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Lesson 128: Leaving an action in its completed state with 놓다, and an organization of 나다

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To Complete an Action and Leave it in that State: ~아/어 놓다
Organization and Review of the Many Usages of 나다




자석 = magnet
혜택 = benefit
수압 = water pressure
가발 = wig, toupee
두통 = headache
대추 = date (the fruit)
이불 = blanket
어르신 = elderly people
장례식 = funeral
국회의원 = a member of congress
티 = obvious-nous
싫증 = the feeling of “getting sick of” something
정전 = power outage
겁 = fear
겁쟁이 = coward (somebody who is scared a lot or easily)

개다 = to fold a blanket, laundry, towels
달래다 = to soothe, to calm down
답변하다 = to answer
고백하다 = to confess
편애하다 = to favor somebody
주무르다 = to massage, to rub

Passive Verbs:
당선되다 = to win an election
당첨되다 = to win the lottery




In this lesson, you will learn how to add ~아/어 놓다 to a verb to indicate that one does an action and the completed state of that action continues. In addition, you will look back at the many ways 나다 can be used and also learn a few more. Let’s get started!




To Complete an Action and Leave it in that State: ~/ 놓다

By attaching ~아/어 놓다 to a verb, you can indicate that one completes an action and leaves it in that state. We can use the verb 열다 (to open) to demonstrate this meaning easily. Imagine somebody tells you to open the door. They could say:

문을 열어 = Open the door

Depending on the context, the command might be asking you to open the door, and to keep it opened – or to open the door, and to close it (presumably when somebody walks in to the room or something).

However, by attaching ~아/어 놓다 to 열다, we can create 열어 놓다. For example:

문을 열어 놓아 = Open the door (and keep it open)

Here, the command is specifically to leave the door in the state that it was in when the action (of “opening”) was finished.

The above example shows how ~아/어 놓다 can be used with a command, but the sentence doesn’t need to be a command for this to be used. For example, one day my wife prepared me dinner because she knew we wouldn’t be able to eat it with me because of her busy schedule. While I was eating dinner, her mother (my mother in law) called me worried because she thought I would have nothing to eat at home without my wife (it’s common for Korean people to worry about grown adults not being able to make themselves food). In response to her asking “what did you eat for dinner?” I responded:

슬기가 저녁을 다 준비해 놓았어요 = Seulgi prepared dinner (and left it ready for me to eat)

Here, I was telling my mother in law that not only did Seulgi “make/prepare dinner,” but she also left it ready for me in the state that it was when she finished.

Below are many examples. Like most Korean grammatical principles that have a subtle meaning, it is sometimes hard to express the meaning that  ~아/어 놓다 creates when translating the sentence to English. Try to keep that in mind when reading the English translations:

저는 짐을 벌써 차에 실어 놓았어요
= I already loaded all of the luggage/bags into the car

자석을 냉장고에 그냥 붙여 놓았어요
= I just stuck the magnet onto the fridge

저는 자켓을 옷걸이에 걸어 놓았어요
= I hung my jacket on the clothes hanger

대추를 물에다가 잠깐 담가 놓아야 돼요
= You need to let the dates soak in water briefly

애기를 달래고 나서 집을 청소를 해 놓았어요
= After calming/soothing the baby, I cleaned up the house

수압이 너무 세서 수도꼭지를 잠가 놓으세요
= The water pressure is too strong, so turn off (“lock”) the faucet

집을 정리하려고 해서 이불을 개 놓아 주세요
= I am trying to organize the house, so fold up the blanket please

종아리를 주무르기 전에 이 로션을 발라 놓았어요
= Before rubbing my calf, I put this lotion on it

밖이 갑자기 어두워지고 저는 겁이 나서 커튼을 닫아 놓았어요
= Outside got dark all of a sudden, and I was scared so I closed the curtains

만약 제가 로또가 당첨되면 저는 돈을 다 은행에 넣어 놓고 싶어요
= If I win the lottery, I want to put all of my money in the bank

저는 그 학생을 편애해서 생일 날에 그 학생을 위해 선물을 준비해 놓았어요
= I favor that student, so on her birthday I prepared a present for her

There is also the word 내놓다, which is a word on its own. It refers to taking something (usually garbage) out and leaving it outside. I talk about this usage in a YouTube video.


