[Learn Korean E9] “는 / 은” (Topic Particle), “입니다 / 입니까?”

안녕하세요. 토미입니다.

Let’s have fun learning the exciting language,  Korean. 

I design this channel for you!! Yes, YOU!!  

By watching my videos, you guys can  speak Korean fluently and even can pass the official world-known Korean test, TOPIK Ⅰ, level 1 and 2. 

So don’t worry about your Korean learning!

Believe in me!

Tammy will lead your way!

At today’s lesson, you will learn 는/은 and입니다/입니까?

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to introduce yourself in Korean. That’s so awesome! 

 I will explain the contents of today’s lesson.

First, I will play a short Korean conversation with English and Korean subtitles.

Next, I will explain the words and grammar used in the conversation.

Then we will listen to the conversation without English subtitles. 

After that we are going to read aloud the conversation.

At the end, I will give you two assignments.  

Ok, Are you excited?

그럼 시작할게요！

Conversation

In today’s conversation, two people will briefly introduce themselves.

Let’s listen to their conversation. 

• 토미：안녕하세요? 저는 토미입니다. 반갑습니다.
  Hello. I am Tammy. Nice to meet you.
• 이상민：네, 반갑습니다. 제 이름은 이상민입니다.
  Yes. Nice to meet you. My name is Lee Sangmin.
• 토미：상민 씨는 대학생입니까?
  Sangmin, are you a college student?
• 이상민：아니요. 회사원입니다. 잘 부탁합니다.  
  No, I am an office worker. I hope to get along with you.

Vocabulary and Phrases

Now, I’d like to explain vocabulary and phrases from each sentence.

• 토미：안녕하세요? 저는 토미입니다. 반갑습니다.
  Hello. I am Tammy. Nice to meet you.

[안녕하세요?] is the same as “Hello” in English.

You can also use it to people that you met for the first time. 

[저] is a humble form of “I.”

In a similar sense, [나] is a casual form of “I.” 

“What? what are the humble form and the  casual form?” 

Let me explain in more detail .

You usually use 저 when you are talking to a person you don’t  know very well like this conversation, or an elder person, or an upper positioned person to make yourself sound more humble. 

On the other hand, you use 나 to your friends or a younger person to be more casual. 

Therefore, in a situation where you meet someone for the first time , you use a humble way of expression and call yourself   [저].

Humble and casual forms are grammatical terms that will appear often from now on.   

[반갑습니다.] means “Nice to meet you.”

Since this is a very commonly used greeting expression, remember to use it whenever you meet someone for the first time.

• 이상민：네, 반갑습니다. 제 이름은 이상민입니다.
  Yes. Nice to meet you. My name is Lee Sangmin.

[네] means  “Yes.” You can also say [예] as “Yes.” Both have the same meaning. 

[제] is a humble form of “my,” [이름은] is “name,” and  [이상민입니다] is “is Lee Sangmin.” Together, It means “My name is Lee Sangmin.”

• 토미：상민 씨는 대학생입니까?
  Sangmin, are you a college student?

 [씨] is similar to terms like “Mr., Mrs., Ms.” in English.

You place [씨] after a person’s full name or first name like 상민 씨 or 이상민 씨. 

Korean people usually don’t place [씨] to their last names only, like  [김 씨] or [이 씨] because it may sound  rude. 

And it is common to call someone’s name with 씨 if you are not really close with  that person. 

• 이상민：아니요. 회사원입니다. 잘 부탁합니다.  
  No, I am an office worker. I hope to get along with you.

[아니요] means “No.” You can also say [아뇨].   

[잘 부탁합니다] is similar to “Thank you for your kind cooperation.” or “I hope to get along with you.” 

Grammar 

입니다

Now let’s look at the grammar!

Today, we are going to learn 입니다. 

You can say 입니다 to express A is B, or A equals B. 

So, it’s English translation is going to be “is, am, are”

In the conversation, Tammy said “저는 토미입니다,” which means “I am Tammy.” 

In Korean, sentences like A equals B need [입니다] at the end. 

Let’s take a look at the next sentence. 

저는 미국 사람입니다. I am an American

This sentence is composed by adding [입니다] after the noun 미국 사람, which is “an American.” 

However, the difference from the previous sentence is that [미국 사람] has a ㅁ as the final consonant, so you have to let it flow with [입니다]. 

You pronounce it as [저는 미국 사라밈니다].

Let’s read it aloud together.

저는 미국 사람입니다.

Let’s look at some other sentences.

저는 회사원입니다. (I am an office worker)

저는 간호사입니다. (I am a nurse.)

If you want to ask a question, you add  [입니까?] at the end.

Let’s look at some examples.

주부입니까? “Are you a housewife?”

