Lesson 7
In today’s lesson, we will look at the structure -아/어/여 봤자 which is used to express the meaning “even if” or “there is no use”. It is more commonly used in spoken Korean than in written Korean.
Other similar expressions are -아/어/여도 and -아/어/여 봐도, but these expressions tend to be a little more formal and less intense in nuance than -아/어/여 봤자.
When used after verb stems, -아/어/여 봤자 gives the entire sentence the meaning that “even if” one tries to do something, they will NOT get the desired result.
Take a look at some examples:
말하다 = to talk, to speak
→ 말해 봤자 = Even if you talk (to them) (there is no use).
찾다 = to look for, to find
→ 찾아 봤자 = Even if you look for something / even if you find it (there is no use).
How to Say, “It is no use” or, “It will not work.”
After you say -아/어/여 봤자, it is already expected that you are going to say something along the lines of, “It will not work”, “It is impossible”, or “You cannot do it”, but in order to make it clearer, you can use the following expressions:
1. 소용없어요.
= It is of no use. It will not help.
2. 안 돼요.
= It will not work. It will not do. You cannot do it.
3. 시간 낭비예요.
= It is a waste of time.
Or you can simply add negative phrases using 안 or 못.
Ex)
말해 봤자 소용없어요.
= Even if you talk (to them), it will be of no use.
가 봤자 시간 낭비예요.
= Even if you go, it will be a waste of your time.
Quite often, you can just drop the above expressions after using -아/어/여 봤자 and just add -예요 (= to be) to end the sentence end (-아/어/여 봤자예요). This is because adding -예요 will make it a complete sentence, even though the meaning is clear with just -아/어/여 봤자.
Ex)
해 봤자예요.= There is no use in trying to do it.
가 봤자예요. = There is no use in going there.
Sample Sentences
저한테 말해 봤자 소용없어요.
= There is no use in talking to me.
= 저한테 말해 봤자예요.
여기에 있어 봤자 시간 낭비예요.
= Even if you stay here, it is a waste of time.
= 여기에 있어 봤자예요.
지금 출발해 봤자 시간 안에 못 가요.
= Even if you leave now, you cannot get there in time.
= 지금 출발해 봤자예요.
울어 봤자 소용없어요.
= Even if you cry, it will not help.
= 울어 봤자예요.
모르는 척해 봤자 이미 다 알고 있어요.
= Even if you pretend you do not know, I already know all about it.
= 모르는 척해 봤자예요.
-아/어/여 봤자 can be replaced with -아/어/여 봐야 when it is followed by a phrase that is NOT -예요 (you cannot say -아/어/여 봐야예요).
Ex)
저한테 말해 봐야 소용없어요.
여기에 있어 봐야 시간 낭비예요.
지금 출발해 봐야 시간 안에 못 가요.
울어 봐야 소용없어요.
모르는 척 해 봐야 이미 다 알고 있어요.