KOREAN LANGUAGE TUTORIAL

LESSON 46

Korean Lesson: Lessons 46

When I… ~ㄹ 때

If you ever want to express “When I….” you can add ~ㄹ 때 to the stem of the verb/adjective at the end of clause. 을 gets added to stems ending in a consonant, and ㄹgets added directly to stems ending in a vowel. This form isn’t usually used in the present tense. It is usually used to describe when you did something in the past:
When I ate…
Or when you will do something in the future:
When I eat… (conjugated in the present, put with the meaning of being in the future).
When it is used to describe something in the future tense, it is done by adding ~ㄹ 때 to the stem of the verb/adjective (as just previously shown):
내가 밥을 먹을 때… = When I eat…
선생님이 여기에 계실 때… = When the teacher is here…
제가 돈을 받을 때… = When I receive (the) money…
Notice that this is the exact same as the ~는 것 concept. Here, we are using the future conjugation of ~는 것 (ㄹ/을 것) followed by “때” – a noun which means “when/time.” Even though 때 is a description of time, you do not need to add the time particle ‘에’ to it.
So anyways, these clauses with ~ㄹ 때 that we made earlier can now go in sentences to describe “when” something happens:
내가 밥을 먹을 때 너에게 음식을 조금 줄 거야 = When I eat, I will give you some food
선생님이 여기에 계실 때 나는 선생님의 말을 듣기 시작할 거야 = When the teacher is here, I will start listening to him/her
저는 돈을 받을 때 행복할 거에요 = When I receive (the) money, I will be happy
Also notice that (as you should know) when the subject of both clauses is the same, you don’t need to write the subject twice.
This can be done with most verbs or adjectives, but cannot be done with two verbs specifically. When describing a time in the future you cannot add ~ㄹ 때 to 가다 (to go) or 오다 (to come). If you do want to say:
When I go…
When I come…
You need to say “…오면” or “…가면.” You will learn how to use ~면 in the next lesson.
Now, however, you need to learn how to use ~ㄹ 때 in the past tense.
When I did… ~했을 때
You learned in the previous section how to use ~ㄹ 때 when talking about a time in the future. You also learned that people usually say “When I …” when talking about when something that will happen, or when something that did happen. When you want to talk about when something did happen, you need to conjugate the stem into the past tense, but leave off the ending of 다/어/습니다/etc…
For example:
먹었
갔
공부했
Then you simply add ~을 때:
먹었을 때 = When I ate

갔을 때 = When I went

공부했을 때 = When I studied

Just like when used in the future tense, these clauses can be put in full sentences:
내가 밥을 먹었을 때 말하고 싶지 않았어 = When I ate, I didn’t want to talk

엄마가 갔을 때 저는 울었어요 = When mom left, I cried

내가 공부했을 때 문법만 공부했어 = When I studied, I only studied grammar

The only time you would ever really use this grammatical form in the present tense is when you want to say something like “Every time I….” as I will describe next:
Every time I… ~ㄹ 때마다

You know now how to say:
내가 공부할 때 = When I study, and
내가 공부했을 때 = When I studied,
But if you wanted to say “Every time I study(ied)…” you can put the particle 마다 after 때 to have this meaning:
내가 공부할 때마다 = Every time I study
내가 공부했을 때마다 = Every time I studied

More example sentences:
내가 한국에 있을 때마다 한국어로 말하고 싶어 = Every time I am in Korea, I want to speak Korean

제가 저의 여자 친구의 부모님을 만날 때마다 저는 너무 긴장돼요 = Everytime I meet my girlfriend’s parents, I am nervous