Korean Lessons ᚛ Level 8 - Advanced Korean #1 (Lessons 211 to 240) ᚛ Lesson 218 - Reporting an experience in Korean [-던데(요)] [-(ㄴ/는)다던데(요)]
Reporting an experience in Korean [-던데(요)] [-(ㄴ/는)다던데(요)]
The ending -던데(요) is used to report what one has observed oneself: "I found that…", "I saw that…". It combines the retrospective suffix 더, which we saw in the adjectival form -던, and the ending -(으)ㄴ/는데(요), which states an observation and leaves the sentence open. Combined with indirect speech, it gives -(ㄴ/는)다고 하던데(요) and its contraction -(ㄴ/는)다던데(요), "I heard that", to report what one heard from someone else. You therefore need a good command of indirect speech before tackling the second part of this lesson.
"I found that" with -던데(요)
-던데(요) attaches to the stem of verbs, adjectives and 이다, without distinction:
[Stem]던데(요) / [Noun](이)던데(요)
The speaker reports a past experience they witnessed, most often an impression that struck them: it was good, it was hard, it was magnificent. Like -는데요, the ending leaves the sentence hanging: it expects a reaction, or it prepares what follows (a piece of advice, a question). It is very frequent in travel stories and recommendations. The tense is already contained in 더; we add 았/었 (-았/었던데요) only for an action completed before the moment observed.
처음에는 김치가 너무 빨갛고 매울 것 같아서 먹어 보는 것조차 두려웠는데 막상 먹어 보니 맛있던데요.
→ At first the kimchi looked so red and so spicy that I was afraid to even try it, but once I tasted it, I found it delicious.
이번에 개봉한 마블 영화 봤어요? 기대했던 것보다 훨씬 더 재미있던데요. 안 봤으면 꼭 보세요.
→ Have you seen the Marvel movie that just came out? I found it much better than I expected. If you haven't seen it, go.
새벽에 일찍 출발해서 힘들게 오른 산 정상에서 본 일출은 말로 표현할 수 없을 정도로 멋있던데요.
→ The sunrise from the summit, after leaving at dawn and a tough climb, was beautiful beyond words.
매일 새벽에 일어나서 운동을 하려고 했는데 아침에 일어나기가 제일 어렵던데요.
→ I meant to get up at dawn every day to exercise, but I found that the hardest part is getting up in the morning.
TV에서 맛집이라고 소개해서 엄청 기대하고 갔는데 막상 먹어 보니 별로던데요.
→ TV had presented it as a great restaurant, so I went with high hopes, but when I tasted the food, I found it so-so.
한국에서는 교통카드 하나로 지하철이나 버스를 환승할 수 있어서 교통비도 적게 들고 매우 편리하던데요.
→ In Korea, with a single transit card you can transfer between subway and bus, it costs little and I found it very convenient.
이번에 새로 생긴 카페는 3층으로 내부 공간도 넓고 인테리어가 특히 근사하던데요.
→ The café that just opened is on three floors, the interior is spacious and the decor especially is gorgeous, I found.
작년 여름휴가 때 처음으로 일본과 한국에 갔었는데 두 나라는 비슷한 듯 다르던데요.
→ Last summer I went to Japan and Korea for the first time, and I found the two countries different despite their apparent similarity.
In the casual style, -던데 is used on its own, often with a questioning intonation that calls for agreement: 생각보다 괜찮던데?, "it was better than expected, wasn't it?".
"I heard that" with -(ㄴ/는)다고 하던데(요)
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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.
