How do I say "no" in Korean?

Dialogue

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Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

Intro
Michael: How do I say "no" in Korean?
Kyejin: And how do I make negative sentences?
Michael: At KoreanClass101.com, we hear these questions often.
Sasha Morris talks to her friend Seo-young Sin about a party happening tonight. She asks her friend,
"Are you going to the party tonight?"
Sasha Morris: 모리스 사샤: 오늘 밤 파티에 갈 거예요? (Oneul bam patie gal geoyeyo?)
Dialogue
Sasha Morris: 오늘 밤 파티에 갈 거예요? (Oneul bam patie gal geoyeyo?)
Seo-young Sin: 아니요, 안 갈 거예요. (Aniyo, an gal geoyeyo.)
Michael: Once more with the English translation.
Sasha Morris: 오늘 밤 파티에 갈 거예요? (Oneul bam patie gal geoyeyo?)
Michael: "Are you going to the party tonight?"
Seo-young Sin: 아니요, 안 갈 거예요. (Aniyo, an gal geoyeyo.)
Michael: "No, I'm not going to the party tonight."
Lesson focus
Michael: “The oldest, shortest words – ‘yes’ and ‘no’ – are those which require the most thought,” said Pythagoras. And many of you would agree that the latter one, ‘no’ is rather more difficult to utter than the first one. But that shouldn’t be because we don’t know how to say ‘no’ in the language we’re learning! So, in this lesson, we’re going to learn how to say “no” in Korean.
Do you know how to say “no” in Korean?
Kyejin: 아니 (ani),
Michael: and you’d say
Kyejin: 아니요 (aniyo).
Michael: to be polite. Alright, then let’s start talking about how to make “negative sentences”,
Kyejin: 부정문 (bujeongmun).
Michael: In Korean, negation can be divided into several categories. What kind of categories? Let us first look at two sentences. 1) “I didn’t go to work.”
Kyejin: 회사 안 갔어요. (Hoesa an gasseoyo.)
Michael: 2) “I couldn’t go to work.”
Kyejin: 회사 못 갔어요. (Hoesa mot gasseoyo.)
Michael: In both cases, the action of “going to work” wasn’t done by the speaker. Then, what’s the difference between the two? It’s the reason why the action wasn’t carried out. In the case of the first sentence, the reasons might be 1) the speaker was unwilling to go, or 2) simply because it was a weekend or holiday. How do we reach this conclusion? By reflecting on the word “didn’t.” Similarly, the adverb
Kyejin: 안 (an)
Michael: found in the first sentence in Korean is used when 1) implying the “unwillingness to do an action” or 2) to simply deny a fact. Let’s call this type of negation willed/simple negation. And note that this adverb,
Kyejin: 안 (an)
Michael: can be paired with both verbs and adjectives. Then, let’s analyze the second sentence, “I couldn’t go to work.” Here, “couldn’t” was used, thus we can tell that the speaker was unable to fulfill the action. Likewise, the adverb
Kyejin: 못 (mot)
Michael: in the second sentence is used when an action couldn’t be carried out due to inability or incapability. We’ll call this type of negation ability negation. Also, note that this adverb is paired with verbs. So, we’ve discussed so far that Korean negation can be categorized as willed/simple or ability negation based on the reason behind the denial. Other categorization deals with the length. You can make your negative sentence either short or long. The two sentences we had a moment ago were short negations. Then, how do we make long negations? Like this:
Kyejin: 회사 가지 않았어요. (Hoesa gaji anasseoyo.)
Michael: “I didn’t go to work.” Here
Kyejin: -지 않다 (-ji anta)
Michael: was used. This expression can be attached to the stem of the preceding verb or adjective. Using this expression makes the sentence longer than the one using the adverb
Kyejin: 안 (an).
Michael: But both expressions are from willed and simple negative sentences, so they basically have the same meaning. The next sample sentence is:
Kyejin: 회사 가지 못했어요. (Hoesa gaji motaesseoyo.)
Michael: “I couldn’t go to work.” Here
Kyejin: -지 못하다 (-ji motada)
Michael: was used. Using this expression makes the sentence longer than the one using the adverb
Kyejin: 못 (mot).
Michael: These two have the same usage when paired with verbs. But the longer one can also be paired with an adjective to indicate that the state described by the adjective cannot be reached, like
