The mirror of lesson 108. If 이에요 is is, this is is not.
Vocabulary: occupations
| 선생님 (先生님) | teacher | 회사원 (會社員) | company employee |
| 학생 (學生) | student | 대학생 (大學生) | university student |
| 의사 (醫師) | doctor | 변호사 (辯護士) | lawyer |
| 간호사 (看護師) | nurse | 감독 (監督) | director |
| 공무원 (公務員) | civil servant | 작가 (作家) | writer |
| 경찰 / 경찰관 (警察官) | police officer | 가수 (歌手) | singer |
| 소방관 (消防官) | firefighter | 배우 (俳優) | actor |
| 군인 (軍人) | soldier | 연예인 (演藝人) | entertainer |
군인 is pronounced [구닌] and 연예인 is [여녜인] — linking, as always.
Nearly all of these are Sino-Korean, and the components repeat: 원 (員) is member of staff, 사 (師 / 士) is qualified professional, 관 (官) is official. 회사원 is company-member, 공무원 is public-duty-member. Once you see the pattern, half the list stops needing to be memorised.
Negation with 아니다
| Casual polite | Formal polite | |
|---|---|---|
| is | 선생님이에요 / 의사예요 | 선생님입니다 / 의사입니다 |
| is not | 선생님(이) 아니에요 / 의사(가) 아니에요 | 선생님(이) 아닙니다 / 의사(가) 아닙니다 |
Two things are different from the positive form.
아니에요 is a separate word. 이에요 glues onto the noun with no space; 아니에요 stands apart, and takes the subject particle 이/가 in front of it. Written out: 선생님이 아니에요, not 선생님아니에요.
The particle is optional in speech — hence the brackets. 선생님 아니에요 is perfectly natural spoken Korean. Keep it in writing.
아니에요 does not change shape. Unlike 이에요/예요, which alternates on the preceding letter, 아니에요 is 아니에요 after everything. Only the particle in front of it alternates: 이 after a consonant, 가 after a vowel.
The full exchange
Casual polite
가: 마크 씨는 싱가포르 사람이에요?
Mark, are you Singaporean?
나: 네, 저는 싱가포르 사람이에요.
Yes, I'm Singaporean.
아니요, 저는 싱가포르 사람(이) 아니에요. ______이에요/예요.
No, I'm not Singaporean. I'm ______.Formal polite
가: 마크 씨는 싱가포르 사람입니까?
나: 네, 저는 싱가포르 사람입니다.
아니요, 저는 싱가포르 사람(이) 아닙니다. ______입니다.가 and 나 are Korean’s A and B — the first two letters of the alphabet used as speaker labels.
Work culture: 네 does not only mean yes
네 is the highest-mileage word in Korean, and translating it as yes accounts for maybe a third of its use. Everything below is 네:
| Exchange | 네 means |
|---|---|
| A: 점심 먹었어요? B: 네, (먹었어요.) | Yes — I’ve eaten |
| 네, (잘 알겠습니다.) | Got it, understood |
| 네, (맞습니다.) | That’s right |
| 네? (뭐라고요?) | Sorry? What did you say? |
| 아버지, 용돈 좀 더 주세요. 네? | …please? (wheedling) |
| A: 김민수 님? B: 네! | Here / present |
| A: 회의실에 갔어요. B: 네. | Ah, I see |
| A: 한라산에 산불이 났대요. B: 네? | What?! (shock) |
| 네, 네, 네, 네~ | Mm-hm, go on (on the phone) |
Tone and length carry the meaning. Short and flat is acknowledgement; rising is pardon?; sharply rising is disbelief; a soft repeated 네네네 on a call is listening, not agreeing.
That last row is the trap for English speakers. A stream of 네s on the phone means I am still here and following you. It is a backchannel, not consent — do not read it as a yes to whatever was just proposed.
Work culture: yes, no, can, cannot
| Formal polite | Casual polite | Root | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | 네 (예) | 네 (예) | |
| Yes, you can | 됩니다 | 돼요 | 되다 |
| Yes, it’s possible | 가능합니다 | 가능해요 | 가능하다 (可能) |
| No | 아니요 | 아니요 | |
| It’s not (that) | 아닙니다 | 아니에요 | 아니다 |
| No, you can’t | 안 됩니다 | 안 돼요 | 안 되다 |
| No, it’s impossible | 불가능합니다 | 불가능해요 | 불가능하다 (不可能) |
안 in front of a verb is the general negator, met already in 기억 안 나요 in lesson 105. 불- (不) is its Sino-Korean equivalent, prefixed to the noun instead: 가능 → 불가능.
안 돼요 is worth flagging separately. It covers that won’t work, you may not, and oh no depending on context, and it is said constantly.
Work culture: know, understand, and the 겠 hedge
| Formal polite | Casual polite | Root | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I know | 압니다 | 알아요 [아라요] | 알다 |
| I don’t know | 모릅니다 | 몰라요 | 모르다 |
| I understand / will do | 알겠습니다 | 알겠어요, 알았어요 | 알다 |
| I’m not sure | (잘) 모르겠습니다 | 모르겠어요 | 모르다 |
The pairs differ by an infix, -겠-, and the difference matters at work.
압니다 / 모릅니다 state a fact about your knowledge. I know that. I do not know that. Flat, and 모릅니다 can land as slightly cold — it closes the subject.
알겠습니다 / 모르겠습니다 hedge. -겠- adds a layer of I will or I would say, which softens a statement into a stance. 알겠습니다 is therefore less I possess this knowledge and more “understood — I’ll take care of it”, which is why it is the standard response to an instruction. 모르겠습니다 is I’m not sure rather than I don’t know, and is far more polite than 모릅니다 when someone senior has asked you something.
Given an instruction by a 책임님, the answer is 알겠습니다. Asked something you genuinely cannot answer, 잘 모르겠습니다.