Korean Language Tutorial

Lesson 23

Korean Languages Tutorial
Korean lessons: Lesson 23
"Low Informal Conjugation"
Basic Conjugation: Past, Present, Future
As I have said in every lesson so far - every sentence that you have learned thus far has
not been conjugated. All the sentences you have learned so far would never actually be
used in Korean because they are not conjugated. I felt you needed to know basic sentence
structure before you learned how to conjugate. The good news, however is that
conjugating in Korean is much easier than other languages (including English and
especially French!).
An important note before you begin
This lesson will show you how to conjugate past/present/future verbs in the most basic
way. Although all of these conjugations are grammatically correct, they are rarely used in
conversation. This form is sometimes called “diary form” because it is usually used when
writing to yourself in a diary. It is also used when writing a test, book (not in dialogue),
research paper, newspaper article, magazine article, and other times when you are not
speaking/writing to a specific audience.
Though not important in conversation, these conjugations are incredibly important if you
want to understand more complex grammar later on.
The only part of speech that gets conjugated in Korean is verbs and adjectives. As you
already know, a sentence must end in either a verb or adjective.
Verbs
Present Tense
1) When the last syllable of the stem ends in a consonant, you add ~는다 to the
stem:
a. 먹다 = 먹는다 = to eat (먹 + 는다)
b. 닫다 = 닫는다 = to close (닫 + 는다)
2) When the last syllable of the stem ends in a vowel, you add ~ㄴ to the last
syllable followed by 다
a. 배우다 = 배운다 = to learn (배우 + ㄴ다)
b. 이해하다 = 이해한다 = to understand (이해하 + ㄴ다)
c. 가다 = 간다 = to go (가 + ㄴ다)
Past Tense
Before you learn this, you need to know something important. From now on, there will be thousands of other times when you will need to follow this same rule. Usually, when you add something to a verb/adjective, it has to be done in the following fashion:
- If the last vowel in a stem is ㅏ or ㅗ (except 하) you add 아 PLUS whatever else you are adding.
- If the last vowel in a stem is anything but ㅏ or ㅗ you add 어 PLUS whatever you are adding.
For conjugating in the past tense, you need to add 았다 or 었다 to the stem of a word. So, 았다 is added to words with the last vowel being ㅗ or ㅏ and 었다 is added to words with the last vowel being anything but ㅏ or ㅗ.
For example:
저는 먹다 = I eat
The last vowel in the stem is ㅓ. This is not ㅏ or ㅗ. So, we add 었다 to the stem: 저는 먹었다 = I ate (먹 + 었다)
저는 문을 닫다 = I close the door
The last vowel in the stem is ㅏ. So we add 았다 to the stem: 저는 문을 닫았다 = I closed the door (닫 + 았다)
저는 창문을 열다 = I open the window
The last vowel in the stem is ㅕ. This is not ㅏ or ㅗ. So we add 었다 to the stem:
저는 창문을 열었다 = I opened the window (열 + 었다)
What makes this complicated (at first) is that for verbs that have a last syllable that end in a vowel, the 았다/었다 gets merged to the actual stem itself. This is how 아 and 어 merge with syllables ending in a vowel:
아 + 아 = 아 (example: 가 + 았다 = 갔다)
오 + 아 = 와 (example: 오+ 았다 = 왔다)
우 + 어 = 워 (example: 배우+ 었다 = 배웠다)
이 + 어 = 여 (example: 끼+ 었다 = 꼈다)
어 + 어 = 어 (example: 나서 + 었다 = 나섰다)
여 + 어 = 여 (example: 켜다 = 켰다)
** When the last syllable of a word is 하, it gets conjugated irregularly (thousands of words end with the stem 하). Instead of adding 아 or 어 to the stem, you add 여 to word stems that end in 하. (하+여 = 하여). 하여 gets shortened to 해 most of the time:
하 + 여 = 해 (example: 이해하 + 였다 = 이해하였다 = 이해했다)
Words where the last vowel is ㅡ, it is complicated and will be covered in the next lesson.
Here is a more detailed breakdown:
저는 가다 = I go
The last vowel in the stem is ㅏ. So we add 았다 to the stem.
저는 가았다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 았다 can merge with 가: 저는 갔다 = I went
저는 오다 = I come
The last vowel in the stem is ㅗ. So we add 았다 to the stem.
저는 오았다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 았다 can merge with 오: 저는 왔다 = I came
저는 배우다 = I learn
The last vowel in the stem is ㅜ. So we add 었다 to the stem.
