Everyday verbs: go, come, buy, meet

Every verb ends in 요

The first three you know from unit 2: 먹어요, 마셔요, 봐요. The next three are new: 가요 (go), 와요 (come), 자요 (sleep). Look at how all six end.

That final 요 is what makes the verb polite. Every verb in this course is given in this form, ready to use with people you do not know well. You learn each one whole, with no table of endings.

The verb is the same for everyone

저는 가요. 친구는 가요. 민수 씨는 가요. I go, my friend goes, Minsu goes — and 가요 never changes.

English switches between “go” and “goes”, “am” and “is”. Korean verbs do not change with the person. The same form also covers “go” and “am going”: there is one present form, and context decides.

Where to: place + 에

학교에 가요 — I go to school. 회사에 가요 — I go to work. 집에 와요 — I come home. The place comes first with 에 attached, and the verb comes last.

It is the 에 you used in 집에 있어요. With 있어요 it marks where something is; with 가요 and 와요 it marks where you are heading. English uses “at” for one and “to” for the other; Korean uses 에 for both.

Three verbs that take 을/를

빵을 사요 — buy bread. 친구를 만나요 — meet a friend. 책을 읽어요 — read a book. The thing or person the action is done to comes first with 을 or 를, just as in 커피를 마셔요.

Note 친구를 만나요: the friend is the object of “meet”, with no word for “with”. And listen to 읽어요: the ㄱ moves over to the next block, so you hear [일거요].

사요 “buy” has a plain ㅅ. 싸요 “it is cheap” has the tense ㅆ.

The 해요 family

공부해요 (study) and 일해요 (work) end in the same two blocks. 해요 is a verb in its own right: “do”. Put a noun for an activity in front of it and you get a verb: 공부 study + 해요, 일 work + 해요.

So 저는 일해요 is “I work”, literally “I do work”.

The 일 in 일해요 means “work”. It only looks like the number 일 “one”.