Lesson 9.01.3: Subject Marker nuances with Bookworm BTS! (bts fake subs)
Ah back to those markers again, we covered how to use topic markers with Chaotic Jin and Thinker Koala namjoon. Now onto their partner in crime subject markers!
Imagine you were the camera director, shooting a behind the scenes. And you were walking around the set, asking BTS what books they’ve been reading lately. Can they recommend any to you? Which one is good?
And Jimin holds up a book to you and says:
이 책 좋아요. [i chaek jo-a-yo]
The simplest way, and a neutral way, to say “This book is good.”
*naww thankyou mochi boy. straight up looking like a strawberry daifuku in all white*
And you walk over to Namjoon, without looking up he says:
이 책이 좋아요. [i chae-gi jo-a-yo]
Kinda saying: none other than this book is good. So Namjoon wanted to say
this one is good compared to other books that he’d been reading recently.
So this is kind of like an answer to the question of “Which one is good?”
*okay thank you Joon, i’ll leave you to your intellectual pursuits*
But then Jeongguk walks in and sees all his hyungs reading, and having only caught the last bit of the conversation he’s not quite sure WHAT is good. So he asks, whilst peering over Joon’s shoulder: “WHAT is good?/what are you talking about?”
In order to express your curiosity as to “WHAT” is good, you can ask:
뭐가 좋아요? [mwo-GA jo-a-yo?]
Hence the use of the subject marker, because here the word 가 [ga] emphasizes what the subject
of the verb “to be good/to like 좋아요” is.
*Aww thanks muscle bun, you smile fondly through the lens as you walk away to…*
A contemplative Min Yoongi, who disagrees that Namjoon’s choice of book is good, and that his choice is really the best one.
He can express that by saying
남준’s 책좋아요? 이책가 좋아요! (Namjoon’s chaek jo-a-yo? i-chaek-GA jo-a-yo)
Essentially: “You think Namjoon’s book is good? Well, THIS book (my one) is the best”
Pretty easy hey! So according to TTMIK, in summation:
With -이 and -가, you can add more flavor and more concrete meanings to your Korean sentences when you want to emphasize WHO did something, WHICH ONE is good, and etc.
Go crazy, start a BTS bookclub! Insist your book is the best, pretend you’re sitting next to the boys. Quietly reading. Breathing the same air, looking at the same stars. DID I FALL IN ORDER TO TAKE PLACE OF THOSE COUNTLESS STARS?
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