In short

Korean has no verb “to have”. One pair of words - 있어요 (isseoyo) and 없어요 (eopseoyo) - covers there is / there isn’t, is located / isn’t located, and has / doesn’t have. Learn them now as two fixed chunks; the conjugation machinery behind them arrives in the 해요체 lesson.

The rule

Step 1 - Two words, not one word plus a negative

The dictionary forms are 있다 (itda, to exist / to be somewhere / to have) and 없다 (eopda, to not exist / to not be somewhere / to not have). 없다 is a separate word, not 있다 with a negative attached. This matters immediately: you never say *안 있어요. The negative of 있어요 is simply 없어요.

Watch the 받침. 있다 has double ㅆ and 없다 has the cluster ㅄ - 잇다 and 업다 are different words entirely.

For now, take 있어요 / 없어요 as unanalysed chunks. In 해요체 they also serve as questions with nothing but rising intonation: 있어요? (isseoyo?) - is there? / do you have?

Step 2 - Existence: what takes 이/가

The plain existence pattern is Noun + 이/가 + 있어요/없어요.

• 시간이 있어요? (Sigani isseoyo?) - Is there time? / Do you have time?

The thing whose existence is in question is the grammatical subject, so it takes 이/가 - and the choice is decided by the 받침 of that noun, not by meaning: 시간 ends in ㄴ, so 시간이; 차 ends in a vowel, so 차가.

Step 3 - Location: the place takes 에

Add a place and you get Noun + 이/가 + Place + 에 + 있어요/없어요. Korean is verb-final, so 있어요 stays at the end and the place sits in front of it.

• 저는 학교에 있어요. (Jeoneun hakgyoe isseoyo.) - I am at school.

The particle here is 에, the static-location particle. 에서 marks where an action happens, so it cannot appear with 있다 - see 에, 에서 and (으)로. Note also that the located thing may be raised to a topic with 은/는 (저는), exactly as in lesson 3.

Step 4 - Possession: “to me, X exists”

Korean expresses have as existence attached to a person. Two frames do the job:

• Person + 은/는 + Noun + 이/가 + 있어요/없어요 - the everyday one: 저는 차가 없어요. (Jeoneun chaga eopseoyo.) - I don’t have a car.
• Person + 한테/에게 + Noun + 이/가 + 있어요/없어요 - literally to that person there exists: 저한테 우산이 있어요. (Jeohante usani isseoyo.) - I have an umbrella.

한테 is the spoken form and 에게 the written one; they are otherwise interchangeable here, and their fuller life as dative particles is lesson 20.

Step 5 - Position nouns are nouns, and they take a space

Korean has no prepositions. On, in, behind are ordinary nouns of position that follow the reference noun and then carry 에:

Reference noun + [space] + position noun + 에

• 책상 위에 (chaeksang wie) - on the desk, literally at the desk’s top.

Because 위, 안, 앞 and the rest are full nouns, 띄어쓰기 puts a space before them: 책상 위에, never *책상위에.

Step 6 - Two things to file away for later

있다/없다 are their own predicate class - neither action verbs nor descriptive verbs. Nothing changes for you today, but it decides their modifier form later: they take -는 (있는 inneun, 없는 eomneun), never -(으)ㄴ - see lesson 24.

And when the person located deserves respect, 있다 is replaced by the honorific verb 계시다 (gyesida): 아버지가 방에 계세요. (Abeojiga bange gyeseyo.) - Father is in the room. Full treatment in lesson 22; until then, use it only of other people, never of yourself.

Forms & patterns

The three uses, as templates:

Which subject particle, decided by the 받침:

Forms to recognise now, drill later:

Position nouns - the core set:

Examples

Common mistakes

• 저는 학생이 있어요. (Jeoneun haksaengi isseoyo.) -> 저는 학생이에요. (Jeoneun haksaengieyo.) - 있어요 says something exists; saying what something is needs the copula 이에요/예요.
• 저는 차가 안 있어요. (Jeoneun chaga an isseoyo.) -> 저는 차가 없어요. (Jeoneun chaga eopseoyo.) - 있다 is never negated with 안. Its negative is the separate word 없다.
• 지갑가 가방 안에 있어요. (Jigapga gabang ane isseoyo.) -> 지갑이 가방 안에 있어요. (Jigabi gabang ane isseoyo.) - 지갑 ends in the 받침 ㅂ, so the subject particle must be 이, not 가.
• 저는 학교에서 있어요. (Jeoneun hakgyoeseo isseoyo.) -> 저는 학교에 있어요. (Jeoneun hakgyoe isseoyo.) - 에서 marks where an action takes place; simply being somewhere takes 에.
• 책상위에 있어요. (Chaeksangwie isseoyo.) -> 책상 위에 있어요. (Chaeksang wie isseoyo.) - 위 is a noun, not a suffix, so 띄어쓰기 requires the space.

Tips

• Ask which of the three meanings you need. 있어요 is exists, is located, and has all at once. English forces you to pick a verb; Korean does not, and the frame around 있어요 (bare noun, place + 에, person + 은/는) already tells the listener which one you mean.
• Memorise the pair, not the word. 있어요/없어요 always come as a set, and the negative is a different word. Drill them together out loud and *안 있어요 will never occur to you.
• They hide inside common adjectives. 재미있어요 (jaemiisseoyo, it’s fun) / 재미없어요 (jaemieopseoyo, it’s boring) and 맛있어요 (masisseoyo, it’s tasty) / 맛없어요 (madeopseoyo, it tastes bad) are built on this pair - note that 맛없어요 is pronounced with a linking ㄷ, not an ㅅ.
• Never use 계세요 of yourself. *저는 집에 계세요 is wrong: honorifics point at someone else. About yourself it is always 저는 집에 있어요.