Lesson 10 - How to Conjugate Verbs in the Past Tense

Hello everyone! 

We’re back again with another grammar post. This time, it’s part of the Verb Conjugation Series! By now you probably noticed the title of the post. With this grammar point, we’ll go through the Past Tense for Regular Verbs (as Irregular Verbs could confuse you). 

The principle is basically the same as Present Tense conjugation: you have to look at the dictionary form, and, depending on which vowel the verb stem has (either 아/오 or every other vowel) the conjugation will change. If you don’t remember about verb stems or the vowel rule, check here.  

The form of the Past Tense is -었- when the verb stem has every other vowel but -아 or -오; and -았- when the verb stem has got either -아 or -오.  

The steps from the dictionary forms would be the following: 

Dictionary form	English meaning	Past Tense
닫다	To close	닫았
많다	To be many	많았
가다	To go	가+았 -> 갔
비싸다	To be expensive	비싸+았 -> 비쌌
예쁘다	To be pretty	예쁘+었->예뻤
끝나다	To end	끝나 +았 ->끝났
만나다	To meet	만나 +았 ->만났
일어나다	To get up	일어나 +았 -> 일어났

For what concerns the copula 이다 and the verbs ending with 하다 the form will be different. Starting with the copula, the form could either be -였- if the noun attached to the verb ends with a vowel; or -이었- if the noun ends with a consonant. 

So the sequence would be this one: 

Dictionary form	English meaning	Past Tense
선생님이다	To be a teacher	선생님이었
학교이다	To be a school	학교였

Whereas for verbs ending with 하다, the form will be -했-.  
  

Dictionary form	English meaning	Past Tense
요리하다	To cook	요리했
일하다	To work	일하했
말하다	To speak	말했

If you want to fully conjugate it and put it in polite form, don’t forget to add -어(요) to each of the forms written above. Note that the -요 can be omitted; in those cases, the verb will be conjugated to informal style (we’ll talk about this another time). 

Let’s look at some examples, shall we? 

어젯밤에 내가 내 남친하고 함께 야구 경기를 관람했어요 

My boyfriend and I went to a baseball match together last night 

지난년에 서울에 방문했어! 

I visited Seoul last year! 

네가 시험을 잘 봤어요! 

You did well on the test! 

그 연속극의 모든 에피소드를 봤어요 

I watched every episode of that soap opera 

그녀의 할아버지는 선생님이었어요 

Her grandfather was a teacher 

공원에 사람들이 많았어 

There were a lot of people in the park 

VOCABS SET ON QUIZLET: 1 

KPOPOLOGY WEBSITE: Home, KPOPOLOGY Explains 

DROPBOX FILES: Main folder, Lesson 10 Practice 

I will see you next time with another grammar post!

 구름