안녕하세요! (Hello!) Welcome to the first grammar lesson of "My Korean Lesson!" In this lesson, you will start with the very basic Korean, "to be" verb. You will learn about some job-related words too. I'll guide you one by one, so please take your time and read my lesson carefully. Don't forget to download the free worksheets to practice your grammar!
<Table of Contents>
1. Words
Here are some words you will need to know in this lesson. If you click the speaker button, you can listen to the words. Please listen and repeat to practice them.
이다 | to be | |
학생 | student | |
대학생 | university student | |
선생님 | teacher | |
회사원 | office worker | |
의사 | doctor | |
간호사 | nurse | |
가수 | singer | |
배우 | actor/actress |
2. About 이다
How can we say "I am a student." or "You are a teacher." in Korean? We have to use the word "이다." It is attached to a noun and works like "to be" in English.
Think about the "be" verb in English. You change it to "am," "are," "is", "was," or "were." 이다 also needs to change the form because it is a basic form. The basic form means when you look up a dictionary, it is the form you use. In Korean, when you use a verb in a daily conversation, you must change the form depending on politeness, tense, and tone. This process is called the "conjugation." In this post, I'll show you the polite, present tense form.
이다 has two forms in the present tense; 이에요 and 예요. It depends on the last syllable of a noun. If that noun has the final consonant at the end, please add 이에요. If it doesn't have the final consonant, please attach 예요. Click the speakers to listen and repeat the expressions!
The last syllable of 선생님 is 님. It consists of ㄴ, ㅣ, and ㅁ. The ㅁ(m) is what we call the last syllable. Since 선생님 ends with the final consonant, we attach 이에요.
The last syllable of the word 의사 is 사. It only has a first consonant ㅅ and the vowel ㅏ. There is no final consonant. That is why we attach 예요 and say 의사예요.
3. Question form
The question form has the same spelling as the statement. You can use the same 이에요 or 예요 with the question mark this time.
Just like you saw above 받침(the final consonant) is important. Here are example sentences depending on 받침. However, the intonations of statements and questions are different. Please click the speaker icons and listen to the sentences. Pay attention to how the intonations are different in a statement and a question.
Do you notice the difference in intonation? Even though a question and a statement have the same spelling, the placement of a period or a question mark changes the tone. When asking a question, you raise your tone at the end. However, when making a statement, you do not raise the tone.
Please pay attention to their spelling. I saw so many students who got confused in the spelling and wrote 이예요 or 에요. Can you tell why those words are wrong? 이에요 should have the syllable "에 [eh]" in the middle. 예요 startes with "예 [ye]".
4. Examples
In Korean, you can say "네 [nae]" for yes and "아니요 [ah-ni-yo]" for no. Here are examples of dialog forms between people.
1
가: 선생님이에요? Are you a teacher?
나: 네, 선생님이에요. Yes, I'm a teacher.
The last syllable of 선생님 is 님. It has the first consonant ㄴ, the vowel ㅣ, and the final consonant ㅁ. Since it has the final consonant, we will add 이에요 to it.
2
다: 의사예요? Are you a doctor?
라: 아니요, 간호사예요. No, I'm a nurse.
The last syllable of 의사 is 사. It has the first consonant ㅅ, the vowel ㅏ. It doesn't have any more consonants. So, we will add 예요.
3
마: 학생이에요? Are you a student?
바: 아니요, 회사원이에요. No, I'm an office worker.
Does 학생 and 회사원 have the final consonant? Yes, they do! Let's add 이에요 for both question and answer.
4
사: 가수예요? Are you a singer?
아: 아니요, 배우예요. No, I am an actor.
가수 and 배우 both don't have the final consonant in their last syllables. So, we need to add the word 예요.
5
자: 학생이에요? Are you a student?
차: 네, 대학생이에요. Yes, I am a university student.
You can try to make dialogues by using more job-related words! If you want to see more words, please check out my other post; various job-related words in Korean.
5. Wrap up & Worksheets: Korean 이다 grammar
Great work! How was the 이다 grammar lesson? Here are some important factors you should memorize. Take a look!
이다 is the same as "be" in English.
For the present tense (like am/are/is), we conjugate 이다 to 이에요 or 예요 depending on the final consonant of a noun.
If a word ends with a final consonant, use 이에요. e.g. 선생님이에요.
If a word ends with a vowel, use 예요. e.g. 의사예요.
I prepared some free printable PDF worksheets for you. First, you can download the writing practice page and trace the sentences. When you are ready download the quiz page and check your understanding. The quiz worksheet includes the answer sheet as well. So please check your answers as well!
이에요/예요 writing practice worksheet
이에요/예요 quiz worksheet
I hope these worksheets are helpful! If you liked my lesson, please subscribe to my website and click the "like" button below! Thank you!
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