Lesson 20: Well and Poorly: 잘 and 못 24/06/2020, 1)58 PM

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Lesson 20: Well and Poorly: 잘 and 못

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Vocabulary
Introduction

잘하다: To do something well

잘: Well

못하다: To do something poorly

못: Poorly
~지 못하다

잘못

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Vocabulary
CEVAS
Click on the English word to see information and examples of that word in use (you
probably wonʼt be able to understand the grammar within the sentences at this
Quezon
point, but it is good to see as you progress through your learning). City OET
A PDF file neatly presenting these words and extra information can be found here. Review
cevasphilippines.com

Nouns:
PLAY 교수 = professor The Best
Review Center
PLAY 주인 = master/owner/proprietor The Most
Credible OET
PLAY 잘못 = mistake/fault Review Center!
Most Updated
PLAY 기온 = temperature Materials.

PLAY 거울 = mirror

PLAY 가루 = powder
OPEN

PLAY 근육 = muscle

PLAY 어둠 = darkness

PLAY 기본 = basic/basics

PLAY 사고 = accident

PLAY 교통 = traffic
SENTENCE PRACTICE
PLAY 이상 = a noun to indicate that something is more than something else VIDEOS

Verbs:
CONJUGATE PLAY 잘하다 = to do something well

CONJUGATE PLAY 못하다 = to do something poorly

CONJUGATE PLAY 수영하다 = to swim

DICTATION PRACTICE
CONJUGATE PLAY 대우하다 = to treat somebody
VIDEOS

CONJUGATE PLAY 퇴직하다 = to retire

CONJUGATE PLAY 접수하다 = to receive (an application)

CONJUGATE PLAY 씹다 = to chew

CONJUGATE PLAY 통역하다 = to interpret VOCABULARY

PRACTICE VIDEOS

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Lesson 20: Well and Poorly: 잘 and 못 24/06/2020, 1)58 PM

CONJUGATE PLAY 번역하다 = to translate

CONJUGATE PLAY 젓다 = to stir

CONJUGATE PLAY 늘리다 = to gain, to improve, to increase

CONJUGATE PLAY 빠지다 = to fall into KOREAN SIGN

EXPLANATION
CONJUGATE PLAY 빠져나오다 = to escape, to come out of

CONJUGATE PLAY 빠져나가다 = to escape, to go out of

CONJUGATE PLAY 헷갈리다 = to be confused

Passive Verbs:
CONJUGATE PLAY 늘다 = to be gained, improved, increased

Adjectives:
CONJUGATE PLAY 둥글다 = to be round, to be spherical

CONJUGATE PLAY 어둡다 = to be dark

Adverbs and Other Words:

PLAY 잘 = well

PLAY 못 = poorly

PLAY 님 = adds respect to personʼs name or position

PLAY 또는 = or

PLAY 세 = a counter for years of age

PLAY 꼭 = surely/definitely

PLAY 물론 = of course

For help memorizing these words, try using our Memrise tool.

You might also want to try listening to all of the words on loop with this Vocabulary
Practice video.

Introduction

Until now, you have not learned how to say “I am good at something/I do something
well” or “I am bad at something/I do something poorly.” In this lesson, you will learn
about the words 잘하다 (to do something well) and 못하다 (to do something poorly).
못하다 is very hard to understand perfectly, so I will ease you in by introducing you
to 잘하다 first.
.

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Lesson 20: Well and Poorly: 잘 and 못 24/06/2020, 1)58 PM

잘하다: To do something well

The main meaning of 잘하다 is “to do something well.” To use 잘하다, simply place a
noun in a sentence with 잘하다 as the verb.

This is easy to do with 하다 verbs (for example, 수영하다 and 공부하다) because to
make a noun all you need to do is remove 하다 from those words. I discuss making
non-하다 verbs into nouns in Lesson 26, but the principal is the same for any noun
form of a verb. All you need to do is:

나는 (noun form of verb)을/를 잘하다. For example:

PLAY 나는 수영을 잘해 = I am good at swimming

PLAY 저 학생은 공부를 잘해 = That student studies well
PLAY 우리 애기는 말을 잘해요 = Our baby speaks well
PLAY 저는 야구를 잘해요 = I play baseball well

잘하다 is a verb, but now we need to talk about “잘,” which is an adverb.

