i mojaneun yeppeujiman jeo chimarangeun jal an eoullyeo.

topic particle

Breakdown of i mojaneun yeppeujiman jeo chimarangeun jal an eoullyeo.

• 이: this
• 예쁘다: pretty
• ~은: topic particle

Questions & Answers about i mojaneun yeppeujiman jeo chimarangeun jal an eoullyeo.

Why is it 모자는 and not 모자가?

-는 marks 이 모자 as the topic: as for this hat...

That works well here because the speaker is making a contrast:

• This hat is pretty
• but it does not go well with that skirt

Using -는 can give a slight contrastive feeling, which fits the sentence nicely.

If you said 이 모자가 예쁘지만..., it would be more of a neutral subject-marking statement, and a little less like speaking of this hat...

What does -지만 mean in 예쁘지만?

-지만 means but or although.

It attaches directly to the stem of a verb or adjective:

• 예쁘다 → stem 예쁘-
• 예쁘지만 = is pretty, but...

So 예쁘지만 links the first idea to the second:

• It’s pretty, but...

It is a very common way to connect two clauses in Korean.

Why is 예쁘지만 written as one word instead of separating 예쁘 and 지만?

Because -지만 is a grammatical ending, not a separate standalone word.

In Korean, many connectors attach directly to the verb or adjective stem:

• 먹지만
• 좋지만
• 예쁘지만

So you should think of 예쁘지만 as one conjugated form, not as two separate words.