가다 ("go") and 오다 ("come") are the two most-used motion verbs in Korean, and they belong on one sheet because they pattern together — both are regular vowel stems that contract in the present — while diverging in exactly the spots you need to memorize: 오다 has an irregular plain imperative, and the two verbs split English speakers' intuitions about which direction is which. Learn them as a pair and the contrast does the teaching.
The signature of a vowel stem is that its -아/어 vowel merges into the stem. 가- (stem vowel ㅏ) plus 아 collapses to a single 가 → 가요. 오- (stem vowel ㅗ) fuses ㅗ + ㅏ into 와 → 와요. Neither stem ever takes the 으 buffer, and the formal present is -ㅂ니다 (갑니다, 옵니다), never -습니다.
The side-by-side sheet
The everyday default column is 해요체; the examples below use it unless noted.
| Form | 가다 (go) | 오다 (come) |
|---|---|---|
| Present — 해요체 | 가요 gayo | 와요 wayo |
| Present — 합니다체 | 갑니다 gamnida | 옵니다 omnida |
| Past — 해요체 | 갔어요 gasseoyo | 왔어요 wasseoyo |
| Future — 겠 | 가겠어요 gagesseoyo | 오겠어요 ogesseoyo |
| Future — (으)ㄹ 거예요 | 갈 거예요 gal geoyeyo | 올 거예요 ol geoyeyo |
| Connective — so/then (아/어서) | 가서 gaseo | 와서 waseo |
| Connective — if (면) | 가면 gamyeon | 오면 omyeon |
| Connective — since (니까) | 가니까 ganikka | 오니까 onikka |
| Imperative — 세요 | 가세요 gaseyo | 오세요 oseyo |
| Imperative — 반말 | 가 ga | 와 (·오너라) wa (·oneora) |
| Propositive — 반말 (let's) | 가자 gaja | 오자 oja |
| Promise — (으)ㄹ게요 | 갈게요 galgeyo | 올게요 olgeyo |
| Volition — (으)ㄹ래요 | 갈래요 gallaeyo | 올래요 ollaeyo |
| Attributive — present / past / prospective | 가는 · 간 · 갈 ganeun · gan · gal | 오는 · 온 · 올 oneun · on · ol |
저 지금 회사에 가요.
jeo jigeum hoesa-e gayo
I'm going to the office now. (present 가요)
친구가 우리 집에 놀러 왔어요.
chinguga uri jibe nolleo wasseoyo
A friend came over to hang out. (past 왔어요; purpose 놀러)
주말에 부산에 갈 거예요.
jumare Busane gal geoyeyo
I'm going to Busan this weekend. (future 갈 거예요)
비가 오니까 조심히 오세요.
biga onikka josimhi oseyo
It's raining, so come carefully. (오니까 + 오세요)
The contraction, and 오다's irregular imperative
Everything in the -아/어 family contracts. For 가- the two ㅏ vowels merge (가 + 아요 → 가요, 가 + 았 → 갔, 가 + 아서 → 가서); for 오- the ㅗ and ㅏ fuse into 와 (오 + 아요 → 와요, 오 + 았 → 왔, 오 + 아서 → 와서). Crucially, this merge happens only before an -아/어 ending. Before -(으)세요 you attach to the bare stem: 오 + 세요 → 오세요, never ×와세요.
The one genuinely irregular cell is 오다's plain imperative. Where 가다 is regular (가 → 가라 → 가세요), 오다's bare-stem command contracts to 와 (반말), and its 해라체 form is the irregular 오너라 — an archaic-flavored form you will still meet in older writing and set phrases, though 와라 is the everyday spoken command.
이리 와, 밥 먹자!
iri wa, bap meokja
Come here, let's eat! (반말 imperative 와)
저 먼저 가겠습니다.
jeo meonjeo gagetseumnida
I'll head off first. (formal, e.g. leaving the office)
-(으)러 가다 / 오다: going in order to
The most useful pattern these verbs anchor is -(으)러 가다/오다 — "go/come in order to [do]." Attach -(으)러 to another verb's stem (러 after a vowel or ㄹ-stem, 으러 after a consonant), then follow with a motion verb. This is how Korean says "I'm going to eat," "come to see," and so on. (For the pattern in full, see -(으)러 가다/오다.)
밥 먹으러 식당에 가요.
bap meogeureo sikdang-e gayo
I'm going to a restaurant to eat. (먹으러 가다)
영화 보러 갈래요?
yeonghwa boreo gallaeyo
Want to go see a movie? (보러 가다 + volition 갈래요)
Separately, 가다/오다 attach as auxiliaries to another verb's -아/어 form to add a directional-aspectual nuance — -아/어 가다 ("go on / progressively become") and -아/어 오다 ("have been … up to now"). See -아/어 가다/오다.
