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

Quick Answer: "The singer must not go to the village at night" in Korean is "가수는 밤에 마을에 가면 안 돼요." (gasuneun bame maeule gamyeon an dwaeyo.). It uses the -(으)면 grammar pattern (If/When (-(으)면)). Level: A2.

"가수는 밤에 마을에 가면 안 돼요." means "The singer must not go to the village at night" in Korean. It features the -(으)면 pattern — the ending -(으)면 expresses a condition ('if') or temporal trigger ('when'). Practice this phrase to build your Korean fluency.

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What does "The singer must not go to the village at night" mean in Korean?

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

Pronunciation guide: gasuneun bame maeule 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 "가수는 밤에 마을에 가면 안 돼요.", the verb comes at the end of the sentence. Here is the word-by-word breakdown: • 가수는 (gasuneun) • 밤에 (bame) • 마을에 (maeule) • 가면 (gamyeon) • 안 (an) • 돼요 (dwaeyo)

In Korean, the verb ending tells you everything: who is speaking, how polite they are, and what tense they mean. Pay close attention to the last syllable.

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

가수는 밤에 마을에 가면 안 돼요. — gasuneun bame maeule gamyeon an dwaeyo. — The singer must not go to the village at night.

가수는 밤에 마을에 가면 안 돼요? — gasuneun bame maeule gamyeon an dwaeyo? — Does the singer must not go to the village at night?

오늘도 가수는 밤에 마을에 가면 안 돼요. — oneuldo gasuneun bame maeule gamyeon an dwaeyo. — Today too, the singer must not go to the village at night.

Common Mistakes

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

Incorrect: 돼요 가수는 밤에 마을에 가면 안 → Correct: 가수는 밤에 마을에 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 singer must not go to the village at night" in Korean?

The correct Korean translation is "가수는 밤에 마을에 가면 안 돼요.". gasuneun bame maeule gamyeon an dwaeyo.

Fill in the blank: 가수는 밤에 마을에 가면 안 ___

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