Korean Lessons ᚛ Level 6 - Upper-Intermediate Korean #1 (Lessons 151 to 180) ᚛ Lesson 176 - Almost, nearly in Korean [거의] [-(으)ㄹ 뻔했다]

Almost, nearly in Korean [거의] [-(으)ㄹ 뻔했다]

In this course: 거의 / ㄹ 뻔했다 / 을 뻔했다 / ㄹ 뻔했어 / 을 뻔했어 / ㄹ 뻔했어요 / 을 뻔했어요 / ㄹ 뻔했습니다 / 을 뻔했습니다

In Korean, if we want to express the idea that an action is or was almost carried out, there are several expressions, each with its own nuance. In this lesson, we are going to study:

• the adverb 거의
• the -(으)ㄹ 뻔했다 structure

If you are wondering how to use 는 둥 마는 둥 하다 and -(으)ㄹ락 말락 하다 to say "almost" in Korean, these two structures will be studied in a later lesson.

Almost with 거의

거의 with verbs

The adverb "almost" is translated in Korean by the little word 거의. With verbs, 거의 allows us to indicate that the action is almost carried out or nearly happened.

저는 독일어는 거의 못 해요.
→ I can barely speak any German. (Lit: I almost cannot speak German.)

어제 마무리 못한 업무가 이제 거의 마무리 돼 갑니다.
→ The work I could not finish yesterday is almost finished now.

유행병으로 인해서 여행지에 관광객들이 거의 사라졌어요.
→ Because of the pandemic, tourists have almost disappeared from travel destinations.

민지랑 민지 언니는 거의 똑같이 생겼어.
→ Minji and her older sister look almost exactly alike.

우리 회사에는 남성이 거의 없어서 이번에는 남성으로 채용하는 것이 어떻겠습니까?
→ There are almost no men in our company, so how about hiring a man this time?

거의 with nouns and adverbs

Almost did with -(으)ㄹ 뻔했다

One way to express the fact that an action almost happened is to use the following structure:
[Modifier -(으)ㄹ] 뻔했다

Reminder: the modifier -(으)ㄹ

The -(으)ㄹ 뻔했다 structure is used when an action almost happened but in the end did not. In English, the -(으)ㄹ 뻔했다 structure is generally translated by "almost" or "nearly" with a verb in the past tense.

• 넘어지다 (= to fall) → 넘어질 뻔했다 (= to have almost fallen / to have nearly fallen)
• 잠들다 (= to fall asleep) → 잠들 뻔했다 (= to have almost fallen asleep / to have nearly fallen asleep)
• 지다 (= to lose) →  질 뻔했다 (= to have almost lost / to have nearly lost)

Note that the -(으)ㄹ 뻔했다 structure cannot be used in a negative sentence.

이번에 우리 팀은 경기에서 질 뻔했어요.
→ This time, our team almost lost the match.

BTS를 눈앞에서 보자 너무 놀라서 기절할 뻔했어.
→ As soon as I saw BTS right in front of me, I was so shocked that I almost fainted.

지연이가 차에 치일 뻔해서 너무 깜짝 놀랐어.
→ Jiyeon almost got hit by a car, so I got a really big scare.

갑자기 모르는 사람이 밀어서 넘어질 뻔했는데 다행히 친구가 붙잡아 줬어.
→ A stranger suddenly pushed me and I almost fell, but luckily my friend caught me.

전쟁터에서 총에 맞아서 죽을 뻔했지만 그 남자의 도움으로 간신히 그곳에서 살아 나올 수 있었어요.
→ I was shot on the battlefield and almost died, but thanks to that man’s help, I barely managed to get out of there alive.

Exercises

Podcasts in Korean specially designed for beginners, to learn Korean by really listening to it from the very beginning.

You’re starting to learn Korean (or you already know the basics), but as soon as you listen to spoken Korean, everything suddenly feels too fast?
The words blend together, the pronunciation escapes you, and you feel like “real Korean” is very different from what you learned in textbooks.

That’s normal!
Listening comprehension is the most difficult part for all beginners.

Learn more

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