Korean Verb Base Form: Why Every Dictionary Verb Ends in 다

What you'll learn

• Explain in one sentence why dictionary verbs end in 다.
• Remove 다 from any dictionary form and name the stem.
• Sort the result into a vowel stem, a consonant stem or a 하 stem.
• Recover the dictionary form from a conjugated verb for a dictionary look-up.

Prerequisites: you can read Hangul and know that a Korean verb is a stem plus an ending, as shown in how Korean conjugation works. Time: about 20 minutes.

The first section answers the question most learners ask first.

Why Do Korean Verbs End in 다?

Korean verbs end in 다 in the dictionary because 다 is the plain ending that Korean uses as the label for a verb or adjective. It is a convention. Korean dictionaries, including the Standard Korean Language Dictionary (표준국어대사전) of the National Institute of Korean Language (국립국어원), list every verb and adjective as its stem plus 다. The 다 carries no meaning of its own beyond "this is the base form".

You can see this on one stem. Four forms of the same verb share 먹, and only one of them contains 다:

Compare English, where the dictionary form is "to eat" and the verb in a sentence is "eat", "eats" or "ate". Korean works the same way: 먹다 is "to eat" in the dictionary, and in a sentence the 다 is replaced by an ending. The difference is that Korean always shows the label with the same piece, 다, so you can always spot where the stem stops. The next section tests whether that holds for every word.

Do All Korean Verbs End in 다?

Yes. Every Korean verb and every adjective is listed in the dictionary ending in 다, and the same is true for the copulas 이다 and 아니다. If a dictionary word is a verb or an adjective, it ends in 다.

The copulas are the one twist. 이다 ("to be") and 아니다 ("to not be") end in 다 and conjugate, but 이다 attaches to a noun and never stands alone: 학생이다, "is a student". The Standard Korean Language Dictionary classes 이다 as a predicative particle (서술격 조사), and learner books call it the copula. This lesson treats it as a verb-like word that ends in 다 and takes endings. The lessons on Korean to be cover it fully.

The statement works in one direction only. All verbs end in 다, but not every word that ends in 다 is a verb. 바다 ("sea") is a noun, and 마다 ("every") is a particle. A quick test: a real verb has a polite form made from its stem. 먹다 gives 먹어요, but 바다 has no 바요. The next section shows how to remove 다 and what is left.

Removing 다 to Find the Stem

To find the stem, remove the final 다 and keep everything before it. The result is one of three kinds of stem, and the kind decides how endings attach later. Follow these steps:

1. Write the dictionary form. Example: 먹다.
2. Find the last syllable, 다. It is always the last syllable.
3. Cut it off. 먹다 → 먹.
4. Look at the last sound of what is left. 먹 ends in the consonant ㄱ, so 먹 is a consonant stem.

You'll know it worked when the stem is never empty and never includes 다. Every stem has at least one syllable.

The three outcomes look like this:

The 하 stem is technically a vowel stem, but it has its own ending rule, so it appears separately. ㄹ stems, such as 살다 (stem 살), belong to the consonant group and act differently before some endings. The lesson on what a verb stem is explains both. A good check: if the stem has a batchim, it is a consonant stem. If it does not, it is a vowel stem.

The stem then takes an ending, and the ending replaces 다. The next section shows what happens to 다 once you speak.

What Happens to 다 in Polite and Formal Speech?

In polite and formal speech, 다 disappears completely and a different ending takes its place. The polite ending is 아요 or 어요 (both written with 요), and the formal ending is ㅂ니다 or 습니다. Neither ending includes 다 in the verb, although the formal ending itself finishes with the syllable 다.

The formal ending -습니다 ends in 다, but that 다 belongs to the ending, not to the dictionary form. That is why learners sometimes think the label never goes away. Look at the stem instead: in 먹습니다 the stem 먹 is followed by 습니다, and the verb has no extra label. The dictionary form 먹다 is never used inside a sentence in polite speech. The meaning of the present form is explained in Korean present tense. The label does survive in another place, which the next section shows.

Where Does 다 Survive?

다 survives in plain written style (해라체, haerache), the form used in books, news articles, diaries and academic writing. In this style, adjectives keep 다 unchanged, and verbs add ㄴ or 는 before it. This is the same 다, so a learner who knows the base form can read plain style almost for free.

Four short sentences in plain style show how it looks on a page:

• 나는 학교에 간다. (I go to school.)
• 나는 밥을 먹는다. (I eat a meal.)
• 하늘이 높다. (The sky is high.)
• 이것은 책이다. (This is a book.)

The plain style is a reading aid on this page. You do not need to speak it, because polite and formal speech cover almost every conversation. Recognising it prevents a confusing moment: seeing 간다 in a news story, a learner who knows only 가요 may think it is a new word. In fact, 간다 is 가 + ㄴ다, so the stem 가 is still visible. The next section moves from reading to looking words up.

