This, that, and that over there

One question, three first words

Play all three. The second half never changes: 뭐예요? is “what is it?” — 뭐 (what) plus the 예요 you already use in 저는 의사예요.

Only the first word changes: 이거, 그거, 저거. All three point at a thing. Which one you say depends on where the thing is. Listen for the first syllable: that is the whole difference.

이거, 그거, 저거: three distances

이거 is a thing near me, the speaker. 그거 is a thing near you, the listener. 저거 is a thing far from both of us.

English has two words, “this” and “that”. Korean splits “that” in two: before you say it, check whether the thing is close to the person you are talking to (그거) or away from both of you (저거).

The 저 in 저거 is not the word 저 “I”. Same spelling, unrelated meaning.

The word switches with the speaker

The person asking holds the book, so for them it is 이거. For the person answering, the same book is “near you”, so the answer starts with 그거. The thing has not moved; the speaker has changed.

The answer is built like 저는 학생이에요: pointing word + noun + 이에요 or 예요. In speech, no particle is needed after 이거, 그거 or 저거.

책이에요 is pronounced [채기에요]: the final ㄱ links to the next vowel.

Four things to point at

Four everyday objects: 우산, 펜, 지갑, 컴퓨터. Two of them, 펜 and 컴퓨터, come from English, but say them the Korean way, one even beat per block.

Look at how each word ends, because that decides the ending. 우산, 펜 and 지갑 end in a final consonant, so they take 이에요. 컴퓨터 ends in a vowel, so it takes 예요.

A question is the same sentence, said rising

이거 물이에요? uses exactly the words of the statement “this is water”. Nothing is added and nothing moves. In speech your voice goes up at the end; in writing there is a question mark.

Korean has no “is this…?” word-order switch and no “do”. To answer yes, say 네 and repeat the last part: 네, 물이에요.