How to Say "The fish must not go to the path at night" in Korean | -(으)면 Grammar

Quick Answer: "The fish must not go to the path at night" in Korean is "물고기는 밤에 길에 가면 안 돼요." (mulgogineun bame gile gamyeon an dwaeyo.). It uses the -(으)면 grammar pattern (If/When (-(으)면)). Level: A2.

Learn how to say "The fish must not go to the path at night" in Korean: "물고기는 밤에 길에 가면 안 돼요.". This sentence uses the -(으)면 grammar pattern (If/When (-(으)면)), a key building block for Korean learners at the A2 level.

Category: 동물

What does "The fish must not go to the path at night" mean in Korean?

The Korean sentence "물고기는 밤에 길에 가면 안 돼요." translates to "The fish must not go to the path at night." in English. Korean learners love sentences like "물고기는 밤에 길에 가면 안 돼요." because they are practical and memorable. Meaning "the fish must not go to the path at night", it teaches core vocabulary and grammar in a single, elegant package.

Pronunciation guide: mulgogineun bame gile gamyeon an dwaeyo.

Grammar Point: If/When (-(으)면)

The ending -(으)면 expresses a condition ('if') or temporal trigger ('when'). Use -면 after vowel-ending stems, -으면 after consonant-ending stems.

가다 → 가면 (if [someone] goes), 먹다 → 먹으면 (if [someone] eats).

Korean Sentence Structure Breakdown

Korean follows a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order, which is different from English (SVO). In "물고기는 밤에 길에 가면 안 돼요.", the verb comes at the end of the sentence. Here is the word-by-word breakdown: • 물고기는 (mulgogineun) • 밤에 (bame) • 길에 (gile) • 가면 (gamyeon) • 안 (an) • 돼요 (dwaeyo)

Korean drops pronouns whenever context makes them clear. If you see no 'I' or 'you' in a sentence, that is normal — not a mistake.

Why This Korean Expression Sounds Natural

The Korean phrasing sounds authentic because it avoids literal translation traps. Instead of mapping each English word to Korean, it repackages the meaning using Korean-native structures.

Cultural Insight

한국 설화에서 까치는 길조의 새로, 좋은 소식을 전해준다고 믿었어요. '까치가 울면 반가운 손님이 온다'는 속담이 있습니다.

Examples

물고기는 밤에 길에 가면 안 돼요. — mulgogineun bame gile gamyeon an dwaeyo. — The fish must not go to the path at night.

물고기는 밤에 길에 가면 안 돼요? — mulgogineun bame gile gamyeon an dwaeyo? — Does the fish must not go to the path at night?

오늘도 물고기는 밤에 길에 가면 안 돼요. — oneuldo mulgogineun bame gile gamyeon an dwaeyo. — Today too, the fish must not go to the path at night.

Common Mistakes

Incorrect: 먹면 → Correct: 먹으면. After a consonant-ending stem (먹-), you need the vowel buffer 으 before 면.

Incorrect: 돼요 물고기는 밤에 길에 가면 안 → Correct: 물고기는 밤에 길에 가면 안 돼요. Korean uses Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) order. The verb must come at the end of the sentence, unlike English where it comes after the subject.

Quiz

How do you say "The fish must not go to the path at night" in Korean?

The correct Korean translation is "물고기는 밤에 길에 가면 안 돼요.". mulgogineun bame gile gamyeon an dwaeyo.

Fill in the blank: 물고기는 밤에 길에 가면 안 ___

The correct ending is "돼요". The polite -요 form is essential for everyday Korean conversation.