Beginners Lesson Four is all about those verbs in Korean that are just plain weird. Irregular verbs in Korean are actually not too bad though! In Beginners Lesson Three, you were introduced to Korean verbs and the irregular verb patterns . The verbs on this page are different. These verbs are commonly used verbs, but either have more than one meaning, are used weird, etc. instead of being irregular patterns . You will see what I mean, right now!
Verb - Polite Style 이다
The first irregular verb that I need to cover here is definitely what many books and courses will call the copula . Basically, it is the verb of equality. Equality? What is that?!? In English, we may say "It is a book." "It" is equal to "book". It is pretty much the verb "to be." If you look in a dictionary, you will see
이다
The verb root is 이. This verb will follow it's own pattern however. It doesn't fit any pattern and just needs to be learned. The polite form will be 이에요 if it comes after a consonant, or 예요 if it comes after a vowel. You will also see it spelled 에요 after a vowel. When spoken, it will sound more like 에요 after a vowel. Let's practice with a sentence. We will use the same sentence as the example in English. Book in Korean is
책
Since 책 ends in a consonant, we should use the polite ending 이에요. With most normal verbs, there is a space between the verb and any other words, but the copula is a special case. There is no space in between the two words. Also, in Korean sentence structure is different. I feel the best way for you to understand it and get used to it is just to see it. The verb falls at the end of the sentence always . Other words fall before the verb. So, since our verb of "to be" is 이에요, that will fall at the end. There is no space between 이에요 and the word it is describing, so, our sentence comes out to be
책이에요
As you see, this is like "book-to be". The structure is different, but you will get used to it as you see more and more of it. 책이에요 means "It is a book." Let's see a couple more examples. Remember, you don't need to remember every noun you see yet. Memorize what you find on the homework page.
연필
연필 means pencil. It ends in ㄹwhich is also a consonant. If we combine this with the polite ending and keep the correct word order, we get 연필이에요, meaning "It is a pencil."
차
차 means car. It ends in ㅏ which is a vowel. Because it ends in a vowel, the correct spelling of 이다 would be 예요. The sentence would be 차예요, meaning "It is a car."
Do you understand it a little better now? If so, then let's look at this, and then there will be some practice problems.
Verb - Casual Style 이다
Many resources choose to teach you mostly one style first, usually polite style, and then much later return to teach you the other commonly used style. I feel it is best to teach you them both from the start, because they both are very important if you plan on learning Korean well. If we put off one, you will not be as strong with it. If we teach both, you will learn at a slower pace at first, but will learn faster later on and the whole time you will be learning more efficiently. So, here it is!
