Intermediate 1 · Lesson 1

Describe the background of an event

Lesson information & display

Planning guide: about 30 min · Progress by understanding and practice, not by the clock.

Completion records the activities you finished. It is not a pronunciation score or a Korean proficiency certificate.

Unit contents

Experiences and background

01Describe the background of an event 02Connect events in time order 03Compare expectations with what happened 04Express feelings about an experience 05Separate key events from supporting details 06Tell an experience and answer follow-up questions

Your goal Before you start Explore the situation Learn the expressions

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Learn the expressions

책을 읽었어요 reports a past activity. 책을 읽고 있었어요 presents reading as in progress at that moment; it does not by itself say when it ended.

Action	In progress in the past
읽다	읽고 있었어요.
기다리다	기다리고 있었어요.
공부하다	공부하고 있었어요.

Connect the two with 책을 읽고 있을 때 전화가 왔어요. Here 있을 때 locates the call during the reading; it is not a future appointment. The overall sentence describes the past.

Background first	Event then
토요일 오후 두 시에 도서관에서 책을 읽고 있었어요.	두 시 십 분에 친구에게서 전화가 왔어요.