3 · Sentence endings with attitude
What I saw for myself: -더라고요
passing on a first-hand observation
-더라고요 passes on something the speaker saw, heard or felt in the past as news for the listener; -던데요 does the same and leaves room for a reply.
At a glance
- Remember
- Deoragoyo: I was there, I noticed it, and now I am telling you.
- Form
- 맛있다 → 맛있더라고요verb or adjective
- Signal words
- -더라고요
- -던데요
- -던데
- 가 보니까
- -더라
- Trap
- Wrong:어제 저는 도서관에서 공부하더라고요.Right:어제 저는 도서관에서 공부했어요.
Your turn
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The form
The patterns at a glance
Each row first says when or what the pattern is used for, then gives an example in Korean.
| verb or adjective | 맛있다 → 맛있더라고요 |
| already over when seen | 끝나다 → 끝났더라고요 |
| after a noun | 학생이더라고요 |
| leaving room for a reply | 재미있던데요 |
| as background | 맛있던데 … |
| among friends | 맛있더라 |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
-더라고요 passes on something the speaker saw or experienced in the past.
어제 가 보니까 사람이 정말 많더라고요.I went yesterday, and there were really a lot of people.
If it was already over when the speaker saw it, the past -았/었- comes first.
가게에 갔는데 벌써 문을 닫았더라고요.I went to the shop, but it had already closed.
It describes the speaker's own feelings, not the speaker's own deliberate actions.
처음에는 좀 무섭더라고요.I found it a bit scary at first.
-던데요 reports the same kind of observation and waits for the listener's reaction.
저는 그 영화 재미있던데요.Well, I thought the film was fun.
Example sentences
제주도 바다가 정말 예쁘더라고요.The sea on Jeju was really beautiful.
민수 씨가 노래를 정말 잘하더라고요.Minsu is a really good singer, I found out.
그 가게는 일요일에 문을 안 열더라고요.That shop does not open on Sundays, I noticed.
가 보니까 벌써 다 팔렸더라고요.When I got there, it had all sold out.
한국 겨울은 생각보다 춥더라고요.Korean winters are colder than I expected.
그 카페 커피가 꽤 맛있던데요.The coffee at that café is pretty good, actually.
8 more example sentences
지하철이 버스보다 훨씬 빠르더라고요.The underground was much faster than the bus.
그분이 저희 선생님 친구더라고요.He turned out to be a friend of our teacher.
아침에 나가 보니까 눈이 많이 왔더라고요.When I went out this morning, a lot of snow had fallen.
그 책은 생각보다 어렵더라고요.That book was harder than I thought.
아이들이 그 노래를 정말 좋아하더라고요.The children really loved that song.
그 동네는 밤에도 조용하던데요.That neighbourhood is quiet even at night, actually.
지난번에 가 보니까 주차할 곳이 없던데 지하철로 가요.Last time there was nowhere to park, so let us take the underground.
저도 모르게 눈물이 나더라고요.I found myself in tears.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
Your own deliberate actions are done, not observed, so -더라고요 about them sounds as if you had watched yourself from outside. Report them in the plain past; keep -더라고요 for what you saw, heard or felt.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
-더라고요 goes straight onto the stem of a verb or an adjective, with no vowel to choose: 맛있더라고요, 많더라고요, 잘하더라고요. After a noun it is 이더라고요: 학생이더라고요. For something that was already over when the speaker saw it, the past comes first: 벌써 끝났더라고요, “it had already finished”.
The ending says: I was there, I saw it, and now I am telling you. 그 식당 정말 맛있더라고요 is “that restaurant was really good (I went and found out)”. Compared with a plain 맛있었어요, it sounds livelier and more personal, as if the speaker were reliving the moment of noticing — English often adds “actually” or “I found”.
Because it reports an observation, it does not describe the speaker's own deliberate actions: you do not observe yourself studying. It does describe your own feelings and reactions, which you notice as they happen: 생각보다 무섭더라고요, “it was scarier than I thought”, 저도 모르게 눈물이 나더라고요, “I found myself in tears”.
-던데요 carries the same first-hand observation and stops before a conclusion, waiting for the listener: 그 영화 재미있던데요, “I thought the film was fun, actually”. It is the natural way to disagree gently with what somebody has said. In the middle of a sentence, -던데 sets the observation as background for what follows: 그 식당 맛있던데 같이 갈래요?.
A closer look
Why the speaker cannot watch themselves
The syllable 더 in these endings marks a past observation, the same one that turns up in the modifier -던. Its job is to report the world as the speaker perceived it, which is why the subject is usually somebody or something else: the weather, a shop, a friend, a film.
The exceptions prove the rule. 저도 모르게 웃더라고요, “I found myself laughing”, is fine because the speaker did not decide to laugh; it happened, and they noticed. The same goes for dreams and for what you discover about your own abilities: 막상 해 보니까 잘되더라고요.
Worth knowing (2)
-
The informal form: -더라
Among friends the ending drops to -더라: 그 영화 진짜 재미있더라. A question in -더라? searches the speaker's own memory: 그 사람 이름이 뭐더라?, “what was his name again?”.
그 식당 이름이 뭐더라?What was that restaurant called again?
-
A shorter cousin: -데요
-데요, as in 맛있데요, is a shorter retrospective ending close to -더라고요. It is easily confused in writing with the hearsay -대요, which reports what somebody else said.
가 보니까 정말 넓데요.I went, and it was really spacious.
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