Breakdown of doseogwane chaegi isseoyo.
~이~i
subject particle
책chaek
book
도서관doseogwan
library
있다issda
to have
~에~e
location particle
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Questions & Answers about doseogwane chaegi isseoyo.
What does the particle -에 mean in 도서관에?
The particle -에 marks a static location (“at” or “in”). Here, 도서관에 means “at the library” or “in the library,” indicating where something exists.
Why is -이 used after 책 in 책이?
-이 is the subject-marking particle for nouns ending in a consonant. It tells us that 책 (“book”) is the grammatical subject of the sentence—i.e., the thing that exists.
Why do we use 있어요 instead of the dictionary form 있다?
있어요 is the polite present-tense conjugation of 있다.
• 있다 = dictionary (plain) form
• 있어요 = polite informal present (you’d use this in most everyday conversations with people you don’t know well)
Can I say 책은 도서관에 있어요 instead? What’s the difference?
Yes, you can. Using 은 (topic particle) instead of 이 (subject particle) makes 책은 a topic, adding a nuance of contrast or emphasis.
• 책이 도서관에 있어요 simply states “A book exists in the library.”
• 책은 도서관에 있어요 implies “As for the book (as opposed to something else), it’s in the library.”
Why is the word order 도서관에 책이 있어요 and not always 책이 도서관에 있어요?
Korean word order is relatively flexible because particles show each noun’s role.
• 도서관에 책이 있어요 (location first) can emphasize where something exists.
• 책이 도서관에 있어요 (subject first) can emphasize what exists.
Both are grammatically correct; the difference is one of emphasis.
Is there a more casual form of 있어요?
Yes. In casual speech (to close friends or younger people), you’d drop the -요 and say 있어. For very formal or written contexts, you can say 있습니다.
What part of speech is 있어요, and does it have other uses?
있어요 is the polite present-tense form of the verb 있다, which can mean either “to exist” (e.g., “There is…”) or “to have” when followed by another noun with the object-marking particle -을/를 (e.g., 책이 있어요 = “I have a book,” colloquially). In this sentence, it’s used to indicate existence.