-길래
Used when the speaker takes action in response to an external situation, or something they observed/heard.
Summary
Equivalent
Because / Since (I noticed that)...
Also: -기에
Example
I closed the window because I noticed the weather was cold.
날씨가 춥길래 창문을 닫았어요.
Grammar rules
- The focus is on reacting to an external trigger.
- If it's a statement, the reason (first part) usually cannot be about the speaker themselves, and the action (second part) is what the speaker actively did (usually in the past or present progressive).
- Extremely common in everyday spoken Korean.
- If you are taking action because of something you HEARD, use '-(느)ㄴ다길래'.
친구가 온다길래 요리를 했어요. (Because my friend SAID they were coming, I cooked.)
- In statements, the subject of the first clause (the reason) and the second clause (the action) must be different. The second clause subject is usually 'I'.
비가 오길래 우산을 썼어요. (Since it was raining, I used an umbrella.)
- In questions, the subjects can be the same, but it often carries a tone of 'What exactly did you do/see that made you...?'
무슨 일이 있길래 표정이 안 좋아요? (What happened that makes your expression so bad?)
Patterns
A/V (Adjectives/Verbs)
과거/완료 (Past/Complete) · -았길래 / 었길래
A/V (Adjectives/Verbs)
현재 (Present) · -길래
A/V (Adjectives/Verbs)
추측 (Supposition) · -겠길래
N이다 (Noun-based)
과거/완료 (Past/Complete) · 였길래 / 이었길래
N이다 (Noun-based)
현재 (Present) · (이)길래
N이다 (Noun-based)
추측 (Supposition) · (이)겠길래
Example sentences
I closed the window because I noticed the weather was cold.
날씨가 춥길래 창문을 닫았어요.
Because they were having a discount event, I bought a few clothes.
할인 행사를 하길래 옷을 몇 벌 샀다.
Since my younger sibling was continuously sleeping, I didn't wake them up.
동생이 계속 자고 있길래 깨우지 않았어요.
Conversation
A: How was the movie yesterday? Was it fun?
어제 영화 어땠어요? 재미있었어요?
B: Since everyone was saying it was fun, I watched it, but it wasn't very good for me.
사람들이 다들 재미있다고 하길래 봤는데, 저는 별로였어요.
Practice
Fill in the blank
Select the correct conversational connector for an observed reason.
인터넷 평점이 좋아서 영화를 봤어요.
카페에 자리가 없어서 나왔어요.