있다 TO HAVE

In English, “to have” is a verb that can act on an object e.g. I have a car, I have a pen.

You cannot have a word with the particle 을/를 attached to it. The predicating word in a sentence is an adjective (because 을/를 indicates an object in a sentence). Instead you can attach 이/가 to the object. This indicates the thing that a person “has” in sentences with 있다.

For example, 나는 펜이 있다.