Understand and Master Korean Verbs

Verbs are some of the most important words in any language, but Korean verbs are especially important because nearly all Korean sentences end with a verb. And while many other words in a Korean sentence can be left out, verbs are rarely left out, so having a good understanding of Korean verbs can help you understand basic Korean sentences.

In this article, we’ll go over the most common Korean verbs, we’ll learn how to conjugate verbs by combining them with different endings, and we’ll also learn some unique ways of using Korean verbs.

Common Korean verbs

Many Korean verbs work in the same way as English verbs. In Korean, there are verbs that describe an action, and there are also verbs that describe a state or condition. Below is a list of verbs in Korean that are used in everyday life.

Many verbs of movement are made up of a verb referring to an act of moving and one of the verbs 가다 (to go) or 오다 (to come). For example, the verb 걷다 means ‘to walk,’ but we only use this verb to talk about the act of walking, not walking to a specific place. So to tell someone, “I walk every day,” as in “I do the act of walking every day,” we can say this:

저는 매일 걸어요. (I walk every day.)

In this sentence, we’ve conjugated 걷다 to its polite form 걸어요, and we are talking just about the act of walking rather than walking somewhere specific.

However, if we want to talk about walking to a certain place, we would combine 걷다 with the verb 가다 (to go) or 오다 (to come), resulting in either 걸어가다 (to walk and go somewhere) or 걸어오다 (to walk and come somewhere). Whether we use 걸어가다 or 걸어오다 depends on the point of view of the speaker.

Take a look at some verbs of movement in the table below, which shows how these verbs combine with the verbs 가다 (to go) and 오다 (to come):

Another type of Korean verb is stative verbs, and many stative verbs are basically the same in Korean and English. One difference, however, is that many Korean stative verbs can be used in a progressive tense. Below is a list of some of the most common stative verbs in Korean.

Verbs with 하다

Many Korean verbs consist of a noun plus 하다. The verb 하다 means ‘to do,’ so these verbs kind of mean ‘to do the noun.’

A simple example is the verb 사랑하다, which means ‘to love.’ This verb is made up of the noun 사랑 (love) and the verb 하다 (to do), and we use it to talk about things we love.

Below is a table with some of the most common verbs that use 하다.

While many verbs are made up of a noun and the verb 하다, some verbs consist of an adjective plus 하다 (to do). These verbs generally refer to some kind of action related to the meaning of the adjective.

For example, the adjective 무섭다 means ‘to be scared or fearful,’ and we use the verb 무서워하다 to talk about being scared of something. So 무섭다 describes how we feel scared, and 무서워하다 describes how we act out being scared.

Below is a table with verbs that are made up of an adjective and 하다.

Understanding Korean verb endings

Another important feature of Korean verbs are verb endings. We can add these endings to verbs to form more complex verb structures. Endings have four main functions:

• To express a different level of formality
• To form modal verbs (words like ‘will,’ ‘should,’ and ‘must’)
• To form conjunctions (words like ‘but’ and ‘so’)
• To form complex verb phrases (for example, ‘want to’ or ‘plan to’)

Korean verb stems

To use verb endings correctly, you need to understand Korean verb stems. Every Korean verb consists of a verb stem plus 다. We add different endings to verb stems to form complex verb phrases. Below are some examples of verbs and their stems:

Korean verb endings and level of formality

To change verbs into formal and polite speech forms, we add two different endings:

• For formal speech: (스)ㅂ니다
• For polite speech: 아요/어요/여요

How we add these endings depends on how the verb stem ends. Here are the rules for formal speech:

• If the stem ends in a vowel (가다, 주다), add the ending ㅂ니다.
• If the stem ends in a consonant (먹다), add the ending 습니다.

And here are the rules for polite speech:

• If the stem ends in the vowels ㅗ or ㅏ (가다), add the ending 아요.
• If the stem doesn’t end in the vowels ㅗ or ㅏ (먹다), add the ending 어요.
• If the stem ends in 하다 (공부하다), add the ending 여요.

