Lesson 11
You have learned a lot about Korean verbs so far - conjugations, rules, etc. But just like many other languages, Korean has some irregularities as well, which people started using more and more often so they have become a fixed rule now.
Korean has much fewer verb irregularities than some other languages do, but you will encounter these irregularities everywhere as you learn and speak Korean. We would like to introduce one of them in this lesson.
ㅂ irregular
This mean that if verbs have ㅂ at the end of their verb stems, and they are followed by a suffix that starts with a vowel, the ㅂ part will change to 오 or 우.
Conjugation
If the vowel before ㅂ is 오, you change ㅂ to 오.
If the vowel before ㅂ is not 오, you change ㅂ to 우.
Example
돕다 = to help
= 도 + ㅂ + 다
--> 도 + 오 + 아요 = 도와요
** Note that it is NOT 돕아요
어렵다 = to be difficult
= 어려 + ㅂ + 다
--> 어려 + 우 + 어요. = 어려워요.
[present tense] 어려워요
[past tense] 어려웠어요
[future tense] 어려울 거예요
춥다 = to be cold
--> 추 + 우 + 어요 = 추워요.
[present tense] 추워요
[past tense] 추웠어요
[future tense] 추울 거예요
Some other irregular words:
눕다 = to lie down
굽다 = to bake
덥다 = to be hot (weather)
쉽다 = to be easy
맵다 = to be spicy
귀엽다 = to be cute
밉다 = to hate, to be dislikeable 아름답다 = to be beautiful
Remember that these verbs have irregular forms ONLY WHEN the suffix coming after them start with a VOWEL. So, if you have suffixes like -는 or -고, they still keep the ㅂ.
Irregularities in irregular verbs
Although the ㅂ irregular rule is applied to most verbs that have ㅂ in them, some verbs do not follow this rule.
Action verbs
- 입다 = to wear
- 잡다 = to catch
- 씹다 = to bite
Descriptive verbs
- 좁다 = to be narrow
- 넓다 = to be wide
These words still keep their ㅂ in front of vowels. Ex) 입다 --> 입어요 (Not 이워요)
Ex) 좁다 --> 좁아요 (Not 조아요)
Sample sentences
- 이 문제는 어려워요. = This problem is difficult.
- 이거 너무 귀여워요. = This is so cute.
- 서울은 겨울에 정말 추워요. = In Seoul, it’s really cold in winter.
- TTMIK에서 공부하면, 한국어 공부가 쉬워요.= If you study at TTMIK, studying Korean is easy.