It was necessary to wear the mask in Korean 🇰🇷

Sentence info.

마스크를 써야 했어요
• 마스크 (mask) – “mask”; romanized: mas-keu
• 를 – object particle indicating what is being acted upon; romanized: reul
• 써야 – form of the verb 쓰다 (“to wear/use”) combined with -야, showing necessity (“must wear”); romanized: sseoya
• 했어요 – past tense of 하다 (“to do”), completing the construction that something “had to be done”—in this case, wearing the mask; romanized: haesseoyo

Overall, the sentence literally means “I had to do [the act of] wearing the mask.”

Tip: Notice that the structure “verb stem + -야 하다” expresses necessity. To say something was required, you simply conjugate 하다 in the appropriate tense. Practice with different verbs (e.g., 공부하다 → 공부해야 했어요 for “had to study”) to remember the pattern.

Alternate expressions:
• 마스크를 착용해야 했어요 (“착용하다” means “to wear” in a formal or technical sense; romanized: mas-keu-reul chag-yonghaeya haesseoyo)
• 마스크를 써야만 했어요 (adding -만 emphasizes “had no choice but to wear”; romanized: mas-keu-reul sseoyaman haesseoyo)

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