Grammar
-아/어 주다
Meaning
Beginner-a/eo juda
Added to a verb stem, -아/어 주다 shows that the action is done for someone's benefit. Use -아 주다 after ㅏ/ㅗ vowels and -어 주다 elsewhere; 하다 becomes 해 주다. It works for people and also for companies or services acting on the customer's behalf.
Form
Attach it to an action verb stem. Stems whose last vowel is ㅏ or ㅗ take -아 주다 (사다 → 사 주다, 찾다 → 찾아 주다), every other stem takes -어 주다 (읽다 → 읽어 주다, 만들다 → 만들어 주다), and 하다 verbs become 해 주다 (예매하다 → 예매해 주다). It conjugates on 주다, so the polite past is -아/어 주었습니다, often shortened in speech to -아/어 줬습니다. The request form -아/어 주세요 is the everyday way of asking someone for a favour, and when the person you are doing the favour for deserves extra politeness, 주다 is replaced by the humble verb 드리다. It goes on action verbs only, not on adjectives.
Examples
친구가 저에게 커피를 사 주었습니다.
My friend bought a coffee for me.
친구가 기차표를 대신 예매해 주었습니다.
My friend booked the train ticket for me.
친구가 제 사진을 찍어 주었습니다.
My friend took a photo for me.
친구가 저에게 계곡 사진을 보내 주었습니다.
My friend was kind enough to send me a photo of the valley.
여기에서 사진 좀 찍어 주세요.
Please take a photo for me here.
Common mistakes & nuance
English usually has to spell out 'for me', but Korean rarely does: 주다 already carries the direction of the favour, so 사 주었습니다 on its own is enough and adding 저를 위해 sounds heavy. The other common slip is dropping 주다 altogether — 사진을 찍었습니다 simply reports that a photo was taken, with none of the 'did it for me' meaning.
Similar grammar
- -아/어 보다
Both are auxiliary verbs built on the same -아/어 shape, but -아/어 보다 means trying an action out ('give it a go'), while -아/어 주다 means doing it for somebody else's sake.
- -아/어 드리다
-아/어 드리다 is the humble counterpart of -아/어 주다, used when the person receiving the favour is someone you should speak to or about politely — a customer, a teacher, an older relative.