-(으)ㄴ 지: How Long Since

English measures time-since an action with a single little word: "It's been three years since I came to Korea." Korean has no equivalent one-word "since." Instead it uses a fixed frame — you nominalize the action with -(으)ㄴ 지, state the amount of time, and let a counting verb (되다 / 지나다 / 넘다) do the arithmetic. Learn the frame as a unit and the whole construction becomes automatic:

[verb] -(으)ㄴ 지 + [duration] + 되다 / 지나다 / 넘다

There is one spelling trap that even long-time learners keep tripping on — the 지 here is a spaced dependent noun, and it looks exactly like a completely different, attached ending that means "whether." Half of this page is about keeping those two apart.

Building the frame

The verb takes the past attributive ending -(으)ㄴ, because you are pointing back at a completed action and asking how much time has piled up since. Allomorphy follows the ordinary attributive rule:

Then comes the duration and a counting verb. 되다 ("it becomes / it's been"), 지나다 ("has passed"), and 넘다 ("has exceeded / it's been more than") are near-interchangeable, with 넘다 adding "and then some."

Look at 산 지 in the last one: 살다 is an ㄹ-stem, so the ㄹ drops before -ㄴ (살 → 산), exactly as it does everywhere the attributive -(으)ㄴ attaches. The frame does not create any special rule — it just reuses the past attributive you already know.

The 지 must be spaced — and here's why it matters

The 지 in this construction is a dependent noun (의존명사) meaning roughly "the interval since." Because it is a noun, Korean orthography requires a space before it: 온 지, 먹은 지, 산 지. Writing it glued to the verb — ×온지 — is not a minor typo. It collides head-on with a completely different piece of grammar.

The killer confusion: time-since 지 vs. "whether" -는지

Korean has an ending -는지 / -(으)ㄴ지 that means "whether / what / how" and introduces an embedded question. It is attached to the verb, no space, and it has nothing to do with time. Same three letters, opposite job.

Set the minimal pair side by side and the two systems could not be more different:

Don't forget the counting verb

Because English gets away with a bare "It's been three years," learners often stop at 온 지 삼 년 and leave off 되다/지나다. In Korean the frame is unfinished without it — the counting verb is what turns "the three-year interval since coming" into a full predicate.

That last example shows a bonus pattern: 오래되다 ("to be a long time") plugs straight into the slot where a duration + 되다 would go, giving the very common 본 지 오래됐어요 ("it's been ages since I saw it").

The three counting verbs are near-synonyms but carry slightly different shading. 되다 is the neutral default — "it's been." 지나다 stresses that the time has elapsed — "두 시간 지났어요," two hours have gone by. 넘다 means the amount has been exceeded — "삼 년이 넘었어요," it's been more than three years. And 오래되다 collapses duration and verb into one word for the everyday "it's been ages."

A note for English speakers on the tense

The verb before 지 is past attributive (-(으)ㄴ), never present (-는), and this catches people out. In English "since I came" and "since I've been living" both feel active/ongoing, so learners reach for the present-looking 오는 지 or 사는 지. But the logic in Korean is: the action that started the clock is a completed point in the past — you came, you started, you quit — and you are counting forward from that point. So it is always the past attributive: 온 지, 시작한 지, 끊은 지.

Asking "how long has it been?"

To make the question form, keep the -(으)ㄴ 지 frame exactly as is and drop 얼마나 ("how much / how long") into the duration slot:

This is one of the most common get-to-know-you questions you will hear, so it is worth drilling the whole frame — 온 지 얼마나 됐어요? — until it comes out without assembly.

Common Mistakes

1. Writing the time-since 지 glued to the verb. It is a dependent noun and takes a space; gluing it makes it read as the "whether" ending.

2. Using the present attributive instead of the past. The clock starts at a completed action, so it's -(으)ㄴ, not -는.

3. Dropping the counting verb 되다/지나다. A bare "…지 + duration" is not a complete sentence in Korean.

4. Not dropping ㄹ in an ㄹ-stem verb. 살다 → 산 지, not ×살은 지.

5. Confusing "since" (지) with "for / during" (동안). 지 counts from a starting point; 동안 measures a span of activity. "I studied Korean for three years" is 삼 년 동안 공부했어요, not a 지 sentence.

Key Takeaways

• The frame is [verb] -(으)ㄴ 지 + [duration] + 되다 / 지나다 / 넘다 — Korean's way of saying "it's been [time] since."
• The verb takes the past attributive -(으)ㄴ (온 지, 산 지, 끊은 지), never the present -는.
• 지 here is a dependent noun and is spaced — 온 지, not ×온지. Glued -는지 is the unrelated "whether" ending.
• Don't drop the counting verb; a bare "…지 + duration" isn't a full sentence.
• 지 = "since a starting point"; 동안 = "for a span." They are not interchangeable.