Endings of Sentences

Since the stems of verbs and adjectives cannot be used alone, they are always used with endings. Korean has many different endings that convey much of the grammatical functions such as tense, aspects, sentence types, conjunctions, speech levels, and so on.
The endings can be categorized into two types: pre-final endings and final endings, depending on where they are placed in the verb or adjective.

Pre-final Endings

Pre-final endings are inflectional elements that come between the stem and the final ending. They include the honorific suffix -(으)시, past tense marker 었/았, and so on.
Consider the following example:

* Pre-final Ending

Notice that the pre-final endings appear between 보, the stem “see”, and 어요, “a sentence final ending”.

Non-sentence-final Endings

There are two types of final endings: non-sentence-final endings that ends a verb or an adjective but not the sentence, and sentence-final endings that ends both the verb and the sentence. Non-sentence-final endings include various clausal conjunctives such as -고(and then), -어/아서(because), -으면서(while), -지만(although), -도록(in order to), and so on.
Consider the following sentence.

* Final Endings

Notice that the conjunctive -고(and then) does not end the sentence but does end the verb stem 마시(drink). On the other hand, the ending 어요 ends the verb “eat” as well as the sentence.

Sentence-final Endings

The typical examples of sentence-final endings are various speech-level endings. Korean has six speech levels as shown below. These speech-level endings indicate the speaker’s interpersonal relationship with the addressees or attitude toward them.
The deferential speech level is the highest among the six, followed by the polite speech level and so on. In addition, each speech level has four endings that indicate the type of sentence: declarative(statement), interrogative(question), imperative(command/request), and propositive(suggestion):

* Sentence-final Endings

Among the six speech levels, the use of (3) blunt and (4) familiar speech levels have been declining especially among young generations. We however must be familiar with the deferential, polite, intimate, and plain levels, which are still widely used for all Koreans regardless of age differences. Consequently, the debate around blunt and familiar speech levels will not be discussed in this book.
Let us apply four of the endings above to the verb stem 먹(eat). When saying “(someone) eats”, one needs to use one of the four interrogative endings like -습니까, -어요, -어, and -냐.

Notice that the verb stem in each speech level as well as the referential meaning are the same. In addition, different endings render different social meanings, such as speaker’s attitude toward the hearer and the formality of the situation. Consequently, choosing the right speech level is critical, and it all depends on who you talk to.

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Grammar for Beginners
Predicates of Sentences
Negation (부정문)

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Predicates of Sentences

Predicate is one of the main components of a sentence, normally the predicate of a clause is the part of it that is not the subject. Often it refers to a verb or an adjective phrase that modifies the subject. For example, “decided what to do” is the predicate of a sentence “I decided what to do”. In a similar manner, those which constitute predicate expressions in Korean are verbs and adjectives.

* Predicate

Stems

Korean verbs and adjectives are made of stems and endings. The stems of verbs and adjectives can not be used alone, and they are always conjugated by various or inflectional endings. These endings carry various grammatical information and roles such as tense, aspect, speech levels, and so forth.
When you look for the meaning of certain verbs and/or adjectives in your textbook word lists or dictionary, you are most likely to encounter verbs and adjectives with 다 as their endings. Remember that stems can not be used alone. For a dictionary-entry purpose, Korean verbs and adjectives take a special dictionary form ending -다. Consequently, finding the stem of a verb and/or an adjective is simple in that anything being left out after you take 다 out from the verbs and adjectives is the stem. Here are some examples:

Verbs And Adjectives
In English, one can distinguish a verb from an adjective by looking at their structure. For example, when using an adjective as a predicate, one has to use one of “am”, “is”, and “are”. In Korean, however verbs and adjectives resemble one another in how they inflect and how they function in the sentence. In addition, there is no obvious structural difference between verbs and adjectives. In fact adjectives behave like verbs so much that Korean grammarians categorize adjectives as “descriptive verbs”.
For example, in a dictionary, you may find the following Korean verb and adjective: 보다(see) and 어렵다(difficult). They have different stems but the same ending. Their meanings distinguish a verb from an adjective. Verbs normally signify actions and processes. On the other hand, adjectives typically indicate states or qualities such as size, weight, quality, quantity, shape, appearance, perception, and emotion.

Vowel- and consonant-based stems

Stems of Korean verbs and adjectives are grouped into two types: consonant based and vowel based. An example of the vowel-based stem is 가 of 가다, whereas that of the consonant-based stem is 먹 of 먹다.

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Grammar for Beginners
Endings of Sentences
Irregular verbs and adjectives (불규칙동사와 형용사)

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