Korean Lessons ᚛ Level 5 - Intermediate Korean #2 (Lessons 121 to 150) ᚛ Lesson 149 - To have thought that in Korean [-(으)ㄴ/는/(으)ㄹ 줄 알았다]

To have thought that in Korean [-(으)ㄴ/는/(으)ㄹ 줄 알았다]

In this course: 줄 알았다 / 줄 알았어 / 줄 알았어요 / 줄 몰랐다 / 줄 몰랐어 / 줄 몰랐어요

To have thought that

In the lesson on to know in Korean, we saw that the -(으)ㄹ 줄 알다 structure allows us to indicate the fact that we know or do not know how to do something.

In this lesson, we are going to see a similar structure, which nevertheless has a totally different meaning. This structure is the following:
[Adjectival form] 줄 알았다

Reminder: the adjectival form

Note that the verb 알다 (= to know) is always in the past tense in this structure.

The -(으)ㄴ/는/(으)ㄹ 줄 알았다 structure allows us to indicate the fact that we thought a situation was a certain way, but that in fact, it is different.

그가 먹는 줄 알았어.
→ I thought he was eating. (but in fact, he is not eating)

You will notice that 먹다 uses the present adjectival form, even though we translate it in the past tense in English because of the sequence of tenses. In Korean, to know whether we should use the present, past or future adjectival form, we actually need to ask ourselves the question "at that moment, what was I thinking?"

그가 먹는 줄 알았어. (present adjectival form)
→ At that moment, I was thinking: "he is eating".
→ I thought he was eating.

그가 먹은 줄 알았어. (past adjectival form)
→ At that moment, I was thinking: "he has eaten".
→ I thought he had eaten.

그가 먹을 줄 알았어. (future adjectival form)
→ At that moment, I was thinking: "he will eat".
→ I thought he would eat.

오늘 저녁에 집에서 먹어요? 외식하는 줄 알았어요.
→ Are we eating at home tonight? I thought we were eating out.

집에 있어? 여행에 간 줄 알았는데…
→ You’re at home? But I thought you had gone on a trip...

민준이는 항상 늦어. 오늘도 지각할 줄 알았어.
→ Minjun is always late. I thought he would be late today too.

식사 아직도 안 했어요? 벌써 드신 줄 알았어요…
→ You still haven’t eaten? I thought you had already eaten.

두 분이 닮아서 형제인 줄 알았어요.
→ Since the two of you look alike, I thought you were brothers.

To not have thought that

Summary table of structure