It is often common for 놓아 to be shortened to 놔. This is an official abbreviation, and it is very common in speech because it flows off the tongue better than “놓아.” Therefore, any of the sentences above could be said or written as ~아/어 놔. For example:

저는 자켓을 옷걸이에 걸어 놔
= I hung my jacket on the clothes hanger

대추를 물에다가 잠깐 담가 놔야 돼요
= You need to let the dates soak in mater briefly

Remember that 놔 is an abbreviation of 놓아, and therefore, 놔다 is technically not a word. “놔” is often pronounced as simply “나,” so it is common for people to think that a Korean person is saying something like “열어 나,” when instead he/she is saying “열어 놓아.”


Speaking of 나다 – throughout my lessons you have seen “나다” used in many different ways. Few words are more diverse in their usage than 나다. Something I’ve wanted to do for a while is organize the usages of 나다 for you – I just haven’t had a good place to do it. Well, this looks like a good place, as I’m already talking about 나다 and this lesson has been fairly short and easy so far. Let’s talk about this next.


Organization and Review of the Many Usages of 나다

The verb 나다 is one of the most versatile verbs in Korean. Depending on the noun it is acting on, 나다 could have over one hundred different meanings. That being said, most of these usages involve something “coming up” or “arising.” In general, something didn’t exist before “나다” is used, and it now exists.

Below is a list of many nouns being used with 나다. In some cases, you were explicitly taught that these nouns are often paired with 나다. In other cases, I may have not taught you this specifically, but you may have seen these nouns used with 나다 in example sentences in earlier lessons.

생각이 나다 = to think about (for a “thought” to come up)
친구의 아버지의 장례식에 갔는데 자꾸 작년에 우리 돌아가신 아버지 생각이 났어요
= I went to my friend’s father’s funeral, and I kept thinking of my father who passed away last year

기억이 나다 = to remember (for a “memory” to come up)
이 카드로 어떤 혜택을 받을 수 있는지 기억 안 나요
= I forget which benefits I can get from using this card

화가 나다 = to be/get angry (for “anger” to come up)
학생들에게 질문을 물어봤는데 학생들이 답변하지 않아서 저는 화가 났어요
= I asked a question to the students, but I got mad because they didn’t answer

짜증이 나다 = to be/get annoyed (for “the feeling of being annoyed” to come up)
수압이 너무 낮아서 우리 집에서 샤워를 하면 짜증이 나요
= It is annoying showing at my house because the water pressure is too low

소리가 나다 = for a sound to be made (for a “sound” to come up)
초인종을 눌렀지만 집 안에서 아무런 소리가 안 나서 그냥 집에 갔어요
= I pressed/rang the doorbell, but there was no (sort of) sound from inside the house so I just went home

냄새가 나다 = for something to smell (for a “smell” to come up)
이 대추에서 왜 이렇게 이상한 냄새가 나요?
= Why does this date smell strange like this?

