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Verb A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
s in the
Korean language Korean (South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographica ...
come in last place in a clause. Verbs are the most complex part of speech, and a properly conjugated verb may stand on its own as a complete sentence. This article uses the Yale romanization in bold to show morphology.


Classification

Korean verbs are typically classified into four categories: action,
state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...
(or description),
existential Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
, and the copulas. *Action or processive verbs involve some action or internal movement. For a list of Korean action verbs, see wikt:Korean verbs. *Stative or descriptive verbs are sometimes called adjectives. For a list of Korean stative verbs, see wikt:Korean adjectives. *Existential verbs convey the existence of something, or its presence in a particular location or a particular being's possession. This category was created for the verb ''itda'' "to exist" and its opposite, ''eopda'' "not to exist." *Copulative verbs allow a non-verb to take verbal endings. In Korean this category was created for the affirmative and negative copula. The affirmative copula is ''ida'' "to be," and the negative copula ''anida'' "not to be." However, there are many other verbs in Korean that also serve to attach verb endings to nouns, most notably ''hada'' "to do." The distinction between action verbs and descriptive verbs is visible in verb conjugation in a few places. The copulas conjugate like stative verbs, but the existential verbs conjugate like action verbs. Some verbs can be either stative or active, depending on meaning.


Forms

Korean verbs are conjugated. Every verb form in Korean has two parts: a
verb stem In linguistics, a word stem is a part of a word responsible for its lexical meaning. The term is used with slightly different meanings depending on the morphology of the language in question. In Athabaskan linguistics, for example, a verb stem ...
, simple or expanded, plus a sequence of
inflectional suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
es. Verbs can be quite long because of all the suffixes that mark grammatical contrasts. A Korean verb root is bound, meaning that it never occurs without at least one
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...
. These suffixes are numerous but regular and ordered. There are over 40 basic endings, but over 400 when the combinations of these endings are counted. Grammatical categories of verb suffixes include
voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...
(passive or causative), tense (past, present, or future), aspect (of an action – complete, experienced, repeated, or continuing), honorification (appropriate choice of suffix following language protocol), and clause-final conjunctives or sentence enders chosen from various speech styles and types of sentences such as interrogative, declarative, imperative, and suggestive.


Sound changes

A great many verbs change the pronunciation of the final consonant of the root after the addition of a suffix. Some of these changes are the result of regular consonant assimilation or cluster simplification, but some of them are irregular. The irregular verbs contain root-final consonants that were historically lenited and which, as a result disappeared or mutated between vowels but remained next to a consonant.


Citation form

The
lemma Lemma may refer to: Language and linguistics * Lemma (morphology), the canonical, dictionary or citation form of a word * Lemma (psycholinguistics), a mental abstraction of a word about to be uttered Science and mathematics * Lemma (botany), ...
or citation form of a Korean verb is the form that ends in ta ''da''.


Infinitive form

Besides a verbal root itself that precedes ta in the citation form, there is also a long stem with an additional harmonic vowel, called by linguist Samuel E. Martin the "infinitive" form. This tense-neutral form also does not express any honorifics and speech levels. Thus they are often used for literary titles, subtitles and chapter titles, since they are not specifically directed toward an individual or a group. This so-called infinitive, however, must not be confused with the citation form mentioned above. It is formed by attaching ''eo/a'' to the root, according to
vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, me ...
. If the verbal root ends in a vowel, the two vowels may merge or contract. Without vowel contraction * al ''al'' "know" + → al.a ''ara'' * mek ''meok'' "eat" + → mek.e ''meogeo'' With vowel contraction * ka ''ga'' "go" + → ka ''ga'' * o ''o'' "come" + → wa ''wa'' * se ''seo'' "stand" + → se ''seo' * i ''i'' (copula) + → ye ''yeo'' * ssu ''sseu'' "use" + → sse ''sseo'' toy da 되다 ''doeda'' "to become" may or may not undergo contraction. ha ta 하다 ''hada'' "to do" is irregular. This infinitive form is not used as a noun, but it can be used in
compound verb In linguistics, a compound verb or complex predicate is a multi- word compound that functions as a single verb. One component of the compound is a '' light verb'' or ''vector'', which carries any inflections, indicating tense, mood, or aspec ...
s,
serial verb construction The serial verb construction, also known as (verb) serialization or verb stacking, is a syntactic phenomenon in which two or more verbs or verb phrases are strung together in a single clause.Tallerman, M. (1998). ''Understanding Syntax''. London: ...
s, and before certain (not all) verb endings. It may be compared to the combining stem in Japanese.


