Key Facts
- Hangul: 짜다 (jjada)
- Meaning: salty
- Level: A1
- Part of speech: adjective
- Stem: 짜
- Conjugation class: regular
- Grammar: Takes 이/가 for the food that is salty.
- Usage: Usually means too salty, a mild complaint. Past form 짰어요 is easy to misspell as 짯어요.
What Does 짜다 Mean?
The salty food takes 이/가: 국이 짜다 means the soup is salty. It usually carries a mild complaint, so a restaurant guest says 이 국은 너무 짜요 rather than praising the seasoning.
There is also a verb 짜다 meaning to wring out or to weave. The object and the context separate the two.
Senses:
- salty: Describes food with too much salt, e.g. 국이 짜다.
How Do You Pronounce 짜다?
짜다 is read as spelled, [짜다]. The past is the one to watch: 짰어요 is [짜써요], and 짰습니다 is [짣씀니다], because the doubled ㅆ is a plain stop at the end of a syllable. The formal present 짭니다 is [짬니다].
How Do You Use 짜다 in a Sentence?
이 국은 너무 짜요.
This soup is too salty.
이 국은 너무 짜요 is the typical complaint: 너무 for 'too' and 짜요 as the polite present.
찌개가 짜서 물을 마셔요.
The stew is salty, so I drink water.
찌개가 짜서 물을 마셔요 gives the cause with 짜서 and the reaction after it.
짠 음식은 건강에 안 좋아요.
Salty food is not good for your health.
짠 음식은 건강에 안 좋아요 uses the modifier 짠 and a general statement about health.
How Does Jjada Conjugation Work?
짜다 is regular. The stem 짜 ends in ㅏ, so 짜 + 아요 contracts into one syllable: 짜요, and the past form contracts to 짰어요. Before the formal ending the stem takes ㅂ: 짭니다, and the modifier is 짠. The stem has no final consonant, so endings with an optional 으 drop the 으: 짜면, 짜세요.
짜다
| Form | Korean | Romanization | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polite present | 짜요 | ||
| Polite past | 짰어요 | ||
| Polite future (plan) | 짤 거예요 | ||
| Polite future (intention or guess) | 짜겠어요 | ||
| Formal present | 짭니다 | ||
| Formal past | 짰습니다 | ||
| Formal future | 짤 것입니다 | ||
| Casual present | 짜 | ||
| Casual past | 짰어 | ||
| Casual future | 짤 거야 | ||
| Honorific polite | 짜세요 | ||
| Because / and then | 짜서 | ||
| If (conditional) | 짜면 | ||
| Present modifier (before a noun) | 짠 | ||
| Past modifier (before a noun) | 짰던 | ||
| Future modifier (before a noun) | 짤 | ||
| Negative with 안 (short) | 안 짜요 | ||
| Negative (long form) | 짜지 않아요 |
For a word meaning 'salty', -고 싶다 has no cell, because that ending attaches to action verbs.
Sound Changes
| Form | Korean | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Polite past | 짰어요 | [짜써요] |
| Polite future | 짤 거예요 | [짤꺼예요] |
| Polite future guess | 짜겠어요 | [짜게써요] |
| Formal present | 짭니다 | [짬니다] |
| Formal past | 짰습니다 | [짣씀니다] |
| Formal future | 짤 것입니다 | [짤꺼심니다] |
| Casual past | 짰어 | [짜써] |
| Past modifier | 짰던 | [짣떤] |
| Long negative | 짜지 않아요 | [짜지 아나요] |
Common Mistake
Wrong: ✗ 짜어요
Correct: ✓ 짜요
Why: The stem 짜 ends in ㅏ, so it takes 아요, not 어요, and the two identical vowels merge: 짜 + 아요 = 짜요. The past 짰어요 is also easy to misspell as 짯어요.
Where Does 짜다 Turn up in Daily Talk?
In food talk, 짜다 often expresses a complaint about seasoning. For soup or stew, adding water may reduce the saltiness; drinking water does not change the seasoning itself. It is the opposite of 싱겁다, which says the food has too little salt, and it sits beside 맵다, 달다 and 시다 as a basic taste.
What Is Easy to Confuse with 짜다?
| Word | How to tell it from 짜다 |
|---|---|
| 싱겁다 | 싱겁다 is the opposite: not salty enough, bland. |
| 짜다 (squeeze/knit) | The verb 짜다 means to wring out or weave; context and the object tell them apart. |
Tasting Soup before Serving
Two housemates are checking a pot of soup. They use the present to judge it, the past to compare yesterday’s batch, and the negative to describe the result.
Mina
국이 좀 짜요.
Gugi jom jjayo.
The soup is a little salty.
Jun
어제도 짰어요?
Eojedo jjasseoyo?
Was it salty yesterday too?
Mina
네. 물을 조금 넣어 주세요.
Ne. Mureul jogeum neoeo juseyo.
Yes. Please add a little water.
