Korean grammar patterns › Level 6
-노라면
if one keeps doing … (then eventually) (literary)
Level 6 · TOPIK II · advanced
How to use it
Clause 1 is an action continued over time; clause 2 is what naturally happens or is discovered as a result. Literary and poetic (essays, song lyrics).
Forming it
| 살다 | → 사노라면 |
| 걷다 | → 걷노라면 |
| 기다리다 | → 기다리노라면 |
Verbs only, with no past or future marker: ✗ 바쁘노라면, ✗ 했노라면. ㄹ-stems drop ㄹ: 살다 → 사노라면.
Examples
사노라면 언젠가 좋은 날도 오겠지요.
If you keep on living, good days will come someday.
이 길을 따라 걷노라면 작은 호수가 나옵니다.
If you keep walking along this path, you will come to a small lake.
Compared with similar patterns
-다 보면 is the everyday spoken equivalent with the same meaning; -(으)면 is a plain 'if/when' without the sense of continuing.