I can't make up my mind!

Hi all. :) I hope your day was as lovely as mine. A good friend of mine visited me from Sydney and we had a really nice Chinese dinner together. It was hard to decide what to order out of so many yummy dishes. Same with the shopping. Why do we have to choose?! Why can't we have all?! :)


I can't make up my mind!
결정을 못하겠어요.


결정을, gyerljungeul, decision + suffix
못하겠어요, motagetsoyo, cannot do it


결정을 못하겠어요.
gyerljungeul motagetsoyo.


못하다 which is a basic form of 못하겠어요 can mean either "the subject does not have an ability to do something" or "the subject's quality is not as good as something". For example;

요리를 못하다. -> I don't cook very well.
맛이 지난번보다 못하다. -> This does not taste as good as the last time.

Also, 못해요 and 못하겠어요 have subtle differences in meanings even though they have the same basic form. 못해요 is used when you don't have an ability to do something generally while 못하겠어요 is used when you cannot do something in particular situation.

Compare these two.
나는 결정을 못해요. -> I am usually not good at making decision.
나는 결정을 못하겠어요. -> I cannot make a decision (this time).

BTW, I ended up having Steamed bone-less duck. Yumm. :)

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