한다체: The Plain / Written Conjugation Table

한다체 (also called 해라체, the plain style) is the register you have been reading all your life without conjugating it: it is the voice of the printed page. Open a Korean novel, newspaper, textbook, or diary and every sentence ends here — 간다, 먹는다, 좋다, 학생이다 — never in 해요 or 합니다. It is impersonal and tenseless-feeling because it addresses no listener: it carries zero politeness toward anyone, which is exactly what suits narration, headlines, and private note-taking. This page lays out the full look-up table and shows you why 한다체 is where the deepest fault line in Korean grammar — action verb versus descriptive verb — becomes impossible to miss.

The master table

Rows are moods and tenses; the columns split the three word classes so the class contrast stays visible. The verb column shows both a vowel stem (가다) and a consonant stem (먹다) because the present-statement ending flips between them.

The present statement: the one row that splits the classes

Everything hard about 한다체 lives in the top row, so master it first.

• Action verb, vowel stem → -ㄴ다 fused onto the last block: 가다 → 간다, 오다 → 온다, 보다 → 본다.
• Action verb, ㄹ-stem → -ㄴ다, and the ㄹ drops: 살다 → 산다, 놀다 → 논다, 만들다 → 만든다.
• Action verb, other consonant stem → -는다: 먹다 → 먹는다, 읽다 → 읽는다, 받다 → 받는다.
• Adjective → bare -다, no suffix at all: 좋다 → 좋다, 크다 → 크다, 예쁘다 → 예쁘다.
• Copula → -(이)다: after a consonant-final noun 이다 (학생이다), after a vowel-final noun the 이 drops to -다 (의사다, 친구다).

Notice the pronunciation shift in 먹는다 and 읽는다: the ㄴ of -는다 nasalizes the preceding stop, so 먹는다 is said [멍는다] and 읽는다 [잉는다]. The spelling is fixed; only the sound changes (see nasalization before a nasal).

The hidden diagnostic: is it an action verb or an adjective?

This is the payoff. The present-statement split is the single cleanest test for the action-vs-descriptive divide — a distinction that quietly governs half the grammar (which attributive ending a word takes, whether it can be commanded, and more). Take any unfamiliar 다-word and put it in the plain present:

• If it becomes X-ㄴ다 / X는다, it is an action verb (간다, 먹는다).
• If it can only stay bare X다, it is a descriptive verb / adjective (좋다, 크다).

The other moods

The question, imperative, and propositive rows behave predictably once you know the present.

Question — -냐 / -니. The blunt question ending is -냐; the gentler, warmer one (an adult to a child, close friends) is -니. Strictly, older grammar splits them by class — action verbs take -느냐 (가느냐?, 먹느냐?), adjectives -(으)냐 (좋으냐?), the copula -(이)냐 (학생이냐?) — but everyday spoken 한다체 generalizes -냐 to all classes (가냐?, 먹냐?, 좋냐?). -니 is uniform across every class (가니?, 먹니?, 좋니?, 학생이니?).

Imperative — -아/어라, and Propositive — -자. Only action verbs take these, because you can only command or jointly undertake an action, never a state. The imperative follows vowel harmony (가라 after ㅏ/ㅗ, 먹어라 otherwise); the propositive -자 attaches straight to any stem with no buffer vowel. Adjectives and the copula leave these cells empty.

Past — -았/었다. Regular harmony contractions apply exactly as elsewhere; only the ending changes to the bare -다: 갔다, 먹었다, 좋았다, 학생이었다.

Register: the voice of print, and the base for quotation

한다체 is the default of anything written to no one in particular:

• Fiction and narration — every descriptive sentence in a novel.
• Newspaper headlines and ledes — 정부가 새 정책을 발표한다 ("The government announces a new policy").
• Diaries and inner monologue — 오늘은 아무것도 하기 싫다 ("I don't feel like doing anything today").
• Blunt or emphatic spoken assertions — thrown out loud it sounds forceful or declarative, not conversational.

There is one more reason this table matters out of all proportion to its register: the plain declarative is the citation base. When you report what someone said, the indirect-quotation frame -고 하다 attaches to the plain form, not to 해요/합니다. So 온다 (plain "comes") is what feeds 온다고 하다 ("says that … comes"). Learn the 한다체 present and you have already built the stem of every reported statement (see reported statements -다고).

What 한다체 is not is polite conversation. Said to a stranger or a senior, 간다 does not read as neutral — it reads as blunt or oddly literary, because you have stripped out the listener-politeness the moment calls for. For that, use 해요체 or 합니다체; for the intimate spoken plain style used with close friends, that is the separate 반말/해체 register, whose statement ends in -아/어 (가, 먹어), not -ㄴ다.

Common Mistakes

1. Attaching -는다/-ㄴ다 to an adjective (the ×좋는다 error). Adjectives predicate in the bare -다 form; there is no verbal-present slot on them.

2. Citing an action verb's present as a bare -다. An action verb's plain present is not the dictionary form — it must take -ㄴ다/-는다.

3. Using -는다 on a vowel stem. Vowel-final action stems take -ㄴ다, never -는다.

4. Forgetting to drop ㄹ. A ㄹ-final stem loses its ㄹ before -ㄴ다.

5. Using 한다체 where politeness is owed. To someone you would address with 요, the plain style lands as blunt or impersonal.

Key Takeaways

• 한다체 is the written-neutral / impersonal register: books, news, diaries, narration, and blunt spoken assertions — it addresses no listener, so it carries no politeness.
• Present statement is the class-splitting row: action verbs take -ㄴ다 (vowel/ㄹ, ㄹ drops) or -는다 (other consonants); adjectives stay bare -다; the copula is -(이)다.
• That split is the cleanest diagnostic for action vs descriptive verbs — which is why ×좋는다 is impossible.
• Imperative -아/어라 and propositive -자 exist only on action verbs; adjectives and the copula leave those cells empty.
• The plain declarative is also the citation base feeding indirect quotation (온다 → 온다고 하다).