Grammar
-(ㄴ/는)다
Meaning
Intermediate-(n/neun)da
-(ㄴ/는)다 is the plain declarative ending — the sentence form Korean uses when there is no listener to be polite to: newspaper copy, academic writing, diaries, and talk between close friends. It addresses nobody, which is exactly why printed journalism is written in it. As a tense it is the present, and Korean news uses that present for events still to come: 오후 6시에 발표한다 reports a release set for the evening of the day the piece was filed.
Form
Verb stems take -ㄴ다 after a vowel (발표하다 → 발표한다) and -는다 after a consonant (먹다 → 먹는다); a ㄹ-final stem drops the ㄹ and takes -ㄴ다 (살다 → 산다). Adjectives and 이다 add nothing and stay in their dictionary form: 좋다 is already 좋다, 학생이다 is already 학생이다. Past and future are built on the stem and then end in a bare -다 as well — 발표했다, 발표하겠다, 발표할 것이다 — so the -ㄴ/는 alternation only ever surfaces in the plain present of a verb.
Examples
새 영화가 다음 주에 개봉한다.
The new film opens next week.
Common mistakes & nuance
The gap this ending fills sits between two texts. The lesson bodies on this site are written in -습니다 so that a learner can read them aloud safely, but the source articles they are built from are written in -(ㄴ/는)다: one is addressed to you, the other is addressed to nobody. The ending is therefore worth learning to RECOGNISE first — using -(ㄴ/는)다 at someone in conversation is 반말 and lands as rude unless the two of you are close. The same ending also turns up embedded, in -(ㄴ/는)다는 + N and in reported speech with -(ㄴ/는)다고, where it is doing a grammatical job and carries no register meaning at all.
Similar grammar
- -습니다/-ㅂ니다
Same statement, opposite stance. -습니다 addresses a listener politely and formally, and is what broadcast news, announcements and this site's lesson bodies use; -(ㄴ/는)다 addresses nobody and is what printed news uses. 발표합니다 and 발표한다 report the same release — the choice says who the sentence is aimed at, not what happened.
- -(으)ㄹ 예정이다
Both can report something that has not happened yet. -(ㄴ/는)다 states it as a fact on the calendar, while -(으)ㄹ 예정이다 labels it a plan, and that label is what leaves room for it to change. Where the plain present reads as settled, 예정이다 keeps the announcement audible as an announcement.