Making Korean Verbs Negative - Part 1 Summary

WATCH THE LESSON!
https://youtu.be/P3w0DMiOqhU?si=IqvcdYfafpXE9SqL

 

Making Negative Korean Verbs - Part1

This lesson is our first lesson on making verbs negative in Korean.

There are a couple ways to do it.

The first way is by adding “an” to the beginning of the verb. “an” is like the start of the word for “no” in Korean 아니요 (a-ni-yo).

So you take a verb like “to sleep” 자다 (ja-da). add 안 (an) to make it “to not sleep” 안자다 (an-ja-da)

How can you say “I do not sleep”

Remember how to conjugate? 

나는 안자 na-neun an-ja

저는 안자요 jeo-neun an-ja-yo

저는 안잡니다 Jeo-neun an-jam-ni-da

You can conjugate these negative verbs into any tense you want.

You can do the same with adjectives, because in Korean adjectives are verbs For example “to be big” is 크다 (keu-da) We can add 안 (an) to make it 안크다 (an-keu-da) “to be not big”.

It’s not big is

안커 (an-keo)

안커요 (an-keo-yo)

안큽니다 (an-keum-ni-da)

Another way to make verbs negative is to add 못 (mot) in front of the verb. 못 (mot) means “cannot”. For example we can add 못 (mot) in front of 자다 (ja-da) to make it into can’t sleep (mot ja-da). I can’t sleep:

나는 못 자 (na-neun mot ja)

저는 못 자요 (jeo-neun mot ja-yo)

저는 못 잡니다 (jeo-neun mot jam-ni-da)

Please recognize there is a difference between saying ‘I don’t sleep’ and “I can’t sleep” Make sure you are using the one that means what you want to say.

And also: You can’t use 못 (mot) with adjectives. It doesn’t make sense in Korean to say “it can’t be big” 못 커요 (mot keo-yo). Don’t use mot with adjectives.

Now when it comes to 하다 (ha-da) verbs there is another way we can use 안 (an) and 못 (mot)

You know 하다 (ha-da) verbs. Ha-da means “to do” you can add it to the end of a word to make it a verb.

Like “to swim”

수영하다 (Su-yeong-ha-da)

수영 (Su-yeong) means “swim”

하다 (ha-da) means “to do”

So how do we say “to not swim” 

Well! Because it’s a ha-da verb we put 안 (an) right here in the middle

수영 안 하다 (su-yeong-an-hada) and if we want to really be proper about it we add 을 or 를 (eul or reul) to the end of swim

수영을 안 하다 (suyeong-eul an ha-da)

Note that there are two spaces in this “word” for ”to not swim”.

“I don’t swim” polite form:  저는 수영을 안 해요 (jeo-neun su-yeong-eul an hae-yo.)

And we do the same thing with “can’t” 못 (mot) when you have a 하다 (ha-da) verb

You put 못 (mot) right on the middle

수영 못 하다 Suyeong mot-hada

And to be really proper add a 을 or 를 (eul or reul) 

수영을 못 하다

I can’t swim polite form 저는 수영을 못 해요 (jeo-neun su-yeong-eul mot-hae-yo) 

This means I can’t swim because I just don’t know how.

Now here’s the deal with the spaces

There is always a space between su-yeong-eul and mot

못 하다

If we have a space between mot and ha-da it means you can’t do it. You can’t do it at all, you just don’t know how.

못하다

If there is no space between mot and ha-da it means you can’t do it well. You can make an effort but it won’t be very good. su-yeong-eul mot hae-yo. I’m not gonna down but I’m not going to be able to show you a front stroke with anything resembling perfect technique. 

Now Ha-da adjectives are different. You do not put the 안(an) in the middle

You put it at the start, just like with the non ha-da adjectives.

For example 뚱뚱하다 to be fat to make it to be not fat you say 안뚱뚱하다

Got it?

And we do not use the Korean word for “can’t”: 못 (mot) with Korean adjectives. That’s not grammatically correct.

Now you know two ways to make negative sentences in Korean.

This is only part one of our lesson on making verbs negative in Korean. There are more than two ways to do it! We'll learn more in future lessons, but let’s summarize what we learned today.

To add not to a verb or adjective put 안 (an) in front of it unless it is a ha-da verb in which case put 안 (an) in the middle of it. Right before the ha-da. And add 을 or 를 (eul or reul) to the end of the word that comes before the 안 하다 (an-ha-da). Make sure to include a space.

This ha-da style of negation works with verbs only, not adjectives. With ha-da adjectives put the 안 (an) at the front of the word.

To add can’t to a verb put 못 (mot) in front of it and leave a space between 못 (mot) and the verb. You cannot use 못 (mot) with adjectives.

In the case of ha-da verbs put 못 (mot) in the middle right before the ha-da and add 을 or 를 (eul or reul) to the end of the first part of the verb. If you want to say I can’t do it at all leave two spaces in your negative verb so that 못 (mot) stands alone. If you want to say I can’t do it well then eliminate the second space so that 못하다 (mot-ha-da) is all one word.

Thanks for studying with me!
WATCH THE LESSON!
https://youtu.be/P3w0DMiOqhU?si=IqvcdYfafpXE9SqL