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4: Predicates and Endings

》Predicates

   Predicate, one of the main components of a sentence, normally refers to the part that explains or says something about the subject. Often it refers to a verb or an adjective phrase that modifies the subject.

For example,"closed the door" is the predicate of a sentence "Peter closed the door."

》Stems

   *Korean verbs and adjectives are made of stems and endings. The stems of verbs and adjectives do not stand alone, and they are always conjugated  by various or inflectional endings. These endings carry various grammatical information and roles ( tense, aspect, speech levels, and so forth).
   When you look for the meaning of certain verbs and/or adjectives in your dictionary or textbook word lists, you are most likely to encounter verbs and adjectives with 다 as their endings (자다 "sleep," 놀다 "play," and  어렵다 "difficult"). Remember that stems do not stand by themselves.

  For a dictionary-entry purpose, Korean verbs and adjectives take a special  dictionary form ending -다. Consequently, finding the stem of a verb and/or an adjective is simple in that anything being left out after you take 다 out  from the verbs and adjectives is the stem. Here are some examples:

Dictionary form    Meaning     Stem
           가다                         go                 가
           먹다                        eat                 먹
         배우다                     learn             배우
        요리하다                   cook            요리하
          나쁘다                     bad               나쁘
           작다                      small               작
            좋다                     good                좋
        아름답다               beautiful       아름답

》Verbs and adjectives

   In Korean, verbs and adjectives resemble one another in how they inflect and how they function in the sentence. In addition, there is no obvious structural difference between verbs and adjectives. In fact adjectives behave like verbs so much that Korean grammarians categorize adjectives as "descriptive verbs."

For example, in a dictionary, you may find the following Korean verb and adjective: 가다 "go" and 작다 "small." They have different stems (가 and 작) but the same ending (다 the dictionary form ending).
   Their meanings distinguish a verb from an adjective.

   Verbs normally signify actions and processes. On the other hand, adjectives typically indicate states or qualities (size, weight, quality, quantity, shape, appearance, perception, and emotion).

》Vowel- and Consonant-based Stems

   Stems of Korean verbs and adjectives are grouped into two types:
* consonant based and
* vowel based. An example of the vowel-based stem is 가 of 가다, whereas that of the consonant-based stem is 먹 of 먹다.

• Vowel-based verbs
   가르다        "divide"
   가지다        "have"
   가르치다    "teach"
   만지다        "touch"
   보다            "see"
   배우다        "learn"
   타다            "ride"

• Consonant-based verbs
   닫다             "close"
   신다             "wear (shoes)"
   받다             "receive"
   살다             "live"
   앉다             "sit"
   읽다             "read"
   팔다             "sell"