Learning Korean (한국어 배우기) [COMPLETE]

Unit 1.5 - Korean Conjugation (2)

Adjectives
Present Tense

You learned previously that you need to add ~ㄴ/는다 to a verb stem in order to conjugate it in the present tense. In order to conjugate an adjective into the present tense you don't need to do anything! Just leave the adjective as it is, and it is conjugated in the present tense. Some examples:

그 선생님은 아름답다 =
that teacher is beautiful

내 손은 크다 =
my hand is big

Past tense

In order to conjugate adjectives to the past tense, you must follow the same rule as when you conjugate verbs to the past tense. Adding 았다 or 었다 to the stem of a word.
그 음식은 맛있었다 =
That food was delicious
(맛있 + 었다)

그 선생님은 좋았다 =
That teacher was good
(좋 + 았다)

그 식당이 오래되었다 (오래됐다) ~ (o-re-dwe-eot / dwet)
(오래되 + 었다)
= That restaurant is old

The meaning of "오래되다" is not "old" in a bad sense. Just that something has existed for a long time, and now it is "old." A more appropriate way to indicate that something is "old and decrepit" is to use the word "낡다" (naalk-da)
Don't be confused with the word "늙다" (neulk), which refers to an "old" person.

되다 is commonly used and conjugated as a verb, in this case, 오래되다 is an adjective. Which means that [in addition to other ways it will change when used with other grammatical principles], ~ㄴ can be added to it to describe an upcoming noun.

For example:
우리는 오래된 집에 갔다 = We went to the old house

Just like with verbs, if the final letter of a verb/adjective stem is a vowel, ~았다/었다 can be merged to the actual stem itself:

이것은 비쌌다 =
This was expensive (비싸 + 았다)

그 남자는 잘생겼다 =
That man was handsome (잘생기 + 었다)

그 사람은 뚱뚱했다 =
That person was fat (뚱뚱하 + 였다)

Future tense

Conjugating adjectives into the future tense is the same as conjugating verbs into the future tense. All you need to do is add 겠다 to the stem of the adjective:

나는 행복하겠다 = I will be happy
그것은 맛있겠다 = That thing will be delicious
나는 배고프겠다 = I will be hungry

In general, not only is this basic form rare in conversation, but Korean people don't use adjectives in the future as often as English speakers.

Adjective        Stem         Past         Present         Future
행복하다        행복하    행복했다     행복하다     행복하겠다
비싸다             비싸        비쌌다       비싸다         비싸겠다
길다                  길          길었다        길다             길겠다
맛있다             맛있      맛있었다      맛있다         맛있겠다
낡다                  낡          낡았다        낡다             낡겠다

Plzz check out unit 1.4 (2)!! I accidentally publised unit 1.5 first so unit 1.4 (2) is behind unit 1.5!!! It's a pretty important chapter ㅠ_ㅠ