Home > Grammar > [Grammar] #6 -았/었/였어요

[Grammar] #6 -았/었/였어요

Mirinae
May 28, 2024

past tense

Ending a sentence with -았어요/었어요/했어요 makes it an informal but polite sentence in the past tense.

dialogue

A: 그 영화 어땠어요? How was the movie?

B: 영화가 재미있었어요. The movie was fun.

variants

combines with

: Action verbs & Descriptive verbs

1. -았어요

: Verbs with stems ending in ㅏ or ㅓ

인사동에 사람이 많았어요. (많다 + -았어요)

There were many people in Insa-dong.

졸려서 그냥 잤어요. (자다 + -았어요)

I was sleepy so I just slept.

2. -었어요

: Verbs with stems not ending in ㅏ or ㅓ

점심에 뭐를 먹었어요? (먹다 + -었어요)

What did you eat for lunch?

아까 커피를 마셨어요. (마시다 + -었어요)

I drank coffee earlier.

3. -했어요(하다+-였어요)

: 하다 verbs

지난 주말에 쇼핑했어요. (쇼핑하다 + -였어요)

I did shopping last weekend.

어제 운동했어요. (운동하다 + -였어요)

I exercised yesterday.

practice

1. Pick the correct variant.

가다 to go

(a) -었어요 (b) -았어요 (c) -였어요

2. Complete the sentence.

인사동에 사람이 ____. There were a lot of people in Insa-dong.

많다 / -았어요 / -었어요 / 크다

3. Unscramble the sentence.

__ ___ ____. I drank coffee earlier.

-았어요 / 커피를 / 마시다 / -었어요 / 아까

[answer]
1. (b) 2. 인사동에 사람이 많았어요. 3. 아까 커피를 마셨어요.

culture

02:49 — “오늘 하루도 아주 즐거웠어요” means “Today was really fun, too”

01:10 — “그동안 재미있었어요?” means “Did you have fun while it lasted?”

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