There are two particles to mark the subject of a sentence in Korean. Whether you use one or the other will depend on whether the word ends in a vowel or a consonant.

Let’s first tackle words that end in a vowel. The proper noun minji (민지) ends in a vowel (minji is a girl’s name). Therefore the subject marking particle that will be attached to minji will be ga (가). So altogether it will look like this: minjiga (민지가). I’ll provide another example. The proper noun junsu (준수) (junsu is a boy’s name) ends in a vowel. Therefore the subject marking particle attached to junsu (준수) will be ga (가). In a sentence it’ll look like this, junsuga (준수가). This is true for nouns that are not proper nouns. Words like se or bird in Korean will be sega (새가).

Words ending in a consonant will use the subject marking particle e (이). For example the name youngmin (영민) ends in a consonant so it will be youngmine (영민이). I’ll give another example. The name subum (수범) also ends in a consonant, which means that in a sentence it will look like this, subume (수범이). Let’s look at the Korean word for table which is shikdang (식당). Since this ends in a consonant, it’s going to look like this, shikdange (식당이).

If you’re still confused about when to use e (이) or ga (가), it might be a good idea to study the Korean alphabet all over again. Try to remember what the consonants look like and what the vowels look like. This will help you determine whether to attach e (이) or ga (가). Next time I’ll teach you how to build upon these sentences, but make sure you understand the subject particles first. This will help you when we get to more complicated grammar.