[Learn Korean E19] “-ㅆ어요/ㅆ습니다”(past tense practice & examples)

안녕하세요.토미입니다．

Let’s have fun learning a fantastic language, Korean!

The theme of today’s lesson is 고향에 언제 돌아갔어요? “When did you go back to your hometown?”

In today’s class, we will learn about the past tense of verbs and adjectives.

After completing today’s class, you can say simple past tense sentences, such as “I really had fun today,” and a present perfect progressive form that connects the past and the present, such as “I’ve been doing this job.”

I am happy to see the range of your vocabulary and expression getting wider as we progress through more lessons.

Let’s keep it up until the end, imagining ourselves speaking Korean fluently and passing the official TOPIK test in the near future!

그럼 시작할게요！

Listen to the Conversation

Today’s title is 고향에 언제 돌아갔어요?

Sangmin is a Korean living in Seoul.
Tammy asks Sangmin when he will be back in his hometown.
First, let’s listen to the conversation with English subtitles.

그럼 들어보세요！

• 토미：상민 씨는 고향에 언제 돌아갔어요?
  Tammy： Sangmin, when did you go back to your hometown?
• 상민：저는 작년 10월에 갔다 왔습니다.
  Sangmin： I went back in last October.
• 토미：그 후에 한 번도 고향에 안 돌아갔어요?
  Tammy： After that, didn’t you even go back to your hometown once?
• 상민：네. 저는 서울에서 계속 일하고 있었습니다.
  Sangmin： No. I have been working in Seoul.
• 토미：그랬군요. 외롭지 않았어요?
  Tammy： I see. Didn’t you feel lonely?
• 상민：아니요. 실은 우리 가족들도 자주 서울에 옵니다.
  Sangmin： No. In fact, my family often comes to Seoul.

Vocabulary and Phrases

I will explain the vocabulary and phrases while reviewing the conversation one sentence at a time.

• 토미：상민 씨는 고향에 언제 돌아갔어요?

돌아가다 means “to go back,” and 돌아오다 means “to come back.”
In Korea, no expression only means “to return.”
You either use 돌아가다 “to go back” or 돌아오다 “to come back.”

If you want to ask, “When did you go back to Korea?” to your friend, you say, 고향에 언제 돌아갔어요?

• 상민：저는 작년 10월에 갔다 왔습니다.

작년 means “last year.”
올해 is “this year,” and 내년 is “next year.”
Then how do you express “one year ago” or ‘one year later?’
As we learned in the previous lesson, you can use the Sino-numbers to say 1년 전 “one year ago” and 1년 후 “one year later.”

갔다 오다 means to go “and come back,” and it is a rare word that has the past tense 갔다 at the beginning of the original form.

• 토미：그 후에 한 번도 고향에 안 돌아갔어요?

그 후에 means “after that.”
If you say 그 전에, it means “before that.”

한 번도 means “not even once.”
Like this, 한 번, 두 번, 세 번 means “once, twice, three times.”

In addition, -도 in 한 번도 means “even” or “also.”
It is easy to use because you need to add -도 whether or not there is a final consonant in a noun.

For example, you can say like 영어도 수학도 어려워요. “English and also math are both difficult.”

• 상민：네. 저는 서울에서 계속 일하고 있었습니다.

네 is “Yes”, and 아니요 is “No.”

Tammy, I have learned this before.
But here, Sagmin said 네 as “no” in English.
What’s going on here?
It can be so confusing for English learners in the beginning.

Like this conversation, if someone says
Didn’t you go to your hometown last year?

Then, in English, if you did not go, you say “No. I didn’t.”
But in Korean, you use 네 as “Yes, (that’s right!) I did not go.”

This “Yes” implies “That’s right!”
By practicing it often with your friends, you will get used to it gradually.

계속 means “continuously.”
In Korea, when you want to emphasize the word 계속, you elongate 계 when pronouncing it like 계속.

• 토미：그랬군요. 외롭지 않았어요?

In the past, we learned 그렇군요 “I see” as a quick response.
그랬군요 also means “I see,” but in the past tense, that has the nuance of “Oh, that’s what you’ve been doing.”

