# Negation: 안 or -지 않아



## maghanish2

안녕하세요!

I have a quick question about how to make things negative in Korean.  I have learned two different ways and don't know when one is used over the other.  For example, are these sentences the same:

안 사랑해 = 사랑하지 않아.
난 안 피곤해 = 난 피곤하지 않아.

I think there have to be differences but I really don't know what they could be.  Please help me with this!

고맙습니다!


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## Hesoo

사랑 안해 (o)
안 피곤해 (o)
피곤하지 않아 (o)

안 사랑해 (x)
Though, 사랑하다 is also a verb form, it's originally from 사랑을(object) 하다 (verb).
Since 안 or -지 않아 is negative form for verbs, you should connect with 하다(verb).
Therefore, 안 사랑해 is incorrect, 사랑 안해 and 사랑하지 않아 are correct.

By the way,
안- is used more in spoken Korean, -지 않아 is more used in formal way.


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## maghanish2

감사합니다!

So then if I was talking with a friend and wanted to say jokingly "I don't like you" would it be 안 좋아해 or 좋아 안해?

Thanks again!


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## maghanish2

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

For example, why is it not 피곤 안 해?


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## Hesoo

피곤하다 can't be separable. 
I mean, 피곤을 하다 doesn't make sense.
So you should negate the whole word "피곤하다"


However,
사랑하다 (=사랑을 하다), 공부하다 (=공부를 하다), 산책하다(=산책을 하다), ..
can be separable, so 하다 should be negated. 
사랑 안 해, 공부 안 해, 산책 안 해 ...

I'm not an expert in Korean Grammar, though Korean is my mother tongue.
This is just my guess as a native speaker. 
I hope others give you clearer explanation.


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## Hesoo

And actually, 피곤하다 is an adjective, while 사랑하다, 공부하다, .. are verbs.
하다 in 피곤하다 doesn't include the meaning of "do" as in verbs. 
So, i think that's why you can negate 하다 itself in 피곤하다.

하다 in adjective and 하다 in verb must be acting differently.


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## maghanish2

Okay that is a good explanation, Hesoo, and I undersatnd the different between verbs and adjectives.

But with the verb 좋아하다 do you separate it?


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## Hesoo

When i said "can be separated", i meant it is separable as ...을 .. 하다.
I can't think of any exceptions now, but Verbs that can be "separable" seem to have (noun + 하다) form.

With the verb "좋아하다", no, you can't "separate" it. 
"좋아"를 하다.. isn't right.

These things i never thought about before...^^


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## maghanish2

Hmmm....very interesting.  Thanks so much for your help Hesoo!  If you think of another rule, pleaes tell me!  =)


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## Mallarme

I'd like to resurrect this thread and ask a few more questions about the possible placements of 안 as a negation.  From reading Hesoo's posts above, we have:

for the verb 사랑해
사랑 안해  (correct)
안 사랑해  (incorrect)

for the verb 피곤해
피곤 안해 (incorrect)
안 피곤해 (correct)

for the verb 공부해 
공부 안해 (correct)
안 공부해 (incorrect)

for the verb 좋아해
안 좋아해 (?)
좋아 안해 (?)
--------------

Is what I've written above correct? 
What about 좋아해? 
And finally, do you still hear the incorrect forms in Korea?

설명해주시기를 바랍니다.


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## Nigimi

Mallarme said:


> I'd like to resurrect this thread and ask a few more questions about the possible placements of 안 as a negation. From reading Hesoo's posts above, we have:
> 
> for the verb 사랑해
> 사랑 안해 (correct)
> 안 사랑해 (incorrect)
> 
> for the verb 피곤해
> 피곤 안해 (incorrect)
> 안 피곤해 (correct)
> 
> for the verb 공부해
> 공부 안해 (correct)
> 안 공부해 (incorrect)
> 
> for the verb 좋아해
> 안 좋아해 (?)
> 좋아 안해 (?)
> --------------
> 
> Is what I've written above correct?
> What about 좋아해?
> And finally, do you still hear the incorrect forms in Korea?
> 
> 설명해주시기를 바랍니다.


 
To be very accurate, 안 negation isn't proper Korean. Ironically, it's derived from western languages (mostly English)
The most correct way to negate is : ~하지 않아.

