[Learn Korean E21] “(으)ㄹ까요?”, “(으)ㄹ까 봐” , “(으)ㄹ까 하다”(future tense)

안녕하세요. 토미입니다.
Let’s have fun learning an awesome language, Korean!

The theme of today’s class is 【몇 시에 만날까요?】 “What time should we meet?”

In today’s class, we are going to learn trio of [(으)ㄹ까] , which are [(으)ㄹ까요?], [(으)ㄹ까 봐] and [(으)ㄹ까 하다].

In English, these three mean “Should we~? / Will it~?” “I am worried that it will~” and “I think I’ll / I am thinking of~.”

Since all three expressions are similar to each other, I think it will be better to summarize them altogether today instead of teaching them one by one separately.

After learning today’s grammar, you will be able to say things like “I’m worried that it will rain tomorrow.”

That’s great! You are all very excellent learners, so I believe you’ll be able to make it all the way to pass TOPIK.
And be the super master of Korean!

그럼 시작할게요！

Listen to the Conversation

The theme of today’s conversation is 【몇 시에 만날까요?】.

Tomorrow, Sangmin and Tammy are going to meet somewhere, but they seem to have something that worries them.

So first, let’s listen to the conversation with English subtitles.

그럼 들어보세요！

• 토미：내일 어디서 몇 시에 만날까요?
  Tammy：Tomorrow, where and when should we meet?
• 상민：여기 카페 앞에서 두 시에 만나요.
  Sangmin：Let’s meet in front of the cafe here at 2 o’clock.
• 토미：그래요. 저는 내일 우산을 가져갈까 해요.
  Tammy：Okay. I’m thinking of bringing an umbrella tomorrow.
• 상민：왜요? 내일 비가 올까요?
  Sangmin：Why? Is it going to rain tomorrow?
• 토미：실은 태풍이 올까 봐 걱정이에요.
  Tammy：I’m actually worried that a typhoon may come.
• 상민：그럼 차라리 오전에 봐요.
  Sangmin：Then let’s rather meet in the morning.

Vocabulary and Phrases

Let’s review words and phrases in the conversation.

• 토미：내일 어디서 몇 시에 만날까요?

[어디서] means “where”, and it is a shortened version of [어디에서].
Korean people use [어디서] much more often in conversation than [어디에서].

In addition to [어디서], [여기서] means “here”, [거기서] means “there”, and [저기서] means “over there.”

These words that demonstrate a place are called place adverbs in grammar.
I don’t like to memorize difficult grammatical terms.
But I think it is efficient to know these grammatical terms when you are learning a language.

• 상민：여기 카페 앞에서 두 시에 만나요.

[앞] is “front” in location.
[앞에서] means “in front of.”

Let’s also learn other words that are related to location.

[위] means “top”, [밑/아래] means “below”, [앞] means “front,” [뒤] means “back”, [옆] means “side”, [안] means “inside”, [밖] means “outside”, [오른쪽] means “right”, and [왼쪽] means “left.”

You use these words many, many times in your daily life in Korea.
So please, memorize all of them at once!

• 토미：그래요. 저는 내일 우산을 가져갈까 해요.

[우산] is “umbrella.”
[우산을 쓰다] means “to put up an umbrella.”

[가지다] means “to have,” and [가져가다] means “to take/ to bring.”

In the conversation, the expression was “I am thinking of bringing an umbrella / I’m thinking of taking an umbrella,” so Tammy use [가져가다].

• 상민：왜요? 내일 비가 올까요?

The original form of [비가 올까요?] is [비가 오다], which directly translates to “rain comes,” in other words, “It rains.”

In Korean, there are two expressions for “It rains.”

The first one is [비가 오다] that we learned today, and the other one is [비가 내리다] which mens “rain falls.”
Korean people use [비가 오다] more commonly in a conversation.

• 토미：실은 태풍이 올까 봐 걱정이에요.

[태풍] is “typhoon.”
[태풍 정보] means “information about the typhoon.”

