79 words
0 minutes
-던: Retrospective Adnominal Modifier
2025-05-31
No Tags

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. It functions as an adnominal modifier, signifying a recalled or habitual past action that was incomplete or ongoing, often with a nuance of personal memory or experience.

Footnotes#

  1. Sentence from The Red Ribbon.

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