LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

TO BE A LOT OF: 많다

A good way to practice your understanding of how adjectives can be used to describe a noun in a sentence or to predicate an entire sentence is to apply your knowledge to the word 많다. 많다 is an adjective that describes that there is "many" or "a lot" of something. Its translation to English usually depends on how it is used in a sentence. For example, when used to describe nouns in a sentence, it can be used in the following way:

나는 많은 음식을 먹다 - I eat a lot of food
나는 많은 돈이 있다 - I have a lot of money

Now, if we use 많다 to predicate a sentence, it can be used like this:

사람이 많다

In your Korean studies, you need to realize that it is never effective to think of a Korean sentence as an exact translation in English. The fact is, Korean and English grammar are completely different, and trying to force the rules/structure of English into Korean is unnatural. If we stuck with the translation of "a lot of" for the meaning of 많다 and forced the English translation to the sentence 사람이 많다, we would get:

People are a lot of

...but that clearly is not accurate. Instead, what is the sentence 사람이 많다 describing? It is describing that there us a lot of something, therefore, the translation should be:

사람이 많다 - There is a lot of people

Therefore, when 많다 predicates a sentence, its translation is usually "There is/are a lot of...". Here is another example:

음식은 많다 - There is a lot of food

Also notice that the particles 이/가 are attached to the subjects in sentences ending with 많다. There are some words when the use of the particles 이/가 on the subject of the sentence is more natural than the use of 는/은. 많다 is one of these words.