Learn Korean (TTMIK)

Lesson 10

In this lesson, we are going to have a look at the expressions

i-sseo-yo and eop-sseo-yo

When you want to talk about what people HAVE/DON’T HAVE , and also aboutthings that EXISTS/DOESN’T EXIST, you can use these expressions.

i-sseo-y comes from it-da, and it basically expresses that something exists.If you are talking about someone or something existing in a specific place, it means “to be”

Ex) I am here. / It’s over there. / I am at home now.

If you are talking about something (or someone in some cases) in your possession,it means “to have”

Ex) I have a sister. / I have eleven dogs. / Do you have a private airplane?

And eop-sseo-yo is the opposite, and it comes from the verb eop-da. Even though there IS a way to say the same thing, using i-sseo-yo and making into a negative sentence, since there is this independent verb in Korean (eop-sseo-yo) for expression non-existence, it’smore convenient to use eop-sseo-yo rather than saying i-sseo-yo or an i-sseo-yo (we’ll learn these form in a later lesson to come.)So, in conclusion,

 i-sseo-yo eop-sseo-yo

Let’s look at more examples!

i-sseo-yo

And in our examples, let’s use the following words: mul = water / chin-gu = friend / si-gan = time

You simply add i-sseo-yo at the end of the noun that you are referring to.

1. mul i-sseo-yo = There is water. / Water exists. / I have water. / They have water.

2. mul i-sseo-yo? = Is there water? / Do you have water? / Do they have water?

3. chin-gu i-sseo-yo = I have friends. / I have a friend. / There are friends.

4. chin-gu i-sseo-yo? = Do you have friends? / Do they have friends?

5. si-gan i-sseo-yo = There is time. / I have time. / They have time.

6. si-gan i-sseo-yo?] = Is there time? / Do you have time? / Do they have time?

And just by replacing i-sseo-yo with eops-eo-yo you get sentences in the opposite meanings.

eop-sseo-yo

1. si-gan eop-sseo-yo = There is no time. / I don’t have time. / We don’t have time.

2. chin-gu eop-sseo-yo = I don’t have friends

  

------------------ Review Time -------------------

Do you remember the usages of 

eun/neun, the topic marking particles and

i/ga, the subject marking particles?  Eun and neun mark the topic of a sentence, and at the same time emphasize the contrast between the topic of the sentence and the other things.

So if you say si-gan eops-eo-yo that means “I don’t have time.” and if you wantto say, “I have other things but just TIME is not what I have.” you can say that simply by adding

eun or neun at the end of si-gan (but in this case, si-gan ends with a last consonant so eun is used), that becomes si-gan EUN eops-eo-yo.

And if someone asks you “What is it that you don’t have? What are you saying that you don’t have?” you can answer that question by saying “TIME. Time is what I don’t have.” and that can be expressed through

Si-gan I eops-eo-yo.

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Iss-eo-yo and eops-eo-yo can be used to form many interesting and frequently used expressions in

Korean.

jae-mi = fun

jae-mi + iss-eo-yo = jae-mi-iss-eo-yo, literally means “fun exists” but it means “to be interesting”

**Notice how the two words are even written without any space in between. That’s because it has already become an expression used daily.Example)

TTMIK jae-mi-i-sseo-yo = TTMIK is fun! / TTMIK is interesting!