Learn Korean: (으)ㄴ + Noun

Let’s take a look at the Korean sentence pattern -(으)ㄴ + Noun. This is how we modify a noun with an adjective in Korean. At the end of this note, we will learn how to say the following: a beautiful girl, wet hair, and delicious food. First of all, adjectives in Korean are treated as verbs. So they undergo changes in many instances. In English, the spelling of the word beautiful remains beautiful wherever we place it in a sentence. In Korean, it transforms. The only thing similar is the position of the adjective and noun. The adjective comes first before the noun. In some languages, it's the other way around. The state verbs in the example above are *to be beautiful, *to be wet, and *to be delicious. In Korean, they are 예쁘다, 젖다, and 맛있다 respectively. Here are some rules to follow when making an adjective + noun combination in Korean. We take the verb stem (예쁘, 젖, and 맛있) and attach something to it. When a verb stem ends in a vowel, attach ㄴ (예쁜). When a verb stem ends in a consonant, attach 은 (젖은). When a verb stem ends in 있 and 없, attach 는 (맛있는). Now, they become modifiers and we can add the nouns: 예쁜 여자 (beautiful girl), 젖은 머리 (wet hair), and 맛있는 음식 (delicious food).

저는 긴 머리가 좋아요.

I like long hair.

여기는 괜찮은 식당이 있어요?

Is there a good restaurant here?

넓은 어깨를 갖고 싶다.

I want to have broad shoulders.