If you are learning Korean, you might be confused by the particles -은, -는, -이 and -가. These are added to nouns depending on whether they end with a consonant or a vowel. For example, 은 and 이 go with consonant endings, while 는 and 가 go with vowel endings. As 은 and 는 (or 이 and 가) have the same meaning and function, I’ll put them here as 은/는 and 이/가.
은/는 and 이/가 play the role of indicating the subject and topic in a sentence. Korean grammar books explain that 이/가 indicates the subject, while 은/는 indicates the topic, However, sometimes the topic and subject are not easily distinguished, and probably Koreans rely on the native speaker’s intuition. It would be better to understand the meaning of the whole sentence.
For example, let’s look at these two sentences:
이것은 책이다. -> This is a book.
이것이 책이다. -> This one is a book or this is the book.
The first sentence uses 은, which is a topic marker that indicates what the sentence is about.
The second sentence uses 이, which is a subject marker that emphasizes the subject of the sentence. 이것이 책이다 can mean two different thing:.
1) Imagine you are working in an office. Your boss asks you to pass him a book and you passed him a pen. Then your boss would give a look at you, pick a book himself and say “이것이 책이다. (or 이것이 책입니다.)” It means that this one is a book not that pen.
2) When 이것이 책이다 is used in an advertisement, it could mean that this is what a book should be or this book is the real existence of books.
은/는 and 이/가 can be used together in a sentence like:
오늘은 날씨가 좋아요. -> The weather is nice today.
오늘이 날씨는 좋아요. -> The weather is nice today, though.
In the first sentence 오늘은 날씨가 좋아요, 오늘은 (today) is the topic and 날씨가 (weather) is the subject. This means that the sentence is about today, and the weather is the thing that is nice. You can use this sentence when you want to contrast or emphasize something.
In the second sentence 오늘이 날씨는 좋아요, 오늘이 (today) is both the topic and the subject, and 날씨는 (weather) is another topic. It could mean that even though everything else is bad today, one thing nice is the weather.
Korean world order is flexible and you can change it for emphasis. When you say 날씨가 오늘은 좋아요, it could mean that the weather was not good for the last couple of days but today’s weather is nice. And when you say 날씨는 오늘이 좋아요, it could mean the weather today is the best compared to any other days.
I put "could mean" in this post because the meaning of a sentence can change depending on the context. As a native Korean speaker and learner of other languages, I know how complex and nuanced Korean can be. I admire and empathize with those who are learning Korean. Happy learning!
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