# 는/은 - 이/가 이다



## i_dahee

Hello, 

I've often seen the verb 이다 together with the particle 는/은 (저는 선생님이에요) and less commonly with the particle 이/가 (제가 선생님이에요). My question is: is it the second case wrong? I think it is.

Since 선생님 is the real subject of the sentence, it should be written with 이/가, but this particle is ommitted and the noun is attached to the verb and therefore 저 is written with the topic particle. In the negative form  the suject particle is not omittted and it would be 저는 선생님이 아니예요. That's kinda my theory 

But then 이름이 뭐예요? seems to be fine. The only think I can think of is that 이름 is the subject and since it's not attached to the verb because 뭐 is in the middle, then 이/가 is used. Although 뭐 could also be regarded as the subject...

I understand the difference between 는/은 - 이/가, but not with 이다.

Mmm... what do you guys think? 

Thanks.


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## mink-shin

i_dahee said:


> My question is: is it the second case wrong


No.


i_dahee said:


> 선생님 is the real subject of the sentence,


No. 저는, 제가 are subjects in both cases.

I think I understand your question and I'm very sure that I know what's going on in your head but it's not easy for me to explain it as the grammar of Korean in this case is very very different from English's in a similar case of English*. I both understand and use my language unconsciously. But as it's something like stuck in my brain and I just use it unconsciously as if I don't know the fact there's the information in my head (even though I use my language very correctly), it's kind of hard for me to explain it. But let me, at least, try to explain it even though I'm not sure if I can tell you what's stuck in my brain.

At first, as I said on the top of this post, 제가 is the subject of the sentence.

제가(subject) 선생님이에요(subject complement).
In this case, 제(subject) = 선생님(subject complement).
제가(subject) 선생님(subject complement)이 아니(adjective)에요.

I think there could be two reasons you thought of 선생님 as its real subject in the second sentence you've mentioned. First reason I guess is our word order is different from English. The second reason is you don't know '-이' '-가' can be used attached after complement.

I(제가) teacher(선생님이에요). = I am teacher.
I(제가) teacher(선생님이) not(아니에요). = I'm not teacher.

이름이 뭐에요?
In this case, 이름이(subject) = 뭐(subject complement)
Name(이름이) What(뭐에요)? = What's your name?

Not only is the order of words very different from English but also we Korean don't use what English speakers think of as necessary in a English sentence ;such as be verbs.

* I could know your native language is Spanish from your profile card. But it's not possible comparing to Spanish as I don't know it. That's why I'm going to compare with English. It's non-disrespect.


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## i_dahee

Wow. Thank you very much for all you wrote. It's very useful! 



> * I could know your native language is Spanish from your profile card. But it's not possible comparing to Spanish as I don't know it. That's why I'm going to compare with English. It's non-disrespect.



Sure! No problem  Actually I've being thinking in English all along, but there is something in Spanish that may be comparable to this case. Using verb "to be" in Spanish would make the noun neither a direct object nor a subject, but a complement to the subject. I don't why I didn't think about it before  



> 제가(subject) 선생님(subject complement)이 아니(adjective)에요.



But then why do you use the particle in the negative form? Because 아니 is regarded as an adjective (I didn't know that!)? Or because is the subject complement?


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## mink-shin

i_dahee said:


> But then why do you use the particle in the negative form? Because 아니 is regarded as an adjective (I didn't know that!)? Or because is the subject complement?



Nice question I think it is if I understand your question correctly.

Let me show you something.

제가(subject) 선생님이다(subject complement).
In this case, 이다 is a post positional particle of 선생님. It has the same role with 'am' in this sentence, "I am a teacher", but it is not the verb of the sentence.

When we make a negative form, we usually either attach '않다' after the verb or '안(아니)' before the verb.
"우리는 축구를 안 한다." 안 is before the verb of this sentence, 한다.
"그 애는 날 보지 않더라." 않더라(its basic form is 않다) is after the verb of this sentence, '보지'(its basic form is 보다).

But, in this case, "제가 선생님이다", even though '이다' seems like performing as the verb of the sentence, as it is not the verb but just the post positional particle of 선생님, we use a different sentence form(subject complement adjective) rather than attaching either '안' or '않다'.

"제가 선생님이 아니다".

In the course of Korean schools, teachers teach '아니다' is '특수부정어'(special negative).

I hope this helps.


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