Hello, I'm Hyunwoo from talktomeinkorean.com and I know that these four one letter particles in the Korean language have both confused and frustrated many learners around the world. so I'm here to help you out...once again. and I say once again because we actually already have an audio lesson on our website and that's level one lesson nine of our grammar curriculum and I will put a link in the description for that lesson and many people actually totally got it, totally understood it after listening to the audio lesson just once and many people say that its such an easy concept to understand but still a lot of other people say that it's the most difficult concept to comprehend in the Korean language even after living in Korea and speaking the language for many years so...we'll see how this video can help you out with that. so, what are these letters? eun, neun, i, ka, again, eun, neun, i, ka, These are what we call particles or markers in our lessons "eun" and "neun" are a pair, they are the same thing and "i" and "ka" are a pair together they are also the same thing they respectively have the same usage and meaning except "eun" and "i" are used after words that end with consonants and "neun" and "ka" are used after words that end with vowels purely for ease of pronunciation but first of all before we actually look at this particles here's a fun fact this particles are very frequently omitted in every day speech mainly when they have no real purpose to serve, or when the intended meaning is very obvious OK, so let's talk about "eun" and "neun" first these are commonly called topic markers or topic marking particles and that's because when you introduce yourself in korean you say, for example "joeneun" your name "ipnida" so I can say since my name is sun hyun woo in korean "jeo neun sun hyun woo ipnida" so here you are introducing the topic of the sentence and the topic of the sentence is "jeo" "jeo"" wich means I so "jeo" is the topic of the sentence basically it's an answer to OK, what is this sentence about? so, this concept applies to all of the following sentences so for now let's ignore the other part of the sentences and just focus on these parts "eun" or "neun", ok the first one is talking about "oneul" wich means today and today's weather so you could say that "nalssi" or the weather is the topic too and it's true but "nalssi" the weather is actually more important as the subject of the verb "joayo" wich means to be good. So as for today and today is the topic of the sentence that's what I am talking about so in terms of today, the weather is good, ok so for now just remember that the main character of the sentence is" oneul" and the same thing applies to all the other sentences (speaking Korean) tomorrow is Sunday so what are we talking about here? "neil" so you have "eun" after "neil" tomorrow is sunday, ok. (speaking Korean) and in a third sentence (speaking korean) this camera is expensive what are we talking about? yeah, this camara (speaking Korean) the topic of the sentence is "kamera" the fourth sentence (speaking Korean) that person is strange and the fifth sentence is (speaking Korean) When are we going to eat? So what are we talking about once again? It's "bap" so in all of these sentences the main topic is marked with either "eun" or "neun" depending on whether the word ends with a consonant or a vowel, ok so, "oneul" ends with a consonant so you say "oneul eun" rather than "oneul neun" which is harder to pronounce and "neil" which means tomorrow ends with a consonant so you say "neil reun" rather than "neil neun" camera ends with a vowel, "kamera", -ah you know it's a vowel "A" so you say "camera neun" rather than "camera eun" Which is a bit more inconvenient to pronounce you get the idea. so "eun" and "neun" are the same thing and these topic marking particles "eun" and "neun" also have another function this is more interesting it shows contrast or change of context, so to speak so please take a look at this short conversation person A says (speaking Korean) and person B says (speaking Korean) I want to eat ramen noodles and person A agrees and says (speaking Korean) "do" is another particle that we are not going to cover in this video but basically it means too or also so me too - i also want to eat ramen noodles but then something interesting happens person C says (speaking Korean) so person A is starting the conversation but person C is showing some contrast because she wants something different not ramen but kimpap if she wanted the same thing ramen noodles in this case it would be really strange and unnatural for her to say oh no no no (speaking Korean) because just by saying (speaking Korean) right there in that context the other listeners expect some twist in the plot or contrast, ok, so there would be no contrast or change of context if she wanted ramen too so it would be a weird thing to say another example. You're looking at some t-shirts you look at this red t-shirt and say (speaking Korean) "I like it" or "this is good", and you look at this yellow t-shirt and say (speaking Korean) "This is pretty" or "I find it pretty" and then you look at the green t-shirt and say (speaking Korean) ok, again (speaking Korean) and that "neun" is very actually very necessary there because you are showing some contrast between the other two t-shirts that got your positive assessment and the green t-shirt that makes you feel like a child wearing his father's t-shirt So, in summary the topic markers "eun" and "neun" are used to introduce a topic and also to show contrast. ok so, when a group of people who have just met fot the first time are introducing themselves one by one pretty much everyone will start their introduction by saying (speaking Korean) and in that case that "neun" there "jeo neun" there not only shows the topic, which is "I" you know for everyone it's just I am I am Peter I am Steve but it also shows contrast because the previous person was let's same James, but I am Peter and then for the other person for the next person "I" is another different person so everybody is different so every single time they are showing contrast as well as introducing the topic so "eun" or "neun" is very fitting here now how about "i" and "kga" These are usually called subject markers These are called subject markers because they have a more direct and intimate relationship with the following verb and it is often the answer to - this is very important - who did it, who will do it, who or which Ok, so I believe some examples are expected at this point so, imagine a teacher walking into the classroom and finding the teacher's desk, well - broken- so he asks: who broke it? (speaking Korean) and then a brave student steps out to the teacher and says (speaking Korean) adding that "kga" "I am the one who did it" so the teacher goes (speaking Korean) and then, another student stands up and says (speaking Korean) - "no teacher I am the one who did it" (speaking Korean) not "jeo neun" - ok (speaking Korean) - I did