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

안녕하세요.토미입니다．

Let’s have fun learning an amazing 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 not only say simple past tense sentences such as “I really had fun today,” but also say a present perfect progressive form that connects the past and the present, such as “I’ve been doing this job.”

I am very glad to see your 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 pass 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 is asking Sangmin when he went back to 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 go back to your hometown even 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

Now, I will explain the vocabuaries 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 fact, in Korea, there is no expression that 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] in 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 just 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 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 are going to learn the past tense of [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 that I’m going to 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 [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 be thinking that 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 just change the word into the [요 form], which is nice and simple.
Just like how [사랑하다] becomes [사랑해요], [귀국하다] becomes [귀국해요].

To make this word into the past tense of [요 form], you remove [요 form] [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, there are many words that 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 are [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 of a 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 just need to add [지 않았어요/ 지 않았습니다] after a 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 very happy at that time.

Here as well, let’s think about [요 form] and [니다 form] together.
First, [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 you go back to your hometown even 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. In fact, 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 No. 361 to No. 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 really looking forward to teaching you other expressions for the next lesson.그럼 오늘도 행복 가득， 웃음 가득한 하루 되세요！
한국어 화이팅， 화이팅， 화이팅！！