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Laura Stouffer
LIN 431: Term Paper Draft
Korean Tense and Aspect
Introduction
Tense and aspect are two properties of a given language which appear on the verb in any
given sentence, or structure as many would call it. Tense and aspect are often confused as being
the same thing, so their chief differences will be briefly explained here. Tense refers to the
precise location in time at which an event occurs. Take this English sentence for example: John
fell into the lake yesterday. The form of the verb ―to fall‖ indicates a simple past tense and the
time word ―yesterday‖ indicates when the event took place. Aspect, on the other hand refers to
how said event is viewed with respect to time. Take this English sentence for example: John has
fallen into the lake. The form of the verb ―to fall‖ indicates that John fell quite recently, but it is
not specified when exactly he fell (The Survey of English Usage, 1996-1998).
This paper’s goal is to provide the reader with a concise overview the tense and aspect
marking system of the Korean language and it will be explained and demonstrated through
multiple examples and discourse. The main source for this paper is Jaehoon Yeon and Lucien
Brown’s collective work Korean: a Comprehensive Grammar, which was published by
Routledge during the year 2011 in New York, NY. It is a part of a series of grammars that have
been published by the same publisher.
This paper will be organized in the following way: first, morphological and phonological
features of the tense and aspect marking system will be explored. Questions relating to the
location of tense marking and the forms verbs take for various tenses such as simple past, what is
called past-past, observed past, progressive (or continuous) aspect, simple present, and one of the
future aspects will be answered. Second, syntactic features of this system will be discussed. Does
tense and aspect marking affect parts of the sentence other than the verb? Third, the semantic
features of these tense and aspect markings will be explained. Differences between tenses like
simple past and past-past will be explained in more detail. Lastly, concluding remarks will be
made in order to sum up what has been covered in this paper. Data will be shown both in Hangul,
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the Korean alphabet, and Latin romanization. Example sentences will be followed by a gloss and
an English translation. Some example sentences come from Jaehoon Yeon and Lucien Brown’s
book on Korean grammar while some examples were created for this paper or pulled from an
online source.
Background
Korean is spoken by approximately 78 million people: 48 million in South Korea, 24
million in North Korea, and about 6 million in other countries, mainly China, Japan, and The
United States. The linguistic connection of Korean to other languages is not certain, though
many believe under the Altaic hypothesis that Korean is related to other Altaic languages such as
Mongolian, Turkic, and Manchu-Tungus. So, it is generally considered part of the Altaic family.
Korean is agglutinative and differs from many Indo-European languages in that it does not utilize
definite or indefinite articles such as ―the‖ or ―a‖ and it does not make special distinction of
gender or plurality of nouns. Korean is a Subject-Object-Verb language and most Koreans tend
to avoid personal reference, such as “I”, so it is common that Korean sentences only utilize the
verb and the object, if there is one. (Yeon and Brown, 2011).
This paper in particular will focus on tense and aspect marking on the verb in Korean. At
the same time, this paper will provide examples of aspect and tense conjugation at varying levels
of politeness, as Korean is a hierarchical language and the various levels of politeness, or styles,
are very much intertwined with the tense system of Korean. Verbs are conjugated differently
depending not only on tense and aspect but on the listener or audience the spoken sentence is
directed towards. If one is speaking to a person who is older and of a higher social ranking, then
the formal or honorific forms are used. If a person is speaking to a younger audience such as a
child or to a close friend, then informal speech may be used. Polite form is used with
acquaintances and other people who are familiar but not very close. The plain form which is
represented in the data in the sections below shows the verb without conjugation for hierarchical
forms related to politeness.
It should be noted that North and South Korea are somewhat linguistically divergent and
that this paper represents the Seoul—the capital of South Korea—style of speech and does not
necessarily represent North Korean dialect (Yeon and Brown, 2011).
