Korean Conjugation – How to Use Verbs & Adjectives

In this lesson, we’ll cover everything you need to know about Korean conjugation.

We’ll explain what Korean conjugation is, how to use it, and when to use it.

Let’s go over some common Korean conjugations – and rules related to them – so that you can get kickstarted on creating your own conjugated sentences!

Below is a free PDF guide for “Korean Conjugation” that you can download and take with you:

What is Korean conjugation?

Korean conjugations in Korean grammar determine the meaning, tense, tone, and mood of sentences. It’s important to learn conjugation as you progress in learning Korean.

For example, let’s say you’re going to use the verb “go” in a sentence. The base form is in Korean is:

Base Form: 가다 (gada) – to go

However, you need to change it to the present tense.

Conjugated Korean verb: 저는 가요 (I go)

We’ve added 저는 (“I”) as the subject and then conjugated 가다 (to go).

However, unlike in any other language, Korean grammar takes conjugation to another level. Conjugations in Korean aren’t limited to Korean verbs. Other parts of speech, such as adjectives, can be conjugated.

Korean Verb and Adjective Conjugation

Korean verb and adjective conjugations are almost the same. Most of the conjugation rules for Korean verbs also apply to adjectives. Once you learn the Korean verb conjugation rules, it’ll be easy to conjugate adjectives.

How many conjugations are there in Korean?

There are 40 basic verb endings, but there are over 400 verb endings when all are combined. They are made up of different Korean grammar categories, such as the different tenses (past, present, and future tense), honorifics, and voices, to name a few.

Korean Verb Conjugation

Common Korean verb conjugations can be classified into two: verb endings and tenses. There are nine Korean verb endings and three verb tenses you can start learning.

These verb conjugations will allow you to build your own sentences and express yourself.

For example, if you want to say you’re not good at something, you’ll use the verb ending ~지 못 해요 (~ji mot haeyo).

If you want to tell your friend of your plan tomorrow or on the coming weekend, you’ll use the future tense verb conjugation.

Korean Verb Endings

These are a few of the common Korean verb endings you can use for verb conjugation.

1. 입니다 (imnida), 이에요(ieyo) or 예요 (yeyo)– Is, am, are
2. 있다 (itda ) – To have, To exist and
3. 없다 (eopda )– Not to have, To not exist
4. ~지 않아요 (~ji anayo) – Don’t
5. ~지 않았어요 (~ji anasseoyo)  – Didn’t
6. ~지 않을 거예요 (~ji aneul geoyeyo) – Won’t
7.  ~지 못 해요 (~ji mot haeyo) –Can’t
8. ~지 했어요 (~ji haesseoyo) – Couldn’t
9. ~지 할 거예요 (~ji hal geoyeyo)– Won’t be able to

Korean Present Tense

Similar to English, Korean verbs have present tense. When expressing Korean verbs in the present, the Korean verb conjugations used are 아요 (ayo) or 어요 (eoyo) and ㅂ니다 (bnida) or 습니다 (seumnida).

Korean Past Tense

Korean verbs are also expressed in the past tense. When expressing Korean verbs in the past, the Korean verb conjugation used is the 았어요 (asseoyo) and 었어요 (eosseoyo).

Korean Future Tense

The Korean verb conjugation used for future tense is the 겠어요 (gesseoyo) and (으)ㄹ 거예요 (eul geoyeyo).

Korean Verb Conjugator

If you want to easily make a verb conjugation, you can use a Korean verb conjugator. You can use the link below to make a verb conjugation:

Korean Verb Conjugator

Korean verb conjugation can be a bit tough to learn when you’re just beginning to learn Korean. It’ll become easier as you progress by learning more Korean verb endings and practicing using them more often. Soon, you’ll be able to master Korean verb conjugation!

How does Korean Verb Conjugation work?

Korean verb conjugation is pretty easy to do. All you need to do is drop the 다 verb endings from the verb stem and then add the appropriate verb endings. The correct verb endings to be used when conjugating verbs are determined by the final or last vowel after dropping the 다 verb endings from the verb stem.

We’ll get more into the details of conjugations in Korean in a while.

What’s the common Korean verb conjugation?

The common Korean verb conjugation is the use of 아요 (ayo) and 어요 (eoyo), which gives the Korean verb its polite and present tense form.

Let’s use the Korean verbs 자다 (jada) and 먹다 (meokda) as an example. These 2 Korean verbs are both in their verb stem form.

As mentioned earlier, verb conjugations in Korean happen by dropping the 다 verb endings from the verb stem.

