Turning Adjectives into Nouns in Korean || A2 Grammar

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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

PATTERN

Verb + 음

ADJECTIVE	MEANING	NOUN	MEANING
적다	Little	적음	Little in quantity
작다	Small	작음	Small in size
많다	Many/much	많음	Large in quantity
넓다	Wide/spacious	넓음	Spaciousness

View More Examples

adjective	meaning	noun	meaning
좁다	Narrow	좁음	Narrowness
높다	Tall/high	높음	Tallness
젊다	Young	젊음	Youth
늙다	Old	늙음	Senior

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.

PATTERN

Verb + 움

ADJECTIVE	MEANING	NOUN	MEANING
어렵다	Difficult	어려움	Difficulty
외롭다	Lonely	외로움	Loneliness
즐겁다	Joyful	즐거움	Joy
차갑다	Cold	차가움	Coldness

View More Phrases

adjective	meaning	noun	meaning
뜨겁다	Hot	뜨거움	Hotness/heat
무겁다	Heavy	무거움	Heaviness
가볍다	Light	가벼움	Lightness
아름답다	Beautiful	아름다움	Beauty

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

PATTERN

Verb + ㅁ

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

ADJECTIVE	MEANING	NOUN	MEANING
슬프다	Sad	슬픔	Sadness
기쁘다	Glad	기쁨	Gladness
행복하다	Happy	행복함	Happiness
불행하다	Unhappy	불행함	Unhappiness

View More Examples

adjective	meaning	noun	meaning
가난하다	Poor	가난함	Poverty
부유하다	Rich	부유함	Wealth
아프다	Sick	아픔	Sickness
건강하다	Healthy	건강함	Health

View Some Sentence Examples

돈의 적음이 삶의 불행함은 아니다	The lack of money is not the lack of happiness in life.
건강함(건강)이 제일 우선이다	Health is the most important thing.
아픔을 견뎌내고 일어나야 한다	You have to get over the sickness and raise yourself up.
우리집에는 늘 행복함(행복)이 가득하다	My home is always filled with happiness.

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.