LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

아무 USED BEFORE OTHER NOUNS

Another function that 아무 has is to be placed before a thing/place/time to describe it. The most common nouns you will see after 아무 are:

거 - short form of 것, meaning "thing"
데 - meaning "place"
때 - meaning "time"

When ~나 is attached to these nouns, the speaker is indicating that the thing/place/time is not a specific "thing/place/time," but could actually be "anything," "anywhere" or "anytime." For example:

저는 아무 거나 먹고 싶어요 - I want to eat anything (I'd eat anything)
아무 때나 좋아요 - Anytime is good
저는 아무 데나 가고 싶어요 - I want to go anywhere (I'd go anywhere)

In the example above, you can see that "데" is used to refer to a place. When the verb being used requires "~에" to be attached to that place, "~에" is omitted. However, when the verb being used requires "~에서" to be attached to that place "~에서" should be added before ~나.

For example, even though the same place is being used in both sentences below, because of the nature of the verbs 가다 and 먹다, ~에 should be used in one case, and ~에서 should be used in the other.

저는 공원에 가고 싶어요 - I want to go to the park
저는 밥을 공원에서 먹고 싶어요 - I want to eat in the park

The difference between these two sentences is the same as the difference between these two sentences:

저는 아무 데나 가고 싶어요 - I want to go anywhere
저는 아무 데서나 먹고 싶어요 - I want to eat (at) anywhere

~도 can replace ~나 in these cases to have the meaning of "nothing" or "nowhere." For example:

저는 아무 것도 먹고 싶지 않아요 - I don't want to eat anything/I want to eat nothing
아기는 아무 데도 가지 않았어 - The baby didn't go anywhere/The baby went nowhere

"아무 때도" means "no time?" This doesn't make sense. Instead, the word 전혀 should be used.

It is possible to use other nouns after 아무. For example:

저는 아무 버스나 타고 갈 거예요 - I'm going to take any bus and leave
저는 아무 말도 하지 않았어요 - I didn't say anything/I said nothing
저는 엄마랑 아무 관계도 없어요 - I don't have any relationship with my mother/I have no relationship with my mother

However, by far the most common three things to use after 아무 are 거, 데 and 때.

I would love to provide way more examples, but many of the examples I want to make with 아무 (and the words it can create) use grammatical principles that you haven't been introduced to you yet. The two most common grammatical principles that you haven't learned yet that would be used in these situations are:

Making a command, and
One can/cannot do

Here are some quick examples using those two principles. The only reason I am showing you these is because I think it is likely you have learned about these either by looking ahead or by using some other resource.

Making a command
가방을 아무 데나 두세요 - Put your bag down anywhere
아무 거나 고르세요! - Choose anything!
아무 거나 먹자! - Let's eat anything!

One can/cannot do
아무나 그것을 할 수 있어요 - Anybody can do that