Lesson 5: Korean Conjugation: Past, Present, Future

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Jump to:
Vocabulary
How to say “I/me”
How to say “you”

Basic Conjugation: Past, Present, Future

Verbs:
Present Tense
Past Tense
Future Tense

Adjectives
Present Tense
Past Tense
Future Tense

있다 and 있는다

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The following videos are available to reinforce the concepts taught in this lesson:
Sentence Practice, Dictation, Word Listening, Lesson Recap

Click here for a free PDF of this lesson.

 

Vocabulary

The vocabulary is separated into nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs for the purpose of simplicity.

Click on the English word to see information and examples of that word in use (you probably won’t be able to understand the grammar within the sentences at this point, but it is good to see as you progress through your learning).

A PDF file neatly presenting all of these words, example sentences and extra information can be found here.

You can try to find all of the words from this lesson, and all of the words from every lesson in Unit 1 in a package of twenty five Word Searches.

Nouns:
동생 = younger sibling

남동생 = younger brother

여동생 = younger sister

형 = older brother

오빠 = older brother

누나 = older sister

언니 = older sister

삼촌 = uncle

이모 = aunt (on mother’s side)

고모 = aunt (on father’s side)

아저씨  = older man not related to you

아주머니 = older woman not related to you

할아버지 = grandfather

할머니 = grandmother

친구 = friend

사진 = picture

안경 = glasses

비밀 = secret

비 = rain

가게 = store/shop

박물관 = museum

가스 레인지 = stove (gas range)

오리 = duck (animal)

꼬리 = tail

공 = ball

Verbs:
Conjugate 기대하다 = to expect

Conjugate 건너다 = to cross (a road/etc)

Conjugate 던지다 = to throw

Conjugate 싫어하다 = to not like

Conjugate 떠나다 = to leave somewhere

Conjugate 농담하다 = to joke

Conjugate 공부하다 = to study

Adjectives:
Conjugate 지루하다 = to be boring

Conjugate 마르다 = for a person to be too thin

Conjugate 멀다 = to be far away

Conjugate 마르다 = to be dry

Conjugate 비슷하다 = to be similar

Conjugate 싫다 = to not be good

Conjugate 오래되다 = for an object to be old

Conjugate 배고프다 = to be hungry

Adverbs and Other Words:
오늘 = today

어제 = yesterday

내일 = tomorrow

모레 = the day after tomorrow

년 = year

일 = day

시간 = time

Days of the Week:
월요일 = Monday
화요일 = Tuesday
수요일 = Wednesday
목요일 = Thursday
금요일 = Friday
토요일 = Saturday
일요일 = Sunday

There are 1050 vocabulary entries in Unit 1. All entries are linked to an audio file.
You can download all of these files in one package here.

For help memorizing these words, try using our mobile app.

You might also want to try listening to all of the words on loop with this Vocabulary Practice video.

 

 

How to say “I” or “me” in Korean

First of all, I want to point out the difference between “I” and “me” in English. This is something that I never knew/realized until I started to learn Korean as you will find that learning a foreign language will vastly increase your understanding of your mother tongue and languages in general. In English “I” and “me” have the same meaning, but they differ in their usage. When the speaker is the subject of a sentence “I” is used. When the speaker is the object (or other part) of a sentence “me” is used. For example:

I love you (“I” is the subject of the sentence)
You love me (“me” is the object of the sentence)

In Korean, the same word is used to say “I” or “me.” That is, there is no difference in the Korean word if it used as a subject or object. However, remember that different particles will have to be attached to these words.

