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There is something that bugs me a lot. I can't understand why some people use 없다는/있다는/etc in sentences instead of 있는/없는/etc, how I learned. I've seen this a lot and I can't realize the difference if there's any. Example: 지은이가 입학할 수 없다는 소문을 들었어요

Hey! Thanks for writing, and sorry it took so long to get back to you. T_T

That’s actually a different grammar construction. 있는/없는/etc is the conjugated adjectival blah blah stuff (from Step 2), but the example you mentioned is an indirect quote form. (You can skip the rest and go ahead and Google that!)

‘-다는’ is actually short for ‘-다고 하는.’ There are few others like this, like ‘-(이)라는’ being short for ‘-(이)라고 하는,’ or ‘-자는’ being short ‘-자고 하는’ etc. There’s a LOT of ways this is utilized in Korean, so there hasn’t been a comprehensive post explaining ALL of this. It’s a form used a lot in Korean, you’ve probably encountered it already (like your example here).

So in your example, the construction is:

지은이가 입학할 수 없다는 소문을 들었어요. (original)

(저는) <지은이가 입학할 수 없다>고 하는 소문을 들었어요.

-> 저는 …를/을 들었어요. I heard …-> 저는 소문을 들었어요. I heard a rumor… -> 저는 …다고 하는 소문을 들었어요. I heard a rumor that… -> 저는 지은이가 입학할 수 없다고 하는 소문을 들었어요. I heard a rumor that 지은 cannot enroll into school.

I would rank this as an intermediate or even advanced grammar because it requires you to be comfortable with verb conjugation (both tense and usage), basic sentence constructions, and a natural flow of Korean. As you can see above the breakdown of grammar doesn’t exactly line up with English.

HOWEVER, it’s not so complicated in itself- it just combines a lot of things you’ve learned somewhere else. It’s also used EVERYWHERE in Korean, so once you learn this it’ll be reinforced over and over again.

We’re not going to learn all of the variations today, BUT, once you learn it you could guess “oh, this might be that indirect quote form 악돌 선생님 talked about!”

(-1) Indirect Quote VS Direct Quote

Before going too further, it’s worth revisiting what’s the difference between a direct quote and an indirect quote in English. Basically, it’s this:

Tom said, “I like cake.” (direct quote) Tom said that he likes cake. (indirect quote)

In Korean, you may also see this:

I heard that Tom said that he likes cake. (still an indirect quote)

Anyways, let’s dive into it. Hope this helps!

(0) Important Foundations

The really simplified diagram for this grammar construction is either:

[statement (”what was heard”)] + [final ending -다] + [고] + [some ‘reporting’ verb] OR

[statement] + [final ending -다] + [고] + [하는 (하다 in noun modifying form)] + [’reporting’ noun] [verb]

** NOTE: there are several ways to dissect this construction and I’m using the one that makes most sense to me. Don’t feel enslaved to this version.

It’s important to recognize that “-다고” (or -(이)라고 or -자고…) is its own thing. -다고 is “An expression used to pass along what the speaker heard from another person, or to present the subject’s thoughts, opinions, etc.” (from Korean Learner’s Dictionary [link])

This is actually a combination of a “final ending” (종결 어미) like -다, -라, -자 (conjugated on ‘participles,’ descriptive verbs and action verbs), and the particle 고 that shows what precedes it is an indirect quote. ([link] to 고 in Korean Learner’s Dictionary).

I’m calling the swath of verbs and nouns that relate to speech/thought a “reporting verb” and “reporting noun.” These include 말하다, 묻다, 소문, 질문, etc. These are basic vocab words and I will not go into more detail.

