In this lesson, we are introducing how to form negative sentences in Korean. In Korean you can either add the word ‘안[an]‘ before a verb or conjugate the verb into a negative form by using the verb ending ‘지 않다[ji an-ta]‘ Find out how to do that and also practice with some sample sentences by listening to this lesson and as always, if you have any questions or feedback, we will be more than happy to hear them in the comment box!
Everyone, what do you NOT do? 뭐 안 해요?
Read about this grammar point at the Korean Wiki Project site
You can download a free PDF for this lesson here, or if you want to study with our TalkToMeInKorean textbooks, you can get them here. And after you learn the basics, try writing your own Korean sentences and get corrections from native speakers through HaruKorean, our 1:1 correction service.
annyeonghaseyo seonsaengnim!
about the verb eobs-da. just want to hear your opinion teacher because the verb
eobs-da somehow stuck in my mind whenever i practice constructing negative sentences.
(what’s the difference between an, ji anh-da vs. eobs-da?)
kamsahamnida!
Hi! I’m not a teacher but… AN and JI AN- are basically the same just in different position. ANGAYO – I’m not going. KAJI ANHAYO. I’m not going. EOBS-TA is different, it means “not exist” “to be not” “to have not”. For example. Naneun jigeum shigani eobseoyo – Now I don’t have time.
annyeong haseyo! thank you for this lesson. i wanna ask, in the pdf file, for the last example of dialog, you used:
안 매워요.
why is 워 used in the answer as well? 워 means ‘what’ right? how come it’s used as the reply instead of the verb ‘to be’?
thank you!
‘워’ does not meant what. ‘뭐’ means what.
can i just use 안, becouse i think 지 않다 is to difficult to keep up with.
Hi Hani,
If it is difficult to keep up with, I think, it is also good to use the one which is familiar with and then you can enlarge your vacabulary.
In daily conversation in Korea, 안 is rahter used a lot than -지 않다 pattern.
Thanks for your comment.
thank you for this pdf. it helps, but somehow,… i am looking for more negative sentence examples.
Hi everyone,
Thank you for the lessons.
I don’t understand the difference between “jeong-mal” and “jin-ja”
From what i understood it means “really” but when do we use one or the other ?
Thanks a lot
Hi Lily,
In most cases, they are interchangeable. Both means “truly”, “really”. However when it comes to 진짜, it often modify following noun like abjective but when it is used as an abjective, it is not natural if you change it to 정말.
진짜 보석 – 정말 보석(X)
진짜 도자기 – 정말 도자기(X)
can i ask what’s the korean for “I’m not hungry” ?
thank you
배고파요
Source >> http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2070264
So, in Korean class the teacher wrote “별로 안 따뜻해요” on the board. But then I was confused because doesn’t 안 go in front of 하다? So shouldn’t it be: “별로 따뜻 안 해요”? She wrote 안 in front of 피곤해요, too. So it was “안 피곤해요.” I’m confused as to why she put 안 in the front >.<
Hi AJ,
It is natural to add 안 in front of verb part. For the first sentence, the verb is 따뜻해요(to be warm), so it is natural to say it as 별로 안 따뜻해요.
It is same as to the sentence “안 피곤해요”. The verb part is 피곤해요, so 안 is added before 피곤해요.
Thanks for your comment.
AJ, my teacher tells us the same thing, but I think it depends on the verb. For example, the negative of “좋아해요” is “안 좋아해요”. You cannot really split it and make it “좋아 안 해요” because “하다” means “to do”, so that sentence does not really make sense since it roughly translates to, “Favorite did not do,” or something equally as strange.
However, I think for verbs like 숙제하다, you can say “숙제를 안 해요” for “I did not do my homework.” Since 숙제 is a noun, you can split the noun from 하다 (to do) and just add the object particle to homework (를). Does that make sense?
I guess a way to test it is if someone were to ask you a question, see if you can answer it as, “I did not do it.” So if someone asked, “좋아해요?” Can you answer with that? “아니요, (noun) 안 해요.” No, it does not make sense. Hope that helps!
hello
thanks for your helpful lessons.
-what is the dictionary form of [bae an go-pa-yo]?what about [mae-wo-yo](in level1lesson21)?
-in one korean movie i heard something like(ha je ma)with the meaning(dont do)can you tell me the correct form?by the way that was pamal(informal)
thank you