Kyejin: 아름답지 못한 이별 (areumdapji motan ibyeol).
Michael: This literally means “farewell that can’t be beautiful,” and it can be translated as “ugly breakup” in English.
Michael: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue.
Do you remember how Sasha Morris says "Are you going to the party tonight?"
Kyejin: 오늘 밤 파티에 갈 거예요? (Oneul bam patie gal geoyeyo?)
Michael: Sasha starts her question with
Kyejin: 오늘 밤 (oneul bam)
Michael: meaning “tonight.” The rest of her question
Kyejin: 파티에 갈 거예요? (patie gal geoyeyo?)
Michael: means “are you going to the party?”
Michael: Literally put, Sasha’s remark means, “Today night, to party, will (you) go?”, and it can be translated as “Are you going to the party tonight?”
Michael: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence.
Do you remember how Seo-young Sin says "No, I'm not going to the party tonight?"
Kyejin: 아니요, 안 갈 거예요.
Michael: Seo-young first says, “no”
Kyejin: 아니요 (aniyo).
Michael: And then she uses the adverb
Kyejin: 안 (an)
Michael: to form a willed negation, “I’m not going (to the party tonight)”
Kyejin: 안 갈 거예요. (an gal geoyeyo.)
Michael: So, it was out of Seo-young’s determination that she won’t attend, not due to her inability to make it to the party.
Michael: Today, we learned how to say “no”
Kyejin: 아니 / 아니요 (ani /aniyo),
Michael: and how to make “negative sentences”,
Kyejin: 부정문 (bujeongmun).
Michael: We also learned several categories of negation in Korean. Do you recall willed and simple negation? They stand for negative sentences that 1) imply one’s “unwillingness to do an action” or that 2) simply deny a fact. It can be formed with
Kyejin: 안 (an),
Michael: and
Kyejin: -지 않다 (-ji anta).
Michael: Here are some examples of negative sentences formed with these expressions:
Kyejin: 오늘 안 추워요. 오늘 춥지 않아요. (Oneul an chuwoyo. Oneul chupji anayo.)
Michael: “It’s not cold today.”
Kyejin: 안 울 거예요. 울지 않을 거예요. (An ul geoyeyo. Ulji aneul geoyeyo.)
Michael: “(I’m) not going to cry.”
Kyejin: 숙제를 안 했어요. 숙제를 하지 않았어요. (Sukje an haesseo. Sukje haji anasseo.)
Michael: “(I) didn’t do homework.” We also learned that both verbs and adjectives can be paired with both expressions. Next, do you also recall ability negation? It comes into use when an action couldn’t be carried out due to inability or incapability, and we form it with
Kyejin: 못 (mot)
Michael: and
Kyejin: -지 못하다 (-ji motada).
Michael: Here are some examples:
Soyoen: 숙제를 못 했어요. 숙제를 하지 못했어요. (Sukjereul mot haesseoyo. Sukjereul haji motaesseoyo.)
Michael: “I couldn’t do homework.”
Expansion
Michael: Are there any other ways to make negative sentences apart from willed, simple or ability negation? The answer is yes. Let us have a look at an example:
Kyejin: 저는 선생님이 아니에요. (Jeoneun seonsaengnimi anieyo.)
Michael: It means “I’m not a teacher.” Here, the adjective
Kyejin: 아니다 (anida)
Michael: was used to negate a fact. Also, we can form negative imperative/request sentences with
Kyejin: 말다 (malda) / -지 말다 (-ji malda).
Michael: These expressions mean, “stop, choose not to” or “do not”. Here are some sample sentences of negative sentences made with these expressions:
Kyejin: 울지 마요. (Ulji mayo.)
Michael: “Don’t cry.”
Kyejin: 우리 이제 치킨 먹지 말자. (Uri ije chikin meokji malja.)
Michael: “Let’s not eat chicken from now on.”
Cultural Insight
Michael: Let’s say your friend invited you over for a gathering, but you need to turn it down. Then, which negation would you choose to use? willed negation? Or ability negation? Well, it depends on the circumstances, but some people think that using the ability negation makes the “no” sound more kind and presentable.
Kyejin: 초대해줘서 고마운데, 못 갈 것 같아. 미안해. (Chodaehaejwoseo gomaunde, mot gal geot gata. Mianhae.)
Michael: “Thanks for inviting me, but I don’t think I can make it. Sorry.” But, of course, we wouldn’t want to obscure the fact, so, really, it takes effort to be tactful when saying “no”.
Outro
Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them!
Kyejin: 안녕히 계세요 (annyeonghi gyeseyo)
Michael: See you soon!

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How do I say "no" in Korean?

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Intro

Lesson focus

Outro