Learn how to use the subject marking particles il and ga, and the difference between topic marking particles and subject marking particles
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: The Subject Marking Particles I and Ga. I’m Brandon! |
| Kyejin: 안녕하세요. I'm Kyejin. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the subject marking particles and learn the differences between topic and subject marking particles. The conversation takes place at a coffee shop. |
| Kyejin: It’s between Eunhee and Yeongsu. |
| Brandon: The speakers know each other but are not friends, so they’ll be using formal Korean. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 은희: 이 것은 제 친구의 사진입니다. |
| 영수: 친구의 키가 커요. |
| 은희: 네. 그리고 얼굴이 잘 생겼어요. 아버지가 미남이에요. |
| 영수: 그렇군요. 친구가 한국사람이에요? |
| 은희: 아니요. 친구는 중국사람입니다. 베이징이 고향입니다. |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| 은희: 이 것은 제 친구의 사진입니다. |
| 영수: 친구의 키가 커요. |
| 은희: 네. 그리고 얼굴이 잘 생겼어요. 아버지가 미남이에요. |
| 영수: 그렇군요. 친구가 한국사람이에요? |
| 은희: 아니요. 친구는 중국사람입니다. 베이징이 고향입니다. |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation with English translation |
| 은희: 이 것은 제 친구의 사진입니다. |
| Eunhui: This is my friend's picture. |
| 영수: 친구의 키가 커요. |
| Yeongsu: He's tall. (literally, his height is tall.) |
| 은희: 네. 그리고 얼굴이 잘 생겼어요. 아버지가 미남이에요. |
| Eunhee: Yes. And he's good looking. (literally, his face is good-looking.) His father is handsome. |
| 영수: 그렇군요. 친구가 한국사람이에요? |
| Yeongsu: I see. Is he Korean? |
| 은희: 아니요. 친구는 중국사람입니다. 베이징이 고향입니다. |
| Eunhee: No, he's Chinese. Beijing is his hometown. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Kyejin, I’ve heard that a lot of Korean women like tall guys – is that true? |
| Kyejin: It is! Korean women tend to like taller guys. Actually, I found an interesting survey recently. The average height of Korean men is around 172.5 cm or 5 feet 8 inches, but a recent survey shows that Korean girls want to date someone around 180 cm or 5 feet 11 inches, which is taller than average. |
| Brandon: Interesting. Is there a special reason behind this? |
| Kyejin: I’m not sure what the reason is for this preference, but it does mean that Korean men are very interested in ways to make themselves taller when they are young. Drinking a lot of milk has been one of the popular ways. Also, some men hide blocks in their shoes to make them look taller too. |
| Brandon: Wow, that sounds like a lot of effort! How does that work? |
| Kyejin: Well, By inserting a block in their shoe, Korean men add around 2 or 3 cm or around one inch to their height. Korean women also use these blocks to make themselves closer to 160-165 cm, which is around 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 5 inches tall. |
| Brandon: That’s really interesting! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: The first word is.. |
| Kyejin: 친구 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: friend |
| Kyejin: 친구 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 친구 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 사진 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: picture, photo |
| Kyejin: 사진 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 사진 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 키가 크다 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to be tall |
| Kyejin: 키가 크다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 키가 크다 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 잘 생기다 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: good-looking |
| Kyejin: 잘 생기다 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 잘 생기다 [natural native speed] |
| Next is.. |
| Kyejin: 얼굴 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: face |
| Kyejin: 얼굴 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 얼굴 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 미남 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: a handsome guy, literally a guy of beauty. |
| Kyejin: 미남 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 미남 [natural native speed] |
| Next.. |
| Kyejin: 고향 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: hometown |
| Kyejin: 고향 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 고향 [natural native speed] |
| The next word is.. |
| Kyejin: 서울 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Seoul, the capital of South Korea |
| Kyejin: 서울 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 서울 [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Kyejin: 한국사람 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Korean people |
| Kyejin: 한국사람 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 한국사람 [natural native speed] |
| The last word is.. |
| Kyejin: 그렇군요 [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: I see. I understand. |
| Kyejin: 그렇군요 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kyejin: 그렇군요 [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. First up is.. |
| Kyejin: 얼굴이 잘 생기다. |
| Brandon: meaning "a man is good-looking." |
| Kyejin: It literally means "The face is looking good." 얼굴 (eol-gul) is a word meaning "face", 이 (i) is the subject-marking particle that we're going to learn in the lesson focus. So 얼굴이 (eolguri) means “Face is..” |
| Brandon: What about the second half of the phrase? |
