Descriptive Verbs in Korean


A review of descriptive verbs

Previously, we’ve learned about action verbs, verbs that describe an action being done. Examples:

먹다 (to eat)
만들다 (to make)
가다 (to go)

Descriptive verbs are everything else - verbs that describe something, or represent a state of being.

Remember, these do not pair with the object marker. Examples:

있다 (to exist)
이다 (to be)
맵다 (to be spicy)
바쁘다 (to be busy)

Let’s take a look at some common descriptive verbs and their conjugations:

좋다
to be good
그 영화는 좋아요.
That movie is good.
맛있다
to be delicious
아이스크림는 진짜 맛있어요!
Ice cream is really delicious!
재미있다
to be fun/entertaining
이 게임은 재미있어요.
This game is fun.
쉽다
to be easy
한국어는 쉬워요.
Korean is easy.
light bulb

Did you know?

좋다 looks very similar to 좋아하다, which we’ve seen before. However, they are different.

좋다 is a descriptive verb, while 좋아하다 is an action verb. Think of their definitions like this:

좋다 (to be good)
좋아하다 (to feel good towards something)

Simply put, 좋아하다 means “to like.”

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