Tell someone one thing you did

You can say 먹어요, but how do you tell a classmate what you ate yesterday? Start with the same verb and change its ending. You do not need a separate form for “I ate,” “we ate” and “they ate.” You do need enough context to make clear who you mean.

This beginner lesson follows the first polite verb forms. We will keep the polite 요 style and work with a small set of actions: going, eating, seeing, resting and studying. By the end, you can give a three-sentence answer to “What did you do yesterday?”

The examples describe past events in ordinary conversation. Korean past forms have other uses in longer narratives, but those can wait. First make a clear sentence about something that actually happened.

Find the stem before choosing the ending

For the regular verbs here, the stem’s last vowel guides the choice: ㅏ or ㅗ goes with -았어요; other vowels go with -었어요. 하다 has the useful contracted past form 했어요. Check the vowel inside the last stem block, even when that block also ends in a consonant.

For example, 먹- contains ㅓ, so 먹다 becomes 먹었어요. The verb 찾다, “to find,” has ㅏ in 찾-, so its past form is 찾았어요. The final consonants ㄱ and ㅈ do not choose the vowel in the ending.

Do not attach the ending to the whole dictionary form. 먹다었어요 keeps a 다 that should have been removed. Write 먹었어요 instead. If “stem” feels abstract, underline 다 in a dictionary entry and cover it with your finger; the part left visible is your starting point.

Learn the contractions with useful verbs

가- plus -았어요 contracts to 갔어요. 보- plus -았어요 becomes 봤어요, and 마시- plus -었어요 becomes 마셨어요. These forms use the same vowel combinations you meet in the present tense, with the past marker added.

For 공부하다, change the 하다 part: 공부했어요. The whole form stays one written word. Practise the pair 공부해요 / 공부했어요 aloud and listen for the extra past portion before 요.

This is a starter set, not a rule that predicts every Korean verb. For instance, 듣다, “to listen,” has the past form 들었어요 because its stem changes. Keep that example on a separate irregular-verb card rather than forcing it into the regular chart. You can make plenty of useful sentences with the seven forms above first.

Add a time and one useful detail

어제 도서관에 갔어요. — “I went to the library yesterday.” 어제 means yesterday. 도서관에 tells us the destination. The verb 갔어요 places the event in the past.

어제 도서관에서 공부했어요. — “I studied at the library yesterday.” Here 에서 marks where the studying happened. Going to a place and doing an activity at that place are different jobs for the location phrase.

저녁에 집에서 영화를 봤어요. — “In the evening, I watched a film at home.” 영화 is the thing watched, so it appears with 를. You can change 영화 to a different thing you actually watched while keeping the same ending.

Use 어제 without adding 에 for these ordinary “yesterday” sentences. By contrast, 저녁에 means “in the evening” and 월요일에 means “on Monday.” Learn the whole time expression rather than adding 에 to every word connected with time.

A time word does not replace the verb ending. In this exercise, 어제 먹어요 is not the form to use for an ordinary report of yesterday’s meal. Say 어제 먹었어요. You may encounter special storytelling uses later; this lesson keeps the beginner reporting pattern consistent.

Ask a question and follow the answer

The polite past form can appear in both a statement and a question. 공부했어요. reports an action; 공부했어요? asks about it. In writing, the question mark helps. In speech, the surrounding conversation and question intonation help the listener.

뭐 means “what.” In 뭐 했어요?, the action is unknown, so Alex supplies it. In 공부했어요?, Mina checks a specific action and Alex can answer yes or no. Neither question needs an English-style auxiliary such as “did.”

Alex does not repeat 저는 in every reply because the speakers already know whose day they are discussing. If you switch to someone else’s day, name that person so the listener does not have to guess.

Say what did not happen

어제 영화를 안 봤어요. — “I did not watch a film yesterday.” 안 comes before 봤어요; the verb still carries the past ending. Negation and time are separate parts of the message.

어제 공부 안 했어요. — “I did not study yesterday.” For this noun-plus-하다 expression, place 안 before 했어요. This is a useful conversational pattern to learn as a complete chunk.

Compare 어제 영화를 못 봤어요. — “I could not watch the film yesterday.” 못 presents the action as something you were unable to do in that situation. 안 simply negates it; it does not by itself explain the reason. Choose the message that matches what happened.

Do not change a present negative into a past report by adding 어제 alone. In your own answer, circle the past ending as well as the time word. This catches a common error before you practise it repeatedly.

Build a short account of yesterday

Now replace the model day with your own. Pick only three actions, record them on paper, and say them without reading. If you need a longer writing task after this, use the short Korean learning journal.

A small listening check

Further explanation and listening

• How to Study Korean: past-tense formation — Reference for stems, vowel choice and contractions; this lesson focuses on a smaller beginner action set.
• How to Study Korean: polite conversational past forms — Compare the past-tense section and its recordings; other speech styles are also discussed.

Reviewed September 3, 2026. Found a mistake? Send a correction.