Korean Surprise Endings | 는군요, 는구나, 네요, 나요, 는데요, Etc.

How surprising! Korean has so many endings for expressing surprise, wonder, disbelief, etc. Almost one for every emotion it seems like. I believe these are all of the surprise endings.

These are some of the easiest things to learn in Korean. Just tack them on to the end of a word and BAM - it adds a lot of "spice" to your sentence. Really though, these will make you seem really good at Korean. ORIGINAL Post.

는군요 & 는구나 & 군 (Discovery & Surprise)

Usage: 군요/는군요 is used to express surprise or wonder upon learning something new either by direct observation or experience or by hearing about it from someone else. It can be translated as “I see that”, “Indeed”, “How…”, or It can act like an exclamation point (!) does in English

It can be used in the past tense: -았/었군요.

Adjectives -군요

Verbs -는군요

Nouns -이군요

In the informal plain style -군요 changes to -구나/-군 for adjectives, 는구나/는군 for verbs, & (이)구나/(이)군 for nouns.

Examples:

아이스크림을 좋아하는군요.

You really like ice cream!

벌써 오월이구나!

(I didn't realized that) it's already May!

눈이 나쁘군요.

Your vision is bad indeed.

감기가 걸렸군요.

I see that you have caught a cold.

-네요, -(이)네요 (Experience & Surprise)

Usage: This ending has 2 different usages. 1 is to express surprise upon learning something through direct experience but not from hearing it from someone. It can translate to - really, certainly, wow. The 2nd usage is to agree with someone (when experiencing the same thing)

Adj./Verb - 네요

Nouns - (이)네요

- Consonant = 이네요

- Vowel = 네요

Examples:

벌써 여름이네요.

Wow, it's already summer.

가족이 너무 크네요.

Your family is really big.

한국어를 잘하시네요!

Your Korean (really) is good!

-나요?!

Usage: You may recognize this as a a question ending, but It also a surprise ending. It is used for making interrogative sentences and exclamations. It can be used in present (나요) & past tense (았/었나요), but not future tense.

Examples:

다 먹었나요!?

Did you eat it all!?

집에 벌써 가나요?

Are you already going home?

아직도 자나요?

Is he still sleeping?

는데요

Usage: Don’t get me started on the amount of usages & meanings this grammar has! One of them is used to express the speaker’s surprise at discovering or feeling something unexpected when observing a situation. It can be translated as, “I’m surprised to learn that….is so…” In English.

Examples:

여자 친구가 정말 예쁜데요!

(I’m surprised to see that) Your girlfriend is really pretty.

니아 씨는 정말 대단한데요.

Nia is really awesome.

와, 공부 열심히 하는데요.

Wow, you really are studying hard.

That's It for today's post! Hope you learned something new. I'll see you next time. If you want more lessons like this - Here.