Free Korean Verb and Adjective Conjugation Worksheets

How the Korean conjugation worksheet generator works

Start with the words. The list holds 792 Korean words, 603 verbs and 189 adjectives, from the vocabulary list for learners (한국어 학습용 어휘 목록) published by the National Institute of Korean Language (NIKL). Its 212 beginner words come first, then the intermediate ones, each stage in order of NIKL's frequency count, which comes from written texts. Every word has an English meaning written for NexaProva, and you can search by Hangul, by romanization (meokda for 먹다) or in English. Filters narrow the list to verbs or adjectives, or to regular words, 하다 words, ㄹ stems, ㅡ stems or the irregular verbs, all the irregular types together or one at a time. A worksheet holds up to 30 words. Then tick the forms you want and choose one of three kinds of sheet.

Fill-in boxes, a quick quiz or a conjugation chart

The fill-in worksheet gives every word a box to fill in for each form you picked. The answer key prints on separate pages, so you can hand out the worksheet and keep the key. The quick quiz comes with its own answer key too. The conjugation chart prints every form filled in, which gives you a Korean verb conjugation chart to print or save as PDF and keep in a binder. Tick only the past, and you have a past-tense chart in all four speech levels for the verbs your class is learning. To look up a single word instead, the Korean conjugation tables give each of the 792 words a table of its own, with every form and a printable chart.

The 15 forms and four speech levels

The forms come in five groups. The everyday forms are the present, the past, the future with -(으)ㄹ 거예요, the progressive with -고 있다 and the honorific with -(으)시-. Saying no covers the negatives with 안 and -지 않다, and 못 for can't. Then come want to (-고 싶다) and can (-(으)ㄹ 수 있다), and asking and telling: commands and requests, don't (-지 마세요) and let's. The last group joins and describes. It holds the joining endings -고 (and), -아서/어서 (so, and then), -(으)면 (if), -지만 (but) and -(으)니까 (because), and the forms before a noun, in present, past and future. Every sentence form comes in four speech levels: polite (-아요/어요), formal (-ㅂ니다/습니다), casual (반말) and plain (-ㄴ다/는다), the written style. So 가다 is 가요, 갑니다, 가 and 간다, and its commands are 가세요, 가십시오, 가 and 가라.

Korean adjective conjugation

Korean adjectives conjugate like verbs, so 춥다 (to be cold) has a past and a negative of its own. Adjectives get the present, past, future, honorific, both negatives, the joining endings and the present and future forms before a noun. They have no progressive, 못, want to, can, commands, don't or let's, and those boxes are left off their worksheets rather than printed empty. Two forms differ from the verbs. An adjective's plain present is its dictionary form, 춥다, where a verb adds -ㄴ다 or -는다. Before a noun an adjective takes -(으)ㄴ, as in 추운 and 큰, where a verb takes -는, as in 먹는. 있다, 없다 and the words built on them take -는 too: 맛있는, 재미있는. Filter the list to adjectives and the chart works as a Korean adjective conjugation table for the class.

Where 안 and 못 go, and the forms some words skip

Korean negatives don't always go in front of the verb. With a noun + 하다 verb, 안 and 못 go between the noun and 하다, so the sheets print 공부 안 해요 and 공부 못 해요. That applies to 151 하다 verbs in the list. Noun + 되다 verbs split the same way (사용 안 돼요), and so do 배고프다 (배 안 고파요), 춤추다 (춤 안 춰요) and 잘하다 (잘 안 해요). Verbs like 좋아하다 keep 안 in front: 안 좋아해요. Some words also go without forms they can't take. The 131 verbs for things that happen to you, such as 열리다, 좋아지다 and 끝나다, get no commands, no let's and no 못. Fourteen of them keep don't, because people say 다치지 마세요 and 놀라지 마세요. And 있다, 없다 and 알다 take neither negative, since their opposites are words of their own.

How accurate are the forms?

The forms are built by the standard rules for each class, and each word's class, regular or one of the irregular types, is read from its entry in English Wiktionary. The honorific verbs are written out: 먹다 has 드세요, 자다 has 주무세요, 있다 has 계세요 for a person and 있으세요 for what someone has, and 말하다 has 말씀하세요. We checked the results against Wiktionary's conjugation tables. Wiktionary has one for 774 of the 792 words, and across them 22,659 forms agree and one differs. Wiktionary prints 모세요 for 모시다, where the standard form, and ours, is 모셔요. One choice is worth knowing about. Commands print in the modern form, such as 나가라, rather than the older 나가거라.

Free worksheets for teachers and classrooms

Every sheet prints without a watermark, and you need no account to make one. Teachers may photocopy them for their classes. Forms print in Hangul, with no romanization on the sheets. Build one worksheet per unit, or a sheet of ㅂ irregular adjectives the week before a test. Students can also practice on their own with the Korean verb conjugation quiz, which marks each typed form at once and needs no Korean keyboard. If your students are still learning to write Hangul, the Hangul worksheet generator prints stroke order sheets from single letters up to whole words. And if you teach another language too, the same generator makes Spanish, German, French and Japanese verb conjugation worksheets.

Frequently asked questions

Licenses and credits

The verbs and adjectives are those of the 한국어 학습용 어휘 목록 of the National Institute of Korean Language (KOGL Type 1). Each word's conjugation class and its forms were checked against English Wiktionary through kaikki.org (CC BY-SA 4.0), and the romanization is by koroman (MIT). The forms are built by the standard rules, and the English meanings are written for NexaProva.