Korean grammar · Level 4 · 4급
V-아/어 가다/오다
Keep on … (up to now / from now on)
Added to a verb, 오다 and 가다 show an action continuing through time. -아/어 오다 runs from the past up to now (“have been …ing”); -아/어 가다 runs from now into the future (“will go on …ing”), or towards an end point: 다 되어 가요, “it's nearly done”.
| When | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| past → now | -아/어 오다 | 공부해 왔어요 · 살아왔다 |
| now → future | -아/어 가다 | 배워 갈 거예요 · 살아가다 |
| nearly finished | -아/어 가다 | 다 되어 가요 · 거의 다 읽어 가요 |
Examples
지금까지 한국어를 열심히 공부해 왔어요.
I've been studying Korean hard up to now.
앞으로도 천천히 배워 갈 거예요.
From here on, I'll keep learning, slowly.
두 사람은 가난했지만 서로를 아끼며 살아왔다.
The two of them were poor, but they had always cherished each other.
Practise it in context · Level 4, Unit 9
Reading a story
A dialogue with audio, practice that checks itself, Hoya’s mistakes, a reading and a writing task.
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