Negation

In this lesson we’re going to learn about negation in Korean, using 아니다, 안 V, or V-지 않다.

N이/가 아니다

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-> This is the antonym of 이다, and means “to not be”.

-> In informal polite form it is conjugated as 아니에요.

-> You combine this verb only with -이/가 attached to a noun.

-> It is never used when negating verbs or adjectives, ONLY nouns.

EXAMPLES

저는 학생이 아니에요

I am not a student

그 것은 물이 아니에요. 술이에요.

That (thing) is not water. It is alcohol.

V-지 않다

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MEANING:

We already know how to say "I study Korean", or "It is pretty".

To make these "I do not study Korean" and "It is not pretty", you add -지 않다 to the verb stem.

Using -지 않다

-> Verb stem+지 않다

-> Remove 다 to get the verb stem. Regular and irregular verbs are treated the same.

-> -지 is attached to the verb stem and there is a space between -지 and 않다.

EXAMPLES

-> The verb being negated is in parenthesis

I do not study Korean. (공부하다)

한국어를 공부하지 않아요

It is not pretty. (예쁘다)

예쁘지 않아요

That book is not big. (크다)

그 책은 크지 않아요

I do not apologize. (사과하다)

사과하지 않아요

안 V

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This is the abbreviation for 지 않다

Using 안

-> Goes directly before the verb

-> Uses a space. Koreans often add it directly to 하다 (안하다), however grammatically it does

have a space. So koreans will accept you adding it to 하다, but you CANNOT add it to any other

verb. There are some verbs that use 안 with no space and have a completely different meaning

so this space is EXTREMELY important!

----> Example: 안착하다 to arrive safely

안 착하다 to be unkind

Using 안 with 하다 verbs

This is where it gets a little tricky.

Most 하다 verbs are actually a noun+하다.

-> 공부 study 공부하다 to study

---> So 공부 is a noun. Meaning, when you use 안, you must separate the noun from 하다

because 안 goes DIRECTLY before the verb.

---> This is because in Korean, "to study" is actually "to do study" and can be written as 공부를

하다.

Sometimes it is a verb + 하다, such as with 좋아하다, in which case you would not separate it.

You WOULD NOT say 좋아 안 해요, you would say 안 좋아해요^^, because there is no noun

involved with 좋아하다 and therefore you would not separate it.

There are also descriptive verbs which utilize 하다. These would NOT be separated, for

example: 중요하다 to be important 안 중요해 not important.

EXAMPLES

I do not study Korean

한국어 공부를 안 해요

(Now, 한국어 is being used kind of like an adjective to describe study. "I do not do Korean

study". Therefore the marker goes on 공부 and not 한국어. In this case, 한국어 is a "noun

modifier" or a noun that describes another noun)

It is not pretty

안 예뻐요

That book is not big

그 책은 안 커요

I do not apologize.

사과를 안 해요

EXCEPTIONS:

Some words have special verbs for negation.

싫다 -> to dislike/not want to do

-> This is used when making plain statements. But if you’re wanting to be polite when telling

someone you don't like or want to do something, you can use 좋아하지 않아요 / 싶지 않아요. If

a friend asks if you want to see a movie, you'd use 영화를 보고 싶지 않아요 to make the

rejection more polite, but if you're just talking and trying to come up with a plan, you could state

영화를 보기 싫어요 ("I don't want to watch a movie"), to knock that idea out before it’s even

suggested. 싫다 can have a meaning like "ugghh I reallly don't want to do that", but it is used a

lot in Korean. That's why it's more polite to make rejections using 좋아하지 않아요 and 싶지

않아요

(I hope that kinda makes sense).

없다 -> to not exist

Remember there's certain verbs using 있다 (to exist) and you swap those with 없다.

재미있다 to be fun

재미없다 to not be fun

맛있다 to be delicious

맛없다 to be bland or gross

멋있다 to be cool

멋없다 to not be cool/uncool