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I used Google Translate to say "I'm not Korean."

I expected something like:

> 私は韓国人はない

However, I got this:

> 私は韓国人ではない

Why is the で used in this situation?
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2018-05-19T18:29:34.530
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question
grammar copula
Why is で necessary in the following sentence?
If you mean you expected "I'm not Korean." to be written 私は韓国人はない, then it
seems you forgot that it's not は, but じゃ.

> 私は韓国人じゃない。

There are several ways of writing this simple negative statement, of varying
degrees of politeness/formality.

じゃない。  
じゃありません。  
ではない。  
ではありません。

Someone with a better grasp of grammar can probably tell you what function で
plays in this construction...

Actually I found a previous Q&A that applies and goes into slightly more
detail in the link below:

[What does では mean in this
sentence?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/45020/what-
does-%E3%81%A7%E3%81%AF-mean-in-this-sentence)
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2018-05-19T19:58:43.297
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answer
'to be (a thing)' is a bit of an odd complex verb thing, involving both で and
ある. Your first sentence, lacking で, simply means 'I have no (inanimate)
Koreans'. The negative is, a bit unusually, ではない in most cases rather than
just でない, but the で cannot be omitted - it's part of the verb である(～だ), and
without it, all you have is ある (which is only 'for an inanimate thing to exist
or be located').
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2018-05-19T21:07:21.380
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answer