Lesson 148: ~고는 하다 and ~곤 하다 – One does an action regularly but infrequently

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Vocabulary

Nouns:
늪 = swamp

Common Usages:
늪에 빠지다 = an idiom for being stuck in something
착각의 늪 = to be delusional

Examples:
늪에는 다양한 생물이 살고 있어요
= There are a variety of organisms living in the swamp

이 늪은 다른 늪보다 훨씬 깊어서 일년에 한 명 이상씩 이 늪에 빠져 죽곤 해요
= This swamp is much deeper than others, so every year there is more than one person that falls into it and drowns

대형 = large sized

Common Usages:
대형서점 = large bookstore
특대형 = jumbo size
대형차 = large sized car

Examples:
홈플러스와 같은 대형 마트가 보통 고객들이 먹을 수 있는 시식이 많아요
= Big markets like Home Plus usually have a lot of samples customers can eat

토요일이면 우리 가족이 대형 마트에 가고는 해요
= Every now and then on Saturdays our family goes to a big grocery store

소형 = small sized

Common Usages:
소형차 = small sized car

Examples:
소형 자동차는 주차하기가 편리해요
= Small-sized cars are convenient for parking

가까운 곳에 여행을 갈 때 소형카메라를 가져가고는 해요
= When I travel nearby every now and then I bring a small sized camera

설음식 = traditional dishes eaten during Seolnal

Examples:
설음식은 설날에 가족과 함께 먹는 전통 음식입니다
= Traditional dishes eaten during Seolnal are enjoyed with family

설날에는 우리 가족 모두 함께 모여서 설음식을 만들곤 했어요
= During Seolnal, everybody in our family used to meet and make traditional dishes

잡지책 = magazine

Examples:
매달 잡지책을 사서 읽은 게 제 취미예요
= My hobby is buying a magazine and reading it every month

저는 종종 스트레스가 쌓일 때 마다 잡지책을 사곤 해요
= When stress piles up every now and then I buy a magazine

Verbs:
들키다 = to be caught

Common Usages:
비밀을 들키다 = to be caught in a lie

Examples:
엄마에게 제가 남자친구가 있는 것을 들켰어요
= I got caught by my mom that I had a boyfriend

저는 거짓말을 할 때마다 얼굴이 빨개져서 쉽게 거짓말을 들키곤 했어요
= Every time I lie my face turns red so I used to get caught easily

끌어안다 = to pull in and hug

Examples:
저는 집에 오자마자 저의 사랑스러운 아이를 끌어안았어요
= As soon as I came home I pulled my lovely child and hugged him

아빠는 제 생일마다 저를 사랑한다고 하면서 선물을 주고 꼭 끌어안곤 했어요
= On my birthday my dad used to tell me he loves me while giving me a present and then pulling me in tightly for a hug

따돌리다 = to exclude a person

Examples:
그 학생은 항상 친구를 따돌리는 것을 즐겼어요
= That student always enjoyed excluding his friends

저 친구는 어렸을 때부터 마음에 안 드는 친구가 있으면 따돌리곤 했어요
= Ever since that friend of mine was young, whenever he had a friend he didn’t like, he always used to exclude them

휘청거리다 = to stumble

Examples:
그 남자는 술을 마시고 휘청거리면서 길을 건넜어요
= That man drank alcohol and then stumbled across the street

길에서 키 큰 남자와 부딪쳐서 휘청거렸어요
= I bumped into a tall man on the street and I stumbled

그 남자가 피곤해서 길을 걷다가 휘청거렸어요
= He was so tired that he stumbled while walking down the street

아직도 빈혈이 심해서 갑자기 일어나거나 많이 움직이면 몸이 휘청거리곤 해요
= My anemia is still severe, so if I get up suddenly or move too much I stumble from time to time

훌쩍하다 = to sniffle

Examples:
추위로 코가 찡해지며 훌쩍훌쩍 울었어요
= His nose tingled from the cold, and he sniffled

저는 엄마가 안 보는 사이에 훌쩍 소주를 마셨어요
= I had a sip of Soju when my mom wasn’t watching me

훌쩍거리다 = to sniffle

Examples:
엄마에게 혼이 난 아이는 계속 훌쩍거렸어요
= The kid that got scolded from his mom kept sniffling

저는 어렸을 때 알레르기가 심해서 먼지가 많으면 코를 훌쩍거리곤 했어요
= When I was young my allergies were severe so if there was a lot dust I used to sniffle

으르렁거리다 = to growl

Examples:
유기견이 짖으면서 으르렁거렸어요
= The stray dog growled and barked loudly

저 큰 개는 사람이 지나갈 때마다 으르렁거려서 저는 일부러 다른 길로 돌아가곤 했어요
= Every time a person passes by, that big dog growls so I often deliberately went back using a different road

Adjectives:
신나다 = to be exciting, to be

Examples:
학생이 흥미로운 책을 읽으면서 매우 신났어요
= The student was very excited while reading an interesting book

불현듯 과거의 나쁜 기억이 떠오르면 일부러 신나는 음악을 듣곤 했어요
= When bad memories of the past suddenly pop up, I used to deliberately listen to exciting/uplifting music

머나멀다 = to be very far

This word follows the ㄹ irregular.

