grammar
verbs
The Verb 하다
Published 2024-04-09

How to say 'to do' in Korean

We’ve seen the verb 하다 used a lot so far. In this lesson we’ll cover it in more depth.

하다 is an action verb that means “to do,” and is sometimes attached to a noun to create a new verb.

We’ve seen some examples of this already:

공부하다 (to do study)
공부 (studying) + 하다 (to do)
사랑하다 (to do love)
사랑 (love) + 하다 (to do)

Here are some more examples of verbs created nouns using 하다:

말하다 (to do speech/speak)
운동하다 (to exercise)
샤워하다 (to shower)
요리하다 (to cook)

Since these are nouns + 하다, you can separate the noun from 하다 and throw in the object marker. So, the below two sentences mean the same thing:

저는 샤워 해요
저는 샤워해요

I take a shower

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Not every noun can have 하다 attached to it.

Not every word attached to 하다 is a noun by itself:

똑똑하다 (똑똑 is not a noun)
좋아하다 (좋아 is not a noun)
싫어하다 (싫어 is not a noun)

Wrap Up

In this lesson we learned about one of the most common verbs in the Korean language. We’ll see it come up many times in later lessons. In the next lesson, we’ll learn about how to add more emphasis to your verbs.

See you in the next one!

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Vocab Review!
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샤워 (shower)
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사랑 (love)
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싫어하다 (to dislike)
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똑똑하다 (to be smart)
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요리 (cooking)
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