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Questions & Answers about i sueobeul deureun ji 1nyeoni doeeosseoyo.
What is the grammar pattern behind …은/ㄴ 지 in 이 수업을 들은 지 1년이 되었어요?
The …은/ㄴ 지 pattern attaches to a verb in its past participle (adjectival) form to indicate how much time has passed since that action. In this case, 들은 지 literally means “since (I) took.” It’s always followed by a duration (here 1년) and a verb like 되다, 지나다, or 되었어요 to express “it’s been [duration] since…”
Why is the verb 듣다 changed to 들은 instead of something like 듣은?
Because 듣다 is a ㄷ-irregular verb. When you add a vowel ending, the ㄷ changes to ㄹ. To form the past participle you take the modified stem 들- and add -은, making 들은 (“having listened”).
What role does 되었어요 play in this sentence?
되었어요 is the polite past form of 되다 (“to become”). Paired with the …은/ㄴ 지 clause, it conveys “it has become [duration].” So 1년이 되었어요 means “it’s become one year,” i.e. “it’s been one year.”
Why is there an 이 after 1년? Can I just say 1년 되었어요?
When you state how much time has passed, the time expression (1년) acts as the grammatical subject of 되다. Korean requires a subject particle (이/가), so you need 1년이 되다. Omitting 이 would make the sentence sound incomplete and ungrammatical.
Is there another way to say “it has been one year” in Korean?
Yes. You can use 지나다 instead of 되다:
- 이 수업을 들은 지 1년이 지났어요.
This also means “one year has passed since I took this class.” You wouldn’t use 걸리다 here, because 걸리다 describes how long something takes to happen, not how much time has elapsed.
Does 이 수업을 들은 지 1년이 되었어요 mean exactly one year or just approximately?
Generally it means “approximately one year” in everyday speech. If you want to stress it’s exactly one year to the day, you could add 정확히 before 1년 or mention the specific start/end dates.
How would I change the sentence to say “it has been two years” or “six months”?
Simply replace 1년 with your desired duration, keeping the particle and verb the same:
- 이 수업을 들은 지 2년이 되었어요.
- 이 수업을 들은 지 6개월이 되었어요.