안녕하세요? Today, you'll learn how to ask for help in Korean using the grammatical expression 아/어/여 주세요. At the end of the lesson, you'll be able to ask like "Let me know," or "Please give me some tissues."
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1. V아/어/여 주세요 Grammar
"주다" means "to give" in Korean. When you use it as the expression(ending) "아/어/여 주다," you can indicate the act of doing something helpful.
By using "아/어/여 주세요," you can request the listener to perform an action to assist you or someone else. Additionally, it can serve as a polite way to give a command. The English translations can be "Would you do V?" or "Please do V."
창문을 열어 주세요. Please open a window.
제인 씨에게 알려 주세요. Please let Jane know.
↪ You can ask the listener to give a favor to someone else (the third person.) with this expression.
2. Conjugation Information
You attach "아/어/여 주세요" only to a verb stem. You can't ask to be an adjective. That means you can't attach this to an adjective stem.
Since this rule starts with "아/어/여" that means the last vowel of the stem is the important part of conjugation, just like an informal present and past tense. If you are not familiar with this concept, please click here to check out the tense post first!
Regular conjugation
1. ㅏ or ㅗ: -아 주세요
When the last syllable of the stem has ㅏ or ㅗ as a vowel, add 아 주세요.
앉다 to sit → 앉아 주세요. Please sit down.
가다 to go → 가 주세요. Please go.
사다 to buy → 사 주세요. Please buy.
오다 to come → 와 주세요. Please come.
2. 하다 verbs: 해 주세요
When a verb ends with 하다, in other words, when the stem is 하, you add 여 주세요. However, in modern Korean, 하여 shortened to 해. So, you can simply replace 하다 to 해 주세요.
전화하다 to make a phone call → 전화해 주세요.
말하다 to talk → 말해 주세요.
도착하다 to arrive → 도착해 주세요.
3. Others: -어 주세요
When the regular verb doesn't have ㅏ, ㅗ, or 하 as a stem, you must add 어 주세요.
읽다 to read → 읽어 주세요.
만들다 to make → 만들어 주세요.
빌리다 to borrow, to lend → 빌려 주세요.
4. Summary chart
Click the meaning to see the conjugated forms!
Irregular conjugation
1. ㄷ verbs: ㄷ → ㄹ +아/어 주세요
You must change ㄷ to ㄹ first and then add 아 주세요 or 어 주세요 depending on the last vowel using the regular conjugation rule.
깨닫다 to realize → 깨달아 주세요.
듣다 to listen → 들어 주세요.
2. ㅅ verbs: Erase ㅅ + 아/어 주세요
For irregular ㅅ verbs, get rid of the ㅅ first and then add 아 or 어 주세요 depending on the regular rule.
붓다 to pour → 부어 주세요.
잇다 to connect → 이어 주세요.
3. ㅂ verbs: Erase ㅂ + 와/워 주세요
For irregular ㅂ verbs, you need to remove the ㅂ and then append either 와 주세요 or 워 주세요. 와 주세요 is for 아 주세요 rule. 워 주세요 is for 어 주세요 rule.
돕다 to help → 도와 주세요. Please help (me).
줍다 to pick up → 주워 주세요. Please pick it up.
4. ㅡ and 르 verbs
Irregular ㅡ and 르 verb rules are a bit complicated. If you want to read about it, please click here to read my other post!
For a long reading short, you have to erase ㅡ of the stem and then add 아 주세요 or 어 주세요 depending on the last vowel.
쓰다 to write → 써 주세요.
부르다 to call → 불러 주세요.
5. Summary chart
3. Sentence Information
Commonly used word
In daily conversation, this "아/어/여 주세요" is often used with the word "좀." It means "a little" but in this case, it is a word that is inserted to soften the tone when you ask a favor.
저 좀 도와 주세요. Please help me.
It sounds a bit more polite and soft than "저 도와 주세요." Without 좀, it sounds a bit more rude and forceful.
좀 is a shortened version of "조금 (a little)", but it is more natural to use 좀 in daily conversations.
Comparisons
You learned the command, request ending (으)세요 before. 주세요 came from 주다 plus this (으)세요. They can both be used to ask the listener to do an action.
