Irregular verbs and adjectives in Korean

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Verbs, Adjectives whose stem end in ㄷ, ㄹ, 르, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅎ

NOT all verbs and adjectives whose stems end in ㄷ, ㄹ, 르, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅎ are irregular.

In one of the previous lessons, we learned how to conjugate Korean verbs and adjectives whose stem ends with "ㄹ". In this lesson I will teach you how to conjugate all other irregular verbs and adjectives that don't follow the common rules.

All the conjugated forms that you see here, we will cover in the upcoming lessons.

ㄷ changes to ㄹ

  • ㄷ → vowel
  • 듣다
    to listen
  • 들어요
    들으세요
  • 걷다
    to walk
  • 걸어요
    걸으세요

받다, 닫다, 믿다 are regular verbs.

ㄹ disappears

  • ㄹ → 으
  • ㄹ → ㅅ
  • ㄹ → ㄴ
  • 살다
    to live
  • 사세요(not 살으세요)
    산(not 살은)
  • 삽니다
    (not 살습니다)
  • 사는
    (not 살는)

르 changes to ㄹㄹ

  • ㄹ → 아
  • ㄹ → 어
  • 모르다
    not to know
  • 몰라요
    몰랐습니다
    몰라서
  • 부르다
    to call smb.
  • 불러요
    불렀습니다
    불러서
  • 다르다
    different
  • 달라요
    달랐습니다
    달라서
  • 빠르다
    fast
  • 빨라요
    빨랐습니다
    빨라서

ㅂ changes to 우

  • ㅂ → vowel
  • 쉽다
    easy
  • 쉬워요
    (not 쉽어요)
  • 어렵다
    difficult
  • 어려워요
    (not 어렵어요)
  • 맵다
    spicy
  • 매워요
    (not 맵어요)
  • 돕다 *
    to help
  • 도와요
    (not 돕아요)
  • 곱다 *
    pretty
  • 고와요
    (not 곱아요)

* 돕다, 곱다 are exceptions.

ㅅ disappears

  • ㅅ → vowel
  • 짓다
    to build
  • 지어요
    (not 짓어요)
  • 잇다
    to join
  • 이어요
    (not 잇어요)

빗다, 씻다 are regular verbs.

ㅎ disappears

  • ㅎ → 으
  • ㅎ → 아/어/여
  • 어떻다
    which
  • 어떠세요(not 어떻으세요)
    어떤(not 어떻은)
  • 어때요
    (not 어떻어요)

빨갛다, 노랗다, 파랗다, 하얗다, 까맣다, 이렇다, 그렇다, 저렇다, 어떻다 are irregular.

Check out related topics:

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 ).