Key Facts
- Hangul: 얼리다 (eollida)
- Meaning: to freeze
- Level: B2
- Syllables: 3 (얼 · 리 · 다)
- Stem: 얼리
- Conjugation class: regular
- Object marking: transitive
- Polite present: 얼려요
What Does 얼리다 Mean?
What is frozen takes 을/를 (고기를 얼려요).
Water, meat and fruit are what people freeze: 물, 고기 and 과일 are the objects in the examples. The opposite action is 녹이다, which melts or thaws something. Water that turns to ice by itself is 얼다, and 냉동하다 is a formal word for freezing food.
How Do You Pronounce 얼리다?
Eollida has 3 syllables (얼 · 리 · 다) and is said as it is spelled.
How Do You Use 얼리다 in a Sentence?
고기를 얼려요.
I freeze the meat.
얼려요 is the polite present form.
물을 얼렸어요.
I froze the water.
얼렸어요 is the polite past form.
과일을 얼리면 오래 먹을 수 있어요.
If you freeze fruit, you can keep it a long time.
얼리면 is the if (conditional) form.
Usage Notes
The examples pair the verb with 물을 and 고기를: freezing water and freezing meat. The conditional 과일을 얼리면 오래 먹을 수 있어요 gives the reason people freeze food, which is that it keeps longer. The person acting is the cause, so the frozen thing is the object. If it freezes by itself, change to 얼다. Once frozen, a thing stays that way until you thaw it with 녹이다, so the two verbs make a natural pair in kitchen instructions.
How Does Eollida Conjugation Work?
얼리다 is regular: 리 and the ending 어 contract to 려, giving 얼려요 and 얼렸어요.
The pattern behind 얼리다 (to freeze) is taught step by step in polite present recipe.
얼리다
| Form | Korean | Romanization | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polite present | 얼려요 | ||
| Polite past | 얼렸어요 | ||
| Polite future (plan) | 얼릴 거예요 | ||
| Polite future (intention or guess) | 얼리겠어요 | ||
| Formal present | 얼립니다 | ||
| Formal past | 얼렸습니다 | ||
| Formal future | 얼릴 것입니다 | ||
| Casual present | 얼려 | ||
| Casual past | 얼렸어 | ||
| Casual future | 얼릴 거야 | ||
| Want to (polite) | 얼리고 싶어요 | ||
| Honorific polite | 얼리세요 | ||
| Because / and then | 얼려서 | ||
| If (conditional) | 얼리면 | ||
| Present modifier (before a noun) | 얼리는 | ||
| Past modifier (before a noun) | 얼린 | ||
| Future modifier (before a noun) | 얼릴 | ||
| Negative with 안 (short) | 안 얼려요 | ||
| Negative (long form) | 얼리지 않아요 |
Before a noun, 얼리다 (to freeze) becomes 얼리는 (present) or 얼린 (past); as a link between clauses it is 얼려서 for 'because' and 얼리면 for 'if'.
Sound Changes
| Form | Korean | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Polite past | 얼렸어요 | [얼려써요] |
| Future (plan) | 얼릴 거예요 | [얼릴꺼예요] |
| Future (guess) | 얼리겠어요 | [얼리게써요] |
| Formal present | 얼립니다 | [얼림니다] |
| Formal past | 얼렸습니다 | [얼렫씀니다] |
| Formal future | 얼릴 것입니다 | [얼릴꺼심니다] |
| Casual past | 얼렸어 | [얼려써] |
| Casual future | 얼릴 거야 | [얼릴꺼야] |
| Want to | 얼리고 싶어요 | [얼리고 시퍼요] |
| Long negative | 얼리지 않아요 | [얼리지 아나요] |
Common Mistake
Wrong: ✗ 물이 얼려요
Correct: ✓ 물이 얼어요
Why: 얼리다 is transitive; for something freezing by itself use 얼다.
얼리다 Versus Similar Words
| Word | How it differs |
|---|---|
| 얼다 | 얼다 is intransitive: water freezes by itself. |
| 녹이다 | 녹이다 is to melt or thaw something, the opposite action. |
| 냉동하다 | 냉동하다 is a formal word for freezing food. |
Preparing Fruit in a Shared Kitchen
Two housemates are sorting fruit. One asks about yesterday’s preparation, and the other suggests what to do with today’s strawberries.
Jisu
바나나를 얼렸어요?
Bananareul eollyeosseoyo?
Did you freeze the bananas?
Alex
네. 오늘은 딸기를 얼릴 거예요.
Ne. Oneureun ttalgireul eollil geoyeyo.
Yes. Today I’m going to freeze strawberries.
Jisu
좋아요. 같이 얼려요.
Joayo. Gachi eollyeoyo.
Good. Let’s freeze them together.
얼렸어요 asks about a completed action, 얼릴 거예요 describes a plan, and 같이 얼려요 is an invitation to do the task together. The fruit stays the object of the action. The last line omits it because both speakers already know what they are preparing.