Looking a Verb up in a Dictionary

Look verbs up by the 다 form, because Korean dictionaries list every verb and adjective under its base form. The Korean Learners' Dictionary (한국어기초사전) of the National Institute of Korean Language works the same way as the Standard Korean Language Dictionary. If you search for 먹었어요, you must first get back to 먹다.

To go from a conjugated form back to the dictionary form, reverse the steps:

1. Remove the ending. In 먹었어요, remove 었어요. What remains is 먹.
2. Check that the remainder is a stem. 먹 ends in a consonant, so it is a plausible consonant stem.
3. Add 다. 먹 + 다 = 먹다.

Three conjugated forms where the answer is not obvious:

The last row is the honest limit of reverse look-up. A conjugated form can come from more than one base form, and only context, or the dictionary, tells you which. The second row is explained in ㅘ contraction. To practise choosing a good dictionary for these look-ups, see Korean dictionaries; single verbs with every form are collected in the Korean verb dictionary. The next section lists the mistakes that come from cutting in the wrong place.

Common Mistakes When Removing 다

Most errors when finding the stem come from cutting in the wrong place. Five patterns appear again and again.

The fix for all five is the same: begin from the dictionary form and cut off only the final syllable 다. Learners often assume that removing 다 can change the stem. Actually removing 다 changes nothing; irregular changes appear only after an ending is added, which is why 듣다 has the stem 듣 but the polite present 들어요. Learners also tend to treat 다 as part of the stem when they add an ending: 먹다어요 and 가다요 are both wrong. Delete 다 first, then add the ending.

An honest limit: this lesson cannot tell you which stems are irregular. The stem 듣 looks regular until an ending is added. The Korean verb stem list marks the common irregular stems, so you can learn them as exceptions. Now it is time to practise.

Practice

Try each item before reading the key. Remove 다 and name the stem. Then say whether it is a vowel stem, a consonant stem or a 하 stem.

1. 가다
2. 먹다
3. 마시다
4. 읽다
5. 하다
6. 공부하다
7. 크다
8. 살다
9. 입다
10. 기다리다

Answer key

1. 가, vowel stem.
2. 먹, consonant stem.
3. 마시, vowel stem.
4. 읽, consonant stem (the batchim is the two-letter final cluster ㄺ).
5. 하, 하 stem.
6. 공부하, 하 stem.
7. 크, vowel stem.
8. 살, consonant stem ending in ㄹ.
9. 입, consonant stem.
10. 기다리, vowel stem.

Bonus: turn 간다, 먹는다 and 높다 back into dictionary forms. The answers are 가다, 먹다 and 높다. If you got items 1 to 8 right, you can find the stem of any regular verb. If you missed items 4 or 8, reread the stem types in the removing section, then continue.

What Should You Learn after the Korean Verb Base Form?

After the Korean verb base form, learn what a stem is and how stems differ. The next lesson, What is a verb stem?, sorts stems into vowel, consonant and ㄹ types and shows which endings add 으. After that, the present tense recipe turns any regular stem into 아요 or 어요. The set of lessons is gathered in Verb Stems.

What this lesson does not cover. It does not teach the choice between 아요 and 어요, the irregular conjugation classes or the speech levels; each has its own page. About this page. Last updated 2026-10-09. The Korean text, spoken forms and audio on this page were machine-generated and reviewed and signed off by Min-ji Park on 15 October 2026. Romanization follows the Revised Romanization of Korean and is shown only as a learning aid.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is 다 the same as 요? No. 다 is the plain ending used as a label in dictionaries and in plain written sentences. 요 is a politeness marker added to the casual ending 아/어 in speech: 먹어 becomes 먹어요. You never use both together at the end of a polite sentence, so 먹다요 is wrong.

What is the difference between the stem and the dictionary form? The dictionary form is the complete label, such as 먹다. The stem is that label minus 다, here 먹. Endings attach to the stem, not to the dictionary form. If a learner adds an ending to the dictionary form, the result is wrong: 먹다어요 does not exist, but 먹어요 does.

Is 다 an ending or a particle? 다 is an ending (어미), not a particle (조사). Endings attach to verb and adjective stems, while particles attach to nouns. In 먹다 the 다 closes the stem 먹. In 학교에 the 에 is a particle attached to the noun 학교. The copula 이다 is the one odd case, since the dictionary classes it as a particle, yet it takes endings like a verb.

Do Korean adjectives end in 다 too? Yes. 크다, 좋다 and 예쁘다 are the dictionary forms of adjectives, and removing 다 gives the stems 크, 좋 and 예쁘. In plain written style, adjectives keep the bare 다 (하늘이 높다), while verbs change it to -ㄴ다 or -는다 (나는 간다).

Can a word end in 다 and not be a verb? Yes. 바다 means sea and is a noun, and 마다 means each or every and is a particle. A dictionary entry ending in 다 is a verb or adjective only when the part before 다 is a stem that takes endings. Test it: 바다 has no polite form 바요, so it is not a verb.

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