Movement: To go, To come, To arrive

🎯 Big Picture

📖 Core Vocabulary Family

1. 가다 (to go)

• 저는 학교에 가요. (I go to school.)

• 내일 부산에 갈 거예요. (I will go to Busan tomorrow.)

2. 오다 (to come)

• 친구가 우리 집에 와요. (My friend comes to my house.)

• 버스가 곧 올 거예요. (The bus will come soon.)

3. 도착하다 (to arrive)

• 기차가 역에 도착해요. (The train arrives at the station.)

• 저는 9시에 회사에 도착했어요. (I arrived at the office at 9.)

4. 떠나다 (to leave / to depart)

• 비행기가 곧 떠나요. (The plane is leaving soon.)

• 저는 다음 주에 한국을 떠나요. (I'm leaving Korea next week.)

5. 걷다 (to walk)

• 저는 매일 30분씩 걸어요. (I walk for 30 minutes every day.)

• 공원에서 같이 걸을까요? (Shall we walk together in the park?)

🗣️ How They Work in a Sentence

1. 저는 학교에 걸어서 가요. (I walk to school. / I go to school on foot.)

2. 기차가 9시에 떠나서 11시에 도착해요. (The train leaves at 9 and arrives at 11.)

3. 손님이 곧 올 거예요, 그러니까 빨리 가요! (The guest will come soon, so let's go quickly!)

🧱 General Formation Rule

• ㅏ-ending verbs (가다, 떠나다): the stem-final ㅏ absorbs the 아요 ending, so the polite present is just stem + 요 — 가요, 떠나요 (not 가아요/떠나아요).

• ㅗ-ending verbs (오다): 오 + 아 contracts to 와, giving 와요.

• 하다 verbs (도착하다): conjugate normally — 도착해요, 도착했어요, 도착할 거예요.

• ㄷ-irregular verbs (걷다): ㄷ changes to ㄹ before a vowel-starting ending — 걸어요, 걸을까요, 걸으면. (Only some ㄷ-final verbs are irregular — 듣다(to listen)→들어요 and 묻다(to ask)→물어요 follow the same pattern, but 받다 and 닫다 do not.)

• Destination particle 에 marks "to" with 가다/오다/도착하다 (학교에 가요, 집에 와요, 역에 도착해요); 을/를 can mark a path or area traveled through (길을 걷다 — to walk a road).

🔁 Synonym Alert

• 가다 vs 떠나다 — 가다 is the neutral, general word for "to go" anywhere. 떠나다 specifically emphasizes leaving a place behind, often with a sense of departure or finality (a trip, a flight, moving away).

• 오다 vs 도착하다 — 오다 simply describes movement toward the speaker or "here" (친구가 와요 — my friend is coming). 도착하다 is more formal and focuses on the exact moment of reaching a destination (기차가 도착해요 — the train arrives).

⚠️ Pitfalls to Dodge

1. Don't say 가아요 — 가다's ㅏ-ending stem merges with 아요, so it's just 가요.

2. Don't say 오아요 — 오 + 아 contracts to 와, so it's 와요, not 오아요.

3. Don't say 도착하요 — 하다 verbs conjugate to 해요, so it's 도착해요.

4. Don't say 걷어요 — 걷다 is ㄷ-irregular, so the ㄷ becomes ㄹ: 걸어요. But don't over-apply this — 받다(받아요) and 닫다(닫아요) are regular.

5. Don't confuse 가다 and 다니다 — 가다 describes a single trip ("I'm going to school"), while 다니다 means to attend or commute somewhere regularly ("I attend school" = 학교에 다녀요).

Exercise 1 — Word Recall: Korean → English 🇰🇷➡️🇬🇧

Exercise 2 — Word Recall: English → Korean 🇬🇧➡️🇰🇷

Exercise 3 — Conjugation Practice 🔧

Exercise 4 — Sentence Translation: English → Korean ✍️

Exercise 5 — Opposite Pairs 🔄