[Learn Korean E42] “-지 말고”, “-지 마세요”, “-지 못하다”

안녕하세요. 토미입니다.

The theme of today’s class is 【걱정하지 마세요】 “Don’t worry.”

Today, we will learn the triple “지.”
They are -지 말고 “don’t do (this), but do (this)”, -지 마세요, “Please, don’t (do this),” and -지 못하다 “cannot.”

These are also basic expressions that Koreans use in their daily lives.

그럼 시작할게요.

Listen to the Conversation

The theme of today’s conversation is 【걱정하지 마세요】 “Don’t worry.”

It seems to be lunch time at the office now.
Sangmin is working so hard at work that he seems to have forgotten lunch time.
What is he going to eat for his lunch?

Please listen to the conversation carefully and try to guess.

그럼 들어보세요！

• 토미：상민 씨, 이 시간까지 아직 점심도 먹지 못하고 일하고 있어요?
  Tammy：Sangmin, are you still working without having your lunch?
• 상민：어? 벌써 시간이 이렇게 됐네요. 근데 아직도 비가 와요?
  Sangmin：Oh? Is it already this time?! By the way, is it still raining?
• 토미：네. 바람도 불고 굉장히 추워요.
  Tammy：Yes. It’s very windy and cold out there.
• 상민：그럼 나가지 말고 컵라면이라도 먹어야 되겠네요.
  Sangmin：Then I should not go out and just eat cup noodles.
• 토미：컵라면이요? 제가 샌드위치 만들었는데 컵라면 먹지 말고 이걸 같이 먹어요.
  Tammy：Cup noodles? I made some sandwiches, so instead of eating cup noodles, let’s eat these together.
• 상민：샌드위치요? 좋네요. 그런데 저까지 먹으면 모자라지 않겠어요?
  Sangmin：Sandwiches? That’s nice. But wouldn’t it be not enough for you if I eat as well?
• 토미：걱정하지 마세요. 많이 만들었어요.
  Tammy：Don’t worry. I made a lot.
• 상민：고마워요. 잘 먹을게요.
  Sangmin：Thank you. I’ll have it.

Vocabulary and Phrases

I’ll explain the vocabulary and phrases in the conversation.

• 토미：상민 씨, 이 시간까지 아직 점심도 먹지 못하고 일하고 있어요?

점심 is “lunch.”
Native Koreans often say 점심 먹었어요? “Did you eat lunch?” as a greeting, which means kind of “hello.”

• 토미：네. 바람도 불고 굉장히 추워요.

굉장히 means “very.”
춥다 means “cold.”
So, when you say, 굉장히 추워요, it means “It is very cold.”

Since we learned the word 춥다 “cold,” let’s also look at some expressions related to temperature and weather.
따뜻하다 is “warm,” 시원하다 is “cool,” and 쌀쌀하다 is “chilly.”

• 상민：그럼 나가지 말고 컵라면이라도 먹어야 되겠네요.

컵라면 is “cup noodles”, and it is pronounced 컴나면.

-(이)라도 means “rather.”
You can use it for nouns.

For example, 커피라도 마시면서 이야기하지 않을래요? means “Would you rather drink a coffee and chat?”

• 토미：컵라면이요? 제가 샌드위치 만들었는데 컵라면 먹지 말고 이걸 같이 먹어요.

샌드위치 is a “sandwich.”
Let’s take a look at some American food menus here.

감자튀김 is “fried potatoes,” which Korean people use their native Korean words not similar to English.

샐러드 is a “salad,” 파스타 is a “pasta” and 햄버거 is a “hamburger.”

If you go to a restaurant in Korea, please try using these words when ordering!

• 상민：샌드위치요? 좋네요. 그런데 저까지 먹으면 모자라지 않겠어요?

모자라다 means “not enough.” Synonym is 부족하다 “insufficient.”
음식이 모자라지 않겠어요? means “The food will not be enough, won’t it?”

• 토미：걱정하지 마세요. 많이 만들었어요.

걱정하다 means “to worry.”
걱정하지 마세요 means “Don’t worry.”
Korean people use it often as a phrase.

• 상민：고마워요. 잘 먹을게요.

고마워요 means “thank you” and it has the same meaning as 감사해요.
But 고마워요 sounds more friendly, so you can use it when talking to your friends or someone who you are close to.

Grammar

-지 말고 don’t (do this), but

I’ll explain the first grammar, -지 말고 “don’t do (this, but)/ instead of doing (this, let’s do this).”

You can use this grammar to make two suggestions or orders in one sentence; one in the front is negative like “don’t do this”, and the other one is positive “let’s do this instead.”

It is like “Don’t complain, but appreciate everyday” or “Don’t be sad. Smile” in English.

As you can see from the English example, you use this grammar for verbs.

To apply this, you attach -지 말고 to the verb stem regardless of a final consonant.

Then, let’s take a look at an example from the conversation.

Ex.1)
그럼 나가지 말고 컵라면이라도 먹어야 되겠네요.
Then I should not go out and just eat cup noodles.

In this sentence, let’s focus on 나가지 말고.
나가다 is “to go out.” You attach -지 말고 to the stem to make 나가지 말고, “I should not go out, but…”

Ex.2)
제가 샌드위치 만들었는데 컵라면 먹지 말고 이걸 같이 먹어요.
I made some sandwiches, so instead of eating cup noodles, let’s eat these together.

Let’s analyze 먹지 말고 in this sentence.
먹다 is “to eat.” 먹 is the stem, so you add -지 말고 to make 먹지 말고 “don’t eat, but.”
So the direct translation is “Don’t eat cup noodles, but eat this one.”
In this conversation, it is more natural to translate to “Instead of eating cup noodles, let’s eat this one.”