Finite verb endings

Verbs are the most complex part of speech in Korean. Their structure when used as the
predicate Predicate or predication may refer to: * Predicate (grammar), in linguistics * Predication (philosophy) * several closely related uses in mathematics and formal logic: **Predicate (mathematical logic) **Propositional function **Finitary relation, o ...
of a clause is prefix + root + up to seven suffixes, and can be illustrated with a template: :*The negative prefix is an "not"; the word mos ''mot'' "cannot" also occurs in this position. I Valency may be
passive Passive may refer to: * Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive * Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works * Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of o ...
or
causative In linguistics, a causative ( abbreviated ) is a valency-increasing operationPayne, Thomas E. (1997). Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 173–186. that indicates that a subject either ...
. These often involve a stem change, followed by the suffix i (the spelling of this suffix may change, depending on the stem change of the verb). II The honorific suffix is -usi ''-eusi-'' after a consonant, -si after a vowel. The i is reduced to a glide before another vowel. For example, with a following past tense, sie-ss ''-si-eoss-'' reduces to sye-ss ''-syeoss-.'' :This shows deference towards the topic of the conversation, for example when speaking of one's elders. III If there is no suffix in this slot, the verb is in present or gnomic tense. Future tense & prospective aspect is key-ss ''-get-,'' past
perfective The perfective aspect ( abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the i ...
is --ss ''-eot-''/''-at'' but with
vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, me ...
. If there is no intervening consonant, this reduces, both in pronunciation and in writing: a-ss to ''at-'', and ''wa-ss'' to ''wat-''. The verb o "to come" is therefore wa-ss ''wat-'' in the perfective. The verb ha ''ha'' "to do" is an irregular hay ''hae-'' in the perfective. :There are also compound tenses: remote past --ss-e-ss ''-eosseot-''/''-asseot-'', past-future --ss-key-ss ''-eotkket-''/''-atkket-'', remote past-future (An action that should have been completed in the past but has not actually been done) --sse-ss-key-ss ''-eosseotkket-''/''-asseotkket-'' IV The formal suffix is -p after a vowel (it is normally written in the same block as that vowel), -sup ''-seup'' after a consonant in a declarative or interrogative verb, -up ''-eup'' after a consonant in a proposition. (After a consonant s or ss the letter in the suffix drops.) :This shows deference towards the audience of the conversation, for example when speaking ''to'' one's elders. If speaking both to and of one's elders, one would use both the formal and the honorific suffixes. V The syntactic moods, for want of a better term, are the
indicative A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Mos ...
-nun ''-neun,'' -ni , or n ; the retrospective (
imperfective The imperfective (abbreviated or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a ge ...
) -ten ''-deon'', ti ''-di'', or t ''-d-''; and the
subjunctive The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality s ...
si ''-si'' or s . None of these are used in the casual or intimate styles, and the formal plain indicative declarative can only occur in the gnomic tense. :-nun ''-neun'' and -ten ''-deon'' are used in the formal plain and familiar interrogative styles. After a vowel, -nun ''-neun'' reduces to n . Before declarative la ''ra'', -ten ''-deon'' reduces to te ''-deo.'' :-ni , -ti ''-di'', and -si are used in the formal polite style. :-n , t ''-d-,'' and s are used in the familiar declarative and subjunctive styles. VI The pragmatic moods, for want of a better term, are the declarative -ta ''-da'' (formal polite), -la ''-ra'' (formal plain), and ey ''-e'' (familiar);
interrogative An interrogative clause is a clause whose form is typically associated with question-like meanings. For instance, the English sentence "Is Hannah sick?" has interrogative syntax which distinguishes it from its declarative counterpart "Hannah is ...
kka , ya (formal) and -ka ''-ga'' (familiar); propositive -ta ''-da'' (formal polite), -ca ''-ja'' (formal plain), and ey ''-e'' (familiar); and the imperative o (formal polite), - la ''-eola''/''-ala'' (formal plain), and -key ''-ge'' (familiar). :Style: These distinctions are not made in the intimate and casual styles. Instead, this slot is taken by the intimate suffix - ''-eo'' (a after an a or o ) or the casual suffix -ci ''-ji.'' VII The polite suffix yo (-i yo after a consonant) appears in the informal styles. It expresses one's relationship to the audience.


Negation

A verb is typically negated in Korean by using a suppletive negative form, if it exists, or by putting a negative adverb in front of it. There are two possible negative adverbs: mos ''mot'', and an . mos and an(i). mos is used for when a person or animate being subject tries to accomplish an action, that is, begins and is unable to finish it successfully. an is a more common negator which is used in all other instances. The two prefixes are mutually exclusive.


