Posted by Ginny
For today’s post, we’ll tackle conjugating verbs in the past tense, but only in the standard polite form. Let’s take a look at this sentence: “학교에 갔어요“. (학교 = school. 에 = location marking particle. 갔어요 = went.) In English this sentence would be, “I went to school”. The infinitive of the verb “went” is “to go” or “가다“. When you drop the 다 the stem 가 is left. Just add ㅆ어요 to 가 to make it past tense. Now let’s try that with 하다 verbs. 사랑하다 (to love) will be 사랑했어요 in the past tense. For 하다 verbs, drop the 다 and change 하 to 해 and add ㅆ어요 to the stem.
The irregular verbs that we’ve gone over so far are the verbs ending in ㄹ and ㄷ. With ㄹ verbs like 열다 (to open) it will be 열었어요 in the standard polite past tense. With ㄹ ending verbs, drop the 다 and add 었어요 to the stem. With ㄷ ending verbs like 듣다 (to hear, to listen) it will be 들었어요 in the standard polite past tense. With ㄷ ending verbs, drop the 다 and change the ㄷ on the bottom with ㄹ. Then add 었어요 to the stem. Ok, so here’s a test, what is the standard polite past tense of 살다 (to live) and 걷다 (to walk)? The answers are: 살았어요 and 걸었어요.
Did you notice that 살았어요 didn’t follow the regular pattern? Unlike the other verbs that ended in 었어요, 살았어요 ended with 았어요. That’s because 살다 contains an 아 vowel, which requires the verb to be conjugated in the 았어요 form. Verbs like 걷다 have the 어 vowel which requires the verb to be conjugated as 었어요. So, let’s do a little test, how would you conjugate 깨닫다 (to realize) and 받다 (to receive)? 깨닫다 will be 깨달았어요 in the standard polite past tense. However 받다 will be 받았어요. Hopefully you’ve remembered from the previous posts that not all ㄷ ending verbs change to a ㄹ and this is true for the verb 받다.
Now lastly, let’s look at the copula 이다. To change 학생이에요 (I’m a student) to the standard polite past tense, drop the 에요 and add 었어요. So 학생이에요 will turn to 학생이었어요 (I was a student). With 소라예요 (It’s Sora) it’ll change to 소라였어요 (It was Sora). With 예요 ending copulas, drop the 예요 and add 였어요. Now with 있다 endings, it will change to 있었어요 in the standard polite past tense. With the 아니다 (to not be etc.) it will change to 아니었어요 in the standard polite past tense. Just drop the 다 and add 었어요 to 아니. There was a lot of content in this post, so I may do a quiz on the past tense forms soon. For now just take a look at everything and see if you understand the general gist of this post.
Posted by Ginny
Today we’re going to look at some expressions where you might use the verb 있다. The verb 있다 can mean “to have”. For example, “돈이 있어요?” means “[Do you] have money?” (돈 = money. 이 = subject marking particle used after a consonant. 있어요 = “have” in the standard polite form. In the deferential polite form this sentence will be, “돈이 있습니까?” (돈 = money. 이 = subject marking particle. 있습니까 = “have” in the interrogative form of the deferential polite form.) The sentence “네, 돈이 있어요” or “네, 돈이 있습니다” can mean “yes, [I] have money” in both the statement form of the standard and deferential polite form.
For more on the endings of the statement and interrogative forms of the standard and deferential polite forms, check out the post for October 19, 2009. Now when you want to negate this and say, “No, I don’t have money” the sentence will look like this, “아니요, 돈이 없어요“. (아니요 = No. 돈 = money. 이 = subject marking particle. 없어요 = don’t have.) Here, when you want to say that you “don’t have” something, you’re going to use the verb 없다 which means “to not have”. In the deferential polite form this verb will be 없습니다. In English you just place the word “don’t” in front of “have” to express the opposite of “have”.
However in Korean the expression “don’t have” is an entirely different word. Now there are other considerations to make when you use the verb 있다. 있다 can also mean “to be present”. This sentence, “집에 있어요” means “[I'm] at home” or more literally, “[I'm] present [in the] home”. (집 = house/home. 에 = locative particle. 있어요 = “present”.) Another example is a sentence like this, “여기 있어요!” which means “[I'm] here!” or more literally “I’m present!” (여기 = here. 있어요 = present). Context is key to understanding which meaning 있다 will take on.
Here are some clues that may help you determine which meaning 있다 will take. For example a sentence like 저기 있어요/없어요 gives you a clue that 있다/없다 will take on the meaning of “to be present”. Placement words like 여기 (here), 거기 (there), 저기 (over there) is a hint that 있다 must take on the meaning of presence. If you tried to make this sentence substituting “to have” it doesn’t make much sense. When there is an object involved (or non human things) like this sentence “가방이 없어요/있어요” it makes more sense that 있다 will take on the meaning of “have” or “don’t have”. (가방 = bag. “[I] have the bag”.)
Posted by Ginny
Now that we’ve gone over the basics of the ㄷ ending verbs I’m going to go into a little bit more detail about the intricacies of the ㄷ ending verbs. You might be wondering, how will I know when to conjugate 묻다 as 묻어요 or 물어요. You do this by trying to figure out the context of the sentence. If you want the context of the sentence to be about asking a question, you’ll use 물어요. If you’re going to write a sentence about burying something, use 묻어요. Also, sometimes 묻어요 can actually mean “stain” or “smear”. For example, 피가 묻어요 means “the blood smears”. (피 = blood.) So, be aware of that meaning as well.
