Lesson 7
The most basic method of changing a 존댓말 sentence into 반말 is dropping -요 at the end, but if the sentence is an “Noun + to be + Noun” type of sentence, you need a slightly different approach.
With other sentences
- 좋아요. (It’s good.) → 좋아.
- 이상해요. (It’s strange.) → 이상해.
- 공부해요. (I study.) → 공부해.
The above rule applies to both action verb sentences and descriptive verb sentences. But with the 이다 verb, which means “to be” and is conjugated in the present tense as -이에요 or -예요, you can’t just drop -요.
-이에요 changes to -이야 and -예요 changes to -야 in 반말.
- 학생이에요. (He/she is a student.) → 학생이야.
- 여기예요. (It’s this place.) → 여기야.
- 지금 어디예요? (Where are you?) → 지금 어디야?
- 지금 집이에요. (I’m at home now.) → 지금 집이야.