What is 다 (da)?

Usually when you hear people speaking Korean, you'll hear a lot of the same sounds. If you know anything about Korean, you can always distinguish it when you hear people ending their sentences in ....니다 (...nida) or 요 (...yo). But, maybe when you look up a word in the dictionary or get a list of vocabulary words to study, you may see verbs ending with 다 (da). So, today, let's look at what this 다 is used for.


다 (da) is the basic verb ending. One of the first words a learner of Korean may learn is the word "go". A text book may show it like this:

가다 (ga-da)- to go

But, it is a little confusing because we can't really use this 가다 in a sentence when we're speaking because this is in the base form. When you want to say the word "go", you'll need to conjugate it. Let's see how that works:

가다 -----remove 다-----> 가-  -----add verb ending----> 가요

We added the "요" to express the polite present tense form (아/어요). This works for any regular verb and any ending:

찾다-----remove 다-----> 찾-  -----add verb ending----> 찾아요 "find"
좋다-----remove 다-----> 좋-  -----add verb ending---->좋아요 "good"
읽다-----remove 다-----> 읽-  -----add verb ending----> 읽어요 "read"




It gets a little trickier with irregulars, but with a little practice you'll get the gist. There are patterns and and you will learn them, but for now, just memorize the basic conjugations.

하다-----remove 다-----> 하-  -----add verb ending----> 해요 "do" (하-->해)
오다-----remove 다-----> 오-  -----add verb ending----> 와요 "come" (오 --> 와)
보다-----remove 다-----> 보-  -----add verb ending----> 봐요 "see" (보 --> 봐)


숙제 Homework:
Conjugate the following verbs into any tense you like and make a sentence (if you can). Show off the tenses you know and be creative! (all levels)

가르치다 (ga-ru-chi-da)- to teach
신다 (shin-da)- to wear (on one's feet, ie. shoes, socks)
먹다 (meok-da)- to eat