이제 봄이 되어 가요.
ije bomi doeeo gayo
It's gradually turning into spring now. (되어 가다 — coming to be)
지금까지 이 일을 혼자 해 왔어요.
jigeumkkaji i ireul honja hae wasseoyo
I've been doing this work alone up to now. (해 오다 → 해 왔어요)
The deixis trap: Korean's "come" is not English's "come"
This is the point that trips up every English speaker, and it is worth more than the whole conjugation table. Korean anchors 가다/오다 to the current location of the speaker or listener, more strictly than English does. English lets you say "I'm coming!" to move toward the person who called you. Korean does not: movement toward the listener's location uses 가다, not 오다. So when someone calls you to dinner and you are on your way, you say 지금 갈게요 ("I'll come/go right now") — literally "I'll go." Saying ×지금 올게요 sounds wrong to a Korean ear, because from your standpoint you are going there.
엄마: 밥 먹어! — 네, 지금 갈게요!
eomma: bap meogeo! — ne, jigeum galgeyo
Mom: Dinner! — Yes, I'm coming right now! (toward the listener → 가다)
준비 다 됐어요? 제가 그쪽으로 갈게요.
junbi da dwaesseoyo? jega geujjogeuro galgeyo
All set? I'll come over to you. (그쪽으로 갈게요)
Common Mistakes
1. Calquing English "come" with 올게요. Moving toward the listener is 가다: 지금 갈게요.
❌ (전화로) 지금 올게요.
Wrong — from your standpoint you're going there: 지금 갈게요.
✅ (전화로) 지금 갈게요.
jigeum galgeyo
(On the phone) I'll be right there.
2. Failing to contract 오다's past (×오았어요). ㅗ + 았 fuses to 왔.
❌ 친구가 집에 오았어요.
Wrong — 오 + 았 → 왔: 왔어요.
✅ 친구가 집에 왔어요.
chinguga jibe wasseoyo
My friend came over.
3. Using -습니다 on these vowel stems. Vowel stems take -ㅂ니다: 갑니다, 옵니다.
❌ 저는 매일 학교에 가습니다.
Wrong — a vowel stem takes -ㅂ니다: 갑니다.
✅ 저는 매일 학교에 갑니다.
jeoneun maeil hakgyo-e gamnida
I go to school every day. (formal)
4. Contracting before -세요 (×와세요). The 와 merge only happens with -아/어; the honorific is 오세요.
❌ 이쪽으로 와세요.
Wrong — before -세요 the stem stays 오-: 오세요.
✅ 이쪽으로 오세요.
ijjogeuro oseyo
Please come this way.
Key Takeaways
- 가다 and 오다 are regular vowel stems: no 으 buffer, formal present -ㅂ니다 (갑니다 / 옵니다).
- The -아/어 family contracts: 가요 / 갔어요 / 가서, and 와요 / 왔어요 / 와서 (ㅗ + ㅏ → 와).
- The contraction is tense-triggered — before -세요, -는, -면 the stem stays 오-: 오세요, not ×와세요.
- 오다's plain imperative is irregular: 와 (반말), archaic 오너라 — while 가다 is regular (가 / 가라 / 가세요).
- -(으)러 가다/오다 = "go/come in order to"; -아/어 가다/오다 = directional aspect ("become" / "have been").
- Deixis: motion toward the listener uses 가다 (지금 갈게요), not 오다 — the reverse of English intuition.
Now practice Korean
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Start learning Korean→Related Topics
- 가다 (to go): Vowel-Stem Verb ParadigmTOPIK 1 — The complete look-up paradigm of 가다 across all four speech levels — the stencil for regular vowel-stem verbs, whose signature is contraction (가 + 아요 → 가요) and the total absence of the 으 buffer.
- Conjugation Sheet: 하다 (to do)TOPIK 1 — A one-verb cheat sheet for 하다 — the most frequent verb in Korean and the engine behind thousands of noun+하다 verbs (공부하다, 좋아하다, 시작하다). Every cell runs on one contraction: 하 + 여 → 해. Speech levels, tenses, connectives, modifiers, negatives, honorific, imperative, and propositive at a glance.
- The Vowel-Contraction TableTOPIK 1 — The obligatory stem-vowel + 아/어 fusions that produce every 해요체 and past form — 가+아→가, 오+아→와, 주+어→줘, 마시+어→마셔 — plus the 되/돼 spelling test. The uncontracted forms are simply wrong.
- -(으)러: To (Purpose of Going/Coming)TOPIK 1 — The purpose-of-motion ending — 'go/come somewhere in order to do X', restricted to motion main verbs (가다, 오다, 다니다), with same subject and no tense on the ending.
- -아/어 가다 & -아/어 오다: Progression Over TimeTOPIK 4 — The aspectual auxiliaries -아/어 가다 (the process heads onward into the future) and -아/어 오다 (the process has come up to now from the past) — 가다/오다's spatial 'away/toward' meaning projected onto a time axis.