- Forum >
- Topic: Korean >
- "No, a cat is not a person."
"No, a cat is not a person."
Translation:아니요, 고양이는 사람이 아닙니다.
197 Comments
I dont understand why or how Duoling expects learners to go from the alphabet lessons, with sounds and like 10 basic words, to full sentences not containing anything previously taught. I've maxed out on the first three lessons and then lesson 4, Basics 1, is asking me to translate a full English sentence into Korean? And again using no words previously taught in the alphabet lessons. How does this make any sense? None of the other languages I have started do this.
217
Kids follow the exact same learning curve, yet they dont complain, they improvise over time and figure patterns out for themselves. Maybe its time to grow down lol.
Except they're also given educational tools to help them learn, and learn correctly? Kids can figure out a lot on their own, but kids without proper help or education often have a worse grasp on proper language. Stuff like that helps with learning words, but kids at the point of development to be learning sentence structure know a lot more than a handful of words.
Ok but you're not FORCED to learn a secondary language to be able to understand life. You don't HAVE to hear your secondary language every day. You don't HAVE to go to school and learn in that language. Sure, you can still figure out patterns and stuff like that from hearing Korean for a while, but the speed that happens at is drastically slower. Duolingo is created for people who already know a language. There's no reason it shouldn't explain stuff like this. This is why I always find it better to learn languages from real teachers that you can get feedback from. Duolingo shouldn't be used independently.
Im reading a lot of complaints on confusion of unintroduced particles, vocabulary, and grammar context. I feel the same when this app throws a bone at me. But its not a hard fish to fry.
Yall this site helped me with the grammar that Duolingo seems to go fast in teaching. https://www.howtostudykorean.com/unit1
I took a Korean language basics course in college years ago, so i have a foundation that makes Duolingo a 'refresher' and a decent app to pick up where i left off. I suggest seeking other materials to enhance your understanding: Youtube alphabet and pronounciations and some online websites for in-depth walkthroughs on grammar and sentence structure (especially the particles). Thats what i did before i took the class and every now and again since then.
Dont rush yourselves! Take a tolerable amount of study time a day. Good luck yall!!
335
은/는 vs 이/가
-
When it’s a negative sentence with verb ‘to be’ (아닙니다 or 아니에요 i.e. is/am/are + not), you always have to use 이/가 with the preceding noun. Ex: 이것은 책이 아니에요.
-
If you are using 있다/없다 you should always use 이/가 with the noun before it. Ex: i) 펜이 있어요? ii) 저는 내일 시간이 없어요.
-
Generally when there are two nouns in a sentence and a descriptive verb (or adjective) has been used, use 은/는 with the first noun and 이/가 with the second. Ex: 오늘은 날씨가 좋아요. 이 식당은 음식이 맛있어요.
-
When you want to show contrast or emphasise a noun, you should use 은/는. For example – 품질이 좋은데 가격은 너무 비싸요. (Quality is good but the price is too expensive.)
732
This whole tree of Korean is very inconsistent. The alphabet is pretty easy and then the names of companies is okay but strange. Then you are thrown into a very complex incomprehensible world. I think Duo skips a few lessons. Unless you fill in those gaps elsewhere or have previous knowledge of the language it's impossible.
No. 이 and 가 have the same grammatical function. The difference is that 이 would be used when the word ends with a consonants (in this case 고양) while 가 is used when a word ends with a vowel (for example 사과 ends with the vowel ㅏ so you would use the particle 가 thus getting 사과가).
448
Your first step might be to read many of the answers above, on this comment page. Some users have kindly explained things as best they can. Then, I highly recommend doing a search on Youtube for "Korean particles" and watching a few of the top results. This should hopefully also help with figuring out the -는, -은, -이, and -가 endings, which are here used at the end of 고양이는 and 사람이.
The particle endings are the trickiest part of this sentence to a native English speaker. Everything else should be pretty straightforward.
고양이는 사람이 아닙니다.
고양이 = [a] cat 사람 = [a] a person 아닙니다 = is not
You may get more advice if you can more clearly explain which part of it is difficult at this stage for you...
Good luck - and don't worry, it gets easier with practice!
Subject particles, object particles, and connecting words, specifically "and". I'll try to explain this as precise as I can. Subject particles are 은 and 는. We use it to identify the subject in the sentence - 음색은 맛있습니다 (The food is delicious) The subject in the sentence is food or 음색은 in Korean. Since it's the subject, we used 은. We use 은 when a subject ends in a consonant and 는 when the subject ends in a vowel. Example of a subject that ends in a vowel would be 남자는 in a sentence like this "남자는 사람입니다" ( The man is a person).
Next, the object particles. A complete sentence would usually have a subject and an object. We use 이 and 가 as object particles. This time, I'll use another sentence. "고양이는 사람이 아닙니다" (The cat is not a person). If you would look at the subject, it has the subject particle 는. The next word 사람이 (person) is the object. 사람 means person, but since we use it in the sentence as an object, we add the object particle 이. We use 이 when the object ends in a consonant, and 가 if the object in a sentence ends in a vowel. Example of an object that ends in vowel would be 고양이 in the sentence - 사람은 고양이가 아닙니다 (The person is not a cat). If you would look at these two sentence samples, you would see the difference between subject particles and object particles.
Lastly, the "connecting words" , or specifically the word "and". 과, 와, 하고 are used to "connect" words together. They're used as "and". For example - "남자하고 여자가 사람들입니다." (The man and the woman are people). That's one way of using it. The other two words are used based on the ending of a subject or object (consonant or vowel) For example - 사과와 빵이 음식입니다 (The apple and bread are foods). We use 와 because the word we used ends in a vowel (사과). We use 과 if the word we use ends in a consonant - 나는 음식과 집이 필요하다 (I need food and house). Hope you could understand how I used those particles! Hope this helps! Thanks!
357
listen to the actual sound native speakers make. And don't stick with romanization or the equivalent letters in English
357
아니다 is the dictionary form. 아닙니다 is the formal one, where 아니 from 아니다 is the verb stem, and to make it formal, take the verb stem and add ~ㅂ니다/습니다
448
Which part is tripping you up? Maybe someone can help; the forum is frequently helpful! Being specific with your requests will ensure someone knows how to best help you.
448
FrannyTheBunny's explanation on this comment section is very good!
If it helps, think of it in the opposite way - referring to the existence or being of something, Korean usually requires the 이/가 particles. -입니다 is an exception, not the rule.
So it appears to me that, in Korean, when you say something IS something else, you combine the noun with the being verb, as in 사람입니다 (is a person). Because of this, there is no need for the particle.
But if you are saying that something IS NOT something else, you separate the noun and the being verb, as in 사람이 아닙니다 (is not a person). Therefore, since there is a gap between "person" and "is not", you have to add the particle to the noun.
Wrong. 사람이 아닙니다 pertaining to the sentence given would mean "...is not a person". 사람 아닙니다 would mean "Person no", and it doesn't make any sense at all, grammatically. You need to have a grammatical marker "이".
Make sure you know Korean well before commenting. It is good if you want to help, but it wouldn't be the same if what you comment isn't helpful at all. It would be somewhat confusing to others who are still learning these basic rules.