The purpose of this article is to remove the misunderstanding and confusion in discussions previously conducted by precisely and transparently disclosing the essence and characteristics of `은/는` in Korean language education. The core contents are as follows. First, a review of topic characteristics including aboutness, sense of initial position in a sentence, and definiteness shows that it is inadequate to view `은/는` as the only topic markers. Second, the validity of a theoretical viewpoint that relatively defines topics and focus as pragmatic roles from a viewpoint of relational givenness is not proven. Third, a simple explanation that states `은/는` as indicating topic `이/가` and indicating subject does not contribute whatsoever in resolving the issue. Fourth, approaching `은/는` from a viewpoint of expressive theory by accommodating the premise of Mi-hyoung Kim(2011) reveals that `은/는` is used when selecting predicates in a situation where the subject is fixed depending on the speaker`s awareness of reality, and the selected part is focused on as new important information. Furthermore, the semantic function is referred to as the results of the premise realized in the sentence.