🇺🇸 Translation
I’ll be backkk (Take care while I’m away)
📙 Lesson point
How to say “I’ll be back” in Korean
Hello, everyone! We’re going to learn two things today. First, we’ll learn about the Korean expression ‘잘 다녀오다.’ We’ll take a look at the words that form this expression and how this expression is used in daily conversations. Next, we’ll learn about the grammatical form ‘-ㄹ게,’ which is used in conversations.
After reading today’s post, not only will you be able to learn how to say “I’ll be back” in Korean, but you’ll also understand how this Korean expression is grammatically formed. Moreover, we’ll look into the actual expression that Giselle of AESPA used for her Instagram post. Let’s begin!
Korean verbs related to movement ‘가다’, ‘오다’, ‘다니다’
Here, we’ll first learn verbs which have the meanings of “to come,” “to go,” and “to come back.”
| 가다 | to go |
| 오다 | to come |
| 다니다 | to go, to go around with |
‘가다’ as a Korean verb – to go
“가다” is used to say that you “go” somewhere. Whether you’re going to a school, a gym, or a supermarket. It refers to your one-way movement of going somewhere.
‘오다’ as a Korean verb – to come
“오다” is used when you “come” from another place. This word is the opposite of “가다”.
What does the Korean verb ‘다니다’ mean?
“다니다” is a multiple-direction movement of going and coming back, possibly several times. For instance, let’s say that you’re a student. You’d still go to a school. Here, although we say that you “go” to the school, you just won’t “go” to your school one-way, one-time. Right? When the school is over, you’ll come back home from the school. Moreover, you don’t go to school just one single day, you go to school on a regular basis because it’s a part of your life. Here, we can use the verb “다니다”.
Korean verb ‘다니다’ in its various forms
Now, the word “다니다” can be combined with other verbs and change into verbs that have different meanings.
What is the meaning of ‘다녀오다’?
다녀오다
= 다니다 (to go around with) + 오다 (to come)
= to go somewhere and be back later
안나는 집에 다녀왔다.
= Anna came back after visiting home.
= Anna visited home and then came back.
What is the meaning of ‘다녀가다’?
다녀가다
= 다니다 (to go around with) + 가다 (to go)
= to drop by and then leave
아빠는 이미 다녀갔다.
= Dad has already dropped by (and have left).
The Korean expression ‘(Verb) -ㄹ게’
First, let’s learn about the expression ‘(verb) -ㄹ게.’ This sentence-closing ending is used in daily conversations to show promises or commitment toward an action. The key nuance here is that the speaker is expressing willingness to engage with that action. Now, let’s look at how to use this expression.
For verbs that don’t have a final consonant at the root of the verb, you just need to remove ‘-다’ and add the final consonant ‘ㄹ’ to the verb stem and add ‘-게’ at the end.
하다 (to do)
→ 할게 (I’ll do it - expressing willingness)
가다 (to go)
→ 갈게 (I’ll go - expressing willingness)
Therefore, ‘다녀올게’ would mean a promise that one would come back safely.
Giselle says: “다녀올게ㅔㅔ✨”
To conclude, let’s look at the post Giselle of AESPA posted on her Instagram. ‘다녀올게’ means “I’ll be back. (Take care while I’m away)” based on what we learned today. Giselle seems to be going to somewhere, so she seems to be telling her fans that she’ll come back safely!