사랑하지 않아
피곤하지 않아
공부하지 않아
좋아하지 않아

This might sound somewhat old-fashioned, but in an exam, you wouldn't lose any points this way 

Simple enough, ouh?


To be kind, I'll list the most natural sounding version for each verb in modern Korean :

사랑하지 않아
안 피곤해
공부 안 해
안 좋아해. (좋아하지 않아)

Please note that the ~하지 않아 negation is more cautious way.

For example, 좋아하지 않아 means literally "don't like" while 안 좋아해 means more "(I) hate"


And finally, why "공부 안 해" is the proper expression and not "안 공부 해"?

Well, to be in love, to be fatigued, to like.... those verbs are quite passive while to study is something that you actually do actively, at your own will.

Got the idea?


PS : 사랑 안해 is incorrect, while 안 사랑해 sounds only somewhat unnatural.


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## AKoreanUser

There are a few opinions so let me add one and summ them up if I can.

I half agree with Hesso and Nigimi. Before I start, look at this please.
http://krdic.daum.net/dickr/contents.do?offset=A000282500&query1=A000282500#A000282500
(Now I can write URLs! Happy!)

Like it shows, there are 6(so many!) uses of -하다. Let me get one example each that's familiar even with Koreans.
1. 공부하다
2. 건강하다
3. 반짝반짝하다
4. 잘하다
5. 착하다
6. 뻔하다

Out of 6 samples, only number1 type of samples can be seperated liky Hesso said; 공부를 하다. The others can't; 건강을 하다 or so are wrong. And for all of them, the two ways of making things negative are right.
공부하지 않다.
안 공부하다.
건강하지 않다.
안 건강하다.
...

Though I said "the two ways," but there are more ways of expression.
공부를 안 하다.
공부 안 하다.(in the above sentence, "를" is omiited.)

Now we got 안 공부하다, 공부 안 하다.

For type1, which can be seperated, while the others can't again, the four ways of saying I said are correct. But you can't say the others the way of the third form; you can't seperate 건강하다 so you don't say 건강을 하다 so you don't say 건강을 안 하다. 건강 안 하다, either.

So with all this, these are right below.
사랑 안 해
안 피곤해
피곤하지 않아
안 사랑해
공부 안 해
안 공부해
안 좋아해

and these are wrong below.
피곤 안해(you say only 안 피곤해 or 피곤하지 않아)

Unfortunately, 좋아하다 is not applied to these rules though it oviously seems to has -하다 in it. I thought that was because 좋아하다 happens to have -하다 coincidently and it was just normal verbs like 먹다 so on.

But I had a research on it for a few minutes(sorry not long) and found it's kinda complicated to explain. http://blog.naver.com/36hjs?Redirect=Log&logNo=150029212610 Try not to get too deep. This is made by a Korean Literature professor. If you just wanna have normal conversation with normal people like me, don't bother, hehe. To sum it up, it says some "mental" adjectives like 좋아하다, 싫어하다, 아파하다 only can be added to -어하다 as in 좋(다) + -어하다 = 좋아하다. So these are different from what I said above.

Anyway, you can think 좋아하다 is defenitely not a type number 1. So you don't say 좋아를 안 하다. But saddly, if you looked up "좋아안해" in Google, you can find some results... but I think it's just wrong usage for a few people. Or you can just think language always is changing.

And about Nigimi's post, I think 공부안해 is more natural than 안공부해, also 안사랑해 is more natural than 사랑안해 to me. On second thought, I think it's just a habbit of saying that. Someone might think 사랑안해 is more natural than 안사랑해. I doubt if this is a good explanation, in English, "not to have" and "to not have" are both used, though one is more used than the other.(Hi there English-natives, do I know what I'm doing?) So there are many different answers to which is better. 

talked too much, hope this will be of help.


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## Mallarme

Nigimi said:


> To be very accurate, 안 negation isn't proper Korean. Ironically, it's derived from western languages (mostly English)



Interesting!



Nigimi said:


> This might sound somewhat old-fashioned, but in an exam, you wouldn't lose any points this way



Ok, good to know, hope I never have to take an exam in Korean   Thanks for your insights Nigimi!