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Phonological and Morphological Features
Before one can understand how tense and aspect is applied to Korean verbs, a couple
simple facts and conjugation rules should be known. First, there are a few main endings that are
represented in the dictionary form of Korean verbs. The dictionary form of a verb may end in
―hada‖, or simply ―da‖. In the case of verbs whose dictionary forms end in only ―da‖, there are
two main types: those verbs whose final character before ―da‖ ends in a vowel, and those whose
final character before the ―da‖ end in a consonant (Yeon and Brown, 2011). Here is an example
of each type:
(1) 공부하다 (gongbu hada) ―to study‖
가다 (ga da) ―to go, to leave‖ ―ga‖ ends in a vowel
먹다 (meok da) ―to eat‖ ―meok‖ ends in a consonant
When conjugating for tense and aspects, the ―da‖ is dropped and the characteristic of the
new final character is what determines how the verb is conjugated. The exception to this rule is
the plain style, which will be shown in the next section. For verbs which end in ―hada‖, the ―da‖
is dropped and ―ha‖ is conjugated for the desired tense. In the case of the ―hada‖ verbs,
conjugation for the simple present tense is ―hae‖ for many speech styles because all ―hada‖ verbs
are conjugated with ―-eo‖ after the ―da‖ is dropped (Yeon and Brown, 2011). In the next section,
variations of conjugation for the ―hada‖ verbs will be shown.
(2) 공부하다 (gongbu hada) 공부해 (gongbu hae)
For verbs which are like ―ga da‖ above, the ―da‖ is dropped during conjugation and in
most speech styles ―ga‖ remains ―ga‖ and has a simple affix attached to it to express the speech
style being used.
(3) 가다 (ga da) 가 (ga), 가요 (ga yo), 가세요 (ga se yo), 갑니다 (gam ni da)
For verbs which have consonant endings like ―meok da‖, the ―da‖ is also dropped and
―meok‖ undergoes conjugation. If the vowel in the final character such as ―meok‖ is ―i‖, ―eo‖, or
―eu‖, then the verb will be conjugated with the verb ―eo‖ in the following way:
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(4) 먹다 (meok da) 먹+어 (meok + eo) 먹어 (meokeo)
If, however, the vowel in the final character is ―a‖, ―u‖, or ―o‖, then the verb is
conjugated with ―a‖ as in the following example:
(5) 볶다 (bokk da) 볶+아 (bokk + a) 볶아 (bokka)
The honorific and formal styles of speech call for a different conjugation on the verb. It
should also be noted that although a verb may be conjugated for different styles, the verb’s
meaning stays essentially the same. Saying, ―I ate‖ in the formal style means the same basic
thing that, ―I ate‖ does in the informal style. The exception to this note is the honorific style
because that style can only be used when speaking about someone else who is higher in social
standing than the speaker.
If one uses honorifics, there are honorific markers that must appear on the subject or
object in the sentence in order for it to agree with the verb’s conjugation for style. If the person
that is being honored in the sentence is the agent of the verb, then they are the subject and appear
with the honorific subject marker (Yeon and Brown, 2011).
Take the following data as an example of this phenomenon:
(6) 어머니께서 저에게 선물을 드리셨어요.
Eomeoni ggeseo cheo ege seonmul eul deurisheosseoyo.
Mother HON me TO gift OBJ gave HON
My mother gave me a present.
Simple Present
The simple present will be explained first. An overview of how the simple present is
expressed in Korean is demonstrated by table one below. The conjugations for the different
styles or politeness levels are included in the table. Table two will provide two examples of verbs
conjugated for the different styles. There are certain variations and conjugation rules which will
be explained immediately following the tables. The simple present in Korean carries the meaning
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that someone is currently doing an action as in ―I am stir-frying‖ or that someone does an action
regularly as in ―I stir fry (on a regular basis)‖ (Yeon and Brown, 2011).
Plain Form Informal Polite Formal Honorific
For a verb
which ends in
a vowel
–다
- da
–어/아
-eo/a
–어/아요.
- eo/a yo
–ㅂ니다.
- mnida
–세요
- seyo
For a verb
which ends in
a consonant
–다
-da
–어/아
- eo/a
–어/아요.
- eo/a yo
–습니다
-seumnida
–으세요
-useyo
Table 1
Plain Form Informal Polite Formal Honorific
For a verb
which ends in
a vowel
–일하다
- il hada
―To work‖
–일해
-il hae
―I work‖
–일해요
- il haeyo
―I work‖
일합니다
- il hamnida
―I work‖
일하세요
- il haseyo
―You work‖
For a verb
which ends in
a consonant
–볶다
-bokkda
―To stir-fry‖
–볶아
- bokka
―I stir fry‖
–볶아요
- bokka yo
―I stir-fry‖
–볶습니다
-bokk
seumnida
―I stir-fry‖
–볶으세요
-bokk useyo
―You stir-fry‖
Table 2 Dictionary and plain forms do not differ when the verb is conjugated for the present tense.
