"그는 김치를 결코 못 먹어요."
Translation:He can never eat kimchi.
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안 먹어 vs 못 먹어. These are quite different in Korean. The first means you made a choice, the second means you had no choice. So, you might hear 못 했어 for something and know it's a bad excuse!
늦게 일어나서 시각에 도착을 못 해요. - I got up late so I can't get there on time. 늦게 일어나서 시각에 도착하지 않아요. - I got up late so I'm not coming on time.
Either way, it's your fault. The first way makes you sound more pitiful, but the second way makes you sound careless.
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Plus, 'he can never' might mean that the person is allergic and literally cannot eat it. Meanwhile 'never eats' simply states that he never eats (maybe ge simply doesn't like it).
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I also find this confusing and the two replies to your comment dont explain anything. The word by word translation for this would be "He kimchi never can't eat." That is a double negative. So it feels like the English should be "He can't not eat kimchi."
I know that Duolingo is correct. This is just like 별로 없어 which is literally 'a little doesnt exist' but translates to 'there is only a little'. To me 별로 있어 seems right but I have been told that it makes no sense.
So can someone explain when and how to use these 'seemingly' double negatives in Korean?
As far as I have understood it you use it with adverbs or objects that already include a negation, such as 결코, 별로, 아무것도, 아무데도, 아무도, 전혀... and so on. I don't really know how to describe it, negation agreement is just a thing in some languages, Spanish has it as well. In these cases you don't translate the negation twice, it's just that certain words require a second negation in order to work. They are then read as a simple negation eg: 아무도 안 왔어 -> nobody came, NOT nobody did not come, 아무것도 없어요 -> there is nothing