Lesson 17 - Because of and Thanks to

Hello everyone!  

How’s it going? I hope this post finds you well! Today we’re not going to talk about more particles, but about two grammar patterns that are very frequently used in the Korean language. I’m talking about 때문에 and 덕분에. One is translatable into ‘because of’ and the other one into ‘thanks to’. As you can see, they’re different from each other in both meaning and function, but they have the form in common. In fact, both of them are put after nouns, leaving a space between it and them. Let me show you what I mean with an example: 

친구들 때문에 because of my friends  

친구들 덕분에 thanks to my friends 

  

Let’s start by looking at 때문에. It means ‘because of (the noun preceding it)’ and its function is to express the cause of the action. An action which will be said after the pattern, that is attached to the cause. To make it less complicated, let’s look at some examples:  

일 때문에 정말 피곤해 

I'm really tired because of work 

  

외출 금지 때문에 비디오 게임을 못해요 

I can’t play video games because I'm grounded 

As you can see, in both the sentences above, the cause is preceded by the pattern (일 work and 외출 금지 prohibition to go out are the causes) and followed by an action that can’t be done or that happened because of that specific thing.  
 Let’s look at more examples, to make it all clearer:  

감기 때문에 약을 많이 먹어야 돼요 

I have to eat a lot of medicines because of the cold 

  

다이어트 때문에 피자를 못 먹어 

I can't eat pizza because of my diet 

  

나쁜 성적 때문에 외출 금지 당했어요 

I was grounded because of my bad grade 

  

Note that, depending on the context, this pattern can also mean ‘thanks to’. Like in the following cases: 

  

너 때문에 시험을 합격했어요 

I passed the exams thanks to you 

  

이 요리법 때문에 모두 다 저녁을 맛있게 먹었어요 

Everyone enjoyed dinner thanks to this recipe 

However, the pattern that expresses the meaning and function of ‘thanks to’ isn’t 때문에. In fact, it’s 덕분에. As it’s been said in the introduction, 덕분에 is very similar to 때문에 because they both are put in the same part of the sentence (right after the cause of an action, and before that action). The meaning of 덕분에 is ‘thanks to (the noun preceding it)’. Let’s look at some examples: 

  

팬들 덕분에 가수가 상을 탔어요! 

Thanks to the fans, the singer won the award! 

  

내 고모 덕분에 이 재미있는 드라마를 보고 있어요 

I'm watching this interesting drama thanks to my aunt 

  

여러분 덕분에 제가 성공했어요 

I succeeded thank to you 

  

부모님 덕분에 잘 자랐어 

I grew up well thanks to my parents 

  

외과의 덕분에 수술은 잘 됐어 

The operation went well thanks to the surgeon 

VOCABS SET ON QUIZLET: 1 

KPOPOLOGY WEBSITE: Home, KPOPOLOGY Explains 

DROPBOX FILES: Main folder, Lesson 17 Practice

I will see you next time with another grammar post!

 구름