Again, the verb is conjugated either with 어(eo) or 아(a) depending on a verb’s dictionary or
plain form’s last vowel. To go from the plain style of ―to work‖ to the informal style which is
conjugated for the present, the following process takes place:
(7) 일하다 + -어/아 = 일해
il hada + -eo/a = il hae
Because the verb’s dictionary form ends in ―hada‖ it automatically conjugates with ―-eo‖.
Both conjugations of the verb have the basic meaning, ―I work‖ when spoken without any further
allusion to a subject (Yeon and Brown, 2011).
Progressive/Continuous tense/aspect
Next, the progressive, or continuous tense/aspect, will be explained. This form is very
simple and the different forms are shown below in table three. Table four below provides
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examples. These conjugations all have the basic meaning, ―I am…‖ or ―You are…‖ and the
conjugation is very simple for any verb type. The ―da‖ from the dictionary form of any verb is
dropped and one of five options is directly affixed to the end of the verb (Yeon and Brown,
2011).
Plain Form Informal Polite Formal Honorific
For any verb –고 있다
-go itt da
–고 있어
-go isseo
–고 있어요.
- go isseoyo
–고 있습니다
- go
isseumnida
–고 있으세요
- go issuseyo
Table 3
Dictionary
Form
Plain Form Informal Polite Formal Honorific
일하다
il hada
―To work‖
먹다
meok da
―To eat‖
일하고 있다
il hago
ittda**
―I am
working‖
먹고 있다
Meokgo
ittda*
―I am eating‖
일하고 있어
il hago isseo
먹고 있어
Meokgo
isseo
일하고
있어요
il hago
isseoyo
먹고 있어요
Meokgo
isseo yo
일하고있습니다
il hago
issemnida
\
먹고 있습니다
Meokgo
isseumnida
일하고
있으세요
il ha hago
isseuseyo
―You are
working‖
드시고
있으세요.*
Deushigo
issue se yo
―You are
eating‖
Table 4 *In the honorific style, certain words are changed to fit the style. ―To eat‖ is always changed
from ―meok da‖ to ―deu shi da‖ when speaking about or to an honored person.
**In the plain form, the ―s‖ (ㅆ) is pronounced like a ―t‖ (Yeon and Brown, 2011).
Simple Past
What forms does the simple past take in Korean? Table five below provides an overview
of the conjugation for simple past tense in regards to whether the original verb ends in a vowel or
in a consonant. Table five also illustrates the conjugation for various politeness levels as the
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other tables have done. Table six offers a couple examples. All have the same basic meaning, ―I
___ed‖ or ―You __ed‖. For example, ―I worked‖/―You worked‖ (Yeon and Brown, 2011).
Plain Tensed
Form
Informal Polite Formal Honorific
For a verb
which ends in
a vowel
–ㅆ다
-tda**
–어/아 ㅆ어
-eo/a sseo
–어/아 ㅆ
어요.
- eo/a sseoyo
–어/아
ㅆ습니다.
- eo/a
sseumnida
–셨어요
- sheosseoyo
For a verb
which ends in
a consonant
–었다
-eotda**
–었어
-eosseo
–었어요
-eosseoyo
–었습니다
-eosseumnida
–으셨어요
-usheosseoyo
Table 5
Dictionary
Form
Plain
Tensed
Form
Informal Polite Formal Honorific
For a
verb
which
ends in a
vowel
먹다
Meok da
―To eat‖
먹었다
Meok
eotda
―I ate‖
먹었어
Meok
eosseo
―I ate‖
먹었어요
Meok
eosseoyo
―I ate‖
먹었습니다
Meok
eosseumnida
―I ate‖
*드셨어요
Deusheosseoyo
―You ate‖
For a
verb
which
ends in a
consonant
공부하다
Gongbu
hada
―To
study‖
공부했다
Gongbu
haetda
―I
studied‖
공부했어
Gongbu
haesseo
―I
studied‖
공부했어요
Gongbu
haesseoyo
―I studied‖
공부했습니다
Gongbu
haesseumnida
―I studied‖
공부하셨어요
Gongbu
hasheosseoyo
―You studied‖
Table 6
Past-Past
Past-past is very much like the simple past in terms of conjugation with one small
difference. An extra morph, 었 ―eoss‖, is added to the simple past (Yeon and Brown, 2011).
Refer to table seven below.
