subject/topic particles

[Bouks]

Could someone explain the difference between the topic marking particle (eun/neun) and the subject marking particle (i/ga)? It's not always clear to me why one is used rather than the other. Actually, I can understand the use of eun/neun most of the time, but sometimes when i/ga is used, I wonder why eun/neun wasn't used instead.

[austinfd]

Could someone explain the difference between the topic marking particle (eun/neun) and the subject marking particle (i/ga)? It's not always clear to me why one is used rather than the other. Actually, I can understand the use of eun/neun most of the time, but sometimes when i/ga is used, I wonder why eun/neun wasn't used instead.

No easy task... like you, I'm sure I don't always understand when to use with one.

My nugget of help is that 은/는 is used to draw a contrast with something. If everyone is introducing themselves and talking about their job/nationality/likes/dislikes etc, they will use 은/는. It suggests that what they say is true for them, and is probably different from everyone else.

So I try to use 는/은 in those situations.


That's really all I can confidently say. This is one of those things that doesn't have a counterpart in English, so it is really difficult for Korean-learners to fully get. I'm sure whole doctoral dissertations are written on this topic.

[Keith]

great question Bouks Generally speaking... (and this is being very general)... 이/가 the subject marking particle is used when you're making a simple sentence.

민호가 학생입니다. - Minho is a student. A very plain and simple sentence.

But as Austin mentioned, 은/는 is used as a contrast particle in many cases. I've been recently explaining it as "As for..." Such as you would do in English.

민호는 학생입니다. - As for Minho... (He's) a student.

And things get really tricky when you get into the double particle sentences... But let's save that for a later tame shall we?

[Bouks]

Austin: No doubt there are grammarians and linguists making entire careers out of these particles! I studied Japanese in the past, and they use particles in a similar way. So I thought they wouldn't be any worse in Korean. But sometimes they seem to escape any logic (in either language), and I can't get a feel for them. But what you said about eun/neun makes a lot of sense.

Keith: Your explanation really clarifies things. Could you put what you and Austin wrote here somewhere in the Grammar Bank or in one of the lesson PDFs? I'm going to stick with this advice, so that when double-particle sentences come at me later, I can stare them right in the eye and growl, "Bring it on!"