Don’t say 안 재미있어요, 안 맛있어요 | How to negate adjectives

안녕하세요 여러분! Koreanstudyjunkie에서 Junie예요. I’m the creator of this site.

In this lesson, I wanna talk about something I’ve noticed a few students of mine sometimes doing and that is trying to negative adjectives like 맛있다 and 재미있다 in an unnatural way.

Speaking of my students..

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Introduction

There are tons of descriptive verbs in Korean and many of them you may have noticed end with -있다.

These are 형용사 (descriptive verbs) built from noun/adjective + 있다, meaning “to have ___” or “to be ___ because ___ exists.”

They describe a state of possessing some quality — e.g.

• 재미 + 있다 → 재미있다 = “to have fun” → “to be fun / interesting”

• 맛 + 있다 → 맛있다 = “to have taste” → “to be delicious”

The Most Common Ones:

• 재미있다 — to be fun / interesting

• 맛있다 — to be delicious / tasty

• 멋있다 — to be cool / stylish / handsome

Example Sentences:

• 그 영화 정말 재미있어요. (That movie is really fun.)

• 이 김치찌개 맛있어요. (This kimchi stew is delicious.)

• 그 사람은 정말 멋있어요. (That person is cool.)

What “안” Does

“안” is an adverb meaning “not.”

You usually place it in front of verbs or action adjectives to make them negative.

Natural with action verbs:

• 안 가요 = don’t go

• 안 먹어요 = don’t eat

• 안 봐요 = don’t watch

It can also be used with many descriptive verbs, especially simple ones:

• 안 예뻐요 = not pretty

• 안 커요 = not big

• 안 바빠요 = not busy

But when you reach adjectives like 맛있다,재미있다, or 멋있다, things start to feel strange.

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Why Using 안 Is Unnatural With 맛있다 & 재미있다

Technically, they’re grammatically possible, but they sound unnatural to Korean ears.

Korean tends to form opposites with separate adjectives rather than with “안.”

맛있다 > 맛없다

재미있다 > 재미없다

멋있다 > 멋없다

So the “negative” is baked into the adjective itself, not made with “안.”

That’s why “안 맛있다” sounds off — because the natural opposite word already exists.

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The “있다 / 없다” Pattern

Let’s look closer:

있다 and 없다 form natural opposite pairs in Korean vocabulary.

So instead of saying:

“안 있다”

Koreans naturally say:

“없다”

This rule extends to any adjective built from 있다:

맛있다 - delicious

맛없다 - not delicious, taste bad

재미있다 - interesting

재미없다 - not interesting, boring

멋있다 - cool

멋없다 - not cool, lame

의미있다 - meaningful

의미없다 - meaningless

가치있다 - valuable

가치없다 - worthless

보람있다 - rewarding

보람없다 - unrewarding

So “안 + 있다-word” always feels strange, because 없다 already provides the opposite meaning.

Opposite Examples:

• 그 영화 정말 재미없어요. (That movie is really boring.)

• 이 김치찌개 맛없어요. (This kimchi stew is nasty.)

• 그 사람은 정말 멋없어요. (That person is lame.)

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Nuance Difference:

If someone does say 안 맛있어요 or 안 재미있어요, what does it mean?

It’s softer — like saying:

“It’s not delicious (but not necessarily bad).”

“It’s not fun (but not exactly boring).”

So “안 + 있다 adjective” is possible when you want to soften or hedge your opinion — but in everyday speech, Koreans almost always prefer the 없다 form.

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That’s the end of this lesson! Thanks for sticking around.

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