In English, we pluralize our nouns in many different ways:
In Korean, it’s much simpler. We simply add the particle 들:
Sentence example:
I like cats.
Those chairs are very heavy.
Plural nouns are usually not necessary in Korean.
It may be obvious from the context:
There are many pencils (‘many’ implies plurality already).
Monkeys like bananas (talking about monkeys/bananas in general).
Similarly, the 들 can be dropped from both of the first two sentences in this lesson.
I like cats (it’s implied I’m talking about cats in general).
Those chairs are very heavy (I’m pointing to a group of chairs).
So, what’s a case where the 들 should be used? Well, if you need to clarify that you’re talking about multiple of a noun:
There are mansions in the city (clarifies there’s more than one mansion).
However, even in this case, you could argue 들 is not necessary.
Korean is very context dependent. The use of plural nouns is probably one of the things that Korean learners struggle with the most when learning English (and perhaps, vice versa).
Also, notice how “의자들이” changes to “의자가” after we took the 들 out. This is because 자 requires a different subject marker (see prev lesson).
Ok - see you next time!