-대신

Vocabulary in This Post

N + 대신 V/Adj + ㄴ/은/는 대신 It expresses replacing one action with another or compensating for an action. (instead~, in return for~, in exchange for~). You can use either ‘~대신’ or ‘~대신에’. (It's not a exactly marker, still it’s often used after a noun, functioning like a marker.)

버스 대신에 지하철을 탔어요.

Instead of the bus I took the subway.

오늘은 엄마 대신 아빠가 데리러 왔어요.

Today, instead of mom, dad came to pick me up.

• When you want to use it with verbs or adjectives, use the form ‘V/Adj root + noun modifier + 대신(에)’. In this case, you can think of ‘-대신’ as a noun that is modified by the verb or adjective.

어제 일찍 잔 대신에 일찍 일어났어요.

Instead of going to bed early yesterday, I woke up early and studied.

내가 고기를 굽는 대신 너는 찌개를 끓여라.

Instead of me grilling the meat, you boil the stew.

• Noun

• V/Adj—follows noun modifier rules(you can think of -대신 working like a noun with V/adj modifying it)

• Tense

It can’t be used with future tense. Therefore, you can’t use it with the ㄹ/을 noun modifier.