At the end of the day, these should be the takeaways:

-다는 is short for -다고 하는

-다고 = -다 final ending (or any final ending like -자, -라, -냐…) + indirect quote particle 고

-고 하다 = indirect quote form of 하다 - not “to do” but something like “it is said…” … This always follows the indirect quote particle 고

(1) + -다 + 고 + “reporting verb”

Let’s look at some examples first. I’m going to focus on the construction, not the ‘best way to translate’ … These are from the Korean Learner’s Dictionary:

형이 같이 농구를 하자고 한다.~ 형 said to play basketball together. (형 wants to play basketball together)

Start to view this construction as (형이) [<같이 농구를 하자>고 한다]. We have the statement <같이 농구를 하자> with the -자 final ending, followed by particle 고, and 한다 meaning “he said….” and the subject that “said” something is “형,” so we have “형이” at the beginning of the sentence.

선생님이 숙제를 다 했냐고 물어보셨다.~ The teacher asked whether I did all of my homework.

Again the construction here is [선생님이 <숙제를 다 했냐>고 물어보셨다.] Same thing: the statement (question) <숙제를 다 했냐> and the -냐 final ending, followed by particle 고, and the verb 물어보시다 in the past tense, 물어보셨다 (This is “to ask” with -시- honorific marker)

So that’s how the -다고 stuff works. It takes a statement that ends in a “final ending” (-다, -자, -라. -냐, etc) and adds a 고 indirect quote particle, and ends with a “speech/thought verb” like 하다, 말하다, 묻다, 물어보다, 생각하다 etc.

(2) + -다 + 고 + 하는 + “reporting noun” + verb

This one combines the -다고 construction above with “하는,” which is is the verb 하다 conjugated in the “noun modifying” form that we learned in Step 2. [link to Step 2]. Note that this ‘하다’ does not mean “to do,” but it means to say or to quote. This version of 하다 always follows 고. When you see 고 followed by 하다, it’s a clue that this is a quote/indirect quote of some sort. This “-다고 하는” is often contracted to “-다는.”

OK, let’s move onto the example you gave.

(저는) 지은이가 입학할 수 없다는 소문을 들었어요.

The big envelope is: 저는 …을/를 들었어요 (I heard …). What did you 듣다? You heard a 소문. So our important construction is 저는 소문을 들었어요. That’s the “reporting noun” 소문 and a verb that goes with it (소문을 듣다, to hear a rumor).

This example continues to describe the nature of the said-소문 (rumor). This is the component I listed above.

지은이가 입학할 수 없다.

And we see in the example, 지은이가 입학할 수 없다는 소문. This is where this breaks down into <지은이가 입학할 수 없다>고 하는 소문 – did you see it? final ending -다 + particle 고 + 하는 + reporting noun.

So the example sentence really looks like:

(저는) <지은이가 입학할 수 없다>고 하는 소문을 들었어요. ~ I heard a rumor that 지은이가 입학할 수 없다. (지은 cannot enroll into school)

This all felt complicated, but if you follow the constructions, then it’s not so bad…. I promise!

Now you can indirectly quote something you’ve heard, or something that someone else said, etc. Let’s use our “Tom said that he likes cake” example:

Tom said that he likes cake. -> Tom said that -> 톰이 말했다. <케이크를 좋아한다> -> 톰이 케이크를 좋아한다고 말했다.

Let’s see the 다고 하는 in action. Here’s the "I heard that Tom said that he likes cake.” example:

I heard that Tom said that he likes cake.-> (I heard) that Tom said that -> (나는 들었다.) 톰이 말했다. <케이크를 좋아한다> -> (나는 들었다.) 톰이 케이크를 좋아한다고 한다. -> 나는 톰이 케이크를 좋아한다고 하는 것을 들었다. -> 나는 톰이 케이크를 좋아한다는 것을 들었다.

Ta-da!

HTSK actually did a great job breaking this down. It mentions the ‘-다고’ and ‘-(이)라고’ forms and how you would conjugate it by tense, too. Once you get a hang of this construction, you’ll be able to recognize it and move forward. [link]

OK, that’s all for today. I hope that made sense and it helped you understand one of the more complicated, but ubiquitous grammar forms of Korean T_T Let me know if you have any other questions or if I can clarify anything for you!

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