Learn how to use the topic marking particles 는 (neun) and 은 (eun)
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: The Topic Marking Particles Eun and Neun. I’m Brandon! |
| Kyejin: 안녕하세요. I'm Kyejin. |
| Brandon: Kyejin, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Kyejin: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the topic marking particles 은 (eun) and 는 (neun.) |
| Brandon: The conversation takes place at a restaurant. |
| Kyejin: It’s between Yeonghui and Cheol-su. |
| Brandon: The speakers are meeting for the first time, so they’ll be using formal Korean. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 영희: 안녕하세요. 제 이름은 김영희입니다. 만나서 반가워요. |
| 철수: 김영희씨요? 하하. 제 아내도 김영희에요. 저는 이철수입니다. |
| 영희: 아, 정말 우연입니다! 이 것은 제 명함입니다. |
| 철수: 아, 감사합니다. 이 식당은 어떻습니까? |
| 영희: 정말 좋아요. |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| 영희: 안녕하세요. 제 이름은 김영희입니다. 만나서 반가워요. |
| 철수: 김영희씨요? 하하. 제 아내도 김영희에요. 저는 이철수입니다. |
| 영희: 아, 정말 우연입니다! 이 것은 제 명함입니다. |
| 철수: 아, 감사합니다. 이 식당은 어떻습니까? |
| 영희: 정말 좋아요. |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation with English translation |
| 영희: 안녕하세요. 제 이름은 김영희입니다. 만나서 반가워요. |
| Yeonghui: Hello. I'm Kim Yeonghui. It's nice to meet you. |
| 철수: 김영희씨요? 하하. 제 아내도 김영희에요. 저는 이철수입니다. |
| Cheolsu: Your name is Kim Yoneghui? (Laughs) My wife's name is Kim Yeonghui too. I'm Yi Cheolsu. |
| 영희: 아, 정말 우연입니다! 이 것은 제 명함입니다. |
| Yonghee: That’s really a coincidence! This is my business card. |
| 철수: 아, 감사합니다. 이 식당은 어떻습니까? |
| Cheolsu: Ah, thank you. What do you think about this restaurant? |
| 영희: 정말 좋아요. |
| Yeonghee: It's very nice. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Kyejin, what can you tell us about etiquette for the first time you meet someone in Korea? |
| Kyejin: When you meet someone for the first time, the conversation will get off to a great start if you can find something you have in common. For example, you can ask the other person if they have been to your home country, then start talking about your country and that person’s trip. |
| Brandon: If I wanted to ask someone if they’d ever been to my home country, the US, how would I do that in Korean? |
| Kyejin: That would be 미국에 간 적 있으세요? (miguge gan jeok isseuseyo?) meaning "Have you ever been to the U.S.? Of course, you can replace 미국 with your country name or place name to ask if someone has been to a specific place. |
| Brandon: Great! Moving on, you can try to ask more private question such as whether the person has kids, and if they do, how old their kids are. Then you could start talking about life with kids. |
| Kyejin: Right – even if it’s your first time meeting that person, don't worry about asking a few questions so that you can find a topic you can both talk about. You will get to know them more quickly, and the conversations you have from then on will go more smoothly. |
| Brandon: What do you usually ask people when you meet someone for the first time? |
| Kyejin: Hmm, when I meet someone for the first time, I ask them what they studied at college. I was interested in a variety of topics when I was at college, which meant I went to many different types of classes. |
| Brandon: So you think college subjects and majors are good topics, because people are more comfortable talking about them, right? |
| Kyejin: Right. It also gives me a chance to ask them about other related topics, like their professions or life at college. |
| Brandon: That sounds like a good conversation starter. Okay, now let’s move onto the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: The first word is.. |
| Kyejin: 저 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: I (humble) |
| Kyejin: 저 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 저 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 제 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: my (humble-form) |
| Kyejin: 제 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 제 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 은 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: topic marking particle for words ending with a consonant |
| Kyejin: 은 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 은 [natural native speed] |
| Next... |
| Kyejin: 는 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: topic marking particle for words ending with a vowel |
| Kyejin: 는 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 는 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 아내 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: wife |
| Kyejin: 아내 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 아내 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 우연 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: coincidence |
| Kyejin: 우연 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 우연 [natural native speed] |
| Next.. |
| Kyejin: 명함 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: business card |
| Kyejin: 명함 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 명함 [natural native speed] |
| Next.. |
| Kyejin: 식당 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: restaurant |
| Kyejin: 식당 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 식당 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 어떻습니까? [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: how is…? (as in a question) |
| Kyejin: 어떻습니까? [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 어떻습니까? [natural native speed] |
| And last we have.. |
| Kyejin: 정말 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: really, for real |
| Kyejin: 정말 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 정말 [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What do we have first, Kyejin? |
| Kyejin: 제 |
| Brandon: This means "my". |
| Kyejin: 제 (je) is the simplified form of the two words 저 (jeo) and 의 (ui). 저 (jeo) is the pronoun meaning "I" and 의 (ui) is the possessive particle meaning something like "of". The word 저의 (jeo-ui) literally means "of I" or "mine." |
| Brandon: When can you use this phrase? |
| Kyejin: In daily conversation, Korean people say 제 (je) instead of 저의 (jeo-ui) to mean "mine." Listeners, please keep in mind that you can use 저의 only in formal situations, because 저 (jeo) is the humble pronoun. |
