The verbs a story runs on, and how they show the past

Eleven verbs carry a short story. Learn the shape a book prints, the two endings that mark the past, and the order Korean writes a line of speech in.

≈ 4 min of reading · Practise at your own pace

What’s in this chapter

A dictionary verb ends in 다. For a plain written statement Korean pushes a syllable in before it: 가다ga-da → 간다gan-da“goes”. Describing words do not take it.
The past ends …았다 or …었다 — that pair of final syllables is the whole recognition test.
English writes quote, verb, speaker. Korean writes quote, speaker, verb — the verb comes last even then.
A quote marker closes the quotation: 하고ha-go in storybooks, 라고ra-go in modern prose.

Eleven verbs that carry a fable

A verb tells you about an action or a state: go, come, see, be. These eleven do most of the work in a short story.

English	Korean	English	Korean
to go	가다ga-da	to say	말하다mal-ha-da
to come	오다o-da	to ask	묻다mut-tta
to see	보다bo-da	to answer	대답하다dae-da-pa-da
to live	살다sal-da	to think	생각하다saeng-ga-ka-da
to blow (wind)	불다bul-da	to fall over	넘어지다neo-meo-ji-da
to eat	먹다meok-tta

All eleven end in 다 — the dictionary shape, not the shape a sentence uses.

From the dictionary shape to the one a book prints

A dictionary gives you one shape; a sentence uses another. Read each row left to right and watch the extra syllable go in.

가다ga-da“to go”

간다gan-da“goes”

after a vowel, ㄴ slides underneath

먹다meok-tta“to eat”

먹는다meong-neun-da“eats”

after a consonant, 는 goes in — and the k comes out ng, rule two

살다sal-da“to live”

산다san-da“lives”

a final ㄹ drops here. And describing words do not do this at all — 크다keu-da“is big” stays 크다 — so the inserted syllable tells you the sentence is about an action

How a verb shows that something already happened

Fables are told in the past, so this is the shape most verbs wear. You only have to recognise the ending, never build it.

간다gan-da“goes”

갔다gat-tta“went”

본다bon-da“sees”

보았다bo-at-tta“saw”

산다san-da“lives”

살았다sa-rat-tta“lived”

the ㄹ comes back and slides across

묻는다mun-neun-da“asks”

물었다mu-reot-tta“asked”

크다keu-da“is big”

컸다keot-tta“was big”

every past form ends …았다 or …었다 — you never have to produce the right one, only recognise the pair. Describing words and the glued is-word take it too: 슬펐다seul-peot-tta“was sad”, 새였다sae-yeot-tta“was a bird”

“Hello,” “안녕하세요.” 하고an-nyeong-ha-se-yo, ha-go said 말했다mal-haet-tta Dara 다라가da-ra-ga.

“안녕하세요.” 하고 다라가 말했다.

an-nyeong-ha-se-yo, ha-go da-ra-ga mal-haet-tta

Quote, speaker, verb — with the quote marker 하고ha-go closing the quotation. Two styles in one line: the speech wears 요 because a person is talking; the narration ends in 다 because it is a book.

Find the tense, then the speaker

여우가 숲에 갔다.
Last two syllables first: which ending is that?
Show answer +Hide answer −
yeo-u-ga su-pe gat-tta — “The fox went to the forest.”
새가 나무에 살았다.
살다 in the past — the ㄹ comes back.
Show answer +Hide answer −
sae-ga na-mu-e sa-rat-tta — “A bird lived in the tree.”
“여기 있어요.” 하고 곰이 대답했다.
Which part was spoken aloud, and who spoke it?
Show answer +Hide answer −
yeo-gi i-sseo-yo, ha-go go-mi dae-da-paet-tta — “It is here,” answered the bear.

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