The table below summarizes these rules with examples of verbs in their formal and polite forms.

Korean verb endings as modal verbs

Many endings can also be used like English modal verbs (words like ‘can,’ ‘should,’ and ‘will’). There are many different endings that function like modal verbs, but let’s take a look at a couple of the most common: 아도되다, 어도되다 or 여도 되다 (all different forms of the same verb), and (으)ㄹ게요.

We use 아도되다, 어도되다 or 여도 되다 to ask for or give permission, so they are similar to the modal verb ‘can’ in English. We use (으)ㄹ게요 to talk about our future intentions, so it’s similar to the modal verb ‘will.’

As with the endings we looked at earlier, the ending you use depends on how the verb stem ends. Take a look at the tables below to see which endings are added to form the modal verbs meaning ‘can’ and ‘will.’

When an ending has a syllable in parentheses, like (으) in the ending (으)ㄹ게요 meaning ‘will,’ the rules for adding the ending are different depending on whether the verb stem ends in a vowel or consonant. Here is an example of how this works for the ending (으)ㄹ게요 (will):

• For verb stems that end in a vowel, we add ㄹ게요.

  • 가다 (to go) - stem is 가 and it ends in the vowel ㅏ, so we add ㄹ게요
  • 가 + ㄹ게요 = 갈게요

• For verb stems that end in a consonant, we combine 으 with ㄹ to make 을 and then combine this with 게요.

  • 먹다 (to eat) - stem is 먹 and it ends in the consonant ㄱ, so we add 을게요
  • 먹 + 을게요 = 먹을게요

The table below shows some examples of how to combine the endings 아도되다, 어도되다 or 여도 되다 (can) and (으)ㄹ게요 (will) with different verb stems.

Korean endings as conjunctions

A third way endings can be used is like conjunctions, words like ‘but,’ ‘so,’ and ‘because.’ While there are many different kinds of endings that function like conjunctions, we’ll just take a look at two: 아서, 어서, or 여서 (to show a reason or cause) and 지만 (to show contrast).

We use 아서, 어서, or 여서 to show a reason or a cause, so it’s similar to the English conjunctions ‘so’ and ‘because.’ We use 지만 to show contrasting information, so it’s similar to the English word ‘but.’ Let’s take a look at how we can add these endings to verbs.

As we have seen already, endings that begin with either 아, 어, or 여 are added to verbs depending on the vowel used at the end of the stem or whether the stem ends in 하다:

• If the verb stem ends in the vowels ㅗ or ㅏ (가다), we add the ending 아서.
• If the verb stem doesn’t end in the vowels ㅗ or ㅏ (먹다), we add the ending 어서.
• If the verb stem ends in 하다 (공부하다), we add the ending 여서.

When using the ending 지만 (but), however, the ending is always the same regardless of how the verb stem ends.

The table below shows some examples of how to add these endings to different verb stems.

Endings in complex verb phrases

Many endings can also be used to form complex verb phrases, such as ‘want to eat’ or ‘decide to.’ Here we will focus on two verb endings: 고 싶다 and 기로 하다.

We use 고 싶다 to talk about things we want to do, so it’s similar in meaning to ‘want to.’ We use 기로 하다 to talk about things we decide or promise to do, so it’s similar in meaning to ‘decide to’ or ‘promise to.’

Adding these endings are a lot simpler as we add them to verb stems regardless of how the stem ends. Take a look at how these endings are combined with verbs in the table below.

Wrapping up Korean verbs

As with verbs in any language, Korean verbs play an important role in communication. They are often the key word that helps the reader or the listener understand the meaning of the sentence.

And as we’ve seen, Korean verbs are often combined with different kinds of endings to express different meanings and intentions. These can be a lot of fun to learn – in fact, many Korean learners say that learning the different endings is their favorite part of learning Korean!

Now that you’ve learned the most common Korean verbs and verb endings, you’re ready to move on to the many more verbs and endings used in daily communication. With your understanding of how basic Korean verbs work, you’ll be able to learn these new verbs much more quickly than before.