To be: 이다
Now its time to learn how to make an actual sentence using the word 'to be.' English speakers often don't realize how difficult this word is in English. Look at the following examples:
I am a man
He is a man
They are men
I was a man
They were men
In each of those sentences, the word 'to be' is represented by a different word (is/am/are/was/were) depending on the subject and tense of the sentence. Luckily, in Korean, the same word is used to represent is, am, are, was and were. This word is 이다
이다 should not be thought of as a verb or an adjective in Korean, as in most cases it acts differently. I will teach you how 이다 differs from verbs and adjectives as it becomes important (in future lessons).
Sometimes however, 이다 is somewhat similar to adjectives. Remember that sentences ending with adjectives do not have objects in them. Whenever a sentence is predicated by an adjective, there will be no object in the sentence. Only sentences with verbs have objects. Let's look at some examples:
I eat hamburgers (eat is a verb, the object is a hamburger)
I meet my friend (meet is a verb, the object is my friend)
I study Korean (study is a verb, the object is Korean)
I listen to music (listen is a verb, the object is music)
All of those sentences (can) have objects because the verb is the predicate of the sentence. However, in sentences that are predicated by adjectives:
I am pretty
I am beautiful
I am hungry
I am smart
This means that we can never use the particle ~을/를 in a sentence predicated by an adjective (because ~을/를 denotes that there is an object). The object particle is also not used when using the word "이다." The basic structure for a sentence predicated by "이다" is:
[noun은/는] [another noun] [이다]
For example:
I는 man이다 = I am a man
Now substitute the words for "man" and "I:"
나 = I
남자 = man
나는 + 남자 + 이다
이다 gets attached directly to the noun. So, the above construction looks like:
나는 남자이다 = I am a man
It is very important that you remember that ~를/을 is not attached to words in sentences with "이다." The following would be very incorrect:
나는 남자를 이다.
이다 is the only word that acts like this, and is one of the reasons why you should treat it differently than other verbs or adjectives.
The focus of this lesson (and Lessons 2 and 3) is to introduce you to simple Korean sentence structure. Until you reach Lesson 5 and Lesson 6 you will not be exposed to the conjugations and honorifics of Korean verbs, adjectives and 이다.
In reality, these words are never (or very very rarely) used without these conjugations and honorifics. Therefore, while I stress the importance of understanding the structure of the sentences presented in this Lessons 1, 2, 3 and 4 do not use the sentences in any form of communication with Korean people, as they will most likely not be understood. In order to completely understand what is presented in Lessons 5 and 6 (and for the rest of your Korean studies), it is essential that you understand what is presented in these first four lessons – even though they may be seen as "technically incorrect."
For all of the "technically incorrect" (un-conjugated) sentences presented in Lesson 1 – 4 I will provide a correct (conjugated) version of the same sentence in parenthesis below the un-conjugated version (one formal and one informal conjugation). Note one more time that you will not understand these conjugations until Lessons 5 and 6(for verbs and adjectives) and Lesson 9 (for 이다).
Other examples of 이다 in use:
나는 여자이다 = I am a woman
(나는 여자야 / 저는 여자예요)
나는 선생님이다 = I am a teacher
(나는 선생님이야 / 저는 선생님이에요)
나는 사람이다 = I am a person
(나는 사람이야 / 저는 사람이에요)
나는 ______이다 = I am a _______
(나는 _______ 이야 / 저는 _____이에요)
You can substitute any noun into the blank space to make these sentences.
This and That (이/그/저)
You can see in the vocabulary above that the word for "this" is 이 in Korean.
We use 이 in Korean when we are talking about something that is within touching distance (For example: this pen – i.e. the one I am holding). Just like in English "이" (this) is placed before the noun it is describing. For example:
이 사람 = This person
이 남자 = This man
이 여자 = This woman
이 차 = This car
이 탁자 = This table
이 의자 = This chair
Unfortunately, there are two words for "that": 그 and 저. English learners are always confused with the difference between "그" and "저."
We use 그 when we are talking about something from a previous sentence. Providing examples would be too difficult right now because you do not know any Korean sentences. However, if I were to say: "I don't like that man [when your friend mentioned him in a previous sentence]." The word "that" in that sentence would be how "그" is used.
We use 저 when we are talking about something that we can see, but cannot touch because it is too far away.
Just like "이" we can place "그" or "저" before a noun to describe "this" or "that" thing
저 사람 = That person
이 사람 = This person
저 남자 = That man
저 여자 = That woman
저 것 = That thing
그 것 = That thing
이 것 = This thing
그 의자 = That chair
저 탁자 = That table
We can now use these nouns as subjects or objects in a sentence. We will look at how they can be used with "이다" next.
Using This/That with 이다
Remember, 이다 can be used to say am/is/are. So, if we want to say this:
That person is a doctor
– We can start by putting those words into the Korean structure:
That person는 doctor is
– And then change the English words to the appropriate Korean words:
그 사람은 + 의사 + 이다
그 사람은 의사이다
(그 사람은 의사예요)
More examples:
그 사람은 선생님이다 = that person is a teacher
(그 사람은 선생님이야 / 그 사람은 선생님이에요)
이 것은 탁자이다 = this thing is a table
(이 것은 탁자야 / 이 것은 탁자예요)
저 것은 침대이다 = that thing is a bed
(저 것은 침대야 / 저 것은 침대예요)
그 사람은 남자이다 = that person is a man
(그 사람은 남자야 / 그 사람은 남자예요)
그 사람은 여자이다 = that person is a woman
(그 사람은 여자야 / 그 사람은 여자예요)
그 것은 차이다 = that thing is a car
(그 것은 차야 / 그 것은 차예요)
이 것은 나무이다 = this thing is a tree
(이 것은 나무야 / 이 것은 나무예요)
Wow! That was an extremely difficult lesson. If you were to pick up another Korean text book, I am sure the first chapter would be much easier than this. Trust me though; learning this at the start will be very useful to you later on. When I was learning how to speak Korean, it took me months to realize some of these things (not because they were hard, but because I was using a text book that never taught me the reason why things are the way they are in Korean).
Before you move on, make sure you understand the simple Korean sentence structure presented in this first lesson. Also, remember that the sentences not in parentheses are technically incorrect (or very very uncommon) because they have not been conjugated.
