Go, Went, Going
가다, 갔다, 가기 [kada, katda, kagi]

Irregular Conjugation Patterns

In the previous chapter, we goed over the basics of Korean conjugation. I telled you about five patterns for use with regular verbs and adjectives. It ised a bit confusing, but I gived you assurance that you would pick it up in time.

Hmm…has your friend and faithful guide through the world of Korean finally lost his mind? Well, that’s always a possibility, but in this case I’m just trying to show you that there are no rules without exception.

I’m sure you can pick out the mistakes in the sentences above: goed → went, telled → told, ised → was, gived → gave. But why? I mean, why don’t verbs like “to go,” “to tell,” “to be,” and “to give” follow regular conjugation patterns? Believe me, as someone who’s studied English for years, I’ve asked this question many times. But I haven’t found anyone yet who can give a definitive answer. That’s just the way those verbs work, right? All I know is this: verbs that conjugate irregularly tend to be those used very frequently, and you just have to memorize their irregular conjugations one by one.

Like English, Korean contains plenty of verbs and adjectives that break the rules we learned in the last chapter. Let me tell you, I’d rather not have to burden you with explanations of these unruly words. In fact, it even makes me, a native speaker, dizzy! But I have a duty to instruct you in the ways of Korean; and, just like in English, the exceptions happen to be very common words that you’ll hear and use most every day.

Hey, but like we’ve done before, we can divide these verbs and adjectives into groups to make them easier to learn. You see, there happen to be five main types of irregular conjugators. We’re not going to learn any new endings here; I’ll explain the five types using conjugative endings you already know, and then give you a couple examples of verbs and adjectives that are included in each type. Ready?

These are verbs and adjectives whose stems end with ᄉ. What’s irregular about them? Well, if you’re attaching an ending that begins with a vowel, these stems will lose that final ᄉ.

Let’s look at the example of 붓다 (“to pour”). Remember the ending -(으) 면, from conjugation pattern 3? Since the stem 붓 ends with a consonant, we’re going to choose the -으면 form of that ending. Ordinarily, this would give us 붓으면, right? But it’s an ᄉ irregular verb, so we need to drop the ᄉ. The final product? 부으면.

Next, we have ΄ irregular verbs/adjectives, whose stems end with ΄. Similar to what happened in the last group, they lose their final ΄ when attached to endings beginning with a vowel. Yet, something else happens with these irregulars. They’re going to grow either an 오 or 우 to replace that ΄.

For an example, we’ll look at the verb 돕다 (“to help”). Using that same ending, -(으) 면, we need the -으면 form because the stem 돕 ends in a consonant. Under the normal rule, this would result in 돕으면, but not here! The ᄇ in 돕 is dropped, and the 으 from the ending turns into 우. 도우면 is the correct outcome.

ᄃ irregular verbs have stems that end in…you guessed it—ᄃ. But I bet you can’t guess what happens to the ᄃ when you combine the stem with an ending beginning with a vowel? Do you drop it? Nope, it becomes ᄅ! Pretty strange, I know.

What shall we use for an example this time…how about 걷 다 (“to walk”)? As I’m sure you know, if this were not an irregular verb, it would combine with the ending -(으) 면 to create 걷 으면. But, no. The ᄃ at the end of the stem becomes ᄅ in this case, so what you get is 걸으면. Take note: there are no ᄃ irregular adjectives.

This category covers verbs/adjectives whose stems end with 르, which makes them different than the other three types we’ve looked at. Why? Because their stems end with a vowel, which means they’ll be taking conjugative endings that start with a consonant. Okay, so what’s irregular about these guys? Well, the— in the 르 has to be cut when an ending beginning with a vowel is attached. Not only that, but you then have to add another ᄅ before the ending!

Since there aren’t too many instances where vowel-ending stems take vowel-beginning endings, our table is going to look a little different. Check it out:

Okay, you’re doing great! Our last group makes up the ᄒ irregular adjectives, adjectives whose stems end with ᄒ. That’s right, there aren’t any ΐ irregular verbs!

For these, the ᄒ is dropped from the stem when adding endings beginning with a vowel. But that’s not all. If the ending begins with the vowel Α or Ε, this character will change to 애. The table will explain all…

Don’t you feel a little weird after studying all these irregulars for so long? Hey, let’s not give them a hard time. After all, they can’t help being what they are, and the fact is that they’re all very useful words! But I promise we’ll go over something more normal in the next chapter. ^;^

And besides, you can now breathe a sigh of relief. Your conjugation studies are over! (For now…)

Korean Style: Can I bury something?

Hey, are you wondering what would happen if you didn’t follow the irregular conjugation rules I told you about in this chapter? I bet it could lead to some funny misunderstandings, right? Let’s see.

뭐 좀 물어 봐도 돼요? means “Can I ask something?” in Korean. Because 묻다 (“to ask”) belongs to the category of ᄃ irregular verbs, what happens when it takes the ending -아 / -어 / -여? That’s right, it becomes 물어, not 묻어. Yet, what would I be talking about if I made a mistake and actually said 뭐 좀 묻어 봐도 돼요?

Grammatically, there’s nothing wrong with this sentence, because there in fact exists a verb 묻다 that follows regular conjugation rules. So, with the ending -아 / -어 / -여, it would conjugate to 물어. But it means something completely different than “to ask.” Yup, it’s “to bury”! So you’re asking your friend, “Can I bury something?” I bet his face turns pretty white when he hears that one!

As we learned, 닫다 (“to close”), 얻다 (“to get”), and 믿다 (“to believe”) are regular verbs, despite the fact that their stems end with ᄃ. But what happens if you treat them as irregulars?

창문 좀 닫아 주세요. [Changmun chom tada chuseyo.] Close the window.

창문 좀 달아 주세요. [Changmun chom tara chuseyo.] Hang the window. (Huh?)

며느리 얻었다면서요 [Myeoneuri eodeotdamyeonseoyo?] I heard you got a daughter-in-law.

며느리 얼었다면서요 [Myeoneuri eoreotdamyeonseoyo?] I heard your daughter-in-law got frozen.

     (What happened? She didn’t pay her heating bill?)

저를 제발 믿어 주세요. [Cheoreul chebal mideo chuseyo.] Please trust me.

저를 제발 밀어 주세요. [Cheoreul chebal mireo chuseyo.]