Key Facts
- Hangul: 빌려주다 (billyeojuda)
- Meaning: to lend
- Level: A2
- Stem: 빌려주
- Conjugation class: regular
- Object marking: transitive
What Does 빌려주다 Mean?
빌려주다 means to let someone use something for a while, expecting it back: 친구에게 책을 빌려주다 (to lend a friend a book).
Particles. The item takes 을/를 and the person who receives it takes 에게 or 한테: 친구에게 책을 빌려줘요 (I lend my friend a book).
Think of it as two verbs joined. 빌려 comes from 빌리다 (to borrow) and 주다 means to give, so the whole verb describes you handing something over for a while. The 주다 part is what turns borrowing into lending, and it is also the part that changes in polite speech: with a teacher or an older person, 주다 becomes 드리다, giving 빌려드리다.
How Do You Pronounce 빌려주다?
빌려주다 is romanized billyeojuda. As in 빌리다, the two ㄹ sounds join into one long, clear l. 줘 is a single syllable (jwo), so 빌려줘요 sounds like bil-lyeo-jwo-yo. The forms with other sound changes are listed in the table under conjugation.
How Do You Use 빌려주다 in a Sentence?
친구에게 우산을 빌려줘요.
I lend an umbrella to my friend.
The person receiving the loan, 친구 (friend), is marked with 에게, and the item, 우산 (umbrella), with 을. 빌려줘요 is the polite present.
동생에게 돈을 빌려줬어요.
I lent money to my younger sibling.
동생 is a younger brother or sister. 빌려줬어요 is the polite past, so the loan has already happened.
책을 빌려줄 거예요.
I will lend the book.
빌려줄 거예요 is the polite future: the speaker plans to lend the book. Who receives it is left to context.
How Does Billyeojuda Conjugation Work?
빌려주다 is regular. The stem ends in ㅜ, so 주 + 어 merges into 줘: 빌려줘요, 빌려줬어요. The honorific is 빌려주세요, and consonant endings give 빌려줍니다 and 빌려주는.
빌려주다
| Form | Korean | Romanization | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polite present | 빌려줘요 | ||
| Polite past | 빌려줬어요 | ||
| Polite future (plan) | 빌려줄 거예요 | ||
| Polite future (intention or guess) | 빌려주겠어요 | ||
| Formal present | 빌려줍니다 | ||
| Formal past | 빌려줬습니다 | ||
| Formal future | 빌려줄 것입니다 | ||
| Casual present | 빌려줘 | ||
| Casual past | 빌려줬어 | ||
| Casual future | 빌려줄 거야 | ||
| Want to (polite) | 빌려주고 싶어요 | ||
| Honorific polite | 빌려주세요 | ||
| Because / and then | 빌려줘서 | ||
| If (conditional) | 빌려주면 | ||
| Present modifier (before a noun) | 빌려주는 | ||
| Past modifier (before a noun) | 빌려준 | ||
| Future modifier (before a noun) | 빌려줄 | ||
| Negative with 안 (short) | 안 빌려줘요 | ||
| Negative (long form) | 빌려주지 않아요 |
Sound Changes
| Form | Korean | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Polite past | 빌려줬어요 | [빌려줘써요] |
| Polite future (plan) | 빌려줄 거예요 | [빌려줄꺼예요] |
| Polite future (guess) | 빌려주겠어요 | [빌려주게써요] |
| Formal present | 빌려줍니다 | [빌려줌니다] |
| Formal past | 빌려줬습니다 | [빌려줟씀니다] |
| Formal future | 빌려줄 것입니다 | [빌려줄꺼심니다] |
| Casual past | 빌려줬어 | [빌려줘써] |
| Casual future | 빌려줄 거야 | [빌려줄꺼야] |
| Want to (polite) | 빌려주고 싶어요 | [빌려주고 시퍼요] |
| Long negative | 빌려주지 않아요 | [빌려주지 아나요] |
Honorific and Humble Forms
For lending to a senior, the humble verb is 빌려드리다. In 선생님께 우산을 빌려드렸어요 (I lent my teacher an umbrella), the teacher is marked with 께, the honorific form of 에게. Use plain 빌려주다 for friends and for people younger than you.
Common Mistake
Wrong: ✗ 친구에게 책을 빌려요 (meaning lend).
Correct: ✓ 친구에게 책을 빌려줘요.
Why: English 'lend' and 'borrow' are easy to swap, and in Korean the two verbs look alike. 친구에게 책을 빌려요 actually means 'I borrow a book from my friend'. To lend, you need the 주다 (give) part: 빌려줘요.
How It Differs from Similar Words
| Word | How to tell it from 빌려주다 |
|---|---|
| 빌리다 | 빌리다 is borrowing (you take); 빌려주다 is lending (you give), the opposite direction. |
| 주다 | 주다 gives something for good; 빌려주다 gives it only for a while, and you expect it back. |
Offering a Spare Umbrella
Rain starts as two coworkers leave the office. Jisu has a spare umbrella, but Mina wants to check whether it has already been promised to someone else.
Jisu
우산을 빌려줄 거예요.
Usaneul billyeojul geoyeyo.
