Once you can build present relative clauses with -는, the natural next question is: how do you say "the person who went," "the book I read," "the food I made"? Korean shifts the modifier into the past with -(으)ㄴ, a completed-action ending that marks a verb's result as now describing the noun. It is the workhorse of past description, and it hides one of the most notorious traps in Korean grammar: the very same -(으)ㄴ shape means PAST on a verb but PRESENT on an adjective. This page teaches the verb side and confronts that clash head-on.
The rule: -은 after a consonant, -ㄴ after a vowel or ㄹ
For an action verb, the past attributive splits by what the stem ends in:
- Consonant stem → -은: 먹다 → 먹은, 읽다 → 읽은, 받다 → 받은.
- Vowel stem → -ㄴ: 가다 → 간, 사다 → 산, 오다 → 온, 보다 → 본.
- ㄹ-stem → -ㄴ (the ㄹ drops): 만들다 → 만든, 살다 → 산, 열다 → 연.
방금 여기 온 사람 못 봤어요?
banggeum yeogi on saram mot bwasseoyo
Did you not see the person who just came in here?
어제 읽은 책 제목이 기억 안 나요.
eoje ilgeun chaek jemogi gieok an nayo
I can't remember the title of the book I read yesterday.
제가 만든 케이크예요, 한번 드셔 보세요.
jega mandeun keikeuyeyo, hanbeon deusyeo boseyo
It's a cake I made — please give it a try.
The romanization shows the liaison: 읽은 is ilgeun (the ㄺ cluster splits, ㄹ staying as the coda and ㄱ sliding onto 은), and 먹은 is meogeun. Notice too that 만든 (from 만들다) and 산 (from 살다) have lost their stem ㄹ — the same ㄹ-drop you saw before -는.
What -(으)ㄴ actually means: a completed action, now describing the noun
-(으)ㄴ doesn't just place the action in the past — it says the action is finished, and its completion is what now characterizes the noun. 간 사람 is "the person who went" — the going is done, and that done-going is how we're identifying them. This is why -(으)ㄴ so often lines up with an English past-tense or present-perfect relative clause: "the person who left," "the letter I've written."
우리가 처음 만난 곳 기억나요?
uriga cheoeum mannan got gieongnayo
Do you remember the place where we first met?
지난주에 산 신발이 벌써 망가졌어요.
jinanjue san sinbari beolsseo manggajeosseoyo
The shoes I bought last week are already broken.
제가 읽은 책 중에서 이게 제일 좋았어요.
jega ilgeun chaek jung-eseo ige jeil joasseoyo
Of the books I've read, this one was the best.
The great clash: -(으)ㄴ is PAST on a verb, PRESENT on an adjective
Here is the point that trips up every learner. Descriptive verbs (adjectives) use -(으)ㄴ for their PRESENT attributive — 큰 ("big"), 작은 ("small"), 좋은 ("good") — as covered on the adjective attributive page. Action verbs use -(으)ㄴ for their PAST attributive — 간 ("that went"), 먹은 ("that ate"). The ending is spelled and pronounced identically. So a bare -(으)ㄴ form is ambiguous until you know whether the stem is a verb or an adjective.
큰 사람이 문 앞에 서 있어요.
keun sarami mun ape seo isseoyo
A big person is standing in front of the door. (크다 = adjective → present)
온 사람이 문 앞에 서 있어요.
on sarami mun ape seo isseoyo
The person who came is standing in front of the door. (오다 = verb → past)
These two sentences are structurally twins — vowel-stem + ㄴ + 사람 — yet 큰 사람 is "a big person" (a present description) and 온 사람 is "the person who came" (a past event). The only way to read the tense correctly is to recognize that 크다 is an adjective and 오다 is a verb. English never forces this, because it keeps its adjectives ("big") and its past relative clauses ("who came") in totally different shapes.
The three-way tense set on one verb
It helps to see -(으)ㄴ in the middle of the verb's full attributive paradigm, because the three tenses are simply three different endings on the same stem:
| Verb | Past -(으)ㄴ | Present -는 | Prospective -(으)ㄹ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 먹다 (eat) | 먹은 (that ate) | 먹는 (that eats) | 먹을 (to eat) |
| 가다 (go) | 간 (that went) | 가는 (that goes) | 갈 (to go) |
| 만들다 (make) | 만든 (that made) | 만드는 (that makes) | 만들 (to make) |
제가 먹은 음식, 지금 먹는 음식, 이따 먹을 음식이 다 달라요.
jega meogeun eumsik, jigeum meongneun eumsik, itta meogeul eumsigi da dallayo
The food I ate, the food I'm eating now, and the food I'll eat later are all different.
That single sentence runs the same verb 먹다 through all three attributives. The prospective -(으)ㄹ has its own page; here the takeaway is that -(으)ㄴ is the past slot.