The word 외롭다 means “lonely.”
As the stem has ㅂ as the final consonant, this 요 form will be 외로워요 “I’m lonely.”

• 상민：아니요. 실은 우리 가족들도 자주 서울에 옵니다.

실은 means “in fact’ or ‘actually.”
For example, 실은 저는 녹차를 싫어합니다 means “In fact, I hate green tea.”

가족 is “family,” and 가정 is “household.”
The phrase 가족들도 means “family members as well.’

자주 means “often.”
For example, 그 남자는 자주 시계를 봐요 means “That man often looks at his watch.”
You don’t want a man like this on a date, right?

Grammar

-ㅆ어요/ㅆ습니다

Next, let me explain the grammar.
Today, we will learn the past tense of the 요 form and 니다 form.

In the last lesson, we concentrated on the 요 form.
If you understand and still remember the present tense of the 요 form, the past tense I will explain today should be super easy for you.

In the past tense, you always use 쌍시옷(ㅆ), which is made up of two 시옷.
If you remove the 요 at the end of the present tense of the 요 form and add -ㅆ어요, it becomes the past tense.

If you add –ㅆ습니다, it becomes the past tense of the -니다 form.

In the conversation, Tammy asks,
고향에 언제 돌아갔어요? “When did you go back to your hometown?

Here, let’s focus on the word 돌아갔어요.
The original form is 돌아가다, so the 요 form is 돌아가요.
When you make this sentence in the past tense, you remove 요 from 돌아가요 and add -ㅆ어요, and it becomes 돌아갔어요.

If you want to use the past tense of 니다 form, you remove 요 from 돌아가요 and add -ㅆ습니다, and it becomes 돌아갔습니다.

Next, let’s take a look at the word
갔다 오다 “to go and then come back.”

What would be the 요 form of 갔다 오다?
You might think you never learned, but it has the same pattern as 오다 “to come.”
So, it is 갔다 와요.
To change this verb into the past tense of the 요 form, you remove 요 from 갔다 와요 and add -ㅆ어요, and it becomes 갔다 왔어요.

To change this 갔다 오다 into the past tense of the 니다 form, you remove 요 from 갔다 와요 and add -ㅆ습니다, and it becomes 갔다 왔습니다.

Next, let’s take a look at the word
귀국하다 “to return (to one’s home country).”

As 귀국하다 has 하다 at the end, you can change the word into the 요 form, which is friendly and straightforward.
Just like how 사랑하다 becomes 사랑해요, 귀국하다 becomes 귀국해요.

To make this word into the past tense of 요 form, you remove 요 from 귀국해요 and add -ㅆ어요, and it becomes 귀국했어요.

If you want to make it into the past tense of 니다 form, you remove 요 from 귀국해요 and add ㅆ습니다, and it becomes 귀국했습니다.

Anyway, many words finish with 하다, so it is faster to memorize that the past tense of 하다 is 했어요/했습니다.

Next, let’s look at the word 있다.

요 form of 있다 is 있어요, right?
To make this into the past tense of 요 form, you remove 요 from 있어요 and add ㅆ어요, and it becomes 있었어요.

If you want to make this into the past tense of 니다 form, you remove 요 from 있어요 and add -ㅆ습니다, and it becomes 있었습니다.

By the way, when you master this –있었어요/있었습니다 “was/were,” you can make the expression -하고 있었어요/-하고 있었습니다 “I was doing~.”

In the conversation, There was a sentence
저는 서울에서 계속 일하고 있었습니다.
I have been working in Seoul.

This grammar connects the past and the present events.

This word 계속(continuously) goes well with the present perfect progressive tense, like this sentence in the conversation.

For example, when you say 저는 계속 기다리고 있었어요, it means “I have been waiting.”

안-, -지 않았어요/않았습니다

Lastly, let’s learn how to make the past tense of negative sentences.
There are two ways to make negative sentences for verbs and adjectives. Do you remember them?

The first one is 안, and the second one is 지 않아요/않습니다.
The past tense of these patterns is 안 and 지 않았어요/ 않았습니다.

①The case of 안
In the case of 안-, you just had to add 안- before a verb/adjective.

