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Lesson 94: To end up: ~게 되다

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Vocabulary
Introduction

To end up: ~게 되다

 

Vocabulary

Click on the English word to see information and examples of that word in use. Use these sentences to give yourself a feel for how each word can be used, and maybe even to expose yourself to the grammar that you will be learning shortly.

A PDF file neatly presenting these words and extra information can be found here.

Nouns:
찌개 = stew

Notes: I’ve been living in Korea since 2010 and I’ve never been able to fully tell if something is a 국, 탕, 찌개 or 찜. All four of them are on the spectrum of what I could call a “stew” in English. A 국 and 탕 are more on the watery side of the spectrum and a 찜 is more on the substance (non-watery) spectrum. 찌개 is somewhere in between.

Common Usages:
김치찌개 = kimchi stew
부대찌개 = “army” stew
된장찌개 = bean paste soup

Examples:
김치 찌개 냄새 같아요 = It smells like Kimchi Jjigae
오늘 급식으로 김치찌개를 먹었어요 = We had Kimchi jigae for lunch today at school

김치찌개에 햄이 들어가서 저는 먹고 싶지 않아요
= There is “ham” in the kimchi jigae, so I don’t want to eat it

찌개를 맛있게 하려면 육수를 양파껍질로써 내야 돼요
= If you want to make jigae right, you should make the broth using onion peels

제가 된장찌개를 끓일 때마다 할머니께서 맛있게 드셔요
= Every time I make (boil) 된장찌개, Grandma always eats it well (“deliciously”)

무엇을 먹을지 결정을 못해서 그냥 집에 있던 찌개를 먹게 되었어요
= We couldn’t decide what to eat, so we ended up just eating the stew that had at home

에어컨 = air conditioning

Common Usages:
에어컨을 틀다 = to turn on an air conditioner

Examples:
더워서 에어컨을 틀고 싶어요
= I want to turn the air conditioner on because it is hot

창문을 연 채 에어컨을 틀었어요
= I turned the air conditioner on with the window open

날씨가 갑자기 매우 더워져서 에어컨을 급하게 사게 되었어요
= The weather suddenly got very hot, so I ended up urgently buying an air conditioner

여름에 날씨가 너무 더워서 에어컨을 틀어서 전기를 어쩔 수 없이 많이 써야 돼요
= In the summer the weather is really hot, so inevitably you will need to use a lot of electricity to run the air conditioner

인구 = population

Examples:
캐나다 인구는 약 35,000,000 명이에요
= Canada’s population is about 35 million

한국 인구는 캐나다 인구에 비해 조금 많아요
= The population of Korea is a little bit higher compared to the population of Canada

캐나다가 특이한 게 인구의 1/4 은 이민자예요
= The unique thing about Canada is that the population is one-quarter immigrants

새로 생긴 대중교통으로 인해 그 도시의 인구가 갑자기 증가하게 되었어요
= Due to the newly built mass transportation (system), that city’s population ended up
suddenly increasing

서서히 발전하는 의학기술로 전 세계적으로 인구가 계속 증가하게 되었어요
= Due to gradually developing medical techniques, the population of the world ended up continually increasing

인간 = human/human being

Common Usages:
복제인간 = a human clone (a copy of a human)
식물인간 = a person in a vegetative state

Examples:
인간에게는 사회에 있다는 느낌이 중요해요
= A sense/feeling of belonging to a community is important to mankind

자식을 낳고 싶어 하는 것은 인간의 본능이다
= Wanting to have children/offspring is an instinct of human beings

인간은 1000 년 전에 식기로써 돌을 사용했다
= Humans used rocks as plates 1000 years ago

인간을 복제하는 것은 많은 사회적 문제를 불러일으킬 거예요
= Cloning humans will raise/stir up a lot of social problems

에베레트산을 오르는 일은 인간의 한계를 넘어서는 아주 힘든 일이에요
= Climbing Mount Everest is a difficult task that pushes the limits of humans

정신과 의사도 의사이긴 하지만 보통 인간의 삶을 살릴 수 없는 의사다
= Psychiatrists are doctors too, but usually doctors that can’t save people’s lives

외계인을 찾으려면 인간은 엄청난 우주를 넘어서 지구와 비슷한 행성을 찾아야 돼요
= In order to find aliens, humans need to cross a very large space and find a planet similar to Earth