Derivational suffixes

Derivational endings are attached directly to the verb root, and are followed by the tense suffixes. These derivational suffixes end with the high vowels i or wu which is reduced to a glide in the long stem form. For example, with a following past tense, -(u)si ''-(eu)si'' reduces to -(u)sye-ss ''-(eu)syeot''.


Valency

Valency in Korean is partly lexical and partly derivational. Many forms can change their valency by the addition of the
passive Passive may refer to: * Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive * Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works * Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of o ...
or
causative In linguistics, a causative ( abbreviated ) is a valency-increasing operationPayne, Thomas E. (1997). Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 173–186. that indicates that a subject either ...
derivational suffixes, -i , -hi , -li ''-ri'', -ki , -wu ''-u'', -kwu ''-gu'', or -chwu ''-chu'', sometimes with additional changes to the stem.


Subject honorific

The subject honorific suffix -(u)si derives an honorific verb, that is, a verb which is used when the subject of a sentence is higher in social status than the speaker. Such verbs are used, for example, when speaking of one's elders, one's social superiors (parents, teachers, bosses), or strangers. The full form -usi is only used after a consonant. Otherwise, the initial vowel is absorbed, becoming -si. While the honorific suffix is necessary, some verbs have honorific alternatives which must be used in addition to -(u)si. For instance, iss ta ''itda'' becomes kyey'si ta ''gyesida''.


Tense and aspect

Following the derivational endings, Korean verbs can contain up to three suffixes in a row which represent a combination of tense, aspect, and mood.


Past

This suffix is an enclitic consonant 'ss after the infinitive form of the verb (ending in ), forming 'ss (the final consonant is pronounced before a vowel and before a consonant). This suffix, which is conventionally called "past" or "perfective" by various linguists, has many different meanings, depending on the semantics of the verb that it is attached to and the context; it may be a simple past or a present perfect. Etymologically, 'ss is a contraction of the existential verb iss via vowel absorption. The contracted form - iss, was originally a present perfect.


Pluperfect

A verb can superficially have two copies of the above-mentioned suffix, the second of which, however, is always -ess ''-eot'' and represents a true past tense. This results in the combination 'ss.ess ''-eosseot/-asseot''. This combination communicates a
past perfect The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, is a type of verb form, generally treated as a grammatical tense in certain languages, relating to an action that occurred prior to an aforementioned time i ...
or a more remote past.


Future

The
future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that current ...
suffix is -keyss ''-get'', often used to describe future events. It is used, when the speaker has valid reasons to believe something will be certain to happen. For instance, the suffix is used in broadcasting contexts in Korean such as weather forecasts. But it may be used together with the perfective and pluperfect suffixes, or in a present tense context. If used with the perfective suffix, this makes an inferential or conditional past -'ss-keyss ''-eotget/-atget'' "should have, would have, must have." If used with the remote past suffix it makes an inferential or conditional remote past -'ss-ess-keyss ''-eosseotget''/-''asseotget'', though this is rare. Because this infix is occasionally used for a
conditional Conditional (if then) may refer to: *Causal conditional, if X then Y, where X is a cause of Y *Conditional probability, the probability of an event A given that another event B has occurred *Conditional proof, in logic: a proof that asserts a co ...
, or inferential tense, depending on context it is sometimes called
irrealis In linguistics, irrealis moods (abbreviated ) are the main set of grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened at the moment the speaker is talking. This contrasts with the realis moods. Every ...
. Etymologically, the future suffix is the result of the merger of a
resultative In linguistics, a resultative (abbreviated ) is a form that expresses that something or someone has undergone a change in state as the result of the completion of an event. Resultatives appear as predicates of sentences, and are generally composed ...
verb ending -key and the existential root iss , via vowel absorption, as mentioned above. This contraction and change in meaning has its parallel in the future tense of
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
.


Sentence-final endings

Not all combinations of the suffixes in the template above are possible. The most common sequences after the tense suffix (that is, after the root or honorific -usi in the present tense, after the -ss or -keyss in the past and future) are, :*This indicative -nun is only found in the present tense of action verbs.
**The formal-polite imperative almost always takes the subject honorific suffix -(u)si . The intimate, intimate polite, casual, and casual polite endings are simpler.


