In the previous post, we talked about expressing our desires. In this post, we’ll be talking about the opposite.

울고 싶지 않아요 = I don’t want to cry.

As you can see in the example above, the grammatical construction for “don’t want to…” is ~고 싶지 않아요. The verb “to cry” is 울다, so to fit this in the “don’t want” construction, drop the 다 of 울다 and stick it to 고. That’s all you really have to do.

You can also use 원하지 않아요

무니는 아이를 원하지 않아요 = Muni doesn’t want a child

(무니 = Muni. 는 = topic marking particle. 아이 = child. 를 = topic marking particle. 원하지 않아요 = doesn’t want)

Let’s compare this with the construction ~을/를 싫다

한국 음식을 싫어요 = I hate Korean food.

(한국 = Korea. 음식 = food. 을 = object marking particle. 싫어요 = hate)

With 을/를 싫다, a more intensive form of dislike is being expressed. Be careful with ~을/를 싫다, because it is a stronger form of expression than 고 싶지 않아요.

When talking about the third person, the construction will be ~을/를 싫어하다

소라는 강아지를 싫어해요 = Sora hates dogs

(소라 = Sora. 는 = topic marking particle. 강아지 = dog. 를 = object marking particle. 싫어해요 = hate)

To use a less stronger way to express dislike you can replace 싫다/싫어하다 with 좋아하지 않아요

유니 는 그 집을 좋아하지 않아요 = Yuni dislikes that house

(유니 = Yuni. 는 = topic marking particle. 그 = that. 집 = house. 을 = object marking particle. 좋아하지 않아요 = dislike)