For today’s lesson, we’ll explore 르 ending words.

For some 르 ending words like 빠르다 (to be fast) the standard polite ending in the present tense will be 빨라요. To form this ending, drop the 다, add a ㄹ to the bottom of 빠 and add 라요. Try doing this with 모르다 (to not know) in the standard polite present tense and you’ll get 몰라요.

In the present tense of the deferential polite, 빠르다 will be 빠릅니다. To form the deferential polite of 르 ending words like 빠르다, drop the 다 and add ㅂ니다. Do the same with 모르다 and you get 모릅니다.

In the past tense of the standard polite form, 빠르다 will be 빨랐어요. To form the past tense, drop the 다, and add ㄹ랐어요. Do this with 모르다 and you get 몰랐어요.

The past tense of the deferential polite for 빠르다 is 빨랐습니다. To form this, drop the 다 and add ㄹ랐습니다. Accordingly, 모르다 will be 몰랐습니다.

The honorific polite in the present tense of 빠르다 will be 빠르세요. The honorific polite for some 르 ending words is formed by dropping 다, and adding 세요. The same goes for 모르다, which will be 모르세요.

The honorific polite in the past tense of 빠르다 will be 빠르셨어요. For the honorific polite past tense, drop the 다 and add 셨어요. Therefore 모르다 will be 모르셨어요.

The present tense honorific deferential of 빠르다 will be 빠르십니다. Just drop the 다 and add 십니다. In the same manner, 모르다 will be 모르십니다.

The past tense of the honorific deferential is 빠르셨습니다. Drop the 다 and add 셨습니다. In the same way, 모르다 will be 모르셨습니다.

There are some 르 ending words that do not follow a similar conjugation change like 모르다 and 빠르다. 따르다, which can mean “to pour a drink” or “to follow, accompany” is a 르 ending word that doesn’t conjugate in the same manner as 빠르다 and 모르다. For example, in the present tense of the standard polite, 따르다 will be 따라요. Remember how 빠르다 was conjugated as 빨라요 in the standard polite? There’s a ㄹ placed at the bottom of 빠. However, there’s no ㄹ placed at the bottom of 따 for 따르다. So just be aware that not all 르 ending words are conjugated like 빠르다 and 모르다.