#mochicheeks

Ah back to those markers again, we covered how to use topic markers with Chaotic Jin and Thinker Koala namjoon. Now onto their partner in crime subject markers! 

Imagine you were the camera director, shooting a behind the scenes. And you were walking around the set, asking BTS what books they’ve been reading lately. Can they recommend any to you? Which one is good?

And Jimin holds up a book to you and says:

이 책 좋아요. [i chaek jo-a-yo]

The simplest way, and a neutral way, to say “This book is good.”

*naww thankyou mochi boy. straight up looking like a strawberry daifuku in all white* 

And you walk over to Namjoon, without looking up he says:

이 책이 좋아요. [i chae-gi jo-a-yo]

Kinda saying: none other than this book is good. So Namjoon wanted to say

this one is good compared to other books that he’d been reading recently.  

So this is kind of like an answer to the question of “Which one is good?”

*okay thank you Joon, i’ll leave you to your intellectual pursuits*

But then Jeongguk walks in and sees all his hyungs reading, and having only caught the last bit of the conversation he’s not quite sure WHAT is good. So he asks, whilst peering over Joon’s shoulder: “WHAT is good?/what are you talking about?”

In order to express your curiosity as to “WHAT” is good, you can ask:

뭐가 좋아요?  [mwo-GA jo-a-yo?]

Hence the use of the subject marker, because here the word 가 [ga] emphasizes what the subject

of the verb “to be good/to like 좋아요” is. 

*Aww thanks muscle bun, you smile fondly through the lens as you walk away to...* 

A contemplative Min Yoongi, who disagrees that Namjoon’s choice of book is good, and that his choice is really the best one. 

He can express that by saying

남준’s 책좋아요? 이책가 좋아요! (Namjoon’s chaek jo-a-yo?   i-chaek-GA jo-a-yo)

Essentially: “You think Namjoon’s book is good? Well, THIS book (my one) is the best”

Pretty easy hey! So according to TTMIK, in summation:

With -이 and -가, you can add more flavor and more concrete meanings to your Korean sentences when you want to emphasize WHO did something, WHICH ONE is good, and etc.

What in Jimin’s Cheeks are modifiers?! Yep. I had no idea either, and my face was similar to that of Jimin’s mochi confusion as seen in the visuals above.

But they’re actually pretty simple. On their own, words like This thing. That thing and The item. are simply pronouns (and we’ll get back to how to say them as just pronouns later on in this post)

So if you friend asks you “which one do you want?”

and you reply “This thing” 

You are just speaking in pronouns. A word that comes before a noun, and doesn’t include the mention of the noun (or what you’re speaking about). 

Now that confusion is cleared up (was I the only one who was confused? hm. probably). Anyway now that MY confusion is cleared up, lettuce continue into the post. 

Get it? 이, 저 and 그 work as modifiers, to modify the location of the verbs they are referring to! 

Back to the pronouns: A fun skit. 

But if we just want to use them as pronouns, we can’t just use them as they are. 

it’d be like someone asking you, “oh which one?’ 

and you reply “this.” 

and they’re thinking “This WHAT? This...tree? This...floor...This thing right in front of me? This worm? This ASFSDLKJFSLDKJFSF!!??!” 

and you’re like “no. this...thing. This item” *points to item*

and they’re like “OH great, see how much that clarifies when you USE YOUR PRONOUNS, AND GESTICULATION PROPERLY” 

So yeah the addition of “거" (which simply means “thing” to the end of the modifiers makes them usable pronouns. That you can whip out in isolation, without having to know the names of the nouns you’re pointing to. 

"Uraraka...Are you okay?"

She mildly thought the answer was no given the other was floating. One of her jacks had stretched out and wrapped around the ankle of the other girl so she didn't float away. It would be a little hard to have a conversation and help Ochako out if the girl was floating around the ceiling of the dorm.