알아듣다 (aradeutda) Conjugation: Meaning, Forms & Examples

Key Facts

• Hangul: 알아듣다 (aradeutda)
• Meaning: to understand (hearing)
• Level: B1
• Stem: 알아듣
• Conjugation class: ㄷ-irregular
• Object marking: transitive

What Does 알아듣다 Mean?

The typical phrase is 말을 알아듣다 (to understand what someone says): what you understand takes 을/를. The difference from 듣다 is that hearing sounds does not guarantee understanding them.

This verb is especially useful when you are the listener. In conversation, 못 알아듣겠어요 is the polite way to say 'I can't follow' or 'I can't make it out', and the positive tells a speaker that you understood. It is narrower than 이해하다, which also covers reading and reasoning. Practise it together with 듣다, since both change their final ㄷ in the same way.

How Do You Pronounce 알아듣다?

The dictionary form is read [아라듣따]: the ㄹ of 알 moves into the next syllable, and the final ㄷ makes the next ㄷ tense. In the irregular forms the new ㄹ also links to the vowel, so 알아들어요 is read [아라드러요]. Before ㄴ the ㄷ becomes [ㄴ]: 알아듣는 is read [아라든는].

How Do You Use 알아듣다 in a Sentence?

알아들어요 with 한국어를 and 조금 (a little): the speaker can follow some spoken Korean.

알아들었어요 with 그 말을 다 (all of that): the speaker caught everything that was said.

The present modifier 알아듣는 describes 사람 (person): 'someone who understands'. With 없어요, the sentence says nobody does.

How Does Aradeutda Conjugation Work?

알아듣다 is ㄷ-irregular like 듣다: the final ㄷ turns into ㄹ before a vowel ending, so the polite present is 알아들어요 and the past is 알아들었어요. Before a consonant the ㄷ stays: 알아듣습니다, 알아듣는, 알아듣고 싶어요. Endings that add the linking vowel 으 count as vowel endings, so the conditional is 알아들으면.

Sound Changes

Common Mistake

Wrong: ✗ 알아듣어요

Correct: ✓ 알아들어요

Why: 알아듣어요 follows the regular pattern. 알아듣다 is ㄷ-irregular like 듣다, so the ㄷ becomes ㄹ before a vowel ending.

How It Differs from Similar Words

Catching a Station Announcement

Two classmates hear a platform announcement. Mina misses the information and asks Jisu to repeat it. The exchange moves from difficulty following speech to confirmation that the message is clear.

Mina

Jisu

Mina

못 알아듣겠어요 describes the difficulty at that moment. 알아들었어요 confirms that a particular message has now been understood. Neither line says how well Mina speaks Korean overall. 이제 (now) makes the change especially clear: the first announcement was unclear, but the repeated information was enough.

Which Phrases Help When Speech Is Hard to Follow?

잘 알아듣다 means to understand speech well. Here 잘 describes how successfully you follow the words. With a negative, 잘 못 알아듣다 means to have trouble understanding, rather than to understand the message incorrectly. Keep 못 separate from the verb when you mean inability.

말을 알아듣다 literally joins “words” with “understand by hearing”. In a language lesson it can describe catching a sentence. In a tense family scene, the same phrase can concern taking a warning or instruction seriously. A character asking whether someone understands may be demanding cooperation, rather than testing their listening skills. Tone and the preceding conversation tell you which.

한 번에 알아듣다 means to understand on the first hearing, without needing a repetition. The phrase concerns how many attempts were needed. It does not necessarily mean the sentence was simple or the listener knows every word in it.

Where Will You Hear 알아듣다?

알아듣다 comes up in phone calls, noisy shops, station announcements and language classes. A weak phone connection can make a familiar language hard to follow, so using this verb does not automatically admit a vocabulary problem. It identifies the listening result: the message did or did not get through.

When asking a stranger to repeat something, describe your own difficulty first. 못 알아듣겠어요 is useful because it focuses on what you could not follow. A bare 알아들어요? directed at the other person can sound challenging in a disagreement, even though 요 makes the sentence polite. With a classmate checking an exercise, the same question can be an ordinary comprehension check.

For a written explanation, choose 이해하다 when you mean understanding its content. If you recognize a face or identify an object, 알아보다 is the closer verb. 알아듣다 keeps the focus on something heard; it is not a general replacement for every English use of “understand” or “recognize”.

What Makes 알아듣다 Tricky?

The compound is written as one word: 알아듣다. Conjugate its final 듣다 part while leaving 알아 in place. The vowel ending in 알아들어서 changes ㄷ to ㄹ, but the consonant ending in 알아듣는 keeps the written ㄷ. The present modifier therefore looks different from the polite present 알아들어요.

The negative also changes the message. 안 알아들어요 suggests that understanding does not happen, and in some contexts can sound like unwillingness to listen. 못 알아듣겠어요 is the more useful phrase when speech is too fast or unclear. Keep the negative outside the compound; there is no need to split 알아듣다 into two verbs.

See classroom vocabulary for words used when asking and answering in class.

Mini Drill: Keep or Change ㄷ?

1. Give the polite present of 알아듣다.
2. Complete the conditional: 알아듣다 → “if someone understands”.
3. Put 알아듣다 before 사람 as a present modifier.
4. Give the polite past for a message you understood.

Quick Self-Test

1. Does 듣다 alone guarantee that you understood the message?
2. Which verb fits understanding a written argument: 알아듣다 or 이해하다?
3. What can you say when you cannot follow a station announcement?

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do I Say 'I Can't Make It Out'?

Say 못 알아듣겠어요. It is the polite way to tell someone you can't follow what they are saying.

Why 알아들어요 and Not 알아듣어요?

알아듣다 is ㄷ-irregular: the final ㄷ of the stem becomes ㄹ before a vowel ending, so 알아듣 + 어요 becomes 알아들어요.

Is 알아듣다 in the Same Irregular Class as 듣다?

Yes. Both are ㄷ-irregular and change in exactly the same way: 들어요, 알아들어요.

What Is the Form before a Noun?

Use the present modifier 알아듣는, as in 알아듣는 사람이 없어요 (There is nobody who understands).

Which Words Are Related to 알아듣다?

• 듣다
• 이해하다
• 알다
• 말하다

What Should You Learn Next?

Read the lesson on ㄷ-irregular verbs and adjectives and the entry for 듣다 to see why the final consonant alternates. Any form can be checked in the Korean verb conjugator, and the full list is in the Korean verb dictionary.