Learning Korean (한국어 배우기) [COMPLETE]

Unit 1.9 - Conjugate 이다 (할것이다)

Vocabulary

(Plz ask if u cant pronounce or read)

공장 = factory
열 = fever
극장 = theater
회사 = company
장소 = place/location
간판 = a sign
직업 = job
수업 = a class (that you 'take' or 'teach')
값 = price
땅콩 = peanut
여권 = passport
수건 = towel
지하철 = subway

Verbs:

되다 = to become
시작하다 = to start
행동하다 = to act
소개하다 = to introduce
발견하다 = to find
방문하다 = to visit
잃다 = to lose (il-ta)
잃어버리다 = to lose
벗다 = to take off one's clothes
웃다 = to laugh

Adjectives:

부끄럽다 = to be shy
건강하다 = to be healthy
예쁘다 = to be pretty

Adverbs:

미래 = future
이제 = now
현재 = now/present

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 plain form in the present tense:

나는 선생님이다 = I am a teacher

If the last letter of the noun before 이다 ends in a vowel, you can eliminate 이. For example:

나는 의사이다 = I am a doctor
나는 의사다 = I am a doctor

Both of the above can be seen as correct. Here, the pronunciation of "이" is merging with the pronunciation of the vowel in the noun. If you pronounce the two sentences above, you can see that there is very little difference.

Conversely, if the last letter of the noun before 이다 is a consonant, this merging cannot happen. For example:

나는 선생님이다 = I am a teacher (correct)
나는 선생님다 - incorrect

This merging of 이다 does not happen because it has nothing to merge with. Furthermore, if you try to pronounce "선생님다", it just doesn't flow properly. It is hard to get your mouth to move from the "ㅁ" sound immediately to the "ㄷ" sound. This same principle occurs in other conjugations of 이다, but it is a little bit more complex.

As you will learn later, when conjugating 이다 into the past tense in the plain form, "었다" is added to the stem of "이다" (이). This is actually quite simple for you to understand, because every other verb and adjective follows this same rule. For example:

의사이었다
선생님이었다

However, the pronunciation of 이었다 can merge to "였다" when the noun that it is being attached to ends in a vowel. For example, both of these are correct:

의사이었다
의사였다

Pronounce both of those, and listen to how little of a difference there is between the two. Not only that, the pronunciation of both of those is very easy and it flows off the tongue.

Conversely, 이 and 었다 cannot merge when the noun it is added to ends in a consonant. For example:

선생님이었다 - correct
선생님였다 - incorrect

Although I am only talking about the past tense plain form in this example, this same rule applies in many situations. If you keep this in mind when learning the conjugations in this lesson, they will be much easier.

이다 Present Tense

Conjugating 이다 to the present tense is harder than past tense because new syllables are added with no real logic behind them. Present tense conjugations have additions that are not seen with any other verb or adjective.

Informal Low Respect

Add ~이야 to a word ending in a consonant, or ~(이)야 to a word ending in a vowel:

나는 학생이야 = I am a student
나는 의사야 = I am a doctor

야구는 좋은 스포츠야
= Baseball is a good sport

When conjugating "아니다" in this respect, you simply add "~야" to "아니다:"

나는 학생이 아니야
= I am not a student
나는 의사가 아니야
= I an not a doctor

Informal High Respect

Add ~이에요 to a word ending in a consonant, or ~예요 to a word ending in a vowel:

저는 선생님이에요
= I am a teacher
이 사람은 제 누나예요
= This (person) is my sister

When conjugating "아니다" in this respect, you simply add ~에요 to 아니다:

저는 학생이 아니에요 = I am not a student

Note that Korean people are often confused if they need to add "~예요" or "~에요" to 아니다. Therefore, it is common to see somebody use "아니예요."

Formal High Respect

Add 입니다 (~이 + ㅂ니다) to words ending in a vowel or consonant:

저는 의사입니다
= I am a doctor
저는 선생님입니다
= I am a teacher

With words ending in vowels, you can eliminate ~이 and attach ~ㅂ니다 directly to the word. This is more commonly done in conversation, and not usually written.

When conjugating "아니다" in this respect, you must add "~ㅂ니다" directly to "아니다." For example:

저는 의사가 아닙니다
= I am not a doctor
저는 학생이 아닙니다
= I am not a student

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 can combine to make 였

Informal Low Respect

Add ~이었어 to all words. If the word ends in a vowel, ~이었어 can contract to ~였어.

나는 학생이었어
= I was a student
나는 선생님이었어
= I was a teacher

Informal High Respect

Add ~이었어요 to all words. If the word ends in a vowel, ~이었어요 can contract to ~였어요.

저는 선생님이었어요
= I was a teacher
저는 의사였어요
= I was a doctor

Plain Form

Add ~이었다 to all words. If the word ends in a vowel, ~이었다 can contract to ~였다.

나는 선생님이었다
= I was a teacher
나는 의사였다
= I was a doctor

Formal High Respect

Add ~이었습니다 to all words. If the word ends in a vowel, ~이었습니다 can contract to ~였습니다.

저는 선생님이었습니다
= I was a teacher
저는 의사였습니다
= I was a doctor

In all situations in the past tense, 아니다 is conjugated just like any other word. An example of each respect:

나는 학생이 아니었어
나는 학생이 아니었다
저는 학생이 아니었어요
저는 학생이 아니었습니다

Continue - Unit 1.9 (2)