Korean Lessons ᚛ Level 7 - Upper-Intermediate Korean #2 (Lessons 181 to 210) ᚛ Lesson 182 - So… that in Korean [어찌나 -(으)ㄴ/는지] [-(으)ㄴ 나머지] [하도 -아/어서]

So… that in Korean [어찌나 -(으)ㄴ/는지] [-(으)ㄴ 나머지] [하도 -아/어서]

In this course: 어찌나 / 얼마나 / 은지 / 는지 / ㄴ지 / 나머지 / 하도

To say that something is "so… that", Korean has several constructions, each with its own flavor. In this chapter, we are going to look at the 어찌나 / 얼마나 … -(으)ㄴ/는지 structure, which stresses the degree of a situation before giving what followed, the -(으)ㄴ 나머지 structure, more literary, which presents an excessive cause and its consequence, and finally the adverb 하도, which reinforces a plain cause in -아/어서. All three translate as "so… that", "such… that" or "from doing so much".

So… that with 어찌나 / 얼마나 … -(으)ㄴ/는지

To stress that a situation reaches an extreme degree, and to say what came out of it, we use the following structure:
어찌나 / 얼마나 [Extreme cause: … Adjectival form -(으)ㄴ / -는 / -았/었는]지 [What follows]

You will recognize the -(으)ㄴ/는지 ending seen in the lesson on "to know / not to know": here, the indirect question "how much…" becomes an exclamation about the degree. Three points to remember:

• the first part is almost always introduced by 어찌나 or 얼마나, "how much", which give the sentence its force; 어찌나 is a little more expressive and more colloquial than 얼마나;
• an adjective takes -(으)ㄴ지, an action verb -는지, and in the past tense both take -았/었는지: this is the expected form when the fact is over (얼마나 많았는지, 얼마나 긴장했었는지);
• the second part is most often the consequence, but it can also be a simple observation or a reaction: the structure stresses the degree, not the causal link.

정훈이는 아기가 얼마나 사랑스러운지 계속 품에 안고 있었어요.
→ Jeonghun found the baby so adorable that he kept holding him in his arms the whole time.

요즘 들어 날씨가 얼마나 더운지 벌써 여름이 된 것 같아요.
→ It has been so hot lately that it already feels like summer.

매운 것을 잘 먹는다고는 했지만 생각보다 어찌나 잘 먹는지, 깜짝 놀랐어요.
→ He had said he could handle spicy food, but he ate it so much more easily than I expected that I was taken aback.

차려진 음식들이 얼마나 많았는지 상다리가 다 휘어지는 줄 알았다니까요.
→ There was so much food on the table that I thought its legs were going to buckle, I tell you.

남자친구가 바람 피우는 걸 봤을 때 얼마나 충격적이었는지 온몸이 다 부들부들 떨렸어요.
→ When I caught my boyfriend cheating on me, it was such a shock that my whole body was trembling.

In spoken language, the first part is sometimes enough on its own: 얼마나 예쁜지! "How pretty she is!". What follows is then left unsaid.

So… that with -(으)ㄴ 나머지

So… that with 하도 -아/어서

Exercises

Traveling to South Korea can be an unforgettable experience. But when you don’t speak Korean, everything gets more complicated: ordering in a restaurant or café becomes stressful, you can’t understand signs or directions, asking for help in case of trouble is nearly impossible, and most importantly, you miss out on the very essence of a successful trip to Korea: connecting with the locals.

Since English - Korean machine translators can’t always be trusted (the two languages work in completely different ways), it’s essential to prepare yourself in advance to fully enjoy your trip to South Korea!

Learn more

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