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안녕하세요! Welcome back to My Korean Lesson! In the previous post, you saw the two regular conjugation rules. No matter which one you use, you will have some special irregular verbs and adjectives!
Those irregular rules are related to the final consonant of the stem. You have to see the last syllable of the stem and check if the final consonant is ㄷ, ㅅ, ㅂ, or ㅎ. Those are the special final consonants. Here, I'll show you the two Korean irregular conjugation situations; ㄷ and ㅅ. I'll provide you with words and general rules as well. 잘 읽으세요. (Read well, please.)
<Table of Contents>
1. Irregular ㄷ
A. Word list
When the word stem ends with the final consonant ㄷ, this word may be irregular. There is a piece of good news for you. For irregular ㄷ words, there is no adjective! That means you can only take care of verbs. Let's start by looking at related words first.
Irregular ㄷ verbs (불규칙 ㄷ 동사)
듣다 to listen, to hear
걷다 to walk
깨닫다 to realize
묻다 to ask
일컫다 to refer to, to designate
붇다 to swell (when something is soaked in water and swell), to rise (water)
싣다 to load (luggage), to lade, to put (an article to paper, etc.)
긷다 to draw water (from a well)
Regular ㄷ verbs (규칙 ㄷ 동사)
Some words are not irregular verbs, even though they end with ㄷ. You have to memorize those words separately. Here are some words for you.
닫다 to close (door, window)
믿다 to believe
받다 to receive
얻다 to get, gain
묻다 to bury
We have two 묻다. They are homonyms. When it is used as "to ask," you have to use an irregular rule. When it means "to bury," then you have to use a regular rule! It is not confusing at all, right? 😂
B. Conjugation rule
a. The two rules
If you conjugate the ㄷ verbs by using either a vowel rule or a final consonant rule, you always have to change that ㄷ to ㄹ. Then, you will add the rest of the ending depending on the regular rule. I'll show you both situations!
When the vowel matters
Let's change the basic form 듣다 to the informal present tense, 아/어/여요.
듣다 → The stem is 듣. → It ends with the final consonant ㄷ. Change that to ㄹ. → 들 → Now you can use the regular rule. → The vowel is ㅡ. It is not ㅏ or ㅗ. So, you will use the third rule, adding 어요. → 들+어요 → 들어요
When the final consonant matters
Here, you will see how to change 듣다 with the future ending, (으)ㄹ 거예요. What to add in this case is up to each rule. In each lesson, I provide you with the details, so don't worry, and continue to follow my blog posts!
듣다 → 듣 → Still, you have to change the ㄷ to ㄹ, first! → 들 → Since it has the final consonant, we will add 을 거예요 form to it. → 들을 거예요.
b. Examples
Here are some examples using 듣다 and many endings.
Informal Endings = The endings are used in a daily conversation
Present: 들어요. I listen.
Past: 들었어요. I listened.
Future: 들을 거예요. I'll listen.
Present progressive: 듣고 있어요. I'm listening.
Past progressive: 듣고 있었어요. I was listening.
Future progressive (guess): 듣고 있을 거예요. I will be listening.
Formal Endings = The endings are used in public situations
Present: 듣습니다. I listen.
Past: 들었습니다. I listened.
Future: 들을 것입니다. I'll listen.
Present progressive: 듣고 있습니다. I'm listening.
Past progressive: 듣고 있었습니다. I was listening.
Future Progressive: 듣고 있을 것입니다. I'll be listening.
c. In the case of regular word
When you conjugate a regular ㄷ wors, such as 닫다, then you don't have to change ㄷ to ㄹ. Just change it normally as you did in the previous lesson. I'll show you just one example here.
닫다 → 닫 → The vowel is ㅏ. We need to use the rule number 1 to change it to the present tense. Add 아요. → 닫아요. (See how the ㄷ survived? It is because 닫다 is the regular verb!)
2. Irregular ㅅ
A. Word list
When the last syllable of the stem ends with ㅅ, there is only one adjective. The rest is all verbs. There are, of course, regular verbs as well, even if they have ㅅ as the final consonant.
Irregular ㅅ adjective (불규칙 ㅅ 형용사)
낫다 to be better
Irregular ㅅ verbs (불규칙 ㅅ 동사)
낫다 to heal, to recover (-Yes, it is a homonym! 낫다 is both an adjective and a verb!)
긋다 to draw (lines)
잇다 to connect
짓다 to build, to make (cooked rice), to write, to compose, to name
붓다 to pour, to swell (skin/body part)
젓다 to stir
Regular ㅅ verbs (규칙 ㅅ 동사)
씻다 to wash
↪It is a general term for "wash". You can use it to mean wash a face, shower, bath, wash vegetables, etc. Those actions have other specific words too, but 씻다 can include all these meanings!
벗다 to take off (clothing items like shoes, clothes, hat, etc.)
솟다 to soar (smoke, flame, thing), to rise (sun, moon), to spurt (tear)
빼앗다 to steal, to divest, to occupy (time) from someone
앗다 to snatch, to take away/rob
B. Conjugation rule
a. The two rules
When you conjugate an irregular ㅅ word, you must erase the ㅅ and then add an appropriate ending. Here, I will show you an example using 낫다 which has both an adjective and verb meaning.
When the vowel matters; present tense (아/어/여요)
낫다 → The stem is 낫. → First, erase the ㅅ of the final consonant. → 나 → Then, we will use the regular rule. Since the vowel is 'ㅏ', we need 아요. → 나+아요 → 나아요.
When the final consonant matters; the future ending (으)ㄹ 거예요
낫다 → 낫 → Again, we need to get rid of ㅅ! → 나 → Originally, it had the final consonant. So, even though we erased it, we will still add 을 거예요 → 나을 거예요.
b. examples
I'll show you some examples using 젓다 (to stir).
Informal Endings
Present: 저어요. I stir.
Past: 저었어요. I stirred.
Future: 저을 거예요. I'll stir.
Present progressive: 젓고 있어요. I'm stirring.
Past progressive: 젓고 있었어요. I was stirring.
Future progressive (guess): 젓고 있을 거예요. I will be stirring.
Formal Endings
Present: 젓습니다. I stir.
Past: 저었습니다. I stirred.
Future: 저을 것입니다. I will stir.
Present progressive: 젓고 있습니다. I'm stirring.
Past progressive: 젓고 있었습니다. I was stirring.
Future Progressive: 젓고 있을 것입니다. I'll be stirring.
3. Wrap-up & Worksheet: Korean irregular conjugation
If a stem ends with either ㄷ or ㅅ, there is a high chance that it can be an irregular word. In other words, even if you see ㄷ or ㅅ words, that doesn't necessarily mean it is an irregular word. You have to memorize not only the meaning but also if it is a regular or irregular word.
Here is a worksheet for you. Please download and print to practice these words.
How was your lesson today? I showed you the general rules here, but you will be able to check the details from each lesson of my blog. If you have any questions regarding this lesson, please feel free to let me know. Thank you for studying with "My Korean Lesson!"
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