있었는지를

있었는지를

"Whether there was" or "if there was."

Here, '있었는지를' is used to inquire about the existence of people in a certain place in the past.

그 곳에 사람이 있었는지를 확인해 보세요.

Check if there were people there.

In this sentence, '있었는지를' is used to question the location or state of the book in the past.

그 책이 책장에서 있었는지를 아세요?

Do you know if the book was on the shelf?

Here, the word is part of a conditional statement, hypothesizing about the presence of help in the past.

그 시간에 도움이 있었다면 얼마나 좋았을까요.

How great would it have been if there had been help at that time.