But when the word is ○○하다, such as 운동하다 or 일하다, you cut in between ○○ and 하다 and add 안- in the middle.

Now, let’s take a look at this sentence.

한국에 귀국 안 했어요?
Didn’t you go back to Korea?

Here, 귀국하다 is the word for going back “to one’s home country.”
Again, you cut in between 귀국 and 했어요 and add 안 in the middle to make a negative sentence in the past tense.
Besides this expression, you can also say 한국에 안 돌아갔어요, which means “I did not go back to Korea.”

②지 않았어요/ 지 않았습니다
-지 않았어요/ 지 않았습니다 is straightforward and easy.
You need to add -지 않았어요/ 지 않았습니다 after the stem of a verb/adjective.

In the conversation, there is a question form.

외롭지 않았어요?
Didn’t you feel lonely?

Here, the original form of “lonely” is 외롭다. The stem is 외롭.
So, you add 지 않았어요/ 지 않았습니다 in the stem to make 외롭지 않았어요/외롭지 않았습니다.

Quiz

What goes in the brackets?

① 저는 그 날 원피스를 (       ).
     I wore a dress on that day.

Let’s think about 요 form and 니다 form together.
요 form of 입다 “to wear” is 입어요.
Then you remove 요 from 입어요 and add ㅆ어요 to say 입었어요 or add ㅆ습니다 to say 입었습니다.
The whole sentence would be 저는 그 날 원피스를 입었어요/입었습니다.

② 저는 그 때 엄청 (　　).
     I was so happy at that time.

Here, as well, let’s think about 요 form and 니다 form together.
First, the 요 form of 기쁘다 is 기뻐요.
Then you remove 요 from 기뻐요 and add ㅆ어요 to say 기뻤어요 or add ㅆ습니다 to say 기뻤습니다.
The whole sentence would be 저는 그 때 엄청 기뻤어요/기뻤습니다.

Conversation (Korean only)

Now, let’s read the conversation again, but only in Korean.
It should be easier to understand than in the beginning.

그럼 확인해 보세요！

• 토미：상민 씨는 고향에 언제 돌아갔어요?
• 상민：저는 작년 10월에 갔다 왔습니다.
• 토미：그 후에 한 번도 고향에 안 돌아갔어요?
• 상민：네. 저는 서울에서 계속 일하고 있었습니다.
• 토미：그랬군요. 외롭지 않았어요?
• 상민：아니요. 실은 우리 가족들도 자주 서울에 옵니다.

Conversation Practice

Now, let’s practice reading it aloud.
I will play the audio one sentence at a time, so please read it with me.

This is one of the only times you can make an output, so please do not skip anything and try reading it aloud.

그럼 큰소리로 읽어 보세요！

• 토미：상민 씨는 고향에 언제 돌아갔어요?
  Tammy： Sangmin, when did you go back to your hometown?
• 상민：저는 작년 10월에 갔다 왔습니다.
  Sangmin： I went back in last October.
• 토미：그 후에 한 번도 고향에 안 돌아갔어요?
  Tammy： After that, didn’t even you go back to your hometown once?
• 상민：네. 저는 서울에서 계속 일하고 있었습니다.
  Sangmin： No. I have been working in Seoul.
• 토미：그랬군요. 외롭지 않았어요?
  Tammy： I see. Didn’t you feel lonely?
• 상민：아니요. 실은 우리 가족들도 자주 서울에 옵니다.
  Sangmin： No. In fact, my family often comes to Seoul.

No. My family often comes to Seoul.
Great work, everyone! Be sure to read aloud at least 5 times.

Homework

The first homework is to create two past sentences.
For example,

• 저는 어제 뮤지컬을 봤습니다. 아주 재미있었습니다.
  I saw the musical yesterday. It was a lot of fun.

The second homework is memorizing vocabulary.
Please memorize 40 words from #361 to #400 on page 5 of the beginner’s word list.
At the end of this page, you can take a 40-word quiz, so please challenge it for yourself.

I’m looking forward to teaching you other expressions for the next lesson.그럼 오늘도 행복 가득， 웃음 가득한 하루 되세요！
한국어 화이팅， 화이팅， 화이팅！！