힘들다 Meaning in Korean

Hi everyone, it’s your Korean teacher Jun. Many students asked me a tutorial for 힘들다 after I updated ‘it’s hard’ tutorial. And it seems like many students are having a tough beginning for this year as I am lol. Well… when Koreans have a bad time at the beginning of a year, they call it 액땜. I really don’t know what it actually means but it means you spend all bad lucks for an year and have only good lucks for after. Anyway, 힘들다 has more meanings than that. So today we are going to learn 힘들다 meaning in Korean

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힘들다 Meaning in Korean Featured

What’s 힘들어요 Meaning in Korean

힘들어요

[himdeureoyo]
It’s tough / It’s hard / I’m tired

 

Basic form : 힘들다
반말(informal non-honorific) form : 힘들어
Negative form with 해요 speech style : 안힘들어요

 

Basically, you can say it means something is tough or hard in Korean. However you must know this Korean word 힘들다 is not same at all to English ‘tough’ or ‘hard’. You can easily understand if you see what’s the literal meaning of 힘들다.

 

You can actually separate 힘들다 into 2 words which work perfectly alone. One is 힘 means power or strength in Korean, another one is 들다 means lift in Korean (can mean many things though). So, technically 힘들다 means a physical hardness or backbreaking.

 

Many students also asked a tutorial for differences between 힘들다 and 어렵다. You can check the next tutorial for the differences.

Extended Meaning of 힘들다

Korean language extends the meaning of 힘들다 for mental hardness or problems too, you can use like ‘I’m having a hard time’ or ‘this work is hard’ with using 힘들다. 힘들다 mostly sounds like you’re exhausted or something is physically/mentally tiring.

 

이 일은 정말 힘들어요
This works is really hard

요즘 저 너무 힘들어요
I’m having a hard time these days

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How To Use

A: 저 너무 힘들어요
I’m having a hard time / I’m so exhausted
B: 안아줄게요
I’ll hug you

 

A: 아… 힘들어요
Ahh I’m tired
B: 좀 쉬어요
Take a break a bit

 

A: 유니콘이 되고 싶은데 너무 힘들어요
I want to be a unicorn but it’s too hard
B: 모든 사람은 유니콘을 꿈꾸죠
Everybody dreams to be a unicorn

Be Careful With Pronunciation

In the basic form 힘들다, ㄹ is pronounced as L. However, if you connect it to other words that starts with ㅇ(default vowel), then it becomes more like ‘R’ sound. So 힘들어요 should be [himdeureoyo], not [himdeuleoyo]

 

힘들다
[him-deulda]
It’s hard / I’m tired

힘들어요
[him-deu-reoyo]
It’s hard / I’m tired

힘들면
[him-deul-myeon]
If it’s hard

힘들어도
[him-deu-reodo]
Even if it’s hard

Vocabulary Note

이 [i] : this [determiner]
일 [il] : work / job
정말 [jeongmal] : really
요즘 [yojeum] : recently / these days
너무 [neomu] : too much / too many
안아주다 [andajuda] : to give a hug to somebody
좀 [jom] : just / a little bit
쉬다 [shida] : to rest
유니콘 [yunicon] : unicorn
되다 [doeda] : to become
싶다 [sipdda] : want to –
모든 [modeun] : every / all
사람 [saram] : people
꿈꾸다 [ggumgguda] : to dream

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