"그는 김치를 결코 못 먹어요."
Translation:He can never eat kimchi.
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Whats the difference between "he never eats" versus "he can never eat" in translation?
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).
Is this a double negative? "He never can't eat kimchi". How does that work?
Negation usually requires agreement in other languages. This is the first time I saw negation agreement while studying Korean.
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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
Another way in English is he can't ever eat kimchi (and sounds more natural). it's the same meaning. is there a difference in Korean that I can't picture in English?
Wouldn't the translation for this one be "he can't eat kimchi at all"?
I can't really eat spicy kimchi but I sometimes can't resist it so I know that feeling. I wish I could find white kimchi in more Korean restaurants.
The text to speech pronounces it like 못 and 먹어요 are one word, so like 몬머거요.
Is that the correct way? Is pronouncing it as two separate words okay?
Why the korean text is like this? Koreans can not exactly answer the question. Bad!!
Every language has its own grammer. And you can't say it bad. You are still learning that's why you're taking this difficult. Please first try to learn the language, then say what's wrong about the it.
