KOREAN - ON HOLD

Lesson 6 ; 2

Past Tense

You learned in Lesson 5 how to conjugate verbs to the past tense by adding 었다/았다/였다 to the stem of the word. To review:

먹다 = to eat (not conjugated)
나는 먹었다 = I ate (conjugated – past tense)

배우다 = to learn (not conjugated)
나는 배웠다 = I learned (conjugated – past tense)

The three new conjugations should be very simple for you now:

1) Informal low respect
Instead of adding 었다/았다/였다 to a stem, remove 다 and add 어 after 었/았/였:

나는 먹었어 = I ate (먹 + 었어)
나는 들어봤어 = I listened (들어보 + 았어)
나는 운동했어 = I exercised (운동하 + 였어)

2) Informal high respect
Just add 요 to the end of the Informal low respect conjugations:

저는 먹었어요 = I ate (먹 + 었어요)
저는 들어봤어요 = I listened (들어보 + 았어요)
저는 운동했어요 = I exercised (운동하 + 였어요)

3) Formal high respect
After adding 었/았/였 instead of adding 다 add 습니다:

저는 먹었습니다 = I ate (먹 + 었습니다)
저는 들어봤습니다 = I listened (들어보 + 았습니다)
저는 운동했습니다 = I exercised (운동하 + 였습니다)

Future Tense

You learned in Lesson 5 how to conjugate verbs to the future tense by adding 겠다to the stem of the word. To review:

먹다 = to eat (not conjugated)
나는 먹겠다 = I will eat (conjugated – future tense)

배우다 = to learn (not conjugated)
나는 배우겠다 = I will learn (conjugated – future tense)

The three new conjugations should be very simple for you now:

1) Informal low respect
Instead of adding 겠다 to a word stem, remove 다 and add 어 after 겠:

나는 먹겠어 = I will eat (먹 + 겠어)
나는 배우겠어 = I will learn (배우 + 겠어)

2) Informal high respect
Just add 요 to the end of the Informal low respect conjugations:

저는 먹겠어요 = I will eat (먹 + 겠어요)
저는 배우겠어요 = I will learn (배우 + 겠어요)

3) Formal high respect
After 겠 instead of adding 다 add 습니다:

저는 먹겠습니다 = I will eat (먹 + 겠습니다)
저는 배우겠습니다 = I will learn (배우 + 겠습니다)

To be continued...