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.