Negative Sentences in korean

Let’s say you’ve been studying Korean for a while and you know how to read so from now on I will not provide romanization for the Korean words. It’s for your own benefit, you can’t depend on romanization. And if you can’t read yet do check this Korean Alphabet blog<<<<< it will help you to read Korean alphabets.

Let’s suppose you can form/say simple Korean sentences like “I’m going home” but what if you want to say “I’m not going home” for that you should know how to form negative sentences and besides that this grammar form is also helpful for your TOPIK preparation. So, in today’s blog we are going to learn how to make negative sentences.

How to make Negative Sentences: -

There are two main ways of doing this: -

--Adding 안 before a verb

--Using verb ending as 지 않다

First one is quite simple than the other one because in the 지 않다 form you have to worry about the tenses but in 안 form we just have to add it.

How to use 안: -

This is the easiest and the most common way to make a negative sentence in Korean. You just have to add 안 before a verb.

For example: -

--먹다 = to eat

--밥을 먹어요 = (I) eat food.

--밥을 안 먹어요 = (I) don’t eat food.

 

--사과 = apple

--사과를 먹어요 = (I) eat an apple.

--사과를 안 먹어요 = (I) don’t eat an apple.

How to use 지 않다: -

It is attached in the end by removing 다 from 지 않다 and conjugate it according to the tense. It’s a bit confusing right let me show you an example.

Past Tense: - 지 않았어요

--가다 = to go

--가지 않았어요 = I didn’t go

--아침을 먹었어요? = Did you eat breakfast?

--아니요. 먹지 않았어요. = No, I didn’t eat breakfast.

Present tense: - 지 않아요

--가지 않아요 = I’m not going/ I didn’t go.

지 않다 (often used for emphasis) sounds a little more formal than 안.


 Please share if you find this useful. 

Let me know if there are any mistakes and if you have any questions do ask me in the comment section.

If you are learning Korean or interested in South Korea do check my blogs👈.