Elementary Korean Verbs: the A2 List with Examples and Audio

What you will be able to do after this page

• Say what about 100 A2 verbs mean and give their polite present forms.
• Choose between a transitive verb and its intransitive partner, such as 열다 and 열리다.
• Build a verb from a noun with 하다.
• Use -고 싶다 and -(으)러 가다 with A2 verbs.

Before you start: read Korean verbs for beginners, because this page assumes the A1 verbs and the polite present. Time: about three hours spread over four weeks. Level: A2.

Which Verbs Are on the Elementary Korean Verbs List?

The list holds all 166 A2 entries in the site's verb list, grouped by topic: 120 verbs in six topic groups and 46 adjectives in one table. The A2 level means words you are likely to need after the first months, when you start to travel, work, cook and talk about feelings.

A2 verbs differ from A1 verbs in three ways. Many new verbs are 하다 verbs (40 of the 120). Verbs now come in pairs, one for doing something and one for something happening. And the exceptions multiply, with 돕다, 굽다, 부르다 and 끄다 among the irregular verbs. The selection is editorial: it follows learner need, and it is not a frequency list from a corpus. The level scale is explained in Korean verbs by level.

Each table has four columns: the verb with its Revised Romanization in parentheses, the meaning, the polite present form and the type (regular, 하다, special or an irregular class). Each verb links to its dictionary page. The first group is the travel group.

Travel and Transport Verbs

These verbs describe leaving, arriving and moving between places. Many are compounds of 가다 and 오다, and most of the rest are 하다 verbs.

Example: 열 시에 도착해요. (I arrive at ten.) The compounds with 가다 and 오다 follow the root, so 돌아와요 and 올라가요 need no new rule; see Korean movement verbs. Daily errands come next.

Objects, Shopping and Money Verbs

These verbs cover handling things, paying and ordering. The object takes 을/를.

Example: 커피를 주문해요. (I order coffee.) 빌리다 and 빌려주다 are a pair: 책을 빌려요 (I borrow a book) and 책을 빌려줘요 (I lend a book). The next group is the home.

Housework and Cooking Verbs

These verbs describe cleaning, cooking and caring for things at home. 굽다 (to grill) is a ㅂ-irregular verb and 자르다 (to cut) is a 르-irregular verb, and the rest are regular or 하다 verbs.

Example: 빨래해요. (I do the laundry.) The verb 신다 is for shoes and socks, while 입다 (A1) is for clothes. Work and school come next.

Work, School and Study Verbs

These verbs describe going to work or school, learning and checking. Most of them are 하다 verbs or compounds.

Example: 아홉 시에 출근해요. (I go to work at nine.) Pairs such as 끝내다 and 끝나다 are explained below. Feelings and plans come next.

Feeling, Request and Plan Verbs

These verbs describe what you feel and what you ask other people to do. The verbs ending in 되다 and 나다 describe feelings that come over you.

Example: 친구를 초대해요. (I invite a friend.) 부탁하다 is the polite way to ask a favour. 화나다 and 짜증 나다 usually describe a present feeling with the past form: 화났어요 means "I'm angry". The last group is body and daily life.

Body, Sports and Daily Life Verbs

These verbs cover movement of the body, hobbies, health and changes in life. Several of them are irregular, so this group has the highest share of exceptions.

Example: 수영해요. (I swim.) 부르다 means both "to call" and "to sing", so context decides: 노래를 불러요 (I sing a song). 잘생기다, 못생기다 and 마르다 ("be thin") describe a lasting state with the past form: 잘생겼어요 means "he is handsome", and 말랐어요 means "she is thin". The present 잘생겨요 is rarely used. The next section explains pairs.

What Are Transitive and Intransitive Verb Pairs?

A transitive verb takes an object, which is the thing someone acts on, and an intransitive verb has no object and describes something that happens. Many Korean verbs come in pairs: 열다 ("to open something") and 열리다 ("to open by itself, be opened"). The pair changes the particle too: 문을 열어요 uses the object marker 을, and 문이 열려요 uses the subject marker 이.

Three observations help you remember the pairs:

• The intransitive partner often adds 이, 히, 리 or 기. 닫다 gives 닫히다, 열다 gives 열리다, and 보다 gives 보이다.
• The pair can differ by level. The transitive verb is usually learned first (열다 at A1), and its partner comes later (열리다 at B1). The Level columns show this site's level labels, and a dash means the verb has no level here yet.
• Some pairs use different stems. 끝내다 and 끝나다 look alike but use 내다 and 나다, and 켜다 and 켜지다 use 지다.

The pairs lead into passive and causative verbs, which have their own section: passive and causative verbs. Irregular verbs are the next group to check.

Which A2 Verbs Are Irregular?

12 A2 verbs are irregular, and the table shows each one with its class and three forms. Compare the polite present, the past and the formal present: for most classes the change appears before a vowel and disappears before a consonant, while the ㄹ class works the other way and changes before ㄴ, ㅂ and ㅅ.

