Korean Regular Adjectives Conjugation in Present Tense

In this lesson we will explore regular adjectives and how to use them.

A-아/어요

Depending on your main language, it might be unexpected but you should know that verbs and adjectives conjugation is usually very similar.

For other grammar rules there might be more clear differences, but for present tense conjugation it works exactly the same:

Their infinitive ends with the 다 particle
They have the same ending in 아/어요 when conjugated just as we saw in the previous lesson

작다작아요- to be small
느리다느려다- to be slow
많다많아요- to be many/much
편하다편해요- to be comfortable

You might also notice a small difference in every day life speech. In casual statements and exclamations, you will sometimes hear natives speak out an adjective in its infinite form.

이거 너무 좋다!
This is really good!
카페가 진짜 예쁘다!
This cafe is really pretty!
날씨가 춥다!
The weather is cold!
맛있다!
it's delicious!

There are actually irregular adjectives, but they are very commonly used in that form

Even though 맛있다 stands for “delicious” in english, it is actually a verb and not an adjective (it is the combination of 맛 (taste) + 있다).

However since we could consider 맛있다 as a “descriptive verb”, the rule above also applies to it.

It is actually very frequent to hear “밋있다!”

A-ㄴ/은 N

Another way to use adjectives in Korean is by placing them before a noun to describe it, such as in the phrases "a big size" or "a cute puppy."

To achieve this, you modify the adjective to agree with the noun it describes.

This involves changing the ending of the adjective: if the adjective stem ends in a consonant, you add "은" to the stem; if the stem ends in a vowel, you add "ㄴ" to the end of the stem.

This grammatical adjustment turns the adjective into a descriptive form that directly modifies the noun.