Lesson 3 So, to sum up that paragraph, the verb is the only needed part in a Korean sentence.

Everything else is extra. Korean verbs can take many different forms, depending on who you are talking to. Korean still has social status literally integrated into the language itself. The verb "to be" when speaking to an older person or teacher will be slightly different than "to be" when speaking to your best friend. Most Korean verbs have the same root, regardless of who you are talking to, but you will change the ending of the verb depending on who you are speaking with. is the dictionary form of the verb "to eat." The dictionary form consists of the verb root, in this example, and the ending. Go ahead, look up a few of your favorite verbs here or even better, grab yourself a copy of Declan's Korean Flashcards(contains over 3600 words with audio, arranged in vocabulary sets) to start building a strong foundation of Korean verbs. You will see all forms they list end in . If you remove the ending, you will be left with the verb root. The verb root of is . The verb root by itself has no meaning. You must remove the ending and replace it with a different ending depending on what you want to say and who you want to say it to. In my mind, I see three different, very distinct endings for speaking and writing.Formal , Polite , and Casual .

Formal Ending Polite Ending Casual Ending

/ / /

For now, we will focus on the two most common styles of verbs you will use, polite and casual. As you can see above, there are also two different endings for both polite and casual speech. The way you decide which ending to choose is based on the verb root. If the last vowel in the verb root is or then you choose the (polite) or (casual) ending. If the last vowel in the verb root is anything other than or , then you choose the (polite) or (casual) ending. Look at the following chart of commonly used verbs and compare the verb root to the ending to get a better understanding of this. I will refer to the Formal ending section next.

English To Have

Verb Root Dictionary Form Polite Ending Casual Ending Formal Ending

To Be Good To Go To Not Have To Do

Let's look at a couple. means "to have." is the verb root. The last vowel in is . Since this is not or then we know to choose the / endings depending on whether we will need to be polite or if it is casual speech. (~) has a verb root of . The final vowel in this root is , so we need to choose the / endings.

If you look at , this has a verb root of with a final vowel of . So, since that is or , it must take the / ending. Understand the general pattern? Irregular Verb Patterns Now, as you can see in the chart, there will be some situations that do not follow this exactly. means "to go". If you remove the to get the verb root you are left with . Following this pattern, you would add / to the verb root, and get something like . The real way is just . It has been shortened because otherwise we just say two of the same vowel in a row. Since that is a waste of time and breath, it is simply or . The final verb is the chart above is . This is a very common verb in any language. This one verb is irregular all on it's own. It doesn't follow a pattern, and you just need to memorize the case. It shouldn't be too hard because you will see this all over the place. has a root of . . The polite form is and the casual form is . Just take a few minutes right now to memorize this and then you will never have to worry about it again. Done? Ok, let's move on. Below is a table of irregular verbs that follow a pattern. Briefly look over the table and then continue on.

English To Drink To Meet To Come To Be Busy To Not Know To Be Hot

Verb Root

Dictionary Form

Polite Ending

Casual Ending

The first one is "To Drink" or . If we remove the dictionary ending, we are left with . Following normal patterns for the polite form, we would have . To make it easier and sound better, the real polite form is . Any verb root that

ends in will naturally take the /

endings gvG Nc`o6 ISt sathee

and say that. Now, try and say . That is the correct way. When a verb root ends in , we drop the , look at the last vowel in the root that is left (not including the ) and add the appropriate ending. For this example, the last vowel would be . So, when we drop the and add the

ending, we get . Other verb examples that follow this pattern are - , - , - .

