나다 vs 내다: 화가 나다 · 소리를 내다

Korean has dozens of everyday collocations built on a single verb pair: 나다 and 내다. On the surface they look like two random verbs to memorize one phrase at a time. In fact they are one alternation seen from two sides. 나다 means something arises or comes out of itself — it is intransitive, and the thing that arises is the grammatical subject (particle 이/가). 내다 is its transitive causative twin — to make or produce that thing — and what you produce is the object (particle 을/를). Once you feel this one contrast, you stop memorizing phrases and start predicting them.

The core alternation: it happens vs I make it happen

Think of 나다 as comes out on its own and 내다 as bring it out. The same noun can pair with either verb, and the whole meaning flips depending on which one you pick — plus the particle changes to match.

In the first sentence, the sound simply occurs — no one is producing it, so it is the subject: 소리가 나다. In the second, you are the one who would produce it, so the sound becomes an object: 소리를 내다 (here with the particle dropped, as is common in speech). This is the whole logic in miniature. 나다 = an event that arises; 내다 = an act that produces.

나다 collocations: states and events that well up

Because 나다 marks spontaneous emergence, it clusters around bodily events, sensations, and things that "come over" you without your willing them.

Notice 생각이 나다 — literally "a thought arises" — is how Korean says to recall / to come to mind. You do not actively "remember"; the memory surfaces on its own. That is exactly why 나다 is the verb. The past 났어요 is just 나 + 았어요 contracting to 났어요.

내다 collocations: things you actively produce

내다 is what you reach for when a person deliberately brings something into being: a sound, an effort, a payment, a decision.

시간을 내다 ("to make time") is telling: time does not appear on its own, you carve it out — a deliberate act, hence 내다 and the object particle. 용기를 내다 ("to summon courage") works the same way. The past 냈어요 is 내 + 었어요 contracted.

The pivot every learner must feel: 화가 나다 vs 화를 내다

Nowhere is the contrast sharper than with 화 ("anger"). The same emotion noun reads as experienced or directed depending purely on the verb and particle you choose.

화가 나다 describes an inner state: anger rises inside you, with no one necessarily on the receiving end. 화를 내다 describes an outward act: you let the anger out, usually at a target (marked with 한테/에게). So 화가 났어요 is "I felt angry"; 화를 냈어요 is "I blew up / I took it out on them." A person can be 화가 났지만 (feeling angry but) choosing not to 화를 내다 (show it) — the two are genuinely different events, and Korean keeps them apart where English blurs both into "got angry."

Even 티를 내다 ("to show a sign of it") uses 내다 — because showing is producing an outward sign. The pattern holds everywhere. The very same split runs through 짜증 ("irritation"): 짜증이 나다 is feeling irritable — an inner state that rises on its own — while 짜증을 내다 is acting irritable, snapping at someone or being visibly short with them.

Why English speakers get this wrong

English uses one loose verb — "get/make" — for both sides of the alternation. "I got angry" and "I got angry at him" share a verb, so English speakers reach for one Korean verb and one particle for both, and then guess. The fix is to route through the meaning: did the thing arise on its own, or did someone produce it? Emergence takes 나다 + 이/가; production takes 내다 + 을/를. That single question resolves almost every case.

A second trap is treating 화를 내다 as the default translation of "be angry." If you merely feel angry with no target, that is 화가 나다. Save 화를 내다 for actually venting — raising your voice, snapping, showing it. Saying 부장님한테 화를 냈어요 means you lost your temper at your boss, which is a very different (and riskier) claim than 화가 났어요 ("I was annoyed").

Common Mistakes

The recurring error is always the same shape: the right verb paired with the wrong particle, or vice versa. Lock the verb and particle together as one unit — 화가 나다, 화를 내다, 소리가 나다, 소리를 내다 — and the mistakes disappear. For the wider family of light verbs that behave this way, see 생기다 · 들다 · 걸리다 and 하다 light-verb collocations; for the underlying grammar, transitive–intransitive verb pairs.