3.9 The Past Tense — Epoché
What you will be able to do Put any verb into the past by inserting one syllable between the stem and the polite ending: 아이들은 가게에서 아이스크림을 먹었어요. Choose the shape of that syllable by the same vowel rule as lesson 3.7, and contract it where the stem ends in a vowel: 가게에 갔어요? and 티비에서 봤어요. Say why one Korean past covers the English simple past and the English present perfect alike. Recognise the Korean past used for a present state, which is the trap of this lesson: 일본에서 왔어요. means that you are from Japan, not that you once came from it. Make the past of the largest verb class in the language, the one built on the syllable for "do": 언제 도착했어요? Prerequisites : 3.8, which finished the negatives. You need the vowel rule of 3.7 Grammar more than anything else here, because the past marker chooses its shape by exactly that rule and contracts in exactly the same places. Korean has one past tense and no others. There is no perfect, no pluperfect, no past continuous as a separate form, and no sequence of tenses. One syllable is inserted into the verb, and everything that English distributes across half a dozen constructions is carried by it. For an English speaker this is first a relief and then a difficulty, because a form that does so much is bound to be used in places where English would not use a past at all. The pattern Take the stem, add the past marker, add the polite ending. The marker has two shapes and is chosen by the last vowel of the stem, exactly as in lesson 3.7: bright or round takes the bright marker, everything else takes the dark one, and verbs built on the syllable for "do" take a third shape. Rule Past form in a sentence English bright stem vowel 저는 7년 동안 한국에서 살았어요. [1] I lived in Korea for seven years. bright stem vowel 제 문자 못 받았어요? [2] Did you not get my text? dark stem vowel 아이들은 가게에서 아이스크림을 먹었어요. [10] The children had ice cream at the shop. dark stem vowel 은행 문 열었어요? [13] Is the bank open? dark stem vowel 마음에 들었어요? [11] Did you like it? dark stem vowel 잘 못 들었어요. [12] Sorry? dark stem vowel 식당 가고 있었어요. [14] I was going to the restaurant. the third shape 핸드폰을 깜빡했어요. [17] I've forgotten my mobile. the third shape 언제 도착했어요? [20] When did you arrive? the third shape 그들은 수영했어요. [18] They swam. Where the stem ends in a vowel, the marker contracts into it, and the contraction is the same one you learned for the present. If you can make the present, you can make the past: whatever happened to the vowel there happens here. Present Past English of the past 잘 가요. [26] 가게에 갔어요? [3] Did you go to the shop? 비가 와요. [27] 가을이 왔어요. [4] Autumn is here. 나중에 봐요. [28] 티비에서 봤어요. [9] I've seen you on TV. Ten more, with nothing marked. Read each one and say what the verb was before the past was added. Korean English 왜 왔어요? [5] Why did you come? 어떻게 왔어요? [6] What brings you here? 걸어서 왔어요. [7] I came on foot. 기차를 타고 왔어요. [8] I came by train. 은행 문은 닫혀 있었어요? [15] Was the bank closed? 책을 읽고 싶었어요 [16] I wanted to read a book. 뭐라고 했어요? [19] What did you say? 나는 여자친구에게 전화했어요. [21] I called my girlfriend. 8년 전에 결혼했어요. [22] I got married 8 years ago. 비행기가 추락했어요. [24] The plane crashed. How This Differs from English One form for two English tenses. English separates the simple past from the present perfect and makes learners of English work hard at the difference. Korean makes no distinction at all. 핸드폰을 깜빡했어요. is translated in the corpus as "I've forgotten my mobile", and it would equally be "I forgot my mobile"; nothing in the Korean chooses. Likewise 티비에서 봤어요. is "I've seen you on TV" and could be "I saw you on TV". An English speaker should stop looking for the distinction rather than looking for the form that carries it. The past is used for present states. This is the one genuine trap, and it catches everybody. A number of Korean verbs describe an event that produces a state, and the past form names the state rather than the event. The clearest case is the verb for coming. Korean What it says English 일본에서 왔어요. [25] a present fact about where you are from I'm from Japan. 호주에서 왔어요. [23] the same I'm from Australia. 가을이 왔어요. [4] autumn is here now Autumn is here. 그는 취했어요. [30] he is drunk now He is drunk. 장마철이 시작되었어요. [29] the season has begun and is on The rainy season has set in. Look at the English column. Three of the five are present tense in English and past in Korean, and none of them is a mistranslation. The rule behind it is that Korean marks the event and lets the state follow, where English marks the state and leaves the event to be inferred. An English speaker asked where they are from and answering in the present tense will be understood and will have said something faintly odd, like saying "I am coming from Australia" in English. There is no sequence of tenses. English shifts a verb into the past because another verb in the sentence is past: he said he was tired , where the tiredness may well be present. Korean does not do this. Each verb carries the tense of its own situation, and a reported statement keeps the tense it had when it was made. That becomes important in the third phase, when reported speech arrives; what matters now is not to add a past marker out of politeness to a neighbouring verb. The continuous past is built, not conjugated. English has "was going" as a form of the verb. Korean puts the progressive of lesson 3.6 into the past: the verb for existing takes the past marker and the main verb is untouched. 식당 가고 있었어요. is literally "going, existed". Nothing new has to be learned, which is the advantage of a language that builds its tenses out of parts you already have. The negatives take the past in the obvious place. With the short negative nothing changes but the verb, and with the long negative the past marker goes on the second verb, the one that carries the polite ending, not on the stem in front of it. 제 문자 못 받았어요? shows the first. The second is a place where learners regularly put the marker twice, which produces something that is not a word. Real sentences Twelve sentences.