피가 나다 = to bleed (for “blood” to come up)
저는 손가락을 실수로 베서 피가 났어요
= I cut my finger by accident so it was bleeding

눈물이 나다 = to cry (for “tears” to come up)
어떤 학생이 시험을 잘 못 보고 눈물이 났어요
= Some student didn’t do well on the exam so he cried

땀이 나다 = to sweat (for “sweat” to come up)
이불을 덮고 자는데 너무 더워서 땀이 났어요
= I slept with a blanket, but it was so hot so I was sweating

문제가 나다 = for there to be a problem (for a “problem” to come up)
만약 그 국회의원이 당선되면 엄청 큰 문제가 날 거예요
= If that member of congress gets elected, there will be big problems

사고가 나다 = for an accident to happen (for an “accident” to come up)
차를 그렇게 빨리 운전하면 사고가 날 거예요
= If you drive a car fast like that, you will get into an accident

큰 일이 나다 = for something big/terrible to happen (for a “big issue” to come up)
어르신들을 존경하지 않으면 큰 일 날 거예요
= If you/we don’t respect elders, there will be big problems/issues

전쟁이 나다 = for a war to break out (for a “war” to come up)
그 나라에서 1800년에 전쟁이 났어요
= A war broke out in the year 1800 in that country

차이가 나다 = for there to be a difference (for a “difference” to come up)
그 반의 성적과 이 반의 성적에 차이가 엄청 많이 나요
= There is a big difference between the grades of that class and this class

기침이 나다 = to have a cough (for a “cough” to come up)
담배를 처음으로 피우니 바로 기침이 났어요
= I tried cigarettes (smoking) for the first time and coughed

열이 나다 = to have a fever (for a “fever” to come up)
우리 애기가 열이 많이 나서 병원에 가야겠어요
= Our baby has a high fever, so we will have to go to the hospital

구멍 나다 = for there to be a hole in something (for a “hole” to come up)
저의 바지에 구멍이 나서 엄마한테 혼날 것 같아요
= My mom is going to get mad at me because there is a hole in my pants

시간이 나다 = for there to be time (for “time” to come up)
시간이 나면 만나서 맛있는 것을 먹자
= If you have time, let’s meet and eat something delicious

고장이 나다 = for something to break
저 컴퓨터가 고장이 나서 다른 컴퓨터를 써야 됩니다
= You have to use another computer because that one is broken

실감이 나다 = for something to feel real (for “the feeling of something being real” to come up)
제가 이번 주말에 여행한다니 실감이 아직 안 나요
= It doesn’t feel real that I am going to go traveling this weekend

쥐가 나다 = to have a cramp (for a “cramp” to come up)
제가 스트레칭을 안 하고 바로 운동을 하다가 갑자기 다리에 쥐가 났어요
= I suddenly got a cramp in my leg while exercising because I didn’t stretch and exercised right away

용기가 나다 = to have courage (for “courage” to come up)
원래 그 여자랑 얘기하는 게 너무 무서웠지만 지금은 갑자기 용기가 났어요
= Originally I was too scared to talk with that girl, but now all of a sudden I have courage

Below you can see sentences with 나다 acting on nouns that I haven’t introduced in this course yet. As we are organizing the usages of 나다, this is a good time to introduce these words to you. You can find these nouns in the vocabulary list of this lesson as well:

정전이 나다 = for the power to go out
비가 많이 내려서 정전이 났어요
= The power went out because a lot of rain fell

티가 나다 = for something to be obvious
저 아저씨가 가발을 쓰는 것은 티가 나요
= It is obvious that that man is wearing a toupee

겁이 나다 = to be scared (for “fear” to come up)
저는 무서운 것을 보자마자 겁이 나서 눈을 감아야 돼요
= When I see something scary, I get very scared so I have to close my eyes

싫증이 나다 = to get sick of (for “the feeling of getting sick of something” to come up)
저는 이제 그 선생님에게 싫증이 나서 그 수업을 듣고 싶지 않아요
= I am sick of that teacher, so I don’t want to go to (listen to) that class

In Lesson 17, you also saw 나다 used with ~아/서 and placed ~고 to indicate that one action occurs after another. For example:

마사지를 받을 때 마사지를 해 주는 사람이 오일을 바르고 나서 몸 전체를 주물러요
= When you get a massage, the person giving the massage applies oil and then rubs your whole body

That’s just a quick organization of 나다. I hope you find it useful.

That’s it for this lesson!


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