"남자가 편지를 보냅니다."
Translation:The man sends a letter.
56 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
i suppose you already have an answer but still, 가 or 이 is who does the action, and 는 or 은 is who/what we are talking about, like in a description it would be 남자는 but in this case it's 가 because we talk about what the man does, not about himself. I hope you understood what i'm trying to say
I may be incorrect, but I don't think that's the entire answer. In reality, without context it shouldn't really matter which you use. Here's some more info on the difference in simple sentences like this. 가/이 aren't always going to be put on the doer of the verb.
Think of 가 and 이 as being used to bring in new information, and 은/는 being used to connect what's already known to the new information.
In this sentence: 남자는 메시지가 있습니다 (The man has a message), you probably would've already known about the man with past context.
Maybe you're sitting in your office and your secretary comes in. "There's a man outside wanting to see you." They say. There would've likely been a 가 attached to the man, since it's new information that he exists.
"What does he want?" You reply.
"He (the man) has a message./남자는 메시지가 있습니다." The secretary replies. You already know about the man. He's not new information. What's new information is the message. So, 'message' is the item that will have 가 attached to it, putting more emphasis on it than the man. The man will just have 는 attached to it to attach it to the next word.
I learned this concept from Japanese, and from what I've seen so far, it seems to be the same in Korean. I never understood it when people just said "as for (item), etc. etc." when explaining は, which in Korean is 은/는, and it seems that sentence is popping up here too. I didn't even know what that meant! As for the man? How does "as for..." tell me when to use は or が (은/는 or 가/이)?
I feel like a better way to explain it would be "as for (object), which you already know about +은/는, this is what's new that exists +가/이."
So, to connect that back to the original sentence 남자는 메시지가 있습니다, it'd be like this:
"As for the man (which you already knew about, so you'd use 는 with him), he has a message (using 가 since this is new information, so it gets more emphasis)."
Of course, if you're introducing the man and the message in the same sentence, you'll just put 가/이 on whatever needs more emphasis or could be considered more important.
남자는 메시지가 있습니다. There is a man and he has a message, but the part with more attention/emphasis is the message he has.
남자가 메시지는 있습니다. (I switched 가 and 는). There is a man and he has a message, but what's getting more attention is that there's a man that has the message. 》Maybe the secretary from before came in and said "There's a message for you," making the message already known. "Who has it?" You ask. "A man has the message," replied the secretary, placing the 가 on the man because he's the new information.
Hopefully this makes more sense to anyone reading it! I know I could've used a better explanation when I first learned how this stuff worked, heheh.
가/이 is most often attached to nouns.
고양이가 집 안에 있어요. - The cat is in the house. 가 was attached to 고양이 (cat).
저는 차가 있어요. - I have a car. 가 was attached to 차 (car).
These used 가 instead of 이, because they each ended in a vowel.
TheRealRial gave a good answer for this Korean sentence. Right now i cannot remember the other collective nouns..
But, I add this abiut the word "mail.
...Maybe later we can learn the Korean for saying these English sentences:
..I send the mail out every morning.
..Did he send the mail. (not "a" mail)
..Do you have any mail for me.
..Does the mail come tomorrow?
..Can you send my letter with your mail?
..Can you pick up the mail before you come home?
..Did you see my letter in his mail box?
Have fun!!!
Mail is a collective noun in English, like water or money, and therefore can't be used to refer to a single item of mail.
Whichever text to speech software they use on this site/app is pretty bad. That's probably why it sounds different to you
The plural Korean particle (들) j is not used in this sentence.
Korean grammar uses 를 or 을 mainly for a single thing. Also they are used when talking about a category or saying something general or common to all of a kind if thing.
One sentence like this can be several different translations into English:
:__ A man is X. (one man or more than one, by fact or opinion )
__ Men are X. (all men, by fact or opinion).
"The plural Korean article (들) is not used in this sentence.
Korean grammar uses 를 or 을 mainly for a single thing."
In Korean, 들 is mostly used when it's necessary for clarity. It's left out a lot. Like, if there was a group of boys and girls, they would simply say "남자" and "여자" with no 들, as it's obvious you are referring to them as a group.
And you can use 을 with plural; you can easily find examples with "~들을".
By default singular...then ask if any words in the sentence point the meaning to the topic as a fact or opinion about it as a group word: Men do X or Cites have X.
If 들 not used OR any uncertainty from the written sentence, other words in the paragraph, OR no clues in a live conversation, then think English translation can be singular or plural.
what if I use "Namjaneun pyeonjiga bonaebnida" instead of "namjaga pyeonjireul bonaebnida" ?
If you say 남자는 편지를 보냅니다 it would mean sth like "its the MAN who sends the letter". 가 Would imply that the letter does an action so I think it wouldnt work.
The English sentence does not imply that the letter does an action.
Honestly, the text-to-speech software used on the site, at least for Korean, is not very good.
i feel like duoling is teaching too many new words in verbs 1 i cant keep up with all the meanings
To his mom , to tell that in duoling it is possible that a woman can comverse to a dog in korean and she too do it ?
Although, in real life the present tense/form is used regularly instead of the continuous form.
For instance, "뭐 해?" and "뭐 하고 있어?" both mean "What are you doing?"
Why is the man send a letter wrong? Just because I didn't put the s in sends
Yes, verb conjugation is important and specific to the subject. There is not much to remember in English 3rd person singular form requires s, but other languages change the ending of the verb for almost every pronoun. The verb “to be” has more differences: I am, (archaic thou art) you are, he or she or it is, we are, they are
I send, you send, he or she or it sends, we send, you send, they send
이/가 are used to indicate what the subject of an action verb is.
When the noun ends with a vowel, attach “가” to the noun.When the noun ends with a consonant, attach “이” to the noun. Nouns, Pronouns and Numbers usually have this at the ending.
-은/-는 puts an emphasis on a noun. Or is used to show a difference or surprise. 남자는 편지를 보냅니다 - it was the MAN who send the letter (not the child as usual).
는/은 is the topic maker. It is used, most often, for making general statements.
in verbs 1. there are so many new words to learn this will take 100 years for me
What do you mean? Unless the plural marker is present, the noun can be singular or plural.
I wrote - The man sends letter ...it showed wrong.. should I report it or 를 is used for "a" ?
It marked "The man sends letter." as wrong simply because it's an ungrammatical sentence.
Korean doesn't have an equivalent of words like "a/an" or "the".
"남자가 편지를 보냅니다." can be translated both as "The man sends a letter." and "The man sends letters."
This is like a start up a movie, sending a letter to the bird house in 15 years ago
Well I don't have a doubt but it is going kinda hard for me to learn korean now days... I mean it's really difficult i learned so many languages like spanish,english,french but this hangul language is going kinda hard I really want to learn how to read korean but I just can't do please help me with that duo i can't read korean easily but I want to so please.. Help me with that
