Learn about a grammatical structure that means "to almost do something" or "to closely escape doing something"
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Mihyeon: 안녕하세요. 미현입니다. |
| Junsu: Hi everyone, I am Junsu. |
| Hyunwoo: 안녕하세요. 현우입니다. I Almost Got Killed. 미현씨, 평소에 말할 때 과장 많이 하세요? Exaggerate 많이 하세요? Do you often exaggerate about what happened to you often? |
| Mihyeon: 네. 저는 진짜 많이 하는 편이에요. |
| Hyunwoo: 어떨 때요? |
| Mihyeon: 아, 저는 배고플 때 배고파 죽겠어 이렇게 많이 얘기해요. |
| Hyunwoo: So you often say you are starving to death although you are not going to die any time soon even if you don’t eat? |
| Mihyeon: 지금 배고파 죽겠어요, 현우씨. |
| Hyunwoo: So you are exaggerating right now too right? |
| Mihyeon: 아니, 진짜예요 이건. 힘이 없어요. |
| Hyunwoo: Okay. 미현씨는 무시하고. Junsu, do you exaggerate too? |
| Junsu: Yeah of course. I am always talking dynamically about things. |
| Hyunwoo: Dynamically is a good word. So especially in what kind of situations? |
| Junsu: Well when I get home kind of late and I get a scolding from my parents, I say to my friends the next day. 나 죽을 뻔했어. |
| Hyunwoo: Well that’s not so good to hear. 그런데 that’s exactly what we are going to learn how to say in today’s lesson. Today’s lesson will come in very handy to the exaggerators out there. So the focus of this lesson is how to say, to almost do something or to closely escape doing something and honestly, it’s used extremely often in Korea every day, every minute with a little exaggeration. So 미현씨, 오늘의 대화는 어떤 내용이에요? |
| Mihyeon: 지훈이와 혜영이 아직도 식당에서 밥을 먹고 있어요. |
| Hyunwoo: What kind of language are they using? |
| Mihyeon: 네, 친구 사이니까 서로 반말을 쓰네요. 들어 볼까요? |
| Hyunwoo: 네. |
| DIALOGUE |
| (1)지훈: 아, 근데 너 왜 이렇게 늦게 왔어? 진짜 배고파서 죽을 뻔했어. |
| (2)혜영: 사실은... |
| (3)지훈: 사실은 뭐? 말해 봐. |
| (4)혜영: 사실은 나... 오는 길에 죽을 뻔했어. |
| (5)지훈: 뭐라고? 왜?! |
| (6)혜영: 교통 사고를 당할 뻔했어. |
| (7)지훈: 정말? 어디서? |
| (8)혜영: 집 앞에서... |
| (9)지훈: 뭐? 자동차가 신호를 안 지켰어? 누구야?! |
| (10)혜영: 아니. 사실은... 내가 신호를... 안 지켰어... |
| (11)지훈: 뭐? 에휴.... |
| Seol: 영어로 한 번 더. |
| (1)지훈: 아, 근데 너 왜 이렇게 늦게 왔어? 진짜 배고파서 죽을 뻔했어. |
| (1)Jihun: By the way, why were you so late? I really nearly starved to death. |
| (2)혜영: 사실은… |
| (2)Hyeyoung: Actually... |
| (3)지훈: 사실은 뭐? 말해 봐. |
| (3)Jihun: Actually what? Tell me. |
| (4)혜영: 사실은 나... 오는 길에 죽을 뻔했어. |
| (4)Hyeyoung: Actually I almost got killed on the way here. |
| (5)지훈: 뭐라고? 왜?! |
| (5)Jihun: What? Why?! |
| (6)혜영: 교통 사고를 당할 뻔했어. |
| (6)Hyeyoung: I almost got into a car accident. |
| (7)지훈: 정말? 어디서? |
| (7)Jihun: Really? Where? |
| (8)혜영: 집 앞에서… |
| (8)Hyeyoung: In front of my house.. |
| (9)지훈: 뭐? 자동차가 신호를 안 지켰어? 누구야?! |
| (9)Jihun: What? Did the car not obey the signal? Who was it? |
| (10)혜영: 아니. 사실은... 내가 신호를... 안 지켰어… |
| (10)Hyeyoung: No. Actually... I didn't obey it.. |
| (11)지훈: 뭐? 에휴.... |
| (11)Jihun: What? Gee... |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Hyunwoo: 아 네. 이번 대화에 나오는 사람들은 다 죽을 뻔하는 거 같아요. 이유가 여러가지인데. The people in the dialogue got almost killed, almost died for many reasons, for various reasons. |
| Junsu: Yeah they talk just like me. |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah so if you use this expression, it’s the very effective exaggeration. You will be sure to get people’s attention. |
| Mihyeon: 그런데 저는 이렇게 기다리게 하면 식당에서 정말 죽을 걸요? |
| Hyunwoo: Okay, okay I got it. I will make sure to keep that in mind when I meet you. |
| Junsu: Does that mean you are going to be late? |
| Hyunwoo: To make Mihyeon die, no I am going to be on time. |
| Mihyeon: 안 만나면 되겠네요. |
| Hyunwoo: Okay we will see. So before we talk about the grammar behind this 죽을 뻔하다 which means to almost get killed, let’s check out today’s vocabulary and go to the grammar to learn how to say to almost do something. |
| Hyunwoo: 첫 번째 단어는 뭐예요? |
| Mihyeon: 사실 |
| Hyunwoo: 사실 |
| Junsu: Fact, in fact |
| Mihyeon: 사실 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 사실 [natural native speed] |
| Hyunwoo: So the word 사실 itself means fact and if you want to say in fact, you can say 사실은 but you can also drop 은 and just say 사실 too right? |
| Junsu: Yeah like this. |
| Mihyeon: 사실... |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah 사실. You are not saying a fact. No you are saying in fact or to be honest. Okay what’s the next word? |
| Mihyeon: 죽다 |
| Hyunwoo: 죽다 |
| Junsu: To die |
| Mihyeon: 죽다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 죽다 [natural native speed] |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah 죽다 is the word to mean die and this was introduced in one of our previous lessons but we are covering this word once again to introduce to you a politer version of this word and an honorific version of this word. What is it 미현씨? |
