모르다 is a special Korean verb that means “NOT know”. Unlike many other languages where you need to negate the verb “know” to express “not know”, Koreans use the verb 모르다 as an antonym of the verb 알다 (know) to indicate the lack of knowledge or inability to recognize something or someone. As in English, Koreans do not distinguish between “savoir/sapere” and “connaître/conoscere”, so 모르다 is actually a very common verb that you should learn by heart. 모르다 is an irregular verb, so it is conjugated as 몰라요 when you need to say it with the ending -요, in the past tense, or in a casual register.
그 사람 나를 보아도 She looks at me
나는 그 사람을 몰라요 But I don’t know her
두근거리는 마음은 아파도 My pounding heart hurts
이젠 그대를 몰라요 But I don’t know you anymore
– 이영훈 (1960 – 2008), from “사랑이 자나가면 When Love Passes By”
You might find different conjugation patterns of the verb in various registers and tenses below:
- 나는 그 사람을 모릅니다 I don’t know the person [Formal register]
- 아마 그는 그 사실을 모를 거예요 Probably he would not know that [Future tense used as a conjecture]
- 전에는 그 사실을 몰랐습니다 I didn’t know the fact before [Past tense; formal register]
- 난 몰라! [Casual register; e.g., when a teen expresses extreme frustration; literally it means “I don’t know (what to do)!”]
- Ma non lo sanno che oramai non ci sei (But they don’t know you’re not here now) 그대가 더 이상 여기 없는 걸 모르네 [Conjugation with -네 ending which expresses speakers’ emotive observation, reflection, reminiscence, emotional storytelling, etc.]
So, from now on, please do not say a glaringly erroneous sentence like “나는 알지 않아요” which Koreans would never say. Instead, just say “몰라요.” ^^
P.S.> Although “알지 않아요” is never said in Korean, 알지 못하다 is correct; it means “cannot know/recognize/understand (a fact/info)”, which involves the auxiliary verb conjugation -지 못하다 (can not …).
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