Word
성분표를 읽는 데 시간이 걸려요.seongbunpyoreul ilgneun de sigani geollyeoyo.
Meaning
It takes time to read the ingredient label.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of seongbunpyoreul ilgneun de sigani geollyeoyo.
~이~i
subject particle
읽다ilgda
to read
~를~reul
object particle
시간sigan
time
Questions & Answers about seongbunpyoreul ilgneun de sigani geollyeoyo.
What does 시간이 걸려요 literally mean, and why is 시간 the subject?
시간이 걸리다 literally means time is taken / time is required. In this expression, the thing that gets taken is time, so 시간 commonly appears with the subject marker 이/가:
- 시간이 걸려요 = It takes time / It takes (me) time.
Korean often frames it as time being required, rather than I take time.
Why is it 성분표를 (object marker -를) if the sentence is about time?
The core verb phrase is (something을/를) 하는 데 시간이 걸리다 = It takes time to do something.
Here, 성분표를 읽다 is the action, and 성분표 is the direct object of 읽다 (to read), so it takes -을/를:
- 성분표를 읽는 데… = In reading the ingredients list…
What does 읽는 데 mean grammatically? Why not just 읽어서 or 읽으면?