For the Korean verbs 자다 and 먹다, we’ll need to drop the 다 verb endings, which will make them:

자다 → 자

먹다 → 먹

If the final or last vowel after dropping 다 is either ㅏ or ㅗ, you’ll use 아요. But if the final or last vowel after dropping 다 is ㅓ, ㅣ, or ㅜ, you’ll use 어요. So for the two examples of Korean verbs above, they’ll become

자 → 자요 (jayo)

먹 → 먹어요 (meogeoyo)

How important is it to learn Korean Conjugation?

When learning the Korean language, particularly Korean grammar, Korean verb conjugation is very important to learn. As mentioned earlier, it sets the tense, tone, and meaning of your sentences, which are basically all essential elements you’ll need when communicating.

Koreans give emphasis to politeness in everything, including their language. Korean verb conjugation will help you show your respect and politeness towards a person.

Once you get familiar with the different conjugations, it’ll be easy for you to convey and appear to be respectful and polite.

Which part of the verb do you conjugate?

Before learning which part of the Korean verb we need to conjugate, we need to take note that each Korean verb, adverb, and adjective consists of two pieces: a stem and an ending. The first part is the stem, and 다 is the ending. These are usually their dictionary form.

When you conjugate any word, you will drop the 다 and replace it with the conjugation. Whenever you conjugate a verb, you only need to think of your tense and tone. The conjugation doesn’t change for the first person, second person, multiple people, etc.

Let’s take a quick look at some common Korean verbs in their basic form or dictionary form!

말하다 (malhada)

to speak

만나다 mannada)

to meet

가르치다 (gareuchida)

to teach

These Korean verbs are made up of a verb stem and a 다 ending.

How to make the conjugation form of the verbs

In addition to what we already know about how we conjugate verbs in Korean, many conjugations come together with a small puzzle piece that connects the stem to the conjugation in the most natural way. Let’s look at some simple examples of this.

말하다 + -아/어 → 말해요 (malhaeyo)

만나다 + -아/어 → 만나요 (mannayo)

닫다 + -아/어 → 닫아요 (dadayo)

가르치다 + -아/어 → 가르쳐요 (gareuchyeoyo)

As you can see, the puzzle piece slightly changes the verb stem it joins. Most of the time, the Korean verbs play nice with them, so the rules are easy to learn.

How do I combine the verb stem and conjugation?

Simply, when 아 meets 아, it drops out. And when 아 meets 오, they connect together into one syllable; for example, 보 becomes 봐. When the verb stem ends in a consonant after 아 or 오, 아 becomes its own syllable.

For all other verb stems, you connect them with 어. When the verb stem ends with 이 the 이 + 어 combination cooks up 여. Only the verb 하다 is different and turns into 해.

Some conjugations also require the puzzle piece 으 to be connected when a verb stems ends with a consonant. (으)면, which we will introduce below, is one such conjugation. We’ll go over how to conjugate irregular verbs at a later time.

Common Korean conjugations

In this part of the lesson, we’ll be showing the different conjugations for 2 of the commonly used Korean verbs 보다 (boda)  and 만들다 (mandeulda).

보다 (boda) and 만들다 (mandeulda) are the dictionary form of the Korean verbs “to watch or to see” and “to make.” Both Korean verbs are made up of a verb stem and a 다 (da) ending.

Notice that the Korean verbs 보다 (boda) and 만들다 (mandeulda) have different last letters when 다 (da) is dropped. 보다 (boda) ends in a vowel, while 만들다 (mandeulda) ends in a consonant.

Let’s go over how to conjugate these common Korean verbs so that you can immediately see how all these work!

보다 (boda) Conjugation

Below is a table with the different conjugations for the verb 보다 (boda) that ends in a vowel following the different tenses and tones.

The verb 보다 (boda) can also take other forms of conjugation. Let’s take a look at the table below to get familiar with them.

만들다 (mandeulda) Conjugation

The Korean verb 만들다 (mandeulda) means “to make.” Below is a table with the different conjugations for the verb 만들다 (mandeulda) following the different tenses (Past, Present, and Future Tense) and tones.

The verb 만들다 (mandeulda) can also take other forms of conjugation. Let’s take a look at the table below to get familiar with them.

