a while

음악회 = concert

Common Usages:
신년음악회 = new year’s concert

Examples:
내일 친구랑 음악회에 같이 가기로 했어요
= I decided to go to the concert with my friend tomorrow

매년 새해가 시작되면 저는 제가 좋아하는 합창단의 신년음악회를 꼭 보러 가요
= Every year when the year starts, I always must go to my favorite choir concert

보관소 = storage center

Common Usages:
물품 보관소 = locker
분실물 보관소 = lost and found

Examples:
핸드폰을 아직 못 찾아서 내일 학교 분실물 보관소에 가기로 했어요
= I still haven’t been able to find my phone, so tomorrow I am going to go to the school’s lost-item storage place (the lost-and-found)

각 지하철 역에 물품 보관소가 있어서 짐이 많으면 보관소에 맡기면 돼요
= Every train station has lockers so if you have a lot of baggage, you can just leave them there

분실물 = a lost item

Common Usages:
분실물 보관소 = lost and found

지하철에서 분실물을 발견하면 가까운 분실물 보관소에 갖다 주면 돼요

수리비 = repair cost

Examples:
차 수리비가 생각보다 많이 나와서 차를 사는 게 더 나을 뻔 했어요
= The repair cost for the car is more than I thought, it was almost worth just buying a new car

그 부품이 고장이 나서 수리비가 얼마인지 알아보러 가기로 했어요
= That part is broken, so I decided to go to the store tomorrow to see how much the repair cost will be

짝사랑 = one sided love

Examples:
어릴 적 짝사랑했던 친구를 우연히 길에서 마주쳐서 반가웠어요
= I randomly/fatefully bumped into my childhood friend that I had a crush on, and it was good to see her

저는 그 여자를 아주 좋아하지만 짝사랑이라서 얘기를 안 하기로 했어요
= I really like that girl, but it is a one-sided love (she doesn’t like me), so I decided to not talk with her

중소기업 = small and medium enterprises

Common Usages:
중소기업 보호 = protection for small and medium enterprises

Examples:
정부가 그 규칙을 땅을 매매하는 중소기업에 적용하기로 했어요
= The government decided to apply that rule to small and medium businesses that buy and sell land

대기업 뿐만 아니라 다양한 중소기업이 잘 돼야 경제가 더 잘 돌아가요
= Not just big companies, but small and medium businesses/enterprises need to do well in order for the economy to recover well

Verbs:
대다 = to press against

Common Usages:
기대다 = to lean on
손을 대다 = to put one’s hand on, to start a business

Examples:
동생이 욕심이 많아서 제가 동생 물건에 손을 대기만 해도 화를 내요
= My younger brother is so greedy that even if I put my hand on his stuff he gets mad

우리 애기는 과일을 너무 싫어해서 가끔 혀만 대보라고 해도 싫어해요
= Our baby doesn’t like fruit, and sometimes I ask him to just put his tongue on the fruit and he doesn’t like it

알아듣다 = to understand what one hears

This word follows the ㄷ irregular.

Common Usages:
못 알아듣다 = to not be able to understand
알아들을 수 있게 = in order to be understood
찰떡같이 알아듣다 = to understand perfectly

Examples:
학생들이 알아들을 수 있도록 천천히 말했어요
= I spoke slowly so that the students could understand me

저는 한국에서 태어났지만 태어나고 바로 미국으로 이사해서 한국어를 알아들을 수 없어요. 그래서 한국어를 이제 배우기로 했어요.
= I was born in Korea but moved to America right after I was born, so I can’t understand Korean. Therefore, I decided to learn Korean now.

맡기다 = to entrust with somebody

Common Usages:
책임을 맡기다 = to give responsibility to someone
운명에 맡기다 = to leave things to fate/to let things happen as they should

Examples:
보안업체에 보안을 맡기면 매달 돈을 내야 해요
= If you want to hand over your security to a security company, you need to pay every month

제비뽑기를 해서 일을 맡기는 것 대신에 그냥 저한테 맡겼어도 돼요
= Instead of assigning that job by drawing straws, you could have just assigned it to me

해내다 = to finish a job or task

Examples:
시련에도 불구하고 저는 그 일을 해냈어요
= I finished that work despite the hardship/problems

이제 그 일을 다 해내서 한 달 동안 쉬기로 했어요
= Now that I have finished all of that work, I decided that I will rest for a month

