Lesson 6 - How to Conjugate Regular Verbs

Hello everyone!  

Here we are again with a new grammar post. Today it’s all about conjugating verbs. Not all of them, though. As the title of this blog post says, we’re only going to look at regular verbs; irregular verbs will be explained later. 

Let’s start with looking at verbs and their so-called dictionary forms. What are dictionary forms? It’s easy. The name of it says it all, but I’ll still explain it to you. Dictionary forms are the ones you mostly see in dictionaries when looking for verbs. You recognize them thanks to the -다 attached to the stem of the verb.  

But what is the stem of the verb (or verb stem)?  

Let’s jump ahead for a second and look at a conjugated verb: 있어요. We’ve already been through this (if you don’t remember, check here), so you should know that the dictionary form of this verb is 있다.  

Let’s look at its dictionary form: 있다; it’s made of two syllable blocks (if you don’t remember what a syllable block is, check here) 있 and 다. As I’ve mentioned before, the -다 at the end of the verb usually means you’re looking at a dictionary form verb. That means that the verb stem will be the syllable (or syllables, depending on the verb) before the -다 part: 있.  

I’ll show you more examples of dictionary form verbs, and, then, high light the verb stem: 

Dictionary form	English meaning	Verb Stem
닫다	To close	닫
많다	To be many	많
이다	To be	이
가다	To go	가
비싸다	To be expensive	비싸
예쁘다	To be pretty	예쁘
끝나다	To end	끝나
만나다	To meet	만나
일어나다	To get up	일어나
요리하다	To cook	요리하
좋아하다	To like something	좋아하
싫어하다	To dislike/hate something	싫어하

Now, let’s go back to talk about the present conjugation, shall we?  

You’ve got to know that there are mainly two conjugations of the present tense (for both regular and irregular verbs). I’m talking about -어요 and -아요. How and when do we use each of them? It’s a pretty simple rule you’ve got to know in order to conjugate any regular verb. But before I can explain to you that rule, I’ll need to explain what an infinitive form is.  

The infinitive form sees the verb stem added to either -어 or -아 depending on how the last syllable of the verb stem ends. Seems complicated, but, in the end, it’s pretty simple (and it’s part of the rule I’ll explain in a bit). 

Let’s look at it through two main steps: 

1) Take a verb in its dictionary form and take the -다 form off, so that you’ll be looking at its verb stem. 

돌다 --> 돌다 --> 돌 

가다 --> 가다 --> 가 

읽다 --> 읽다 --> 읽 

앉다 --> 앉다 --> 앉 

묻다 --> 묻다 --> 묻 

2) Now that you have the verb stem, you can add either -어 or -아, but how do we decide which one to use? Easy. When there’s a verb stem ending with a syllable containing either ㅏ or ㅗ you use -아; whereas you’re looking at a verb stem ending with a syllable containing any other vowel, you’ll have to use -어.  

돌다 --> 돌다 --> 돌 --> 돌아 

가다 --> 가다 --> 가 --> 가* 

읽다 --> 읽다 --> 읽 --> 읽어 

앉다 --> 앉다 --> 앉 --> 앉아 

믿다 --> 믿다 --> 믿 -->믿어 

*With monosyllabic verb stems ending with a vowel, there’s no need to add -어 or -아; except for 하다 and 되다 which we’ll be looking at in a bit. 

When the last syllable of a verb has a ㅡ in it, however, you will need to look at the syllable before this one. Seems confusing, right? I’ll show you what I mean with some examples: 

나쁘 --> 나빠 

The vowel in the first syllable is ㅏ which means that you will need to add -아; it will take ㅡ ‘s place. 

바쁘 --> 바빠 

The vowel in the first syllable is ㅏ which means that you will need to add -아; it will take ㅡ ‘s place. 

예쁘 --> 예뻐 

The vowel in the first syllable is ㅖ which means that you will need to add -어; it will take ㅡ ‘s place. 

Once you have this step done, you will just need to add -요 to the conjugated verb stem. Then, you’ll have a Polite present-tense conjugated verb! 

If you want to keep verbs informal, you could leave them like this; no need to add the -요 form after adding -어 or -아 to the verb stem. 

This was easy, wasn’t it? I’m sure you’ll get it with time; make sure you practice! 

VOCABS SET ON QUIZLET: 1 

KPOPOLOGY WEBSITE: Home, KPOPOLOGY Explains 

DROPBOX FILES: Main folder, Lesson 6 practice

  

I'll see you soon with another grammar point post!  

  

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