There are some irregular verbs that end in ㄷ. When that happens, the ㄷ changes to a ㄹ. For example, the verb 듣다 will be 들어요 in the standard polite form. Basically the 다 is dropped. Then you’re left with the stem 듣. Then the ㄷ on the bottom is dropped. Lastly the ㄷ changes to a ㄹ and 어요 is added. 듣다 is an interesting verb. 듣다 can mean “to hear” or “to listen”. For example, this question 음악을 자주 들어요? means “Do you often listen to music?” (음악 = music. 을 = object marking particle. 자주 = often. 들어요 = listen).

However, 듣다 can also be used in another context. Let’s look at the sentence 다섯 과목을 들어요. (다섯 = five. 과목 = course. 을 = object marking particle. 들어요 = take.) Here the sentence means “[I] take five courses/subjects.” In this sentence 들어요 is used in the sense of taking a class/course. The way you can remember this is to change the meaning of this sentence as “[I] listen/hear five courses.” It’s a little awkward with this sentence, but it works better in this sentence, 온라인 수업 들어요 where you can say “[I] listen to an online course”. Still however, it works better when you say “[I] take an online course/class”

(온라인 = online. 수업 = class/course. 들어요 = take). When the verb 듣다 is used in the sense of “take” you can only use it in the sense of taking a class, a lecture or a course. You can’t use 듣다 when you want to say something like “I take my medicine everyday” because 듣다 can’t be used as “take” unless it has to do with taking a lesson, course, etc. Another verb that has the ㄷ ending as 듣다 is 걷다. 걷다 means “to walk”. The sentence 유리는 학교까지 걸어요 means “Yuri walks until she gets to school”. (유리 = Yuri. 학교 = school. 까지 = until/to. 걸어요 = walk).

There’s another common verb that ends in ㄷ that follows this rule. 질문을 자주 물어요. The verb here is 묻다 which means “to ask”. (질문 = question. 자주 = often. 물어요 = ask). In English the sentence means “[I] often ask questions”. Be careful with 묻다. 묻다 can also mean “to bury” like in this sentence, 소라는 시체를 묻어요 which can mean “Sora burys the corpse”. (소라 = Sora. 는 = topic marking particle. 시체 = corpse. 를 = object marking particle. 묻어요. So when the verb 묻다 means “to ask” you’ll have to conjugate it like 듣다, but when it means “to bury” it’ll be conjugated as 묻어요.