it so the teacher is confused and then another student raises his hand and says (speaking Korean) so the teacher sensing that something weird is going on says (speaking Korean) and at that very moment the teacher sees yet another student quietly raising his hand so the teacher says you tell me who broke it and then the student says hmmm (speaking Korean) and he runs away (speaking Korean) so what do you make of this little situation? as an answer to the teacher's question: who broke it? each student said that they were the one who broke it they were the one who was responsible and they are using the subject marker "kga" who did it? I did it except for the last student who said "jeo neun" instead of "jae kga" and by now you know why he said "jeo neun" he wanted to contrast and distiguish himself from the other guys who were for some reason asking for punishment so he says as for me, I'm different (speaking Korean) as for me, I didn't. so there you go, that's the basic difference between eun/neun and i/kga but that's not it unfortunately there are many sentences in Korean were eun/neun and i/kga are used together in one sentence and that's when things get really really interesting so please look at the sentence now what does it say (speaking Korean) juice tastes good you're basically introducing a topic so you go with the default "neun" (speaking Korean) but what if you wanted to add something like (speaking Korean) this coffee shop, this cafe to this equation so lets say you just have brought some of your friends to a coffee shop and you're standing in front of it and the main topic that you are introducing here is (speaking Korean) hey! look at this coffee shop so you start the sentence with (speaking Korean) meaning: when it comes to this coffee shop or now, talking about this coffee shop or this cafe and then you want to add the aditional information that their juice is good so you combine those two things together and you say (speaking Korean) so you added (speaking Korean) and then the previous sentece (speaking Korean) now, if you say this it has one potencial problem so that problem is that you might sound as if you were saying as for this coffe shop the juice is good but everything else they sell is bad or the juice is good but the service is bad. etcetera x2 you might sound as if you were trying to show some contrasting information there you get it? so if you just wanna say this cafe sells some good juice you need to say (speaking Korean) that "kga" shows a more intimate relationship between "juice" and "its good" there so this would be a very neutral sentence (speaking Korean) as for this coffee shop, which is the topic (speaking Korean) the juice is good, ok but let's change the perspective a little bit and say someone asks out of these five coffee shops that we see here which coffee shop has the best juice and then it's a whole other story so here what is the answer to who or which and the answer is of course one of these coffee shops (speaking Korean) so you say something quite different (speaking Korean) the topic and (speaking Korean) the subject or the answer to who or which so together you say (speaking Korean) and then maybe (speaking Korean) so, lets compare these two sentences side by side the first one we had was (speaking Korean) and then the second one is (speaking Korean) ok so, by showing these possibly confusing similar sentences what I'm trying to show you is that there is no set rule defining this word is used in this position in a sentence it always depends on what kind of relationship the noun has with the verb and what is the actual main topic of the sentence or the message and we're gonna move out to someting also very interesting and we're actually almost there there's just one more thing to cover and that is how these particles work together in compound sentences so let's say I watched a movie (speaking Korean) a very neutral sentence you watched a movie and then let's say the movie was fun (speaking Korean) again a very neutral sentence introducing the topic of the movie for the first time (speaking Korean) but then let's combine these two together the outcome would be In English first - the movie I watched was fun - x 2 and if you can say that the (blank) was fun is the outer layer or bigger structure the inner layer, the smaller structure will be - the movie I watched - right so for the outer structure you often use "eun" or "neun" and for the inner included clause you often use "i" or "kga" so here, it was originally (speaking Korean) but the combined sentence would be (speaking Korean) X2 so you will see this kind of change from "neun" to "kga" or "eun" to ""i or "kga" in the process of forming many Korean compound sentences but the thing is that's not always just like this, ok so let's combine these two sentences (speaking Korean) "jeo neun" - you see that there - and then in the next sentence you also see another "neun," another topic marker (speaking Korean) This video is very long - I know this video is probably very long too - and we can combine them and say this video that I made is very long and applying what we just learned from the previous example you can say (speaking Korean) the inner included clause (speaking Korean) and the outer bigger structure (speaking Korean) inside "kga" or "i" - outside "neun" or "eun" ok, but what if someone asks you which video is very long? and your answer was hey this video that I made is very long in that specific case you would say using both "kga" in the inner clause and "kga" in the outer structure you would say (speaking Korean) not (speaking Korean) because (speaking Korean) is the answer to what or which so it means that just because a compound sentences has two "neun"s here and there and two "kga"s here and there doesn't mean the sentence is wrong well, did I just make everything sound even more complicated? but you have just learned the most essential principles of the eun/neu/i/kga concept the bad news is that it will be confusing for a long time unless you speak Korean as your mother tongue but the good news is - it's ok - as long as you keep observing other people use these particles in real life situations you will continuously add more and more examples usages to your database and your brain and you will be able to convey what you want to say correctly most of the time so, what do you think? has this video made understanding eun/neu/i/kga a little bit easier at least? if not, we recomend that you watch this again at least the first part up until before the compound sentences portion and that alone should help you out a lot. Thanks for watching and if you wanna learn even more Korean please remember this address - talktomeinkorean.com - and we have many texbooks and e-books on our online store at mykoreanstore.com so be sure to check that out as well. thank you in advanced as well for liking this video, subscribing to our channel and leaving us comments. My name is Hyunwoo and I'll see you next time. 감사합니다. (Music playing)
