Korean grammar · Level 1 · 1급
N이/가 아니에요
“is not”
Taught in Level 1, Unit 1: Hello, I'm Hoya
once you can say what you are, people will ask whether you are something else — “Are you Chinese?” “Are you a student?” — so the “no” comes right behind the “yes”.
To say “A is not B”, put the particle 이 or 가 on B and add 아니에요. 아니에요 is the polite form of the adjective-like word 아니다 (“to not be”), the opposite of 이다. The particle is 이 after a batchim and 가 after a vowel. Notice what is happening: B is normally not the topic here; 이/가 marks B as the thing that the sentence says “no” to. (은/는 is possible for contrast — 학생은 아니에요, “a student, I'm not” — but start with 이/가.) The full family of 이/가 (it also marks the subject) is finished in Unit 2 — for now, remember it as the partner of 아니에요. The spelling is always 아니에요, never 아니예요, even though 아니 ends in a vowel. Learn it as one fixed word.
| When | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| noun ends in a batchim | 이 아니에요 | 학생이 아니에요 |
| noun ends in a vowel | 가 아니에요 | 의사가 아니에요 · 가수가 아니에요 |
Examples
저는 의사가 아니에요.
I'm not a doctor.
마이크 씨는 회사원이 아니에요.
Mike is not an office worker.
리사 씨는 영국 사람이 아니에요?
Isn't Lisa British?
Practise it in context · Level 1, Unit 1
Hello, I'm Hoya
The rule with a table, Sori’s tips, practice that checks itself, a review room and a one-page cheat sheet.
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