Grammar
N(으)로 나뉘다
Meaning
IntermediateN(eu)ro nanwida
N(으)로 나뉘다 says that a whole falls into parts, and the (으)로 phrase names the branches it falls into: 전시는 두 가지 주제로 나뉩니다. It is the passive of 나누다 (to divide), so the split is reported as a property of the thing rather than as something a person did — an exhibition, a report, a grading system or a budget is simply described as coming apart this way. The branches are almost always counted (두 가지로, 세 부분으로, 네 등급으로), and that count is what a reader needs in order to follow what the article says next, because the sentences after it usually take the branches one at a time.
Form
Attach (으)로 to the noun naming the resulting parts — 로 after a vowel or a ㄹ-final noun, 으로 after any other consonant (주제로, 부분으로) — and put the whole in the subject slot with 은/는 or 이/가. 나뉘다 is not a 하다 → 되다 verb: it is the native verb 나누다 with the passive suffix -이-, contracted (나누 + 이 → 나뉘), which is why it looks nothing like the Sino-Korean passives it sits beside. The ordinary forms are 나뉩니다, 나뉘었습니다, 나뉘어, and the modifier 나뉜. The active 나누다 puts the divider in the subject slot and the whole in the object slot: 전시를 두 가지 주제로 나눴습니다. 나누어지다 / 나눠지다 is another passive of the same verb and means the same thing.
Examples
전시는 두 가지 주제로 나뉩니다.
The exhibition is divided into two themes.
From: National Museum of Korea Opens "Our Table" Food History Exhibition
지원금은 소득에 따라 세 등급으로 나뉩니다.
The subsidy is divided into three tiers according to income.
주민들의 의견은 찬반으로 뚜렷이 나뉘었습니다.
Residents' opinions were sharply split between for and against.
Common mistakes & nuance
Do not write 나뉘어지다. 나뉘다 is already passive, and adding -어지다 on top stacks two passives on one verb — it is common in speech and still treated as an error in writing; either 나뉘다 or 나누어지다, not both at once. The other thing to watch is that this 로 marks the result of the split, not the basis for it: 주제로 나뉜다 means it comes apart INTO themes, and if you want to say it is divided BY theme, Korean uses 주제별로 or 주제에 따라 instead. The two are one syllable apart and say different things about the same exhibition.
Similar grammar
- N(으)로 구성되다
The same (으)로 slot filled with the same parts, run in the opposite direction. 나뉘다 cuts a whole up and implies the branches account for all of it; 구성되다 gathers parts into a whole and makes no such claim about completeness. The same object can be described either way — an exhibition of two themes 나뉜다 or 구성된다 — but only 나뉘다 says that those two are the whole of it.
- -되다
Useful as a contrast, not as a source. Most of the passives a news reader meets are built by swapping 하다 for 되다 inside a Sino-Korean word, and 구성되다 beside this entry is one of them. 나뉘다 is not: it is a native verb carrying an older -이- passive fused into the stem, which is why there is no 나뉘하다 and no way to derive the form by the 되다 rule. Verbs like this (나뉘다, 쓰이다, 열리다) simply have to be learned one at a time.