저는 이 책을 아주 조금 밖에 읽지 못했습니다: I was only able to read a very small part of this book/I could only read a bit of this book. 저는 - I ->저: I ->은/는: particle 이 책을 아주 조금밖에 - nothing but a really small part of this book ->이: this ->책: book ->을/를: object particle ->아주: really, very ->조금: little, bit, small amount ->밖에: (grammar) nothing but, nothing except for 읽지 못했습니다 - couldn't read ->읽다: to read ->V+지 못하다: (grammar) can't V ->았/었/였: past tense particle

I've come across the sentence "저는 이 책을 아주 조금 밖에 읽지 못했습니다" apparently meaning "I've only read a small part of this book" , and I don't really see how it would make any sense..  Could anyone explain to me how I should interpret it? Or is it just a Korean-kind of way to say it? 저는 이 책을 조금 읽었습니다. I read a little bit of this book. Here, the word 조금 can be thought to used as an adverb. It modifies the verb 읽었습니다. 저는 이 책을 아주 조금 읽었습니다. I read a very little bit of this book. Here, the word 조금 is also used as an adveb. And it is modified by another adverb 아주. 저는 이 책을 조금밖에 읽지 못했습니다. I couldn't read anything but a very little (amount) of this book. In this case, however, the word 조금 can be thought to be used as either a noun or an adverb because the word 조금 can be used in both ways. So, the above sentence is equivalent to the following sentence. 저는 이 책을 조금만(-을) 읽었습니다. I've only read a little bit of this book. 조금-밖에, 조금-만 In genereal, aux particles can be freely attached to any constituent in a sentence. And the objective/accusative case particle can be often omitted in a sentence, too. Especially, the aux particle '-밖에' is always used with negatives so that it emphasize the preceding word. There are several different ways to emphasize the word using aux particles. For exampke 이 일을 (오직) 너-밖에 할 수 없어. (aux particle, -밖에) Any one can't do this but you. 이 일을 (오로지) 너-만(이) 할 수 있어. (aux particle, -만) Only you can do this. 이 일을 할 수 있는 사람은 (오직) 너-뿐이야. (aux particle, -뿐) There is no one who can do this except for you.

Hi 율리아, "저는 이 책을 아주 조금 밖에 읽지 못했습니다" --> 저는(I, subject) / 이 책을(this book, object) / 아주(very, adverb) / 조금(little, adjective) / 밖에(only, adverb) / 읽지 못했습니다(could not read, verb) 1) "읽지 못했습니다" --> "I could not read" --> Negative 2) "아주 조금 밖에 읽지 못했습니다" = "아주 조금 읽었습니다" --> "I could read only very little" --> Positive "~밖에 ~지 못했습니다" is like a phrasal verb. '밖에' is always followed by a negative verb, however it means positive. You may use this phrasal verb just to "emphasize" that you read very little. Hope it helps,

There is another way " I couldn't read a lot from this book" See , 동사+지 못하다 means can't, the " subject" might faced any interruption that made him incapable to continue the act " which is reading " There's a slight difference between 지 못 하다 and 동사+지 않다 The second is negative " I didn't " So if you would like to know the exact translation for it " I couldn't read more than this part from this book" However I think the first one make more sense as an English sentence Hope this was helpful ????

Oh, I understand your confusion. 밖에 could be 1) 밖(outside) + 에(location particle, in) aka vocabulary or 2) 밖에 (nothing but, nothing outside of) aka grammar point