Sahr's notebook entry: May 02, 2011 -게 되다, 거든, -면 I can't wrap my head around the concept of -게 되다. I don't have my 조사, 어미 handbook with me, but basically goes sorta like this: 하교에 가게 되었어요.

Hi, I wish I could help you.

‘~게 되다’ means something or someone has been changed to be new situation or states. As you know, It itself can’t be used in speaking. You have to combine with suitable ending of a word when speaking.

‘~게 되다’ is usually translated to ‘become to’, ‘have/has changed to~’, ‘get to~’ or etc.

Main idea of the form is that something/someone is different from before. And although it seems not to be the passive form, it contains passive meanings such as ‘~without intention, ~by chance or etc’.

학교에 가게 되었어요.

The speaker of the sentence might be a little child who isn’t a student. He/she would be going to school soon. Otherwise, the sentence means the speaker had been suspended from his/her school, and he/she has just been allowed going school again. Or, it might be a particular situation.

As to ~면 and ~거든…

학교에 가면 좋아요. (It’s possible to say. ~면 isn’t used as ‘if’)

학교에 가거든 좋아요. (This is wrong expression and we don’t say like so.)

It’s a little hard to explain why above sentence is awkward.

When we say ~거든, we usually say ~해라 or ~하거라 after it. I think that ‘~거든’ is normally used in imperative statements or request in the conditional mood. Someone else who studies Korean linguistics would be able to clearly answer you.

Here, I’ll give you some examples about ~면 and ~거든.

길이 미끄럽거든 지하철을 이용해라

= 길이 미끄러우면 지하철을 이용해라

“If the road is very slippery, take the subway.”

도착하거든 인사 말씀을 전해 주세요.

= 도착하면 인사 말씀을 전해 주세요.

“Please, say hello to him when you arrive.”

“Please, say hello to him if you get there(somewhere)” would be also possible.

Both are right interpretations. It depends on the situations of speaking.

But,

봄이 오면 꽃이 핀다 “When spring comes, the flowers bloom.”

봄이 오거든 꽃이 핀다 (WRONG)

In above case, ~면 can’t be exchanged to ~거든.

There mightn’t be clear rules in this. That will defend on a case-by-case basis.
Actually, the both form has their own unique senses in Korean language.

In many cases, ‘~면’ doesn’t mean ‘If’ as you know.

~거든 also can be interpreted in various ways. It depends on its context and the situations. I think ~면 and ~거든 is interchangeable in a lot of cases only when ~거든 is used as the conditional mood. But it won’t be the same. ~거든 contains more complex senses.

There are 4 kinds of usages about ‘~거든’ in Korean dictionary. The first one is for the conditional mood you asked, and another one is seldom used today. The others aren’t related to what you asked and they are totally different from ~면.

I think ~면 is more common rather than ~거든 in the conditional mood.

So, I recommend you using ~면 instead of ~거든 for now. Sometimes, ~거든 could be a poetic expression. But, in a few cases, it tends to be a little impolite.

I hope this article was helpful for you.

Have a good day :)

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