~(으)려면 멀었다 (~eul-ryeo-myeon meo-reot-da) – if one were to talk about this, it’s still in the distant future/sometime in the future
When we talk about something that we’ve planned to do but it just somehow isn’t our priority or something that we can do right now, we will use ~(으)려면 멀었다.
To understand this better, we can look at it in a longer form “(~에 대해 말하)려면, (이 순간으로 아직) 멀었다”.
That means, “(if we were to talk about) doing this, it is still in the distance future (from this moment)”.
Another thing to note is that ~(으)려면 멀었다 has a little negativity attached to it. “I want to do this thing that you’re talking about too but it’s still far away.”
It kind of expresses some sort of reluctance and procrastinating heart to do it.
Examples:
지금 20살인데 결혼하려면 멀었고 그냥 먼저 공부해야지.
I’m only 20 years old now so (talking about) getting married is still quite far away (in the future) and I should study first.
이 회사에서 취직한지 2년 되었지만 아파트가 너무 비싸서 사려면 멀었어요.
It’s been 2 years since I’ve been employed at this company but an apartment is expensive so (talking about) buying it is still very far away.
부자 되려면 멀었어. 지금 부채도 아직 안 청산했는데.
I’m still far from being a wealthy person. I haven’t even settled my debts yet at the moment.
