Is the 는 indicating possession?

Is the 는 indicating possession?

-는 (or -은) marks the topic of the sentence, so it’s more like, “Concerning 언니…,” then the rest of the sentence continues talking about her. “…she’s feeling tired today,” or something.

Possession would be -의 instead.

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It’s important to state, I think, that -는 (or -은) marks the topic in this particular case but not necessarily in general (although marking the subject/topic is the most common use).

As the OP progresses in Korean, they’ll see that -는 can be added for other common uses too. Some of the beginner material may even already have it taking up other functions.

This is true, and good to keep in mind. I was automatically assuming that they were working with beginner-level materials that would keep things simple at first.

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