잘: Well

Just like 잘하다, you can use the word 잘 in sentences to indicate that one does
something well. Usually, when you remove 하다 from a word, the word without 하다
becomes a noun. In this case, removing 하다 from 잘 does not make 잘 a noun.
Instead, it is an adverb. The only reason this is important is so that you know that
you can use 잘 in sentences just like other adverbs, in this case to mean “(to do
something) well.” It is essentially the same as “잘하다,” but used slightly different.
For example:

PLAY 그 주인은 고객님들을 잘 대우해요 = That owner treats the customers well
PLAY 나는 어젯밤에 잘 잤어 = I slept well last night

When I first learned about 잘하다 and 잘, I was trying to understand if these two
sentences were the same:

PLAY 나는 공부를 잘해 = I study well

나는 잘 공부해 = I study well

The answer: essentially, but not entirely.

The difference is so subtle that you donʼt really need to worry about it. However,
when I learned this, I worried about it, so I think maybe you should worry about it
too. The reason I say “donʼt worry about it” is because now when I speak I canʼt
really distinguish the difference in meaning. The only way I could tell the difference
is referring back to my old notes from 5 years ago. Nonetheless, there is a subtle
difference:

나는 공부를 잘한다 = I study well, or

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“나는 (noun)을 잘한다” means that, in general, your ability to do something is good.
However,

나는 잘 공부한다 = I study well, or

“나는 잘 (verb)다” means that you can study well because of some situation (for
example, maybe you have a test coming up and you are studying really hard
because of that situation).

But really, donʼt get too caught up on the difference between the two. Especially
since sometimes they look and sound almost exactly the same. If you separated 공
부 and 하다 in the second example, you would get:

PLAY 나는 공부를 잘 해 = I study well, which sounds (and almost looks) exactly the
same as:
PLAY 나는 공부를 잘해 = I study well

Anyways, donʼt worry about it too much.

You already know the word 잘생기다 means “handsome.” That word is actually 잘
and 생기다 put together. 생기다 has a lot of meanings, but putting 잘 and 생기다
together, it sort of means “to come out well.” The opposite is true for 못생기다 (to be
ugly).

Always remember to not translate directly from English to Korean, as there are so
many things that are not 100% the same in both languages. For example, in English,
we would never say “I donʼt know well,” but in Korean, it is very common to say:

PLAY 저는 잘 모르겠어요* = I donʼt know (well)

*Also notice that the future tense 모르다 is used here. Even though it is in the
present, 모르겠다 is used very commonly to indicate that you donʼt know something
– Even though it directly translates to “I will not know.”

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못하다: To do something poorly

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Alright, this is where it gets hard. 잘하다 was easy. Letʼs do this step by step.

First of all, 못하다 has the opposite meaning of 잘하다 – so it can be used to indicate
that one generally is poor at something. For example:

PLAY 나는 수영을 못해 = I am bad at swimming

PLAY 저 학생은 공부를 못해 = That student does not study well

The difference between 못하다 and 못 is the same as the difference between 잘하다
and 잘. When you say a sentence like “나는 수영을 못해” it means that in general your
ability to swim is bad. Because of this, you need to be careful about the type of
verb you are using in this situation. For example, you couldnʼt really use the verb
“to eat” in this situation, because that would mean that “in general, my ability to eat
is bad.” Instead, what you would probably want to say is that “I CAN eat, but
because of some situation, I canʼt really eat right now.” That is when you need to
use 못 instead of 못하다.

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:

PLAY 저는 어제 못 잤어요
PLAY 저는 어제 시험을 못 봤어요

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

The first example:

PLAY 저는 어제 못 잤어요 could mean either of the following:

I didnʼt sleep well last night because of some situation, or

I didnʼt sleep last night because something prevented me from sleeping

The second example:

PLAY 저는 어제 시험을 못 봤어요 could mean either of the following:

I did poorly on the exam yesterday because of some situation, or

I didnʼt write the exam yesterday because something prevented me from doing so

(My translations of “… One didnʼt … because something prevented him/her from …”

is often simply translated to “One couldnʼt” or “One canʼt.” These English terms are
complex, and might be related to one not doing something because something
prevented them or related to oneʼs ability. Another way to say “one couldnʼt” or
“one canʼt” in Korean is by using ~ㄹ/을 수 없다 , which I discuss in Lesson 45).

