Lesson 17: Past Tense

To conjugate verbs in the past tense, take the verb stem and add the correct ending:

• -았어요 for when the final vowel of the verb stem is ㅏ or ㅗ

• -었어요 for most other cases

e.g.

• 오다 (to come)

  • 오 + 았어요 → 왔어요

• 걱다 (to write down)

  • 적 + 었어요 → 적었어요

Again, verbs ending with 하다 are conjugated differently. You have to remove the 하다 from the verb, then add the ending -했어요.

e.g.

• 이상하다 (to be strange)

  • 이상 + 했어요 → 이상했어요