Although the word in Korean for “I/me” doesn’t change based on its usage in a sentence, it does change based on the politeness of a sentence. For example:

저 means “I/me” and is used in formal situations
나 means “I/me” and is used in informal situations

~는 can be attached to 저 and 나 to indicate “I” is the subject of a sentence. For example:
저는
나는
(I am purposely not providing example sentences because you still haven’t learned proper conjugations. You will finally learn about conjugations in this lesson)

~를 can be attached to 저 and 나 to indicate that “me” is the object of a sentence. For example:
저를
나를
(I am purposely not providing example sentences because you still haven’t learned proper conjugations. You will finally learn about conjugations in this lesson)

~가 can be attached to 저 and 나 to indicate “I” is the subject of a sentence or clause. I have already briefly distinguished the difference between ~이/가 and ~은/는 in Lesson 2. The difference between these particles is very subtle and takes years to fully grasp. I discuss these differences more deeply in Lesson 17 and Lesson 22 but this isn’t immediately important to you right now. What is immediately important to you is that you remember that when ~가 is attached 나 changes to 내, and 저 changes to 제. For example:

내가
제가
(I am purposely not providing example sentences because you still haven’t learned proper conjugations. You will finally learn about conjugations in this lesson)

In the lesson below, all of the sentences are conjugated in an informal style. Therefore, all of the example sentences below use the informal “나” or “내.” In this lesson, don’t worry about formality and just focus on the information that I present. In the next lesson, you will learn more about formal and informal speech, and you will see “저” and “제” being used.

 

How to say “you”

You may have noticed that I still haven’t taught you one of those most common words in the English language. I know this sounds weird, but the word ‘you’ is not said very often in Korean. Korean people get around saying the word ‘you’ through a number of ways:

1. Most of the time, you use somebody’s (usually job) position when referring to them or talking about them. For example, boss (부장님), principal (교장선생님), vice principal (교감선생님), Mr. Name (for a teacher) (Name선생님), customer (고객님), guest (손님), 회장님/사장님 (president/CEO of a company).
2. It is very common in Korean to refer to people that you are close with as your own family member. For example, 오빠 means “older brother” (when you are a woman). But even if somebody is not your older brother, you can call him ‘오빠’ if you are close to him.
3. You can usually call any woman or man that looks very old “grandmother” and “grandfather” (할머니/할아버지). But other than that, you don’t really call somebody part of your family unless you are close with that person.
4. You can generally call any strange man or woman that you don’t know ‘아저씨’ (man) and ‘아주머니’ (woman).
5. In informal situations, you can use the word “너.” ~는 and ~를 can attach to “너” when “you” is the subject or object of a sentence, respectively. If ~가 is added to ~너, it changes to “네가.” In order to distinguish the pronunciation of “네가” and “내가” from each other (which, technically should be pronounced the same), “네가” is pronounced as “knee-ga.”
6. You can also use the word “당신” which means “you.” You may use this word when talking to anybody, but Korean people hardly ever use it. Most people that say ‘당신’ are foreigners and only do so because they are so used to saying “you” in a sentence.

 

Basic Conjugation: Past, Present, Future

As I have mentioned 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 tests, books (not in dialogue), research papers, newspaper articles, magazine articles, and other times when one is not speaking/writing to a specific audience. It is also sometimes called the “plain form.”

If you used this form in a sentence, you should use the informal “나,” as this conjugation is seen as informal. As such, throughout this lesson, you will see the word “나” used for “I.” However, as I mentioned, this conjugation form is also used in print (books, newspapers, articles, etc…). When this is done, the sentence is neither formal or informal – as it is just relaying facts. When used like this, no specific person is the speaker, and nobody is getting directly spoken to. Therefore, you don’t generally see “저” or “나” in these forms of Korean, and there is no need to see these writings as formal or informal.

It is possible to use this “diary” or “plain” form in conversation, but you are more likely to hear one of the conjugations discussed in the next lesson. Although the plain form is not very common in conversation, the conjugation itself is incredibly important if you want to understand more complex grammar later on or learn to read most printed forms of Korean (books, newspaper, etc…). You will learn the most important conjugations for conversation in the next lesson, but I highly recommend you to understand the conjugations presented in this lesson first.

The only part of speech that gets conjugated in Korean is verbs and adjectives (and 이다). As you already know, a sentence must end in either a verb or adjective or 이다.

Let’s look at how to conjugate verbs and adjectives into the past, present and future tenses.

