"남자아이와 여자아이는 적습니다."

Translation: The boy and the girl write.

[Vanessa208569]

I said "a boy and a girl write" and it was wrong; i thought it could be seen as definite and indefinite article. Is there a different rule to this or did i just get it wrong?

[vngdhuyen]

please flag it next time you come across it

[rpjiorle]

So in this case, are "the boy and girl" treated together as one "topic?" Is that why 는 only appears at the end of girl?

[RWang2017]

Does 적습니다 come from 쓰다? How is it conjugated? I could not find it online.

[vngdhuyen]

it's from the verb 적다. to conjugate in the non-past indicative, you take its stem 적 then add the declarative suffix 습니다 to form the formal polite speech level we are learning here.

**note that the declarative formal polite suffix has two forms, ㅂ니다 and 습니다. if the stem of the verb or adjective has no batchim (final consonant) or its batchim is ㄹ, ㅂ니다 is attached as suffix. if the stem does have a batchim, 습니다 is then used instead.

[CooperReid4]

No it doesn't come from 쓰다. 적다 means "to write." And 쓰다 technically means "to use. " but usually you just use 쓰다 for "to write."

[John19delta]

I wrote, "the boy and the girl write." It was accepted. Why? Beats me. Hopefully someone can explain this to us.

[daadaadaaren]

what is 씁니다?

[EllieFM24]

it means to write

[Eun453081]

적습니다 also means less

[Ash-Fred]

"There are few boys and girls." is accepted.

[CooperReid4]

Usually you would use 쓰다 no?