hakgyoeseo deureun somuni geumbang peojyeosseoyo.

Here, 학교에서 means at school.

The particle -에서 often marks:

• the place where an action happens, or
• the starting point/source in some contexts.

In this sentence, it marks the place connected to 들은 (heard), so the idea is heard at school.

So:

• 학교에 = to school / at school (depending on context)
• 학교에서 = at school, in the place where something happened

Because 듣다 (to hear) is an action, -에서 is natural for the place where that hearing happened.

In Korean, verbs can directly modify nouns. This works a lot like a relative clause in English.

So:

• 듣다 = to hear
• 들은 = heard / that was heard / that someone heard
• 소문 = rumor

Together, 들은 소문 means something like:

• the rumor (someone) heard
• the rumor that was heard

Korean puts this modifying verb form before the noun, unlike English, which often puts the clause after the noun.

So instead of:

• the rumor that I heard at school

Korean says:

• 학교에서 들은 소문

Literally:

• at school heard rumor

In most natural contexts, it will usually be understood as the rumor I/he/she/we heard, depending on context.

Korean often leaves the subject unstated when it is obvious or unimportant.

So 학교에서 들은 소문 could mean:

• the rumor I heard at school
• the rumor we heard at school
• the rumor someone heard at school

In everyday usage, people often interpret it in the most contextually natural way, often the rumor I heard at school if the speaker is talking about their own experience.

It is not strongly passive in the English sense. It is just a noun modified by the verb 듣다 in the past attributive form.

Both can modify nouns, but they feel slightly different.

• 들은 소문 = the rumor heard / the rumor that someone heard
• 들었던 소문 = the rumor that had been heard / the rumor I remember hearing

들은 is the simpler, more neutral past modifier.

들었던 often adds a nuance of:

• recollection
• previous experience
• something more specifically remembered from before

In this sentence, 들은 is the most straightforward choice because the speaker is simply identifying which rumor they mean: the one heard at school.

-이/가 marks the subject, while -은/는 marks the topic.

Here, 소문이 금방 퍼졌어요 focuses on the rumor as the thing that spread.

So:

• 소문이 퍼졌어요 = the rumor spread
• 소문은 퍼졌어요 = as for the rumor, it spread

Using -이 here feels natural because the sentence is presenting what happened to that rumor.

If you changed it to 소문은, it would still be grammatical, but the nuance would shift:

• maybe contrastive
• maybe talking about the rumor as an already established topic

For example:

• 학교에서 들은 소문은 금방 퍼졌어요. = As for the rumor I heard at school, it spread quickly.

금방 usually means:

• soon
• quickly
• in no time
• sometimes just a moment ago, depending on context

In this sentence, it means quickly or before long:

• the rumor spread quickly
• the rumor spread in no time

So it is describing how fast the rumor spread.

A useful note: 금방 can have two common uses.

1. very soon / quickly
2. just now / a moment ago

Here it is clearly the first meaning because it modifies 퍼졌어요.

The dictionary form is 퍼지다, which means to spread.

Conjugation:

• 퍼지다
• past stem: 퍼졌-
• polite ending: -어요
• 퍼졌어요

So 퍼졌어요 means spread in polite past tense.

This is an intransitive verb here, meaning the rumor itself spread.

Compare:

• 소문이 퍼졌어요 = the rumor spread
• 누군가 소문을 퍼뜨렸어요 = someone spread the rumor

That second one uses a different verb, 퍼뜨리다, because it is transitive.

This is a very common question.

• 퍼지다 = to spread
  This is usually intransitive. The thing spreads by itself.

  • 소문이 퍼졌어요 = the rumor spread

• 퍼뜨리다 = to spread something
  This is transitive. Someone actively causes it to spread.

  • 그가 소문을 퍼뜨렸어요 = he spread the rumor

In your sentence, 퍼졌어요 is used because the focus is on what happened to the rumor, not on who spread it.

Yes, in natural translation it can feel close to a rumor from school, but the Korean is more specific than that.

학교에서 들은 소문 literally means:

• a rumor heard at school

That is slightly different from just:

• a school rumor
• a rumor from school

The Korean specifically includes the action heard, so it is not merely describing the rumor’s origin. It is describing the rumor as one that was heard in that place.

So the nuance is:

• not just a rumor connected to school
• but a rumor that someone heard at school

Korean often omits subjects and other elements when they are understood from context.

So instead of saying:

• I heard a rumor at school, and it spread quickly

Korean can simply say:

• 학교에서 들은 소문이 금방 퍼졌어요.

The listener often understands who heard it from context.

This omission is very normal in Korean. English usually needs the subject stated more clearly, but Korean does not.

Yes. 듣다 is an irregular verb.

Normally, a verb stem ending in ㄷ changes in certain forms when followed by a vowel.
For 듣다, the ㄷ changes to ㄹ in some conjugations.

So:

• 듣다
• 들어요
• 들은
• 들었어요

That is why you see 들은, not 듣은.

This is something learners just have to get used to with ㄷ irregular verbs.

Other examples:

• 걷다 → 걸어요
• 묻다 → 물어요 in some meanings

But not every ㄷ verb is irregular, so it is best to learn them case by case.

Yes. That is a very close structural translation.

A more natural English translation would usually be:

• The rumor I heard at school spread quickly.
• The rumor we heard at school spread quickly.
• The rumor heard at school spread quickly.
  This is grammatically fine, but it sounds more formal or slightly less natural in everyday English.

Korean often allows this kind of compact modifier structure without forcing you to specify exactly who did the hearing.

퍼졌어요 is in the polite, informal style often called -요 style.

It is polite and very common in everyday conversation.

Compare:

• 퍼졌어요 = polite
• 퍼졌습니다 = more formal
• 퍼졌어 = casual / intimate

So this sentence is polite but natural for normal conversation.