315 words
2 minutes
-던: Retrospective Adnominal Modifier
2025-05-31
2025-09-12
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Example Sentences#

  1. 원하던 세상은 없었다고1
    The world I wanted never existed.

    • 원하다 means ‘to want’ or ‘to wish’.
    • -던 is derived from -더-, a retrospective suffix conveying past personal experience or observation, combined with the adnominal modifier -ㄴ, which makes the preceding statement function as an adnominal phrase describing the following noun. It marks recalled past actions or states that were incomplete, ongoing, or habitual, often with a nuance of continuity or connection to the present context.
  2. 그것은 사실 지붕 위에 있던 도둑이었습니다.2
    Actually, it was a thief who had been on the roof.

    • 있다 means ‘to exist’ or ‘to be’.
    • -던 is derived from -더-, a retrospective suffix conveying past personal experience or observation, combined with the adnominal modifier -ㄴ, which makes the preceding statement function as an adnominal phrase describing the following noun. It marks recalled past actions or states that were incomplete, ongoing, or habitual, often with a nuance of continuity or connection to the present context. Here, it reflects the narrator’s retrospective viewpoint.
  3. 호랑이는 등에 있던 것이 사라진 것을 느끼고 크게 안심했습니다.2
    The tiger, feeling the thing on its back disappear, was greatly relieved.

    • 있다 means ‘to exist’ or ‘to be’.
    • -던 is derived from -더-, a retrospective suffix conveying past personal experience or observation, combined with the adnominal modifier -ㄴ, which makes the preceding statement function as an adnominal phrase describing the following noun. It marks recalled past actions or states that were incomplete, ongoing, or habitual, often with a nuance of continuity or connection to the present context. Here, it reflects the narrator’s retrospective viewpoint.

Footnotes#

  1. Sentence from The Red Ribbon.

  2. Sentence from The Tiger And The Dried Persimmon. 2

-던: Retrospective Adnominal Modifier
https://koreanstorylab.com/posts/grammar/-던-retrospective-adnominal-modifier/
Author
Korean Story Lab
Published at
2025-05-31
License
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0