Conjugating New Regular Verbs and Adjectives on Your Own

You do not need to memorize every form shown in this course as an unrelated item. The regular rules learned here can be transferred to many unfamiliar verbs and adjectives when they combine with the endings already studied.

First identify the stem and the target ending. Then check only the stem feature required by that ending, such as the last vowel or the presence of a final consonant. Finally, check whether a learned contraction or deletion applies.

Let's apply two different selection rules to 섞다 .

For the basic 해요-style form, identify the stem 섞- and check its last vowel because -아요/-어요 requires a vowel choice. The last vowel is ㅓ, so select -어요 : 섞- + -어요 → 섞어요 .

For a polite request, -(으)세요 requires a stem-ending check. 섞- ends in ㄲ, a consonant other than ㄹ, so select -으세요 : 섞- + -으세요 → 섞으세요 . The 으 belongs to the selected ending form rather than being added freely as a pronunciation cushion.

Now apply the process to 고치다 . The stem is 고치- .

For the past form, the last vowel ㅣ selects -었어요 . Combine and contract: 고치- + -었어요 → 고치었어요 → 고쳤어요 .

For the basic future-context form, 고치- ends in a vowel, so select -ㄹ 거예요 : 고치- + -ㄹ 거예요 → 고칠 거예요 . In the written result, ㄹ appears as the final consonant of the stem's last syllable.

Apply the learned ㅡ-final rule to 기쁘다 . The stem is 기쁘- .

For -아요/-어요 , drop the final ㅡ and check the preceding vowel ㅣ. Select the -어 form: 기쁘- + -어요 → 기뻐요 . The same selection produces the past form 기뻤어요 .

For -(으)면 , 기쁘- has no final consonant, so select -면 without ㅡ deletion: 기쁘면 . For -(으)ㄹ 거예요 , select -ㄹ 거예요 and retain ㅡ: 기쁠 거예요 .

The ㅡ deletion does not apply automatically with every ending.