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Dictionary
Form
Plain
Tensed
Form
Informal Polite Formal Honorific
공부하다
Gongbu
hada
―To
study‖
공부했었다
Gongbu
haetda
―I studied (a
long time
ago)‖
공부했었어
Gongbu
haesseo
―I studied (a
long time
ago)‖
공부했었어요
Gongbu
haesseoyo
―I studied (a
long time
ago)‖
공부했었습니다
Gongbu
haesseumnida
―I studied (a long
time ago)‖
공부하셨었어요
Gongbu
hasheosseoyo
―You studied (a
long time ago)‖
Table 7 Observed or Perceived Past
When a speaker wants to express that they witnessed an event taking place, the observed
past tense is used. This tense can also be used to express an opinion which is based on past
events. For example, ―I found that movie to be scary‖. The basic form of the observed tense is -
더- (-deo-) and it mainly occurs in the plain speech style and is followed by the ending -라 (-ra)
(Yeon and Brown, 2011). Refer to Table 8 below for an example of how this form is used to
express a witnessed event.
Dictionary Form Present Tense Past Tense
눈이 오다
―nuni oda‖
눈이 오더라
―nuni odeora‖
눈이 왔더라
―nuni wattdeora‖
To snow I saw that is was
snowing
I saw that it had
snowed
Table 8
To conjugate the verb for the observed past, the verb can either simply drop the ―da‖ and
allow for the affixation of ―deora‖ or it can be conjugated for the past and then allow for the
affixation of ―deora‖. When the verb is conjugated according to the first option to describe an
event which took place in the past, the semantic implication is that the speaker witnessed the
event taking place firsthand. However, if the verb is conjugated for the past, it means that the
speaker did not actually witness the event itself, but has knowledge of the event having taken
place because of certain evidence, such as a new blanket of snow on the ground. Using this
construction to express an opinion is no different in terms of conjugation (Yeon and Brown,
2011). The following example can be found on page 202 of Yeon and Brown’s book.
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(8) 나는 그 영화가 너무 무섭더라.
I SUB that movie SUB too scary found.
I found that movie too scary.
Future tense
The future tense calls for the affixation of –ㄹ(r/l)/을(eul) 거(geo) onto any verb’s root
form. After this affix, a politeness level is chosen and affixed on the very end of the construction.
The use of either the –ㄹ(r/l) or 을(eul) depends on whether the root verb ends in a vowel or
consonant. For example, since the verb ―to eat‖ ends in a consonant after the ―da‖ is dropped, it
would be conjugated for the future using the 을(eul). The verb ―to eat‖ would be conjugated for
the future in the following way: 먹다 (meok da) 먹 (meok) + 을 거 (eul geo) 먹을 거
(meokeul geo) + 야 (ya)/예요 (yeyo)/-ㅂ 니다 (-mnida).
Dictionary
form
Informal Polite Formal Honorific
Consonant
Ending 먹다
Meok da
―to eat‖
먹을거야
Meokeul geo
ya
―I will eat‖
먹을거예요
Meokeul
geoyeyo
―I will eat‖
먹을겁니다
Meokeul
geomnida
―I will eat‖
드실거예요*
Deushil
geoyeyo
―You will eat‖
Vowel
Ending 일하다
Il hada
―to work‖
일할거야
Il halgeo ya
―I will work‖
일할거예요
Il halgeoyeyo
―I will work‖
일할겁니다
Il halgemnida
―I will work‖
일하실거예요
Il hashil
geoyeyo
―You will
work‖
Table 9
Modifying Nouns
When modifying nouns with action verbs or adjectives, or creating a relative clause, one
must consider the tense or aspect of the verb that is to be used. For example, if one wants to
create the relative clause ―the apple that I ate‖, then one combines the verb ―to eat‖ and the noun
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―apple‖ and the verb must be conjugated for past tense. The same goes for clauses like ―the apple
I will buy‖ and ―the apple I am buying‖: the verb in the relative clause must be conjugated for
tense.
Modifying nouns with verbs requires knowledge of a couple simple conjugation rules.
There are three ways to conjugate verbs for the appropriate tense in relative clauses. Using three
different affixes, the tense of a verb can be indicated. The three affixes are -는 (neun), -은 (eun),
and 을 (eul) and they are added directly to verbs which end in consonants after the ―da‖ in their
dictionary form has been dropped. Verbs which end in vowels take -는 (neun), -ㄴ (n), and -ㄹ
(r/l). -는 (neun) is the present tense affix, -은 (eun) is the past tense affix, and -을 (eul) is the
future tense affix (Yeon and Brown, 2011). Table ten below shows examples of usage and
provides translations.
