The Verb TO BE in Korean

Watch the Lesson: https://youtu.be/sQawaRvL0yw

So, in the last videos I taught you all kinds of rules for conjugating verbs in Korean. And I mentioned that some verbs are irregular but we weren't going to learn them until much later. Well, it seems as though later has come sooner than I anticipated because now I want to teach you about one of the most important verbs in any language the verb "to be" or in it's present tense "am", "are", and "is".  Once I teach you this verb we will use it to introduce ourselves in Korean by telling people all the things that we "are". (Sounds good right?) Let's get started. The verb to be in Korean is 이다 and just temporarily forget everything you know about conjugating because this is 이다 in the present form
casual 이야
polite 이에요
formal 입니다
Ah! At least the formal form is still like normal.
Oh, but wait there's more...
If the previous word ends in a vowel you drop the 이 and in the case of the polite form you also add a "y" like this
casual 이야 (or 야 if the word ends in a vowel)
polite 이에요 (or 예요 if the word ends in a vowel)
formal 입니다 (or ㅂ니다 if the word ends in a vowel)
So, casually that would be "ya", in the polite form that would be "ye-yo", and formally that would be "m-ni-da".
And let me remind you each of these words mean "is" "am" and "are" the same word can mean all three. Koreans do not conjugate their verbs depending on 1st person, 2nd person, or 3rd person. Instead they conjugate based on how formal they want to be.
casual 이야 (or 야 if the word ends in a vowel)=is/am/are
polite 이에요 (or 에요 if the word ends in a vowel)=is/am/are
formal 입니다 (or ㅂ니다 if the word ends in a vowel)=is/am/are
So, let's start making some sentences. We want to be able to introduce ourselves in Korean using these kinds of sentences.
I am ___.
and for the blank we will fill in our name, gender, age, occupation, nationality, height, (weight), (religion)... oh those last two are a little bit TMI. Lets just see how this goes.
Let's do casual form first. Our basic sentence looks like this:

나는 ____ 이야   나는 ____ 야
and the polite form of the sentence
저는 ___이에요   저는 ___에요
and the formal form
저는 ___입니다    저는 ___ㅂ니다

Recall the word order in Korean is Subject, Object, Verb. The verb is at the end of the sentence. The subject has a subject marking particle and the object usually has an object marking particle, but when we use the verb "to be" we do not use an object marking particle because.... well the reason is complicated.
Take a good look at this page. Notice that there is no space between the object and the verb.
Now fill in the blank with an object like Your name! I will use one name that ends in a vowel and one that ends in a consonant
나는 Piglet 이야.    나는 Winnie The Pooh 야 .
Winnie The Pooh ends in a vowel so we dropped the 이.
Here is the polite form
저는 Piglet이에요    저는 Winnie The Pooh예요 
and here is the formal form
저는 Piglet입니다    저는 Winnie The Poohㅂ니다
Now let's say our gender. Female is 여자 and Male is 남자 yeo is always a feminine prefix and nam is a masculine prefix. Kinda cool how it's just like man spelled backwards. It makes it easy to remember.
both namja and yeoja end in vowels so lets get rid of that i
나는 여자야          나는 남자야
저는 여자에요    저는 남자예요 
저는 여잡니다    저는 남잡니다

Now let's say our age.
Did you see my lesson on Counters? when you say how many of something there is you need to use a counter. If we're using native Korean number the counter for age is sal, if we're using sino the counter for age is se. I'll use
5 years as an example.
나는 다섯 살이야                              나는 오 세야
저는 다섯 살이에요                           저는 오 세예요
저는 다섯 살입니다                          저는 오 셉니다
If you want to learn more about Counters and the two Korean Numbering Systems click their links in the description.
Let's say our occupation.
Here's a list of jobs that I used in another video if you do not see your job here then head over to an online translator.
https://koreantogether.blogspot.com/2017/04/chart-of-korean-job-titles.html

Here are two examples one ending in a vowel and one ending in a consonant.
나는 학생이야              나는 의사야
na-neun hak-saeng i-ya     na-neun u-i-sa-ya
저는 학생이에요     저는 의사예요
jeo-neun hak-saeng-i-ye-yo jeo-neun ui-sa-ye-yo
저는 학생입니다      저는 의삽니다
jeo-neun hak-saeng-im-ni-da  jeo-neun ui-sam-ni-da
Now let's say our nationality. To do that you say the name of the country and the word person(saram) after it.
Like this
나는 캐나다 사람이야
저는 캐나다 사람이에요   
저는 캐나다 사람입니다   
notice spaces between Canada and sa-ram but not between sa-ram and the verb.
Here's a list of some countries. If your country is not on this list use an online translator to translate the name of your country into Korean.
Canada 캐나다
USA 미국
Philippines 필리핀
Malaysia 말레이시아
India 인도
Nepal 네팔
Australia 호주
New Zealand 뉴질랜드
United Kingdom 영국
Ireland 아일랜드
Singapore 싱가폴
Indonesia 인도네시아
Germany  독일
Brazil 브라질
Taiwan 대만
Hong Kong 홍콩
Egypt 이집트
Saudi Arabia 사우디아라비아
And let's say our height this is another one that requires a counter. and that counter is centimetres!
나는 이백 센티미터야
na-neun i-baek sen-ti-mi-teo-ya
저는 이백 센티미터예요
jeo-neun i-baek sen-ti-mi-teo-ye-yo
저는 이백 센티미텁니다
jeo-neun i-baek sen-ti-mi-teom-ni-da
 
