Many of the sentences in this lesson end with a special verb called the COPULA. The copula is pronounced 이에요 after consonants but generally shortened to 예요 after vowels:
| After Consonants | After Vowels |
|---|---|
| 선생이에요 it is a teacher | 의사예요 it is a doctor |
| 책이에요 it is a book | 잡지예요 it is a magazine |
| 연필이에요 it is a pencil | 종이예요 it is paper |
| 성냥이에요 it is a match | 교수예요 it is a professor |
(The shape 예요 is just an abbreviation of 이에요 and sometimes you will hear the full form, even after a vowel.)
The copula is different from other verbs in this respect: it cannot make a complete sentence by itself, but must always have something in front of it ? nearly always a noun expression. It is pronounced as though it were part of its preceding word, like a suffix, and your voice should never pause or hesitate between the noun expression and the copula.
The copula translates the English verb to be (am, are, is) when it means it equals or it is (the same thingas). For this reason sentences ending with the copula are called EQUATIONAL SENTENCES.
The copula is made negative by the word 아니, followed generally by the abbreviated form which is normal after vowels: 아니에요. The noun expression before the negative (but not before the affirmative!) copula may, optionally, appear as a subject ? i.e., it may have the particle 이/가 after it:
- 신문(이) 아니에요.
It isn’t a newspaper.
- 영국사람(이) 아니에요.
He is not English.
Negative equational sentences thus can accommodate two subjects, the second of which corresponds to the English complement.
- 누가 학생(이) 아니에요?
Who is not a student?
- 그사람은 일본사람(이) 아니에요.
He isn’t Japanese.
- 이것이 영어(가) 아니에요.
This isn’t English.