대중교통 = public transportation

Common Usages:
대중교통을 이용하다 = to use public transportation

Examples:
저는 매일 아침 환경을 위해 대중교통을 이용해서 출근을 해요
= Every morning I commute to work using public transportation for the environment

한국은 대중교통 시스템이 잘 갖춰져 있어서 차가 따로 필요하지 않아요
= The public transportation system in Korea is really good so you don’t need a car

막차 = last bus/last train

Notes: The opposite of “막차” is “첫차” (first bus, first car)

Common Usages:
막차 시간 = the time that the last bus/train leaves

Examples:
오늘 야근을 하는 바람에 막차를 타고 간신히 집에 갔어요
= I was working nights, and had to take the last bus so I just barely made it home

주말에는 막차 시간이 평일보다 빠르기 때문에 꼭 확인해 보세요
= The times for the last bus are earlier on the weekend than weekdays so make sure you check them

= chapter (of a book)

Examples:
이 책의 첫 장은 단어가 아주 어려워서 모두들 사전을 가지고 읽게 되었어요
= The words in the first chapter of that book are very hard, so everybody ended up
reading it with a dictionary

내가 제일 좋아하는 장은 바로 주인공이 사랑하는 사람에게 고백하는 장이야
= My favorite chapter is the one where the main character confesses to the person he loves

사투리 = dialect

Notes: 사투리 (dialect) and 억양 (accent) are a little bit different. If you speak Korean with a 사투리, you probably come from a different part of the country and use different words and even sentence endings compared to the people in Seoul. It may be incomprehensible to a person in Seoul to hear a 사투리 of Korean. For example, the equivalent to “먹었어” in the Jeju dialect could be “먹언” – something that is incomprehensible to a person in Seoul.

However, an 억양 is more about the pronunciation of words being different. For example, a foreigner speaking Korean will most likely have a different “억양” compared to the native Korean speakers.

Common Usages:
제주도 사투리 = the dialect from 제주
경상도 사투리 = the dialect from 경상 province
전라남도 사투리 = the dialect from 전라 province

Examples:
그 사람이 말할 때 사투리가 너무 어려울 뿐만 아니라 말을 아주 빨리 해요
= When that person speaks, not only is his accent difficult, but he speaks really fast

제주도에서 오래 살아서 이제 말을 할 때 저도 모르게 제주도사투리로 말을 하게 돼요
= I lived in Jeju for a long time, so when I speak, I don’t even know it but I end up speaking with a Jeju accent

우울증 = depression

Common Usages:
우울증에 겪다 = to suffer from depression

Examples:
이 약은 우울증에 효과가 있다
= This medicine has an effect on depression

동생이 죽은 후에 제가 우울증에 겪게 되었어요
= After my brother died I ended up suffering from depression

우울증에 걸린 사람들은 보통 현실을 부인해요
= People who have depression often deny reality

우울증에 걸리는 사람들은 부정적인 생각을 많이 해요
= People with depression think a lot of negative thoughts

장학금 = scholarship

Common Usages:
장학금을 신청하다 = to apply for a scholarship

Examples:
그 학생이 아주 똑똑해서 장학금을 받게 되었어요
= That student is so smart that he ended up receiving a scholarship

제가 장학금을 받게 되면 해외대학교에 갈 거예요
= If I end up getting a scholarship, I will go to a foreign university

그 대학교에 가고 싶은 한국 사람들은 누구라도 장학금을 받을 수 있어요
= Any Korean person who wants to go to that university can receive a scholarship

양초 = candle

Common Usages:
양초를 끄다 = to put out a candle
양초를 켜다 = to light a candle

Examples:
양초를 켜고 독서를 하면 집중이 더 잘돼요
= If I light a candle and read I can concentrate much better

제가 만든 양초를 친구들이 좋아해서 친구들을 위해 양초를 많이 만들게 되었어요
= My friends like the candles I make, so I ended up making a lot of candles for them

중앙 = middle, center

Examples:
저는 중앙 정부에서 가장 중요한 일을 하는 부서에서 일을 하게 되었어요
= I ended up working at the central government working on a task in the most important department

그림의 중앙을 잘 살펴보면 희미하게 이 작품의 화가의 이름이 씌어 있어요
= If you look closely at the center of the painting, you can faintly see that the name of the artist is written on the piece