The next verb is . The verb root is . You might be thinking, that ends in so wouldn't it follow the above irregular pattern, and become ? Indeed, it would, except Koreans have decided if a verb root ends in (not just ), then we will double of the syllable before the . And then we

up the by adding a second to the end drop the . . We added a to Together, we have . Other verb , - , - . The final verb in rb chart above is roots by now and instantly know it is . Now, with this irregular pattern, you must remember two things. Often, when a verb root ends in , you should drop the and add . After that, you move to the second step. If it ends in , when we pick a style such as polite style, it should naturally take the ending. This is another pattern

and got . We dropped the and got . examples using this pattern are -

bnc`o6

. You should definitely be good with verb

where we combine two characters to make it smoother. and

use the verbs in a much more general manner than in English. Later we will see how to add words such as "I" or "You" if necessary to clear up the meaning of a sentence. Another example could be . This means To Be Good. If someone asks you how is something, you can say ! Like, "Are my new shoes ok? Do you like them? How are they?" "!". Or, if you are having a casual conversation about something with your friend, and they say something and in English you would just give the reply "Good!" or something, you can just say !(remember, it's a conversation with your friend).

commonly used verbs, but either have more than one meaning, are used weird, etc. instead of being irregular patterns . You will see what I mean, right now! Verb - Polite Style The first irregular verb that I need to cover here is definitely what many books and courses will call the copula . Basically, it is the verb of equality. Equality? What is that?!? In English, we may say "It is a book." "It" is equal to "book". It is pretty much the verb "to be." If you look in a dictionary, you will see The verb root is

This whole concept about the verbs being so general is hard to learn at first. Just try your best! Casual verbs can have even more meanings than other forms! If you say you could be saying I'm going, you're going, someone's going, let's go, are we going?, etc. A lot of Korean is about what can be assumed. If it can be assumed, there is no need to say it in the language. One of the most recommended Korean language products, Rosetta Stone Korean Level 1, makes learning this part a breeze. This wraps up the intro to Korean verbs! It's time for you to memorize a few, and to go back and make sure you know the patterns covered on this page. There will definitely be more to come on verbs later. Lesson 4 Irregular Verbs Beginners Lesson Four is all about those verbs in Korean that are just plain weird. Irregular verbs in Korean are actually not too bad though! In Beginners Lesson Three, you were introduced to Korean verbs and the irregular verb patterns . The verbs on this page are different. These verbs are

 As you see, this is like "book-to be". The structure is different, but you will get used to it as you see more and more of it. means "It is a book." Let's see a couple more examples. Remember, you don't need to remember every noun you see yet. Memorize what you find on the homework page.

means pencil. It ends in which is also a consonant. If we combine this with the polite ending and keep the correct word order, we get , meaning "It is a pencil."
means car. It ends in which is a vowel. Because it ends in a vowel, the correct spelling of
would be . The sentence would be , meaning "It is a car." Do you understand it a little better now? If so, then let's look at this, and then there will be some practice problems. Verb - Casual Style

Many resources choose to teach you mostly one style first, usually polite style, and then much later return to teach you the other commonly used style. I feel it is best to teach you them both from the start, because they both are very important if you plan on learning Korean well. If we put off one, you will not be as strong with it. If we teach both, you will learn at a slower pace at first, but will learn faster later on and the whole time you will be learning more efficiently. So, here it is! has two polite forms, depending on whether it follows a consonant or vowel, and so does the casual form. If follows a consonant, it is spelled . If follows a vowel, it is spelled . Lets use the same three examples as above so that you may compare the two forms. The first one used the word , or book, in the example. The polite style was . Since ends in , a consonant, the casual style form should be . If we put this with , we get . and mean the exact same thing! The only difference is who we are speaking with. As previous lessons covered, if we speak with someone older or a teacher or anyone who deserves more respect, we would use the polite form . If we are speaking with our close friends, we can just use . That is the only difference! It is something you will get used to as you learn Korean. The second example sentence was , meaning "It is a pencil." This ends in , a consonant, so we will add to this one as well. is correct. and

also mean the same thing, and are only different because of who we may be speaking to. 5

 was the final example sentence. ends in a vowel, so we only add instead of .
When we form the new sentence, we get . As you can guess, this is equal to . I think you probably understand this pretty well by now and are ready to take on anything like this! Here are a few practice problems. If you can get these, then you know the irregular verb and are one step closer to knowing Korean!

How do you say, "It is a ____"?

answer
This also works for people and their names, as in "It's Joe" or if you were referring to yourself. In the next lesson we will see how to specify who we are referring to.

