"A man is a person."

Translation: 남자는 사람입니다.

[mizu.kireina]

Is it me or does Duolingo barely offer the appropiate help needed to understand Korean? What characters portray "is a"? "Person" comes before "is a", I suppose, yet why? Are there any rules? I need to find someone who speaks direct Korean to help me. We are learning about whole sentences when we werent even taught what "Hello" is.

[PAn141100]

So basically,
In English :
Subject-> Verb-> Object
In Korean
Subject-> Object-> Verb
Sub 은/는 + Obj 을를 + Verb 입니다/습니다

[Newton.James]

This helped me so oooo much. Ty!

[SamikshaSh993640]

Got it now, 고마와요

[MatthewBit3]

You learn all of that through practice. Unfortunately korean is a grammar heavy language and i think explanation is needed. It will come maybe in a new update.

[AaronStier1]

I just had this question directly after "the apple is a food" and the comments under said that 기 is an object marker and 는 is a aubject marker. But in English those two sentences both just have subjects and no objects.

Now I'm thinking that subjects and objects are different in Korean and English

[charmantMode]

이/가 are subject markers.
은/는 are topic markers.

I don't think the object markers 을/를 have been used in any sentences up til this lesson.

But I agree, the idea of subject vs topic isn't clear in English...we don't have words that function like 이/가 or 은/는.

[AK2RA]

this site explains the difference well imo

http://koreanheyo.blogspot.ca/2010/07/difference-between-subject-marker-and.html?m=1

[Yamila502029]

Thanks for share it, chingu: )

[PALewis88]

As far as I know, the topic is the general thing being discussed, while the subject is part of the grammatical structure of the sentence (as in subject and predicate). It gets confusing because topic and subject can have the same meaning in certain contexts but the "subject" here is the grammar definition.

[AK2RA]

http://koreanheyo.blogspot.ca/2010/07/difference-between-subject-marker-and.html?m=1

this site explains it well imo

[caftancout]

comparing korean with english or with any language is a huge mistake.
every language is different and has its own grammar

[AricAdam]

Why is it 남자는 and not 남자가?

[FireJade]

Should 남자가 사람입니다 be accepted?

[Neisann]

Namja-neun saramib-nida

[TeresaMeji135429]

When to use 은 vs 는? And 을 vs 를?

[Peter_B_Parker]

I first read this as 'A man is in prison' oof

[cantouche]

I thought neun it was for plural if someone can explain thanks

[taeyongrr]

as far as i know, 들(d-eu-l) is the plural for man and woman, and if we translate it;
남자 = Man
남자들 = Men
same with Woman
여자 = Woman
여자들 = Women

[DavinaNgen]

I put 남자 이 instead. is this ok? is it natural?

[rice_cooker101]

Are "사람이다" and "사람입니다" both the same? I wrote the first one and it showed it was correct...?

[Ninah852583]

What's the difference between using 은 and 는 ? Does it depend if the previous word ends in a vowel or consonant? I'm very confused!