Learning Korean (한국어 배우기) [COMPLETE]

Unit 1.4 - Korean Adj (2)

To be a lot of: 많다

A good way to practice your understanding of how adjectives can be used to describe a noun in a sentence or to predicate an entire sentence is to apply your knowledge to the word "많다."
많다 is an adjective that describes that there is "many' or "a lot" of something. Its translation to English usually depends on how it is used in a sentence. For example, when used to describe nouns in a sentence, it can be used in the following way:

나는 많은 음식을 먹다 = I eat a lot of food
(나는 많은 음식을 먹어 / 저는 많은 음식을 먹어요)

나는 많은 돈이 있다 = I have a lot of money
(나는 많은 돈이 있어 / 저는 많은 돈이 있어요)

Now, if we use "많다" to predicate a sentence, it can be used like this:

사람이 많다 (There us a lot of people)

In your Korean studies, you need to realize that it is never effective to think of a Korean sentence as an exact translation in English. The fact is, Korean and English grammar are completely different, and trying to force the structure of English into Korean is just weird. If we stuck with the translation of "a lot of" for the meaning of "많다" and forced the English translation to the sentence "사람이 많다", we would get:

People are a lot of

But that clearly is not accurate. Instead it is describing that there is a lot of people.

Therefore, when 많다 predicates a sentence, its translation is usually "There is/are a lot of...". Here is another example:

음식이 많다 = there is a lot of food
(음식이 많아 / 음식이 많아요)

Eventually, you will be able to make a sentence like:

There are a lot of singers who become famous and spend all of their money too quickly

This sentence as well would also end in "많다." The structure would basically be:

(singers who become famous and spend all of their money too quickly)가 많다

Also notice that the particles 이/가 are attached to the subjects in sentences ending with "많다." There are some words where the use of the particles ~이/가 on the subject of the sentence is more natural than the use of ~는/은. 많다 is one of these words.

Particle ~도

~ 도 is another particle that is very useful in Korean. It has the meaning of "too/as well." It can replace the subject particles (는/은) OR the object particles (를/을), depending on what you are saying "too" with. For example:

저도 한국어를 해요= I speak Korean as well (in addition to other people)

Which is different from:

저는 한국어도 해요 = I speak Korean as well (in addition to other languages)

Make sure you notice the difference between the previous two examples. In English these two are written the same, but sound different when speaking. In the first example, you are emphasizing that YOU also speak Korean, in addition to other people that you are talking about. In the second example, you are emphasizing that (in addition to other languages), you also speak Korean.

Notice that whatever noun "~도" is attached to is the thing that is being expressed as "too."

More examples:

나도 그것을 알아 = I know that too.
나도 좋아 = I like it too
나의 딸도 행복하다 = My daughter is happy too.

Sorry i accidentally published 1.5 before this chapter