야 해요 grammar - ya haeyo grammar

안녕하세요! (Annyeonghaseyo!)

I feel bad about not being about to post yesterday like I intended to do so. 미안하다, 정말 바빴어요. And I just lost track of time. However, I’m going to post today!

Last week, I posted a link back to the topic of 아/어 야 하다 (HAVE TO, SHOULD, MUST) PT. 1 and I told you I would go into more detail this week, and that’s what we’re going to do. The part 1 was really short and not really covering enough for it to really make sense. I think because at the time I didn’t understand it enough myself. So today, we’re going to go into detail.

아/어 야 하다 (a/eo ya hada) are endings and they mean, “have to, should, must”. But I forgot one: 되다.

This can be broken down a bit more to make more sense.

• -아/어 야 되다/하다
  • adding this to the stem will create the meaning of “one has to do” or “one must do”

But how do we decide when to use which one?

• verb stems ending in vowels ㅏ or  ㅗ
  • -아야 되다/하다
• verb stems ending in other vowels
  • -어야 되다/하다
• if you’re using 하
  • -여야 되다/하다

Still with me? Let’s pause for an example:

1. 가다 (to go)
   1. 가 + -아야 되다/하다 = 가야 해요/가야 돼요
   2. “I have to go”/ “I must  go”

Both 가야 해요/가야 돼요 share the same meaning and that is, “have to go/must go”. The difference in usage is just commonality. One is used more than the other. So you’re likely to hear 되다 more than 하다 being used in this sense.

Next week, I’ll give more examples of this with another activity before we move on.