Korean expressions - To be good at something, to be bad at something (잘하다 / 못하다 / 잘 못 하다)

- Author: Good Job Korean team 
- Editor: Good Job Korean team

👍 Contents (Click to navigate instantly)

✅ 잘하다 - to be good at (noun) / 못하다 - to be bad at (noun)
✅ 잘 + (verb) - to be good at (verb) / to do (verb) well
✅ 못 하다 / 못 + (verb) [with space] - cannot do (verb) / unable to do (verb) because of circumstances/reasons
✅ 잘 못 하다 / 잘 못 + (verb) [with space] - cannot do (verb) well / to do (verb) poorly
✅ 잘못하다 / 잘못 + (verb) [no space] - to do verb in a wrong way
✅ BONUS: Standard Korean expressions using 잘 + verb grammar

 Koreans have many expressions to convey what they wish to say. In this blog post, we will learn how Koreans say to be good or bad at something. This topic may seem easy, but sometimes students can get confused. Let’s see why.

잘하다 - to be good at (noun) / 못하다 - to be bad at (noun)

 To say someone is good or bad at something, you may attach a noun with the verb 잘하다, which means to do well (at a noun), and 못하다, to do poorly (at a noun). 

(noun) + 잘하다 —> to be good at (noun)
(noun) + 못하다 —> to be bad at (noun)

Example sentences:

그 외국인 학생들은 한국어를 잘해요.
The international students are good at Korean.
*그: that
*외국인: foreigner
*학생들: students [singular: 학생]
*은: topic marking particle
*한국어: Korean (language)
*를: object marking particle
*잘하다: to do something well

저는 수학을 못해요.
I am bad at mathematics.
*저는: I
*수학: mathematics
*을: object marking particle
*못하다: to do something poorly

 Did you realize that some verbs are in the noun + 하다 form? When we say to be good / to be bad at [noun + 하다 form] verbs, we would add 잘 or 못 before 하다, and not before the noun. 

Example sentence:

진 선생님은 노래를 잘해요.
Teacher Jin is a good singer.
(Teacher Jin sings well / Teacher Jin is good at singing)
*진 선생님: Teacher Jin
*노래하다: to sing

In this sentence, 노래 means 'singing', and 하다 means 'to do'. We combine these two words into a verb using the noun + 하다 form. Therefore, 노래하다 means to sing.

Let’s see more examples using this noun + 하다 verbs:

오빠는 수영을 잘해요.
My brother is good at swimming.
*오빠: older brother (for female)
*수영: swimming (noun)
*수영하다: to swim (verb)

누나는 요리를 못해요.
My sister cooks poorly.
*누나: older sister (for male)
*요리: cooking, dish (noun)
*요리하다: to cook (verb)

 The above examples show 잘하다 or 못하다 as a verb where you are good or bad at doing a noun. You may now wonder if you can attach 잘 and 못 to verbs other than 하다 verbs. The answer is yes, you can. 

잘 + (verb) - to be good at (verb) / to do (verb) well

 Generally, you can add 잘 or 못 right before a verb. However, 잘 and 못 in this situation act as adverbs. 

 Let us first explore 잘 + [verb] (to be good at [verb]). 잘 acts as an adverb to mean well or great.

잘 + [verb] —> to be good at [verb]

Example sentence:

술 잘 마셔요?
Are you good at drinking alcohol?
*술: alcohol
*마시다: to drink

어젯밤에 잘 잤어요.
I slept well last night.
*어젯밤: last night
*자다: to sleep

 Please note that there are some expressions that may mean something different from their direct translation. For example: 

책을 잘 읽었어요.
I read the book well.
(Thank you for the book.)
*책: book
*읽다: to read

그 배우는 잘생겼어요!
The actor came out well!
(The actor is handsome!)
*그: that
*배우: actor
*는: topic marking particle 
*생기다: to form, to come into being

 From the examples above, you may notice that sometimes there is a space between 잘 and the verb, and sometimes there isn’t. There is a minimal difference in whether there is a space (or not) between 잘 and the verb. So, please do not worry about it yet.

Now, let us go into the fun part.

못 하다 / 못 + (verb) [with space] - cannot do (verb) / unable to do (verb) because of circumstances/reasons

 From the first part of this blog, we know that to be bad at (noun), we would use the expression 못하다. Do note that there is NO space between 못 and 하다. 

