🇰🇷 Lesson 10: Negation & Asking Questions

🧭 The Big Idea: Two Kinds of "Not"

English uses one small word for almost every negative: "I don't go", "I can't go". Korean splits this into two separate ideas, each with its own word:

• 안 — "don't / won't / isn't". A plain fact or a choice.
• 못 — "can't". Something stops you: ability, circumstances, rules.

The good news: neither one changes the verb ending you learned in Lesson 7. You conjugate the verb exactly as before (가요, 먹어요, 공부해요) and simply put the negative word in front — or use a longer ending that means the same thing. Questions are even easier: in 해요 style, a statement and a question have identical words. Only your voice changes.

🚫 Short Negation: 안 + Verb

안 is the everyday form — short, quick and used constantly in conversation. It works with both verbs and adjectives.

📜 Long Negation: Stem + -지 않아요

The same meaning can be built with an ending instead. Take the stem (dictionary form minus 다), add -지 않아요. It sounds a little more careful and is common in writing, news and polite explanations, but it is not a different meaning.

🧩 Where Does 안 Go with 하다 Verbs?

Many verbs are really noun + 하다: 공부하다 = 공부 (study) + 하다 (do). With these, 안 goes between the noun and 하다 — you "don't do study".

🔒 Can't: 못 + Verb / Stem + -지 못해요

못 works exactly like 안 — same position, same 하다 rule — but means "can't / unable to". The long form is stem + 지 못해요.

⚖️ 안 vs 못: Choice or Circumstance?

못 is normally used with action verbs. Adjectives describe states you don't control, so they take 안: 안 비싸요 ✓, 못 비싸요 ✗.

🇰🇷 Cultural note — declining gracefully. When you turn down an invitation, 못 가요 ("I can't go") sounds much softer than 안 가요 ("I'm not going"), because it suggests circumstances rather than unwillingness. Koreans value keeping harmony (눈치 — reading the room — matters a lot), so a refusal usually comes as 미안해요. 못 가요. plus a short reason. A flat 안 가요 to an invitation can sound like you simply don't want to be there.

🔁 Words with Their Own Opposites

A few very common words don't use 안 at all — they have a dedicated negative partner. You've met some already.

몰라요 comes from 모르다, an irregular verb you'll study properly in Lesson 21 — for now just learn 몰라요 as a set word. Also, 안 맛있어요 and 안 재미있어요 are sometimes heard in casual speech, but 맛없어요 and 재미없어요 are the normal choices.

❔ Asking Yes/No Questions

In the polite 해요 style, a question is the statement with rising intonation. Nothing is added, nothing moves. In writing, just add a question mark.

Answering Negative Questions — Korean Agrees with the Words

This is where English speakers stumble. In Korean, 네 means "what you just said is right" and 아니요 means "what you said is wrong". English answers the fact; Korean answers the question.

🔍 Question Words

Here is the best news of the lesson: Korean question words don't move. English drags "what" to the front ("What do you eat?"); Korean leaves it exactly where the answer would go. Say the answer sentence, then swap the answer for a question word.

💬 Dialogue: An Invitation

Notice how Sujin declines with 못 가요 plus a reason, and how she answers the negative question with 네, 안 먹어요 — "Yes (you're right), I don't." 어때요? ("how is it / how about…?") is a set phrase for now; its verb 어떻다 is irregular and returns in Lesson 21.

The 네/아니요 flip may feel backwards for weeks — that's completely normal. You haven't failed to get it; you just haven't got it yet. Each time you catch yourself, the pattern gets a little more automatic.

❓ Common Questions

✏️ Practice

🧠 Check Your Understanding

🔮 Looking Ahead

With negatives, questions and the particles from Lesson 9, you can now hold a real back-and-forth conversation. In Lesson 11: Food & Dining you'll put it all to work at the table — asking 뭐 먹어요? and 얼마예요?, saying what you don't or can't eat, and ordering politely in a Korean restaurant.