"친구는 공이 있습니다."
Translation:The friend has a ball.
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It depends on how you look at it. Some languages say a ball is with or on the friend to mean that the friend has a ball. "A friend" is the topic, so it is like saying "As for the friend, there is a ball (with him)." only don't use that for an answer as that is just an idea of how the emphasis might work. They want us to translate the common Korean way of talking to the common English way of talking.
Korean doesn't use definite ("the") or indefinite ("a") articles like English. If you really want to designate a particular ball ("the" definite article), you have to use other means. Otherwise context usually makes it clear. Were we just talking about your favorite ball growing up? Then we are probably still talking about "the ball". Do we want to start a game of pickup soccer? Then we're probably just looking for "a ball."
Friend has the ball works only if we are saying "Friend" is his name. "A friend" because we are not identifying a specific friend. I've seen in later lessons, that Duolingo allows "My friend" even though the possessive was not stated in the sentence. The idea I guess is that we are not talking about someone else's friend.
Oh, I forgot to say the clue is in the use of the topic particle for friend: As for the/a friend...
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This sounds like it was written from the perspective of a pup: defining a friend as someone who has the ball.. Or, is the phrase idiomatic? Kind of like saying 'the ball is in your court' in English..?
This is not a definition. The friend has a topic marker, so it is more like “As for the friend, the ball is located (with him) which is translated to the common “The friend has the ball.” This is simply how they indicate location of items and ownership of items. The owner has the topic marker and the item has the subject marker if a location is given there is a marker for that as well. https://www.duolingo.com/skill/ko/basics-2/tips-and-notes
You must get there yourself now, so click on the Korean lesson "basics-2", then click on Tips and read all about the way Korean does possession when we use the verb "to have".
The item possessed is marked with 이/가 (subject marker), the owner is marked with 은/는 (topic marker) and the location is marked with 에 (The lcation marker is not used in this sentence, but could be used if you wanted to add "at home".)
This is “As for the friend, the ball is located there (with him).” which is how they indicate location and ownership of items and it is translated to the more common English expression “The friend has the ball.” See below for more information.
We could not say "in the friend" here as then I wonder if he swallowed it and will there be surgery to get the ball out of the friend.
Shouldn't it be "The" friend. I have read that 는 is also used to emphasize that we are talking or pointing at a particular thing or person with certainty (Not any other friend,this particular friend). But with saying "a friend", aren't we generalising it to one of the friends which is vague and not certain?
Yes, the English grammatical term "subject of the sentence" is the noun that is doing the action, but in Korean the subject marker focuses attention on a noun and it can be used on any noun in the sentence to indicate new information. The topic marker, which can also be used with any noun in the sentence, is used on the subject of this sentence. The topic marker is used to mark the noun as the topic of the conversation. "As for the friend, there is a ball (with him)." is the way the focus works in the sentence.
Click on the Korean lesson "basics-2", then click on Tips and read all about the way Korean does possession when we use the verb "to have".
The item possessed is marked with 이/가 (subject marker), the owner is marked with 은/는 (topic marker) and the location is marked with 에 (The location marker is not used in this sentence, but it could be used if you wanted to add "at home".)