How Korean Verbs Work

Forms such as “가요”, “먹어요”, and “좋아요” share a polite ending pattern. Start with regular forms, then learn how contractions and irregular stems change that pattern.

Every verb starts in the dictionary

In the dictionary, every Korean verb and adjective ends in 다: 가다 (to go), 먹다 (to eat), 좋다 (to be good), 예쁘다 (to be pretty). Drop the 다 and you have the stem — the starting form to which endings attach. Some stems change shape with particular endings:

The starting pattern: add 아요 or 어요

To make the polite present tense, you add either 아요 or 어요 to the stem. Which one? Look at the stem's last vowel:

• last vowel is ㅏ or ㅗ (“bright”) → add 아요
• any other vowel (“dark”) → add 어요

This is a useful first pattern, not a complete conjugation system. Contractions and irregular forms also matter; the final letter alone does not tell you whether a verb is irregular.

When vowels meet: contractions

Some vowel sequences contract when a vowel-ending stem meets 아/어. Learn the following common forms, rather than assuming every pair of vowels must merge:

The one you use most: 하다 → 해요

하다 (to do) is special — and it's everywhere, because hundreds of verbs are built from a noun + 하다: 공부하다 (study), 운동하다 (exercise), 사랑하다 (love), 일하다 (work). They all conjugate the same way:

When the stem bends: two key irregulars

Most verbs follow the rule cleanly. A few change shape when they meet 아/어 — and you've already met one without knowing it.

ㅡ drop: if the stem's last vowel is ㅡ, the ㅡ disappears and you look at the vowel before it to choose 아/어. If there is no preceding vowel, use 어, as in 크다 → 커요:

ㅂ irregular: in words such as 맵다 and 덥다, ㅂ changes to 우 before 아/어, producing 워. This does not apply to every ㅂ-ending word: 입다 (to wear) becomes 입어요, keeping its ㅂ.

Try it

Check an exception instead of extending a rule too far

Compare 입다 → 입어요 (wear) with 덥다 → 더워요 (be hot). Both dictionary forms end in ㅂ다, but only the second follows the ㅂ-irregular pattern. Your next step when learning an unfamiliar verb is to record its dictionary form together with a reliable conjugated example, not to change every ㅂ automatically.

Here is an original sentence pair: 오늘 이 옷을 입어요. (I'm wearing these clothes today.) 오늘은 더워요. (It's hot today.) The clothing sentence uses an action verb; the second describes a condition. Both can end politely in 요, but they do not share an identical stem change.

What you just learned

• Drop 다 to get the stem; add 아요 (bright ㅏ/ㅗ) or 어요 (everything else).
• Vowel-ending stems contract: 가요, 와요, 마셔요, 봐요.
• 하다 → 해요 powers hundreds of noun+하다 verbs.
• ㅡ-drop (예뻐요) and ㅂ-irregular (매워요) are tidy patterns, not chaos.

References

Revised September 29, 2026 by Korean ESY with AI assistance. This revision adds contextual practice and corrects overbroad explanations. Examples and answers are original editorial material; no independent teacher or classroom review is claimed. See our editorial policy or report a correction.

• UBC Korean Language and Culture Program, lesson 7.2: Korean Verbs with Consonant Bases — regular 입어 contrasted with 더워 and the basic 아/어 choice; checked September 29, 2026. The source lists forms without polite 요; our examples use the polite forms.