How does 찾다 mean both “to find” and “to look for” in Korean?

When you look up 찾다 in the dictionary, both "to find" and "to look for" will pop up as its translations. Which one does it mean? Can it mean both? If so, how do you know which meaning the speaker is trying to express?

As you can expect, it all comes down to context, but there are also some ways Korean speakers use to make a distinction between these two meanings.

Let's look at sample sentences using each 찾다.

- 찾다 = to find
  - Did you find it? = 찾았어요?
  - I found it! = 찾았어요!
  - Where did you find it? = 어디에서 찾았어요?
  - How did you find it? = 어떻게 찾았어요?
  - Who found it? = 누가 찾았어요?
- 찾다 = to look for
  - What are you looking for? = 뭐 찾고 있어요?
  - Is there something you are looking for? = 찾는 거 있으세요?

When you look at those sentences, the meaning distinction is easier and you don't need any other clues to clear things up. But if you want to say things like:

- Did you look for it?
- I looked for it.

Things become a bit confusing because if you just say 찾았어요? or 찾았어요, it will mean "Did you FIND it?" and "I FOUND it." Then how can you express the meaning of "look for" in this case? ⬇️

That's when you add the word 보다 and use 찾아보다 instead of 찾다.

When you say 찾았어요?, it sounds almost always like "Did you find it?" and almost never "Did you look for it?".

➡️ So instead, you need to say 찾아봤어요? to mean "Did you look for it?".

When you say 여기에서 찾았는데, it usually means "I found it here but" and not "I looked for it here but".

➡️ So instead, you need to say 여기에서 찾아봤는데 to mean "I looked (for it) here but..."

But when you use the present progressive tense, or in other words, say that you are "looking for" something, you can use 찾고 있다 because you are probably not saying that you are "finding" something.

뭐 찾고 있어요? = What are you looking for?
제 안경 찾고 있어요. = I'm looking for my glasses.

If you say 찾아보고 있어요, it also means something slightly different. You are looking for something, but you are researching for it or looking things up online.