Korean Descriptive Verbs: Adjectives That Conjugate Like Verbs

At a glance

• A descriptive verb names a quality or state: 크다, 좋다, 예쁘다, 춥다.
• It conjugates with verb endings and needs no "be" verb.
• Before a noun it uses -(으)ㄴ (큰 집), not the verb ending -는.
• Six child pages cover the concept, the 있다/없다 family and four themed lists.

The first section gives the idea in four short lines, each with an example.

What Are Korean Descriptive Verbs?

Korean descriptive verbs are words that describe a quality or state and behave grammatically like verbs. The idea fits in four lines.

1. A descriptive verb is an adjective. 크다 means "to be big" and 맛있다 means "to be delicious".
2. It takes verb endings. 크다 gives 커요 (polite present), 컸어요 (past) and 크고 ("big and").
3. It has no "be" verb. 집이 커요 is "The house is big", with nothing like "is" added.
4. It has its own modifier. Before a noun it uses -(으)ㄴ: 큰 집 ("a big house"), 좋은 사람 ("a good person").

A learner who can already conjugate action verbs therefore has most of the work done. The remaining work is learning which words are descriptive, how they differ in the plain present and before nouns, and the vocabulary itself. The next section defines the labels that grammar books and dictionaries use for the same idea.

What Terms Will You Meet?

Grammar books use several names for the same class of words, which confuses learners. The table lines up the Korean terms with the English ones.

Dictionaries differ on 있다 and 없다. The Standard Korean Language Dictionary (표준국어대사전) lists 있다 as both a verb and an adjective and 없다 as an adjective, yet both take the verb modifier -는. That oddity is why many grammars give them the extra label 존재사. The next section turns the terms into a reading order.

Which Descriptive Verb Lesson Should You Read First?

Read the concept lesson first, then the lists in the order that matches your needs. The sequence below runs from the idea to the most common vocabulary.

A learner short on time can read steps 1 and 3 only, which covers the concept and a large working vocabulary. The next section describes each page so that you can choose.

Descriptive Verb Lessons and Lists

Each of the six children answers a different question, so the cards below say what you will be able to do after reading.

Korean Verb vs Adjective

Explains the five places where adjectives and verbs differ: plain present, modifiers, commands, -는데 and -고 있다. You finish able to classify 20 common words with the -는 test.

Korean 있다 and 없다 Adjectives

Explains why 맛있다, 재미있다 and 멋있다 take -는 in front of a noun, and how this group differs from ordinary adjectives.

Korean Opposite Adjectives

Gives 30 adjective pairs from big and small to cheap and expensive, with the pair type, the irregular forms and a contrast sentence for each. Pairs include 많다 and 적다, 빠르다 and 느리다.

Korean Taste Adjectives

Hot and Cold in Korean

Shows which word means hot: 덥다 for weather, 뜨겁다 for things you touch, 맵다 for spicy, and the cold, warm and cool words.

Korean Personality Adjectives

Two neighbouring subhubs hold the other themed lists: size, shape and color adjectives and feeling adjectives. The verb dictionary also has single pages for many of these words, such as 나쁘다 (bad), 이르다 (early), 필요하다 (necessary) and 없다 (not to exist). A short self-test comes next.

Can You Tell a Verb from a Descriptive Verb?

You can, with a three-word test. Add the present-tense noun modifier to each word and see which ending sounds right. A verb takes -는 (먹는 사람), a descriptive verb takes -(으)ㄴ (큰 사람), and the 있다 family takes -는 although it describes a state.

Try the three words, then check the answers.

If 맛있다 surprised you, read the 있다 and 없다 lesson next. The full -는 test, with worked examples and 20 practice words, is in the verbs vs adjectives lesson.

What this hub does not cover. It does not teach every conjugation rule or the irregular classes; those are in the conjugation and irregular verbs sections.

About this page. Last updated 2026-10-09. The Korean text on this page was machine-generated and reviewed and signed off by Min-ji Park on 15 October 2026. Forms were cross-checked with the site's rule-based conjugation engine. Romanization follows the Revised Romanization of Korean and is shown only as a learning aid.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a descriptive verb the same as an adjective? For learners, yes. "Descriptive verb" and "stative verb" are English labels for the words Korean dictionaries call 형용사, such as 크다, 좋다 and 예쁘다. The labels stress that these words conjugate like verbs. Korean school grammar still lists 형용사 as its own part of speech beside 동사 (verbs).

Do descriptive verbs use the same endings as action verbs? Mostly. They share the polite -아/어요, the formal -ㅂ니다/-습니다, past -았/었-, negation with 안, and connectors such as -고 and -(으)면. They differ in the plain present, the form before a noun, commands and -고 있다, as the verbs vs adjectives lesson shows with 가다 and 크다.

Where are the lists of opposites, taste and temperature words? Each published list has its own page below this one: opposite adjectives for 30 pairs, taste adjectives for sweet, salty, spicy and sour, hot and cold in Korean for temperature, and personality adjectives for character. Colour and size lists sit in the size, shape and color subhub, and emotions in the feelings subhub.

Why do 있다 and 없다 get a page of their own? They take the verb-style modifier -는 instead of the adjective -(으)ㄴ, so 맛있다 gives 맛있는 and not 맛있은. That makes them an exception inside the adjective class. The 있다 and 없다 lesson explains the rule and lists the words built on them, such as 멋있다 and 재미없다.

Which page should I read first in this section? Read the verbs vs adjectives lesson first. It gives the -는 test, the five differences between the two classes and the 있다/없다 exception in about 25 minutes. After that the opposite adjectives list is a good second page, because it puts 60 common words into 30 contrasting pairs.