Korean

Conjugate Verbs

Introduction

Korean is the official language of Korea, both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide.

There is a difference of opinion among scholars as to whether or not Korean is related to Japanese. Some scholars suggest that both languages are possibly distantly related to Altaic. Dialect boundaries generally correspond to provincial boundaries. Some dialects are not easily intelligible with others.

The verb

Korean verbs are divided into

• action, dynamic, or processive verbs (동사, tongsa, 動詞) and
• descriptive or stative verbs (형용사(形容詞), hyeong-yongsa, "adjectives"))

Verb Conjugation

Verb conjugations depend upon the

• verb tense, aspect, mood, and
• the social relation between the speaker, the subjects, and the listeners.

Sample verbs

• 사다: to buy
• 전화하다: to call
• 만들다: to make/create
• 오다: to come
• 하다: to do
• 마시다: to drink
• 먹다: to eat
• 가다: to go
• 주다: to give
• 갖다: to have
• 싫어하다: to dislike/hate
• 알다: to know
• 배우다: to learn
• 좋아하다: to like
• 사랑하다: to love
• 듣다: to listen/hear
• 움직이다: to move (around)
• 놀다: to play
• 읽다: to read
• 말하다: to speak
• 자다: to sleep
• 보다: to see/watch
• 가르치다: to teach
• 치다: to hit
• 생각하다: to think
• 원하다: to want
• 일어나다: to wake up
• 쓰다: to write
• 걷다: to walk
• 잠자다: to sleep
• 예쁘다: to be beautiful

Verblists

• Korean Verblist

Texts

• The Snow Queen

References

• Seok Choong Song. 201 Korean verbs fully conjugated in all the forms. Barron's Educational Series. New York, 1988.