Dictionary
Form of Verb
Past Present Future
먹다
Meok da
―To eat‖
먹은 사과
Meogeun sagwa
The apple that I ate
먹는 여자
Meokneun yeoja
The girl that is eating
먹을 사과
Meokeul sagwa
The apple that I will eat
사다
Sa da
―To buy‖
산 사과
San sagwa
The apple that I bought
사과를 사는 여자
Sagwa reul saneun yeoja
The girl that is buying an
apple
살 사과
Sal sagwa
The apple that I will buy
Table 10 Modifying nouns with adjectives requires knowledge of slightly different conjugation
rules. Firstly, the adjectives in a clause can only be conjugated for the present tense. They are
conjugated with either –ㄴ (n) or –은 (eun), depending on whether the root form of the adjective
ends with a vowel or a consonant. If it ends in a vowel, the affix –ㄴ (n) is used and if it is a
consonant, the affix –은 (eun) is used. In table eleven below there are a few examples of this.
The adjective ―to be delicious‖ is a special case because it utilizes the affix –는 (neun) (Yeon
and Brown, 2011).
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Dictionary Form of
Adjective
Conjugated for present
tense
예쁘다
Yaebbeu da
―To be pretty‖
예쁜 여자
Yaebbeun yeoja
Pretty woman
넓다
Neolb da
―To be broad‖
넓은 그림
Neolbeun keurim
Broad/wide picture
맛있다
Mashitt da
―To be delicious‖
맛있는 음식
Matshitt neun eumshik
Delicious food
Table 11
Conjunctive Words
Conjunctive words and how tense is applied to verbs and adjectives when used with the
shortened form of these words will be explained next. In Korean, combining sentences makes the
speaker sound more educated and combining sentences can be accomplished by combining
certain connector words with verbs and adjectives (Yeon and Brown, 2011).
Four words that are used very often and shortened in sentences are the words for ―and‖,
―however‖, ―so‖, and ―even though‖. These are the focus of this section. There are restrictions on
which tenses can be used with verbs when they are followed by the shortened version of these
words and these restrictions will be explained.
그리고 (keurigo) is shortened to 고 (go) in sentences; it carries the meaning ―and‖. The
shortened version of this word can be used with present and past tenses.
(9) 밥을 먹었고 물을 마셨어요.
bap eul meokeottgo mul eul ma sheosseoyo
Rice OBJ ate and water OBJ drank.
I ate rice and drank water.
하지만 (hajiman) carries the meaning ―however‖. It can be combined with verbs
conjugated for present, past, and future tenses. When combined with most tensed verbs, it is
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shortened to 지만 (jiman). It is simply 하지만 (hajiman) in the case of ―hada‖ verbs which are
marked for the present tense. For example, if one wants to connect the two sentences 먹었어요.
하지만 아직 배고파요 (Meokeosseoyo. Hajiman, ajik bae go pa yo), ―I ate. But I am still
hungry‖, the shortened form of ―but‖ (하지만/hajiman) needs to be combined with the verb ―to
eat‖. The verb ―to eat‖ retains its past tense marking, so it is combined with jiman (Yeon and
Brown, 2011). Refer to the following for a complete breakdown of the combined sentences:
(10) 먹었지만 아직 배고파요.
Meokeottjiman ajik bae go pa yo.
I ate but still I am hungry.
I ate but I am still hungry.
An example of how to use this word when combined with a verb that is conjugated for
the future tense is as follows:
(11) 숙제를 할거지만 지금 너무 피곤해요.
Sukje reul halgeojiman jigeum neomu pigonhaeyo.
Homework OBJ will do but now too tired.
I will do my homework but right now I am too tired.
Just as is shown in the section on the future tense, the verb ―to do homework‖ is
conjugated for the future tense using the affix ―halgeo‖.
그래서 (keuraeseo) is shortened to -어/아서(eo/a seo) and carries the meaning of ―so‖,
―because of‖ and cannot take conjugation for any other tense but present when the shortened
form is used. The actual tense of the sentence can only be expressed at the end of the
construction.
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(12) 공부해서 시험을 잘 봤어요.
gongbu hae seo shi heom eul jal bwasseoyo
Studied so test OBJ well took
Because I studied, I did well on the test.