and for your weight use kilograms
나는 십 킬로그램이야
저는 십 킬로그램이에요
저는 십 킬로그램입니다
for our height and weight we always use the Sino-Korean numbering system.
and here is a list of some major world religions.
Christian 기독교
Jewish 유대교
Muslim 이술람교
Hindu 힌두교
Sik 시크교
Buddhist 불교
Shinto 신도
Confucist 유교
Taoist 도교
Atheist 무신론
More In The Video Linked In The Description. and he pronounces them too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRfDiEb0ys0
just use these words to fill in the blank of our sentence.
나는 ____ 이야 /야
저는 ____이에요  / 예요 
저는 ____입니다 ㅂ니다   
Now I taught you how to say your introduction in casual polite and formal language. Which one should you use? It depends on who you are talking to. Usually, you will be introducing yourself to strangers so use the polite. BUT if you are introducing yourself to a large group or to an elderly person you should use the formal. And probably don't use the casual for introductions unless you are introducing yourself to a small child, you must be polite to strangers.
OKAY lets put this all into one paragraph
 나는 winnie the pooh 야.  나는 남자 야. 나는 다섯살 이야. na-neun hak-saeng i-ya. 나는 캐나다사람 이야. 나는 이백 센티미터 야.
저는 winnie the pooh예요.  저는 남자예요.    저는 다섯 살이에요.  저는 학생이에요.   저는 캐나다 사람이에요.    저는 이백 센티미터예요.


Remember me telling you that in Korean you can drop the pronouns after you have established your subject. Well this is the perfect opportunity to do exactly that. We will use the pronoun na/I in the first sentence and then we can drop it in each of the following sentences and the pronoun I is just implied.
나는 winnie the pooh 야. 남자 야. 다섯살 이야. hak-saeng i-ya. 캐나다사람 이야. 이백 센티미터 야.
저는 winnie the pooh예요.  남자예요.    다섯 살이에요.  학생이에요.    캐나다 사람이에요.    이백 센티미터예요.

There's your self-introduction. run along now and introduce yourself to some Koreans, Or introduce yourself in the comments of this video. Or you can introduce other people simply by replacing I with "this person" i sa-ram. i sa-ram batman-i-e-yo. nam-ja-ye-yo. se-meul-il-gop-sal-i-e-yo. su-peo hi-ro-ye-yo.
In fact, You can use any of the pronouns from my Korean pronouns video in place of Jeo.
No need to limit your self. take a look for any links in the description that interest you.
and since pronunciation is not my strongsuit I will end this video with a video of Korean pop group bts introducing themselves. Since they are speaking to a large audience they are using the formal form of the verb to be. So have a good listen to their pronunciation. and thanks for studying with me.
oh jin you make things so complicated. Lets listen to everyone introduce themselves again in slow motion and then, those of us who are interested can figure out what Jin is saying.
To understand Jin we we need to draw on information we learned over several different videos. the first word, all the boys said it annyeong ha seyo and we should all know that is Korean hello. the second part bangtan sonyeondan that's bts' full name kpoppers know that and then whats that character at the end? well its "ui" when you see ui at the end of a noun like that it indicates possession. Much like the 's in English. and what's interesting is that when this character is used like that it get gets a different pronunciation. It is pronounced "eh"
to recap Jin said annyeong ha seyo bts-e hello bts'
now what are these next two words? mat hyeong the first one we haven't learned it means eldest. The second one should be familiar from the "what to call people in Korean video" hyung! Hyung means big brother when you are male. and in Korea everyone calls their older friends big brother and big sister.
Now the very last part is just like what everyone else said Jin imnida means am Jin.

lets rearrange this sentence so that it makes sense in English.
Hello, I am bts' eldest big brother Jin.
Remember Korean uses implied pronouns. Jin didn't say I.  none of the boys said I or Jeo in Korean. They didn't have to. It was obvious from the context that they were talking about themselves. Let's practice saying jin's greeting in Korean. annyeong ha seyo bangtan so-nyeon-dan-e mat hyeong Jin imnida. let's listen to Jin one more time
 So i hope this has been fun and educational for you and one more time for all my fellow students who didn't get bored and watched all the way to the end thank you for studying with me.

Watch the Lesson: https://youtu.be/sQawaRvL0yw