Infinitive -다

It’s time for us to dive into a big part of the Korean grammar: dealing with verbs and their conjugation.

To start simple, let’s see what is the infinitive form of Korean verbs, meaning their non-conjugated form. Then we will learn to conjugate them step by step

In Korean, the infinitive form of a verb is relatively straightforward to identify due to its consistent ending.

Here’s how you can recognize it: the infinitive form of Korean verbs always ends with 다. This is a clear indicator that the verb is in its base or dictionary form.

Here’s a list of very common verbs:

• 가다
  To go
• 오다
  To come
• 먹다
  To eat
• 마시다
  To drink
• 하다
  To do
• 보다
  To see
• 듣다
  To listen
• 자다
  To sleep
• 좋아하다
  To like
• 있다 / 없다
  To (not) have / to (not) exist

N을/를 V하다 - to do

You saw above that the verb 하다 means “to do”. There are many verbs build by combining noun + 하다

Originally they are in the form of N을/를 + 하다.

For example :

• 요리를 하다
  To do “cooking”
• 공부를 하다
  To do "study"
• 일을 하다
  To do "work"
• 노래를 하다
  To do "song" → to sing
• 청소를 하다
  To do (house) cleaning
• 말을 하다
  To do "speaking"
• 운동을 하다
  To do “exercise”
• 쇼핑을 하다
  To do “shopping”
• 이야기를 하다
  To do “talk”
• 산책을 하다
  To do a "walk"

In this list, every characters that you see before the 을/를 particle form a noun. For example: 노래 is a song and 운동 is a noun for “exercice”.

However, these verbs can also be written as a single word in order to form a verb.

If we take a previous example, “to study” can be written as 공부를 하다 (“to do studies”) and also as 공부하다 (to sudy) here’s some other examples:

• 요리하다
  To cook
• 공부하다
  To study
• 일하다
  To work
• 노래하다
  To to sing
• 청소하다
  To do (house) cleaning
• 말하다
  To do speak
• 운동하다
  To exercise
• 쇼핑하다
  To go shopping
• 이야기하다
  To talk
• 산책하다
  To go for a walk

Even though this form is more natural in english, you have to keep in mind that the previous form is also grammatically correct.

V-해요

Luckily now, and that’s why we started with these verbs, knowing how to conjugate 하다 by itself will make you able to conjugate a lot of words right away!

You will start to learn that conjugation in Korean is basically replacing or adding different particles around words.

In the case of verbs and the use of present tense, it consists mostly in replacing their suffix particle with another particle.

In the cases of verbs ending with 하다, it’s very consistent and clear: you only have to replace 하다 with 해요.

• 요리해요
• 공부해요
• 일해요
• 노래해요
• 청소해요
• 말해요
• 운동해요
• 쇼핑해요
• 이야기해요
• 산책해요