# 같다 and 않다 conjugations



## Jgon

Why are 되다, 같다, and 않다 conjugated 돼, 같아 and 않아, respectively? Isn't the rule to add -어 if the final block doesn't end with -하, ㅏ, or ㅗ?

Edit: add 되다


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## yonh

돼 is short for 되어.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/되다

You have wondered about the conjugation of 되어 and 돼, not 같다 and 않다, right? Then it would be better to change the thread title.


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## Jgon

I wonder about the conjugation of all three.


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## yonh

I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean. You already know the rule.


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## Jgon

Shouldn't 같다, and 않다 be conjugated as 같어 and 않어 respectively?


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## yonh

If the vowel of the last syllable is ㅏ or ㅗ, 아 is added. If not, 어 is added.


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## Jgon

I don't think you properly understand. Allow me to rephrase: Why are 같다 and 않다 conjugated as 같아 and 않아, respectively, when the rule says it should be 같어, and 않어 respectively.


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## Kross

The rule doesn't seem to be fully reliable and right to me. From my understanding, 같아 and 않아 are much more common things to be heard in real life.


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## yonh

It seems your textbook has an error. You can see the rules and a few examples here:
http://www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/아/어/여_+_요#Conjugation_Rules


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## Jgon

yonh said:


> It seems your textbook has an error.


No, I have no textbook as a basis for this. (The rule, of course, is based on what I've learned.) This is just my curiosity. 




yonh said:


> You can see the rules and a few examples here:
> http://www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/아/어/여_+_요#Conjugation_Rules


The conjugation of 괜찮다 to 괜찮아 kind of answers my question of the conjugation of 않다 but there is no rule here that includes the conjugation of 같다. Thanks for this, but Kross has answered my question.




Kross said:


> The rule doesn't seem to be fully reliable and right to me. From my understanding, 같아 and 않아 are much more common things to be heard in real life.


I was very confused when I first learned the present tense conjugation when I saw that 같다 and 않다 were conjugated as 같아 and 않아. At first I thought they were just mistakes but apparently, they're not. Thanks for the explanation.


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## yonh

The rules are clear, and there's no exception.
The vowel of 같 is ㅏ, so 아 is added and they are conjugated as 같아.
The vowel of 않 is ㅏ, so 아 is added and they are conjugated as 않아.


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## Jgon

yonh said:


> The vowel of 같 is ㅏ, so 아 is added and they are conjugated as 같아.
> The vowel of 않 is ㅏ, so 아 is added and they are conjugated as 않아.



Oh, okay. I might have only read some of the rules, my bad. Thanks.


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