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

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meaning (“I didnʼt 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 which you learned in Lesson 8. 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 didnʼt 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
wouldnʼt. Nothing is preventing me from writing the exam. Itʼs just not the day to
write the exam. Itʼs also possible that I just didnʼt do the exam because I didnʼt want
to. Either way, nothing is preventing me from doing it, I just didnʼt do it.

However, if I say:

PLAY 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 wife, 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 donʼt know how to ask questions yet (youʼll learn that in the next lesson), 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, itʼs 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 didnʼt (couldnʼt) hear (you)

——————–

But, how can you distinguish the difference between somebody saying “I did

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Lesson 20: Well and Poorly: 잘 and 못 24/06/2020, 1)58 PM

something poorly” and “I didnʼt do something”? There are three ways I can teach
you:

잘못
If you really want to stress that you do something poorly, you can include 잘 before
못. This specifically indicates that you “donʼt do something well” and removes the
ambiguity of “I didnʼt”:

PLAY 저는 어제 시험을 잘 못 봤어요 = I didnʼt 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:

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

1) I didnʼt go to school yesterday because of some situation

2) I didnʼt 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 donʼt think
so.

A perfect real-world example of this is something that my co-worker said to me

once. The school I work at was in the process of buying my plane ticket back home,
and it happened to be really expensive (like, really expensive). My co-worker always
wanted to go to Canada, but when she heard how much my 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 canʼt/wonʼt 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).

Letʼs look at some examples. If somebody said:

저는 밥을 못 먹어요

This could technically mean two things. It could mean:

1. That the person canʼt eat (well)

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2. That the person wonʼt eat because of some situation (most likely because
he/she is full/doesnʼt 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:
PLAY 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 didnʼt 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.

~지 못하다

One more thing about 못하다. Similar in structure to ~지 않다, you can also write ~지
못하다 to have the same meaning as 못. For example:

PLAY 저는 어제 못 잤어요 AND

저는 어제 자지 못했어요 have the same meaning (I didnʼt sleep [well] last night)

Remember that 못 and ~지 못하다 have the same meaning, which is subtly different
than 를 못하다:

PLAY 저는 어제 못 공부했어요 = I didnʼt study well yesterday/I couldnʼt study

yesterday
PLAY 저는 어제 공부하지 못했어요 = I didnʼt study well yesterday/I couldnʼt study
yesterday
PLAY 저는 공부를 못해요 = I am bad at studying

잘못

To make all of this even more confusing, the word 잘못 (with no space between 잘
and 못) has a different meaning. 잘못 means “mistake.” This word would normally be
an easy word to deal with. However, it is more difficult than it needs to be because
잘못 and 잘 못 have two different meanings. 잘못 can be used like this:

PLAY 그것은 제 잘못이었어요 = That was my fault/my mistake

Normally when you say “my _____” you use 저의 or 나의. However, some nouns
prefer to have 제 and 내 before them instead of 저의/나의. 잘못 is one of these nouns.
Another example is 제/내 생각 (instead of 저의/나의 생각) meaning “my thought/my
opinion/what I think.”

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잘 and 못 with Comparatives and Superlatives

One final thing before I finish. In the previous lesson, you learned about using ~보다
and 가장/제일 to make comparative and superlative sentences. The concepts you
learned in this lesson are very commonly used alongside ~보다 or 가장/제일 in
sentences to say that somebody can do something better/worse, or do something
the best/worst. Some examples:

Comparative Sentences:
PLAY 우리 아들은 친구들보다 축구를 더 잘해요 = Our (my) son is better than (his)
friends at soccer
PLAY 그 교수는 다른 교수들보다 수업을 더 잘해요 = That professor teaches classes
better than other professors
PLAY 저는 수영을 작년보다 더 잘해요 = I am better at swimming than last year

Superlative Sentences:
PLAY 우리 아들은 축구를 가장 잘해요 = Our (my) son is the best at soccer
PLAY 그 교수는 수업을 제일 잘해요 = That professor teaches classes the best (is the
best at teaching classes)

PLAY 저는 축구를 제일 못해요 = I play soccer the worst

PLAY 저는 수영을 제일 못해요 = I swim the worst

Again, in most situations, these sentences would sound more natural with the use
of other grammatical principles. For example, to say “I am the one who plays
soccer the worst” or “Of all people, I play soccer the worst.” To be able to wrap
your head around those sentences, youʼll need to read/understand the grammar
taught in Lessons 26 and 33 respectively.

Thatʼs it for this lesson!

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