2

I'm a bit confused over the subject/object particles. Im very early on in learning but I'm just practicing constructing small sentences with the few words I know. I wrote this sentence and then threw the english into Google Translate to see how close I was (I know I shouldnt use it but I dont have any other way to check) so if someone here could help out it would be great!

So, I wrote

고양이가 음식를 아닙니다

I figured this is correct as "cat" is the subject. However the translation actually came out as:

고양이는 음식이 아닙니다.

I now understand the use of "는" instead of "가", as from what I understand, if it is the first time a topic is introduced we use the topic marker instead of the subject marker. That is fine (so i guess what I put isn't technically incorrect but it assumes that we have spoken about this cat before)

What confuses me is why the subject marker is used with "food"? I assumed "food" is the object in this sentence (the verb being "is/to be") but my english grammar isn't that great either as I guess I am learning now!

Thanks for any help!

Improve this question
0

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

A cat is not a food. (so, you must not eat a cat, so cruel)

고양이가 음식를 아닙니다 (wrong)
고양이가 음식이 아닙니다 (correct)
고양이는 음식이 아닙니다 (correct)

'고양이' is a subject so you can use '고양이가' or '고양이는'.

'~을', '~를' are used as the object. But 음식(food) is not an object in this sentence. 음식(food) is a complement like 'He is not a teacher'. So you can't '~을' or '~를' like '음식를'.

Improve this answer
2
  • Haha i don't know many words so that was the first thing I could put together without thinking much. So is there a reason the compliment uses a subject particle at the end? Thanks for your help!
    – Kamran Rastegar
    Sep 9, 2018 at 6:33
  • He is a teacher. He = a teacher. subject = complement (In your sentence it is negative though) So, we can use subject particle(~는,~가,~은) as complement particle in most case. But the object particle '~을, ~를' is only used as object particle.
    – Dasik
    Sep 9, 2018 at 6:54
1

In Korean, there's a distinction between 'to be' and other verbs. Korean Grammar books often refer to 이다 ('to be') as 'the copula', rather than as a verb, because it behaves differently.

You will probably have noticed that to say 'something is something' in Korean, you simply use 이다 as a suffix:

그는 한국사람이다.
He is a Korean.

Here, as Dasik says, '한국사람' isn't an object, but a complement (or 'copular complement').

When you use the negative copula (something is not something), you put 이/가 on the complement. Note that 이/가 is not the subject particle here - -it's serving a different function:

그는 한국사람이 아니다
He is not a Korean.

The other form of sentence where you would use 이/가 as the 'copular complement particle' would be when something becomes something:

비가 눈이 되다
Rain turns to snow.

Improve this answer
4
  • Right ok, so if i was saying that something IS something, as opposed to isn't, then it wouldnt need any suffix? for example: 고양이는 음식 입니다
    – Kamran Rastegar
    Sep 9, 2018 at 6:55
  • 1
    @KamranRastegar that's almost right, but in this case you actually use 이다 as the suffix - so your example would be 고양이는 음식입니다, without a space.
    – Нет войне
    Sep 9, 2018 at 7:04
  • ah yes sorry you are right! Thanks for the help. I've learnt something new :P
    – Kamran Rastegar
    Sep 9, 2018 at 7:05
  • @KamranRastegar No worries! What we just lump together as 'verbs' in English seem to be split up 3 ways in Korean - the copula (to be), action verbs, and descriptive verbs (often called 'adjectives' in Korean).
    – Нет войне
    Sep 9, 2018 at 7:08

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.