던! what does it mean???

[Henrike]

Almost always when i read a text in korean, i see this 던, attached to verb stems in the middle of phrases, but i've never found out what it really means...
can anyone explain me this? pleaasse! 도와주세요! ^^

[trutherous]

You ask a very difficult question. The meaning of '던' is easy to know and understand from familiarity with the language, but hard to explain. Therefore I will give the simplest explanation I can think of:

In most cases '던' serves the function of causing the preceding words to describe the next word or phrase in a past or past perfect tense 망했던 회사 - A ruined company, i.e. 망했다 (ruined) is caused to describe 회사 (company) by adding '던'. I hope that explanation helps.

I'm sure the following will be no help at all but for what it's worth here you go, perhaps the examples will shed some light on things:

http://krdic.naver.com/detail.nhn?docid=9506300

Hey - K101 teachers and friends -- a little help here?

[julialim]

Thank you "조지 님"


"-던" is retrospective marker which means things happened in the past on as regular basis.

내가 다녔던 학교이다. ( 다녔다-> 다녔던 )
공부 했던 책이야! (공부 했다-> 공부 했던)

[trutherous]

Julia you rock! Once again you bring light to a dark room.

"retrospective marker which means things happened in the past on as regular basis" - 우아! 줄리아 선생님은 대단하시네요. 나보다 영어를 잘 아시나봐요! 진짜 그런 것 같은데 과장하는 말이 아니에요.

[Henrike]

감사함니다, 대단한 줄리아 선생님! ^^ 그리고, 조지....학생?~ 하하 ^^
so, let me see if i understood... 음....
using 조지 's explanation, i would interpret Julia's examples as:
내가 다녔던 학교이다 = it's the school which i have attended to.
공부 했던 책이야! = it's the book which i (or whoever) have read.
맞아요? 안 맞아요?

but what about the 던 attached to present tense verb stems? i've seen it also, not so often as the case above though..

[julialim]

In the past
"내가 다녔던 학교이다": It's the school I attended to.
"공부 했던 책이야.": It's the book I studied.

A past habitual action
"내가 다니던 학교이다": It's the school I used to attend to.

Present continuous tense
"공부 하고 있던 책이야." It's the book studying.

[trutherous]

If you have an example of what you are referring to please give it. I have never seen '던' used in the present tense.

내가 하던 일이에요 - That's the work I did.
내가 했던 일이에요 - That's the work I did (before).

내가 가던 곳이에요 - That's the place I went.
내가 갔던 곳이에요 - That's the place I went (before).

In the next present tense examples the '던' (retrospective marker) doesn't work:

내가 하는 일이에요 - That's the work I do.
내가 하고 있는 일이에요 - That's the work I am doing (now).

내가 가는 곳이에요 - That's the place I go.
내가 가고 있는 곳이에요 - That's the place I am going (now).

I don't know if that helps you. Grammar is not my cup of tea. I am more into the aspect of speaking. I am of the mind that if you learn a language like a child the understanding of grammar will come naturally at a later time.

The way adults try to learn language: grammar, reading-writing, talking -- and adults learn at a slower pace that children.
The way children learn language: talking, reading-writing, grammar.

[manyakumi]

내가 하던 일이에요 - That's the work I used to do.
내가 했던 일이에요 - That's the work I did (before).

내가 가던 곳이에요 - That's the place I used to go.
내가 갔던 곳이에요 - That's the place I went (before).


These are more accurate I guess.

[trutherous]

I suppose tense is difficult in any language but it seems really confusing sometimes in Korean -- thanks for clearing that up for us.