| Kyejin: 잘 생기다 (jal saeng-gida) it literally means “to become very well.” 잘 (jal) is an adjective meaning "very well". 생기다 (saeng-gida) is the verb meaning "to become" or "to look" |
| Brandon: You can use this phrase when a man is good looking –but don’t use it to compliment women. |
| Kyejin: That’s right. When you see a good-looking guy, you can say 얼굴이 잘 생기다 (eolguri jal saeng-gida) to mean “a man is good looking.” I would never say that to a woman. |
| Brandon: In daily conversation, you usually use this expression in the past tense, right? |
| Kyejin: Right. In daily conversation, you use the verb 생기다 (saeng-gi-da) in the past tense, as in 생겼다 (saeng-gyeotta) because his face, or 얼굴 (eol-gul), was technically ‘made’ in the past when he was born, not just now. |
| Brandon: Can we use this expression with other words something like hands instead of face? |
| Kyejin: No you cannot. It should be used as a set, so you can’t replace 얼굴 (eol-gul) with other body parts, for example. But you can drop 얼굴이 (eolguri) and just say 잘 생기다 (jal saeng-gida)to mean a man is good looking. This is an adjective phrase. |
| Brandon: Okay. The best example of this in english is how men are called handsome. Again, you wouldn’t compliment a woman using this word. Can you give us another sentence to describe a man? |
| Kyejin: Sure! 그 배우는 잘 생겼다. 결혼하고 싶다. (geu baeu-neun jal saenggyeotta. gyeol-hon-hago siptta.) |
| Brandon: This means "The actor is good looking. I want to marry him." |
| Kyejin: You can also use the noun 미남 (minam) as in 그 사람은 미남이다 (geu sarameun minamida.) to mean "He's handsome." The word 미남 (minam) literally means “a man of beauty.” |
| Brandon: So, how would you say a woman is attractive in Korean? |
| Kyejin: For women, you say 얼굴이 예쁘다 (eolguri yeppeuda) instead. It literally means "the face is pretty." or just 예쁘다 (yeppeuda) meaning "pretty." |
| Brandon: Just like before, you should only use this to compliment women. Kyejin, what is your preferred way to be complimented in Korean? |
| Kyejin: I like the word 미녀 (minyeo). |
| Brandon: What does the word mean? |
| Kyejin: 녀 is the word meaning “a woman” so 미녀 means “a woman of beauty” or “Beautiful woman.” |
| Brandon: Okay. What’s the next word? |
| Kyejin: Next we have.. 그렇군요. |
| Brandon: meaning "I see" or “I understand.” |
| Kyejin: 그렇다 (geureotta) is a verb you can use to mean "That's right", and -군요 (-gunyo) is a sentence-ending particle that means "doesn’t it?" or "isn't it?" So it literally means "That's right, isn't it." Can you give us an example? |
| Kyejin: Sure! 그렇군요. 재미있는 이야기입니다. (geureokkunyo. jaemi-inneun iyagi-imnida.) |
| Brandon: That means "I see. It's an interesting story." Then Kyejin, can we use it in formal situations? |
| Kyejin: Yes, you can. But when it’s a very formal situation, such as when you’re having a meeting with the CEO of a big company, this expression is not formal enough. |
| Brandon: Then what word should we use? |
| Kyejin: In that case, you can say 네 (ne). This word’s pronunciation is the same as for 네 (ne) or 'yes' in Korean, but make sure you hold it longer than usual. That way, its meaning will become "I see." For example, you need to say 네~ to mean “I see.” When you want to say “yes”, you can say 네. shortly. |
| Brandon: I see. |
| Kyejin: You can also say 아.. (a..) as a filler word. It works the same as 그렇군요 (geureokkunyo.) meaning "I see" but doesn’t interrupt the other speaker too much. |
| Brandon: Be careful not to interrupt another person while they’re speaking, especially if the other person is older than you, or in a higher position. |
| Kyejin: It might seem like you’re interrupting them if you say 그렇군요 (geureokkunyo.) too much, so be careful. |
| Brandon: Okay, now let’s move on to the Lesson Focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Kyejin: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the Subject marking particles - 가(ga), 이(i) |
| Brandon: You’ll also learn the differences between topic and subject marking particles. |
| Kyejin: In the dialogue, we saw the subject marking particle in the sentence “친구가 한국사람이에요?” |
| Brandon: meaning “Is your friend Korean?” |
| Kyejin: Here, we used the subject marking particle 가(ga) after the noun 친구 (chingu) meaning “friend” - 친구가 (chinguja.) |
| Brandon: What else can you tell us about subject marking particles? |
| Kyejin: -이 and 가 (i/ ga) are the subject-marking particles. You can use one of these particles to mark a noun as the subject. |
| Brandon: You attach these particles to the end of a word to indicate that it's the subject of the sentence. Can you give us an example? |
| Kyejin: Sure. Let’s use what we had in the dialogue. “친구가 한국 사람이에요?” In this sentence, you use the subject marking particle 가 with the noun 친구 meaning “friend” to mark 친구 (chinju) as the subject of this sentence. |
| Brandon: Okay. When you use subject marking particles, where should you put them? |
| Kyejin: It's simple. Say the noun, then add one of the subject marking particles 이(i) or 가 (ga) right after the noun. |
| Brandon: That seems easy enough. Let’s talk about the three main functions of the subject marking particle. |
