"The singer gets a present from me."
Translation:가수는 저에게서 선물을 받습니다.
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As a general rule it's best to just reverse the order that you're used to. The singer me from present gets. There are numerous things in Korean grammar that are flexible, for instance adverbs of frequency, they don't have a single place to be used, but you'll notice which things are flexible as you progress.
Rather than just reverising the whole thing, I think of it like this:
가수는 저에게서 선물을 받습니다 - The singer gets a present from me.
- Subject goes at the front: 가수는 - The singer
- Then the indirect object goes second i.e. who it's from: 저에게서 - From me
- Then the actual object in the sentence: 선물을 - A present
- Verb goes at the end: 받습니다 - Gets
I guess you could just reverse the sentence, but I think it helps understanding how the grammar actually works. Hope that helps.
846
I think 저에게서 and 선물을 could swap places and it wouldn't change the meaning of the sentence, as long as you used the correct particles.
I heard that it works like this as well:
- 는 - Topic marker, used after a vowel e.g. 여자는 - A woman. Used when making a general statement e.g. An apple is a fruit.
- 은 - Topic marker, after a consonant e.g. 연필은 - A pencil.
- 가 - Subject marker, used after a vowel e.g. 학교가 - The school
- 이 - Subject marker, used after a consonant e.g. 연필이 - The pencil. Used when you're talking about something specific e.g. THE pencil is a thing.
2775
You're correct about which is the subject and which is the topic marker/particle. However, "a woman" can be a subject or a topic, and vice versa with "the woman". There is no definite article ("the") or indefinite article ("a" or "an") in Korean, and the definite and indefinite articles in English don't equate to the Korean subject or topic marker. Both "a women" and "the women" will get the subject marker in the following two sentences: "a woman walks down the street" and "the women walks down the street" (unless someone decided that "a woman" or "the women" is a topic). The topic marker will be confusing for some people if they are not familiar with topicalization. The basic idea is that something can become the topic in a sentence and will then get the topic marker. For example, I could say in English "I gave the cat food" and you could translate that into Korean using the subject marker with "I" and object market for "food", but you could also give the topic marker to "food" or "the cat".
I found this video very helpful, (I highly recommend TTMIK's YouTube videos and podcasts) but basically;
는/은 = Topic marker; something that the speaker wants the listener to focus on.
가/이 = Subject marker; the noun that is most directly related to the main verb.
를/을 = Direct object; who/what the verb is affecting.
The video goes into much more detail (grammar, nuance, emphasis, etc.) but that's the general idea ^^
"가수는 저에게서 선물을 받습니다." "The singer recieves a present from me."
가수 = Singer, ~는 = Topic marker
저 = I/me (formal), ~에게서 = From
선물 = Present, ~을 = Direct object marker
받다 = To recieve, ~습니다 = formal verb ending; 받습니다 = recieves
And I believe these sentences are also correct translations (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though): - "가수는 나에게서 선물을 받아(요)" - "가수가 나에게서 선물을 받아(요)" - "가수는 저에게서 선물을 받아요"