Learn Korean: Verb + 내내

Let’s take a look at the Korean sentence pattern Verb  + 내내. We use this to express the phrase the whole time something is happening (someone is doing something). The point is what else the person does or what else occurs in that duration. For example, imagine a guy tells his girlfriend I thought of you the whole time I was working. How romantic! The main action was working which in Korean is 일하다. We take the verb stem and attach 는 내내. Then, we add the other statement. The actual sentence is 내가 일하는 내내 네 생각했어. We can also use this with time such as 한 시간 내내 (the whole one hour) and 하루 내내 (the whole day).

 

네가 먹는 내내 나 웃었어.

I smiled the whole time you were eating

 

회의하는 내내 잠에 들었어.

I fell asleep during the whole meeting.

우리 같이 사는 내내 한 번도 사랑한단 말 안 했어.

You never said I love you the whole time we were living together.