Polite Informal

We use the polite informal when talking with peers; most ordinary conversation will take place in the polite informal.

Now relax and take a deep breath. To figure out the correct endings for a polite informal verb, you’re going to need to make quite a few decisions. At first this is going to take a long time to figure out how to say a verb while you work through the steps. After practice, it will be almost automatic (trust me—it really will be).

Step 1

Look at the stem of the verb.

• If it ends with 하 , change it to 해요 , and you're finished.
• If it doesn't end with 하, proceed to step 2.

  Example

  Verb	Stem	Result
  하다 (to do)	하-	해요

Step 2

Look at the last vowel of the stem.

• If it is a ㅏ or ㅗ , add 아요 . If you end up with two vowels right next to each other, combine them into one vowel.
• Otherwise, proceed to step 3.

  Examples:

  Verb	Stem	Add 아요	Result
  가다 (to go)	ᄀ​ᅡ	ᄀ​ᅡ + 아요	가요
  보다	ᄇ​ᅩ	ᄀ​ᅩ + 아요	봐요
  좋다 (to be good)	좋-	좋 + 아요	좋아요

Step 3

In all other cases:

• Add 어요. Again, if you end up with two vowels next to each other, they will contract into one vowel.

  Examples:

  Verb	Stem	Add 어요	Result
  배우다 (to learn)	배ᄋᅟ​ᅮ	배ᄋᅟ​ᅮ + 어요	배워요
  가르치다 (to teach)	가르ᅔᅟ​ᅵ	가르ᅔᅟ​ᅵ + 어요	가르쳐요
  있다 (to have)	있-	있 + 어요	있어요

Take another deep breath, and congratulate yourself for having made it through this page, which is probably the most complicated one in the whole tutorial!

Special Honorifics

Grammar Index

Your Informal Honor