Public transportation is omnipresent in Korea and is faster than driving in most cases. This post gives you an overview of public transportation-related vocabulary that you may encounter and use in South Korea.

See more vocabulary and examples by reading the full post.

V-더니 is used to describe an observation of the speaker about people or things, or a change that came to be known through personal experience, and always precedes a statement resulting from that observation. A good example in English/Korean of how this pattern would be used: "my friend used to eat a lot of ice cream before더니 these days he even hates the sight of ice cream." V-더니 can therefore only be used in the middle of a sentence and can never end a sentence.

The clause before V-더니 can only be in the second or third person, so this pattern is therefore not appropriate to describe things the speaker has done. It is used to describe what the speaker has noticed about the external environment.

Examples

한자 (pronounced [한짜]) are the Chinese characters behind many Korean words used in modern Korean. Being aware of them helps with guessing word meanings and retention of new vocabulary.

火 (화) as a character has two main English meanings, fire and anger, and is used in many words related to these concepts. When 火 is used by itself as a word, it almost always means anger. 火 as a radical that appears in many other 한자, such as 炎 (염, flame) or 災 (재, disaster). Read the article for examples of words including 火 (화) fire, anger.

The retrospective modifier V/Adj-던 (e.g., 하던) and its past version V/Adj-았/었던 (했던) are both used to describe processes, states, or situations that happened/took place in the past. In a lot of cases, V/Adj-던 and V/Adj-았/었던 are very similar. The subtle differences manifest if the speaker chooses intentionally between one or the other.

V/Adj-던 describes a situation that was not finished in the past and interrupted before completion; or an action that was repeated continuously in the past or was done just once but may happen again.

However, when the modifier -던 has the past marker in front (V/Adj-았/었던), it means the past action/situation was already completed at the time of speaking.

In short, V/Adj-던 and V/Adj-았/었던 are both for past events but V/Adj-던 is more used for actions that were continued/sustained/repeated habitually or a past action that was in progress but was interrupted (not finished) at the time of speaking, whereas V/Adj-았/었던 is used for actions that have finished in the past and are totally disconnected from the present.

Each TOPIK II (한국어능력시험 중-고급) reading section has two questions (questions 3 and 4) that will ask you to replace the underlined text by a similar expression. While it may seem like a hard task, knowing the expressions that came out in previous tests will help a lot as they tend to come out regularly. Learning their equivalence should help you answer this question correctly. See examples.

Tip: Even if you know only two patterns out of the five in the question, don't panic! The sentences for questions 3 and 4 usually make sense, so if you can translate it to English and one of the answers seems to make them, pick that one. If not, eliminate the ones that you know cannot fit, and pick your best guess between the remaining options. 

Some patterns from previous tests:

V-기만 하면 = V-ㄹ/을 때마다

V-어/아 봐야 = V-ㄴ/은다고 해도

V-나 보다 = V-는 모양이다 / V-ㄹ/을 모양이다 = V-ㄹ/을 것만 같다

V-ㄴ/은 거나 마찬가지이다 = V-ㄴ/은 셈이다

V-는 바람에 = V-ㄴ/은 탓에

Wondered about the difference between V-려고 하다 and V-기로 하다 when they mean "to plan something"? Look no further!

This post focuses on the two constructs when they mean "to plan something."

• Simply put, V-(으)려고 했다 (했어요) means "to have planned something (but the plan did not go through)." The idea of "intention" is communicated with this pattern. 
• Simply put, V-기로 했다 (했어요) also means "to have planned something." The idea of "decision" is communicated with this pattern.

Both expressions are most often used with 하다 conjugated in the past tense, so V-(으)려고 했다 and V-기로 했다. However, V-(으)려고 했다 means the plan has not been completed, were canceled, abandoned, etc.; because of that it is often followed by -ㄴ/는데 or -지만 (V-(으)려고 했는데 / V-(으)려고 했지만).

V-기로 했다 is used for plans regardless of completion. V-기로 했다 does not have a negative connotation, whereas V-(으)려고 했다 does. However, plans already completed will usually be expressed with the past tense, V-았/었다. 

Examples:

Read the rest of the article for nuances and other examples!

The list in this post includes some of the key expressions to know when taking the written part of the TOPIK Exam and aiming for levels 5 and 6. 

The common pattern V-아/어 보다, meaning "to try to V," is used with a conjugated verb and is more frequent in conversations.