Last lesson you studied ‘은/는’, So this lesson you’re going to learn the subject markers that is ‘이/가’.
And Next lesson, I’ll teach you the difference between ‘이/가’ and ‘은/는’ and how to use them.
Let’s dive into ‘이/가’
Basic Korean vocabulary
| Word | Pronunciation | Audio | In English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 우유 | uyu | A milk | |
| 이름 | ileum | Name | |
| 사과 | sagwa | An apple | |
| 인도 | indo | India | |
| 필리핀 | pillipin | An HTTP error occurred during file retrieval. Error Code: 403 | Philippines |
Learn the meaning of ‘이/가’
'이/가' attaches to a noun, indicating that the noun is the subject of the sentence.
As we learned last time, there are many different particles in Korean, and “이/가” is one of them, called a subject marker.
Subject marker is a noun that have a close relationship to the sentence, answering the question of which or who.
‘이/가’ is focus on the noun.
Here’s an example:
| sister says | 누가 내 우유를 마셨어? | Who drank my milk? | |
| brother says | 내가 마셨어. | I drank. |
Above, sister asked who drank the milk, but the focus of the question is “who” – she wants to know who drank her own milk.
There’s no grammatical difference between “이/가” and “은/는”, but we’re using “이/가” because it’s a subject marker, meaning that who or which is the answer to the question.
Learn the forms of ‘이/가’
- '가' is used when a noun ends with a vowel. - '이' is used when a noun ends with a consonant
Here’s example:
| ‘가’ is used with a vowel. | 누가 내 우유를 마셨어? | Who drank my milk? | |
| ‘이’ is used with a consonant. | 이름이 뭐예요? | What is your name? |
Practice ‘이/가’
| 이름이 뭐예요? | What is your name? | |
| 제 이름은 칸이에요. | I’m Kaan. |
| 누가 내 사과를 먹었어? | Who ate my apple? | |
| 내가 먹었어. | I ate. |
| 누가 인도 사람이에요? | Who’s Indian? | |
| 제가 인도 사람이에요. | I’m Indian. |
| 누가 필리핀에서 왔어요? | Who’s from the Philippines? | |
| 제가 필리핀에서 왔어요. | I’m from the Philippines. |
So, today you learned ‘이/가’ that is Subject Marker.
Next time, let’s study the difference between “이/가” and “은/는”.
Thanks for reading.
