Lesson 1
Welcome to Level 5! In the first lesson of Level 5, we will be going over how to say that you “almost did” something or “nearly did” something. These phrases are both used in situations where you wanted to do something (but only almost did it) and in situations where you did not want to do something and, fortunately, did not do it, but almost did.
Ex)
I almost lost my keys.
I almost passed the exam!
Conjugation
Verb stem + -(으)ㄹ 뻔했다
-(으)ㄹ 뻔하다 describes “nearly getting into a situation where something happens” and it is usually used in past tense since you are talking about something that you almost did. However, in order to use a verb with -(으)ㄹ 뻔했다, you need to conjugate the verb into the future tense and add 뻔했다 after it because, at the point of almost doing something, you were going to do it in the near future.
Ex)
사다 = to buy
[polite] 살 뻔했어요. = I almost bought it.
[casual] 살 뻔했어. = I almost bought it.
믿다 = to believe
[polite] 믿을 뻔했어요. = I almost believed it.
[casual] 믿을 뻔했어. = I almost believed it.
울다 = to cry
[polite] 울 뻔했어요. = I almost cried.
[casual] 울 뻔했어. = I almost cried.
Sample Sentences
무서워서 울 뻔했어요.
= It was scary, so I almost cried.
= I almost cried because I was scared.
무거워서 떨어뜨릴 뻔했어요.
= It was heavy, and I almost dropped it.
돈을 잃을 뻔했어요.
= I almost lost my money.
죽을 뻔했어요.
= I almost died.
갈 뻔했는데, 안 갔어요.
= I almost went there, but I did not.
* If you want to emphasize the fact that you ALMOST did something, you can put more emphasis on the word 뻔 by pronouncing it stronger when you speak.