LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

못: POORLY

Using 못하다 and understanding the meaning it creates is quite simple, especially if you can understand how 잘하다 is used. If you use the adverb 못, the meaning depends on the situation. Here are two simple examples we can look at:

저는 어제 못 잤어요
저는 어제 시험을 못 봤어요

This is where it gets unnecessarily confusing. Both of those sentences could have two meanings.

The first example:
저는 어제 못 잤어요 could mean either of the following:

I didn't sleep well last night because of some situation, or
I didn't sleep last night because something prevented me from sleeping

The second example:
저는 어제 시험을 못 봤어요 could mean either of the following:

I did poorly on the exam yesterday because of some situation, or
I didn't write the exam yesterday because something prevented me from doing so

(My translations of "... One didn't ... because something prevented him/her from ..." is often simply translated to "One couldn't" or "One can't." These English terms are complex, and might be related to one not doing something because something prevented them or related to one's ability. Another way to say "one couldn't" or "one can't" in Korean is by using ~ㄹ/을 수 없다).

Confusing? Let me say this again. When you put 못 in a sentence, it can indicate that one does something poorly (or not well) OR that one does not do something because something prevented him/her from doing it. When it has the second meaning ("I didn't do") it is the result of some situation preventing you.

I want to take a minute to distinguish this from other negative sentences – specifically using 안 or ~지 않다. When you use 안 or ~지 않다, there is no deeper meaning that "something prevented you from doing the action." For example, if I said:

저는 어제 시험을 안 봤어요, or
저는 어제 시험을 보지 않았어요

I am just saying that I didn't write the exam yesterday – as if yesterday specifically was not the day that I was supposed to write the exam anyway (or something like that). Why would I write the exam when it is not the exam day? Of course I wouldn't. Nothing is preventing me from writing the exam. It's just not the day to write the exam. It's also possible that I just didn't do the exam because I didn't want to. Either way, nothing is preventing me from doing it, I just didn't do it.

However, if I say:

저는 어제 시험을 못 봤어요

It probably was the day to write the exam, but something prevented me from writing it. The thing that prevented me from writing it could be anything – it could have been that I had to go to a party with my friend, or it could of been that I had explosive diarrhea. Either way, both of those things (especially the latter) would prevent me from writing the exam.

——————–

In order to explain this further, I can explain a very common mistake that English speakers make when speaking Korean.

You don't know how to ask questions yet (you'll learn that in the later), but imagine if somebody asks you

"Did you hear what I say?" (내 말을 들었어?)

English speakers learning Korean often respond with:

아니. 안 들었어.

However, if you say that, it's kind of like you are specifically/purposely trying not to hear what the person said. Instead, you obviously can hear, but something prevented you from hearing the person. Maybe it was the loud TV, maybe it was the motorcycle driving by, or maybe it was your explosive diarrhea. Either way, something prevented you from hearing the person, so you should say:

아니. 못 들었어. - No, I didn't (couldn't) hear (you)

——————–

But, how can you distinguish the difference between somebody saying "I did something poorly" and "I didn't do something"? There are three ways I can teach you:

잘 못
If you really want to stress that you do something poorly, you can include 잘 before 못. This specifically indicates that you "don't do something well" and removes the ambiguity of "I didn't":

저는 어제 시험을 잘 못 봤어요 - I didn't do good on the exam yesterday

The word being used
Sometimes, the word being used makes it clear which meaning you are trying to express. For example, if I said:

저는 어제 학교에 못 갔어요, This could have two meanings:

1) I didn't go to school yesterday because of some situation
2) I didn't go to school well yesterday

Which one of those two makes sense? In situations like this, it is easy to figure out which meaning is being used. Is it possible to "go somewhere well?" I don't think so.

A perfect real-world example of this is something that someone said to me once. My friend always wanted to go to Canada, but when she heard how much the plane ticket was, she said to herself "캐나다에 못 가겠다." The meaning of this sentence is not "she will go to Canada poorly" but rather "she can't/won't go to Canada because of some situation" (the ticket being too expensive).

Situation
Sometimes you just need to think about the context of the sentence to understand the meaning completely. For example, if you already knew for sure that a friend wrote the exam, and they later said "시험을 못 봤어요" – the sentence could only have one meaning (because you already knew that he/she wrote the exam).

Let's look at some examples. If somebody said:
저는 밥을 못 먹어요

This could technically mean two things. It could mean:

1. That the person can't eat (well)
2. That the person won't eat because of some situation (most likely because he/she is full/doesn't like that particular food, etc...)

In this case, the first possibility does not make sense because everybody (99.9% of the time) has the ability to eat. Therefore, this person is expressing that he/she is not going to eat because of some situation that is causing him/her to not want to eat.

Another example:
저는 답을 잘 못 썼어요

This sentence could really only mean one thing. Because of the use of "잘," we know that the speaker is expressing that he/she did not do something well. Therefore, the sentence above translates to "I didn't answer well.

There is still another way that 못/못하다 can be used to have yet another similar meaning to what has been described so far.