A2
Adjectives — verbs in disguise
Why Korean adjectives behave as verbs, how they end a sentence and how they modify a noun, and the two forms that catch beginners.
There is no separate class of adjectives in Korean. 좋다, 크다 and 예쁘다 are verbs that mean to be good, to be big, to be pretty, and they conjugate exactly as other verbs do.
이 책이 좋아요.
I chaegi joayo.
This book is good.
어제는 추웠어요.
Eojeneun chuwosseoyo.
It was cold yesterday.
No copula appears. 좋아요 is already a complete sentence — the is is inside the word.
이 책이 좋은이에요.
이 책이 좋아요.
좋은 is the form that goes in front of a noun, and it is not the adjective itself. 좋다 conjugates on its own and needs no 이에요 — the copula is for nouns, see 이다.
In front of a noun they change
The sentence-final form and the noun-modifying form are different words in practice, and both have to be learnt.
| 좋아요 | it is good |
| 좋은 책 | a good book |
| 커요 | it is big |
| 큰 집 | a big house |
은 after a consonant, ㄴ written into the syllable after a vowel: 크 + ㄴ = 큰.
Where English needs two words, Korean needs one
Because adjectives are verbs, they take tense, negation and honorifics directly.
안 비싸요.
An bissayo.
It isn’t expensive.
할머니가 편찮으세요.
Halmeoniga pyeonchaneuseyo.
My grandmother is unwell.
A few behave as verbs proper
있다, 없다 and 같다 take 는 rather than 은 when modifying: 맛있는 음식, tasty food. They look like adjectives and inflect like verbs, and the short list is worth memorising.