동안
dongan
Grammar · 1 sense
During, while
Examples
어제 12 시간 동안 잤어요.
Yesterday, I slept for 12 hours.
곰은 겨울 동안에 겨울잠을 자요.
Bears hibernate during winter.
When you'd hear it
동안 is common in everyday speech and writing, from casual conversations to news and formal explanations. It follows a time period or event, often with 에 optionally added: 겨울 동안(에).
What learners get wrong
동안 marks the span of time something continues, while -면서 links two actions happening at the same time. Use 동안 with periods such as 12시간 or 겨울, not to connect two subject-predicate clauses.
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