Examples:
저희 할머니는 한국에서 머너먼 캐나다에 살고 있어요
= My grandma lives in Canada which is really far from Korea

머나먼 고향을 생각하면 가슴 한 편이 아파 오곤 해요
= When I think of my faraway hometown every now and then a part of my heart aches

섣부르다 = to be premature, rushed

This word follows the 르 irregular.

Common Usages:
섣부른 판단 = premature judgement

Examples:
결정을 내리기 전에 섣부른 선택을 피해야 해요
= You should avoid making premature decisions before reaching a conclusion

사람들은 섣부르게 주식에 투자를 시작했다가 망하곤 해요
= People often start investing in stocks too hastily and get ruined

원만하다 = for a relationship to be easy going, amicable

Common Usages:
원만히 해결하다 = to solve amicably
교우 관계가 원만하다 = to have an amicable friendship

Examples:
그들의 관계는 항상 원만하고 좋았습니다
= Their relationship was always easy-going and pleasant

Adverbs:
불현듯 = suddenly

Common Usages:
불현듯 떠오르다 = to suddenly come up

Examples:
불현듯 문이 열리고 나서 엄마가 들어왔어요
= Suddenly, the door opened and mom walked in

원만히 = amicably

Common Usages:
원만히 해결하다 = to solve amicably

Examples:
이 문제는 원만히 해결되었어요
= The problem was resolved amicably

원만히 연애를 하고 결혼하는 커플이 더 행복하게 살곤 해요
= Couples who have an amicable relationship and get married often live happily

종종 = sometimes, occasionally

Examples:
종종 할머니, 할아버지들은 수레를 끌고 주변에 종이를 모아요
= Occasionally senior citizens pull carts and gather/collect the paper that is around

중동 지역에서는 비극적인 사건이 종종 발생해요
= Tragic events often occur in the Middle East

해안가에서는 종종 갈매기를 볼 수 있어요
= You can often see seagulls on the coast

그 학생이 자신이 뛰어나다고 생각하여 종종 거만해요
= That student is often arrogant, thinking highly of himself

저는 종종 젓가락 대신 포크를 쓰곤 했어요
= I sometimes used to use a fork instead of chopsticks

이따금 = sometimes, occasionally

Examples:
가까운 곳에 여행을 갈 때 이따금 소형카메라를 가져가곤 했어요
= When I travel to nearby places, I sometimes used to bring along a small-sized camera

스트레스를 받을 때 이따금 친구랑 맥주를 한잔 하곤 했어요
= When I was stressed, I sometimes used to have a glass of beer with my friend

간간히 = sometimes, occasionally

Examples:
저는 제 전 남자 친구를 간간히 생각했어요
= I occasionally thought about my ex-boyfriend

명절 때 저는 간간히 고향 친구를 만나곤 해요
= During the holidays every now and then I meet my hometown friends

부리나케 = hurriedly, hastily

Examples:
엄마는 부리나케 일을 마치고 돌아왔어요
= My mom hurriedly finished their work and came back

학생들은 수업이 끝나자마자 부리나케 급식을 먹으러 달려 나가곤 했어요
= Students used to hurriedly run out to eat their lunch as soon as class ended

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Introduction

In this lesson, you will learn how to use ~고는 하다 (or ~곤 하다). It is a fairly simple grammatical principle to use, and unlike some of the other endings we have learned lately, doesn’t have a lot of subtle nuances to it. Let’s get started!

~고는 하다 and ~곤 하다 – Something occurs on a regular basis

By attaching ~고는 하다 to a verb, you can indicate that the same action occurs repeatedly but not very frequently. As the action occurs repeatedly, but not frequently, there is usually some indication of the situation that would prompt the infrequent action to occur. For example, it would be unnatural to say these sentences:

커피를 마시고는 해요
우리 가족이 대형 마트에 가고는 해요
소형카메라를 가져가고는 해요
나는 포크를 쓰고는 한다
친구랑 맥주를 한잔 하고는 한다

Instead, you would usually see more information indicating what specific situation would prompt these actions to occur. For example:

한국어를 공부할 때 커피를 마시고는 해요
= When I study Korean I drink coffee

It is always hard to translate grammatical principles. However, a common translation of ~고는 하다 is “every now and then.” For example:

