Lesson 10. How to say “about a noun” (-에 대한, -에 대해서)

When expressing what something is about, the verb 대하다 can be used. This can either be constructed into its adjective form (대한) to describe a noun or into its adverb form (대해서) to describe a verb.

1. Adjective form : 대한

When used to describe other nouns, the adjective form of 대하다 can be used as follows:

NOUN에 대한 noun

noun about NOUN

This follows normal verb to adjective modification rules, adding either ㄴ/은 to the verb stem (here ㄴ because of the lack of 받침) to create its adjective form.

Examples:

한국어 공부에 대한 정보 –  Information about studying Korean

저희 가족에 대한 얘기 – Talk/story about my family

그 연예인에 대한 악성 루머 – A malicious rumour about that celebrity

사랑에 대한 노래가 너무 좋아! – I love songs about love!

우리 남편에 대한 비밀을 아무한테도 말하지 마세요 – Don’t tell anyone this secret about my husband

이 영화가 전쟁에 대한 영화인가요? – Is this film about the war?

2. Adverb form : 대해(서)

When used as adverbs to describe verbs, the construction formed is:

NOUN 에 대해(서) + VERB

Since 대해(서) is an adverb, it has to be followed by a verb.

The -서 is removable with no change to the meaning. However, since -서 is often omitted in written forms, 대해 is somewhat more formal than 대해서. Because of this, 대해서 is more commonly used in spoken language.

Examples:

지수 씨에 대해서 말해주세요 – Please tell me about yourself (Jisoo).

그 사건/이슈에 대해서 어떻게 생각하세요? – What (/how) do you think about that incident/issue?

평생 제일 행복했던 순간에 대해서 말해보자 – Let’s talk about our happiest moment in my life.

기후변화에 대해 들어본 적이 있어요? – Have you heard about climate change before?

그 나라에 대해서 아는 게 하나도 없어요. – I know nothing about that country.

그 나라의 역사에 대해서 배우고 싶어요. – I want to learn about that country’s history.