 So can 못 act as an adverb like 잘? Yes, it can. 못 as an adverb means cannot or unable to (do something) because of circumstances or the inability to do it. 

 Therefore, there is a difference between these two expressions. 

못하다 (no space) —> to be bad at something
못 하다 or 못 + verb (with space) —> could not do (verb) / unable to do (verb) because of circumstances/reasons

 You may now wonder what is the difference between 못 and ~ㄹ 수 없다. To put it simply, we use ~ㄹ 수 없다 when you physically cannot do something, and we use 못 when you cannot do something because of some reasons.

 The difference between 못하다 and 못 하다 may be direct in written Korean, but in spoken Korean, you may not notice the pause between 못 and the verb. Most of the time, listeners will have to guess based on context. This part is where people get confused.

Let’s see this example below:

요리를 못 해요.
I cannot cook.
*요리: cook (noun)
*요리하다: to cook (verb)

 The sentence above carries the meaning of I cannot cook because of some reasons. 

More example sentences:

노래를 못 해요.
I cannot sing.
*노래: song (noun)
*노래하다: to sing (verb)
 

어제 잠을 못 잤어요.
I couldn’t sleep yesterday.
*어제: yesterday
*잠: sleep (noun)
*자다: to sleep (verb)

잘 못 하다 / 잘 못 + (verb) [with space] - cannot do (verb) well / to do (verb) poorly

 Do you feel the sentence above sounds very direct? It feels like you are outright telling people you cannot do something. There is a way to make it sound softer and less direct, and that is by adding 잘 in front of 못. Now the sentence will be:

요리를 잘 못 해요.
I cannot cook well / I am not good at cooking.

 This sentence would feel more like I can cook, but I cannot cook well for some reasons. It would sound less direct and softer to the listener.

Let us see more example sentences:

춤을 잘 못 춰요.
I cannot dance well / I dance poorly
*춤: dance (noun)
*춤추다: to dance (verb)

매운 음식을 잘 못 먹어요.
I cannot eat spicy food well / I cannot handle spicy food
*맵다: to be spicy
*음식: food
*먹다: to eat

한국말 잘 못 해요.
I cannot speak Korean well.
*한국말 하다: to speak Korean

잘못하다 / 잘못 + (verb) [no space] - to do verb in a wrong way

 There is one more expression that may add to your confusion, but let’s go through it anyway. Don’t worry. I made a summary at the end of the post. I hope you can differentiate the meanings when you finish reading.

 When you say 잘 못하다 with a pause between 잘 and 못, it means to be bad at something. What if there is no space between 잘 and 못? It changes the meaning entirely.

 When there is no space or pause between 잘 and 못, it means to do something wrongly.

잘 못하다 - to be bad at something
잘못하다 - to do something in the wrong way

Example sentences:

요리를 잘 못했어요.
I was poor at cooking.

요리를 잘못했어요.
I cooked the wrong way.
*요리하다: to cook
 

 Now, let us summarize.

잘하다 - to be good at (noun) 
못하다 - to be bad at (noun)
잘 + (verb) - to be good at (verb) / to do (verb) well
못 + (verb) [no space] - to be bad at (verb)
못 하다 / 못 + (verb) [with space] - cannot do (verb) / unable to do (verb) because of circumstances/reasons
잘 못 하다 / 잘 못 + (verb) [with space] - cannot do (verb) well / to do (verb) poorly
잘못하다 / 잘못 + (verb) [no space] - to do verb in a wrong way

 Phew, that’s it! I hope this post helps you understand the expressions better. It may be confusing, so please go through them again if necessary. 

BONUS: Standard Korean expressions using 잘 + verb grammar

 There are several standard Korean expressions that use the 잘 + verb grammar. You may find these familiar:

잘했어요!
You did well! (Good job!)
*하다: to do

잘 먹겠습니다!
I will eat well!
An expression before starting a meal
*먹다: to eat

잘 먹었습니다!
I enjoyed the food. (Thank you for the meal)
An expression said to the host after a meal.
*먹다: to eat

잘 자요!
Sleep well! (Goodnight!)
*자다: to sleep

잘 지냈어요?
Did you spend time well?
(Have you been well? or How are you?)
*지내다: to spend time

 That is all for this post. I hope you find these expressions useful in your daily conversations!

- Author: Good Job Korean team 
- Editor: Good Job Korean team