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in the Korean language come in last place in a clause. Verbs are the most complex part of speech, and a properly conjugated verb may stand on its own as a complete sentence. This article uses the Yale romanization in bold to show morphology.
The distinction between action verbs and descriptive verbs is visible in verb conjugation in a few places. The copulas conjugate like stative verbs, but the existential verbs conjugate like action verbs. Some verbs can be either stative or active, depending on meaning.
A Korean verb root is bound, meaning that it never occurs without at least one suffix. These suffixes are numerous but regular and ordered. There are over 40 basic endings, but over 400 when the combinations of these endings are counted. Grammatical categories of verb suffixes include voice (passive or causative), tense (past, present, or future), aspect (of an action – complete, experienced, repeated, or continuing), honorification (appropriate choice of suffix following language protocol), and clause-final conjunctives or sentence enders chosen from various speech styles and types of sentences such as interrogative, declarative, imperative, and suggestive.
This so-called infinitive, however, must not be confused with the citation form mentioned above. It is formed by attaching 어/아 eo/a to the root, according to vowel harmony. If the verbal root ends in a vowel, the two vowels may merge or contract.
Without vowel contraction
With vowel contraction
toy ta 되다 doeda "to become" may or may not undergo contraction. ha ta 하다 hada "to do" is irregular.
This infinitive form is not used as a noun, but it can be used in , serial verb constructions, and before certain (not all) verb endings. It may be compared to the combining stem in Japanese.
| +Finite verb template ! !! !!colspan=2 | Sentence-final endings |
| politeness |
I Valency may be passive or causative. These often involve a stem change, followed by the suffix i (the spelling of this suffix may change, depending on the stem change of the verb).
II The honorific suffix is -usi 으시 -eusi- after a consonant, -si 시 after a vowel. The i ㅣ is reduced to a glide before another vowel. For example, with a following past tense, sie-ss -si-eoss- reduces to sye-ss 셨 -syeoss-.
III If there is no suffix in this slot, the verb is in present or gnomic tense. Future tense & prospective aspect is key-ss 겠 -get-, past perfective is --ss 었/았 -eot-/ -at but with vowel harmony. If there is no intervening consonant, this reduces, both in pronunciation and in writing: a-ss to 았 at-, and wa-ss to 왔 wat-. The verb o 오 "to come" is therefore wa-ss 왔 wat- in the perfective. The verb ha 하 ha "to do" is an irregular hay 했 haet- in the perfective.
IV The formal suffix is -p ᄇ after a vowel (it is normally written in the same block as that vowel), -sup 습 -seup after a consonant in a declarative or interrogative verb, -up 읍 -eup after a consonant in a proposition. (After a consonant s or ss the ㅅ letter in the suffix drops.)
V The syntactic moods, for lack of a better term, are the indicative mood -nun 는 -neun, -ni 니, or n ㄴ; the retrospective (imperfective) -ten 던 -deon, ti 디 -di, or t ㄷ -d-; and the subjunctive mood si 시 -si or s ㅅ. None of these are used in the casual or intimate styles, and the formal plain indicative declarative can only occur in the gnomic tense.
VI The pragmatic moods, for lack of a better term, are the declarative mood -ta 다 -da (formal polite), -la 라 -ra (formal plain), and ey 에 -e (familiar); interrogative kka 까, ya 야 (formal) and -ka 가 -ga (familiar); propositive mood -ta 다 -da (formal polite), -ca 자 -ja (formal plain), and ey 에 -e (familiar); and the imperative mood o 오 (formal polite), - la 어라/아라 -eola/ -ala (formal plain), and -key 게 -ge (familiar).
VII The polite suffix yo 요 ( -i yo 이요 after a consonant) appears in the informal styles. It expresses one's relationship to the audience.
There are two possible negative adverbs: mos 못 mot, and an 안. mos is used for when a person or animate being subject tries to accomplish an action, that is, begins and is unable to finish it successfully. an is a more common negator which is used in all other instances. The two prefixes are mutually exclusive.
The full form -usi 으시 is only used after a consonant. Otherwise, the initial vowel is absorbed, becoming -si.
While the honorific suffix is necessary, some verbs have honorific alternatives which must be used in addition to -(u)si. For instance, iss ta 있다 itda becomes kyey'si ta 계시다 gyesida.
