Learn how to say something is impossible using the words that mean "can't" and "not able to"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Keith: Is There Anything You Cannot Do with Korean? In this lesson, you will learn how to… |
| Misun: Express inability, -을 수 없다. / -을 수 없다. |
| Keith: And this conversation takes place… |
| Misun: In a playground. |
| Keith: Okay. And the conversation is between… |
| Misun: Two kids. |
| Keith: So they'll be speaking informal formal Korean. |
| Misun: 네 반말이요. |
| Keith: Let’s listen in to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 태현 나 날아갈 수 없어. |
| 소영 알아. 나 운전 할 수 없어. |
| 태현 알아. 근데 나 자전거 탈 수 있어! |
| 소영 나도 탈 수 있어! |
| English Host: One more time, with the English. |
| 태현 나 날아갈 수 없어. |
| Keith: I can't fly. |
| 소영 알아. 나 운전 할 수 없어. |
| Keith: I know. I can't drive. |
| 태현 알아. 근데 나 자전거 탈 수 있어! |
| Keith: I know. But I can ride a bike! |
| 소영 나도 탈 수 있어! |
| Keith: I can ride a bike too! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Keith: Okay. Well, Misun, as this lesson is about things you can’t do, 할 수 없다 / 할 수 없어요. while I was in Korea, I found out that there were a lot of people that couldn't swim. Now, is this just my experience or is it true? Korean people, generally, can’t swim? |
| Misun: Well, like personally, I can’t swim. I can’t. Maybe because I wasn’t really told by parents or teacher that you’re supposed to know how to swim from the elementary school or kindergarten because it wasn’t really common by that time. I’m not a quite sure if it’s still not common nowadays, but generally, people don’t really swim well. |
| Keith: Yeah. Because I grew up in America, so it’s kind of a given over here. A lot of people know how to swim. |
| Misun: Right. |
| Keith: Since they’re young. And even if you’re in the middle of America where there’s no rivers, there’s no lakes or anything, people still go to swimming pools and learn how to swim. So, when I went to Korea, I thought it was everybody knows how to swim. But it’s not really true! There’s a lot of water, too, in Korea. |
| Misun: Yeah. There’s a lot of water, but people not really considering swimming as part of a necessary education activity. |
| Keith: Okay. Actually, in my high school, there was swimming class, but I never took it. |
| Misun: Really? Or you can swim? |
| Keith: Yeah. Maybe they should start giving classes in swimming in Korea. |
| Misun: Maybe. Yeah. I mean, it has to. It has to go to the educational system. |
| Keith: Or… |
| Misun: Then we can freely swim, maybe. Yeah. Because I was drown once. That actually makes… |
| Keith: You were drowning. |
| Misun: Yeah. I was drowning, so that experience makes me really fearful whenever I really make a decision that I need to learn how to swim. But… |
| Keith: All right. Well, Misun, you can take it up with the Korean government. |
| Misun: Right. |
| Keith: Everybody’s going to drown. |
| Misun: Right. |
| Keith: No swimming classes. |
| Misun: Yeah. Right. We need. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Keith: Okay. Well, let's take a look at the vocab for this lesson. The first word we have is… |
| Misun: 알다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: To know. |
| Misun: 알다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 알다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next is…. |
| Misun: 근데 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: But, by the way (colloquial version of 그런데) |
| Misun: 근데 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 근데 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next… |
| Misun: 자전거 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: Bicycle |
| Misun: 자전거 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 자전거 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next is… |
| Misun: 타다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: To ride. |
| Misun: 타다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 타다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: Next… |
| Misun: 운전하다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: To drive. |
| Misun: 운전하다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 운전하다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Lastly… |
| Misun: 날아가다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: To fly, to fly away. |
| Misun: 날아가다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 날아가다 [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Keith: Okay. Let's take a closer look at some of the words and phrases. |
| Misun: The first word we’ll look at is, 알아. |
| Keith: Okay. And that comes from the verb 알다, which means “to know”. |
| Misun: So when you want to say "I know" you can say, 알아. |
| Keith: And that's informal Korean. What about formal Korean? What would that be? |
| Misun: That would be 알아요. / 알아요. |
| Keith: So when you hear a statement from someone and you want to say that, “Yeah, I already know.” |
| Misun: You can say, 알아요. |
| Keith: Also, there's another form of the verb 알다, which is very useful. |
| Misun: Yes. You can use 알겠습니다 in many, many situations. |
| Keith: That's right. Misun, can we have that phrase one more time, please? |
| Misun: 알겠습니다. / 알겠습니다./ 알겠습니다. |
| Keith: And that means "understood." |
| Misun: Yeah, when someone tells you to do something, and you acknowledge their request, you can say, 알겠습니다. |
| Keith: For instance, if your boss tells you, “Write a report by tomorrow,” you can say? |
| Misun: 알겠습니다. And that means "got it" or "I understand" and that means you'll get that report in by tomorrow. |
| Keith: Yeah. And I guess in English, a similar expression might be, “Roger" in military speak. |
| Misun: Right. When you hear an order or request, and you understand that order, you say, 알겠습니다. |
| Keith: Okay! Great! Let's move on to the focus for this lesson. |
Lesson focus |
| Misun: The focus of this lesson is -을 수 없다 |
| Keith: Okay. 을 수 없다 is a grammatical structure which is used to express inability, incapability or impossibility. |
| Misun: For example, if you can't speak English, or you can't use a computer. |
| Keith: Okay. And this structure can be translated as "cannot," or "not able to." |
| Misun: And to use this construction, you can just take the verb stem of the verb and attach -을 수 없다 after. |
| Keith: But instead of focusing on the construction, let's get used to the sounds with a few useful sample sentences. |
| Misun: Okay. This one might be useful for our Absolute Beginner students, 한국어 할 수 없어요. |
| Keith: "I can't speak Korean." |
| Misun: So you can use this when someone is talking to you super fast in Korean, and youjust don't understand what they're saying. Then you can say, |
| Misun: 한국어 할 수 없어요. |
| Keith: “I can’t speak Korean.” And what if your friends are making plans and, well, you can't make it? |
| Misun: Then you can say, 갈 수 없어요. |
| Keith: "I can't go." |
| Misun: And if you're allergic to something, and you're going to order something at a restaurant you can use this.. |
| Keith: Right. For example, if you have a common allergy such as peanuts. |
| Misun: Right. In this case, you can say, 땅콩 먹을 수 없어요. |
| Keith: I can't eat peanuts. |
| Misun: Milk is also something people can't eat, right? |
| Keith: That’s right, lactose intolerance. |
| Misun: Then you can say, 우유 먹을 수 없어요. |
| Keith: “I can't drink milk.” What about dairy in general such as cheese, yogurt, milk? |
| Misun: Yeah. Then you can say 치즈 먹을 수 없어요 or 요거트 먹을 수 없어요. |
| Keith: Is there a word for dairy products in general? Yogurt? |
| Misun: No. Just 요거트. |
| Keith: Okay. All right, Misun, let's move on to how it came out in this conversation. |
| Misun: Sure. First was, 나 날아갈 수 없어. |
| Keith: "I can't fly." |
| Misun: And then it was, 알아. 나 운전할 수 없어. |
| Keith: "I know. I can't drive." |
Outro |
| Keith: Well, that just about does it for today. Bye! |
| Misun: Bye! |
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