 

Verbs
Present Tense

When the last syllable of the stem ends in a consonant, you add ~는다 to the stem of the word:

먹다 = 먹는다 = to eat (먹 + 는다)
닫다 = 닫는다 = to close (닫 + 는다)

Examples:

나는 문을 닫는다 = I close the door
나는 밥을 먹는다 = I eat rice

When the last syllable of the stem ends in a vowel, you add ~ㄴto the last syllable followed by 다

배우다 = 배운다 = to learn (배우 + ㄴ다)
이해하다 = 이해한다 = to understand (이해하 + ㄴ다)
가다 = 간다 = to go (가 + ㄴ다)

Examples:
나는 친구를 만난다 = I meet a friend
나는 그것을 이해한다 = I understand that
나는 한국어를 배운다 = I learn Korean
나는 집에 간다 = I go home

Past Tense

Before you learn this, you need to know something important. Korean grammar is based on adding things directly to verbs or adjectives to create a specific meaning. For example, earlier in this lesson you saw how ~는다 or ~ㄴ다 can be added to the stem of a verb in order to conjugate that verb to the present tense.

Hundreds of grammatical principles (not just conjugations, but grammatical principles that have actual meanings in sentences) are created by adding certain things to the stems of verbs and adjectives. You will learn about these in later lessons as you progress through your studies. For example, the following is a short list of additions that can be added to the stems of verbs and/or adjectives to create a specific meaning:

• ~기 to create a noun form of a verb or adjective (Lesson 29)
• ~아/어서 to give reason (Lesson 37)
• ~(으)시 to denote an honorific acting agent (Lesson 39)
• ~(으)세요 to make a command (Lesson 40)
• ~자 to make a suggestion (Lesson 44)
• ~아/어야 하다 to indicate that one must do something (Lesson 46)
• ~ㄴ/는다고 to quote somebody (Lesson 52)

The list could go on and on forever.

Notice that some of these grammatical principles require the addition of “~아/어.” Many grammatical principles (or conjugations, or any other thing) require the addition of “~아/어” to the stem of a verb or adjective. Notice that the “slash” indicates that you need to choose what actually gets added to the stem. In some cases it is “~아”, and in some cases it is “~어”. The following is the rule that you can use to determine if you should add “~아” or “~어”:

• If the last vowel in a stem is ㅏ or ㅗ (this includes rare cases of the last vowel being ㅑ or ㅛ) you add ~아 followed by the remainder of the grammatical principle. (The only exception is “하.” If the last syllable in a stem is “하“, ~여 must be added to the stem followed by the remainder of the grammatical principle instead of ~아.
• If the last vowel in a stem is anything but ㅏ or ㅗ you add ~어 followed by the remainder of the grammatical principle

When conjugating to the past tense, we need to add “~았/었다” to the stem of a word (or 였다 in the case of 하다). Following the rule above, ~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. Finally, ~였다 is added to words with the last syllable being “하.” For example:

나는 밥을 먹다 = I eat rice (note that this sentence is unconjugated)
The last vowel in the stem is ㅓ. This is not ㅏ or ㅗ. So, we add 었다 to the stem:
나는 밥을 먹었다 = I ate rice (먹 + 었다)

나는 문을 닫다 = I close the door (note that this sentence is unconjugated)
The last vowel in the stem is ㅏ. So we add 았다 to the stem:
나는 문을 닫았다 = I closed the door (닫 + 았다)

나는 창문을 열다 = I open the window (note that this sentence is unconjugated)
The last vowel in the stem is ㅕ. This is not ㅏ or ㅗ. So we add 었다 to the stem:
나는 창문을 열었다 = I opened the window (열 + 었다)

나는 한국어를 공부하다 = I study Korean (note that this sentence is unconjugated)
The last syllable in the stem is “하”. Therefore, we add ~였다 to the stem:
나는 한국어를 공부하였다 = I studied Korean (공부하 + 였다)

What makes this complicated (at first) is that for verbs that have a last syllable that end in a vowel (including 하다), 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 + 었다 = 켰다)
• 하 + 여 = 해 (example: 공부하다 + 였다 = 공부했다)
  Although 하 + 여 can be written as “해,” there will be some situations (usually official documents) where you will see “하여” used instead of “해.” This comes up a lot on street signs.
  

