Korean grammar · Level 4 · 4급
-았/었던 것이다
That's why … / So it was that …
-았/었던 것이다 looks back at a past event and explains what was really behind it — “that is why”, “so it turns out”. It is frequent in history and story writing. In speech it becomes -았/었던 거예요, or -았/었던 거네요 when you have just worked something out.
Examples
그래서 세종대왕은 누구나 배울 수 있는 글자를 만들었던 것이다.
That is why King Sejong made letters anyone could learn.
아, 그래서 어제 전화를 안 받았던 거예요?
Oh, so that's why you didn't answer the phone yesterday?
호야는 너무 피곤해서 버스에서 잠들었던 것이다.
Hoya had simply been so tired that he fell asleep on the bus.
Practise it in context · Level 4, Unit 6
The king who made an alphabet
A dialogue with audio, practice that checks itself, Hoya’s mistakes, a reading and a writing task.
Open the unit →