요일 = a specific day of the week

Examples:
무슨 요일에 갈지 결정을 못해서 그냥 토요일에 가게 됐어요
= We couldn’t decide what day to go on, so we just ended up going on Saturday

매일 일상이 반복되다 보니 가끔 오늘이 무슨 요일인지 까먹게 돼요
= Every day repeats the same, so sometimes I end up forgetting what day of the week it is

밤새 = overnight

Common Usages:
밤새도록 = right through the night

Examples:
그것을 교정하려고 직장에서 밤새 있게 되었어요
= In order to fix it, I ended up being at work all night

그 일을 끝내야 해서 밤새 일하게 되었어요
= We had to finish that work, so we ended up staying up all night

부서 = department

Common Usages:
담당부서 = department in charge

Examples:
각 부서마다 부서별 회의를 할 거예요
= Each department will have a meeting (amongst themselves)

연말이라서 부서별 회식이 많아요
= It is the end of the year, so there are a lot of staff dinners/parties among departments

저는 중앙 정부에서 가장 중요한 일을 하는 부서에서 일을 하게 되었어요
= I ended up working at the central government working on a task in the most important department

조직관리를 하는 부서에 한 명이 일을 그만둬서 새로운 사람을 구해야 돼요
= When one person quits, the department that is in charge of managing the organization has to hire a new person

그 문제를 해결하는 방법을 찾으려고 내일 각 부서가 부서별로 회의를 할 거에요
= In order to solve that problem, each department will have a separate meeting

의학 = medicine (as a field of study)

Common Usages:
의학기술 = medical technology
의학서적 = medical texts

Examples:
서서히 발전하는 의학기술로 전 세계적으로 인구가 계속 증가하게 되었어요
= Due to gradually developing medical techniques, the population of the world ended up continually increasing

의학서적은 대부분 영어로 씌어져 있기 때문에 영어를 잘 하면 더 쉽게 공부할 수 있어요
= Medical texts are usually written in English, so if you are good at English, you can study a lot better

Verbs:
간호하다 = to nurse, to care for

The noun form of this verb “간호” translates to “nursing.”

Common Usages:
간호사 = a nurse
지극히 간호하다 = to care for a person very well/with all of one’s heart

Examples:
저의 남편의 사고로 인한 부상으로 죽을 때까지 제가 남편을 계속 간호하게 되었어요
= Due to my husband’s injury from his accident, I ended up having to take care of (be a nurse for) him until he died

캐나다에서는 간호대학을 졸업하자마자 간호사 일자리를 잡을 수 있어요
= In Canada, as soon as you graduate from nursing school/college, you can find a position as a nurse

증가하다 = to increase

The noun form of this verb “증가” translates to “an increase.”

Common Usages:
비정상적으로 증가하다 = to increase abnormally

Examples:
담배에 의한 사망은 증가하고 있어요
= Deaths due to smoking are increasing

경제가 어려워질수록 실업자의 수가 증가해요
= As the economy gets worse (gets more difficult), the number of unemployed people increases

새로 생긴 대중교통으로 인해 그 도시의 인구가 갑자기 증가하게 되었어요
= Due to the newly built mass transportation (system), that city’s population ended up
suddenly increasing

서서히 발전하는 의학기술로 전 세계적으로 인구가 계속 증가하게 되었어요
= Due to gradually developing medical techniques, the population of the world ended up continually increasing

이르다 = to arrive, to reach

This word follows the 르 irregular.

Examples:
우리가 목적지에 이르게 되었어요
= We ended up arriving at our destination

이 길을 쭉 따라가다 보면 한 마을에 이르게 되는 데 바로 그곳이 저의 고향입니다
= Follow this road till the end and when you reach a village, that place is my hometown

발전하다 = to improve/develop/progress

The noun form of this verb “발전” translates to “development” or “improvement.”

