Past tense in Korean
The Korean text pronunciation feature (🔊) is only available for Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Opera browsers.
Verb, Adj. + 았/었/였 sentence ending, conjunction.
Until now, I have only given examples using present or future tense. Today, we will learn about past tense in Korean. This might require some effort to memorize, but it's not too difficult. It's important to learn the conjugation rules I will explain in this lesson because they are used in many other Korean grammar structures. So, make sure you learn these rules well.
Unlike the future tense, which uses only one suffix -겠, there are three different suffixes that must be used to conjugate verbs and adjectives in the past tense. They are -았, -었, and -였. Your task is to learn when to use each of these suffixes.
Use -았 with verbs and adjectives where the last vowel in the stem is ㅏ, ㅑ, or ㅗ.
This last vowel does not necessarily have to be the last letter in the stem.
See examples,
(click on translation and grammar buttons)
- Infinitive
- Stem + 았
- Past Tense
- 닫다
to close - 닫 + 았
(ㅏ → consonant) - 닫았습니다
- 놓다
to put - 놓 + 았
(ㅗ → consonant) - 놓았습니다
- 가다
to go - 가 + 았
(ㅏ → NO consonant) - 갔습니다
- 보다
to see - 보 + 았
(ㅗ → NO consonant) - 보았습니다 / 봤습니다
- 오다
to come - 오 + 았
(ㅗ → NO consonant) - 왔습니다
Use -었 with verbs and adjectives where the last vowel in the stem is any except ㅏ, ㅑ, or ㅗ.
See examples,
(click on translation and grammar buttons)
- Infinitive
- Stem + 었
- Past Tense
- 먹다
to eat - 먹 + 었
(ㅓ → consonant) - 먹었습니다
- 서다
to stand - 서 + 었
(ㅓ → NO consonant) - 섰습니다
- 겪다
to suffer - 겪 + 었
(ㅕ → consonant) - 겪었습니다
- 켜다
to light up - 켜 + 었
(ㅕ → NO consonant) - 켰습니다
- 굽다
to roast
(irregular verb) - 굽 + 었
(ㅜ → consonant) - 구웠습니다
- 바꾸다
to change - 바꾸 + 었
(ㅜ → NO consonant) - 바꾸었습니다 / 바꿨습니다
- 입다
to get dressed - 입 + 었
(ㅣ → consonant) - 입었습니다
- 마시다
to drink - 마시 + 었
(ㅣ → NO consonant) - 마셨습니다
- 되다
to become - 되 + 었
(ㅚ → NO consonant) - 되었습니다 / 됐습니다
- 보내다
to send - 보내 + 었
(ㅐ → NO consonant) - 보냈습니다
- 세다
strong, to count up - 세 + 었
(ㅔ → NO consonant) - 셌습니다
- 뛰다
to run - 뛰 + 었
(ㅟ → NO consonant) - 뛰었습니다
- 나쁘다 *
bad - 나쁘 + 았
(ㅏ → ㅡ) - 나빴습니다
- 고르다 *
to choose
(irregular verb) - 고르 + 았
(ㅗ → ㅡ) - 골랐습니다
- 크다 *
big - 크 + 었
(nothing → ㅡ ) - 컸습니다
- 기쁘다 *
happy - 기쁘 + 었
(ㅣ → ㅡ ) - 기뻤습니다
* In case of verbs or adjectives where stem ends in letter "ㅡ", vowel "ㅡ" drops.
Then use -았 if the second to last vowel is either ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅗ, and in all other cases use -었.
Use -였 only with 하다 verbs.
A significant part of Korean verbs is formed by adding 하다 to a noun.
See examples,
(click on translation and grammar buttons)
- Infinitive
- Stem + 였
- Past Tense
- 말하다
to speak - 말하 + 였
- 말하였습니다 / 말했습니다
- 공부하다
to study - 공부하 + 였
- 공부하였습니다 / 공부했습니다
In spoken Korean, ...했 is more commonly used than ...하였.
Quick reference (click to open)
Vowels: a, e, i, o, u
Consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j
Syllable: Bra-zil (2 syllables), Ar-gen-ti-na (4), In-di-a (3), Viet-nam (2), thin-king (2), beau-ti-ful (3), good (1)
Batchim: is a final consonant in a syllable. → Bra-zil (batchim: 'l'), Ar-gen-ti-na (batchims: 'r' and 'n'), In-di-a ('n'), Viet-nam ('t', 'm')
Romanization: is a conversion of text (not pronunciation ! ) from different writing system (Korean, Arabic, Russian, etc.) to the Roman (Latin) alphabet.
IPA: is an alphabetic system of phonetic (pronunciation) notation.
Noun: road, user, sister, table, sky
Pronoun: I, my, we, you, they, her
Verb: to go, to study, to think, to feel
Adjective: cold, kind, hungry, curious, expensive
Adverb: quickly, nicely, never, exactly, urgently
Preposition: from, to, on, in, with, till
Conjuction: and, because, if, but, while
Declarative sentence: I learn Korean.
Interrogative sentence: Do you learn Korean?
Imperative sentence: You must learn Korean!
Exclamative sentence: Wow, you learn Korean!
Verb / Adj. stem in Korean: part of a verb or adj. which is left after removing the last syllable -다 ( e.g. 가다 → 가, 예쁘다 → 예쁘, 듣다 → 듣 ).