TURNING ADJECTIVES INTO NOUNS

In English, you can easily turn adjectives into nouns by adding different suffixes, such as ‘y’ (i.e., difficult -> difficulty) and ‘ness’ (i.e., sad -> sadness).

In Korean, every adjective ends with 다, but there are some variations when turning adjectives into nouns.

VERBS ENDING WITH A CONSONANT

If the infinitive of the adjective ends with a consonant, then you simply need to add ‘음’ after removing ‘다’ to turn it into a noun.

Let’s take a look at how this works.

Remove 다 and add 음 instead

Practice makes perfect! Check out our Korean Adjectives page to practice turning adjectives into nouns.

CONSONANTS ENDING IN THREE SYLLABLES

We know that in Korean every adjective ends with ‘다’, but for adjectives with three syllables and their infinitives ending with a consonant, it’s a bit different.

Let’s check out the structure and the table below to solidify our understanding.

Remove the final consonant of the syllable before 다 and add 움.

ADJECTIVES ENDING IN A VOWEL

If the infinitive of the adjectives end with a vowel, we then add ‘ㅁ’ to the ending vowel after removing ‘다’.

Tip! Any adjectives that end with ‘하다’can be turned into nouns simply by removing ‘하다’.

Remove 다 and add ㅁ to the ending vowel

Let’s take a look at the table below for some examples:

하다 VERBS ENDING WITH A ㅡ SYLLABLE

Just like many other grammar points, there’s always an exception, which is the case for infinitives of the adjectives ending with a syllable that contains the ‘ㅡ’ vowel.

In this case, they can be turned into nouns only by adding ‘ㅁ’ to ‘하’ and not the other way. 

Let’s learn how to that.

Let’s see what that looks like in a sentence.

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FAQs

MORE FREE LESSONS

• Turning Korean verbs into nouns

  Verb without ‘다’ + 는것/ 기

• Expressing as soon as in Korean

  A + ~자마자 + B

• Expressing instead in Korean

  Noun + 대신

• Expressing 'must' in Korean

  Verb + ~야(만) 한다