Lesson 4
In this lesson, we are going to look at the sentence ending -고 말다. First of all, please note that this sentence ending is more commonly found in written Korean than in spoken Korean. -고 말다 is used to express how a certain action comes to an end or is completed after going through a series of events. It is similar to the sentence ending -아/어/여 버리다, but -고 말다 tends to be more objective. On the other hand, -아/어/여 버리다 tends to show the speaker’s feelings about the situation more clearly, and is also used more often in spoken Korean.
Conjugation
Verb stem + -고 말다
When you talk about an action in a simple statement and do not provide a lot of background information, using -고 말다 can be inappropriate. For example, if you want to start a conversation by saying “저 어제 이거 샀어요 (= I bought this yesterday)”, saying “저 어제 이거 사고 말았어요” instead is awkward. This is because when you use -고 말다 you are expecting the listener to already have an understanding of what kind of situation or previous actions you went through before reaching that final stage of purchasing.
Examples
1.
잠들다 = to fall asleep
잠들었어요. = I fell asleep.
잠들고 말았어요. = (I was doing something else, so I did not want to fall asleep, but after a while, eventually) I fell asleep.
* It is more natural to include additional information other than, “잠들고 말았어요”, so you would want to add what you were doing before you fell asleep.
공부를 하다가 잠들고 말았어요. = I was studying, but then I fell asleep.
2.
감기에 걸리다 = to catch a cold
감기에 걸렸어요. = I caught a cold.
감기에 걸리고 말았어요. = I ended up catching a cold.
As you can see in both of the examples above, the result is somewhat undesirable. However, the result is not always undesirable, and there is usually less of a negative feeling from the speaker about the situation when using -고 말다 than when using -아/어/여 버리다.
Sample Sentences
결국 힘이 다 빠지고 말았어요.
= I ended up using all my energy and was exhausted.
(Meaning: You tried your best to continue, but eventually, after a series of actions, you became exhausted.)
이곳도 사막이 되고 말았어요.
= This place has also become a desert.
(Meaning: The place was not a desert before, but after going through a series of events, it has eventually become a desert, much to your disappointment.)
너무 어두워서 머리를 벽에 부딪히고 말았어요.
= It was too dark, so I ended up hitting my head against the wall.
(Meaning: You were trying not to get hurt and did your best to find your way around even though the room was dark, but eventually, you hit your head against the wall.)
범인을 쫓아갔지만 놓치고 말았어요.
= I chased after the criminal, but I lost him.
(Meaning: You made an effort to go after the criminal and catch him, but eventually, you lost him.)
가겠다는 약속을 하고 말았어요.
= I ended up promising to go.
(Meaning: You did not want to go, or were not supposed to go, but you ended up promising someone that you would go somewhere, perhaps after talking with them.)