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Grammar Intermediate TOPIK II · Level 3–4 Intermediate Korean 1 · Unit 16

-어다가

-어다가: Do It There, Bring the Result Here

Connective: perform an action at one place and transfer the result (or continue) to another place.

Before this, make sure you know: -아서 / -어서 , -으러 / -러 , -아요 / -어요

How to form it

When Form Example
ㅏ/ㅗ verb stem -아다가 사다가 / 찾아다가
Other stems -어다가 만들어다가 / 빌려다가
하다 (hada) verbs -해다가 준비해다가 / 프린트해다가

-어다가 is the fetch-and-transfer connective: you do the action in one place, then move the result (often toward where you are talking from).

Curriculum gloss: doing it there and bringing it here. Classroom Korean drills it with shopping and errands — buy there, bring here.

Shape

Same vowel harmony family as -아서 / -어서:

편의점에서 물 사다가 왔어요.
집에서 도시락 만들어다가 가져갔어요.
창고에서 꺼내다가 차에 실었어요.
프린트해다가 제출했어요.

Common collocations: 사다가 오다/가다, 만들어다가, 찾아다가, 빌려다가.

Not interruption -다가

-다가 / -다가 is “was doing A, then (shifted to) B”:

숙제를 하다가 잠이 왔어요.     interruption / shift
숙제를 해다가 선생님께 드렸어요. transfer of the finished homework

Hangul looks related because both contain 다가. The jobs differ: shift mid-action vs do-and-carry.

Not 에다가

에다가 is the particle 에다가 (‘onto / on top of / in addition to’). Different part of speech.

가방에다가 이름표를 달았어요.   particle: onto the bag
이름표를 사다가 달았어요.       connective: bought (elsewhere) then attached

Orphans and mix-ups happen here — keep edaga ≠ eodaga.

Versus -어 가지고

Same packing unit:

간식을 사 가지고 나왔어요.     spoken result-link
간식을 사다가 나왔어요.       bought there → came out with it (path highlighted)

Overlap exists in real speech. Teach -어다가 when the place-to-place transfer is the point.

Quick checks

  1. Harmony: -아다가 / -어다가 / -해다가.
  2. Think obtain/do elsewhere → move result.
  3. Do not merge with interruption -다가 or particle 에다가.

Ask: did I do it over there so I could bring the result somewhere else? If yes, -어다가 is the map.

Do not confuse it with

-다가

while doing... (interrupted / transitioned into another event)

에다가

onto, into — adding something to a place

-어 가지고

and then, with that — spoken and a bit casual

Taught alongside this

On the jabi learning path, this appears in 여행 가방을 잃어버리지 않도록 가방에 이름표를 달았어요 (I put a name tag on my suitcase so I don't lose it.) — Intermediate Korean 1, Unit 16, on the theme of Preparing for travel and packing. These come with it:

-어 가지고 and then, with that — spoken and a bit casual -던데① I noticed, and — reporting what you saw, inviting a response

Words used above

Tap the speaker to hear it read aloud by your browser.

-어다가-eodagado there and bring/transfer here
사다가 오다sadaga odabuy (there) and bring (here)
운반unbancarrying / transport
장소jangsoplace
가져다gajyeodabring (related lexical verb)

Quick check

No sign-up, no score saved — just see if it stuck.

1. 편의점에서 물 사다가 왔어요 means…

2. How is -어다가 different from -다가?

3. 에다가 vs -어다가?

Common questions

Is this the same as 가져오다?

Related idea. Lexical 가져오다 packages ‘bring’; -어다가 builds the path from another verb (사다가, 만들어다가).

Direction always ‘here’?

Gloss teaches the classic toward-speaker fetch. Context can shift the landing place (친구 집에 사다가 갔어요) — still transfer after doing.

vs -어 가지고?

eo-gajigo is a broad spoken result-link. -어다가 specifically maps the do-elsewhere → bring/transfer route.

Can I say 가다가?

가다 + -다가 is usually interruption (‘was going, then…’), not this fetch pattern. Prefer 사다가 / 찾아다가 style verbs of obtaining.