하다 (hada) Conjugation

The verb 하다 (hada) generally means “to do” in English. It is usually attached to words to make them either action verbs or descriptive verbs. For example:

공부 (gongbu | study) + 하다 (hada | to do)= 공부하다  (gongbuhada | to study)

요리 (yori | cook)+ 하다 (hada | to do) = 요리하다 (yorihada | to cook)

Below are the conjugation examples of the verb 하다 (hada):

• 하다 (hada) = standard form
• 해요 (haeyo) = polite/formal ending verb for a noun that ends in a vowel or consonant, present
• 했어요 (haesseoyo) = polite/formal ending verb for nouns ending in a vowel or consonant, past*
• 했었어요 (haesseosseoyo) = polite/formal ending verb for nouns ending in a vowel or consonant, past perfect*

이다 (ida) Conjugation

The verb 이다 (ida) is the Korean equivalent of “to be” in English. It is usually used to identify people and objects. When using it to form sentences, it can be used with the following sentence structure:

Subject and particle + Noun입니다

Here are conjugation examples for the verb 이다 (ida) – to be.

• 입니다 (imnida) = honorific verb, present tense
• 입니까 (imnikka) = honorific question verb, present
• 이에요 (ieyo) = polite/formal ending verb for nouns ending in a consonant, present
• 예요 (yeyo) = polite/formal ending verb for that noun ends in a vowel, present
• 이었어요 (ieosseoyo) = polite/formal ending verb for nouns ending in a consonant, past*
• 였어요 (yeosseoyo) = polite/formal ending verb for nouns ending in a vowel, past*
• 야 (ya) = casual/informal ending verb for nouns ending in a vowel, present
• 이야 (iya) = casual/informal ending verb for nouns ending in a consonant, present

*Note: if you wish to use the past tense for 이다 (ida) on a casual level, use this form and simply drop the 요 (yo) from its tail

You may be thinking, “That’s quite a bit of vocabulary to remember!”

It gets easier with practice, and this grammar rule allows sentences to be more specific. Read these example sentences for 이다 (ida) to see:

저는 조아나입니다. (jeoneun joanaimnida)

I am Joana

몇 살입니까? (myeot sarimnikka)

How old are you?

저는 베트남 사람이에요. (jeoneun beteunam saramieyo)

I am a Vietnamese.

저는 가수예요. (jeoneun gasuyeyo)

I am a singer.

그는 군인이었어요. (geuneun guninieosseoyo)

He was a soldier.

그는 좋은 친구였어요. (geuneun joeun chinguyeosseoyo)

He was a good friend.

나는 남자야. (naneun namjaya)

I am a man.

나는 학생이야. (naneun haksaengiya)

I am a student.

Let’s take a closer look at the verb, 있다 (itda) – to have. Here are its basic conjugations in Korean grammar:

• 있습니다 (itseumnida) = honorific verb, present
• 있습니까? (itseumnikka) = honorific verb, present
• 있었습니다 (isseotseumnida) = honorific verb, past
• 있어요 (isseoyo) = polite/formal verb, present*
• 있었어요 (isseosseoyo) = polite/formal verb, past*

*Note: To create the casual/informal form, simply use these without the 요 (yo) at the end

You’ll notice that 있다 (itda) conjugates verbs much like 이다 (ida), with only slight changes in the letters because of the word itself.

있다 operates more like an adjective than a verb, changing how it works with particles. Hopefully, these examples will help illustrate that:

질문이 있습니다. (jilmuni itseumnida)

I have a question.

질문이 있습니까?. (jilmuni itseumnikka) 

Do you have a question?

저는 여자친구가 있었습니다. (jeoneun yeojachinguga isseotseumnida)

I had a girlfriend.

나는 남동생이 있어요. (naneun namdongsaengi isseoyo)

 I have a little brother.

나는 가방이 있어요. (naneun gabangi isseoyo)

I have a bag.

나는 남자친구가 있었어요. (naneun namjachinguga isseosseoyo)

I had a boyfriend.

나는 약속이 있었어요. (naneun yaksogi isseosseoyo)

I had an appointment.

없다 (eopda) Conjugation

Next, 없다 (eopda) means “to not have.” It is the opposite of 있다(itda), which means “to have.” It is conjugated the same as 있다 (itda). Here are some grammar examples:

저는 언니가 없어요. (jeoneun eonniga eopseoyo)

I don’t have a big sister.

나는 차가 없어. (naneun chaga eopseo)

I don’t have a car.

나는 시간이 없었어요. (naneun sigani eopseosseoyo)

I didn’t have time.

나는 현금이 없어요. (naneun hyeongeumi eopseoyo)

I don’t have cash.

Wrap Up

Success! You’ve finished learning how to conjugate Korean verbs and are now ready to start putting Korean conjugations to use in your Korean studies.

There are a lot of useful verb conjugations in here, so make sure you refer to this list often. Slowly, you will be able to master Korean verb conjugation. In addition to these verb conjugations, there are many more you’ll later get to learn. You can also learn about Korean particles and how they fit into Korean grammar in general.

What Korean verb conjugation do you think is most useful? Let us know in the comments below!