대체로 참을성이 좋은 사람이 일을 포기하지 않고 끝까지 해내요
= Usually people who have good patience don’t give up on jobs and see/do them to the end

적용하다 = to apply rule, law, discount

The noun form of this word “적용” translates to “application”

Common Usages:
실생활에 적용하다 = to apply something to real life

Examples:
정부가 그 규칙을 땅을 매매하는 중소기업에 적용하기로 했어요
= The government decided to apply that rule to small and medium businesses that buy and sell land

책에서 배운 내용을 실생활에 잘 적용해서 건강한 삶을 살 거예요
= I’m going to live healthy by applying the stuff/content in this book to my real life

매매하다 = to buy and sell

The noun form of this word “매매” translates to “buying and selling”

Notes: “매” in Korean has two meanings depending on the Hanja character that is being used. 매 (買) and 매 (賣) mean “buy” and “sell” respectively. The word “賣買” (매매) in Hanja means “to buy and sell.”

At real estate agent offices in Korea, you will see posters advertising the various properties they have. You can find some for rent (월세), you can find some using the Korean down payment method (전세) or you can find some for sale (매매).

Common Usages:
주식을 매매하다 = to buy and sell stocks

Examples:
집을 매매하려고 동네에 있는 여러 부동산에 다녀왔어요
= We went around to a bunch of real estate agents in the neighborhood in order to sell our house

주식을 매매할 때 각 증권사마다 매매 수수료가 다르니 꼭 확인해 보세요
= When you buy and sell stocks, it is important that you check the fees of the stock broker because they are all different

신용하다 = to trust

The noun form of this word “신용” translates to “trust”

Common Usages:
신용카드 = credit card
신용을 잃다 = to lose one’s trust

Examples:
신용카드마다 혜택이 달라서 꼼꼼히 비교해서 만들어야 해요
= The benefits for each credit card are different so you need to meticulously compare them before signing up

반복된 거짓말로 신용을 잃은 그 남자는 결국 새로운 일을 구할 수 없었어요
= That man, who lost all of his trust by lying repeatedly, in the end couldn’t find a new job

임대하다 = to lease, to rent

The noun form of this word “임대” translates to “renting”

Common Usages:
장기임대 = long term lease/rental
단기임대 = short term lease/rental
상가임대 = Retail Space for Lease (most likely seen on a sign/advertisement)
임대사업 = rental business

Examples:
장기임대를 할수록 이곳의 임대료가 싸져요
= The longer you rent this place, the lower the rental fee is

우리 집에 안 쓰는 방이 있어서 그 방을 학생들에게 임대하기로 했어요
= There is a room in our house that we don’t use, so we decided to rent it out to students

Adjectives:
싱겁다 = for something to be tasteless, flat or dull

This word follows the ㅂ irregular.

Examples:
저는 건강을 위해 음식을 주로 싱겁게 먹어요
= For my health, I only eat mostly bland foods

어제 먹어 봤는데 너무 싱거워서 소금을 조금 넣기로 했어요
= I tried (eating) it yesterday, and it was too bland so I decided to put a bit of salt into it

정숙하다 = to be quiet, mature and virtuous

Notes: One of the lines in “Gangnam Style” is “정숙해 보이지만 놀 땐 노는 여자.” I will let you figure out what it means.

Examples:
옛날에는 여자들이 정숙해야 한다고 생각했어요
= A long time ago, women thought they had to be mature and virtuous

도서관에서는 모두가 정숙하고 이야기할 때는 소곤소곤 작은 목소리로 해야 돼요
= Everybody is quiet in the library, so if you are going to speak, you need to do so in a very soft voice

애매하다 = to be ambiguous

Examples:
저는 어제 학생들에게 설명했는데 내용이 조금 애매해서 다시 하기로 했어요
= I explained it to the students yesterday, but the content is a little ambiguous so I
decided to explain it again

그 친구와의 관계가 애매해서 오늘 우리의 관계에 대해 직접 물어볼 거예요
= The relationship with that friend is a bit ambiguous, so I’m going to ask her about it directly tomorrow

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Introduction

In this lesson, you will learn how to add ~기로 하다 to the end of a sentence or clause to indicate that one “decides to do” an action. The usage and translation are fairly straightforward, to the point that the construction can almost be thought of as an idiom. However, I do feel that this is a grammatical principle that deserves its own lesson. Let’s get started.

