Korean Verb Conjugation: A Beginner’s Dream

Guide to Mastery
In Korean, you don’t have to worry about conjugating into the first person, second
person and third person. All you need to learn are the three levels of formality
and the four tenses we’ll describe below.

What to Know About the Subject, the Infinitive and the Formalities

Subject-Verb Agreement

Unlike the Romance languages, in Korean, you don’t have to consider the subject
of the sentence when conjugating verbs.

For example, in English, we say “I eat” and “she eats.”

However, in Korean, the verb stays the same in both cases.

저는 먹어요 — I eat
그녀는 먹어요 — She eats

Korean Infinitives

An infinitive is another name for a verb when it’s unconjugated.

In English, we write the infinitive as “to + verb.”

For example:
To eat
To run
To see
In Korean, unconjugated verbs end in 다.
For example:
먹다 — to eat
달리다 — to run
보다 — to see

To conjugate a Korean verb, the first step is to separate the verb stem from
the 다 ending.

Korean Formalities

One aspect of Korean that’s different from English is that you need to consider
formality when speaking. You need to add honorifics to certain words and
change the way you conjugate verbs.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the three primary levels of formality:

1. Casual formality is used with people younger than you and with close
friends.

2. Polite low formality is used in most everyday situations, and with people
you’re unacquainted with.

3. Polite high formality is used in public service announcements and when

talking to people with a higher social status than you (i.e., your boss).

How to Conjugate Present Tense Korean Verbs

Conjugating verbs in the present tense in Korean is easy!

All you have to do is drop the 다 ending on the verb stem and add the verb ending
that goes with the formality you want to use.

 Casual formality
o Verb + 아 or 어
 Polite low formality
o Verb + 아요 or 어요
 Polite high formality
o Verb + 습니다 (if the verb ends in a consonant)
o Verb +ㅂ니다 (if the verb ends in a vowel)

The final vowel determines whether 아 or 어 is used in the casual form or 아요

or 어요 is used in the polite form.

 Use 아요 if the last vowel in the verb is ㅏ or ㅗ.

볶다 (to fry) → 볶아요

Use 어요 if the last vowel in the verb is anything else.

먹다 (to eat) → 먹어요

If the verb stem ends in a vowel, the 아 or 어 that you add to the verb stem
will combine with the previous syllable.

 ㅏ+아=ㅏ
가다 (to go) → 가요

 ㅗ+아=ㅘ
보다 (to see) → 봐요

 ㅓ+어=ㅓ
서다 (to stand) → 서요

 ㅣ+어=ㅕ
달리다 (to run) → 달려요

 ㅜ+어=워
배우다 (to learn) → 배워요
하다 — to do
하다 is one of the most common verbs in Korean.
It conjugates a little differently than other verbs. Instead of becoming 하요 as
you’d expect from the rules above, it becomes 해/해요.

 Casual formality: 해
 Polite low formality: 해요
 Polite high formality: 합니다
가다 — to go

 Casual formality: 가
 Polite low formality: 가요
 Polite high formality: 갑니다

달리다 — to run

 Casual formality: 달려
 Polite low formality: 달려요
 Polite high formality: 달립니다
How to Conjugate Present Continuous Tense Korean Verbs
If you want to talk about a current action that’s ongoing, you can use the present
continuous tense. In English, this tense is formed by using am/is/are and adding
“ing” to the main verb.

For example:
I am running.
She is sleeping.
They are going.

To conjugate Korean verbs into this tense, you drop the 다 ending and add
the appropriate formality ending.

 Casual formality
 o Verb + 고 있어
 Polite low formality
o Verb + 고 있어요
 Polite high formality
o Verb + 고 있습니다
하다 — to do

 Casual formality: 하고 있어
 Polite low formality: 하고 있어요
 Polite high formality: 하고 있습니다

가다 — to go

 Casual formality: 가고 있어
 Polite low formality: 가고 있어요
 Polite high formality: 가고 있습니다
달리다 — to run

 Casual formality: 달리고 있어

 Polite low formality: 달리고 있어요
 Polite high formality: 달리고 있습니다
How to Conjugate Past Tense Korean Verbs

To conjugate verbs into the past tense, you need to look at the last vowel in the
verb stem like you did in the present tense.

If the verb ends in ㅗ or ㅏ, you add 았다 to the verb stem.

If the last vowel isn’t one of these two, you add 었다.
Just like present tense verbs, some verbs that end in a vowel will condense.
For example: 가다 + 았어요 becomes 갔어요 instead of 가았어요.

 Casual formality
o Verb + 았어 or 었어
 Polite low formality
o Verb + 았어요 or 었어요

 Polite (high formality)

o Verb + 았습니다 or 었습니다
하다 — to do

 Casual formality: 했어
 Polite low formality: 했어요
 Polite high formality: 헀습니다
가다 — to go

 Casual formality: 갔어
 Polite low formality: 갔어요
 >Polite high formality: 갔습니다
달리다 — to run

 Casual: 달렸어
 Polite low formality: 달렸어요
 Polite high formality: 달렸습니다

How to Conjugate Future Tense Korean Verbs

The future tense is a little trickier than the other tenses we’ve looked at. There
are multiple ways of expressing the future tense.
The nuances of each conjugation are outside the scope of this article, so we’ll
just focus on the most common way of talking about a future action.
To make the future tense, drop the 다 ending from the verb and add ㄹ if the verb
ends in a vowel or 을 if it ends in a consonant.
It’s also worth noting that you don’t need to add anything to verbs ending in ㄹ.

 Casual formality
o Verb + ㄹ or 을 거야
 Polite low formality
o Verb + ㄹ or 을 거예요
 Polite high formality
o Verb + ㄹ or 을 겁니다
하다 — to do

 Casual formality: 할 거야
 Polite low formality: 할 거예요
 Polite high formality: 할 겁니다
가다 — to go

 Casual formality: 갈 거야
 Polite low formality: 갈 거예요
 Polite high formality: 갈 겁니다
달리다 — to run

 Casual formality: 달릴 거야
 Polite low formality: 달릴 거예요
 Polite high formality: 달릴 겁니다