-(았/었/였)었
(at/eot/yeot)eot
Grammar · 1 sense
has changed since
Examples
10년 전까지는 외국에 살았었어요.
I lived abroad until 10 years ago.
어렸을 때는 파를 안 먹었었어요.
I didn't eat green onions when I was young.
이 아빠가 군대 있을 때 취사병이었다고 얘기했었나?
Did this dad say he was a cook when he was in the army?
When you'd hear it
This is common in spoken Korean, including polite conversation and drama dialogue, when someone looks back on an earlier experience; it also appears in casual messages. It is less common in formal reports, which often use a simple past form instead.
What learners get wrong
Learners often treat this as an exact equivalent of the English past perfect. Compared with -았/었/였어요, -(았/었/였)었어요 often presents the earlier situation as no longer current or as something being recalled from a later point.
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