LEARN + KOREAN / 19 of 125 TOPIK I

Already Done -았/었어요

Your friend asks what you ate yesterday. Take the polite present form you know and move it into the past: 먹어요 becomes 먹었어요. The past marker follows the same vowel-harmony pattern as What Are You Doing?: stems with ㅏ or ㅗ take 았; most others take 었.

eoje chingureul mannasseoyo.

I met a friend yesterday.

yeonghwaga joasseoyo.

The movie was good.

chinguhago gongwoneseo jajeongeoreul tasseoyo.

I rode a bike with a friend at the park.

eoje babeul meogeosseoyo.

I ate a meal yesterday.

eoje chaegeul ilgeosseoyo.

I read a book yesterday.

eoje keikeureul mandeureosseoyo.

I made a cake yesterday.

Hint · 힌트

The polite and casual past differ by exactly one syllable, 요, the same relationship as every present-tense pair you’ve already learned. If you can hear 먹었어요 versus 먹었어, you already know the whole pattern. Nothing new to learn there, just apply the trick you already have.

Every 하다 verb breaks the vowel-harmony rule the same irregular way: 하다’s past is always 했, never 하았. This matters constantly, since 공부하다, 운동하다, 요리하다, 일하다, every noun-plus-하다 verb from 을/를 해요, follows it.

eoje hangugeoreul gongbuhaesseoyo.

I studied Korean yesterday.

eoje suyeongeul haesseoyo.

I swam yesterday.

Hint · 힌트

했어요 shows up so often that it’s tempting to bolt it onto everything, but it only ever means “did,” never “was” or “went.” 되다 (to become), 가다 (to go), 이다 (to be) all keep their own separate past-tense stems, 됐어요, 갔어요, 이었어요/였어요. 하다’s irregularity doesn’t spread to other verbs.

Vocabulary

Korean	English
지난주 jinanju	last week
지난달 jinandal	last month
올해 olhae	this year
다음 주 daeum ju	next week
작년 jangnyeon	last year
내년 naenyeon	next year
예전에 yejeone	in the past, formerly
최근에 choegeune	recently
옛날 yennal	the old days, long ago
아까 akka	a little while ago, just now
방금 banggeum	just now, a moment ago
그때 geuttae	at that time, back then
얼마 전에 eolma jeone	not long ago
어제 eoje	yesterday
오늘 oneul	today
이미 imi	already
벌써 beolsseo	already, so soon
한참 전에 hanchamjeone	quite a while ago
당시에 dangsie	at the time
되돌아보다 doedorabodada	to look back

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