Past Tense — -았어요/었어요

To talk about the past, add -았어요 or -었어요 to the verb or adjective stem. The choice depends on the last vowel of the stem: ㅏ or ㅗ takes -았어요, and any other vowel takes -었어요. 하다 becomes 했어요, and 이다 becomes 이었어요 or 였어요.

1. Why learn this

Sooner or later you want to say what you did, what you ate, or where you went. Yesterday's lunch, last week's trip and this morning's coffee all need the past tense. It is one of the first tools that lets you tell a real story.

Korean past tense is simple in one way. There is only one past form for all people, so 먹었어요 means I ate, you ate, he ate and they ate. The verb never changes for who did it.

The rules are small. First pick -았어요 or -었어요 by the last vowel of the stem. Then check if the stem ends in a vowel, because then the two parts usually merge into one syllable, as in 가 + 았어요 → 갔어요.