| Mihyeon: 돌아가시다 |
| Junsu: 돌아가시다 |
| Hyunwoo: So if you break it down, 돌아가시다 can be broken down into two parts 돌다 and 가시다 which means 가다. So 돌다 is to turn around and 가다 is to go. So 돌아가다 is to go back, to return and 돌아가시다 is the honorific version of to go back 돌아가다. So where did they go back to? |
| Junsu: Well not to a specific place but we believe that people all came from somewhere. So we say 돌아가시다 to mean to die or pass away. |
| Hyunwoo: 네, 맞아요. Okay and 다음 단어는 we have another a little bit depressing word. What is it? |
| Mihyeon: 교통사고 |
| Hyunwoo: 교통사고 |
| Junsu: Car accident. |
| Mihyeon: 교통사고 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 교통사고 [natural native speed] |
| Hyunwoo: Which I hope won’t happen to any of our listeners including ourselves and how is it broken down? |
| Junsu: 교통 means traffic and 사고 means accident. So when you put the two together, it becomes to mean car accident or traffic accident. |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah and 교통사고 happens most often when you do 과속. |
| Junsu: Yeah if you speed, your chances of being in a car accident gets a lot higher. |
| Hyunwoo: So 미현씨 once again, how do you say speeding? |
| Mihyeon: 과속 |
| Hyunwoo: 과속 |
| Mihyeon: 과속의 과는 많이, 속은 속도라는 뜻이에요. |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah it’s over speed. So speeding, so going too fast is 과속. Okay. 그 다음 단어는 뭐예요? |
| Mihyeon: 지키다 |
| Hyunwoo: 지키다 |
| Junsu: To protect, to abide by. |
| Mihyeon: 지키다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] 지키다 [natural native speed] |
| Hyunwoo: I am not sure but I think the first time I heard this word was when I was about 5 or 6 when my parents told me 집 지키고 있어 but when they left me home alone for the first time. |
| Junsu: Yeah actually I got that too from my parents but 집 지키다 doesn’t mean to protect the house or anything. It just means stay at home and make sure that all the belongings in the house are safe. |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah make sure that they don’t go anywhere and keep the door locked and don’t let any strangers in. Yeah it just means stay home. |
| Mihyeon: 이 말은요 강아지한테도 할 수 있어요. 미미야, 집 지키고 있어. |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah 미미, 집 지켜. 어딜 따라와. Don’t follow me outside. 집 지켜. but this is not the most commonly used usage of the word 지키다. 미현씨, 지키다는 어떨 때 가장 많이 쓰이죠? |
| Mihyeon: 약속을 지키다 |
| Junsu: To keep a promise |
| Mihyeon: 비밀을 지키다 |
| Junsu: To keep a secret |
| Mihyeon: 규칙을 지키다 |
| Junsu: To follow the rules |
| Hyunwoo: And lastly, if we’ve watched any Korean drama at all, I am sure you’ve heard one or two lines by the 남자 주인공, the main hero of the drama saying 내가 지켜 줄게. I will protect you. |
| Junsu: Have you ever said this to anyone? |
| Hyunwoo: I hope I will. Okay so we have to keep the promise with your listeners. 약속을 지켜야 해요. So let’s go to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Hyunwoo: 오늘의 grammar point는 뭐예요, 미현씨? |
| Mihyeon: 을 뻔하다 |
| Hyunwoo: And what does that mean? |
| Junsu: To almost do something or closely escape doing something. |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah and how is it constructed? |
| Junsu: You take the verb stem and add ㄹ or 을 뻔하다. |
| Hyunwoo: And in today’s dialogue, both Jihun and Hyeyoung they were using this grammar structure with the verb 죽다. They almost died, they almost got killed from waiting for too long and being too hungry and from almost being in a car accident. So what kind of examples come to your mind when you see something, something 을 뻔하다. What would be the most common expressions that you might have to say using this grammar point? |
| Junsu: 늦잠 자서 학교에 늦을 뻔했어. |
| Hyunwoo: You got up late and you were almost late to school but you weren’t right? |
| Mihyeon: 어제 술을 너무 많이 먹어서 토할 뻔했어요. |
| Junsu: Oh I think this is true. She said, I drank too much last night and almost threw up. |
| Hyunwoo: So why did you say it’s true? |
| Junsu: Well she is tired and well, everything just leads to it. |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah, kind of yeah. 미현씨, 괜찮아요? |
| Mihyeon: 오늘 토할 거예요. |
| Hyunwoo: Okay, could you give our listeners that word? |
| Mihyeon: 토하다 |
| Hyunwoo: 토하다 means “to throw up.” |
| Junsu: Yeah, so this word will be useful to those listeners who enjoy the night life out there. |
Outro |
| Hyunwoo: Yeah, like me. |
| Junsu: Bye everyone. |
| Mihyeon: 여러분, 안녕히 계세요. |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide