LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

BEFORE/AGO (전)

The word '전' translates to 'before' or 'ago' depending on where it is used. When placed after any indication of time (2 seconds, 5 minutes, 10 hours, 4 days, 3 weeks, 2 years, etc...) it has the meaning of "ago." For example:

2 초 전에 - 2 seconds ago
5 분 전에 - 5 minutes ago
열 시간 전에 - 10 hours ago*
4 일 전에 - 4 days ago
3 주 전에 - 3 weeks ago
2 년 전에 - 2 years ago

*I typically write the word instead of the numeral when referring to an hour.

Notice that '에' gets added to '전' because it is referring to a time.

You can now use those words in sentences very intuitively:

저는 2주 전에 남동생을 만났어요 = I met my brother 2 weeks ago
구름은 5분 전에 걷혔어요 - The clouds cleared up 5 minutes ago

When '전' is placed after a verb, it translates to "before." When you want to use 전 like this, you must add ~기 to the verb stem of the preceding verb:

제가 먹기 전에 - before I ate
제가 가기 전에 - before I go
제가 오기 전에 - before I come

A few very important things before I say anything else:

There is a reason why ~기 is added to the stem of a verb. Adding ~기 to the stem of a verb is a topic I cover in detail in later lesson.

Another thing. You can essentially add any sentence to the (verb-stem)~기 전에 grammatical form and it will have the meaning of "before (this happened)." You could say something like "the country of Canada becomes a sovereign state기 전에" and it would have the meaning of "before Canada became a sovereign state"... Of course, that is a terrible example because in English the verb doesn't come at the end of the sentence.

You are now ready to create two-clause sentences. Up to this point we have dealt with sentences having only one clause, meaning one subject, one object, and one predicating verb or adjective. To illustrate, in the following sentences subjects are colored red, objects are blue, and predicating verbs or adjectives are green. (Adverbs and other parts of the sentences are not colored):

However, there are grammatical principles (in English and Korean) that allow us to create more than one clause. Each clause is able to have a subject, object and also a verb/adjective. A sentence with more than one clause could therefore have more than one subject, object or verb/adjective. For example:

When I go home, my mom will be waiting for me
When my mother ate a hotdog, I ate a hamburger
Before I eat, I want to wash my hands

The grammatical rules of a Korean sentence with two (or more) clauses are similar those with only one clause. However, when a sentence has two (or more) clauses, the particle ~는/은 cannot be placed on the subject of both clauses. Instead, it can only be attached to the subject of the main clause of the sentence.