Beginners Lesson 4: -을 때, when or while (doing something)
Using this grammar point you will be able to express your thoughts and actions in a specific point of time in Korean. This grammar point is two fold, and we’ll break it down to look at both parts of the grammar point in today’s post.
First, let’s talk about 때. When 때 is combined with certain nouns, it expresses a set time, or block of time. Most often you’ll see 때 used with time indicators like 저녁 or 아침, but it can also be used with words like 방학, 휴가, 고등학교, etc.
Using 때 combined with a noun if fairly simple. 때 follows the noun that the block of time is meant to indicate. For example:
오늘 저녁 때 뭐 해요?
What will you do during dinner time today?
이번 여름방학 때 어디로 갈 거예요?
Where will you go during this summer vacation?
선생님들은 회의 때 시험에 대해 얘기했어요.
During the meeting, the teachers talked about the test.
In this way, you can see using 때 plus a noun is fairly straight forward. This brings us to the second part of the lesson: combining 때 with -을.
By using -을 때, this enables you to use 때 with verbs, adjectives, and 있다/없다, thereby not limited yourself to strictly nouns any longer. This will allow you to form more complex sentences. For example, compare the following two phrases:
빵을 먹을 때
While I eat bread
In the former example you are referring only to dinner time itself, as a time of day. It can be assumed you’re eating based on context clues or you might already be done, but in the latter example, you can specifically say what it was you are doing while eating.
-을 때 is used with verbs, adjectives, and 있다/없다.
-을 때 is used with word stems ending in a consonant.
-ㄹ 때 is used with word stems ending in a vowel.
공부하다: 공부하 + ㄹ 때 → 공부할 때 (while studying)
받다: 받 + 을때 → 받을 때 (when receiving)
저는 공부할 때 문법만 공부해요.
When I study, I only study grammar.
돈을 받을 때 행복해요.
When I receive money, I am happy.
Now technically, using -을 with 때 would indicate a future tense, but that’s not strictly the case with this grammar point. -을 때 can also be used to just reference general time (not past, present, or future specifically), as I have indicated above with the English translations of the example sentences.
On the opposite side, -을 때 can be used with the past tense if you want to indicate something happened in the past, however there are separate implications of using the past tense form of -을 때 compared to general tense -을 때, that we will look at in it’s own lesson later on.
As far as sentence particles go, normally the time marker -에 is used following 때, however it can be omitted with no change to the sentence. Additionally, you can use other sentence particles following 때 to make even more complex sentences. Such as using -를 to form subject phrases, or -마다, -부터, or -만. We’ll look at making these more complex sentences in a future lesson.
Keep in mind there are irregular conjugation rules that apply to this grammar point, most notably ㄹ, ㄷ, and ㅂ irregulars:
The stems of all words ending in ㄹ are followed by -때 and not -을 때, because ㄹ irregular verbs/adjectives are treated as if they end in a vowel.
If a ㄷ irregular verb is followed by a vowel, the ㄷ is changed to ㄹ instead and -을 때 is added.
ㅂ irregular adjectives have the final ㅂ dropped and replaced with 우, to which -ㄹ 때 is added.
For an in depth look at the seven different types of irregular Korean verbs and adjective rules please see my guide linked above. :)
Note: Although -을 때 and 언제 can be both be translated as “when” in English, they have different meanings/functions in Korean. The function of -을 때 is to connect a block of time an action occurs with another clause, whereas 언제 functions only as an interrogative like “when?” or “what time?”.
That’s all for this lesson! :)
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