Lesson 4 - Using the Korean Copulas
Hello everyone!
I’m back with another grammar point post and today it’s about the verbs to be and not to be (very Shakespearean, I know; the reference isn’t wanted, though).
Why am I dedicating a whole post to this part of grammar? It's important for your particle usage and, also, it’s good to know when and how you can use them, too.
The copula and its negative counterpart are used constantly by Korean people, and, today, we’ll see the easiest ways you can read/hear/use them.
Let’s start with the positive copula:
Its dictionary form (how you can find it in the dictionary and not conjugated into any tense) is 이다, and its English version is the verb ‘to be’. How do you use this copula? You attach it to the nouns you need to express the meaning of the verb. It seems hard if said in this way, but it’s actually pretty simple. I’ll show you throw examples.
Imagine you have three words. Two nouns (나 I, 선생님 teacher) and one verb, the copula 이다. To put them in order, remember the rules I explained last time talking about the sentence making (if you don’t remember, click here).
First goes the subject and then goes the verb. In this case, the subject will be 나, so you have to choose which of the two particles explained you need to use (if you don’t remember, click here). You have two options, considering it’s a vowel ending noun, you can either use the topic particle -는 or the subject particle -가 [Note that this noun has a different form with the subject particles]. The noun 선생님 will go with the verb 이다, which, as I previously mentioned, will be directly attached to it.
The result will either be 1. 나는 선생님이다 I’m a teacher, or 2. 내가 선생님이다 I’m a teacher. [The verb hasn’t been conjugated, I’ll explain how conjugation works in a bit].
Now, let’s move onto the negative copula:
The negative copula is 아니다 which could be translated into to not be in English. It's got a different form from the positive copula. It is not attached to the noun preceding it. Instead, the noun is attached to the subject particle and the verb stands alone in the sentence.
Again, it seems harder than it actually is, so I’ll go on with showing some examples.
Imagine someone asks you something like ‘미국 사람이에요? (are you from the US?)’ and the answer is negative. In this case, you will need to use the negative copula.
Again, first goes the subject which is 나 I, and the other nouns 미국 사람 are the ones that will be attached to the subject particle -이 since they end with a consonant.
The result will either be 아니요*,나는 미국 사람이 아니다 No, I’m not from the US or 아니요, 내가 미국 사람이 아니다 No, I' m not from the US.
*Note that when replying to a question like this one, the negative answer will start with this word 이니요 which corresponds to the English No.
Important: Most times, when you’re expressing a negative sentence about yourself, you’ll have to use the topic marker, depending on what the topic of the conversation was before. If it was someone else who had previously replied to the same kind of question, then you will need to use the topic marker to distinguish your answer from the other’s one. If the topic of the conversation was still you, then you can easily use the subject marker instead.
Let’s make some examples so that you can understand completely:
A: 이름이 뭐예요?
What's your name?
B: 나는 민수예요
I’m Minsoo
A: 어느 나라 사람이에요?
Where are you from?
B: (내가) 한국 사람이에요*
I’m from Korea / I’m Korean
*Note that in cases like this, you can omit the subject in the sentence. Why? Because when you’re talking about the same subject, there’s no need to express it all over again.
A: 민수 씨, 빙수를 좋아해요?
B: 네, 나는 아주 좋아해요
A: 지민 씨는요?
C: 나는 빙수를 싫어해요
{는요/은요 correspond to the English meaning of ‘How about?’ and ‘What about?’; it’s used in questions}
How to conjugate them?
Let’s start with the present tense, as it’s the easiest tense to conjugate them into.
The positive copula depends on what the noun’s final letter is, can be -예요 or -이에요. The first one is for the nouns ending a vowel, whereas the latter one is for the nouns ending with a consonant.
Consonant ending nouns
한국 사람이에요
__ is Korean
초콜릿이에요
__ is chocolate
Vowel ending nouns
친구예요
__ is a friend
피자예요
__ is a pizza
The negative copula is the same for any noun ending, the only thing that changes is the subject particle you need to use. It’s conjugated into 아니예요.
Vowel ending noun
요리사가 아니예요
__ is not a cook
Consonant ending noun
책이 아니예요
__ is not a book
I'll see you soon with another grammar point post!
구름
Comments
Post a Comment