Learn how to use the Korean word that means "can" to express capability or possibility
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Keith: You Can Do It in Korean. In this lesson, you will learn how to… |
| Misun: Well, how to express your abilities, -수 있다. |
| Keith: Okay. And this conversation takes place where? |
| Misun: In a playground. |
| Keith: Okay. And the conversation is between… |
| Misun: Two little kids. Yey! So cute! |
| Keith: And since they're little kids, they'll be speaking informal Korean. |
| Misun: 반말. |
| Keith: All right. Well, let’s listen in to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 태현 나 자전거 탈 수 있어. |
| 소영 나 운전 할 수 있어. |
| 태현 나 날아갈 수 있어. |
| 소영 그래? 해봐! |
| 태현 선생님! 다쳤어요! |
| English Host: One more time, with the English. |
| 태현 나 자전거 탈 수 있어. |
| Keith: I can ride a bike. |
| 소영 나 운전 할 수 있어. |
| Keith: I can drive. |
| 태현 나 날아갈 수 있어. |
| Keith: I can fly. |
| 소영 그래? 해봐! |
| Keith: Yeah? Do it! |
| 태현 선생님! 다쳤어요! |
| Keith: Teacher! I'm hurt! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Keith: Misun, that's a cute conversation! |
| Misun: Yeah, that’s true. Actually, when I was a kid, I couldn’t drive, but I actually pretend, like, I can drive. It’s just a funny way to do that, like if I’m saying those kind of things like adult is saying. |
| Keith: Yeah. Yeah. Kids like to have fun like that. |
| Misun: Right. |
| Keith: But since they're talking about riding bikes, I want to talk about that in more detail. |
| Misun: Sure. Kids, of course, ride bikes around their neighborhoods. |
| Keith: Yup, close by. But what if you're an adult, and you want to ride your bike to work? |
| Misun: That might be more difficult. |
| Keith: Yeah. Actually Korea does tend to have a lot of hills, so riding a bike for transportation reasons can be difficult sometimes. |
| Misun: Yeah. Of course, you’ll see bikes in Korea, but it's not a common form of transportation for adults. |
| Keith: Right. Especially since public transportation is cheap, too. |
| Misun: Yeah, it’s very cheap in comparison with here in New York. Buses and subways will go wherever you want, so it's not that common to see someone riding bikes. |
| Keith: Okay. Well, what if you wanted to ride your bike to work? Are there lanes on the street dedicated to bike riders? |
| Misun: Well, I saw pretty much a lot of lanes for buses and cars, but I rarely see the bike lanes. |
| Keith: Yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in Korea either. |
| Misun: Maybe, like, some different region down there, maybe they do have a bike, but in Seoul, I don’t see that much. |
| Keith: Yeah. |
| Misun: Yeah. |
| Keith: Because, again, it’s not that common form of transportation. |
| Misun: No. If you go to Olympic Park, 올림픽공원, then maybe you can see a bike lane. |
| Keith: Yeah. |
| Misun: Yeah. Otherwise, it’s not common. |
| Keith: Okay. Well, let's take a look at the vocab for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Keith: The first word we have is… |
| Misun: 자전거 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Bicycle. |
| Misun: 자전거 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 자전거 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next is… |
| Misun: 타다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: To ride. |
| Misun: 타다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 타다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next. |
| Misun: 운전하다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: To drive. |
| Misun: 운전하다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 운전하다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Okay. Next. |
| Misun: 날다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: To fly, to fly away. |
| Misun: 날다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 날다 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next. |
| Misun: 그래? [natural native speed] |
| Keith: Sure. All right. |
| Misun: 그래? [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 그래? [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next is… |
| Misun: 해 봐 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: Do it, try it, show me. |
| Misun: 해 봐 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 해 봐 [natural native speed]. |
| Keith: Next. |
| Misun: 다치다 [natural native speed] |
| Keith: To get hurt, to get injured. |
| Misun: 다치다 [slowly - broken down by syllable]. 다치다 [natural native speed]. |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Keith: All right. Well, take a closer look at some of the words and phrases. |
| Misun: Sure. The first word we’ll look at is 타다. |
| Keith: Which means “to ride.” |
| Misun: 타다. So you can ride a subway, a car, a bus, a bicycle, an airplane. |
| Keith: Right, anything that's moving. So I think we should go over this word for our listeners who may want to get some directions from somebody. |
| Misun: How Good idea! Let's start with the sub way. |
| Keith: Okay. So Misun, how do we say , “ride the subway”? If someone’s telling you, “ride the subway.” |
| Misun: It’s 지하철을 타요 |
| Keith: Now, let's tell someone to ride line number 1. |
| Misun: 1호선 타요. |
| Keith: Okay. What's line #1 again? |
| Misun: 1호선 |
| Keith: So line number 2 would be? |
| Misun: 2호선. |
