To Be or Not To Be

I hope you have familiarized yourself already with reading, writing and rules of pronunciation. If your answer is 'Neh!' then you can move on with grammar and sentence construction. Which, by the way, I'm still finding hard to do. Let's start with particles and identifiers, shall we~

TO BE:

This is one of the things you first need to learn. With so many particles and identifiers, I say this is the easiest - '이다'(ida) which means 'to be' and '아니다'(anida): 'not to be'.

'이다' is the form which links a subject with its predicate, indicating equality or identification. If this form is attached to the noun, there can be no pause or space between it and the Noun. It is pronounced like a part of the Noun. If you've read the materials on my last post, you may have known that when '이다' is conjugated in the present tense and expressed for use in formal context and noun ending in vowel, it changes into '입니다'(imnida: why 'b' is pronounced as 'm'? review rules of pronunciation in Introduction paper I compiled). If the noun ends with a consonant, it changes to 슴니다 (seumnida).

(Read on Self Introduction Notes Page 3)

Now you might be hearing 'yo' over and over in series and songs, etc. This is part of the semi-formal or informal-polite substitute of 이다. It has two different forms '-예요' and '-이에요'. '-예요' is used when the Noun ends with a vowel, and '-이에요' is used when the Noun ends with a consonant.

Example:

안나 + -예요 --> 안나예요. [Anna yeyo - (I) am Anna] - noun 'Anna' ends with a vowel

책상 + -이에요 --> 책상이에요. [Chaeksang iyeyo - (This) is a desk] - noun 'chaeksang(desk)' ends with

a consonant

NOT TO BE:

This word is used for making negatives. You have already studied '이다` which indicates equality or identification. The '이다' is attached directly to a noun, and is pronounced as one word with the noun. When you make the negative construction of '이다', the subject marker '-이/가' (to be discussed soon ^^) is attached directly to the noun, and then followed by the negative verb '아니다' (anida). For use in formal, it becomes '아님니다'(animnida). For semi formal use, it becomes '아니예요'(aniyeyo).

Example:

From: This is a chair.

이것이 의자예요. <---> 이것이 의자가 아니예요. [Igeoshi wijaga aniyeyo - This is not a chair]

^_^