A Daily-Routine Diary Entry (일기)

A Korean diary (일기) is the friendliest place to meet the plain written style, 한다체 — the register with no listener and therefore no politeness. Because you are writing to yourself, every sentence ends in the bare plain form (-았다/-었다, -ㄴ다), and the day gets stitched together with the temporal glue Korean uses to sequence events: the listing -고 ("and"), the "after" frames -(으)ㄴ 후에 / -(으)ㄴ 다음에, and the reason -아서/어서 ("because/so"). This page annotates a full day's entry, one sentence at a time, with special attention to a rule that trips up every English speaker: -아서/어서 cannot carry its own past tense.

The register is 한다체 (plain declarative), the standard of diaries, essays, reports, and narration. It sounds neutral and impersonal on the page — not cold, just listener-less. (Compare the spoken levels at 한다체 plain written style.) Read the entry through, then we will slow down on each construction.

The diary, sentence by sentence

The plain past -았다: 일어나다 → 일어났다. Because the last stem vowel (ㅏ in 나) is a bright vowel, the ending harmonizes to -았-, and 나 + 았 contracts to 났. The topic particle 은 frames "today" (오늘은, "as for today"), and the hour is native — 일곱 시 ("seven o'clock"), never ×칠 시. (On past-tense formation see past tense -았/었-.)

The sequential connective -고 ("and [then]") chains two actions in order: 세수를 하고 아침을 먹었다 ("washed up, and ate"). -고 simply lists events in sequence without fuss. Note where the tense lives: only the final verb is marked for past (먹었다); the -고 clause (하고) stays tenseless and takes its time reference from the end of the sentence. 먹었다 shows the dark-vowel ending -었- (먹 has ㅓ).

Here -아서 does its sequential job: 나오다 → 나와서 ("came out, and then"). Unlike -고, the -아서 of sequence implies the second action grows directly out of the first — you leave and thereby proceed to the subway. 집에서 uses -에서 for the place an action starts from (leaving from home). And again the past sits only on the last verb, 탔다 (타 + 았 → 탔). (The two jobs of -아서 — sequence and cause — are laid out at -아서.)

The first "after" frame: -(으)ㄴ 후에 ("after doing"). It attaches to the past-attributive form of the verb — 도착하다 → 도착한 (not 도착하는, not bare 도착), then 후에 ("after"). So 도착한 후에 = "after [having] arrived." 바로 ("right away") and the hada-verb past 했다 (회의를 하다 → 했다) finish the thought.

A descriptive verb (adjective) in the plain past: 길다 ("to be long") → 길었다. Korean adjectives conjugate for tense exactly like action verbs — there is no separate "was" — so "was long" is a single word, 길었다. 보다 is the comparison particle ("than"): 생각보다 = "than [I] thought."

The second "after" frame: -(으)ㄴ 다음에 — synonymous with -(으)ㄴ 후에, and built the same way, on the past-attributive: 먹다 → 먹은 다음에 ("after eating"). 동료들과 uses -과 ("with") on the plural 동료들 ("coworkers"). 마셨다 shows the 마시 + 었 → 마셨 contraction (an ㅣ-stem folding into 셨).

Now -아서 in its causal job: 많다 ("to be many") → 많아서 ("because there was a lot"). This is the sentence to memorize the golden rule from: the cause clause is many → 많아서, with no past tense on the -아서 verb, even though the whole event is in the past. The pastness lives only on the final verb, 피곤했다 ("was tired"). You must resist the English instinct to say ×많았어서. 일이 uses the subject particle 이 on 일 ("work").

Two things. 와서 is 오다 → 와서 (sequence again: "came home, and then"). And the intention frame -(으)려고 하다 appears in the past: 하려고 했다 = "intended to do / was going to do." -(으)려고 하다 in the past tense often carries the flavor of a thwarted plan — "I was going to, but…" — which the next sentence delivers. (See -(으)려고 하다.)

The plan collapses. 하지만 ("but") pivots, and -아서 returns as cause: 피곤하다 → 피곤해서 ("because [I] was too tired") — note the hada-verb's 하 → 해 before -아서, and once more no past tense on the causal clause. The pastness sits only on 잤다 (자 + 았 → 잤). 그냥 ("just, without further ado") captures the giving-up perfectly.

A diary's classic closing resolution. -아야겠다 = the obligation -아야 하다/되다 fused with the volitional -겠- → "I really must / I'm resolved to." 해야겠다 ("[I] must do") is exactly the self-directed determination a diary ends on. (The reading is haeyagetda: 겠 before the consonant is -get-.)

A reflective sign-off. 오늘도 ("today too") uses the particle 도 ("also"), 하루가 ("the day," subject), and the plain past 지나갔다 (지나가다 → 지나갔다). The bare 한다체 ending gives it the quiet, diaristic finality of writing meant for no one but yourself.

What to notice

• -았다/-었다 is chosen by vowel harmony: bright ㅏ/ㅗ stems take -았- (일어났다, 왔다, 잤다), others take -었- (먹었다, 길었다, 마셨다); 하다 → 했다.
• -아서/어서 is tenseless. In both its senses — sequence (나와서, 와서) and cause (많아서, 피곤해서) — the tense lands only on the final verb. ×많았어서 is the archetypal English-transfer error.
• -(으)ㄴ 후에 and -(으)ㄴ 다음에 both mean "after doing" and both take the past-attributive -(으)ㄴ (도착한 후에, 먹은 다음에).
• -고 merely lists in sequence (하고), leaving tense to the sentence's end; -(으)려고 하다 states intention, and in the past hints at a plan that didn't pan out (하려고 했다).
• The whole entry is 한다체: every sentence ends in the plain -았다/-었다 — the listener-less written register.

Common Mistakes

1. Putting past tense on the -아서 clause. The reason/sequence clause stays tenseless; the past belongs on the final verb only.

2. Attaching 후에/다음에 to the wrong verb form. "After doing" needs the past-attributive -(으)ㄴ, not the present -는 or a bare stem.

3. Slipping 해요체 into a 한다체 diary. A plain-style diary should stay in -았다/-었다; a stray polite -아/어요 breaks the register (you are not addressing anyone).

4. Reading the hour with Sino numbers. The clock hour takes native numbers (일곱 시); Sino numbers appear only for the minutes.