[ Forming the Past Tense ]
You should already know the
present tense before learning this lesson.
Example
(to go) 가다 becomes 갔어요 (went)
You can see that 가 has an ㅏ. Whenever a verb has ㅏ the formation of the past tense will use 았어요. Because 가 has a vowel ending, it is simply merged with 았어요 to become 갔어요. If the verb has an ㅗyou must also form it using the 았어요.
Basically
가 + 았어요 = 갔어요
An example of using a verb containing ㅗ
(to see) 보다 becomes 봤어요 (saw)
If there is no ㅏ or ㅗ then you will form the past tense by combining the verb with 었어요
(to eat) 먹다 becomes 먹었어요 (ate)
(to give) 주다 becomes 줬어요 (gave)
* Note - Enlarged to easier show the spelling.
If you have any questions, simply ask them here.