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Basics 1
Basics 1
Basics 1
29 8 165
To Be
In this lesson we're going to learn how to make some sentences using the verb ~이다,
corresponding to the English verb to be. Let's get started!
Nouns
Korean nouns do not decline for number, case, or gender. The noun is the noun. Period.
Simpler than English.
While that may seem scary, agglutinating languages usually have very clear rules so that
people don't get confused when a basic word becomes buried inside a larger piece. The same
is true for Korean. This means that you don't have to worry about memorizing exceptions to
the rules, like we do in English!
And
One common piece is and. Unlike in English where there is one word for "and" that can
function in all situations, Korean has several. We introduce three here; all of which are used
with nouns.
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The most common, and trickiest, particles represent the topic and the subject of a sentences.
Basics 1
These two particles represent two different, but overlapping,29
ideas. 8 165
The topic marker adds emphasis, contrast, or limits what is being talked about. 저 (meaning
"I") becomes 제 before the subject particle 가.
은/는 can be used with general statements as well because you only want to talk about the
notion as a group, and nothing else.
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A sentence may have several topics. Why a topic is not considered as a special case of a
subject will be explained later.
Copula
The verb ~이다 is the only verb that is agglutinative.
English Korean
(It) is X. X입니다.*
Y is X. Y가/는 X입니다.
In the speech level (more about that later) we're using at this point in the course, this verb
will always be realized as ~입니다 for a statement.
To Not Be
Korean has a separate verb, 아니다, which means "not to be." This verb is not agglutinative,
and it comes after the thing that the subject is not, or a complement. The complement
particle is also 이/가. At this point, this will always be realized as 아닙니다.
English Korean
PLURAL MARKER 들
There is a plural suffix, 들, but using 들 is often optional. It can be omitted if plurality is
implied within the sentence, and is otherwise necessary for animate nouns/people but
uncommon with inanimate nouns.
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의
As an exception, 의 as a particle (meaning of) can also be pronounced 에.
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