Quiz

・공포영화를 (          ) 액션 영화를 보는 건 어때요?
Let’s not watch a horror movie, but watch an action movie?

(1)보지 말고 (2)보고

The answer is (1).
공포영화 is a “horror movie.” And 보다 is “to watch.”
So when you add -지 말고 to the stem, it becomes 보지 말고 “let’s not watch.”

The whole sentence would be 공포영화를 (보지 말고) 액션 영화를 보는 건 어때요?

-지 마세요 please don’t

Next, let’s learn 지 마세요, which means “please don’t (do) this.”

To apply this, you just need to add -지 마세요 to the verb stem regardless of a final consonant.

This grammar may sound similar to -지 말고 “don’t do this, but” that we just learned, but you use -지 마세요 at the end of a sentence whereas -지 말고 in the middle of a sentence.
That’s the big difference.

Ex.1)
걱정하지 마세요.
Don’t worry.

In this example, 걱정하다 is “to worry.”
You just attach -지 마세요 to the stem to make 걱정하지 마세요 “Don’t worry.”

Quiz

・약속을 (             ).
Don’t forget the promise.

(1)잊지 마세요 (2)잊으세요

The answer is (1).
잊다 is “to forget.” You add -지 마세요 to the stem and make 잊지 마세요.

The whole sentence would be 약속을 (잊지 마세요).

-지 못하다 can’t~

Let’s look at the grammar -지 못하다 “can’t.”

To apply this, you just need to add -지 못하다 after the stem of verbs.

A similar expression is 못+verb that we learned in the 30th lesson.

-지 못하다 and 못+verb basically mean the same, but 못+verb is more commonly used in conversations.

Ex.1)
이 시간까지 아직 점심도 먹지 못하고 일하고 있어요?
Are you still working without having your lunch?

Let’s focus on 먹지 못하고 in this sentence.
먹다 means “to eat.” You add -지 못하다 to the stem to make 먹지 못하다 “cannot eat.”
After this, you add -고 “and” to make 먹지 못하고 “cannot eat lunch and.”

Quiz

・감기 걸려서 (         ).
I can’t go because I caught a cold.

(1)가지 못해요 (2)가지 않아요

The answer is (1).
가다 is “to go.” You add -지 못하다 to make 가지 못하다.
Then, you just need to change it to the 요 form, so the answer is 가지 못해요.
You can also use 못 가요 in conversations since it has the same meaning!

The whole sentence would be 감기 걸려서 (가지 못해요).

Conversation (Korean only)

Please pay attention to all the grammar you have just learned!

그럼 확인해 보세요！

• 토미：상민 씨, 이 시간까지 아직 점심도 먹지 못하고 일하고 있어요?
• 상민：어? 벌써 시간이 이렇게 됐네요. 근데 아직도 비가 와요?
• 토미：네. 바람도 불고 굉장히 추워요.
• 상민：그럼 나가지 말고 컵라면이라도 먹어야 되겠네요.
• 토미：컵라면이요? 제가 샌드위치 만들었는데 컵라면 먹지 말고 이걸 같이 먹어요.
• 상민：샌드위치요? 좋네요. 그런데 저까지 먹으면 모자라지 않겠어요?
• 토미：걱정하지 마세요. 많이 만들었어요.
• 상민：고마워요. 잘 먹을게요.

Conversation Practice

그럼 큰소리로 읽어 보세요！

• 토미：상민 씨, 이 시간까지 아직 점심도 먹지 못하고 일하고 있어요?
  Tammy：Sangmin, are you still working without having your lunch?
• 상민：어? 벌써 시간이 이렇게 됐네요. 근데 아직도 비가 와요?
  Sangmin：Oh? Is it already this time?! By the way, is it still raining?
• 토미：네. 바람도 불고 굉장히 추워요.
  Tammy：Yes. It’s very windy and cold out there.
• 상민：그럼 나가지 말고 컵라면이라도 먹어야 되겠네요.
  Sangmin：Then I should not go out and just eat cup noodles.
• 토미：컵라면이요? 제가 샌드위치 만들었는데 컵라면 먹지 말고 이걸 같이 먹어요.
  Tammy：Cup noodles? I made some sandwiches, so instead of eating cup noodles, let’s eat these together.
• 상민：샌드위치요? 좋네요. 그런데 저까지 먹으면 모자라지 않겠어요?
  Sangmin：Sandwiches? That’s nice. But wouldn’t it be not enough for you if I eat as well?
• 토미：걱정하지 마세요. 많이 만들었어요.
  Tammy：Don’t worry. I made a lot.
• 상민：고마워요. 잘 먹을게요.
  Sangmin：Thank you. I’ll have it.

Homework

We have two homework assignments.

For the first homework, please make two sentences using the grammar we’ve learned today!

For the first sentence, use 지 말고 “don’t do this, but do this” to tell your friends or family about the action you want to encourage them to take.
For example,

• 일에만 너무 집중하지 말고, 운동도 꾸준히 하세요.
  “Don’t focus only on your work too much, but do some exercises as well.”

For the second sentence, use -지 못하다 “cannot” to tell me about something that you couldn’t do in the past, but can now.
For example, I would say

• 결혼 전에는 집안일을 잘 못 했지만 지금은 그럭저럭 하는 편이에요.
  “Before I got married, I couldn’t do housework very well, but now I’m doing it somehow.”

The second homework is memorizing vocabulary.
Please memorize the 40 words from #1281 to #1320 on page 16 of the Elementary Vocabulary List.
You can take a quiz on these 40 words on this website, so please try it out once you finish memorizing them.

That’s all for today! Thank you for watching!
그럼 오늘도 행복 가득, 웃음 가득한 하루 되세요！ 한국어 화이팅, 화이팅, 화이팅！！