Could someone please explain "-잖아"?
Like when a person says "알　수　없잖아!"... I'm not exactly sure what does it mean. I understand the "알 수 없다" part only. But adding "잖아" does it change the whole meaning? I would like to know more about the usage of this expression and more about its rule.

Is there a grammatical rule to it? "-잖아"?

Question

Could someone please explain "-잖아"?
Like when a person says "알　수　없잖아!"... I'm not exactly sure what does it mean. I understand the "알 수 없다" part only. But adding "잖아" does it change the whole meaning? I would like to know more about the usage of this expression and more about its rule. 

Is there a grammatical rule to it? "-잖아"?

Answer

Let me try to explain it a little better. "알 수 없잖아!" That's like the following: 
Someone claims that he knows something which is actually not so clear. And the other person says, "that's impossible to know, isn't it!". It's something like that. Or, it is like saying: "that's impossible to know. So why do claim that?" The structures of English and Korean are quite different, so that's about the best I can explain it.

Answer

"-잖아?" is a shortening of "-지 않아?" It can be translated into English as "Isn't it that...?". So "알 수 없잖아!" can be translated as "Isn't it that we can't know it?" or "Isn't it true that it is impossible to know that?"

Answers · 2

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