-았/었었어요
(at/eot/yeot)eot
Grammar · 1 sense
past perfect - a past state that no longer holds
Examples
예전에는 저도 담배를 피웠었어요.
I used to smoke too, back then.
그 가게는 작년까지 문을 열었었어요.
That shop was open until last year.
When you'd hear it
This is common in spoken Korean, including polite conversation and drama dialogue, when someone looks back on an earlier experience; it also appears in casual messages. It is less common in formal reports, which often use a simple past form instead.
What learners get wrong
A second 었 on top of the past tense, marking something cut off from now - it happened, and it is over. 살았어요 says you lived somewhere; 살았었어요 adds that you no longer do. Useful for old habits and former states, and easy to overuse: plain -았/었어요 is the default past.
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