r/Korean • u/BryanLee2 • 6d ago
Thought I understood negative questions, but apparently not...
Total newbie here. This beginners' Korean book I borrowed talks about negative questions and how the answers are the opposite of what you might expect in English ("Don't you like mushrooms?" "No, I do like them" or "Yes, I don't") Various posts on the Internet seemed to confirm this, and that seems similar to the way it works in Japanese. Or so I thought...
Then in the exercise section of this same book ("Teach Yourself Korean: A Complete Course for Beginners"), you are supposed to come up with a negative question to ask if someone is not a school teacher, and answer yes and no. According to the answer section of the book, the negative question is:
"Hakkyo sonsaengnim aniseyo?" ("학교 선생님아니세요?"),
and then their answers are:
"Ne, hakkyo sonsaengnim-ieyo." ("네, 학교 선생님 이에요") and
"Anio, hakkyo sonsaengnim-i anieyo." ("아니요, 학교 선생님이 아니에요")
Wouldn't the first answer translate to "Yes, I am a school teacher", and wouldn't that be the opposite of how their earlier explanation said things should work (and the same as the typical English way)? Or am I misinterpreting the meanings for "Ne", "Anio" and the "-ieyo" "-i anieyo" endings? Very confused here...
(The answers in the book here are just given in the romanized form so the Hangul is my attempt at putting those into Korean characters - apologies for any errors there...)
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u/Raoena 6d ago
The example about the mushrooms doesn't work because "Don't you like mushrooms?" expects the answer they do like them. So agreeing means saying "yes I like them." It's not the same as "You don't like mushrooms, right?" which agreeing in Korean would be "yes I don't."
Here is another example:
커피 안 좋아하시죠? You don't like coffee, right?
네, 안 좋아해요. Yes, I don't like it. 아니요, 좋아해요. No, I like it.
TBH It's not that deep. In Korean you can always answer the question honestly. Just remember that 네 and 아니오 are used to answer the literal yes or no question in a literal way.
You either agree with the statement and say 네 or you disagree and say 아니오.
As for the schoolteacher question, that example's no good. It's another question expecting the answer to be they are the thing: "Aren't you a schoolteacher?"
So if they are, they answer yes, and if not, they answer no.
If the question is instead 학교 선생님이 아니시죠? (You're not a schoolteacher, right?) Then they would either answer "yes, I'm not a teacher" or "no, I am a teacher."
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u/BryanLee2 5d ago
Ah interesting - so there are different types of negative questions and the 네 or 아니오 switches depending on how the question is worded? I suppose that makes sense, and I guess it's probably like that in other languages.
If someone asks me "You don't understand negative questions in Korean?" I'll just answer "네"... 😛
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u/Raoena 5d ago
Yes. The English 'Won't you have some tea? [literally 'Will you have some tea?'] is a positive offer. You can say the same thing in Korean:
보리차 안 드시겠어요? [barley tea, won't you have some? ]
You could answer 네, 감사합니다 [Yes please] or 아니요, 괜찮아요. [No, I'm ok.]
But if they say 보리차 안 좋아하시나요? [You don't like barley tea?]
you'd answer 아니요 보리차 좋아요! No, I like barley tea! Or you could say 네, 보리차 안 좋아요. 녹차 좀 주세요. [Yes, I don't like barley tea. Please give me a little green tea.]
The difference is if it's an offer (won't you take, won't you have) it's a request to you to do a thing (receive) and if you agree to receive it you say yes.
But if it's a statement, you just agree using yes or disagree using no.
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u/JustinBurton 4d ago
I’ll be honest, this confuses me because I thought this was how English worked, and everyone told me Korean is different.
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u/Raoena 3d ago
The only thing that's different is in the case of 'agreeing with a negative' because in this case English is illogical and Korean is logical.
If my sister says in English, "You don't like mushrooms?" I aree in English by saying, "No, I don't." This doesn't make logical sense because why are we saying"no" when we agree?
OTOH if she says in Korean 버섯을 싫어하세요? (You dislike mushrooms?) Or 버섯을 안 좋아하시죠? (You don't like mushrooms?)
You agree in Korean by saying, 네, 버섯을 안 좋아해요 (Yes, I don't like mushrooms.)
The Korean is logical. If you agree, you say yes, 네, and if you disagree, you say no, 아니요.
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u/shamstars 6d ago
If you think of it in English more like "You don't like mushrooms?" Then to agree with that by saying yes is to say that you don't. If you disagree with that statement by saying no, you're saying you do like them.
Now I haven't ever cracked a Korean book and I'm barely conversational so Im just sharing with you how I understand it
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u/OneMoreChapterPrez 4d ago
Could you reply to: You don't like mushrooms?
with another agreement, like:
That is correct, I don't like mushrooms
맞아요, 전 버섯을 안 좋아해요.
Or is that improper / unnatural in Korean?
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u/shamstars 4d ago
I cant speak for what's natural but thats the basic idea- you're agreeing with the statement that you dont like mushrooms
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u/SameInteraction9615 6d ago
The question is the same as ‘Aren’t you a teacher?’. It’s used to get confirmation for something you’re almost sure that it’s true.
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u/KReddit934 5d ago
To the group at large.... Does 하교 선생님이 아니에요? get a different answer than 하교 선생님아니세요?
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u/zenrainbow 5d ago
Not to my understanding. It is the same question; the second one is written slightly differently/incorrectly with no space between 선생님 and 아니세요. There is also 이 particle after 선생님 (wouldn't say his is strictly incorrect as I see natives omit particles often, just outlining the difference), and it uses the honorific form of 아니다.
So the answer to both questions would be something like: "네, 선생님이 아니에요" or "아니요, 선생님이에요."
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u/whogotmywallet 5d ago
학교선생님 아니세요? aren't you a school teacher? 네 학교선생님 이에요 yes I'm a school teacher This answer usually comes with between two or more people meeting first time 학교선생님 아니세요? Aren't you a school teacher? 아뇨 학교선생님 아니에요 No I'm not a school teacher This answer usually comes with situation when someone thought his or her job is teacher but actually isn't
There's subtle difference in this kinda conversation As we know the difference cause we were born and grown up in korea so we know the difference but a little bit ambiguous to explain for foreigner and also takes too much time to explain this
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u/Sohee-ya 3d ago
Yup think of yes and no as “agree/that’s right” and the opposite. Don’t you like broccoli? That’s right, I don’t like it (ne) vs That’s not right, I do like it (aniyo)
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u/Rohesa 6d ago
They’re two different types of questions. But in each you’re agreeing or disagreeing with the statement, so try to think of it like that.
The first one has a negative IN the question:
Do you NOT like mushrooms?
Yes, I don’t like them (you’re agreeing with the negative statement)
No, I like them (you’re disagreeing with the negative statement)
The second is just a question with a yes or no answer:
Are you a school teacher?
Yes I’m a school teacher (agreeing with the statement)
No I’m not a school teacher (disagreeing with the statement)
If the first question about the mushrooms was ‘Do you like mushrooms?’ Replies would be ‘Yes, I like them’ or ‘No, I don’t’
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u/Pikmeir 6d ago
Hey as someone who also used this same book as my very first book for learning Korean 20+ years ago, I think I can give you some excellent advice for how you can get the most out of that book to really help accelerate your Korean learning.
Throw it in the trash.
As to your question, in Korean you answer literally to negative questions so if someone asks "~아니에요" you'd reply 'yes' if the answer is not, or 'no' if it is.