• Words where the last vowel is “ㅡ” (for example: 잠그다) are complicated and will be covered in Lesson 7.

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Many people have asked me “how do I merge ~아/어 to complex vowels like  ㅠ, ㅑ, ㅔ, etc…?” You will find that the stem of almost all verbs and adjectives in Korean do not end in these complex vowels. The most common words I can think of that have stem that ends in one of these complex vowels are:

바래다 (to fade)
매다 (to tie up)
메다 (to put on/carry something on one’s shoulder)

With these words (and others like it), the same rule applies as above. That is, the final vowel does not end in ㅏ or ㅗ, so we need to add “어” plus whatever we are adding. With these complex vowels, it is irrelevant if you merge the addition to the stem. Both forms (merged and non-merged) would be correct.

For example:

바래 + 었다 = 바랬다 or 바래었다
매다 + 었다 = 맸다 or 매었다
메다 + 었다 = 멨다 or 메었다

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Here is a more detailed breakdown:

가다 = to go
The last vowel in the stem is ㅏ. So we add 았다 to the stem.
나는 박물관에 가았다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 았다 can merge with 가:
나는 박물관에 갔다 = I went to the museum

오다 = to come
The last vowel in the stem is ㅗ. So we add 았다 to the stem.
삼촌은 가게에 오았다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 았다 can merge with 오:
삼촌은 가게에 왔다 = (My) uncle came to the store

배우다 = to learn
The last vowel in the stem is ㅜ. So we add 었다 to the stem.
오빠는 영어를 배우었다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 었다 can merge with 우:
오빠는 영어를 배웠다 = (My) older brother learned English

던지다 = to throw
The last vowel in the stem is ㅣ. So we add 었다 to the stem.
나는 공을 던지었다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 었다 can merge with 지:
나는 공을 던졌다 = I threw the ball

건너다 = to cross
The last vowel in the stem is ㅓ. So we add 었다 to the stem.
나는 길을 건너었다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 었다 can merge with 너:
나는 길을 건넜다 = I crossed the street

만나다 = to meet
The last vowel in the stem is ㅏ. So we add 았다 to the stem.
나는 친구를 만나았다
But, because the stem ends in a vowel, 았다 can merge with 나:
나는 친구를 만났다 = I met friends

공부하다 = to study
The last vowel in the stem is 하. So, we add 였다 to the stem.
나는 한국어를 공부하였다
But, 하 and 여 can be merged to formed 해:
나는 한국어를 공부했다 = I studied Korean

 

Future Tense

Future tense is easy, and is simply a matter of adding “~겠다” to the stem of a word. Unlike the past and present tense conjugations, there is no difference if the stem ends in a vowel or a consonant. For example:

나는 먹다 = I eat (unconjugated)
나는 먹겠다 = I will eat

나는 가다 = I go (unconjugated)
나는 가겠다 = I will go

나는 배우다 = I learn (unconjugated)
나는 배우겠다 = I will learn

Two verbs specifically that are often conjugated in the future tense without actually having a meaning in the future tenses are 알다(to know) and 모르다(to not know). I don’t want to make any example sentences (because they would be too complicated at this point), but it would be good to remember that the words 알다 and 모르다 are often conjugated to 알겠다 or 모르겠다. Although they are conjugated to the future tense, those two words are typically used to express that somebody knows/doesn’t know something in the present tense.

Also note that the ending of the conjugation will often change as well depending on the different honorifics that you will learn in the next lesson.

