Breakdown of hoeuiga gireoseo jeomsimeul mos meogeosseoyo.
Questions & Answers about hoeuiga gireoseo jeomsimeul mos meogeosseoyo.
-가/-이 marks the grammatical subject of the clause. Here, 회의가 길어서 means the meeting is long, so… and the meeting is the thing being described as 길다 (to be long).
You can say 회의는 길어서… if you want a topic/contrast nuance, like As for the meeting, it was long (so…), often implying comparison with something else.
길어서 is 길다 (to be long) + the reason/connection ending -아서/어서. It links two clauses and usually means because / so / since in everyday speech:
- 회의가 길어서 = Because the meeting was long / The meeting was long, so…
In Korean, -아서/어서 just connects cause → result. English chooses either because (focus on cause) or so (focus on result).
Same Korean sentence can be translated both ways depending on context.
The connector is -아서/어서. Which one you use depends on the vowel in the verb/adjective stem.
길다 has the stem 길-, so it takes -어서 → 길어서.
You might hear 길었어서, but the standard, natural form here is 길어서.
With -아서/어서, Korean often doesn’t separately mark past on the first clause if the overall meaning is clearly past from the final verb (못 먹었어요). 길어서 already works as because it was long in context.
- 못 먹었어요 = couldn’t eat / was unable to eat (circumstances prevented it)
- 안 먹었어요 = didn’t eat (often sounds more like a choice/decision)
Because the meeting ran long, the natural result is inability, so 못 먹었어요 fits well.
-을/-를 marks the direct object of 먹다 (to eat): 점심을 먹다 = eat lunch.
In casual conversation, it’s often omitted if clear: 점심 못 먹었어요.
But including -을 is perfectly natural and a bit more complete/neutral.
먹었어요 is the polite past form of 먹다. With 못, it becomes 못 먹었어요 = I couldn’t eat (earlier).
It implies the speaker is talking about a completed situation (e.g., earlier today).
Korean frequently omits subjects when obvious from context. Here it’s understood as I (or we) depending on the situation:
- (저는) 점심을 못 먹었어요 = I couldn’t eat lunch.
The most natural order is cause → result: 회의가 길어서 점심을 못 먹었어요.
You can rearrange with a different structure, but you wouldn’t usually place the result first with -아서/어서. If you want to lead with the result, you might use something like 점심을 못 먹었어요. 회의가 길었거든요. (I couldn’t eat lunch. Because the meeting was long.)
Common natural pronunciation points:
- 회의가 is often [회이가] (the 의 can sound like 이 in many contexts)
- 먹었어요 is often pronounced closer to [머거써요] in casual speech (sound changes in fast pronunciation)
-어요 is polite casual speech (often called 해요체), appropriate for most everyday situations. Alternatives:
- More formal: 회의가 길어서 점심을 못 먹었습니다.
- More casual (to friends): 회의가 길어서 점심 못 먹었어.