한국어를 공부할 때 커피를 마시고는 해요
= When I study Korean every now and then I drink coffee

토요일이면 우리 가족이 대형 마트에 가고는 해요
= Every now and then on Saturdays our family goes to a big grocery store

가까운 곳에 여행을 갈 때 소형카메라를 가져가고는 해요
= When I travel nearby every now and then I bring a small sized camera

저는 젓가락 대신 포크를 쓰고는 해요
= Every now and then I use a fork instead of chopsticks

스트레스를 받을 때 친구랑 맥주를 한잔 하고는 해요
= When I’m stressed every now and then I have a glass of beer with my friend

~고는 하다 is almost always condensed to ~곤 하다. For example:

한국어를 공부할 때 커피를 마시곤 해요
토요일이면 우리 가족이 대형 마트에 가곤 해요
가까운 곳에 여행을 갈 때 소형카메라를 가져가곤 해요
저는 젓가락 대신 포크를 쓰곤 해요
스트레스를 받을 때 친구랑 맥주를 한잔 하곤 해요

Because these actions aren’t occurring all the time, adverbs that indicate an action sometimes occurs are often used in these sentences. Most commonly used in sentences with ~곤 하다 are

가끔씩, 이따금 and 종종. For example:

한국어를 공부할 때 가끔씩 커피를 마시곤 해요
토요일이면 우리 가족이 가끔씩 대형 마트에 가곤 해요
가까운 곳에 여행을 갈 때 이따금 소형카메라를 가져가곤 해요
저는 종종 젓가락 대신 포크를 쓰곤 해요
스트레스를 받을 때 이따금 친구랑 맥주를 한잔 하곤 해요

It is possible to conjugate all of these sentences to the past. Doing so indicates that the action happened regularly but infrequently, and no longer occurs. A common way to translate this is to say that one “used to” do something. For example:

한국어를 공부할 때 가끔씩 커피를 마시곤 했어요
= When I studied Korean I used to drink coffee sometimes

토요일이면 우리 가족이 가끔씩 대형 마트에 가곤 했어요
= Our family used to go to a big grocery store sometimes on Saturdays

가까운 곳에 여행을 갈 때 이따금 소형카메라를 가져가곤 했어요
= When I travel to nearby places, I sometimes used to bring along a small-sized camera

저는 종종 젓가락 대신 포크를 쓰곤 했어요
= I sometimes used to use a fork instead of chopsticks

스트레스를 받을 때 이따금 친구랑 맥주를 한잔 하곤 했어요
= When I was stressed, I sometimes used to have a glass of beer with my friend

Let’s look at a bunch of examples to get more familiar with how ~고는/곤 하다 can be used. I’ve separated the examples into present tense and past tense.

Present tense:
비가 올 때마다 커피를 마시곤 해요
= When it rains every now and then I drink coffee

명절 때 저는 간간히 고향 친구를 만나곤 해요
= During the holidays every now and then I meet my hometown friends

머나먼 고향을 생각하면 가슴 한 편이 아파 오곤 해요
= When I think of my faraway hometown every now and then a part of my heart aches

저는 종종 스트레스가 쌓일 때 마다 잡지책을 사곤 해요
= When stressed piles up every now and then I buy a magazine

원만히 연애를 하고 결혼하는 커플이 더 행복하게 살곤 해요
= Couples who have an amicable relationship and get married often live happily

사람들은 섣부르게 주식에 투자를 시작했다가 망하곤 해요
= People often start investing in stocks too hastily and get ruined

Past tense:
햇빛이 좋을 때는 빨래를 베란다에 널곤 했어요
= When it was sunny I used to hang the clothes out on the veranda

설날에는 우리 가족 모두 함께 모여서 설음식을 만들곤 했어요
= During Seolnal, everybody in our family used to meet and make traditional dishes

저 친구는 어렸을 때부터 마음에 안 드는 친구가 있으면 따돌리곤 했어요
= Ever since that friend was young, whenever he had a friend he didn’t like, he always used to exclude them

저는 거짓말을 할 때마다 얼굴이 빨개져서 쉽게 거짓말을 들키곤 했어요
= Every time I lie my face turns red so I used to get caught easily

학생들은 수업이 끝나자마자 부리나케 급식을 먹으러 달려 나가곤 했어요
= Students used to hurriedly run out to eat their lunch as soon as class ended

저는 어렸을 때 알레르기가 심해서 먼지가 많으면 코를 훌쩍거리곤 했어요
= When I was young my allergies were severe so if there was a lot dust I used to sniffle

That’s it for this lesson!

Okay, got it! Take me to the next lesson!