Four patterns recur:

• ㅂ. 돕다 gives 도와요 (ㅂ becomes 오), and 굽다 and 눕다 give 구워요 and 누워요 (ㅂ becomes 우).
• ㄷ. 묻다 ("to ask") gives 물어요. Do not confuse it with the regular verb 묻다 "to bury", which gives 묻어요.
• 르. 부르다, 고르다, 누르다, 자르다 and 마르다 become 불러요, 골라요, 눌러요, 잘라요 and 말라요.
• ㅡ and ㄹ. 끄다 drops its ㅡ (꺼요). 날다 and 들다 keep their ㄹ before 아/어 (날아요) and drop it before endings that start with ㄴ, ㅂ or ㅅ (나는, 납니다, 나세요).

Every class has its own lesson in Korean irregular verbs. Many A2 verbs are 하다 verbs, and they have a simple rule.

How Do You Build a 하다 Verb from a Noun?

You build a 하다 verb by adding 하다 to a noun that names an activity, so 요리 (cooking) becomes 요리하다 (to cook). This is the most productive pattern at A2: if you know the noun, you can often guess the verb.

Three points keep the rule safe:

• The object particle can split the verb. 요리를 해요 and 요리해요 mean the same thing: "I cook." The split form is common when you want to add a word, as in 요리를 자주 해요 ("I cook often").
• The verb is always 해요. Every 하다 verb has the polite present ending 해요, whatever the noun is.
• Many of the nouns come from Chinese-based vocabulary. Words such as 출근 and 준비 are Sino-Korean, which is why the pattern also appears in formal contexts. It is not a rule that works for every noun, so check a dictionary before you invent a verb.

The full group is taught in 하다 verbs. Next, put some A2 verbs into two common sentence patterns.

How Do You Use A2 Verbs with -고 싶다 and -(으)러 가다?

You use -고 싶다 to say you want to do something, and -(으)러 가다 to say you go somewhere to do it. Both attach to the verb stem: 찍다 gives 찍고 싶어요 ("I want to take [a photo]") and 빌리다 gives 빌리러 가요 ("I go to borrow").

Notice the differences. -고 싶다 attaches directly to the stem (여행하고 싶어요). -(으)러 attaches as -러 after a vowel stem (빌리러, 사러, 내러) and as -으러 after a consonant stem. For 하다 verbs the ending is -하러 (운동하러, 구경하러). The place takes 에 with 가다, as in 도서관에 가요. For other travel phrases, see Korean travel vocabulary.

What Are the A2 Adjectives?

The A2 list has 46 adjectives, and they describe appearance, size, feelings and character. They conjugate like verbs, but they do not take -고 싶다 and they have no command or suggestion forms.

Most adjectives with 하다 are regular in the 하다 pattern (해요). The ㅂ-irregular adjectives, such as 무겁다 and 가볍다, change ㅂ to 우 before a vowel (무거워요, 가벼워요). The section on irregular classes above covers the verbs, and the adjectives follow the same rules.

What Is a Good Four-Week Study Plan for A2?

A good plan spreads the 120 verbs over the first three weeks, about 40 new verbs per week, and uses week four for the irregular verbs and the 46 adjectives. This is an estimate and not a measured result, so adjust it to your pace.

Review before you add. If the A1 verbs feel uncertain, return to Korean verbs for beginners first. To drill the forms with more verbs, use the verbs conjugation list, which shows five forms of 50 common words.

What to Learn Next

Now that you know the elementary Korean verbs, the next list is intermediate Korean verbs. It adds the B1 to B2 verbs: abstract actions, formal 하다 verbs, honorific and humble verbs and the verbs of cooking and change. For the section overview, return to Korean verbs by level.

This page does not teach how to build verb forms from scratch, and it does not cover verbs above A2. Forms follow the standard orthography of the National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원).

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the A2 Korean verbs? The A2 verbs are the 120 verbs and 46 adjectives that learners usually need after the first months: travel (도착하다, 출발하다), housework (요리하다, 빨래하다), work and school (출근하다, 졸업하다), feelings (놀라다, 걱정하다) and plans (약속하다, 예약하다). They are grouped by topic on this page.

How many A2 verbs are there? The site's verb list has 166 A2 entries: 120 verbs and 46 adjectives. Of the 120 verbs, 40 are 하다 verbs. The count may change as the site's verb list grows. The levels are editorial and are not an official list.

Are there irregular verbs at A2? Yes. 12 A2 verbs are irregular, among them 돕다 (도와요), 굽다 (구워요), 묻다 (물어요), 부르다 (불러요) and 끄다 (꺼요). The irregular table on this page shows each one with its class, polite present, past and formal present, so you can see where the change happens.

What is a transitive verb in Korean? A transitive verb takes an object, such as 문을 열어요 ("I open the door"). Its intransitive partner has no object and describes what happens, as in 문이 열려요 ("the door opens"). Many Korean verbs come in such pairs, for example 닫다 and 닫히다. The object marker 을/를 turns into the subject marker 이/가.