In this lesson, we will start by making simple sentences using the word 이다. The translation for 이다 is "to be". English speakers often don't realise how difficult the word "to be" is. Depending on who is being referred to, the word "to be" could be am, is, are, was or were. In each of those different word is used depending on the subject and tense of the sentence. In Korean, the 이다 is used to represent all of those "to be" words.
이다 can be conjugated. In that way, 이다 is similar to verbs and adjectives but the rules for 이다 are often but not always different. Like adjectives, 이다 can not act on an object. Only verbs can act on objects.
We do not use 이다 to indicate that something "is" an adjective. 이다 is used to indicate that a noun is a noun. The basic structure for a sentence predicated by 이다 is:
(Noun은/는)(another noun)(이다)
이것은 책이다 This is a book
YOU ARE READING
Korean Language for Beginners
RandomThis book contains the alphabet, vocabulary and grammar for Korean language. The explanation is in English and do take note that the example for Korean word or sentences does not contain romanisation, only in Hangul. Feel free to ask me if you have...
