The Korean Tense System at a Glance

Before you drill any single tense, it helps to see the whole system on one page — because Korean's tense machinery is far smaller and far more regular than English's, and the biggest mistakes come from expecting it to be as big. English scatters roughly a dozen tense-aspect combinations across a fleet of helper verbs: have gone, had gone, will have gone, will be going, have been going. Korean does almost all of this with a handful of suffixes glued to the verb, plus context and a few well-placed adverbs. This page gives you the map; the individual formation pages in the Verbs group fill in the mechanics.

The one big idea: tense lives in the ending

There is no Korean word for will, no word for have that builds "have gone," no separate auxiliary that carries tense. Tense is a suffix on the verb stem, and the sentence ending you already know (아요/어요, 습니다, 다) sits on top of it. Three time slots, three markers:

Present: the unmarked, hardest-working form

The "present" is really the default, tenseless-looking form — the bare stem plus a polite or plain ending. It covers what is happening now, general truths, and even scheduled future events (기차가 세 시에 떠나요 "the train leaves at 3"). That last use surprises English speakers, and it has its own page, the present for future. For now: the present is the form with nothing added between stem and ending.

Past: -았/었- does the work of both "did" and "have done"

Here is the single most important reframing on this page. Korean has no present-perfect auxiliary. There is no "have + past participle." The past marker -았/었- covers both the English simple past ("I went") and the present perfect ("I have gone"). One form, two English tenses.

In that second sentence, 갔어요 plus the adverb 벌써 ("already") lands squarely on the English perfect — "has gone," and by implication is gone now. Take 벌써 away and 집에 갔어요 is just "went home." The adverb, not a special tense, is what nudges Korean toward the perfect meaning. This is the workaround for every English perfect nuance: reach for -았/었- and add 벌써 "already," 아직 "yet/still," or 방금 "just now" as needed. See past and perfect for the full treatment.

How -았/었- attaches (allomorphy in one glance)

The past marker picks its vowel by vowel harmony, exactly like the 해요체 ending you already know. The full drill is on past tense -았/었어요; here is the shape of it:

Future and conjecture: -겠- and -(으)ㄹ 것이다

Korean's "future" is really a modal area — it blends prediction, intention, and conjecture, and it comes in two main flavours. -겠- leans toward on-the-spot conjecture, willingness, and immediate intention; -(으)ㄹ 것이다 (spoken -(으)ㄹ 거예요) leans toward planned or expected future. Each has a dedicated page — -겠어요 and -(으)ㄹ 것이다 — and the choice between them has its own comparison page.

Aspect is separate from tense

English fuses tense and aspect ("was eating," "have been eating"). Korean keeps aspect — whether an action is ongoing or in a resultant state — on its own track, built with auxiliaries rather than tense suffixes. The two you meet first:

• -고 있다 — progressive, "in the middle of doing." See -고 있다.
• -아/어 있다 — resultant state, "remains in the state that resulted." See -아/어 있다.

Both can carry any tense on the final 있다 (먹고 있었어요 "was eating," 열려 있을 거예요 "will be open"). The distinction between these two is one of the guide's trickiest, handled at -고 있다 vs -아/어 있다.

Common Mistakes

1. Using the present for a completed past event. A finished action needs -았/었-, even when English might use a bare-looking form.

2. Building a fake perfect with an auxiliary. "I've already eaten" is just past + 벌써 — no helper verb.

3. Using past for a state that's still true. English present perfect ("I have lived here for 3 years," still living) maps to Korean present/progressive, not past.

4. Looking for a word meaning "will." Future is the suffix -겠- or -(으)ㄹ 거예요; there is no separate word.

5. Ignoring vowel harmony on -았/었-. ㅏ/ㅗ stems take 았; everything else takes 었.

Key Takeaways

• Tense is a suffix, not a helper verb. Present = bare form; past = -았/었-; future/conjecture = -겠- or -(으)ㄹ 것이다.
• There is no present-perfect auxiliary: -았/었- covers both "went" and "has gone." Push it toward the perfect with adverbs (벌써, 아직, 방금), never with a verb like "have."
• The present doubles as a habitual and even a scheduled future.
• Aspect (-고 있다 / -아/어 있다) is a separate track from tense — English fuses them; Korean stacks them.
• Learn each atomic form in the Verbs group (past, future); use this page to keep the whole small system in view.