Examples:
한국경제가 발전하는 것은 캐나다 및 미국에게도 중요하다
= Improving the Korean economy is important to Canada as well as the United States

자원이 풍부한 나라일수록 미래에 더 발전할 가능성이 있어요
= As a country has more resources, there is more of a possibility for it to develop

북한 경제가 발전하려면 정부는 국민들을 더 이상 통제하면 안 돼요
= If North Korea wants to improve their economy, the government shouldn’t control its citizens anymore

중소기업을 발전시키는 것은 지역경제를 활성화하는 것에 중요해요
= Developing small and medium businesses is important in vitalizing a local economy

서서히 발전하는 의학기술로 전 세계적으로 인구가 계속 증가하게 되었어요
= Due to gradually developing medical techniques, the population of the world ended up continually increasing

망가지다 = to be broken

Examples:
인쇄기가 망가져서 이 서류를 출력하지 못해요
= The printer is broken so we can’t print/output this document

세탁기가 망가져서 셔츠를 하나씩 빨아야 돼요
= I need to wash my shirts one at a time because the laundry machine is broken

놀이터에 있는 그네가 망가졌다니 믿을 수 없다
= I can’t believe that the swing in the playground broke

침대 스프링이 망가져서 어쩐지 침대가 불편했어요
= The bed spring was broke, so no wonder the bed was so uncomfortable

방충망이 망가졌길래 아빠에게 고쳐 달라고 부탁했어요
= The screen was broken, so I asked dad to fix it (for me)

주전자가 망가진 게 아니라 버튼을 안 눌러서 안된 거예요
= It is not that the kettle is broken, it doesn’t work because you didn’t press the button

다리를 튼튼하게 만들었지만 바람 때문에 망가지게 되었어요
= We made the bridge really strongly/rigidly, but it ended up breaking because of the wind

Adjectives:
튼튼하다 = to be robust, strong

Examples:
몸과 마음을 튼튼하게 하기 위해서는 운동이 필수예요
= In order for your body and mind to be robust/strong, exercise is a necessity

다리를 튼튼하게 만들었지만 바람 때문에 망가지게 되었어요
= We made the bridge really strongly/rigidly, but it ended up breaking because of the wind

Adverbs and Other words:
서서히 = gradually/slowly

Common Usages:
서서히 다가가다 = to approach slowly/gradually

Examples:
매일 운동을 하다 보니 서서히 몸이 건강해지는 게 느껴져요
= After exercising everyday for a while, I am slowly feeling my body getting healthier

좋아하는 사람이 마음을 열 때까지 기다리면서 서서히 다가갔어요
= I waited for the person I like to be ready, and then I approached him slowly

순전히 = purely, completely, solely

Examples:
순전히 그 사람의 말만 믿고 투자를 해서 돈을 모두 날렸어요
= I trusted what that person said completely and invested in it, but then all my money flew away

내가 한국에 와 있는 이유는 순전히 너와 함께 하고 싶기 때문이야
= The reason I came to Korea is solely because I want to be with you

For help memorizing these words, try using our mobile app.

 

Introduction

We have discussed the usage of 되다 in many earlier lessons, including Lesson 9, Lesson 14, Lesson 49 and Lesson 80. Using 되다 combined with ~게 (from Lesson 56) will be discussed in this lesson. Let’s get started!

 

To end up: ~ 되다

In Lesson 56, you learned that ~게 can be attached to the stem of a verb to indicate that something is “made” to happen. In other earlier lessons, you learned that 되다 can be used to indicate that something “becomes” something. Therefore, you can use ~게 되다 to indicate a situation was “made to become” a certain way. For example:

저는 그 여자랑 사랑에 빠지게 되었어요 = I was made to become falling in love with her

Although you could consider it a direct translation from the Korean sentence, it doesn’t sound natural in English. In English, we usually use the phrase “to end up” to describe this type of meaning. For example:

저는 그 여자랑 사랑에 빠지게 되었어요 = I ended up falling in love with her

Using this form indicates that the events that occurred happened out of one’s control, almost by chance or fate. I first came across this grammatical form while reading a book, where the main character said something like:

저는 그 회사에 취직하게 되었어요 = I ended up getting a job at that company

When I first saw that sentence, I wondered how it differed from this sentence:

저는 그 회사에 취직했어요 = I got a job at that company.

As I mentioned earlier, the result of the first sentence happens without the subject having much influence on the outcome. In this sense, using ~게 되다 can make the sentence sound humble. For example:

저는 그 회사에 취직했어요 = I got a job at that company
Here, it is almost as if that person is boasting about the fact that he got a job, maybe because of how awesome he is.

저는 그 회사에 취직하게 되었어요 = I ended up getting a job at that company
Here, the feeling is more humble because the speaker had no influence on the outcome, thus not flaunting his awesomeness.