[걱정] is “worry”, which is a noun.
[걱정하다] means “to worry,” and [걱정거리] means “things to worry.”

• 상민：그럼 차라리 오전에 봐요.

[차라리] means “rather.”
In particular, Korean people use [차라리] together with [그럼], as [그럼 차라리], which means “Then, let’s rather~.”
So try to memorize them as a good pair.

[보다] means “to see / to watch,” but this word actually has about 20 different definitions in the dictionary.
If you directly translate the expression [오전에 봐요] to English, it means “Let’s see in the morning.”

But, [보다] also means “to meet”, so here, it would be better to translate “let’s meet in the morning.”

Grammar

The first grammar is ①[(으)ㄹ까요?] “Shall we/ Should we/ Is it going to.”
You can use this at the end of a sentence when you are asking for someone’s thoughts, opinions, or views.

The second grammar is ②[(으)ㄹ까 봐] “I am worried that it will~,” and you can use this when you are worried about a situation that you don’t want to happen.

The third grammar is ③[(으)ㄹ까 하다] “I think I’ll / I am thinking of~,” which expresses an uncertain plan or schedule that you are thinking of having.

(으)ㄹ까요? “Shall we/ Should we”

First we are going to see [(으)ㄹ까요?].
I will teach you two basic patterns, which will apply to all three grammar today.

By the way, we already learned six irregular patterns before.
So, I will skip that part.
But those irregular verbs will come up frequently in example sentences and quizzes to improve your understanding.

Let’s see the two basic patterns.
First, if a stem of verb/adjective does not have a final consonant, you add [ㄹ까요] .
Second, when a stem has a final consonant, you add [을까요].

Other two grammar also have this same pattern.
Let’s see a stem without a final consonant.
In today’s conversation, there is a sentence

내일 어디서 몇 시에 만날까요?
Where and when should we meet tomorrow?

Here, as the stem of [만나다] does not have a final consonant, you add [ㄹ까요] to say [만날까요?] “should we meet?.”
Let’s look at the next example.

내일 비가 올까요?
Is it going to rain tomorrow?

Again, since the word [오다] does not have a final consonant, so you add [ㄹ까요] to say [올까요?] “Is it going to rain?”
Next, let’s see a stem with a final consonant.

문을 닫을까요?
Should I close the door?

Here, the stem of [닫다] “to close” has [ㄷ] final consonant, so you add [을까요] to say [닫을까요].

(으)ㄹ까 봐～ “I am worried that it will~”

[(으)ㄹ까 봐] means “I am worried that it will~.”

You can use this when something that you don’t want is about to happen.
So Korean people use it together with the word [걱정이다] “I’m worried.”
Let’s take a look at the phrase in the conversation.

실은 태풍이 올까 봐 걱정이에요.
I’m actually worried that a typhoon may come.

In this sentence, [오다] does not have a final consonant, so you add [ㄹ까 봐] to say [올까 봐] “worried that it will come.”
There is also another example like

아이들이 말을 안 들을까 봐 걱정이에요.
I am worried that my children won’t listen to me.

Here, [말을 듣다] means “listen to what is said.”

In this case, [듣다] “to listen” is a word with [ㄷ] irregular, so you change the final consonant [ㄷ] to [ㄹ], and add [＋을까 봐] to say [들을까 봐].

(으)ㄹ까 하다 “I think I’ll / I am thinking of~”

[(으)ㄹ까 하다] means “I think I’ll / I am thinking of~,” and it has a casual nuance of “I’m thinking of doing this.”
In the conversation, Tammy says:

저는 내일 우산을 가져갈까 해요.
I am thinking of bringing an umbrella tomorrow.

Here, [가져가다] “to bring” does not have a final consonant, so you add [ㄹ까 해요] to say [가져갈까 해요].
Let’s take a look at another example.

지금부터 밥을 지을까 해요.
I think I will cook rice from now.

Here, the original form is [밥을 짓다]”to cook rice.”

