Lesson 15
안녕하세요! Welcome back to another lesson on conjunctions! Hooray! By the end of this lesson, you will learn how to use a Korean conjunction which means “well then”, “in that case”, or “if so”.
그러면 = in that case; if so; then
Do you remember -(으)면? Yes, that is right. It was introduced in Level 2, Lesson 23! 만약 -(으)면 or -(으)면 means “if” or “in case”. 그러면 is a combination of 그렇다, which means “to be so”, and -면.
A shorter version of 그러면
In spoken Korean (and often in casual written Korean), instead of saying 그러면, sometimes people use the shortened form, 그럼. Try not to confuse it with 그런, which means “such”.
Sample Sentences
그러면 이거는 뭐예요?
= Then, what is THIS?
지금 바빠요? 그러면 언제 안 바빠요?
= You are busy now? Then WHEN are you not busy?
한국 음식 좋아해요? 그럼 김밥도 좋아해요?
= Do you like Korean food? Then do you like kimbap, too?
진짜요? 그럼 이제 어떻게 해요?
= Really? If so, what do we do now?
그럼 이거는 어때요?
= Then how about this one?
* As an adverb, 그럼 (shortening of 그러면) indeed means “then” or “in that case”. However, the interjection 그럼 (or 그럼요 in polite form) means “of course!” or “naturally!” Depending on the context you can distinguish the difference between the two.