| Kyejin: The first function is to mark the subject of the sentence. -이/가 (i/ga) is the standard particle used to mark the subject of the sentence. That’s why they are called subject marking particles. |
| Brandon: Kyejin, how do you know which of these two particles to use? |
| Kyejin: Well the two subject marking particles, 이 (i) and 가 (ga), do the same thing, which is, indicate the subject of the sentence. |
| Brandon: The particle you use depends on the word that it follows. |
| Kyejin: You use 이 (i) when the subject ends with a consonant, as in 일본사람이 아닙니다 (ilbonsaram-i animnida) meaning “I’m not a Japanese person.” The subject is 일본사람 (ilbonsaram), and it ends in ㅁ (-m), which is a consonant. Therefore, you’d use 이 (i) here. |
| Brandon: Ok, sow what about the other particle? |
| Kyejin: You use 가 (ga) when the subject ends with a vowel, as in 가수가 아닙니다 (gasu-ga animnida) meaning “I’m not a singer.” The subject is 가수 (gasu) meaning “singer”, and it ends in ㅜ (u), which is a vowel. Therefore, you’d use 가 (ga) here. |
| Brandon: Okay, let’s move on to the second function. |
| Kyejin: You can use the subject marking particle to introduce a subject for the first time. |
| Brandon: For example, when you meet someone for the first time and want to ask his or her name, you can use the subject-marking particle 이(i) or 가(ga). Can we have an example? |
| Kyejin: How about 이름이 무엇입니까? (ireumi mueossimnikka?) “What’s your name?” Literally, this is “Your name is what?” Here, I used the subject-marking particle 이 (i) next to the noun 이름 (ireum) meaning “name.” because I’m going to talk about someone’s name for the first time. |
| Brandon: How would that person answer the question? Is the other going to use the subject-marking particle too? |
| Kyejin: They might answer using the topic-marking particle ‘은 (eun)’ because the topic is already introduced. Note that you can use the subject marking particle when it’s introduced for the first time. So the other would say.. 제 이름은 브랜든입니다. (je ireumeun beuraen-deun-imnida.) meaning “My name is Brandon.” |
| Brandon: I see. As we talked about in the last lesson, the other person would use the topic-marking particle because you’ve already started talking about the subject. Now let’s move on to third function of this particle. |
| Kyejin: You can use the subject marking particle to talk about existence with the verbs 아니다 (annida) meaning “not”, 있다 (itta) meaning “to exist” , and 없다 (eopta) means “not to exist.” Generally speaking, whenever you have these verbs in a sentence, you use the subject marking particle to mark what exists and what doesn't exist. |
| Brandon: Can we have some examples please? |
| Kyejin: OK! First is 학생이 아닙니다. |
| Brandon: This means “(I) am not a student.” the I is implied So literally it translates to “am not a student”. |
| Kyejin: 선미 씨가 있습니다. |
| Brandon: “Seonmi is there.” Literally, this translates too “SeonMi exists” |
| Kyejin: 선생님이 없습니다. |
| Brandon: “There’s not a teacher.” Literally, this is “The teacher doesn’t exist.” |
| Brandon: Now let’s move on to talk about the differences between topic marking particles and subject marking particles. This might be a little confusing for new Korean learners, so here are the ways to distinguish them. |
| Kyejin: Number 1 - if the topic or noun is being introduced for the first time, use subject-marking particles 이/가 (ii or ga). If the topic or noun has already been introduced, use the topic-marking particles 은/는 (eun or neun). |
| Brandon: Number 2 - if you’re going to talk about one thing in a group of items or people, use the topic-marking particles. But if you only want to talk about one item, not as a part of a group, use the subject-marking particles. Kyejin, can you give us an example situation please? |
| Kyejin: Sure! Let’s say you’re a teacher and you’re talking about three people and you want to check if they did their homework or not. In this case, you can use topic-marking particles. |
| Brandon: So, For example, if the teacher asks who did the homework and only Michael did it, the conversation would go like this... |
| Kyejin: - 누가 숙제를 했습니까? (nuga sukjereul hasseumnikka?) |
| Brandon: “Who did the homework?”, Then the answer... |
| Kyejin: 마이클은 숙제를 했습니다. (maikeureun sukje-reul hasseumnida.) |
| Brandon: Meaning “Michael did the homework.” |
| Kyejin: Here, I used the topic marking particle 은, not the subject-marking particle, because 마이클 is mentioned here as a part of a group. |
| Brandon: It implies that some of the other students did not do the homework. Now, if you want to make a factual statement, that is not counting Michael as a part of a group, the conversation would go like this... |
| Kyejin: 마이클이 숙제를 했습니까? (maikeuri sukjereul hasseumnikka?) |
| Brandon: Meaning “Did Michael do the homework?” |
| Kyejin: And the answer… 마이클이 숙제를 했습니다. (maikeuri sukjereul hasseumnida.) |
| Brandon: Meaning “Michael did the homework.” |
| Kyejin: Here, I used the subject marking particle 이 because we don’t consider Michael as part of a group. |
Outro |
| Brandon: And that’s all we have for this lesson. Make sure you check the lesson notes for more information and examples on this lesson. Thanks for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Kyejin: 안녕히 계세요. |
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