Formality

The formal suffix is -(su)p ''-(seu)p''. The short form is used after a vowel and the long form is used after a consonant. (In the Korean writing system
hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The l ...
, the is written at the bottom of the previous syllable. In South Korea, after or , the syllable ''was'' written as . This rule was modified at the end of the 80s, and is not the standard language. So, nowadays, the syllable is written as as its own pronunciation.) This shows deference towards the audience of the conversation, for example when speaking in a formal situation, such as ''to'' (but not necessarily ''about'') one's elders. If speaking both to and of one's elders, one would use the formal and the honorific suffixes together.


Syntactic moods

The syntactic moods, for want of a better term, are
indicative A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Mos ...
-nun ''-neun'', -n(i) ; retrospective (
imperfective The imperfective (abbreviated or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a ge ...
) -ten ''-deon'', -t(i) ; and
jussive The jussive (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood of verbs for issuing orders, commanding, or exhorting (within a subjunctive framework). English verbs are not marked for this mood. The mood is similar to the ''cohortative'' mood, which typically a ...
-s(i). :*-ni , -ti , and -si contract to -n' , -t , and -s' respectively before ey . None of these are used in the casual or intimate styles, and only the formal plain indicative declarative can occur in the gnomic tense.


Pragmatic moods

The pragmatic moods, for want of a better term, are the declaratives ta , la , and ey ;
interrogatives An interrogative word or question word is a function word used to ask a question, such as ''what, which'', ''when'', ''where'', ''who, whom, whose'', ''why'', ''whether'' and ''how''. They are sometimes called wh-words, because in English most of ...
kka , ya , and ka ; propositive ta , -ca , and -ey ; and the imperative o , - la , and -key . These distinctions are not made in the intimate and casual styles. Instead, this place is taken by the intimate suffix - or the casual suffix -ci .


Politeness suffix

The polite suffix yo appears in the
lower Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also *Nizhny Nizhny (russian: Ни́жний; masculine), Nizhnyaya (; feminine), or Nizhneye (russian: Ни́� ...
speech levels. It raises the level of politeness of those styles.


Attributive endings

Attributive verb endings modify nouns and take the place of attributive adjectives. Korean does not have
relative pronoun A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause. It serves the purpose of conjoining modifying information about an antecedent referent. An example is the word ''which'' in the sentence "This is the house which Jack built." Here the r ...
s. Instead,
attributive verb An attributive verb is a verb that modifies (expresses an attribute of) a noun in the manner of an attributive adjective, rather than express an independent idea as a predicate. In English (and in most European languages), verb forms that can b ...
s modify nouns, as adjectives do in English. Where in English one would say "I saw the man who walks the dog", the structure of Korean is more like "The dog-walking man I saw". The structure is ROOT + valence +
attributive In grammar, an attributive expression is a word or phrase within a noun phrase that modifies the head noun. It may be an: * attributive adjective * attributive noun * attributive verb or other part of speech, such as an attributive numeral. ...
suffix, with little of the complexity of finite verbs above. Active verbs use the attributive suffix ''-eun'' after a consonant, or -n after a vowel, for the past tense. For descriptive or stative verbs, often equivalent to adjectives in English, this form is used for generic (
gnomic Gnomic may refer to: * Gnomic aspect, a grammatical mood or tense expressing a general truth * Gnomic will, a concept in Eastern Orthodox theology * Gnomic poetry, a poetic form * A Gnome (rhetoric) or gnomic saying See also * Gnomon * Gnomonic ...
) descriptions; effectively, "eaten food" is food which once was eaten (past), whereas "a pretty flower" is a flower which has become pretty, and still is (present/timeless). To specify the ongoing action for an active verb, the invariable suffix ''-neun'' is used instead. This is not found on descriptive verbs, as it makes no sense to say that *"a flower is being pretty". For the future, the suffix (''-(eu)l'' with reinforcement of the following consonant) is used, and in the imperfective/retrospective (recalling what once was) it is ''-deon''. For example, from the verb ''meok'' "to eat", the adjective ''yeppeu'' "pretty", and the nouns ''bap'' "cooked rice" and ''kkot'' "flower", we get: The perfective suffix ''-eoss-'' is sometimes used as well, with the same meaning, on active verbs. It precedes the attributive suffix. For action verbs, -ess is used for completed actions or processes that result in a present state. The individual verb’s meaning can help determine which interpretation is appropriate. Hence ''gyeorhon haetda'' can mean ‘got married’, focusing on the past event, or ‘is married’, focusing on the present state resulting from the past event. But ''gong-eul chatda'' ‘kicked the ball’ can only denote a past action and ''jal saenggyeotda'' ‘is handsome’ can only denote the present state. ( ''saenggida'' is an action verb, meaning ‘get formed/created’.)