Verb - - Root is , Polite style is , Casual style is . Meaning - To have or To be (location). is a special verb because it has a couple of different meanings. I feel it is a verb worth mentioning because it is an extremely common verb. Let's look at the two meanings you will see. To Have This is a very common verb in all languages. "I have chicken." "I have a car." "Do you have a car?" All of these deal with possesion of something. So does . We could say to mean "I have a car" or "she has a car". Remember, in Korean the subject may be left out if it can be assumed. If it cannot be, it will be added in, which you will learn soon. This is a fairly simple verb when looking at it from this position, and is easy to understand with this meaning alone. could mean "I have a pencil." In written Korean, you can turn this statement into a question asking "Do you have a pencil?" by simply adding a question mark on the end. ? In spoken Korean, it is the tone of your voice that determines this. Nothing else in the sentence changes. To Be (Location) can also mean To Be, when used for location. For example, using the same sentence, ? could also mean "Is there a pencil?" For this sentence as it is, it pretty much means the same thing. You are wanting a pencil and are asking if there is one or if they have one or whichever. Later, you will see the difference easier as we learn how to make our sentences

longer and more complex. If we said "(In the room) ?" then we can automatically assume it is talking about location. If we say "(Anna) ?" Then we can automatically assume we are talking about possession. Try the following practice problems. They should not be difficult, but should help you to see more examples of the use of . Anna ? At-Home ? 2 Blocks away .

See Answers Here

I think this is the perfect place to stop for now. Also, if you would review and memorize this section on the homework page, it will be of great help to you! It will contain a few basic nouns that I will use often in examples and problems. Once the word has appeared on a homework page, I will not always include the English word next to it. You may always go back and look at anything you need to, and may print whatever you need :) (Homework pages especially!) Verb - - root is , Polite style is , casual style is . Meaning - To Do. has an irregular spelling when used as you learned in Lesson Three. Keep in mind it is and not . This verb is not as irregular as with and , but I would still like to briefly talk about it. is a verb you will soon know perfectly, as you will see it forms many other verbs. What I mean by this is, many Korean verbs are simply formed by taking a word and simply adding on the end of it. The verb "To Make a Phone Call" is made by sticking the word for "phone" and the verb (To Do) together. Phone is . The verb "To Make a Phone Call" is . Shower is . "To Shower" is simply . Homework is . "To Do Homework" is . This is why you will see this verb a lot. Many verbs are formed using it. When you conjugate them, it is done the same as . , , etc. You will have no problem with . Homework

Normal or Takes / Normal not or Ends in Ends in Ends in Takes / Combine to ~/~ Combine to / Drop add appropriate ending

,, , , , , , - , -

Ends in

Double the , drop add appropriate - , - ending - , - , ,

Ends in or Simply add or leave as is (casual) Ends in Combine to /

Memorize These first 10 common verbs and forms. To form casual style, simply drop the from the polite style.

(~)

(~)

To Do To Have To Not Have To Go To Eat To Drink To Get Up To Sleep To See To Be Good

Lesson Four

Memorize The Verb in the present tense for both polite and casual styles.
Verb Meaning Copula, To Be Style Polite After Vowel 8 After Consonant

Copula, To Be

Casual

Memorize the verb and its two meanings.

Verb Meaning 1 Possession Meaning 2 Location Polite Casual

Memorize these 10 common words. If it has a (p) next to it, it means polite. A (c) means casual.
English Hangul Car Pencil House Water Bread Friend Yes No Hello
ANSWER Lesson Four penyieyo / Pen He's / He's but it will do / belongs to it's toothpaste / tooth paste 's Phone 's / It's aennayeyo / aennaya Michael 's / Michael 's a train a train but it will do belongs to tooth paste's Phone's Michael's Michael's car ( Car ) ? Is There a chair ( Chair ) at Home ? It is Two blocks Away . Does Anna have (Car)? (Chair) Home? Away.

Korean (p), (c) (p), (c) (p), (c)