Learn Korean Online (with Rob) on Facebook
Hey everyone,
Today’s class is the last class that focuses on using the verb 이다, and is teaching the sentence pattern, how to say you’re “not” something. When I first arrived here, there were so many Americans that so many Korean people you met just assumed you were American. Then about 3 years into my time here, that shifted (in my town anyways) and Canadians took over. So after a while, once people started realizing that, it was the rest of the world’s people here to who to tell people they weren’t Canadian. Either way, it’s a sentence I can guarantee you’re going to use a lot, and not just for your nationality. So to make sure you have full understanding, and that you’ve got a good grasp on the use of this verb before we move on, feel free to post any questions you might have here.
Cheers!
P.S. If you’re new to Korea and think you might be interested in learning Korean, there are two things you can do to get started…
The first is, if you don’t know how to read, check out the page on here titled “Learn How To Read And Write Korean Now”. The lesson we use in the class is now available for download on that page as well so you can follow along.
The second is, keep an eye out for “hands-down the best FREE gift any complete or struggling beginner Korean learner can get.” There are just a few things remaining to be sorted before the launch of that hopefully in a few weeks.
I started to suck a little less anyway. ,
Hi Rob,
I have a question about the sentences:
저는 선생님이 아닙니다.
나는 간호사가 아니에요.
When I use “저는” do I have to use only the honorific level “아닙니다”? can I use “아니에요” if I want?
The same question with “나는” which is common level, can it be used also with the honorific level “아닙니다” ?
Thank you
Hi Ahuva, yeah, that’s not a big deal. You can definitely use either or for those levels. But you generally wouldn’t use 저는 if you dropped down to the ‘casual’ level.
Hope that helps!
Rob…
Hi Rob,
As you said, when we are conjugating a verb in the honorific level we have to see if it ends in a vowel or consonant, when it ends in a vowel we put the “ᄇ” under the vowel and add: 니다. what do we have to do when the verb ends in a consonant?
Thank you
Hi Ahuva, good question (and one we’ll start to deal with around class #8)…
To conjugate into the ‘honorific’ level for a verb ending in a consonant, you first drop the ‘~다’ (as we almost always do when working with verbs), then add ‘~습니다’. Here are some examples…
있다 —> 있 + 습니다 = 있습니다
없다 —> 없 + 습니다 = 없습니다
먹다 —> 먹 + 습니다 = 먹습니다
The first two examples are the verbs we’ll start dealing with in class #8. The last example, 먹다, means ‘to eat’.
Hope that helps!
Hi Rob,
Shouldn’t the word for ‘father’ be 아 버 지 and not 아 버 님? I’ve often heard the former but never the latter being used.
For nationalities, I believe 인 is often used for ‘person’ instead of ‘사 람’, so American = 미 국 인. Is that correct?
Yes, that is correct. But you couldn’t use 인 on its own to refer to someone, whereas 사람 is the actual word for ‘person’.
Nice one, Julie…
Thanks, Rob, btw, could you confirm if ‘father’ is 아 버 님 or 아 버 지 pls? Both my dictionaries say 아 버 지.
Hi Julie,
아버님 and 아버지 are both formal ways to say “father”, however…
아버지 is reserved for someone who is very close to the person being called father. For example, if my wife wanted to call her father ‘father’ (in a respectful manner), she could say 아버지.
But if I wanted to call her father ‘father’ (in a respectful) manner, I would use 아버님 as I am not quite close enough to him to use 아버지. Does that make sense?
So if you were ever talking to your friend’s father and wanted to address him, you would address him as 아버님, a little bit more formal way.
Hope that helps!