Learn Korean (TTMIK)

Lesson 23

누구 [nu-gu] = who

Remember the subject markers and the topic markers?

Subject markers: 이 [i] / 가 [ga]

Topic markers: 은 [eun] / 는 [neun]

Subject markers emphasize the subject and shows ‘who’ did something, or ‘what’ is being described, and topic markers emphasize the topic of your sentence and shows ‘what’ or ‘whom’ you are talking about.

When you want to ask simple questions like “Who did it?” “Who helped her?” or “Who made it?”, you are emphasizing the subject, which is the word “who” here, so you need to use the subject marker 이 [i] or 가 [ga].

누구 ends in a vowel so it would have to be followed by 가,

but “누구 plus 가” changes to “누가” instead of “누구가”

누구 [nu-gu] = who

누구 [nu-gu] + 가 [ga] = 누구가 --> 누가 [nu-ga]

Remember that this is ONLY when you are emphasizing ‘who’ as the subject of an action or state.

Compare these examples:

1.

When you want to ask “Who is it?” in Korean,

you literally say “it is WHO?” so it becomes:

누구 (who) + 예요 (is) = 누구예요? [nu-gu-ye-yo?]

2.

When you want to ask “(Among these people, none other than) WHO is Jane?” you can say:

누구 (who) + 가 (subject marker) + 제인 (Jane) + 이에요? (is?)

= 누가 제인이에요? [nu-ga je-in-i-e-yo?]

3.

And when you want to ask “Who did it?”:

누구 (who) + 가 (subject marker) + 했어요? (did?)

= 누가 했어요? [nu-ga hae-sseo-yo?]

More sample sentences

1. 누가 전화했어요? [nu-ga jeon-hwa-hae-sseo-yo?] Who called?

2. 이거 누구예요? [i-geo nu-gu-ye-yo?] Who is this? (This is who?)

3. 어제 누가 왔어요? [eo-je nu-ga wa-sseo-yo?] Who came yesterday?

4. 그거 누가 만들었어요? [geu-geo nu-ga man-deu-reo-sseo-yo?] Who made that?

5. 누가 샀어요? [nu-ga sa-sseo-yo?] Who bought it?