Korean Job Discussion Forums

[thebektionary]

I'm studying Elementary level Korean now. What is the difference between "un/nun" and "i/ga"? I know i/ga indicates the subject of the sentence and un/nun indicates the topic but i see un/nun being used for the subject and i dont really understand the difference between the topic and the subject of a sentence. I know the topic is supposed to stress that it is the most important part of the sentence or something like that, but then when do you use i/ga?

Can someone give me an example of a sentence where you would use BOTH the subject and the topic in the same sentence so I can see the difference? (In Korean and its translation in English.)

Thank you!

[thebektionary]

Nevermind, I found the answer:
http://koreanheyo.blogspot.com/2010/07/difference-between-subject-marker-and.html

...just in case anyone else was wondering.

[koreatimes]

If you are going to share a link, share the pertinent info.

"조사. 명사나 부사, 다른 조사나 어미에 붙어서 문장의 주제임을 나타내거나 '대조', '강조'의 뜻으로 쓴다.
[ Topic particle. Attached to nouns, adverbs, other particles or endings, it shows the subject of the sentence or may be used to show 'contrast' or 'emphasis'. ]" - http://www.learn-korean.net/learn-korean-classes-viewarticle-39.html

Blogspot isn't loading here, and I don't know if your link has a better explanation. I have always seen it as emphasis. Japanese have something similar with "wa" and "ga".

[thebektionary]

It must be your browser because it's fine for me. I shared the link because everything contained in the link is relevant information.

Anyway, this is the full explanation. This guy explained it better than anything I've seen on any other website or in any book.

"A topic of a sentence is not nessesary a subject. A inanimate object can also be the topic of a sentence. A topic of sentence is generally what the sentence is about and therefore the topic marker is use to mark the topic of a sentence and to differentiate two possible topic of conversation.

A subject marker is use to identifies the subject: the noun in the sentence, and to give emphasize to it. Sometimes it is very hard to tell when to use which. One of the easy way is to remember topic marker emphasize more on the verb while subject marker emphasize more on the subject.

Example:
제가 샀다 - I bought (It's not anyone else but it was I who bought it)
저는 샀다 - I bought (I bought rather than doing something else)

Both sentence mean I bought but 제가 샀다 identifies the subject, I, and so puts more emphasis on the subject rather than the rest of the sentence whereas 저는 샀다 emphasizes on 샀다. So in 제가 샀다, it is more concerned about WHO bought while 저는 샀다 is more concerned about what I DID.

Another thing you should notice is when using subject marker "가", the pronoun 저 is turn into 제. This is the same for 나 and 너. 나 will turn into 내 while 너 will turn into 네. Let me give you more example.

제가 먹었어요 - I ate
내가 봤어요 - I saw
네가 샀어요 - You bought
집이 크다 - The house is big
하늘이 높다 = The sky is high
Another way to explain the difference between subject marker and topic marker:

Who bought a new t-shirt? 제가 갔어요 - I went (Notice that you cannot answer 저는 갔어요, because the person is asking who it was that went.
What did you do in the shopping mall? 나는 구두를 샀어요 - I bought shoes (Notice that the person is asking what I did in the shopping mall and so it is unnecessary to use the identifier particle. The person asking the question already knows that it was I who did something in the shopping mall. Therefore 는 is used rather than 가)"

[nate1983]