Korean Weather Words: 보다 Comparisons, -아/어서 and -지만
Compare weather in Korean: 보다 says hotter than yesterday (어제보다 더워요), -아/어서 gives reasons, -지만 links contrasts — plus why 덥다 becomes 더워요 in the ㅂ pattern.
Published:
Written by Alvin Lim Certified Korean Language Teacher (Level 2)
Korean weather talk runs on three little connectors: 보다 compares (어제보다 더워요 — it is hotter than yesterday), -아/어서 explains (더워서 싫어요 — I hate it because it is hot), and -지만 concedes (춥지만 좋아요 — it is cold, but I like it). Add ten weather words and the world’s favorite small-talk topic is yours in Korean.
Ten words for any forecast
Most weather words are descriptive verbs — 덥다, 춥다, 따뜻하다, 시원하다 name a state and conjugate just like the action verbs you know.
Notice that rain and snow come in Korean: 비가 와요, 눈이 와요 — the same 오다 from your first verb lessons. For mountains, sea, and seasons to wrap around these words, the nature vocabulary pack stacks straight on top.
Hotter than yesterday: 보다
Korean comparisons need no special verb form: keep the adjective as it is and tag the baseline with 보다.
어제보다 더워요 = it is hotter than yesterday. 오늘이 어제보다 더 추워요 = today is even colder than yesterday. 여름보다 겨울을 더 좋아해요 = I like winter more than summer. 덜 flips the direction: 오늘은 어제보다 덜 추워요 = today is less cold than yesterday.
The 보다 chunk is mobile: 오늘이 어제보다 더워요 and 어제보다 오늘이 더워요 both work — the particle, not the word order, carries the meaning. 더 is technically optional, since 보다 alone already means “than,” but real speech sprinkles it in constantly.
It is hot, so… : -아/어서
더워서 싫어요 = I hate it because it is hot. 비가 와서 집에 있어요 = it is raining, so I am staying home. 날씨가 좋아서 기분이 좋아요 = the weather is nice, so I feel good.
The vowel choice is the Lesson 6 rule recycled: stems whose last vowel is ㅏ or ㅗ take 아서 (좋다 → 좋아서), everything else takes 어서, and 하다 becomes 해서. Two habits to build early: the polite 요 never squeezes in before 서, and tense lives at the end of the sentence — 비가 와서 집에 있었어요 keeps the 서 clause bare. (기분 = mood, a free bonus word.)
Cold but nice: -지만
춥지만 좋아요 = it is cold, but I like it. 비가 오지만 따뜻해요 = it is raining, but it is warm. 한국어는 어렵지만 재미있어요 = Korean is hard, but fun.
-지만 is the easy one: it glues onto any stem with zero vowel-matching — 덥지만, 춥지만, 오지만, 하지만. (어렵다 = to be difficult.) When the halves of a sentence pull in opposite directions, -지만 is the hinge; when one half causes the other, switch back to -아/어서.
Why does 덥다 become 더워요?
You may have caught 덥다 and 춥다 misbehaving: by the Lesson 6 rule, 덥 + 어요 should give 덥어요 — yet every Korean says 더워요. They are ㅂ-irregular words.
Before a vowel ending, ㅂ drops out and 우 steps in: 덥다 → 더워요, 더워서. 춥다 → 추워요, 추워서. Consonant endings change nothing: 덥지만 and 춥지만 keep the ㅂ. The full rule arrives in grade 2 — for now, learn 더워요 and 추워요 as words.
따뜻하다 and 시원하다 stay perfectly regular — they are 하다 words, so 따뜻해요 and 시원해요 hold no surprises. File the irregular pair away for now; grade 2 will explain it properly.
Weather small talk, live
Three connectors in four bubbles: 보다 opens the comparison, -아/어서 justifies the complaint, -지만 rescues winter’s reputation. Real weather talk is exactly this — opinions, reasons, concessions, not just “it is cold.”
FAQ
Does 보다 always need 더? No — 보다 alone already means “than,” so 어제보다 더워요 is complete. 더 (more) just adds emphasis, and speech is full of it: 어제보다 더 더워요. The opposite is 덜 (less): 오늘은 어제보다 덜 추워요 = today is less cold than yesterday.
How do I choose between -아/어서 and -지만? -아/어서 links a reason to its result: 더워서 싫어요 = I hate it because it is hot. -지만 links two facts that pull in opposite directions: 덥지만 좋아요 = it is hot, but I like it. Quick test: if English wants “so/because,” use -아/어서; if it wants “but,” use -지만.
Do all words ending in ㅂ change like 덥다? No — 덥다 and 춥다 drop the ㅂ and add 워요 (더워요, 추워요), but some ㅂ stems are perfectly regular: 입다 → 입어요 (to wear), 좁다 → 좁아요 (to be narrow). For grade 1, memorize 더워요 and 추워요 as words; the full ㅂ-irregular rule gets its own lesson in grade 2.
Next: Korean past tense — -았/었어요. Previous: hobbies and saying what you like. Full path: curriculum hub.