However, (으)세요 has a stronger command tone than today's expression "아/어/여 주세요." Since "아/어/여 주세요" is closer to asking "Please give me your help."
읽으세요. : Read. - Stronger command vibe.
읽어 주세요. Please read (for me.) - Softer, gentle, polite request vibe.
So, in the case of asking someone older than you, for example, your teacher, you can't ask him or her "읽으세요" but ask them "읽어 주세요."
Honorific version
You can use this "아/어/여 주세요" to ask the listener to give a favor to someone else. When you ask the listener to give a favor to someone else who is older than both you and the listener, you have to use the honorific version which is "-아/어/여 드리세요."
For example, in an office situation, you ask your co-worker to help the boss by saying 사장님을 도와 드리세요. The subject of the sentence is 사장님 (boss), so you have to use the honorific version word, 드리세요 instead of 주세요.
(O) 사장님을 도와 드리세요.
(X) 사장님을 도와 주세요.
Other Speech Levels
When the listener is the same age or younger than you, you can use the informal casual version (or so-called low-form of speech). 주다 becomes 줘 in that ending. So, you can use the expression "-아/어/여 줘."
나 좀 도와 줘. Help me.
It is a more friendly and intimate version than "저 좀 도와 주세요."
The informal casual ending is very friendly but also can be considered rude. Even if the listener is younger than you, if you are speaking, for example, in an office situation, it'll be more polite to use the "아/어/여 주세요" form.
If you are making a public speech or making a presentation in front of others, you'd better want to use a formal ending! In that case, you attach (으)십시오 to 주다. You'll use the expression "아/어/여 주십시오."
모두 집중해 주십시오. Everyone please attention.
Restriction
Since the expression already has the word "주다," it is awkward to say 주다 in the verb spot.
(X) 줘 주세요.
When you need to ask someone to give you something, you can use the object with the object marker! Just say N을/를 좀 주세요.
휴지를 좀 주세요. Please give me some tissues.
However, in daily conversation, the object marker 을/를 can be easily omitted. So you will often hear the expression like the one below.
휴지 좀 주세요. Please give me some tissues.
4. Examples
You will see the examples with the softening word "좀". It is good to add when you ask to someone to give you a favor in daily life. If you want to practice making more examples using different verbs, please check out my post about 100 basic Korean verbs.
1
이 문제가 너무 어려워요. 좀 가르쳐 주세요.
This question is too difficult. Please teach me.
너무 means "too". 가르쳐 주세요 came from the word 가르치다(to teach).
2
전화번호가 뭐예요? 좀 알려 주세요.
What is your phone number? Please let me know.
알리다 means "to let know, to inform". It is very close looking with "알다(to know)", right? To say "let me know," you can use this 알리다 and say 알려 주세요.
3
중요해요. 메모해 주세요.
It's important. Please take a memo.
메모하다, obviously, came from the English word "memo." By adding this noun 메모 to a verb convertor 하다, now 메모하다 is a verb like "take note" or "take a memo."
메모해 주세요 is a bit more oblique command than ask a favor. 중요하다 is an adjective, meaning "to be important."
4
나중에 전화 좀 해 주세요.
Please call (me) later.
나중에 means later. Because there is no other person indicated, it means asking the listener to call the speaker (I).
5
나중에 저한테 전화 좀 해 주세요.
Please call (me) later.
You can add "me" by saying 저한테. 저 means I (me) and 한테 means "to" So you can show call "to" me. You can replace 저 with another specific name to ask the listener to call that person.
6
무슨 일이 있었어요? 좀 말해 주세요.
What happened? Please tell me.
5. Wrap up & Worksheet: Asking for help in Korean
In this lesson, you learned about asking for help in Korean. Let's review today's lesson. Here is the summary for you!
V아/어/여 주세요: to ask the listener to do action in a favor.
You have to pay attention to the last vowel of the stem to conjugate 아/어/여 part.
You can ask to the listener to do an action not only in favor of the speaker but someone else as well.
I also prepared the free and printable worksheet for you! Please download the Korean practice PDF and solve the quiz.
How was the lesson? If this lesson was helpful, please like my post and subscribe to my website for future updates!
In the next lesson, I'll show you the more usage of "아/어/여 주다" grammar. Thank you for studying using My Korean lesson. 감사합니다! 🤗