| Keith: So "ride line #2" would be... |
| Misun: 2호선 타요. |
| Keith: Okay. And just for good measure, what’s line #3? |
| Misun: Of course, 3호선. / 3호선. |
| Keith: Okay. |
| Misun: So "ride line #3" would be, 3호선 타요. |
| Keith: Great. What's out next word? |
| Misun: Our next word is 해봐. |
| Keith: Try it, or show me. |
| Misun: That’s right. There's different nuances depending on the situation. |
| Keith: So if I'm claiming I can speak French but you don't believe me, you can say... |
| Misun: 해봐! |
| Keith: Show me. |
| Misun: Right. So you use it when you want someone to do something, so you can see. |
| Keith: Right. The other use is when you're doing something and you want someone else to try it, too. |
| Misun: Right. If you're at a kitchen, making some 만두, which means dumplings, you can suggest to your friend to try making it, too. |
| Keith: Yeah. So if you suggest someone to try it themselves, you can just say... |
| Misun: 해봐! |
| Keith: And there it means "try it." |
Lesson focus |
| Misun: Let’s move onto the focus of this lesson. |
| Keith: Okay. |
| Misun: The focus of this lesson is -을 수 있다. |
| Keith: And this is used to express ability, capability, or possibility. |
| Misun: Yeah. For example, if you can speak English, or if you can use a computer. |
| Keith: Right, the ability to do so. This structure can be translated as "can," or "able to." |
| Misun: 네 맞아요. To use this construction, just take the verb stem of the verb and attach -을 수 있다 |
| Keith: Yes. But since this is absolute beginner, we don't want our listeners to focus on the construction. Instead, we have a few useful examples. |
| Misun: The first one is, 영어 할 수 있어요. |
| Keith: "I can speak English." |
| Misun: So this can be useful if you're in Korea, but don't understand some Korean. |
| Keith: Right. So if you want to say you can understand English, just say... |
| Misun: 영어 할 수 있어요. |
| Keith: Okay, our next example is... |
| Misun: 할 수 있어요. |
| Keith: Which simply means, "I can do it." |
| Misun: 네. This can be useful if you're at work, and your boss is asking you to do something. |
| Keith: Or maybe your teacher is telling you to do something. |
| Misun: 네. You can respond with, 할 수 있어요. |
| Keith: “I can do it.” And this will be good to let your boss or teacher know that you can do something! |
| Misun: Okay. Our last one is, 갈 수 있어요. |
| Keith: "I can go." |
| Misun: So this can be useful if you're invited somewhere. |
| Keith: Right. Your friend wants to see if you can go watch a movie Saturday... |
| Misun: Then you can respond with, 갈 수 있어요. |
| Keith:Let’s take a look at how it came out in this dialogue. |
| Misun: Sure! The first one was, 나 자전거 탈 수 있어. |
| Keith: "I can ride a bike." |
| Misun: Then it was 나 운전할 수 있어. |
| Keith: "I can drive." |
| Misun: And finally was, 나 날아갈 수 있어. |
| Keith: “I can fly.” |
Outro |
| Keith: Okay. Well, that’s just about does it for today. Bye-bye, everyone! |
| Misun: 네 여러분 안녕히 계세요. |
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30 Comments
HideLet's practice. 연습해 보아요.
Can you cook any Korean food?
"저는 김치찌개 할 수 있어요. 근데, 김치는 할 줄 몰라요."
Hi Christina,
Thank you for posting, I'm really glad our answer was of help!
Yes, when used in the second phrase, 은/는 is used to show contrast (you could do A, but not B).
Cheers,
Lyn
Team KoreanClass101.com
Thank you so much! I've realized my typo (저는) meanwhile but the rest I wouldn't have managed. Your advice is great, thank you!
Just to clarify, the 은/는 particle in the second sentence is used to show contrast, isn't it?
Hi Christina,
Thanks for posting. If you want to say that you can't cook Korean food but you eat it, one way to write it would be:
자는 한국 음식을 요리 할 수 없어요. 그런데, 밥을 식당에 먹어요.
-->저는 한국 음식을 요리 할 수 없어요. 그런데 한국 음식은 잘 먹어요. /저는 한국 음식을 잘 먹어요. 근데 만들줄은 몰라요.
Cheers,
Lyn
Team KoreanClass101.com
Hello everyone!
자는 한국 음식을 요리 할 수 없어요. 그런데, 밥을 식당에 먹어요.
Does that make sense? If not, how could it make sense?😄
고맙습니다!
Christina
Hi Bhavya,
Thank you for posting. Some phrases to say 'cannot do' in Korean:
할 수 없다 --->cannot do
못 하다 --->cannot do
A similar phrase with a slightly different nuance would be:
안 하다 ---> will not do
Cheers,
Lyn
Team KoreanClass101.com
and thrre are also 2 ways of expressing "cannot do" -ㄹ/을 수 있다 and 못 해요 so which one is use when?
there are 2 ways to express desire to do someting -ㄹ/을 래 and 보고 샆다 so which one is use when?
Hi Anson,
Thanks for posting. '날아갈' is the future base form of '날아가다' and means 'will fly(away)'.
Cheers,
Lyn
Team KoreanClass101.com
날아갈
I particularly don't understand this part
Hello Denisse,
Thank you SO MUCH for all your comments! We LOVE your comments!
I'm so sorry if I made you feel that way! 😭
Here are my answers to your questions.
Q1. I wonder why in "나 날아갈 수 있어" the verb to fly 날다 is conjugated like that.
A. Here, the verb we used is [날아가다] which means "fly (away/off)". It's slightly different from [날다].
Q2. Which one is correct 벌 수 있어요 or벌을 수 있어요?
A. [벌 수 있어요.] is the right one. [ㄹ] gets the special treatment quite often in Korean. So when the verb stem ends in [ㄹ], the final consonant [ㄹ] is removed, and [-ㄹ 수 있다] is added to the verb stems like those that end in vowels.
Hope my answer cleared your questions, and thank you for your patience!
Best,
Rebecca
Team KoreanClass101.com