How to use Korean Grammar V/A + (으)ㄹ 때

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Verb, Adjective + / 을 때

ㄹ - if a word ends in a vowel or ㄹ, 을 - if it ends in a consonant (except ㄹ)

The Korean grammar structure -ㄹ 때 / -을 때 is used to describe a specific time when something happens. -ㄹ 때 / -을 때 is used with verbs and adjectives and often translated as "when". When -ㄹ 때 / -을 때 is used with the past tense suffixes -았 / -었 / -였 the sentence has a slightly different meaning.

See examples,
(click on translation and grammar buttons)

제가 시험을 볼 때 긴장했어요.

Korean

시험

보다

긴장하다

English

I

exam

to see

to worry

I was nervous when I was taking the test.

저+ 시험 보+ㄹ 때 긴장하++어요.

쇼핑할 때 친구를 만났어요.

Korean

쇼핑하다

친구

만나다

English

to shop

friend

to meet

I met a friend when I was shopping.

쇼핑하+ㄹ 때 친구 만나++어요.

See the difference:

제가 시험을 봤을 때 긴장했어요.

I was nervous when I was done with the test.

저+ 시험 보++을 때 긴장하++어요.

쇼핑했을 때 친구를 만났어요.

I met a friend when I was done with shopping.

쇼핑하++을 때 친구 만나++어요.

Quick reference (click to open)

Vowels: a, e, i, o, u

Consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j

Syllable: Bra-zil (2 syllables), Ar-gen-ti-na (4), In-di-a (3), Viet-nam (2), thin-king (2), beau-ti-ful (3), good (1)

Batchim: is a final consonant in a syllable. → Bra-zil (batchim: 'l'), Ar-gen-ti-na (batchims: 'r' and 'n'), In-di-a ('n'), Viet-nam ('t', 'm')

Romanization: is a conversion of text (not pronunciation ! ) from different writing system (Korean, Arabic, Russian, etc.) to the Roman (Latin) alphabet.

IPA: is an alphabetic system of phonetic (pronunciation) notation.

Noun: road, user, sister, table, sky

Pronoun: I, my, we, you, they, her

Verb: to go, to study, to think, to feel

Adjective: cold, kind, hungry, curious, expensive

Adverb: quickly, nicely, never, exactly, urgently

Preposition: from, to, on, in, with, till

Conjuction: and, because, if, but, while

Declarative sentence: I learn Korean.

Interrogative sentence: Do you learn Korean?

Imperative sentence: You must learn Korean!

Exclamative sentence: Wow, you learn Korean!

Verb / Adj. stem in Korean: part of a verb or adj. which is left after removing the last syllable -다 ( e.g. 가다 → 가, 예쁘다 → 예쁘, 듣다 → 듣 ).