-음 / -ㅁ: Noun Form for Notes and Signs

Nominaliser used especially in written notices, memos, and report-style endings.

Before this, make sure you know: -아요 / -어요 , -습니다, -습니까 , -기

How to form it

-음 / -ㅁ turns a stem into a noun — especially the kind you see on signs and memos.

금일 휴무임 — not a chatty sentence; a compact notice.

Stem	Form
Consonant (not ㄹ)	-음
Vowel	-ㅁ

없음 / 있음          none / available (label style)
확인 바람            please confirm (notice phrasing)
회의 참석했음        attended the meeting (log style)

Form	Typical home
-기 -기	spoken noun uses: 먹기가 어려워요
-음 / -ㅁ	notes, signs, terse writing

Saying 먹음이 어려워요 in casual chat sounds off. Keep -음 where Koreans actually put it — doors, apps, internal memos.

-습니다, -습니까 finishes a full polite sentence. -음 often replaces a full ending on a note. Different tools.

-았-/-었- -었- + -음 → -었음 is normal in report style. Do not stack a second past outside it for the same event.

-기

making a noun out of a verb, the plain way

-습니다, -습니까

formal polite ending (합니다체) — announcements, first meetings, the news

-았-/-었-

past tense — built on the same stem rule as 해요체

In the Sejong course this appears in 한국에서 찜질방은 처음인데요 — Sejong Korean 2, Unit 14, on the theme of 생활 편의시설. These come with it:

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-음 / -ㅁ-eum / -mnoun-forming ending (notes, notices)

휴무hyumuclosed (day off for a shop)

확인hwaginconfirmation

메모memomemo

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

1. Where does -음 feel most natural?

2. 가다 → ?

3. How does it differ from -기?

Is -음 the same as spoken -(으)면 shortened?

No. Dictionary lists a colloquial -음 that stands in for -으면 — that is conditional talk, not this nominaliser. Context separates them.

Can I end a polite conversation with bare -음?

Not as your normal [[g:haeyo-che]] ending. Notices may stop at 휴무임 / 확인 바람. Spoken replies still want -요 / [[g:hamnida-che]].

What about -었음?

Common in logs and brief reports: 회의 참석했음. The past sits in -었-; -음 closes the noun-like note.

Lexical words like 웃음?

Some -음 forms are frozen nouns. Productive grammar -음 still builds on the fly for notices — read the whole line.