Korean Lessons ᚛ Level 5 - Intermediate Korean #2 (Lessons 121 to 150) ᚛ Lesson 126 - Expressing a situation in Korean [-는 데]

Expressing a situation in Korean [-는 데]

In this course: 데 / 는 데

The -는 데 structure

데 is a small Korean word that has multiple meanings, the most common of which is to designate a place. 데 can also designate a task, an action, a fact or a situation.

It is possible to combine the adjectival form of action verbs with the word 데 in the following manner:
[Action 1: … Present adjectival form] 데 [Action 2]

Be careful not to confuse this form with the -(으)ㄴ/는데 structure, in which there is no space before 데.

The -는 데 structure allows us to form different expressions:

• expressing a situation or a condition at a given moment
• expressing the duration of an action (see next lesson)
• expressing the money an action costs (see next lesson)

Describing a place

Expressing a fact, a situation

At the beginning of this lesson, we saw that 데 designates, in a general way, a fact, a task or an action. Combining the adjectival form with 데 therefore amounts to describing that fact.

비가 와서 이사하는 데 힘들었어요.
→ Since it was raining, moving house was tiring.

문제를 푸는 데 시간이 부족했어.
→ We didn’t have enough time to solve the problem.

참는 데에 한계가 있어.
→ There is a limit to how much I can put up with.

할 수 있는 데까지 해 봐. 아직 포기하기에는 너무 일러.
→ Try as far as you can. It’s still too early to give up.

홈페이지에 접속하는 데 문제가 있으면 전화하세요.
→ If you have a problem accessing the website, give me a call.

김치를 담그는 데 배추 세 포기를 썼어요.
→ I used three napa cabbages to make the kimchi.

식빵을 만드는 데 밀가루가 많이 들어요.
→ It takes a lot of flour to make sandwich bread.

Differences between -는 데 and -는 것

Summary table of structure

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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