I’ll lend you an umbrella.
Mina
동생에게 빌려줬어요?
Dongsaeng-ege billyeojwosseoyo?
Did you lend it to your younger sibling?
Jisu
아니요. 이걸 빌려줄 거예요.
Aniyo. Igeol billyeojul geoyeyo.
No. I’ll lend you this one.
The first line offers a future loan; the second asks about a past loan; the last identifies which umbrella Jisu means. Korean can omit “you” when the listener is clearly the recipient. 이걸 means “this one” as an object, so it keeps attention on the umbrella being offered.
Lending Phrases Learners Meet
책을 빌려주다 and 우산을 빌려주다 describe lending an item that should come back. 돈을 빌려주다 describes lending money that should be repaid. The verb expresses a temporary arrangement. It does not state a deadline or guarantee that the borrower will return it.
잠깐 빌려주다 means lending something briefly. 잠깐 limits the time, which is useful for a pen, phone or charger. Without a time expression, 빌려주다 still means lend, but the length of the loan is left open. Adding “briefly” does not turn it into a gift.
펜을 빌려주다 means lending a pen; 충전기를 빌려주다 means lending a charger. These small favors often need no explanation of ownership because both people can see the item. If several chargers are on a desk, name or point to the one you mean. The verb still expects the item to come back, even when the loan lasts only a few minutes.
Where Will You Hear 빌려주다?
Coworkers lend chargers, classmates lend pens, and neighbors lend tools. In these situations, 빌려주다 makes the expectation of return clearer than 주다 alone. A speaker can leave out the recipient when talking directly to them, as in the umbrella dialogue. That omitted recipient still matters to the meaning.
In a drama, money-lending conversations may turn on who owes whom. Listen for the subject before the verb: with 빌려줬어요, that person supplied the money. 에게 names the borrower. With 빌렸어요, the subject received the money and 에게 can name the lender. The nearly identical sound at the start of the verbs can otherwise conceal the reversal.
A rental business may also describe lending out equipment, but commercial notices often use 대여, meaning rental or lending for use. 빌려주다 itself does not specify a fee. The price and terms come from the rest of the conversation, not from the presence of 주다.
How Do Respect and Verb Endings Work Here?
Only the final 주다 part conjugates. 빌려 stays fixed while 주 becomes 줘 in 빌려줘요 and 줬 in 빌려줬어요. With a consonant ending, 주 remains visible in 빌려주면 and 빌려주는. Treating 빌려 as a separate past-tense piece would obscure how the compound works.
The dictionary verb is written 빌려주다 as one word. You will also meet the spaced request 빌려 주세요 in learning materials and ordinary writing. Recognize the same lending meaning in that familiar request. For the conjugation forms on this page, follow the dictionary spelling consistently.
Respect depends on who receives the favor. When you lend to a teacher, 빌려드리다 places the recipient above you. A polite 요 ending alone does not express that relationship. Conversely, 빌려주세요 asks the other person to do the lending; it is not the humble way to describe your own loan to an elder.
The modifier 빌려준 describes a completed lending action before a noun. In 빌려준 책, the book is the item someone lent. It does not mean the borrower has returned it. Lending and returning are separate events, so a past modifier only tells you that the loan happened.
| Related word | Meaning | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| 빌리다 | borrow | Describes the same loan from the receiver’s side. |
| 빌려드리다 | lend, humbly | Used when the recipient deserves respect. |
| 돌려주다 | give back; return | Describes returning the item to its owner. |
| 대여 | rental; lending for use | Common in equipment and rental notices. |
For objects shared in class, see stationery vocabulary.
Mini Drill: Keep the Lending Direction
- Give the polite present of 빌려주다.
- Give the polite past.
- Give the future plan form.
- Choose the humble dictionary form when lending to your teacher.
Show drill answers
- 빌려줘요.
- 빌려줬어요.
- 빌려줄 거예요.
- 빌려드리다, honoring the recipient of the favor.
Quick Self-Test
- Does 빌려주다 mean giving something permanently?
- Who supplies the item in a sentence with 빌려줬어요?
- Does 빌려준 책 say that the book has already been returned?
Show answers
- No. The arrangement is temporary.
- The subject, who is the lender.
- No. It says the lending happened, not that the return happened.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Humble Form of 빌려주다?
The humble form is 빌려드리다, used when you lend something to someone you respect: 선생님께 우산을 빌려드렸어요 (I lent my teacher an umbrella).
How Do I Say 'I Lent Money to My Younger Sibling'?
Say 동생에게 돈을 빌려줬어요.
Why Is It 빌려줘요?
The stem ends in 주, and 주 + 어요 contracts to 줘요. The past works the same way: 빌려줬어요.
How Is 빌려주다 Different from 주다?
주다 gives something for good; 빌려주다 gives it only for a while, and you expect it back.
Which Words Are Related to 빌려주다?
What Should You Learn Next?
Pair this page with 빌리다 and 갚다, then read about honorific and humble verbs to see how 드리다 replaces 주다. The 주 + 어 → 줘 contraction is explained in how to conjugate Korean verbs in the present tense. You can check any form in the Korean verb conjugator or browse the Korean verb dictionary.