To decide to do: ~기로 하다

In Lesson 29, you learned how to add ~기 to words to change a verb or its entire phrase into a noun. For example, look at the following sentence:

내가 친구를 공원에서 만난다 (to meet a friend in a park),

We can change this phrase into a noun by attaching ~기. For example:

내가 친구를 공원에서 만나기…

Now that this is a noun, there are various things that we can do with it. One thing we can do is attach ~(으)로 to ~기 and finish the phrase with 하다. For example:

내가 친구를 공원에서 만나기로 한다

When ~기로 하다 is added to the end of a clause like this, the speaker indicates that he/she has “decided” to do that action. For example:

제가 친구를 공원에서 만나기로 했어요 = I decided to meet my friend in the park

The verb before ~기로 is always conjugated in the present tense, even though the sentence usually describes an action that was decided to be done in either the past or the future. For example:

우리가 내일 만나기로 했어요 = We decided to meet tomorrow
우리가 어제 만나기로 했어요 = We decided to meet yesterday

Also notice that the “하다” at the end of the clause is in the past tense, as this form typically describes an action that was decided to be done. In other words, the decision occurred in the past.

This is a straightforward principle that has a simple and accurate translation. All I can do to help you now is show you a ton of example sentences:

저는 선생님이 되기로 했어요
= I decided to become a teacher

내일 친구랑 음악회에 같이 가기로 했어요
= I decided to go to the concert with my friend tomorrow

지금부터 그 친구를 신용하지 않기로 했어요
= From now on I decided to not trust that friend

애기가 이제 하품을 많이 해서 집에 곧 가기로 했어요
= I decided to go home soon because the baby is yawning a lot now

이제 그 일을 다 해내서 한 달 동안 쉬기로 했어요
= Now that I have finished all of that work, I decided that I will rest for a month

우수상을 주는 역할을 교장선생님이 하시기로 했어요
= We decided that the principal will have/take/do the role of giving out the top award

정부가 그 규칙을 땅을 매매하는 중소기업에 적용하기로 했어요
= The government decided to apply that rule to small and medium businesses that buy and sell land

그 부품이 고장이 나서 수리비가 얼마인지 알아보러 가기로 했어요
= That part is broken, so I decided to go to the store tomorrow to see how much the repair cost will be

핸드폰을 아직 못 찾아서 내일 학교 분실물 보관소에 가기로 했어요
= I still haven’t been able to find my phone, so tomorrow I am going to go to the school’s lost-item storage place (the lost-and-found)

우리 집에 안 쓰는 방이 있어서 그 방을 학생들에게 임대하기로 했어요
= There is a room in our house that we don’t use, so we decided to rent it out to students

Notice in the sentence above that you can also apply this grammatical principle to a situation that one decides not to do.

You will also find times where the word “결정하다” (to decide) is substituted for “하다.” For example:

서울에 지하철로 가기로 결정했어요
= We decided that we would take the subway to Seoul

I find myself using ~는데 (Lesson 76 and 77) to give information or context as to why the action was decided. For example:

어제 먹어 봤는데 너무 싱거워서 소금을 조금 넣기로 했어요
= I tried (eating) it yesterday, and it was too bland so I decided to put a bit of salt into it

저는 어제 학생들에게 설명했는데 내용이 조금 애매해서 다시 하기로 했어요
= I explained it to the students yesterday, but the content is a little ambiguous so I decided to explain it again

우리가 원래 내일 만나기로 했는데 우리 둘 다 너무 바빠서 다음 주로 연기했어요
= We originally decided to meet tomorrow, but we delayed it to next week because we were both so busy

원래 떡볶이를 먹기로 했는데 친구 한 명이 매운 것을 못 먹어서 다른 것을 먹었어요
= We originally decided to eat 떡볶이, but we ate something different because one friend can’t eat spicy things

When an action placed before ~기로 하다 was originally supposed to happen but doesn’t, the construction is often translated to “supposed to do.” For example:

원래 떡볶이를 먹기로 했는데 친구 한 명이 매운 것을 못 먹어서 다른 것을 먹었어요
= We originally were supposed to eat 떡볶이, but we ate something different because one of my friends can’t eat spicy things

Pretty cool grammatical principle that will make your Korean sound really good!

That’s it for this Lesson!

Click here for a Workbook to go along with this lesson.
Click here for Korean Short Stories specifically tailored to learners at this level.

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