Remember the last post on subject marking particles? We’re gonna use them today, so get ready!

Before we do that, let’s review a couple things. First, how do you conjugate verbs into the deferential polite? For regular verbs, just add ㅂ니다 (we’ll do irregular verbs at another time). For the verb ‘to sleep’, which is jada (자다), take away the da (다). Then add the ending ㅂ니다. Altogether you get, 잡니다 or jamnida. Normally the letter biup (ㅂ) is pronounced as a b or p, but since the niun (ㄴ) is pronounced right after it, the biup (ㅂ) has a tendency to sound like an ‘m’ sound.

Ok, now we’re ready to form a sentence. Let’s say that you want to say, ‘Minji sleeps’ in the deferential polite. To do this, you need the subject marking particle. Minji (민지) ends with a vowel. Therefore, you’ll need ga (가) attached to Minji (민지). In Korean the sentence is, Minjiga jamnida (잡니다).

I’ll give you another example. Let’s say that we want to say ‘Youngmin sleeps’ in the deferential polite form. To say that we would use the subject marking particle e (이) attached to Youngmin (영민이). This is because Youngmin (영민이) ends in a consonant. Altogether this sentence will look like this: Youngmine jamnida (영민이 잡니다).

Not too hard right?