Etymologically, 'ss is a contraction of the existential verb iss 있 via vowel absorption. The contracted form - iss, was originally a present perfect.
But it may be used together with the perfective and pluperfect suffixes, or in a present tense context. If used with the perfective suffix, this makes an inferential or conditional past -'ss-keyss 았겠/었겠 -eotget/-atget "should have, would have, must have." If used with the remote past suffix it makes an inferential or conditional remote past -'ss-ess-keyss 았었겠/었었겠 -eosseotget/- asseotget, though this is rare. Because this infix is occasionally used for a conditional mood, or inferential mood tense, depending on context it is sometimes called irrealis mood.
Etymologically, the future suffix is the result of the merger of a resultative verb ending -key 게 and the existential root iss 있, via vowel absorption, as mentioned above. This contraction and change in meaning has its parallel in the future tense of Vulgar Latin.
| +Sentence-final endings !IV!!V!!VI!!VII |
| politeness |
Not all combinations of the suffixes in the template above are possible. The most common sequences after the tense suffix (that is, after the root or honorific -usi in the present tense, after the -ss or -keyss in the past and future) are,
The intimate, intimate polite, casual, and casual polite endings are simpler.
| — |
| -si 시* -si |
| — |
None of these are used in the casual or intimate styles, and only the formal plain indicative declarative can occur in the gnomic tense.
These distinctions are not made in the intimate and casual styles. Instead, this place is taken by the intimate suffix - 어/아 or the casual suffix -ci 지.
The structure is ROOT + valence + attributive suffix, with little of the complexity of finite verbs above.
| +Attributive verb template !Prefix!!0!!I!!II!!III |
| Attributive verb (tense) |
Active verbs use the attributive suffix 은 -eun after a consonant, or -n ㄴ after a vowel, for the past tense. For descriptive or stative verbs, often equivalent to adjectives in English, this form is used for generic (gnomic tense) descriptions; effectively, "eaten food" is food which once was eaten (past), whereas "a pretty flower" is a flower which has become pretty, and still is (present/timeless). To specify the ongoing action for an active verb, the invariable suffix 는 -neun is used instead. This is not found on descriptive verbs, as it makes no sense to say that *"a flower is being pretty". For the future, the suffix 을/ㄹ ( -(eu)l with reinforcement of the following consonant) is used, and in the imperfective/retrospective (recalling what once was) it is 던 -deon.
For example, from the verb 먹 meok "to eat", the adjective 예쁘 yeppeu "pretty", and the nouns 밥 bap "cooked rice" and 꽃 kkot "flower", we get:
| +Attributive forms | !colspan=6|Active!!colspan=3Descriptive |
The perfective suffix 었 -eoss- is sometimes used as well, with the same meaning, on active verbs. It precedes the attributive suffix.
For action verbs, -ess 었 is used for completed actions or processes that result in a present state. The individual verb's meaning can help determine which interpretation is appropriate. Hence 결혼했다 gyeorhon haetda can mean ‘got married’, focusing on the past event, or ‘is married’, focusing on the present state resulting from the past event. But 공을 찼다 gong-eul chatda ‘kicked the ball’ can only denote a past action and 잘 생겼다 jal saenggyeotda ‘is handsome’ can only denote the present state. (생기다 saenggida is an action verb, meaning ‘get formed/created’.)
One very common suffix 고 -go, can be interpreted as a subordinating conjunction. That is, 먹고 meokko means approximately "eating," 고기를 먹고 gogireul meokko means "eating meat," and 내가 고기를 먹고 naega gogireul meokko means "I eat meat and..." or "My eating meat."
Another suffix, somewhat similar in meaning, is 서 -seo which is, however, attached to the long stem of a verb ending in -.
Both juxtapose two actions, the action in the subclause and the action in the main clause. The difference between them is that with seo the action in the subclause necessarily came first, while -go conveys more of an unordered juxtaposition. Seo is frequently used to imply causation, and in many common expressions like 만나서 반갑습니다 mannaseo bangapseumnida (literally, "Since I met you, I'm happy" or "Having met you, I'm happy"). If -go was used instead, the meaning would be closer to "I meet you and I'm happy," that is, without any implied logical connection.
These are both subordinating conjunctive suffixes and can not (in the more formal registers, at least) derive complete sentences of their own without the addition of a main verb, by default the existential verb 있다 itda.
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