Simple Past Tense for Verbs

 
 
3 Sentence Summary of This Lesson:
  1. To form the simple past tense in Korean, add '-았/었/였어요' to the verb stem, choosing between them based on the vowel rules.
  1. Use '-았' with verbs containing 'ㅏ' or 'ㅗ' in the stem, '-었' for all other vowels, and '-였' specifically for the verb '하다'.
  1. The simple past tense indicates completed actions without additional contextual information.
 
In order to change a verb into its simple past tense form, all you need to do it add ‘-았/었/였(어요)’.
 
The rules to choosing which out of the three is the same as you’ve learned for the simple present tense:
 
  1. If the last letter in the stem of the verb contains the vowels ‘ㅏ’ or ‘ㅗ’, you must use ‘았’.
  1. If it doesn’t, for all else use ‘었’.
  1. If your verb is 하다, which means ‘to do’, then it’s always ‘였’, essentially becoming ‘했’ when simplified to the max.
 
Let’s look at some examples:
 
→ 가다 - 가요 - 갔어요. (To go - I go - I went)
→ 먹다 - 먹어요 - 먹었어요. (To eat - I eat - I ate)
→ 하다 - 해요 - 했어요. (To do - I do - I did)
 
We use the simple past tense when we want to say that something happened in the past and that it has ended. It doesn’t give any additional information like other tenses such as the past perfect or past perfect continuous tense.
 
 
 
Try the following exercise.
Conjugate the given verbs into Simple Past.
 
  1. 사과를 _____ (사다).
Answer
샀어요
 
  1. 공부를 _____(하다).
Answer
했어요
 
  1. 밤에 _____(자다).
Answer
잤어요
 
 
  1. 사탕을 _____(먹다).
Answer
먹었어요
 
  1. 그림을 _____(그리다).
Answer
그렸어요
 
  1. 영화를 _____(보다).
Answer
봤어요
 
  1. 아침에 _____(일어나다).
Answer
일어났어요
 
  1. 주말엔 _____(쉬다).
Answer
쉬었어요
 
  1. 책을 _____(읽다).
Answer
읽었어요
 
  1. 요리를 _____(하다).
Answer
했어요
 
 
 
 
 
* For more practice exercises, visit the ‘Practice Hub’.
 
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