그래도 (keuraedo) is shortened to -어/아도 (-eo/a do) and means ―even though‖. The
shortened form of this word cannot take conjugation for any other tense but the present though it
usually refers to an event that happened in the past. If the tense on the verb at the end of the
sentence is future, then this word allows the speaker to refer to a potential event. The actual tense
of the sentence can only be expressed at the end of the construction. Refer to the following
example (ppomppu.co.kr):
(13) 빅맥 4 개를 먹어도 아직 배고파요.
Bik maek 4 gae reul meokeo do ajik bae go pa yo.
Big Macs 4 OBJ ate even though still hungry
Even though I ate 4 Big Macs, I’m still hungry.
While the verb ―to eat‖ is not conjugated for the past, it carries the meaning of past. And
the verb ―to be hungry‖ could have been conjugated for the past or future tense as well. If ―to be
hungry‖ were conjugated for the past tense, the sentence would have the meaning ―Even though I
ate 4 Big Macs, I was still hungry‖ and if it were conjugated for the future tense, it would have
meant ―Even if I eat 4 Big Macs I will still be hungry.‖
Syntactic Features
Korean is an agglutinative language, which means that information such as tense, aspect,
and the social relation between speaker and listener is expressed in succession on the end of the
verb. In agglutinative languages there is no agreement between the subject or object and the
tense which appears on the verb. This is much different than English because English extensively
uses things like auxiliaries to convey tense or aspect. The past used most frequently in Korean is
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the simple past tense form, so the past tense has a predictable form. This is unlike what you see
in English (Yeon and Brown, 2011).
Semantic Features
There are subtle semantic differences between the past tenses described above. While all
of the past tenses serve the purpose of communicating an event which happened in the past, they
have different semantic implications. Simple past is a plain statement of something that
happened; past-past is a statement about something that happened a very long time ago; observed
past can describe both what someone witnessed and what someone’s opinion is based on a past
event (Yeon and Brown, 2011).
Observed past is usually used with verbs which, when used with plain past tense, actually
refer to a present state. For example, if one says ―Mina went to Germany‖ in Korean, the
sentence implies that Mina is still in Germany if it is conjugated for the simple past tense. If it is
conjugated for the past-past, then the sentence means that Mina went to Germany sometime in
the past and is back from Germany now. In the case of the observed past, only context can
indicate whether the speaker is referring to an event they witnessed or an opinion the speaker has
about something. This is because the conjugation does not differ between the two meanings, as
seen in table eight and example sentence (8). Certain tense forms can have double meaning,
observed past tense being one of such tense forms (Yeon and Brown, 2011).
Styles which are used in conjunction with verbs not only affect the conjugation of the
tense but also the semantic implications of that the sentence carries and there are a few
restrictions on when each style can be used. Plain style is used most by speakers when they are
thinking or talking to themselves and may be used in poetry, songs, novels, and private writing,
such as writing in a personal journal. The informal style is used between friends and implies that
the two people speaking in informal style know each other well. People can also use the informal
style when speaking to children. The honorific form can only be used by a speaker when they are
speaking about a person in higher social standing than them, so it can never be self-referential. If
someone used it in reference to themselves, they would be given a very odd look because they
are essentially honoring themselves in that case (Yeon and Brown, 2011).
Stouffer 15
Concluding Remarks
Though not all aspects of the Korean tense system were explored in this paper, a good
amount of them were. The constructions for simple past, past-past, future, simple present,
progressive, and observed past were explained in the beginning. After that, the interaction of
tense within relative clauses and the use of tense with conjunctive words was discussed. Korean
is an agglutinative language, so its tense marking system has no bearing on parts of the sentence
other than the tensed verb. Styles such as informal and polite are expressed on the verb as well
and they affect how the tense of the verb is expressed. The honorific style has the most bearing
on sentences in Korean because it requires the use of subject and object markers which differ
from what is typically used in the other speech styles. It also has a restricted use because it
cannot be self referential
.
Stouffer 16
Source Citations
Yeon, Jaehoon and Lucien Brown 2011. Korean: A Comprehensive Grammar. New York, NY:
Routledge.
The Survey of English Usage, 1996-1998 Tense and Aspect. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-
grammar/verbs/tense.htm Accessed on March 26, 2013.
Haeranmanse, 1/24/2012 Even though I ate four Big Macs I am still Hungry (Translated).
http://www.ppomppu.co.kr/zboard/view.php?id=freeboard&no=1472783 Accessed on April 16,
2013.