TOPIK II · LEVEL 6
-노라니
-노라니 means 'as I kept doing A, I came to feel or notice B', linking an ongoing action of the speaker to what it led them to realize; it is a literary, written-style ending.
시간·순서Time & sequenceHan: -노라니 attaches directly to the verb stem; the past tense is marked only in the second clause (났다).
Examples
밤새 원고를 쓰노라니 어느새 창밖이 밝아 오고 있었다.As I kept writing the manuscript all night, the sky outside had quietly begun to grow light.
그의 이야기를 듣노라니 나도 모르게 눈물이 흘렀다.As I listened to his story, tears ran down before I knew it.
고향을 떠나 혼자 지내노라니 부모님의 소중함을 새삼 느끼게 되었다.Living alone away from my hometown, I came to feel anew how precious my parents are.
창밖을 멍하니 바라보노라니 어린 시절 생각이 났다.As I sat gazing absently out the window, memories of my childhood came back to me.
Don’t mix up
-노라니vs-다 보니Same idea, but -다 보니 is the neutral, spoken choice and works with any subject, while -노라니 is literary and speaker-centred: 매일 듣다 보니 한국어가 늘었어요.
-노라니vs-노라면-노라면 is conditional/general ('if you keep ~ing, B will happen'), while -노라니 reports what actually happened: 사노라면 좋은 날도 오겠지.-노라니vs-노라고-노라고 states the speaker's effort or intention ('I did my best to ~'), not a discovery that followed: 열심히 하노라고 했는데 실수가 있었다.How to build it
V+노라니(까)
듣다 → 듣노라니, 바라보다 → 바라보노라니, 살다 → 사노라니 (ㄹ drops)
- No tense marker goes before -노라니 (not *봤노라니); the time is shown in the second clause, usually past: 보노라니 …생각이 났다.
- The subject of the first clause is usually the speaker (I), or the narrator's character in a story.
- The second clause describes a feeling, realization or situation that arose; it cannot be a command, request or suggestion (no -세요, -자).
- It belongs to essays, novels and formal writing; in everyday speech Koreans usually say -다 보니 instead.
Classic mistake
Wrong: 창밖을 바라봤노라니 옛 생각이 났다.
Right: 창밖을 바라보노라니 옛 생각이 났다.
-노라니 attaches directly to the verb stem; the past tense is marked only in the second clause (났다).
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All TOPIK grammar- -(으)려니-(으)려니 either shows how hard or emotional it feels when you set about doing something, or, followed by 하다/생각하다, states what you assumed would happen.
- -는 족족-는 족족 means that each time something happens, something else follows right away, often so that the thing is quickly used up or gone.
- -에 즈음하여N에 즈음하여 is a formal way to say that something is done to mark a significant occasion such as an anniversary, holiday or milestone.
- -기(가) 바쁘게-기(가) 바쁘게 shows that the next action follows the first one immediately, often in a hurry, as if there were no time to wait.
- -자니-자니 means 'if I go ahead and do X, a problem comes up' and is used when you are weighing a choice and hesitating.
- -기가 무섭게-기가 무섭게 means that the second event happens the very instant the first one occurs, almost too fast to believe.
- -(으)매-(으)매 is a bookish, literary way to say 'because' or 'as', linking a cause to its natural result in formal writing.
- -(으)나 -(으)나Two paired or opposite verbs/adjectives, each with -(으)나, mean 'whichever of these is the case, the following stays the same', which often amounts to 'regardless' or 'all the time'.
- -(으)락 -(으)락Joins two opposite actions or states to show that they keep switching back and forth.