Boundary: -(으)ㄴ vs the recollected -던
-(으)ㄴ reports a simple, neutral completion. When you want to add that the action was witnessed, habitual, or interrupted — "the coffee I was in the middle of drinking," "the restaurant I used to go to" — Korean switches to the retrospective -던 / -았던. Compare 먹은 사과 ("the apple I ate," just done) with 먹던 사과 ("the apple I was eating," left off). Keep -(으)ㄴ for plain completion and don't let its territory bleed into -던's.
아까 산 우유는 냉장고에 넣었어요.
akka san uyuneun naengjanggoe neoeosseoyo
I put the milk I bought earlier in the fridge. (simple completion → -(으)ㄴ)
Common Mistakes
Mistake 1 — Reading an adjective's -(으)ㄴ as past. 작은 is "small" (present), not "was small." Only verbs get a past reading from -(으)ㄴ.
❌ 작은 방
✗ Reading this as 'the room that was small' is a misreading — 작다 is an adjective, so 작은 방 is the present 'a small room'.
✅ 작은 방 하나 주세요.
jageun bang hana juseyo
Please give me a small room. (present description)
Mistake 2 — Adding -은 to a vowel stem. Vowel and ㄹ stems take bare -ㄴ.
❌ 어제 가은 곳이 어디예요?
Wrong — 가다 is a vowel stem; the past attributive is 간, not 가은.
✅ 어제 간 곳이 어디예요?
eoje gan gosi eodiyeyo
Where's the place you went yesterday?
Mistake 3 — Keeping the ㄹ on a ㄹ-stem. The stem ㄹ drops before -(으)ㄴ.
❌ 제가 만들은 음식이에요.
Wrong — 만들다 drops its ㄹ before -ㄴ → 만든, not 만들은.
✅ 제가 만든 음식이에요.
jega mandeun eumsigieyo
It's the food I made.
Mistake 4 — Using present -는 for a completed action. If the action is finished, you need the past -(으)ㄴ.
❌ 어제 먹는 밥이 너무 짰어요.
Wrong — a finished, past action needs -은: 어제 먹은 밥.
✅ 어제 먹은 밥이 너무 짰어요.
eoje meogeun babi neomu jjasseoyo
The rice I ate yesterday was too salty.
Key Takeaways
- Past attributive of a verb = -(으)ㄴ: consonant stem → -은 (먹은), vowel/ㄹ stem → -ㄴ (간, 만든, with the ㄹ dropping).
- It marks a completed action that now describes the noun — usually English "that did / has done."
- The clash: the same -(으)ㄴ shape is past on a verb (온 사람 "who came") but present on an adjective (큰 사람 "big"). Identify the stem's class to read the tense.
- Slots in a three-way set with present -는 and prospective -(으)ㄹ on the same stem.
- Use plain -(으)ㄴ for neutral completion; switch to -던/-았던 for interrupted, habitual, or recollected pasts.
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Start learning Korean→Related Topics
- Present Verb Relative Clauses: -는TOPIK 2 — The present attributive -는 turns any action verb into a modifier that sits in front of a noun (먹는 사람 'a person who eats') — covering both English simple present and progressive, dropping ㄹ before it, and reserved strictly for verbs, never adjectives.
- Prospective / Future Relative Clauses: -(으)ㄹTOPIK 2 — The prospective attributive -(으)ㄹ marks an action as unrealized — future, planned, or hypothetical — and often translates as English 'to ~' rather than 'will': 마실 물 'water to drink', 갈 사람 'the person who'll go', 할 일 'work to do'. It's also the backbone of -(으)ㄹ 때, -(으)ㄹ 것이다, and -(으)ㄹ 수 있다.
- Adjective Attributive: -(으)ㄴ (Descriptive Verbs)TOPIK 2 — Descriptive verbs (adjectives) take -(으)ㄴ for their PRESENT attributive — 예쁜 꽃, 작은 집, 좋은 사람 — which is why an adjective before a noun looks like a verb's PAST form but isn't. Covers the -은/-ㄴ split, the ㅂ/ㅎ irregulars and ㄹ-drop, and the master rule for telling adjective -(으)ㄴ from verb -(으)ㄴ.
- Recollected Past Relative Clauses: -던 and -았/었던TOPIK 3 — The retrospective attributives -던 and -았/었던 modify a noun with a REMEMBERED past: -던 for an action that was ongoing, habitual, or left unfinished (마시던 커피 'the coffee I was drinking'), -았/었던 for one clearly completed and now discontinued (갔던 곳 'a place I once went'). They add 'witnessed / interrupted / nostalgic' — nuance the plain -(으)ㄴ can't carry.
- The ㄹ Drop: 살다 → 삽니다 / 사세요 / 사는TOPIK 2 — A stem-final ㄹ drops before endings starting in ㄴ, ㅂ, ㅅ, or 오 (mnemonic ㄴ·ㅂ·ㅅ·오), and ㄹ-stems take no 으 in 으-endings — so 살다 gives 삽니다, 사세요, 사는, 사니까. Filed with the irregulars, but the most predictable class of all.