Listening 9–12 Choosing What the Woman or Man Will Do Next

Listening · Easy–Medium

A must-secure target. The answer lies in the request or suggestion near the end of the dialogue.

In items 9–12 you listen to a short dialogue in which two people exchange a few lines each, then choose from four sentence options 'what the woman will do next' or 'what the man will do next'. Unlike items 4–8, the dialogue goes back and forth more than once, so you need to listen while separating what has already happened from what is yet to happen. As the dialogue grows longer, so does the amount of information, which makes it easy to pick the wrong answer if you judge based on just one sentence. The answer is decided almost entirely near the end of the dialogue. When one person mentions a difficulty or a need, the other proposes or requests an action with something like '제가 ~할게요' (I'll ~) or '~해 주시겠어요?' (Could you ~?), and that final line is what points to the next action. Conversely, you must not mistake an action mentioned in the middle of the dialogue — something already finished, or something merely mentioned but never carried out — for the answer. Wrong answers in this type are made not so much from 'the wrong action' as from 'an action with the wrong timing'. Another point you must watch is that the question alternates between asking 'what the woman will do' and 'what the man will do'. Even if you understood the whole dialogue, it's easy to get it wrong if you mix up who is doing what. This matters especially in dialogues where the two people split up tasks — a structure like 'I'll do this, so you do that' — where you need to pair each person's share correctly in your memory. In short, this type comes down to two steps: (1) find the final suggestion or request sentence, and (2) check whether the person carrying it out matches the person the question asks about. There's no need to feel this is hard just because the dialogue runs a bit longer. In fact, if you focus on the ending, you can get the answer right even without fully understanding the earlier part — it's an efficient stretch.

Choosing What the Woman or Man Will Do Next

• -(으)ㄹ게요 — An expression of the speaker's own intent to do that action. Whoever says this is the one who carries out that action next.
• -아/어 주시겠어요?/-아/어 줄래요? — An expression that asks the other person to do something. If the person asked accepts, that person becomes the one who does the next action.
• 그럼 (저는)/그동안 -(으)ㄹ게요 — A signal for splitting tasks between two people. '그동안' (in the meantime) points to what the speaker will do while the other person does something else.
• 먼저 ~할게요/~부터 할게요 — An expression for setting an order among several tasks. The action marked with '먼저' (first) is the speaker's very next action.
• -아/어 놓다/두다 — Marks a preparatory action done in advance, before something else is finished. It frequently appears as the correct answer for 'what happens next'.
• 이미 -았/었어요 (완료 시제) — Marks something already finished, so it can never be the answer for 'what happens next'. It's often used as a trap option that confuses timing.
• -(으)려던 참이에요 — Means the speaker was just about to do that action. It marks something about to be carried out almost at the same moment as the other person's remark.
• 대신 -(으)ㄹ게요 — An expression that switches an originally planned action to a different method. The answer is the newly stated action, not the one planned earlier.
• 행동 주체를 가리키는 주어(저는 ~/○○ 씨는 ~) — When the dialogue divides roles like '저는 ~ (I'll ~), 그쪽은 ~ (you ~)', you must follow only the lines of the person (man/woman) the question asks about.
• -아/어 줄까요? (화자가 먼저 제안) — An expression where the speaker offers help on their own initiative. If the other person accepts, the speaker who made the offer becomes the one who does the next action.

• The suggestion or request expression in the dialogue's last sentence (-ㄹ게요, -아/어 주시겠어요?, -는 게 어때요?)
• Tense markers that distinguish what's already finished from what's yet to happen
• Context that shows whether the man or the woman is the one carrying out the action

• As you listen, sort out what the two people have already done from what they will do next.
• Find the suggestion or request that appears in the last sentence or two.
• Check whether the person who will carry out that suggestion or request matches the person the question asks about.
• Choose the option whose sentence exactly matches that action.

• Mistaking an action merely mentioned in the middle of the dialogue, but never carried out, for the answer
• Getting it wrong by swapping the subject (man ↔ woman) even though the action itself is correct

These four items must be secured. Catch just one suggestion or request expression at the end of the dialogue accurately, and they aren't hard to solve.