Korean Lessons ᚛ Level 1 - My First Steps in Korean (Lessons 1 to 30) ᚛ Lesson 14 - Conjugation of present tense verbs in Korean [-아/어(요)]
Conjugation of present tense verbs in Korean [-아/어(요)]
Currently, the sentences you understand in Korean are limited because we do not yet know how to conjugate verbs. In this lesson, we will see the conjugation of verbs of the present in Korean with the casual and polite styles.
Present Casual Style in Korean
Conjugating verbs in the present in the casual style is simple, but it is necessary to distinguish two cases:
- verbs with a final stem syllable that contains ㅏ or ㅗ.
- verbs with a last stem syllable that does not containㅏ or ㅗ.
Stem in ㅏ / ㅗ
Verbs whose last stem syllable contains ㅏ or ㅗ are conjugated as follows:
[Stem]아
Examples
The verb 살다 (= to live) has a stem 살 which contains a ㅏ, so we add 아 to the stem.
- 살다 → 살아. = I live. / You live. / He lives… etc.
The verb 놀다 (= to play) has a stem 놀 which contains a ㅗ, so we add 아 to the stem.
- 놀다 → 놀아. = I play. / You play. / He plays… etc.
The other stems
If the stem of a verb does not end in a syllable containing ㅏ or ㅗ, we conjugate this verb as follows:
[Stem]어
The verb 먹다 (= to eat) has a stem 먹 which contains neither ㅏ nor ㅗ, so we add 어 to the stem.
- 먹다 → 먹어. = I eat. / You eat. / He eats… etc.
The verb 만들다 (= to make) has a stem 만들 whose last syllable contains neither ㅏ nor ㅗ, so we add 어 to the stem.
- 만들다 → 만들어. = I make / You make. / He makes… etc.
Present Polite Style in Korean
Conjugating verbs in the present tense in the polite style requires taking the form of the casual style and adding the polite suffix 요 to it, as follows:
[Verb conjugated in the present casual style]요
The verb 알다 (= to know) has a stem 알 which contains a ㅏ, so we add 아 to the stem to obtain its casual style form which is 알아. Its polite style form is created by adding the polite suffix 요.
- 알다 → 알아요. = I know. / You know. / He knows… etc.
The verb 읽다 (= to read) has a stem 읽 which contains neither ㅏ nor ㅗ, so we add 어 to the stem to obtain its casual style form which is 읽어. Its polite style form is created by adding the polite suffix 요.
- 읽다 → 읽어요. = I read. / You read. / He reads… etc.
Summary table of structure
Learn more
Exercises
Learn more
Learn Your First 1000 Korean Words with This Complete Vocabulary Pack
This printable digital book teaches you how to write in Korean and introduces over 1000 essential Korean words, organized into 40 practical categories.
Each word comes with native Korean audio, so you can learn the correct pronunciation from day one!
You’ll also get access to a powerful online vocabulary tool based on the Leitner spaced repetition method to help you memorize words more efficiently.
Learn more