KOREAN LANGUAGE TUTORIAL

LESSON 9

Korean lessons: Lesson 9

Conjugating 이다

이다 is conjugated differently than other verbs/adjectives. Not just when conjugating, but when doing other things to 이다, it usually behaves in another way (you will learn about those other things later). As of now, the only conjugation you know for 이다 is the formal low respect present tense:
저는 선생님이다 = I am a teacher
If the last syllable of the word before 이다 ends in a vowel, you can eliminate 이, although both are correct:
저는 의사다 = I am a doctor
저는 의사이다 = I am a doctor

But now its time to learn how to conjugate in all the other forms
In almost every case, you must conjugate 이다 differently depending on if the word ends in a vowel or consonant..

The reason they are different is simply to make pronunciation easier (although they sound the same). For example, this is hard to say: '선생님였다'. It is difficult to move your mouth from the ㅁ sound directly to the 였 sound. It is much easier to pronounce it like this: 저는 선생님-이-었-다.
Similarly, it is hard to say: '선생님야.' It is difficult to move your mouth from the ㅁsound directly to the 야 sound. Instead, it is easier to say '선생님-이-야.'
If you keep this in mind when learning these conjugations, it will be much easier to grasp.

이다 Present Tense
Conjugating 이다 to the present tense is relatively confusing compared to the past tense because new syllables are added with no real logic behind them. Whereas past conjugations are simply done by connecting 이 to 었다.

Informal Low Respect
Add 이야 to a word ending in a consonant, or 야 to a word ending in a vowel:
나는 좋은 학생이야 = I'm a good student
그 것은 사과야 = That thing is an apple

Informal High Respect
Add 이에요 to a word ending in a consonant, or 예요 to a word ending in a vowel:
그 것은 사진이에요 = That thing is a picture
이 사람은 저의 누나예요 = This (person) is my sister

Formal High Respect
Add 입니다 (이 + ㅂ니다) to words ending in a vowel or consonant:
저는 의사입니다 = I am a doctor
그 사람은 저의 형입니다 = That person is my brother
With words ending in vowels, you can eliminate 이 and attach ㅂ니다 directly to the word, but it done in conversation, and not usually written.

이다 Past Tense
Conjugating 이다 to the past tense is simple, and is done by connecting 이 to 었. When the last syllable in a word ends in a vowel, 이 + 었 combine to make 였

Informal Low Respect
Add 이었어 to words ending in a consonant, or 였어 to words ending in a vowel.
나는 바쁜 선생님이었어 = I was a busy teacher
나는 나쁜 의사였어 = I was a bad doctor

Informal High Respect
Add 이었어요 to words ending in a consonant, or 였어요 to words ending in a vowel
그 것은 큰 비밀이었어요 = That was a big secret
저는 의사였어요 = I was a doctor

Formal Low Respect
Add 이었다 to words ending in a consonant, or 였다 to words ending in a vowel:
나는 선생님이었다 = I was a teacher
나는 의사였다 = I was a doctor

Formal High Respect
Add 이었습니다 to words ending in a consonant, or 였습니다 to words ending in a vowel:
저는 선생님이었습니다 = I was a teacher
저는 의사였습니다 = I was a doctor