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Past tenses
One past tense, made with -았/었- inside the verb, and a small set of endings that add "used to", "have ever" and "was in the middle of". No aorist / imperfect split, no auxiliary, no agreement.
-았/었-: the past
The marker follows the same vowel rule as the polite present: -았- after ㅏ/ㅗ, -었- otherwise, -였- → 했- for 하다:
| dictionary | past polite | past formal | past plain |
|---|---|---|---|
| 가다 go | 갔어요 | 갔습니다 | 갔어 |
| 먹다 eat | 먹었어요 | 먹었습니다 | 먹었어 |
| 하다 do | 했어요 | 했습니다 | 했어 |
| 이다 be | 이었어요 / 였어요 | 이었습니다 | 이었어 |
| 있다 be, have | 있었어요 | 있었습니다 | 있었어 |
어제 친구를 만났어요. — "Yesterday I met a friend." 밥 먹었어요? — "Have you eaten?" / "Did you eat?"
The same form is English "ate", "has eaten" and "had eaten" — the context and the time words sort them out.
Present perfect meanings
Korean often uses the past where English uses the present, for a state that resulted from a change:
결혼했어요. — "I'm married." (lit. I married) 알았어요. — "I understand / got it." (lit. I knew) 배고팠어요? — "Were you hungry?" but 배고파요 — "I'm hungry (now)."
Was doing: -고 있었다
그때 자고 있었어요. — "At that moment I was sleeping."
Used to, ever: -던, -ㄴ 적 있다
| form | meaning |
|---|---|
| -ㄴ/은 적(이) 있다 | have (ever) done: 한국에 간 적 있어요? — "Have you ever been to Korea?" |
| -ㄴ/은 적 없다 | have never: 먹어 본 적 없어요. — "I've never tried it." |
| -곤 했다 | used to (habitually): 매일 걷곤 했어요. — "I used to walk every day." |
| -던 | (a thing) I used to …, that was …: 자주 가던 카페 — "the café I used to go to" |
The double past: -았었-
-았었- marks a past that is over and done with, no longer true:
서울에 살았었어요. — "I used to live in Seoul (and don't now)." 서울에 살았어요. — "I lived in Seoul." (maybe still do)
Just did: 방금, 막
There is no "just" form; the adverbs do it: 방금 왔어요 "I just arrived", 막 시작했어요 "it's just started".
Reported past
With -다고 the tense stays as the speaker said it: 갔다고 했어요 "she said she went".
If you speak Vietnamese
-았/었- is đã, with one difference: Vietnamese drops đã when a time word makes it redundant, Korean never drops the tense marker. -ㄴ 적 있다 is từng, -고 있었다 is đang with a past time, and the "resulting state" pasts (결혼했어요) are said with rồi in Vietnamese.
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