Jun
이제 안 짜요.
Ije an jjayo.
It isn’t salty now.
좀 softens the criticism: “a little salty” is less blunt than “too salty”. The last line describes the soup after a change. It does not mean that the soup has no salt at all; it means the speaker no longer finds it salty.
Which Salty-Food Phrases Are Useful?
짠 음식 means “salty food”, and 짠 국물 means “salty broth”. 짠 is the adjective form placed directly before a noun. It describes the food’s current quality, even though an English learner might associate a final ㄴ with past tense from action verbs.
짜게 먹다 literally means to eat in a salty way. In natural English, it means to eat food heavily seasoned with salt or to like a salty diet. The saltiness belongs to the food and the eating habit. It does not mean eating salt by itself. 짜게 is useful when discussing how someone usually seasons meals.
간이 짜다 means “the seasoning is salty”. 간 is the balance of seasoning, especially salt. A cook checking a dish may talk about its 간 rather than naming the whole dish again. 간이 맞다 means the seasoning is right; it evaluates the balance instead of simply saying the dish is not salty.
Where Will You Hear 짜다 outside a Taste Lesson?
짜다 appears in home cooking, restaurant reviews and conversations about side dishes. A customer can describe one dish with 짜요 while finding another dish perfectly seasoned. The adjective gives a taste judgment; it does not tell you which ingredient created that taste. Soy sauce can make a dish salty even when no loose salt was added.
With 너무, the complaint becomes explicit: 너무 짜요 says the saltiness is excessive for the speaker. With a host who has cooked for you, 좀 makes feedback gentler. Adding 요 keeps the ending polite, but the sentence still criticizes the food. The softener changes the tone without changing the meaning of 짜다.
There is also a figurative use with money and generosity. 월급이 짜다 means the pay is stingy or low, and 성적을 짜게 주다 means to grade stingily. These describe giving too little. They are colloquial criticisms, so avoid using them as neutral descriptions in a formal email. Both uses are listed in NIKL’s entry for 짜다.
Why Is 짠 Different from 짰어요?
짠 attaches ㄴ to the vowel-ending stem to describe a noun. 짰어요 contains the past marker ㅆ and finishes a polite sentence. Compare 짠 음식, “salty food”, with the past 짰어요, “it was salty”. The extra consonant has a grammatical job, rather than simply making the sound stronger.
The table’s future form 짤 거예요 predicts that something will be salty. Food cannot make a plan, so read the “plan” label as a general table label here. Likewise, the mechanically possible honorific 짜세요 is not a way to make a comment about soup more polite. For food, the ordinary 짜요 is enough.
Words for Talking about Seasoning
| Korean | Meaning | What it helps you say |
|---|---|---|
| 소금 | salt | Name an ingredient rather than the finished taste. |
| 간 | seasoning | Talk about whether the seasoning is balanced. |
| 국물 | broth; soup liquid | Identify the liquid part that tastes salty. |
| 싱겁다 | bland; not salty enough | Describe the opposite seasoning problem. |
Use these while ordering or discussing a dish. The restaurant vocabulary lesson adds the menu, ordering and table words needed around that conversation.
Mini Drill: Salty Now, Salty Before
- Finish the polite sentence: 국이 ____ (“The soup is salty”).
- Report yesterday’s taste with the polite past of 짜다.
- Put 짜다 before 음식: ____ 음식.
- Say “It isn’t salty” with 안.
Show seasoning drill answers
- 짜요.
- 짰어요. Keep the past marker ㅆ.
- 짠 음식. This describes the food; it is not a past-tense sentence.
- 안 짜요, with a space after 안.
Quick Self-Test
- Does 짜게 먹다 mean eating salt on its own?
- Which softens a complaint: 좀 짜요 or 너무 짜요?
- Is 월급이 짜다 about the taste of a meal?
Show answers
- No. It means eating heavily salted food.
- 좀 짜요, “It’s a little salty”.
- No. It criticizes low or stingy pay.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do I Say "It Is Too Salty"?
너무 짜요. For a soup: 이 국은 너무 짜요.
Why Is It 짜요 and Not 짜어요?
The stem ends in ㅏ, so 짜 + 아요 merges into 짜요.
How Do I Spell the past Tense?
짰어요, with the double ㅆ. 짯어요 is a common misspelling.
Is 짜다 the Same as the Verb 짜다 "to Squeeze"?
They are spelled the same. The taste adjective takes 이/가 for the food, while the verb takes an object.
Which Words Are Related to 짜다?
The entries closest to 짜다 (salty) are 싱겁다 (bland), 맵다 (spicy), 달다 (sweet), 시다 (sour).
What Should You Learn Next?
싱겁다 is the opposite, and 맵다 and 달다 complete the set of basic tastes. To see why 'salty' takes the form 짜요, read how to conjugate the present tense; the Korean verb conjugator tests other stems, and the Korean verb dictionary lists the rest of the family.