TOPIK II · LEVEL 6
-거들랑 (조건)
A colloquial, old-fashioned or regional-sounding variant of conditional -거든: 'if / when …, (then do …)'. Heard from older speakers and in novels or period dramas; shortened to -걸랑.
조건·가정Conditions & what-ifsHan: Like -거든, -거들랑 needs a command, suggestion or intention after it, not a statement of fact.
Examples
그 사람을 만나걸랑 내 안부도 좀 전해 주게.If you meet him, give him my regards as well.
서울에 도착하거들랑 꼭 편지 한 장 보내거라.When you get to Seoul, be sure to send me a letter.
할머니는 "힘들거들랑 언제든 집으로 오너라" 하셨다.Grandma said, 'If things get hard, come home any time.'
Don’t mix up
-거들랑 (조건)vs-거든Same meaning in the neutral modern form: 도착하거든 연락해.-거들랑 (조건)vs-거들랑 (종결)At the end of a sentence -거들랑/-걸랑 gives a reason: 나 내일 시험이 있걸랑. The conditional one is followed by another clause.
-거들랑 (조건)vs-(으)면-(으)면 has no restriction on the second clause: 봄이 오면 꽃이 핀다.How to build it
V/A+거들랑 (short: 걸랑)
N+(이)거들랑
가다 → 가거들랑; 도착하다 → 도착하거들랑; 있다 → 있거들랑; 힘들다 → 힘들거들랑; 만나다 → 만나걸랑
- As with -거든 'if', the second clause is a command, request, suggestion or the speaker's will: 서울에 가거들랑 편지해라.
- It cannot end in a plain statement of fact or a past result: 봄이 오거들랑 꽃이 피었다 (X).
- Spoken, with an older or regional feel; modern standard speech uses -거든 or -(으)면. In writing it appears only in dialogue.
Classic mistake
Wrong: 봄이 오거들랑 꽃이 피었다.
Right: 봄이 오거들랑 꽃구경이나 가자.
Like -거든, -거들랑 needs a command, suggestion or intention after it, not a statement of fact.
Practise -거들랑 (조건) on real TOPIK questions
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All TOPIK grammar- -(으)ㄹ진대-(으)ㄹ진대 sets up an accepted fact as a premise ("given that…, since it is so that…") from which a firm conclusion, command or rhetorical question follows, in formal, bookish style.
- -(느)ㄴ다면야-(느)ㄴ다면야 stresses a condition: if this is really the case, the result naturally follows; the speaker often accepts or concedes the condition.
- -(으)ㄹ라치면-(으)ㄹ라치면 means 'every time I am about to do something, (annoyingly) something else happens', describing a repeated pattern that blocks or spoils the attempt.
- -는 날에는V-는 날에는 pictures the day a feared event might happen and warns that a serious, usually bad consequence will follow: "if ever ~, then it's all over."
- -았/었다 하면-았/었다 하면 means that once someone does a certain action, a particular, often excessive result follows every single time.
- -았/었던들Imagines the opposite of what really happened in the past ('had X happened…'), usually with regret that things could have turned out differently.
- -자면A connective ending of hypothetical intention, 'if one sets out to do V, if V is to be done': it states what doing it would take (time, money, effort). This is an ending in its own right; the quoted contraction of -자고 하면 'if someone says let's' is a separate use (see the last rule). Slightly bookish; also in set phrases like 말하자면 'so to speak' and 솔직히 말하자면 'to be honest'.
- -기로 들면If someone really sets about doing something, often stubbornly, there is no end to it, or nothing is impossible.
- -노라면-노라면 means 'if you keep doing something for a while', and the next clause gives the result that naturally follows; it has a literary, reflective tone.