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 previously that you need to add ~ㄴ/는다 to a verb stem in order to conjugate it in the present tense. In order to conjugate an adjective into 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. Some examples:

그 선생님은 아름답다 = that teacher is beautiful
그 길은 길다 = that street is long
나의 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)
그 식당이 오래되었다 = That restaurant is old*** (오래되 + 었다)

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The meaning of “오래되다” is not “old” in a bad, negative sense. Rather, it is indicating that something has existed for a long time, and now it is “old.” A more appropriate way to indicate that something is “old and decrepit” is to use the word “낡다”… not to be confused with the word “늙다”, which refers to an “old” person.

This is a little bit complicated for you now, but although ~었다 is attached to 되 to make “되었다”, this can be contracted. Teaching this is not the focus of this lesson, so don’t worry about this for now. You will learn more about 되다 in future lessons. See Lesson 9 or Lesson 14 for lessons nearby that discuss ‘되다.’

Also, while 되다 is commonly used and conjugated as a verb, in this case, 오래되다 is an adjective. Which means that [in addition to other ways it will change when used with other grammatical principles], ~ㄴ can be added to it to describe an upcoming noun.

For example: 우리는 오래된 집에 갔다 = We went to the old house

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Just like with verbs, if the final letter of a verb/adjective stem is a vowel, ~았다/었다 can be merged to the actual stem itself:

이것은 비쌌다 = This 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:

나는 행복하겠다 = I will be happy
그것은 맛있겠다 = That thing will be delicious
나는 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.

Check out the table giving a breakdown of adjectives in the past, present and future forms

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

있다 is one of the most complex and versatile words in Korean. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most common words. It is often very difficult for learners of a language to fully understand some of the most commonly used words in whatever language they are studying. For example, a native English speaker might think that the word “the” is one of the easiest words as it is used so frequently. However, try explaining the meaning and purpose of “the” to a Korean person and you will quickly discover that its usage is very complex.

있다 can be an adjective, or it can be a verb. Whether it is an adjective or a verb depends on its usage.

있다 is an adjective when it is used to indicate that one “has” something. You learned these sentences in Lesson 2:

나는 펜이 있다 = I have a pen
나는 차가 있다 = I have a car
나는 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.

When 있다 is used to indicate that something/someone is “at/in” a location, it is also an adjective. This is also very difficult for an English speaker to wrap their head around. You learned these sentences in Lesson 2:

나는 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

Again, because this usage of 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 in the plain form and grammatically correct.

However, the usage of 있다 is much more complex than just these two meanings. 있다 has many usages. In fact, there are times when 있다 is considered a verb. At this point, your understanding of Korean is not strong enough to see example sentences of 있다 as a verb because you haven’t learned some critical grammatical principles yet. What I want you to take from this is that 있다 can be a verb – and thus – is conjugated as a verb sometimes. Therefore, although the example sentences above with 있다 are properly conjugated, there are times when the proper conjugation of 있다 in the “plain form” would be 있는다.

있다 is considered a verb when a person (or animal) is not only “at” a location, but “staying” at a location or in a state for a period of time. The difference between the adjective “있다” (to indicate something/someone is at a location) and the verb “있다” (to indicate that someone stays at a location or in a state) is confusing.

Below are some complicated ways that 있다 can be seen as a verb. You absolutely do not need to understand these now. I suggest that you worry about them when you reach that particular lesson in your studies:

• In Lesson 14 when ~아/어 있다 is used to indicate the passive state of a verb
• In Lesson 18 when ~고 있다 is used to indicate one continues doing something
• In Lesson 40 when telling somebody to stay in a location or in a state
• In Lesson 44 when ~자 is used to make a suggestion to stay in a place

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!

There are 1250 example sentences in Unit 1.
All entries are linked to an audio file. You can download all of these files in one package here.

Okay, I got it! Take me to the next lesson! Or,
Click here for a workbook to go along with this lesson.

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Want to try to create some sentences using the vocabulary and grammar from this lesson?

This YouTube video will prompt you to translate English sentences into Korean using the concepts from this lesson.

 

 

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Want to practice your listening skills?

This YouTube video will prompt you with Korean sentences to dictate using the concepts from this lesson.