저는 배우었다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 었다 can merge with 우: 저는 배웠다 = I learned
Future Tense
Future tense is easy, and is simply a matter of adding “~겠다” to the stem of a word:
저는 먹다 = I eat
저는 먹겠다 = I will eat
저는 가다 = I go
저는 가겠다 = I will go
저는 배우다 = I learn
저는 배우겠다 = I will learn
Check out the table giving a breakdown of verbs in the past, present and future forms:
Verb / Stem / Past tense / Present tense / Future tense
먹다 /먹 /먹었다 /먹는다 /먹겠다
닫다 /닫 /닫았다 /닫는다 /닫겠다
배우다 /배우 /배웠다 /배운다 /배우겠다
가다 /가 /갔다 /간다 /가겠다
이해하다 /이해하 /이해했다 /이해한다 /이해하겠다
오다 /오 /왔다 /온다 /오겠다
던지다 /던지 /던졌다 /던진다 /던지겠다
Adjectives
Present tense
You learned earlier that you must add ~ㄴ/는다 to a verb stem in order to conjugate it to the present tense. In order to conjugate an adjective to the present tense you don’t need to do anything! Just leave the adjective as it is, and it is conjugated in the present tense.
그 선생님은 아름답다 = that teacher is beautiful
그 길은 길다 = that street is long
저의 손은 크다 = my hand is big
Past tense
In order to conjugate adjectives to the past tense, you must follow the same rule as when you conjugate verbs to the past tense. This rule, again, is:
You must add 았다 or 었다 to the stem of a word. 았다 is added to words with the last vowel being ㅗ or ㅏ, and 었다 is added to words with the last vowel being anything but ㅏ or ㅗ.
For example:
그 길은 길었다 = That street was long (길 + 었다)
그 음식은 맛있었다 = That food was delicious (맛있 + 었다)
그 선생님은 좋았다 = That teacher was good (좋 + 았다)
As with verbs, if the final letter of a verb/adjective stem is a vowel, 았다/었다 is merged to the actual stem itself:
이 것은 비쌌다 = This thing (it) was expensive (비싸 + 았다)
그 남자는 잘생겼다 = That man was handsome (잘생기 + 었다)
그 사람은 뚱뚱했다 = That person was fat (뚱뚱하 + 였다)
Future tense
Conjugating adjectives into the future tense is the same as conjugating verbs into the future tense. All you need to do is add 겠다 to the stem of the adjective:
저는 행복하겠다 = I will be happy
그 것은 맛있겠다 = That thing will be delicious
저는 배고프겠다 = I will be hungry
In general, not only is this basic form rare in conversation, but Korean people do not use adjectives in the future as often as English speakers.
Adjective /Stem /Past tense /Present tense /Future tense
행복하다 /행복하 /행복했다 /행복하다 /행복하겠다
비싸다 /비싸 /비쌌다 /비싸다 /비싸겠다
길다 /길 /길었다 /길다 /길겠다
맛있다 /맛있 /맛있었다 /맛있다 /맛있겠다
낡다 /낡 /낡았다 /낡다 /낡겠다
Conjugating 있다 and 있다
You learned in the previous Lesson that there are two meanings for the word 있다.
One of the meanings is “to have” and is considered an adjective. You learned these sentences in other Lesson:
저는 펜이 있다 = I have a pen
저는 차가 있다 = I have a car
저는 가방이 있다 = I have a bag
Because this 있다 is considered an adjective, we follow the rule for conjugating an adjective to the present tense – which is do nothing and leave the adjective the way it is. So, those three sentences above are perfectly conjugated and grammatically correct.
But, the other meaning of 있다 is “to be in/at a location” and is considered a verb. You learned these sentences in previos Lesson:
저는 은행 안에 있다 = I am inside the bank
개는 집 안에 있다 = The dog is in the house
고양이는 의자 밑에 있다 = The cat is under the chair
Because this 있다 is considered a verb, we follow the rule for conjugating a verb to the present tense – which is add ㄴ/는다 to the stem of the verb.
저는 은행 안에 있는다 = I am inside the bank
개는 집 안에 있는다 = The dog is in the house
고양이는 의자 밑에 있는다 = The cat is under the chair
BUT! Though this is true, Korean people would still say “저는 학교에 있다” and not see anything wrong with it. In fact, it is actually more common to use 있다 instead of 있는다 in these sentences.
The reverse, however, is not true. You could never substitute 있는다 for 있다:
저는 돈이 있다 = okay
저는 돈이 있는다 = incorrect
저는 학교에 있는다 = grammatically correct, not used in conversation
저는 학교에 있다 = used in conversation more than the above example
Wow, that is a lot of grammar. Understanding this will probably be your the hardest step you will need to make in learning Korean. I really mean that. If you can get through this lesson, almost everything you will learn will relate back to the principles in this lesson in one way or another. Don’t give up! Goodluck -JLR-