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Difference Between Subject Marker(가,이) and Topic Marker(는,은)

Posted by Bruce828 |

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If you follow my lesson from start you should already learn topic marker and object marker. You are going to learn one more particle use in Korean language and often confusing for foreigner to understand: Subject Marker.

Pretty much like the object marker, you can guess that for subject marker is place after the subject. "가" is place if the word didn't have a final consonant and "이" is place if the word have a final consonant. However, the topic and subject in a sentence may be the same sometimes so how should we know when to put topic marker and when to put subject marker.


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.

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

  1. 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.
  2. 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)
Hope all this explanation benefits you guys ^^

The END~

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17 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 29, 2010 at 11:15 AM

    Oh my goodness! Thank you so much! Your explanation is the best so far. This part was giving me so much trouble but I loved your explanation. It was very helpful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. htkNovember 30, 2010 at 1:58 AM

    your post is really well explained and easy to understand for people like me who just started learning korean language....^_^

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMarch 20, 2011 at 6:01 PM

    My textbook and various other websites did not explain this contcept well at all. Yours, however, made it clear - so thank you. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kal XJune 4, 2011 at 7:25 AM

    it's really nice~ your explanation is clear and easy to understand. thanks :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Missy HooAugust 20, 2011 at 12:28 AM

    i have to say this piece of explanation is very well written. 츼고!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. SO CONFUSEDNovember 7, 2011 at 8:39 AM

    why do you keep on using "Jae" as "I" in english? doesn't "Jae" mean "my"? shouldn't you use "Jo" for "I" instead?

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousNovember 12, 2011 at 5:51 AM

    wow thanks. easy to understand now

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousMay 28, 2012 at 2:28 AM

    Oh my god! Thank you this by FAR the best explanation, most sites will tell you what to say but don't actually say which particular part of the sentence to USE them. I think they assume that we know what the topic and subject is but I think since we don't use particles in English then we don't know what they are. Anyway I'm just starting to learn Korean and like the silly westerner that I am the topic/subject markers were really throwing me.

    감사합니다!! ^.^

    ReplyDelete
  9. PaseutelJune 11, 2012 at 10:19 PM

    Thank you very much! It's very useful :)
    I was really confused with this part, but now I get it.
    I'm looking forward to your new lesson!
    Please do update ^^
    감사합니다~

    ReplyDelete
  10. ireneJune 22, 2012 at 2:22 AM

    I'd been having a hard time surfing the net about the difference of the two said particles. I came to understand it when I came across your blog. Thanks a lot!

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousJuly 20, 2012 at 3:54 PM

    Thank you sooooo much this helped tremendously!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousOctober 18, 2012 at 9:55 PM

    THANK YOU VERY MUCH /bows/ ^^

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousDecember 3, 2012 at 8:27 PM

    thanks homie, appreciate it

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousDecember 9, 2012 at 1:36 PM

    Finally i understood! 고마워 !!

    ReplyDelete
  15. 싸드February 3, 2013 at 10:10 PM

    This is the clearest explanation I've seen on this subject. 감사합니다!

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousJune 21, 2013 at 9:09 AM

    Ahhh, it finally makes sense now!! Thank you so much!~~

    ReplyDelete
  17. UnknownApril 1, 2014 at 11:11 AM

    Omg *.*
    Thank you! It helped me so much ..
    It's by far the best explanation that I could find ~ *.*!

    ReplyDelete

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