I know you guys are very confused about when to use 되 or 돼 [dwe] (also 뵈 or 봬 [bwe]). Distinguishing 되 and 돼 (뵈 or 봬) is the trickiest grammar point even for native speakers.
There are so many typos written by native speakers as well as Korean learners. I’m absolutely sure you guys will be able to catch such misspellings after understanding the very simple tip below. If you already know the usage of the 하다 [hada] verb, here’s a really easy rule of thumb.
Can you see the difference between left column and right column? Theoretically and grammatically, 하 [ha], 되 and 뵈 belong to a group. The left ones ends with simple ㅏ or ㅚ. Let’s think of it as the group A.
When ㅓ is added after 되, it becomes 돼. When ㅓ is added after 뵈, it becomes 봬. The right ones are the characters, which end with ㅐ. We can call it Group B.
From now on, we are gonna break down the process, which let you know when to use 되 or 돼. As an example, let’s see which sentence is correct between 공부 안 되요 and 공부 안 돼요 [gongbu an dweyo].
- [Isolation] Take out the word that has 되/돼 from the sentence. So here, 되요 and 돼요.
- [Replacement] Replace 되 with 하 (Group A) , and 돼 with 해 (Group B). So 되요 -> 하요, 돼요 -> 해요 [heyo].
- See which one makes sense (This is why you need to know 하다 verb to use this rule!). In this case, 해요 is the one that sounds alright, right?
- [Substitution] Substitute the correct one back and we have the answer.
The correct sentence is “공부 안 돼요. [gongbu an dweyo] (I couldn’t study)”
This rule also can be used to determine when to use 뵈 or 봬. Let’s see which sentence is correct between 내일 뵈요 and 내일 봬요 [neil bweyo]. We are gonna simplify the rule we just learned.
- [Isolation] : 뵈요 / 봬요
- [Replacement] : 뵈요 -> 하요 / 봬요 -> 해요 (해요 is correct, right?)
- [Substitution] : 내일 봬요
Okay, we got it. “내일 봬요 [neil bweyo] (See you tomorrow)” is correct.
There are so many Korean typos I’ve seen in news articles and subtitles of Korean TV shows. Can you spot the Korean misspelling below?
Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about 되/돼 and 뵈/봬 in speaking. The sounds of 되/돼 and 뵈/봬 are perfectly identical. (Well… theoretically, there is a tiny difference in pronunciation, but people don’t make that difference when speaking. Nobody cares about it!) When you see these spelling mistakes, please correct them! 😀 They are really confusing to Koreans as well because they have no difference in sound.
- wiki. 되와 돼의 구분. 2015. Available at: https://namu.wiki/w/%EB%90%98%EC%99%80%20%EB%8F%BC%EC%9D%98%20%EA%B5%AC%EB%B6%84. Accessed October 18, 2015.
- Twitter. 국립국어원 on Twitter. 2015. Available at: https://twitter.com/urimal365/status/473677739812089856. Accessed October 18, 2015.