Useful Freezing Combinations
물을 얼리다 means to freeze water. 얼음을 얼리다 is also a common Korean combination for making ice. English normally says “make ice” rather than “freeze ice”, so translating the object word by word can sound odd. Korean can name the ice that the process produces.
고기를 얼리다 and 과일을 얼리다 use the same pattern with food. 냉동실에 얼리다 adds the freezer as the place where the food is put to freeze. 에 marks that location; it does not replace the object marker on the food. The National Institute of Korean Language’s entry for 얼리다 includes ice and food combinations.
얼린 과일 means frozen fruit, with 얼린 describing fruit that has undergone freezing. Compare 얼리는 with 얼린: the first points to the action in progress or a general action, while the second presents the completed action. The noun after the modifier tells you what was frozen.
Freezing, Chilling, and Thawing
얼리다 involves freezing. Making food cold is a broader idea, so a cold drink is not necessarily frozen. 차갑다 describes a cold temperature, and 얼다 describes something freezing. A drink may be 차갑다 while still liquid.
냉장 and 냉동 are useful labels on food packages and appliance compartments. 냉장 concerns refrigerated storage, while 냉동 concerns frozen storage. Seeing either label tells you what kind of storage is being discussed; it is not an instruction to conjugate 얼리다. In technical descriptions, 냉동하다 is a more formal action word.
녹이다 reverses the change by melting or thawing something. For frozen ingredients, 해동하다 specifically describes thawing or defrosting. These words explain what happens to the food before preparation.
Where Will You Hear 얼리다?
Home cooking conversations and recipe videos often use 얼리다 when preparing ice or frozen ingredients. The everyday verb focuses on what someone does. Package labels are more likely to use short nouns such as 냉동, because a label names a category rather than describing a person’s action.
The polite 얼려요 can describe a habit or offer a suggestion, as in the dialogue. 얼리세요 is a polite instruction to the person doing the freezing. Its honorific ending respects that person; it does not honor the food. 얼립니다 sounds more formal, as in an explanation of a preparation process.
Why 얼리다 Keeps Its 리
얼다 and 얼리다 are related, but their stems behave differently. 얼리다 has the vowel-ending stem 얼리, so 리 plus 어 contracts to 려. There is no stem-final ㄹ to drop. This gives 얼려요, 얼렸어요, and 얼려서, alongside 얼리면 and 얼리는.
The cause and the result also need separate sentence patterns. 물을 얼렸어요 describes someone freezing water. 물이 얼어요 describes water freezing. The person can be left unspoken in the first sentence, but water still carries 을 because it is the object. Leaving out “I” does not change the verb to 얼다.
Keep the space in 얼릴 거예요. The final ㄹ attaches to 얼리 to form 얼릴; 거예요 follows as a separate unit. The spelling makes the future plan easier to distinguish from 얼렸어요, where 였 marks the past inside the conjugated word.
Kitchen Words to Learn Next
| Korean | Meaning | Useful connection |
|---|---|---|
| 냉동실 | freezer compartment | The place used for freezing ingredients. |
| 냉장고 | refrigerator | A broader appliance word; check the compartment. |
| 얼음 | ice | Can be the result named in 얼음을 얼리다. |
| 해동하다 | to thaw; defrost | Names the reverse preparation step. |
The cooking vocabulary lesson connects these actions with other kitchen instructions.
Mini Drill: Action or Result?
- Give the polite past of 얼리다.
- Say “I will freeze it” using the planned future.
- Complete “frozen fruit”: ____ 과일.
- Choose the verb for water freezing: 얼다 or 얼리다?
Show drill answers
- 얼렸어요.
- 얼릴 거예요.
- 얼린.
- 얼다: 물이 얼어요.
Quick Self-Test
- Does 차갑다 necessarily mean frozen?
- In 물을 얼렸어요, is the water a subject or an object?
- Which label concerns frozen storage: 냉장 or 냉동?
Show answers
- No. It means cold.
- An object, marked with 을.
- 냉동.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do You Say 'I Freeze the Meat' in Korean?
고기를 얼려요. What is frozen takes 을/를.
How Is 얼리다 (to freeze) Different from 얼다?
얼다 is intransitive: water freezes by itself (물이 얼어요). 얼리다 is freezing something yourself (물을 얼렸어요).
What Is the Opposite of 얼리다?
녹이다, to melt or thaw something.
Is 물이 얼려요 Correct Korean?
No, use 물이 얼어요. When nobody is doing the freezing, the verb is 얼다.
What Is the Polite past of 얼리다?
For 'to freeze', the polite past is 얼렸어요; the polite present is 얼려요 and the formal present is 얼립니다.
How Do You Say 'Not Freeze' with 얼리다?
For 'not freeze', the short negative is 안 얼려요 and the long one is 얼리지 않아요.
Which Words Are Related to 얼리다?
- 녹다 (to melt)
- 데우다 (to heat up)
- 차갑다 (cold)
- 춥다 (cold)
- Korean verb dictionary
What Should You Learn Next?
Try other forms of 얼리다 in the Korean verb conjugator, then continue with 녹다 (to melt). More entries like 얼리다 (to freeze) sit together in the Korean verb dictionary.