| Brandon: What can you say in a casual situation? |
| Kyejin: For casual situations, you can use the pronoun 나 (na) to mean “I.” and the possessive particle 의 (ui.) So "My" in casual form is 내 (nae). |
| Brandon: Can you give us an example? |
| Kyejin: Sure! Let me make a sentence using 제 (je) meaning “mine.” 제 이름은 우진입니다. 제 고향은 서울입니다. (je ireumeun ujin imnida. je gohyangeun seoul-imnida.) |
| Brandon: This means "My name is Ujin. My hometown is Seoul." |
| Kyejin: Using the same pattern, you can simplify 네 (ne) to say 너의 (neo-ui), meaning "your", and 걔 (gyae) to say 그 애의 (geu ae-ui) meaning “his” or “her”. |
| Brandon: Okay, next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 이름 |
| Brandon: This mean "name". Can you use this only in formal situations? |
| Kyejin: No, You can use the word 이름 (ireum) in both formal and informal situations. |
| Brandon: But in very formal situations where you need to show more respect, like business meetings or when you’re asking your teacher their name, it's better to use a different word, which is… |
| Kyejin: 성함 (seongham). For example, you can say 그 분의 성함은.. (geu bunui seonghameun) to mean "his name is.." when you want to address someone with respect, usually a person with a higher position. |
| Brandon: And we have another word meaning “name” that you can use in legal documents, right? |
| Kyejin: Right. In legal documents, you can also find the word 성명 (seong-myeong) which means "name." You can only use 성함 (seongham) and 성명 (seongmyeong) to address someone elses name, not yours. |
| Brandon: I see. Can you give us another example? |
| Kyejin: Sure! Using the word 이름 (ireum) meaning “name”, you can say.. 이 책의 이름은 '어린왕자'입니다. (ichaegui irumeun 'eo-rinwang-ja imnida.) |
| Brandon: That means "The name of this book is ‘Little Prince.’” Okay, now let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Kyejin: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the Topic marking particles 은 and 는. In the dialogue, we had the sentence 이 것은 제 명함입니다. |
| Brandon: That means “This IS my business card.” |
| Kyejin: Here, you can find the particle -은(eun) after the pronoun 이것 (igot) meaning “this.” The particle 은 or 는 is called the topic marking particle and it’s placed after a noun to mark it as the topic being discussed. |
| Brandon: Okay, now let’s go over three ways you can use the topic particle. |
| Kyejin: Firstly, you can use it when you want to bring attention to the topic. |
| Brandon: It can mark what you want to want to talk about. For example, when there’s a lull in the conversation and you want to bring up a topic to talk about, you can use the topic marking particle to introduce that new topic. |
| Kyejin: Next, you can use it when you want to clarify the topic. |
| Brandon: If a topic has already been introduced into the conversation, it’s old information. If it’s old information, you don’t have to mention the topic again. In other words, you can drop topics and subjects from the sentence. But if you want to clarify what you’re talking about, you can use the topic marking particle. |
| Kyejin: However, listeners, please note that you need to use a SUBJECT marking particle when you introduce a topic or a noun for the first time. You’ll learn more about this in lesson two. |
| Brandon: Kyejin, Is there another reason you’d use the topic marking particle? |
| Kyejin: Yes, When you want to emphasize the differences between two items. |
| Brandon: So you can use the topic marking particle to contrast items. Can you give us some examples please? |
| Kyejin: First up, we have 저는 한국 사람입니다 (jeo-neun hanguk saramimnida) meaning “I am Korean”. Then we have 저는 일본 사람입니다 (jeo-neun ilbon saramimnida) meaning “I am Japanese”. |
| Brandon: Here, the first sentence has the topic marking particle because it’s bringing a new topic of conversation to attention. The second sentence uses the topic marking particle to make the contrast that the person is not Korean, but rather Japanese. Kyejin, you said we’d be talking about two topic marking particles, what are they, and how do you know which one to use when? |
| Kyejin: They are - 은 (eun) and 는 (neun). You can use 는 (neun) when the subject ends with a vowel. |
| Brandon: Can you give us an example? |
| Kyejin: Sure. When you use the pronoun 저 (jeo) meaning “I”, you can find that it ends in a vowel 어 (eo). In that case, you need to use the topic marking particle 는. For example, 저는 한국사람 입니다. (Jeo-neun han-guk-sa-ram imnida.) |
| Brandon: This means “I am Korean”. Can you break this down? |
| Kyejin: Sure! We had 저는 (jeoneun) meaning "I" in this sentence. 저 (jeo) ends in an 어(eo) sound, which is a vowel. Therefore, it becomes 저는 (jeoneun) using the particle 는(neun). |
| Brandon: Great, Let’s have a couple more examples. |
| Kyejin: OK! We have 비행기는 bihaengineun meaning "a plane IS...". 비행기 (bihaengi) ends in an -i sound, which is a vowel. Therefore, it becomes 비행기는 (bihaengineun) |
| Brandon: Ok, and next? |
| Kyejin: There’s 커피는 keopineun meaning "coffee is". 커피 (keopi) ends in an -i sound, which is a vowel. Therefore, it becomes 커피는 (keopineun) |
| Brandon: Now let’s talk about the other particle. |
| Kyejin: You can use this other particle, 은 (eun), when the subject ends with a consonant. For example, 제 이름은 데비 입니다. (Je ireumeun debi imnida.) |
| Brandon: This means “My name is Debbie.” Let’s have some more examples. |
| Kyejin: OK. First up is 물은 mureun meaning "Water is". 물 (mul) meaning water ends in an -l sound, which is a consonant, so it becomes 물은 (mureun) meaning “Water is..”. Next we have 밥은 babeun meaning "rice is". |
| 밥 (bab) meaning rice, ends in a -b sound, which is a consonant, so it becomes 밥은 (babeun) |
Outro |
| Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson. To reinforce what you’ve learned, please check the lesson notes. And if you have any questions or comments, please leave us a post at KoreanClass101.com. Thanks for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Kyejin: 안녕히 계세요. |
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