Korean Grammar Bank

BUT IN KOREAN

In Korean, there are four conjunctions for but/however:

  • 하지만, 그렇지만, 그런데, 그러나 

Each has a different level of formality:

  • 그러나 is considered the most formal and is used in a report or public speech.
  • 그런데 could be considered as the least formal one and also used to mean ‘by the way’. 

CONNECTING SENTENCE TO SENTENCE

All four words 하지만 / 그렇지만 / 그런데 / 그러나 can be used in a very similar fashion to connect two sentences.

PATTERN

Phrase 1 + 하지만 / 그렇지만 / 그런데 / 그러나 + Phrase 2

Let’s take a few examples below:

KOREANENGLISH
나는 졸리다.하지만나는 숙제를 끝내야 한다.I am sleepy. But I have to finish my homework.
비가 온다.그렇지만우산이 없다.It is raining. But I don’t have an umbrella.
동생은 오이를 좋아한다.그런데동생은 사과는 싫어한다.My younger sister likes cucumber. But she dislikes apple.
친구는 이빨이 아프다.그러나친구는 치과에 가고 싶지 않다.My friend has a toothache. But he does not want to visit the dentist.

CONNECTING CLAUSE TO CLAUSE

하지만 / 그렇지만 / 그런데 / 그러나 can also be used to connect clause to clause.

In this case, the ending of the conjunction is added to the verb, after removing the ending ‘다’ from the infinitive.

This sounds a little bit complicated, so let’s take a look at the table below:

BEFORE CONJUGATION AFTER CONJUGATION TO CONNECT CLAUSE TO CLAUSE
배고프다 + 하지만 배고프지만 
배고프다 + 그렇지만 배고프지만
배고프다 + 그런데 배고픈데
배고프다 + 그러나 배고프나 

Notice how the conjugated forms for 하지만 and 그렇지만 are the same, because they both end with 지만.

Also note that for 그런데, the ending used is ‘ㄴ’ from 런 plus 데.

VIEW EXAMPLES
KOREANENGLISH
나는 졸리지만(졸리다 + 하지만/그렇지만)숙제를 끝내야 한다.I am sleepy but I have to finish my homework.
비가 오지만(오다 + 하지만/그렇지만)우산이 없다.It is raining but I don’t have an umbrella.
동생은 오이를 좋아하는데(좋아하다 + 그런데)사과는 싫어한다.My younger sister likes cucumber but she dislikes apple.
친구는 이빨이 아프나(아프다 + 그러나)치과에 가고 싶지 않다.My friend has a toothache but he does not want to visit the dentist.

INFORMAL USE OF 그런데 AND 그렇지만

In casual conversations or in some dialects, 그런데 / 그렇지만 are often used in an informal format as following:

그런데→근데 
그렇지만→그치만

Keep in mind that 근데/그치만 should never be used in a formal conversation or writing!

Learn Korean with FlexiClasses

Book online classes with the best teachers in the industry.

REGISTER

FAQs

How to say “but” in Korean?

In Korean, there are four conjunctions for but/however:

– 하지만 

– 그렇지만 

– 그런데

– 그러나 

All of these essentially have the same meaning as but/however, but each has a different level of formality. For example:

그러나 is considered the most formal conjunction among the four and is used in a report or public speech.

그런데 could be considered as the least formal one and also used to mean ‘by the way’. 

How to use 하지만 in Korean?

하지만 can be used to connect two sentences:

나는 졸리다. 하지만 나는 숙제를 끝내야 한다.

I am sleepy. But I have to finish my homework.

It can also be used to connect two clauses:

나는 졸리지만 (졸리다 + 하지만) 숙제를 끝내야 한다.

I am sleepy but I have to finish my homework.

What is 근데 in Korean?

근데  is the informal form of the word 그런데.

It should never be used in a formal conversation or writing!

How to make negative sentences in Korean?

Expressing ‘not’. For verbs and adjectives. Add ‘안’ or ‘-지 않아요’ in front of them.

Example: 지수는 초콜릿을 좋아하지 않아요.

Expressing ‘cannot’. For verbs only. Add 못’or ‘-지 못해요’ in front of the verb.

Example: 저는 수영을 못 해요.

Expressing ‘do not know’. The word ‘to know’ in Korean is ‘알다’. However, we rarely apply the methods of case 1 and case 2 for this word. Instead, we use the word ‘몰라요’

Example: 나는 그녀의 연락처를 몰라요.

Expressing ‘not have’. When we make a sentence to talk about the absence of something, we would use ‘없어요’.

Example: 공원에 사람들이 거의 없어요.

—

Learn more about the negative form in Korean here.

What are some Korean sentence structure?

Here are the 3 most basic Korean sentence structure:

#1 || Subject + Verb

#2 || Subject + Object + Verb

#3 || Subject + Noun / Adjective

—

Learn more about Korean sentence structure here.

Can I learn Korean with LTL?

Of course! We teach Korean online on our Flexi Classes platform.

And even have a 7 Day Free Trial!

We also offer Korean Courses in Seoul, for both group and individual classes.

Contact us for more details and start your language learning journey.

MORE FREE LESSONS