Korean Verbs and Adjectives: Dictionary Form

1. The Core of Korean Verbs and Adjectives: The -다 Ending

Before we look at specific words, let's start with the most important rule. In Korean, every verb and adjective, when you look it up in a dictionary, ends with the same syllable: 다 [da].

Think of this "dictionary form" as the unconjugated, base version of a word.

• 먹다 (meok-da) = to eat
• 가다 (ga-da) = to go
• 크다 (keu-da) = to be big

In a real conversation, you almost never use this -다 form. Instead, you change the ending to show tense (past, present, future) and politeness. However, you MUST know the dictionary form because it's the starting point for all conjugations.

To understand this better, let's look at a key resource.

As the article explains, the part of the word that comes before -다 is called the verb stem.

• For 먹다 (to eat), the stem is 먹- (meok-).
• For 가다 (to go), the stem is 가- (ga-).

We will work with verb stems a lot in future lessons, so getting comfortable with identifying them now is very helpful.

2. Action Verbs (동사)

Action verbs, or 동사 [dong-sa], are "doing" words. They describe an action performed by the subject of a sentence. Let's start with a few common examples.

Here is a core list of verbs to learn first:

• 가다 [ga-da]: to go
• 오다 [o-da]: to come
• 먹다 [meok-da]: to eat
• 마시다 [ma-si-da]: to drink
• 보다 [bo-da]: to see / to watch
• 자다 [ja-da]: to sleep
• 읽다 [ik-da]: to read

The Superpower Verb: 하다 (to do)

One of the most useful verbs in Korean is 하다 [ha-da], which means "to do." Its real power comes from its ability to turn nouns into verbs. Many Korean nouns, especially those of Chinese origin, can become action verbs simply by adding 하다.

• 공부 [gong-bu] (study) + 하다 → 공부하다 [gong-bu-ha-da] (to study)
• 일 [il] (work) + 하다 → 일하다 [il-ha-da] (to work)
• 요리 [yo-ri] (cooking) + 하다 → 요리하다 [yo-ri-ha-da] (to cook)
• 사랑 [sa-rang] (love) + 하다 → 사랑하다 [sa-rang-ha-da] (to love)

Recognizing this pattern will dramatically increase your vocabulary.

3. Descriptive Verbs / Adjectives (형용사)

Descriptive verbs, or 형용사 [hyeong-yong-sa], are what we call adjectives in English. They are "describing" words. They function similarly to verbs in Korean sentences (they come at the end and are conjugated), but with one key difference.

An article we'll review in more detail later puts it well:

"The main difference between verbs and adjectives is that an adjective can never act on an object." - HowToStudyKorean.com

You can "eat food" (verb acting on an object), but you can't "big food." An adjective simply describes the state of the subject. For example, "The food is big."

Another crucial point: Korean adjectives have the meaning of "to be" built into them.

• 크다 (keu-da) doesn't just mean "big," it means "to be big."
• 좋다 (jo-ta) doesn't just mean "good," it means "to be good."

This is why you don't need to add a separate word for "is/am/are" when using an adjective in a basic Korean sentence.

Let's look at some common adjectives, which are often easiest to learn in opposite pairs.

To expand on this, let's watch a video that introduces more useful adjective pairs.

From the video and image, here are some key adjective pairs to remember:

• 크다 / 작다 [keu-da / jak-da]: to be big / to be small
• 많다 / 적다 [man-ta / jeok-da]: to be many, a lot / to be few, little
• 좋다 / 나쁘다 [jo-ta / na-ppeu-da]: to be good / to be bad
• 비싸다 / 싸다 [bi-ssa-da / ssa-da]: to be expensive / to be cheap
• 재미있다 / 재미없다 [jae-mi-it-da / jae-mi-eop-da]: to be interesting / to be boring
• 맛있다 / 맛없다 [ma-sit-da / ma-deop-da]: to be delicious / to be not delicious

Notice the words 재미있다 (to be interesting) and 맛있다 (to be delicious). They are formed by combining a noun (재미 - fun, 맛 - taste) with 있다 (to exist). This is another common pattern!

4. Expanding Your Vocabulary

Now that you understand the basic concepts, it's time to build your vocabulary of verbs and adjectives. The following resource contains extensive lists of the most common words.

Conclusion

Great job today! You've learned about the fundamental building blocks of action and description in Korean.

Key Takeaways:

• All Korean verbs and adjectives end in -다 in their dictionary form.
• The part before -다 is the verb/adjective stem, which is the base for conjugation.
• Action verbs (동사) describe what a subject does (e.g., 먹다 - to eat).
• Descriptive verbs (형용사) describe what a subject is like (e.g., 크다 - to be big) and include the meaning of "to be."
• The verb 하다 (to do) is a superpower that can turn many nouns into verbs (e.g., 공부하다 - to study).

Next Lesson Preview

You now have a starting vocabulary of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. The next logical step is to combine them. In our next lesson, we will learn how to form simple Korean sentences using the basic Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order. You'll finally be able to say things like "I eat bread" or "The school is big." See you then