Now that you know 묻다 doesn’t necessarily change to a ㄹ ending depending on the meaning, let me show you some other verbs that end in ㄷ that do not change to ㄹ. The verb 받다 ends in ㄷ but does not change to a ㄹ. 받다 means “to receive”. Take a look at this sentence. “돈을 받아요“. (돈 = money. 받아요 = receive). In English this means “[I] receive money”. Note that since 받다 has an 아 vowel, it’s going to be conjugated at 받아요 not 받어요. Also, 묻다 has a 우 vowel so it’ll be conjugated as 묻어요 or 물어요. I talked about this when we talked about the ㄹ ending verbs on September 14th, so check that post out for a refresher on this concept.
The question that I get the most is, how do you know when a ㄷ ending verb ends in a ㄹ? The answer is that you just have to know. In other words, you’ll just have to memorize which verbs change to ㄹ and which verbs don’t. Now what happens when ㄷ ending verbs are conjugated into the deferential polite form? So far we’ve been dealing with the ㄷ ending verbs in the standard polite form, but let’s take a look at the verbs in the deferential polite form. Let’s take a look at a sentence like this, “어머님의 말씀을 듣습니다“. (어머님 = mother. 말씀 = word. 듣습나다 = listen) which means “[I] listen to [my] mother’s words”.
Notice how 듣다 doesn’t change to a ㄹ in the deferential polite form. It only changes in the standard polite form. In this sense, the deferential polite form is much easier to form then the standard polite form. Let’s take another verb and conjugate it in the deferential polite form. 걷다 will be 걷습니다. To conjugate into the deferential polite form, drop the 다 and you’re left with the stem 걷. Then add 습니다 to the stem. Try this with the verb 묻다. Did you get it? You should have conjugated it to 묻습니다. Much easier than the standard polite form right?
Posted by Ginny
There are some irregular verbs that end in ㄷ. When that happens, the ㄷ changes to a ㄹ. For example, the verb 듣다 will be 들어요 in the standard polite form. Basically the 다 is dropped. Then you’re left with the stem 듣. Then the ㄷ on the bottom is dropped. Lastly the ㄷ changes to a ㄹ and 어요 is added. 듣다 is an interesting verb. 듣다 can mean “to hear” or “to listen”. For example, this question 음악을 자주 들어요? means “Do you often listen to music?” (음악 = music. 을 = object marking particle. 자주 = often. 들어요 = listen).
However, 듣다 can also be used in another context. Let’s look at the sentence 다섯 과목을 들어요. (다섯 = five. 과목 = course. 을 = object marking particle. 들어요 = take.) Here the sentence means “[I] take five courses/subjects.” In this sentence 들어요 is used in the sense of taking a class/course. The way you can remember this is to change the meaning of this sentence as “[I] listen/hear five courses.” It’s a little awkward with this sentence, but it works better in this sentence, 온라인 수업 들어요 where you can say “[I] listen to an online course”. Still however, it works better when you say “[I] take an online course/class”
(온라인 = online. 수업 = class/course. 들어요 = take). When the verb 듣다 is used in the sense of “take” you can only use it in the sense of taking a class, a lecture or a course. You can’t use 듣다 when you want to say something like “I take my medicine everyday” because 듣다 can’t be used as “take” unless it has to do with taking a lesson, course, etc. Another verb that has the ㄷ ending as 듣다 is 걷다. 걷다 means “to walk”. The sentence 유리는 학교까지 걸어요 means “Yuri walks until she gets to school”. (유리 = Yuri. 학교 = school. 까지 = until/to. 걸어요 = walk).
There’s another common verb that ends in ㄷ that follows this rule. 질문을 자주 물어요. The verb here is 묻다 which means “to ask”. (질문 = question. 자주 = often. 물어요 = ask). In English the sentence means “[I] often ask questions”. Be careful with 묻다. 묻다 can also mean “to bury” like in this sentence, 소라는 시체를 묻어요 which can mean “Sora burys the corpse”. (소라 = Sora. 는 = topic marking particle. 시체 = corpse. 를 = object marking particle. 묻어요. So when the verb 묻다 means “to ask” you’ll have to conjugate it like 듣다, but when it means “to bury” it’ll be conjugated as 묻어요.
Posted by Ginny
Let’s take a look at the plural marker 들 and how it’s used. The first sentence we’ll take a look at is, 사람들이 많아요. (사람 = person. 들 = plural marker. 이 = subject marking particle. 많아요 = many). Let’s compare this with a second sentence, 사람이 많아요. The difference between the first sentence and the second sentence is that the first sentence has the plural marker 들 and the second sentence lacks the plural marker 들. Just one particle changes the meaning of the sentence. The first sentence that has the plural marker 들 means, “There are a lot of people”. The second sentence without the 들 means “There is a person.”
One other thing that you should keep note is that just because the plural marker is attached doesn’t mean the subject marker disappears. Notice in the first sentence the subject marker comes after the plural marker. Now sometimes 들 can be dropped when it’s clear that the subject is plural. For example, 저희는 학생이 아니에요. (저희 = we. 는 = topic marking particle. 학생 = student. 이 = subject marking particle. 들 = plural marker. 아니에요 = is not.) This sentence means, “We are not students.” This sentence would also be correct if it had the plural marker 들 after the pronoun 저희. Since 저희 means “we”, it is already plural in nature. That’s why it’s ok to drop the 들.
Now let’s look at some pronouns and see if the meaning changes when 들 is added.
저희 = we. 저희들 = also means we.
너희 = you plural casual. 너희들 = you plural casual.
당신 = you singular polite. 당신들 = you plural polite.
그녀 = literally means “that girl”. 그녀들 = those girls.
그들 = can mean “they” as in a mix of boys and girls or just boys.