은행원입니까? (Are you a banker?)

일본 사람입니까? (Are you a Japanese?)

대학생입니까? (Are you a college student?)

Like English, you have to add question marks to make questions in Korean.

If you look carefully at the sentences, you might have come up with this kind of question.

I just explained that  대학생입니까? means  “Are you a college student?” 

Then where is the  word “you” in a sentence here?

The sentence only has 대학생, a college student and 입니까? which means “are.”

In Korean, if you already know that you are talking to the person in front of you, you can omit the subject like “you” in the  sentence. 

는/은

Next, let’s learn [는 / 은].

You use [는 / 은] to mark the topic of the sentence.

So, it is called the Topic Marker as a grammatical term. 

So, you use [는 / 은] in front of a noun, which means that the noun is going to be the topic of the sentence.

You can translate [는 / 은] to “when it comes to” or “as for” in English.

I will tell you how to use 는/은 in a sentence. 

You use 는 when a word does not have a final consonant, and use [은] when a word ends with a final consonant.

a word does not have a final consonant + 는

a word ends with a final consonant. + 은

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy! 

Let’s look at an example sentence.

저는 토미입니다.  I am Tammy.

Here, I use [는] because 저 does not have a final consonant. 

Let’s see another example. 

토미：상민 씨는 대학생입니까?
Sangmin, are you a college student?

Since[상민 씨] does not have a final consonant, so you use [는].

Let’s see another example but this time with a word ending with a final consonant. 

제 이름은 이상민입니다. My name is Lee Sangmin.

Here, I use [은] , because [이름] has a final consonant.

Let’s see one more example. 

그 사람은 미국 사람입니다. That person is an American.  

In this case, 사람 ends with a  final consonant, so you use 은. 

Quiz

Let’s do a simple quiz here!  Which topic marker is suitable for this sentence, 는 or  은 ?

[저 (   ) 연예인입니다.] I am an entertainer.

   ① 는    ②은 

The answer is number 1  [는] because [저] does not have a final consonant.

Then another question. Here you go! 

[제 이름 (  ) 사랑입니다.] My name is  Sarang.

 ① 는    ②은 

The answer is number 2 [은].  Because [이름] has a final consonant.

It was a piece of cake!

As you can see, there are many cases in Korean where the particles like 는/은  change depending on whether a final consonant is attached or not.

It will take a lot of practices, but eventually, you will be able to  tell the difference.

Conversation (Korean Only)

Let’s go back to the conversation again but this time without the English subtitles.

You can understand more Korean than before.

• 토미：안녕하세요? 저는 토미입니다. 반갑습니다.
• 이상민：네, 반갑습니다. 제 이름은 이상민입니다.
• 토미：상민 씨는 대학생입니까?
• 이상민：아니요. 회사원입니다. 잘 부탁합니다.  

Conversation practice

What do you think?

Do you think you understand more  than the time you first heard it?

Next is the conversation practice.

Please, repeat after the characters.

You might think this is a little bit repetitive, but this is actually the most important part of this video. 

There are several rules for effective language learning.

One of them is “Immediately use what you have just learned!”

Rather than just simply reading and listening, why don’t you try speaking and writing as well? So that will help you  learn two  or three times faster.

Ok! Let’s say it out loud together. 

• 토미：안녕하세요? 저는 토미입니다. 반갑습니다.
  Hello. I am Tammy. Nice to meet you.
• 이상민：네, 반갑습니다. 제 이름은 이상민입니다.
  Yes. Nice to meet you. My name is Lee Sangmin.
• 토미：상민 씨는 대학생입니까?
  Sangmin, are you a college student?
• 이상민：아니요. 회사원입니다. 잘 부탁합니다.  
  No, I am an office worker. I hope to get along with you.

Homework

Yes! Good job! Fantastic!

So now, I will give you two assignments.

The first homework is to create a short self-introduction paragraph based on what you have learned today. For example,

• 안녕하세요. 제 이름은 토미입니다. (Enter name) Hello, my name is Tammy.
• 저는 한국어 강사입니다. (Enter your occupation) I am a Korean teacher.

You can change the name and occupation parts from this template to complete your original self-introduction.

Of course, you can write a completely original one without using  my template. 

The second homework is memorizing vocabulary.

Let’s memorize 40 words on the first page of my 1600-word for beginners.

The numbers are 1 가게 to 40 감사드립니다. 

After that, try answering the quiz below.

that’s it for today. You guys are super smart!! 

Thank you for watching and don’t forget to subscribe, and give me thumbs up!! 

그럼 오늘도 행복 가득, 웃음 가득한 하루 되세요！ 한국어 화이팅, 화이팅, 화이팅！！