589 words
3 minutes

나다: Vocabulary #45

2026-03-19
2026-05-31

Example Sentences#

  1. 자전거 타고 나서 치맥 먹자.1
    Let’s have some after biking.
    • 나다 means ‘to occur’ and can function as an auxiliary verb to indicate that the preceding action has been completed.
    • -아서 is a connective ending that indicates a sequence of related events, cause and effect, or ways or means.
    • Together, -고 나서 forms a construction meaning ‘after doing’ or ‘upon completion of the preceding action’.
  2. 걷고 나면 보이는 길은 왜일까2
    Why do the roads only reveal themselves after I walk?
    • 나다 means ‘to occur’ and can function as an auxiliary verb to indicate that the preceding action has been completed.
    • 면 is a conditional ending meaning ‘if’ or ‘when’.
    • Together, -고 나면 forms a construction meaning ‘if/once the preceding action is completed’.
  3. “개는 화가 나면 으르렁거리고, 기쁘면 꼬리를 흔들어.3
    “When a dog gets angry, it growls, and when it’s happy, it wags its tail.
    • 나다 means ‘to emerge’, ‘to appear’, or ‘to occur’.
    • 화가 나다 is an idiomatic expression meaning ‘to become angry’.
    • 면 is a conditional ending meaning ‘if’ or ‘when’.
  4. 포도를 다 먹고 난 후, 맹인은 포도 줄기를 손에 쥐고 고개를 흔들며 말했다.4
    After finishing the grapes, the blind man held the grape stem in his hand, shook his head, and said:
    • 나다 means ‘to occur’ and can function as an auxiliary verb to indicate that the preceding action has been completed.
    • -ㄴ is a past tense modifier that turns the preceding statement into a phrase describing the following noun.
  5. 끝난 시간을 넘어 시작되는 순간들5
    Moments arising beyond the end of time
    • 끝나다 means ‘to end’ or ‘to finish’ in an intransitive sense. It is formed from 끝 (end) and 나다 (to emerge, appear, or occur), indicating that the action happens by itself without an external agent.
    • -ㄴ is a past tense modifier that turns the preceding statement into a phrase describing the following noun.
  6. 닫힌 문 앞에서 화가 났어6
    Standing before closed doors, I felt anger.
    • 나다 means ‘to emerge’, ‘to appear’, or ‘to occur’.
    • 화가 나다 is an idiomatic expression meaning ‘to become angry’.
    • 았 is a past tense marker.
    • 어 is a casual ending used in informal speech.
  7. 그런데 나는 기쁠 때 으르렁거리고, 화가 나면 꼬리를 흔들어.3
    But I growl when I’m happy, and I wag my tail when I’m angry.
    • 나다 means ‘to emerge’, ‘to appear’, or ‘to occur’.
    • 화가 나다 is an idiomatic expression meaning ‘to become angry’.
    • 면 is a conditional ending meaning ‘if’ or ‘when’.

Footnotes#

  1. Sentence from A Fun Weekend Ahead. ↩

  2. Sentence from A New Beginning. ↩

  3. Sentence from Alice And The Cheshire Cat Story. ↩ ↩2

  4. Sentence from Lazaro And The Blind Man. ↩

  5. Sentence from Shattered Pieces Song. ↩

  6. Sentence from The Red Ribbon. ↩

나다: Vocabulary #45
https://koreanstorylab.com/posts/vocabulary/나다/
Author
Korean Story Lab
Published at
2026-03-19
License
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0