[짓다] is a typical word with [ㅅ] irregular. Here, you just need to remove [ㅅ] from [짓다] and add [을까].
So it becomes [지을까 해요] “I think I will cook rice.”

Quiz

Let’s improve our understanding by taking a quick quiz. What goes in the bracket?

① [저는 서울에서 (          ).]
I am thinking of living in Seoul.

(1)살까 해요 (2)살을까 해요

The answer is (1).
[살다] means “to live,” which already has the final consonant [ㄹ].
You have to pay attention here!!
This must have [ㄹ] irregular.
So you add [까 해요] and say [살까 해요.]

The whole sentence would be [저는 서울에서 살까 해요].

② [짐이 너무 (          )　걱정했어요.]
I was worried that my luggage would be too heavy.

(1)무겁을까 봐 (2)무거울까 봐

The answer is (2).
Here, the word [무겁다] means “heavy,” and it has [ㅂ] final consonant.
So, we have to apply the pattern with the [ㅂ] irregular.
In this case, you remove [ㅂ] final consonant , and add [울까 봐] to say [무거울까 봐].
[울까 봐] here has [우] instead of [으], so please be careful.
It is just one small stick in the middle, but Korean people notice it.

The whole sentence would be [짐이 너무 (무거울까 봐) 걱정했어요].

③ [피자나 (          )？]
Should I order pizza or something?

(1)주문할까요　(2)주문하까요?

The answer is number (1).
[주문하다] means “to order,” so you add [ㄹ까요?] and say [주문할까요?]

The whole sentence would be [피자나 주문할까요]?

Conversation (Korean only)

Now, let’s listen to the conversation again but this time only in Korean.

You should be able to understand it much better than in the beginning.

그럼 확인해 보세요！

• 토미：내일 어디서 몇 시에 만날까요?
• 상민：여기 카페 앞에서 두 시에 만나요.
• 토미：그래요. 저는 내일 우산을 가져갈까 해요.
• 상민：왜요? 내일 비가 올까요?
• 토미：실은 태풍이 올까 봐 걱정이에요.
• 상민：그럼 차라리 오전에 봐요.

Conversation Practice

Now, let’s practice reading it aloud together.

I’ll play the audio one sentence at a time, so please read it along with me.

그럼 큰소리로 읽어 보세요！

• 토미：내일 어디서 몇 시에 만날까요?
  Tammy：Tomorrow, where and when should we meet?
• 상민：여기 카페 앞에서 두 시에 만나요.
  Sangmin：Let’s meet in front of the cafe here at 2 o’clock.
• 토미：그래요. 저는 내일 우산을 가져갈까 해요.
  Tammy：Okay. I’m thinking of bringing an umbrella tomorrow.
• 상민：왜요? 내일 비가 올까요?
  Sangmin：Why? Is it going to rain tomorrow?
• 토미：실은 태풍이 올까 봐 걱정이에요.
  Tammy：I’m actually worried that a typhoon may come.
• 상민：그럼 차라리 오전에 봐요.
  Sangmin：Then let’s rather meet in the morning.

Homework

I will announce your favorite two assignments!
The first homework is to write two sentences using today’s grammar.

First, let’s use [(으)ㄹ까 봐] to express that you are worried about something.
For example,

• 현금이 모자랄까 봐 걱정이에요.
  I’m worried about running out of cash.

Next, you will use [(으)ㄹ까 하다] to express how you are going to solve what you are worried about in the previous sentence.

• 그래서 오전에 은행에 갈까 해요.
  So I think I’ll go to the bank in the morning.

The second homework is memorizing vocabulary.
Please memorize 40 words from 441 to 480 on page 6 of the beginner’s word list.
There is a 40-word quiz in the description section below, so if you remember 40 words, please, challenge yourself.

That’s all for today.
You guys are all excellent, always studying to the end even when the content is very difficult.
You are amazing just the way you learn Korean!

그럼 오늘도 행복 가득, 웃음 가득한 하루 되세요. 한국어 화이팅, 화이팅, 화이팅！！