To Be, or Not To Be?
이다, 아니다 [ida, anida?]

All About the Verb “To Be”

It’s time to learn one of the most essential verb and adjective endings in Korean: -이다 [-ida]. This carries the meaning of “to be.” Have you ever thought about the verb “to be”? No? Not even a little? Of course, it’s one of the most basic constructions in any language. But many times it’s the simplest parts of a language that are the most important. So we’ll have to look at this ending very closely.

To be

In English, the verb “to be” has two main functions. The first is to express that something exists, as in the sentence “There are two books.” The word “are” is a conjugation of the verb “to be,” and it’s telling us that two books exist. The second function is to turn nouns or adjectives into predicates so they describe something, as in the sentence “I am an author.” In this sentence, the noun “author” is acting as a predicate and is linked to the word “I” by the verb “to be.” This second example is comparable to the function of -이다 in Korean, with one important difference: -이다 is only attached to nouns or noun phrases—not adjectives—to make a predicate.

So, what can you tell me about the format of -이다? Notice what it ends with: -다. Looks familiar, yeah? Is it coming back to you? Right! We learned in chapter 6 that -다 signifies an infinitive. And in this case, even though -이다 isn’t an independent verb in its own right, that’s still what it’s telling us.

So to use this construction in a sentence, we’re going to need to take off the -다 and conjugate the stem. Its everyday, polite form winds up being -이에요 / -예요 [-ieyo/-yeyo] . Which of these two options you use depends on…anybody?...right—whether the noun you’re attaching it to ends with a consonant or a vowel.

Remember in the previous chapter when we discussed how 무엇 이 에 요 becomes 뭐예요? This is a perfect example of the fact that nouns ending with a consonant take -이에요, while vowel-ending nouns get -예요.

For example, the word 겨울 ends with what? Yes, ᄅ, a consonant. So:

지금은 겨울이에요. [Chigeumeun kyeourieyo.] It’s winter.

And what about a word like 간호사, which means “nurse”? It ends with Α, a vowel, so you would say:

이 분은 간호사예요. [I puneun kanhosayeyo.] This person is a nurse.

Didn’t I tell you that consonant vs. vowel ending rule would come in handy? It’s all over the place!

Not to be

Okay. We’ve learned how to say what something is. What about what something isn’t? Well, the negative form of the -이다 ending is the adjective 아니다 [anida]. It isn’t an ending, but rather a separate, stand-alone adjective, and its polite conjugation is 아니에요 [anieyo].

Now, when you use this verb to say what something isn’t, you also have to add the subject particle to the end of the noun you’re talking about. So:

지금은 겨울이 아니에요. 봄이에요 [Chigeumeun kyeouri anieyo. Pomieyo.] It’s not winter. It’s spring.

이 분은 간호사가 아니에요. 선생님이에요 [I puneun kanhosaga anieyo. Seonsaengnimieyo.] This person is not a nurse. This person is a teacher.

Got it? Remember that in Korean, words can be omitted if the meaning is clear without them. In both pairs of sentences above, words have been left out of the second sentence. 지금은 and 이 분은 are omitted because the listener already knows what’s being referred to.

This cruel existence

Now you’ve learned one function of “to be” in Korean. You use -이다 and 아니다 to say what something is or is not in order to describe it. But what about the other function of “to be” I told you about at the beginning of the chapter? In English, we also use “to be” to express that something exists. Well, you can do this in Korean as well, but you have to use a different adjective: 있다 [itda]. This is another one you’re going to see over, and over, and over again.

Imagine this scenario: At a library, you ask, “Where are the Korean books?” The librarian replies,

한국어 책은 저기에 있어요. [Hangugeo chaegeun cheogie isseoyo.] The Korean books are over there.

The adjective 있어요 in this sentence is the honorific form 1 (-아요 / -어요 / -여요) conjugation of 있다. The last vowel in the stem is Υ, so it gets the -어요 ending. Make sense?

Actually, 있다 has two meanings in Korean: “to be” (exist), and “to have” (possess). So, an immigration official at the airport might say this to you:

여권이 있으세요 [Yeogweoni isseuseyo?] Do you have your passport?

Be careful! It doesn’t mean “Does your passport exist?” It means “Do you have your passport?” with the implied meaning of “Please show me your passport.” Notice how the honorific suffix -(으)시- is added to the adjective to create 있으세요. So if the meaning were “Does your passport exist?” the official would be expressing respect to your passport. That’s nonsense! On the other hand, with the meaning of “Do you have your passport?” the respect is being shown to you, the listener, not the passport.

Um, you’d better answer the question. This guy’s getting impatient! I expect you have your passport, right? So,

네, 있어요. [Ne, isseoyo.] Yes, I have it.

예, 있어요. [Ye, isseoyo.] Yes, I have it.

And what about the opposite of 있다, an adjective meaning “to not be” and “to not have”? Well, this is 없다 [eopda], and its usage is exactly the same as that of 있다. So if you need to say you don’t have your passport, you’d say:

아니요, 없어요. [Aniyo, eopsseoyo.] No, I don’t have it.

Whoops! Where’s your passport? I hope you can find it, because if not, you’ll have to turn around and go home!

Korean Style: Yes, I can’t?

Did you know that in some countries, nodding your head means “no” and shaking your head means “yes”? Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about this confusion in Korea. Nodding is “yes” and shaking your head means “no,” which is probably what you’re used to. However, there’s another area where English and Korean differ in the use of “yes” and “no.”

Suppose you go to a Korean restaurant with your Korean friend. Kimchi, the most popular side dish in Korea, is served with your meal. Your friend asks you, 김치 먹을 수 있어요? (“Can you eat kimchi?”) You don’t want to eat kimchi because it’s too spicy, so you answer, 아니요. 못 먹어요. (“No, I can’t eat it.”) Your friend is surprised because she thought you could. So she asks again, 정말요? 김치를 못먹어요? (“Really? Can’t you eat kimchi?”) You want to say, “No, I can’t. It’s too spicy.” But when you say this in Korean, you must use 예 (“yes”) instead of 아니요 (“no”).

In English, you can answer the questions, “Can you eat kimchi?” and “Can’t you eat kimchi?” in the same way. You can just say “No.” But in Korean, you have to pay attention to whether the question is worded in the positive or negative. If it’s negative, your answer will be the opposite of what you’re used to. Because the Korean words 예 / 아니요 contain the meaning “what you said is correct/incorrect.” So, 예, 못 먹어요 really means “It’s true that I can’t eat kimchi.” Mixing up the “yes” and “no” when answering a negative question is one of the most frequent mistakes when Koreans learn English, and vice versa.