Learn Korean Conjugation of Verbs and Adjectives

In Korean, verbs and adjectives need to change their endings based on tense, politeness, and whether they are in a question or statement. This change is called conjugation. Let's explore how to do this in a simple way.

To make verbs and adjectives in the present tense, we often add -아/어요 to the verb or adjective stem. The choice between -아 and -어 depends on the last vowel of the stem.

For the past tense, we add -았어요 or -었어요 to the verb or adjective stem. Just like with present tense, the choice depends on the last vowel.

To talk about the future, we add -ㄹ/을 거예요 to the verb or adjective stem. Use -ㄹ when the stem ends in a vowel, and -을 when it ends in a consonant.

Korean has different levels of politeness. The endings we've learned (-요 forms) are polite. For informal speech, you can drop -요. For formal speech, you might use -습니다.