Below are many examples:

막차를 타게 되었어요
= I ended up taking the last train

우리가 목적지에 이르게 되었어요
= We ended up arriving at our destination

그 일을 끝내야 해서 밤새 일하게 되었어요
= We had to finish that work, so we ended up staying up all night

동생이 죽은 후에 제가 우울증을 겪게 되었어요
= After my brother died I ended up suffering from depression

그 학생이 아주 똑똑해서 장학금을 받게 되었어요
= That student is so smart that he ended up receiving a scholarship

한국 사람들이 끝까지 싸워서 결국 독립하게 되었어요
= Korean people fought to the end and eventually ended up getting independence

무슨 요일에 갈지 결정을 못해서 그냥 토요일에 가게 됐어요
= We couldn’t decide what day to go on, so we just ended up going on Saturday

다리를 튼튼하게 만들었지만 바람 때문에 망가지게 되었어요
= We made the bridge really strongly/rigidly, but it ended up breaking because of the wind

날씨가 갑자기 매우 더워져서 에어컨을 급하게 사게 되었어요
= The weather suddenly got very hot, so I ended up urgently buying an air conditioner

우연히 산 복권이 당첨이 돼서 하루 아침에 부자가 되게 됐어요
= Luckily, the lottery ticket I bought won, so in a morning I ended up becoming rich

무엇을 먹을지 결정을 못해서 그냥 집에 있던 찌개를 먹게 되었어요
= We couldn’t decide what to eat, so we ended up just eating the stew that had at home

저는 중앙 정부에서 가장 중요한 일을 하는 부서에서 일을 하게 되었어요
= I ended up working at the central government working on a task in the most important department

새로 생긴 대중교통으로 인해 그 도시의 인구가 갑자기 증가하게 되었어요
= Due to the newly built mass transportation (system), that city’s population ended up suddenly increasing

이 책의 첫 장은 단어가 아주 어려워서 모두들 사전을 가지고 읽게 되었어요
= The words in the first chapter of that book are very hard, so everybody ended up reading it with a dictionary

서서히 발전하는 의학기술로 전 세계적으로 인구가 계속 증가하게 되었어요
= Due to gradually developing medical techniques, the population of the world ended up continually increasing

제가 만든 양초를 친구들이 좋아해서 친구들을 위해 양초를 많이 만들게 되었어요
= My friends like the candles I make, so I ended up making a lot of candles for them

저의 남편의 사고로 인한 부상으로 죽을 때까지 제가 남편을 계속 간호하게 되었어요
= Due to my husband’s injury from his accident, I ended up having to take care of (be a nurse for) him until he died

제주도에서 오래 살아서 이제 말을 할 때 저도 모르게 제주도사투리로 말을 하게 돼요
= I lived in Jeju for a long time, so when I speak, I don’t even know it but I end up speaking with a Jeju accent

~게 되다 can also be used with adjectives, but I would advise against doing this. You may come across people doing, or you may see it from time to time in books, but using ~아/어지다 (which you learned in Lesson 18) has essentially the same meaning, and is much more natural than using ~게 되다 with adjectives. For example:

날씨가 춥게 되었어요 = The weather ended up getting cold (unnatural)
날씨가 추워졌어요 = The weather got cold (natural)

그 여자가 뚱뚱하게 되었어요 = That girl ended up getting fat (unnatural)
그 여자가 뚱뚱해졌어요 = That girl got fat (natural)

In previous lessons, you have learned about words like 만약 (Lesson 43) and 어쩌면 (Lesson 59). You learned that these words have very little meaning and are placed in sentences specifically for feeling.

The word 어쩌다 is another one of these words, and it is used in sentences that end in ~게 되다 (or other situations where something happens by chance and one has little impact on the outcome). Look-up “어쩌다” in the dictionary and you will see something like “accidentally” or “by chance.” However, just like 만약 and 어쩌면 – 어쩌다 has very little meaning unless used in a specific sentence where its feeling can come out. You will often see 어쩌다 in sentences that end in ~게 되다. For example:

어쩌다 그녀를 버스에서 보게 되었어요 = I ended up seeing her on the bus
어쩌다 시험을 합격하게 되었어요 = I ended up passing the exam

That’s it for this lesson!

Click here for a Workbook to go along with this lesson.
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