Korean Lessons ᚛ Level 9 - Advanced Korean #2 (Lessons 241 to 270) ᚛ Lesson 242 - Supposition and resolve in Korean [-(으)리라(고)]
Supposition and resolve in Korean [-(으)리라(고)]
The ending -(으)리라 is an old future marker, still found in written language, speeches, songs and narratives. It expresses either a supposition about the future, "he will probably come", or a firm resolve, "I will come back, I swear it". In today’s language it survives mainly in two uses: the resolution one makes (-(으)리라 다짐하다, "to promise oneself to") and, in spoken language, the pattern -(으)리라고는 … 못 하다, "I never would have imagined that…".
"I promised myself to": resolve with -(으)리라
[Verb]-리라 after a vowel or ㄹ, [Verb]-으리라 after a consonant
Followed by 다짐하다, "to promise oneself", 결심하다, "to decide", 맹세하다, "to swear", 마음먹다, "to make up one’s mind", the ending reports the resolution the subject has made, in the manner of indirect speech: 성공하리라 다짐했다, "he promised himself he would succeed". The subject is generally the speaker or the character whose story is being told, and the sentence often contains 반드시, 꼭, "without fail", or 다시는 … 않다, "never again". Used on its own at the end of a sentence, in a diary or a novel, it has the same value of a vow: 언젠가는 반드시 고향에 돌아가리라, "one day I will return home, that is certain".
다시는 남자 때문에 울지 않으리라 다짐했습니다.
→ I swore I would never cry over a man again.
민지는 이번 토익 시험에서 반드시 900점을 넘기리라 다짐했어요.
→ Minji promised herself she would score over 900 on this TOEIC test, no matter what.
민지는 반복되는 요요로 좌절했지만 새해에는 반드시 다이어트에 성공하리라고 다짐했어요.
→ Minji was discouraged by the repeated yo-yo effect, but she vowed that in the new year she would succeed with her diet, whatever it took.
언젠가는 반드시 고향에 돌아가리라.
→ One day, I will return home, that is certain.
"I thought that": supposition with -(으)리라고
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"I never would have imagined that" with -(으)리라고는
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Exercises
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Particles are omnipresent in Korean. They indicate the role of words in a sentence, nuance meaning, and make it possible to understand who does what, where, how, and why.
Particles are also often the aspect that causes the most difficulty for Korean learners. In grammar books, they are usually presented in the middle of long sentences, with complex vocabulary, without being clearly highlighted.
With Korean Particles, we made the opposite choice:
taking the time to explain each particle, one by one, using very simple sentences, accessible even to beginners.
