Intermediate1>Lesson9. V/A-았/었던

V/A-았/었던 part starts from 52:12. Please check the time stamp.

Review Note of the previous part “V/A-던” : Click

Let’s move on to the next grammar phrase that has “던” in it, but this time with -았/었.

-았/었 is past conjugation of verbs, thereby indicating completion of an event or action.

Therefore, -았/었던 is used to recollect something that 1) was the case in the past and not anymore (past state of affairs), or 2) past event or actions that ended or was completed.

Let’s look at the example sentences below.

1) Past State of Affairs

어렸을 때 아주 작았던 지수가 지금은 이렇게 컸네요. Jisoo, who used to be small, has grown this much now.

운동을 좋아했던 동생이 다리를 다쳐서 지금은 그렇게 활동적이지 않아요. My brother, who used to like playing sports, hurt his legs and is no longer very active.

이 집은 제가 어렸을 때 살았던 집이에요. This is the house I lived when I was young.

오랫동안 K-pop 팬이었던 제 동생은 더 이상 K-pop을 듣지 않아요. My brother, who had been a long-time fan of K-pop, no longer listens to K-pop music.

Each sentence above indicates recollection of a past state of affairs that hasn’t continued to the present.

Here, you may have noticed that 작다(to be small), 좋아하다(to like), 살다(to live) and 이다(to be) in each sentence express a degree of continued state.

Therefore, it can be replaced with ‘-던’ without changing any meaning.

어렸을 때 아주 작았던 지수가 지금은 이렇게 컸네요. = 어렸을 때 아주 작던 지수가 지금은 이렇게 컸네요.

운동을 좋아했던 동생이 다리를 다쳐서 지금은 그렇게 활동적이지 않아요. = 운동을 좋아하던 동생이 다리를 다쳐서 지금은 그렇게 활동적이지 않아요.

이 집은 제가 어렸을 때 살았던 집이에요. = 이 집은 제가 어렸을 때 살던 집이에요.

오랫동안 K-pop 팬이었던 제 동생은 더 이상 K-pop을 듣지 않아요. = 오랫동안 Kpop 팬이던 제 동생은 더 이상 K-pop을 듣지 않아요.

2) Event/Action Completed in the Past

지난 번에 만났던 카페에서 또 만날까요? Shall we meet again at the coffee shop we met last time?

지수 씨가 어제 노래방에서 불렀던 노래 제목이 뭐예요? What’s the name of the song that Jisoo sang at Karaoke yesterday?

정현이 생일 파티에서 입었던 드레스 좀 빌려줄 수 있어? Can I borrow the dress you wore at Junghyun’s birthday party?

이건 어제 읽었던 책이라서 다른 책을 읽고 싶어요. This is the book I read(finished) yesterday, so I want to read another one.

어제 먹었던 음식을 또 먹기 싫어요. I don’t want to eat the same food (same type of food) I had yesterday. (vs. 먹던 음식 – left over food)

All five sentences above indicate that the action was already done(finished) in the past, and does not continue now.

Considering its nature that points to past events/actions, it can be replaced with the past modifier form “Verb-ㄴ/은” without changing any particular meaning.

지난 번에 만났던 카페에서 또 만날까요? = 지난 번에 만난 카페에서 또 만날까요?

지수 씨가 어제 노래방에서 불렀던 노래 제목이 뭐예요? = 지수 씨가 어제 노래방에서 부른 노래 제목이 뭐예요?

정현이 생일 파티에서 입었던 드레스 좀 빌려줄 수 있어? = 정현이 생일 파티에서 입은 드레스 좀 빌려줄 수 있어?

이건 어제 읽었던 책이라서 다른 책을 읽고 싶어요. = 이건 어제 읽은 책이라서 다른 책을 읽고 싶어요.

어제 먹었던 음식을 또 먹기 싫어요. = 어제 먹은 음식을 또 먹기 싫어요.

Q. Are -았/었던 and -ㄴ/은 always interchangeable, then?

Not always. Depending on what verb it is, Verb-ㄴ/은 doesn’t always determine whether the action is entirely over. 

For example,

지민이가 유학간 곳은 미국이에요. (유학가다: to go study aborad)
The place Jimin went to study abroad is the U.S.

In the sentence above, we know for sure that Jimin had done the action of “going somewhere to study abroad,” but we do not know for sure whether he is still there or not.

However, if you say,

지민이가 유학갔던 곳은 미국이에요,

now we know for sure that he went to the US to study abroad, and is not there anymore.

For another example,

이건 어제 읽었던 책이라서 다른 책을 읽고 싶어요. = 이건 어제 읽은 책이라서 다른 책을 읽고 싶어요.

If you compare the two sentences, Verb-았/었던 can be replaced with Verb-ㄴ/은.

However, the other way around does not necessarily work.

Because, as previously explained, Verb-ㄴ/은 does not always indicate the “completion” of an action.

If you say 이건 어제 읽은 책이에요, it can mean one of the two things :
1) This is the book I read. (I did the action of reading. [Doesn’t necessarily mean I finished it.])
2) This is the book I finished reading. (I finished reading it.) = 내가 읽었던 책이에요.

As you can see, -ㄴ/은 does not always determine whether the action was completed or not and the focus is more on the fact that you “did” that action, whereas -았/었던 is used for actions already completed.

So if you want to make it clear that you’re referring to an action that’s already completed, it’s better to use Verb-았/었던, not Verb-ㄴ/은.

This is not something that we strictly abide by though, since many Koreans interchangeably use -았/었던 and -ㄴ/은. So please don’t worry about using it all perfectly right!

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Another difference between -았/었던 (or -던) and -ㄴ/은 would be that, the former can be used with both adjectives and verbs (including 이다), whereas -ㄴ/은 can only be used with verbs, and not adjectives* nor 이다.

(*When -ㄴ/은 is used with adjectives, it becomes a present-tense modifier, not past-tense.)

작년까지 의사 아버지께서 이제는 은퇴하셨어요. (X) -> present tense
작년까지 의사였던 아버지께서 이제는 은퇴하셨어요. (O) -> 이다 + 았/었던
작년전까지 의사이던 아버지께서 이제는 은퇴하셨어요. (O) -> 이다 + 던
= My dad, who had been a doctor till last year, has now retired.

어렸을 때 조용한 주희가 지금은 활발해졌어요. (X) -> present tense
어렸을 때 조용했던 주희가 지금은 활발해졌어요. (O) -> 조용하다 + 았/었던
어렸을 때 조용하던 주희가 지금은 활발해졌어요. (O) -> 조용하다 + 던
= Juhee, who was quiet as a child, has become more outgoing.

Now that we’re finished with -던 and -았/었던,  go ahead and take this Quiz!