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

Quick Answer: "The gardener must not go to the home at night" in Korean is "정원사는 밤에 집에 가면 안 돼요." (jeongwonsaneun bame jipe gamyeon an dwaeyo.). It uses the -(으)면 grammar pattern (If/When (-(으)면)). Level: A2.

Translate "The gardener must not go to the home at night" into Korean and you get "정원사는 밤에 집에 가면 안 돼요.". The If/When (-(으)면) grammar point here is used in about 1 in 5 Korean sentences — truly essential.

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What does "The gardener must not go to the home at night" mean in Korean?

The Korean sentence "정원사는 밤에 집에 가면 안 돼요." translates to "The gardener must not go to the home at night." in English. "정원사는 밤에 집에 가면 안 돼요." — a sentence that Korean children might hear in bedtime stories. It means "the gardener must not go to the home at night" and uses vocabulary that appears in hundreds of other Korean sentences, making it a powerful building block.

Pronunciation guide: jeongwonsaneun bame jipe 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 "정원사는 밤에 집에 가면 안 돼요.", the verb comes at the end of the sentence. Here is the word-by-word breakdown: • 정원사는 (jeongwonsaneun) • 밤에 (bame) • 집에 (jipe) • 가면 (gamyeon) • 안 (an) • 돼요 (dwaeyo)

The best way to internalize Korean word order is to build sentences piece by piece: start with the verb, then add the object, then the subject.

Why This Korean Expression Sounds Natural

What makes it sound authentically Korean is the absence of pronouns. Unlike English, Korean often drops "I", "you", or "it" when context makes them obvious — creating a leaner, more elegant sentence.

Cultural Insight

한국 동화 속 주인공은 초인적 영웅보다 평범한 아이나 동물인 경우가 많아요. 작은 존재가 큰일을 해내는 이야기가 한국인에게 깊은 울림을 줍니다.

Examples

정원사는 밤에 집에 가면 안 돼요. — jeongwonsaneun bame jipe gamyeon an dwaeyo. — The gardener must not go to the home at night.

정원사는 밤에 집에 가면 안 돼요? — jeongwonsaneun bame jipe gamyeon an dwaeyo? — Does the gardener must not go to the home at night?

가끔 정원사는 밤에 집에 가면 안 돼요. — gakkeum jeongwonsaneun bame jipe gamyeon an dwaeyo. — Sometimes, the gardener must not go to the home at night.

Common Mistakes

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

Incorrect: 돼요 정원사는 밤에 집에 가면 안 → Correct: 정원사는 밤에 집에 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 gardener must not go to the home at night" in Korean?

The correct Korean translation is "정원사는 밤에 집에 가면 안 돼요.". jeongwonsaneun bame jipe gamyeon an dwaeyo.

Fill in the blank: 정원사는 밤에 집에 가면 안 ___

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