AKoreanUser said:


> I doubt if this is a good explanation, in English, "not to have" and "to not have" are both used, though one is more used than the other.(Hi there English-natives, do I know what I'm doing?) So there are many different answers to which is better.
> 
> talked too much, hope this will be of help.



Actually, I understand you perfectly  and the long explanation was well worth it! Thank you! Complicated questions of grammar need complicated answers.  These kinds of problems of correct/natural usage do crop up in English, so I know what you mean.  I will read the two links you provided - the second one looks like it will take some time , but that's just the kind of commentary I was looking for!

Thanks again to all who provided valuable insights into this question!


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## Anais Ninn

Mallarme said:


> I'd like to resurrect this thread and ask a few more questions about the possible placements of 안 as a negation.  From reading Hesoo's posts above, we have:
> 
> for the verb 사랑해
> 사랑 안해  (correct)
> 안 사랑해  (incorrect correct)
> 
> for the verb 피곤해
> 피곤 안해 (incorrect)
> 안 피곤해 (correct)
> 
> for the verb 공부해
> 공부 안해 (correct)
> 안 공부해 (incorrect)
> 
> for the verb 좋아해
> 안 좋아해 (?)(correct)
> 좋아 안해 (?)(incorrect)
> --------------
> 
> Is what I've written above correct?
> What about 좋아해?
> And finally, do you still hear the incorrect forms in Korea?
> 
> 설명해주시기를 바랍니다.



The rule is that the egative '안' has its place in front of the verb.

Some Korean verbs might look like ordinary verbs but they are actually combinations of a noun and the verb 하다. In such a case, 안 should be place in front of the verb 하다

Examples: 공부하다(to study) = 공부(工夫) + 하다 ---------------> 공부 안 하다
              결혼하다(to wed, to marry) = 결혼(結婚) + 하다 --------> 결혼 안 하다
              고소하다(to sue) = 고소(告訴) + 하다 ------------------> 고소 안 하다

안 should be placed in front of verbs in ordinary verbs.

Examples: 피곤하다(to be tired) -------------> 안 피곤하다
              좋아하다(to like) ------------------> 안 좋아하다. (You might occasionally hear someone saying "좋아 안해." but it is ungrammatical.)
               고소하다(to taste nutty) ----------->안 고소하다

But there are verbs that can take both forms. A good example is 사랑하다.

사랑하다 is a pure Korean verb which does not combine any noun. Having said that, there is a noun 사랑 and it can be combined with the verb 하다. Originally the usage was different  as shown below. 

Examples: 그 사람을 사랑해요. --------> 그 사람을 안 사랑해요.
              사랑(을) 하면 예뻐져요. -----> 사랑 안 하면 예뻐져요.

But this distinction became quite obsolete in the modern Korean. 

Hope it helps. 

Anais


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## Anais Ninn

Nigimi said:


> To be very accurate, 안 negation isn't proper Korean. Ironically, it's derived from western languages (mostly English)



I must respectfully disagree.  
Sin Hum, a poet from 16-17th centuries wrote 어찌타 우리 임은 가고 아니 오시는고 in his 시조. "아니 오시는고" is an antiquated form of "안 오시는가"

Hope it helps.

Anais


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## Mallarme

There have been many opinions on this topic, but you seem pretty convincing to me, Anais.  Thanks for your thoughts!


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## idialegre

Hello everybody, I am resurrecting this thread to ask the following question: in the "Learn Korean" book I am using, it clearly says that negation with 안 (e.g., 안 합니다 ) is used more in written Korean, and that the construction with -지 않다  (하지 않습니다 ) is more commonplace in everyday speech. This contradicts most of the comments on this thread. Is the book wrong?

정말 감사합니다 !


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## Anais Ninn

idialegre said:


> Hello everybody, I am resurrecting this thread to ask the following question: in the "Learn Korean" book I am using, it clearly says that negation with 안 (e.g., 안 합니다 ) is used more in written Korean, and that the construction with -지 않다  (하지 않습니다 ) is more commonplace in everyday speech. This contradicts most of the comments on this thread. Is the book wrong?
> 
> 정말 감사합니다 !



Yes, the book is dead wrong.


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## idialegre

Thank you, Anais Ninn. (I love your diaries!)


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